The Story Behind Teacup and the Fairy Dogs

I’m going to post a long distance conversation I had with my favorite three year old on the planet whose nickname happens to be Teacup!  I will provide you with a translator (me) because as you’ll see, I almost needed one myself yesterday.

Nana:  “Did you go to King Dragon (a Chinese restaurant) for lunch?”

Teacup:  “Yes.  Sometimes I go to King Burger.” (Burger King)

Nana:  “You do?!”   “What did you see at lunch today?”

Teacup:  “Fairy dogs.” (prairie dogs)

Nana:  “Were they funny?”

Teacup:  “No.”

Nana:  “Oh?!  Were they boring?”

Teacup:  “No.  They were girls.”  (I’m assuming here she thought I said boys.)

Teacup chimes in again:  “They look like squares.” (squirrels) ” They will give your finger a baleed.” (bleed, as from a bite)  “They go like this:  *chomp*

Life is sweet!  Enjoy a laugh with someone you love today. 

Do you have any funny/interesting/unusual conversations that you’ve had with someone?….It doesn’t have to be a child!.

 

The impact of six words.

I am totally copying this from another blog, but I thought it was a great idea!  Apparently, the trend back in the day among writers/authors was to succinctly sum up their lives using only 6 words.  A very poignant example is one by Ernest Hemingway – “For Sale:  baby shoes, never worn.”  So you know what the assignment is going to be, right?  Sum up your life currently or sum it up in total, it’s your choice! 

Here are some I read posted on the other site:

Goodbye is sometimes the hardest word spoken

Traumatized caterpillar peeking out of cocoon

Old Sock:  holy, and without mate

On this side of the mirror

Must have coffee to stay awake

Mustard seed plus fertilizer yields big crop!

Stay at home mom; never home

Life with Him – vale la pena (worth the sadness, grief, hardship, troubles)

PEACE given graciously; pieces given tearfully

My life:  “Clean up on aisle 5!”

I’m going to be a grandma!

Jesus knows me, this I love (intentional)

As you can tell, they can be funny, spiritual, philosophical, serious or celebratory.  It’s up to you.  Here are a few of mine -

Deep well needs to be primed

Where did I put my glasses? (LOL y’all)

I’m learning to sing my song

Cling to worthless idols; forfeit grace

“Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.”

Bowing down – Casting crowns – full-time worship (full-time used as one word)

Please try this you all!  (You may keep your comments anonymous, if you feel you need to.)

 

Book Alert!

Did you know that this is “Read Across America” week?  I don’t know about you, but I’ll be busy reading all week long.  I always wanted to have a birthday party where everyone who came brought me a copy of their favorite book (*bliss*).  So here’s what I want you to do for my post:  Warning, this will be a hard assignment for any book lover.  List the title of one favorite book(not counting the Bible), along with the author, the genre and a brief reason for why you chose it.  Be honest; funny or classic, let’s have some fun. It can be a favorite from childhood, a current favorite, an all-time favorite, etc.   If you have plenty of favorites to choose from and you see the one you were going to use already listed, you can note that in your comments, and then choose another….or not; it’s up to you.  

I’ll start with any out of the fictional Mitford Series by Jan Karon. 

 They are not the most important books I’ve ever read nor the heaviest, but I recognize those characters.  They grew up alongside some of my folk.  I wish there were a real Mitford I could go visit.  The people are ‘real’ and my friends.  I laugh (out loud), cry, ponder and sigh.  I’ll read them over again…and again.  There are many lines and/or scenarios from each of the nine books, that I want to remember and use as my own, either because they are “good quote” material or because they are so descriptive.  I can pick them up and read them no matter what kind of day I’ve had and go to sleep afterwards.

OKAY, NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

 

Puttin’ in a good word

I wanted to title this “Well, my word!” because it was something my grandmother often said in the same way that we would say “Oh my goodness!” or “I can’t believe it!” or some sort of similar exclamation.  The title wouldn’t fit though because  the truth is this post isn’t about my words, but the words of others.

I like to collect quotes or sayings that make me aspire to something more, that fit in with my values or interests, that inspire, encourage, or just tickle something inside of me releasing a needed laugh.  I’ve never had a way to organize my collection of quotes before.  I don’t take the time to sit down and write (or even type) them out or if I do I’m never sure how to categorize them so that I can find them by subject when I want to.  I want the ‘paper’ that I keep to be useful to me, not look like a rat’s nest!  I tried devoting a scrap book solely to my quotes but I don’t have the time to adhere them to the pages and I still need a way to look up certain themes (you know me and themes).  I have finally come up with something fairly primitive that is working for me, for now.  I went out and purchased an inexpensive, over-sized, index card box with alphabetical dividers included.  I took out each divider, wrote on it all the categories I could think of that start with that letter and then delved into my extensive loose pile (numbering in the hundreds) of quotes.  Of course this doesn’t include those I’ve saved on my computer, or have written in journals or scrapbooks, unless I have duplicates (and have found many) of the same quote.  I tossed the duplicates with abandon now having a system to file them away.  When I come upon a new one, I go to the category I want to file it in, check as quickly a I can to see if I already have stored it, and then add it to the box.  I may have to go get another box – soon.  I’m like a squirrel putting away peanuts, which makes me think of  “Make a nest of pleasant thoughts.” - John Ruskin

I taught some classes at a tiny, private school for a year and I would start off each day by having a quote written on the white board.  Sometimes it would just be a silent form of speaking to the students, some days we would discuss it or they would ask questions about it.  Even some of the other teachers would come into my room curious to see what quote I had chosen to put up on the board.

I want to do the same thing here.  Get real folks; I’m not going to write a daily post, so I’m going to aim for once a week.  I reserve the freedom to tweak that as needed.  When thinking about this post, I had a hard time deciding what topic from my plethora of quotes I wanted to start with.  I mean, what really prompted me to do this (for I’ve had the idea to since I first began this blog) was the quote I read recently.  “Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.” – Peter F. Drucker

Then I thought about it being the winter season for a few more weeks yet and the whole subject of words and I thought maybe I’d use “One kind word can warm three winter months.” – Japanese proverb   I remembered that John and I have had one acquaintance, two family friends, and one family member pass away in a week’s time and “Who well lives, long lives; for this age of ours should not be numbered by years, days, and hours.” – Du Bartes ended up in my thoughts.  And I know three who are having birthdays this week (If you’re reading, you know who you are) and I wanted to choose “Age does not make us childish, as they say.  It only finds us true children still.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  As I was contemplating all this, I received a quote from my brother-in-law after I had commented on a couple of my nieces drawings, that I liked.  Should I use “Being an artist means ceasing to take seriously that very serious person we are when we are not an artist.” – Jose Ortega y Gasset, speaking on the topic of art?  Ultimately, I thought about it being Valentine’s Day the end of this week and knew that is the theme I would choose.  So here it is:  “Courtship consists of a number of quiet attentions…not so pointed as to alarm, yet not so vague as to be misunderstood.” – Sterne

If you haven’t guessed already, I want this to be an interactive blog.  SO, what I’d like from you is:  a) your comments on any of the above quotes AND/OR,  b) share with me a quote having to do with love or the heart in honor of Valentine’s Day.  Oh, and thanks!  Have fun!

 

What do you love/What don’t you love?

I hate wind!  I know wind is very useful and we couldn’t get along without it really, but I’ve never liked it all the same.  Maybe I would if I were in the South on a stifling hot day with oppressive humidity hanging heavy in the air (I’d never make a good southern woman).  I’m just sayin’,  why is blow you over, mess with your hair, stuff up your sinuses, freeze your extremities off wind necessary?? 

While I was considering all this, something that one of my favorite couples does, popped into my head.  Oh, and did I mention this couple lives within a series of novels?  They are characters.  Meet Father Tim Kavanagh (Episcopal priest) and Cynthia, his wife from Mitford, NC.  Here’s an excerpt that gave me the idea for today’s post: 

“It’ll be a surprise,” he announced. 

“Good!  I love surprises!” 

“Cynthia, Cynthia.  What don’t you love?” 

“Exhaust fumes, movies made for TV, and cakes baked from a mix.”

That specific quote is from These High, Green, Hills  by Jan Karon.  Now mind you, this little interchange between them happens spontaneously, interspersed between 9 books called the Mitford Novels.  I enjoy coming across them as I read.  I highly recommend them, if you like happy endings, as I do.  

For today’s post, I’m going to share my list and then I want you to respond by sharing your list.  Here’s the rub - Did you notice that because she’s always stating that she loves something, he asks her ”What don’t you love?”  I want to be optimistic, but a lot of times the melancholy part of my nature leans toward the pessimistic, thus, I hate wind!  So, I’m leaving this up to you.  If you have an upbeat outlook, start with a declaration of what you love, and then 3 things that you don’t love.  If you’re more like me, reverse the order; State one thing you hate and follow with 3 things that you love!  

Okay, ready, go.  Here’s mine:

I hate wind!  What I love?  I love ’fun’-looking reading glasses, sunshine, and butternut squash ravioli! 

Now it’s your turn!  Look for this to pop up again from time to time. 

 

 

The story behind crystal blue dining balls.

First of all, I was young; you need to give me that.  One of the things my mother-in-law and I like to do is look at decorating magazines or coffee table books on Southwest decor in particular are so much fun.  When I visit, I look through her magazines and/or catalogs, new books, etc. for inspiration or ideas I can copy.  In lots of areas of my life I am not as much creative as I am a good…..well, in scrap booking they call it ’scraplifting’, so I guess I am good at idea lifting, all the way around, but I digress.

If memory serves me correctly, I was enjoying a Country Living magazine one afternoon, when I got so excited because I saw a silver chandelier with blue crystals hanging down from it.  I didn’t think I liked chandeliers because the only type I was familiar with was fancy, formal, and brass, more often than not, with the diamond-like fobs draping off and hanging heavy from the ceiling.  This had simple, clean, lines and the most gorgeous blue glass crystals hanging from it. 

My mother-in-law was on the sofa next to me, looking through her own choice of magazine, when I’m sure I made some sort of exclamation.  I too rapidly was trying to describe what I was looking at and what I liked about it and you guessed it, I said something to the effect of – ‘and I just love the little crystal blue dining balls hanging from it; I’ve never seen anything like that before.  Well of course she had to see for herself, and at about the same time I realized what I had said and we had a good (and I mean long) laugh over it.  Sometimes when we’re both tired we can laugh A LOT over almost anything, or would that be everything, or maybe nothing at all!  To my chagrin, it has stuck.

Actually, I like familial things that are unique that get passed down for so long as sayings or traditions that eventually no one remembers how it even started.  Of course having a story (like this) to pass along with it is even better!  It brings to mind another conversation I was having with my sister-in-law about a person I knew born in a town called Horseshoe on Friday, the 13th (true story).  Incredulously she said, “Well everyones birthday falls on Friday the 13th, at one time or another.”  More laughter; different year!  I’m sure she was thinking how birthdays regardless of date fall on different days of the week.  You know we all have excuses!  What resulted from that day on however is that she gets a birthday card, not only on her birth date, but every single Friday the 13th, throughout the year.  We won’t say what this does to a woman’s age!  By the way, they don’t come as often as you think they might and there are 3 this year, one of which occurs in just a couple of weeks.  SO for those of you who know her and have her address, feel free!  This is not the end of my ‘blue dining ball’ story, however. 

Now I don’t know if I was thinking maybe I could take a hanging light fixture and hang blue glass balls from it (idea lifting) in my head or why I came out with that particular set of words, but that side of the family has been scouring for ‘crystal blue dining balls’ to give me ever since.  This year, I received not one, but two, from said sister-in-law!  I have acquired a few of my own in the past, but they are never quite right.  These are the best yet.  I am submitting a picture as proof.  Now, I wouldn’t really hang ‘crystal blue dining balls from this kind of a fixture (but I think I really will at Christmas each year), and of course ‘dining balls’ have no where near the quietly stated elegance of crystals.  My tastes in decor have changed over the years; more like tweaked, but I still have a picture of that original light fixture in my mind’s eye and I still adore it.   And now my friends, you know “the rest of the story.”

What about your family or friends.  Do you have any peculiar sayings or traditions that you would like to share?  Let’s have some fun with this.  I’m open to the poignant too.  What do you say?

 

A New Year, A New Theme

Here it is January 22, 2009, exactly three weeks after New Year’s Day, and I feel like I’m just a week into my year.  How could I be two weeks behind already and so early in the game?  I guess you could figure that the Presidents, former and current, have just started their year.  Looking at it that way I’m not in such bad company.  Good company or not, I need to get this post in if I’m even going to bring it up at all or it’s going to look ridiculous written 3 months into the year.  You may get a follow up though. 

Remember how I stated in my first post how I work very well around themes?  I’m still not ready to dissect that subject. Truth be told, maybe I don’t know why.  Anyway, for several years now, I have had a theme for the new year that rhymes with that year.  For instance, my theme this year is “On His Word I will dine in 2009″.  I must confess I got this idea from a dear friend who has been doing so for far longer than I have.  Her theme this year is “We are to shine in 2009, no matter the circumstances”.  It is specific and very well chosen for her, not that anyone couldn’t use it.

I hope that mine is as well chosen for me, not that anyone couldn’t use it.  Right now I’m involved with a Bible study in Isaiah, and I’m loving it, but I want to do more than just study it for the sake of insights and answers.  I want it to feed me.  I wanted to use the word feast but alas it doesn’t rhyme with the year 2009.  It is for this same hunger and resolve that I have also chosen to memorize two verses a month.  By the end of the year I should have added 24 that I know and that are for me. 

That’s not the only reason I picked that theme, though the primary one.  This past year was a hard year concerning words in my life.  Words said out of  turn; words interpreted wrongly; hurtful words; not speaking up when necessary; too many words; do you know what I’m saying?  And what do you do with not hearing the words you desire to hear?  I so want to get the whole thing right:  hearing with discernment, really listening, correctly interpreting, saying the right thing, the right way, at the right time.  I confess that I’ve already blown it.  I blew it last night by interrupting, trying to get my words in over another, but I’m not giving up.   

Words are really important to me.  I like to find quotes that speak to me.  I enjoy reading books that resonate or paint pictures or tell a good story.  I sing, and the lyrics of songs have always been important to me.  I was even excited to start this blog to be able to express thoughts into words but then when it actually was set up for me (computer genius, I never claimed to be), it took me a week to get up the nerve (and the time, frankly) to put it out there and write something.  I can be both critic and intimidated by words. 

Back to my theme for this year.  Does it sound similar to a resolution to you?  I guess it could be, but rather than a set of specific goals it is more like where to put my focus during the year.  I’m curious to know if you  have a theme (focus, emphasis, priority) for this year or one or more resolutions?  Is it too late to ask that?  Want to share?

Isaiah 55:2  “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”

 

The story behind the name

When I first got married, I had no collections of anything per se, but some how, along the way, I started acquiring things with apples on them and it evolved into a collection of apples. 

A little further down the road I was homeschooling my children.  There many resources available for free or a small fee to schools, but you have to have a letterhead established.  While trying to come up with something, we were studying a unit on pioneering in ”the old west”.  My husband had somewhere along the timeline started a blacksmithing hobby.  He worked swing shift at his paid job and he often did the messy science projects with the kids while I went to Bible study one morning a week.  This did not classify as a science project, but he took the boys out in the garage to make branding irons (like the real thing, mind you).  I don’t remember now what our daughter’s pioneering project was.  One of the boys came in with the letter k inside the shape of an apple.  My name starts with K, as does my middle name, and the street that we live on.  I thought it was great (both branding irons were, by the way)!  Our house is a cape cod style, which I love.  From that time on we were Apple K Cottage.  I loved the name; I still do.  I started using it for our letterhead, my return address, and any way I could.

So now I’m starting a blog, and I have to have a theme to everything…hmmm, I might have to write about that later.  I was again trying to come up with a name that ties in, but not be the exact same.  As we were discussing it around the table one evening while my daughter’s family was here over Christmas, my son-in-law, said “How about them apples?”  I loved it.  I still do! 

I write down a lot of  ‘apple phrases’ to keep handy, such as:

- As American as apple pie

- An apple a day keeps the doctor away

- Like apples of gold in settings of silver (from Proverbs 25:11)

- You’re the apple of my eye

I have others, but I want to hear yours.  Do you know any ’apple phrases’ you could share with me?  And so, How do you like them apples??