Treats

No vision card for this week's post and I'm posting a bit early because we are leaving tomorrow to travel downstate for the weekend.

This week's Joy Diet consisted of treating ourselves on a regular basis, giving ourselves "permission." I have been learning to do this as a way of de-stressing and besides I'm worth it :)

Pictured above are a few of my treats.

The dishcloths are a regular gift from Jo, a friend of mine. I have a drawer full of them which makes me smile every morning when I pull out a fresh one for the day.
The netflix are Season 1 of "The Gilmore Girls." Another friend, Barb, recommended it to me. So every chance I get, whether lunchtime or an hour in the evening I am smiling my way through this quirky, delightful show- only on DVD 2.

Chocolate is a guilty treat for me. I love chocolate and for years I forbade myself to have it due to fibrosistic breast disease which seems to be aggravated by caffeine. Every time I would put a piece in my mouth it was with fear and guilt. I don't know when that changed, but now I am eating organic dark chocolate- a little each day- and loving it. No guilt, no fear. Enough of that already. There are so many foods that I can't have due to allergies so until I find something that delights me as much as this treat, I am giving myself permission. I love this chocolate with Candy Cane tea!

Other treats for me are a good book always, a phone call from NM, lunch with a friend and movies for sure.

I still work on the guilt issue associated with taking time out for me. It must be a girl thing, but for the most part, I enjoy my treats.

Stick Your Nose in the Daisies!

A few years ago, I took some photos of McKenna smelling flowers. Those photos quickly became favorites of mine. So this summer when my daughter and Ken were home we stopped at a beautiful place to take pictures. I wanted Ken to smell the flowers so I could have the pics to go along with the others. At age 13, she wasn't into it at the moment and I was trying to persuade her.
All of the sudden her mom said a bit forcefully,"Stick your nose in the daisies!"
We all cracked up and she did just that.
I am laughing as I type, because I feel like there are times in my life when a gentle "stop and smell the roses" just doesn't get through to me. This is one of those times when I need a forceful,"Stick your nose in those daisies!"
I can still hear her now. Definitely a joy note.

Monday Treat

I've shared before that Monday is Bible study day and a bit of a challenge for me to lead two groups. The evening group meets at my home, so I spend Monday morning preparing the house as well as the study. On Monday afternoon we meet at a friend's home.
As soon as I turn off the road into Marilyn's driveway, the fun begins. It is a long winding path in the midst of pine, fir, and white birch trees. Well-placed signs and characters oriented to the season or holiday add to the ambience. In January, one feels like she is entering a winter wonderland. I puposely slow down to savor the delightful ride, not wanting to miss a thing.
The cozy and colorful house with lots of windows is part of the magic as well. Bluejays played in the trees, entertaining us as we sat in her living room sharing tea and scripture. A great way to start the week.

I Tried

I tried to see the beauty or humor or something postitive in this, I really did. Here was the scene outside my kitchen window yesterday. It's October :(
Today is even worse. It is sleeting / freezing rain. There is one postive aspect- I don't have to go anywhere and drive on these slippery roads. Normally I don't mind the snow, but last year winter began for us in October and didn't stop until May.
Ok, I vented. Sorry, sister bloggers but I just can't help myself today.

Risk

As I read the chapter this week for the Joy Diet, I knew that I didn't have time nor energy to add one more thing to my plate. I've already been doing this chapter. This summer I started horseback riding lessons and last week I began with a new instructor, which was a big step for me. There are other things as well, but not the focus when I did my vision card.
I sat down at my desk to work on the vision card, opened the first magazine and picture #1 jumped off the page with the word RISK written all over it in my mind. This is my biggest risk factor every day lately. Will I eat something that will set off an allergy or a pancreatic flareup (congenital problem)?
I thought," This is negative, not what I want. But I couldn't move away from the image so I grabbed my scissors, cut it out, pasted it and wrote the word RISK across the top. That was last night.
This morning when I came in my office to post online, the key was sitting on my desk. It must have fallen out of a book or magazine, because a week or two ago I cut out a few pics of keys. There it was, lying all alone, staring at me. I knew I was to add it to my VC. There you have it.
Is this a sign of hope, that the key for me is on the way? That I don't have to keep searching- it will just be there, staring me in the face?

Things That Make Me Smile

I started out this week with the pics of my family on my desk that made me smile. In pondering what to post today, I thought why not more things that make me smile? Here's my bulletin board. You can see the pics of my two favorite girls, a cool manilla envelope from a sister blogger, a comic strip about facebook, a card that inspired me, etc. Oh, the joy of life's little things!

Preparation

I spent a lot of time this week preparing for a Christmas Project. First of all, I downloaded Picasa for a better photo editing software. I really want Adobe, but this was free and I don't have time to learn Adobe and do the project too. Then I tried to decide between going digital or staying with traditonal. I spent one whole afternoon and part of another checking out digital albums, downloading free software then later found out I have to download each theme separately. Groan.
I then printed out a copy of each photo. I realized I didn't like some of the changes I 'd made with Picasa so tried a couple of other appraoches. Here are the phtos spread out on my desk, my family smiling up at me. SMILE :)