Thankful Thursday: Mother's Day Chocolate

It is traditional in our church congregation for a small gift to be handed out to all of the women in attendance on Mother's Day. In the past years I have received various flowers, booklets, and chocolate bars. This past Sunday we all received wonderful Haagen Daz Ice Cream Bars, passed out in our Relief Society (Women's Organization) class 15 minutes before the end of church. They were delicious, and no one had to feel guilty for not sharing with hungry children or spouses!


Later that Day I was given wonderful gifts from my own family:

Now, can anyone else top that for a Mother's Day box of chocolate? Imagine my surprise when I opened a box meant to hold a case of printer paper and saw it filled to the brim with chocolate goodies: Dove, Lindt Truffles, Hershey's Kisses, Ghiradelli squares, Reese’s pieces, M&;M's Oreos, etc. I have received much wonderful chocolate from my Dear Husband and children over the years, but this gift topped them all! It was overwhelming to say the least! Once I started digging a bit I found that it wasn't truly all chocolate:

There buried beneath all of the chocolate goodness was an iron that I have been needing since my old iron died last month right in the middle of my quilting and blogging from A to Z attempts. There was also a gift certificate for some repair work that we have also been needing . . . . And my DH and DD1 felt that giving such practical, useful, "working" gifts were not appropriate for kind Mother's Day gifting, so the gift had to be camouflaged. What a sweet and thoughtful family I have! I do appreciate all of the gifts that I received this past Mother's Day, and of course I am very grateful for all of the wonderful chocolate . . . .which hopefully will last me for a long, long time to come!

Friday Flower of the Week: Lilacs

In honor of springtime, I hereby proclaim Fridays as Flower of the Week Day. 

This time of year is my favorite season, posssibly because of the abundance of flowers making their appearance throughout the weeks of spring.  We've already celebrated the tulips, and today we honor the beautiful lilacs that are reaching their perfection just in time for Mother's Day.  I prefer the soft lavendar shade of the purple lilacs on the top of the bush in the back of this photo, but the white lilacs from the front bush have the most lovely fragrance. 

Thankful Thursday: Sunrise

"Faith is knowing the sun will rise,
 lighting each new day."

-Faith (Words by Beatrice Goff Jackson and Music byMichael Finlinson Moody)

One of the things that I love most about spring is the timing of the sunrise. Once we get past those terrible days of winter and at the beginning of daylight savings time when we must get up and go to school and work in the dark, I love getting up just as the day is beginning and watching the sunrise. I love warm sunny spring mornings working in the garden. The sun is one constant that we can always rely on. Of course there are cloudy and stormy days, but we can always know that beyond the clouds the sun is still there, shining and sharing light, heat and energy with us all.

I love the sunrise.

A to Z Reflections

Yes!  I am a Survivor of the A to Z April Blogging Challenge!  I was able to write a blog post for each of the letters of the alphabet, and only one was posted a few  hours late! 

I first learned about the A to Z Challenge in March of 2012.  I was too late to  officially sign up for the challenge at that time, but the idea of blogging A to Z intrigued me, and I set about making up my list of possible A to Z blog posts.  I started out strong for three days, then life caught up to me and I ended up completing a grand total of 5 A to Z posts last year. 

This year I was a bit better prepared.  I don't have too many outside obligations besides work right now, so I signed up officially and started writing my drafts and looking for a theme. Of course I love to read, so I thought I could share a few of my favorite books that I have read recently.  Back in January I noted that one of my goals for this year was to do more quilting.  Now my intention was really to finish a couple of quilting projects that I already have started, but I decided to add to that and sew up some new quilt blocks that I have never tried before.  I knew that there was no way I would be able to come up with 26 different quilt blocks, but I thought I could maybe do 8 or 9.    I've also started trying to keep a daily record of the good things in my life and God's tender mercies and blessings, and thought that I could keep up my tradition of Thankful Thursday posts here and even add in other posts about some of my favorite things.

So, my theme for the challenge became  Books, Blocks, and Blessings.  I created a spreadsheet of possible blog topics for each letter under each of three different headings, and went to work.  A lot of my posts were prepared well ahead of time, but the different quilt blocks took a lot more time to prepare.  I did quite well at first, but soon I really was needing to write a new post almost every day in addition to trying to find time to do the sewing.  I ended up only finishing 5 of the quilt blocks, but blogged about others that I still want to finish.  Hopefully I will have enough to sew up a little sampler quilt before too long.  I was able to share some of my favorite books!  And I was able to write about some of my blessings too.  It has been a motivating challenge and a good exercise in consistency and planning ahead.

Of course, Blogging From A to Z isn't just about writing the posts, it is also about finding new blogging friends and encouraging them on the challenge journey too.  I admit that I love finding and reading new blogs, and it could almost be called an addiction for me.  There have been many nights this past month when I stayed up waaaayyy too late at night reading just one more blog and then another, and trying to figure out the best way to comment and follow all of the different wonderful blogs.  I have found some wonderful new friends out there and have appreciated all of the encouraging comments from new friends who have found their way here to Creation and Compassion.   Unfortunately, this just may be the reason I may not fully participate in Blogging from A to Z again in the future.  Though I wish that I had unlimited time to visit all of the wonderful bloggers who have participated, I know that I do not.  I was only able to visit a very small fraction of those who participated and decided it was better to visit a few on a more regular basis than to visit more bloggers only once.  I already follow many wonderful blogs and never have enough time to read all of their posts that I would like.   So, though I have had a wonderful time blogging and sewing this past month, next year I will most likely just be a visitor rather than an actual participant.  

I extend my heartfelt thanks to  host Arlee Bird and all of his many dedicated assistants, and most of all to all of you who have participated, written thoughtful lovely posts, and who have befriended and encouraged me in the challenge.  I hope to see you around the blogosphere!

B is for Broken Dishes

F is for Flying Geese and Flying Dutchman

J is for Jacob's Ladder

O is for Ohio Star

R is for Rail Fence

Thankful Thursday: Pandora Radio

Last week DD4 introduced me to Pandora Radio. Pandora is the free internet radio service that helps you find new music based on your current and old favorites. After setting up an account, you start by entering in a favorite song, artist, or composer to set up a personalized radio station. Different musical tracks are then automatically added to the station, and you can select either "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on any selection to determine if it should continue to be included on your station.


I know that my kids have been using Pandora for a long time, but I never really bothered to find out what it is all about. I have set up eight different "stations" on my pandora account based on these artisits:  The Beach Boys, Bond, The Carpenters, Simon and Garfunkle, Barbara Streisand, Willie Nelson, and of course, Antonio Vivaldi and The Piano Guys.  I like the type of music that Pandora is chosing for me.  I may set up other stations in the future, but so far, I am quite happy!   I now have pandora on my Kindle Fire too, so I can take my Pandora music with me. So, am I the only person around who didn't know about Pandora?

Zippity Doo Dah

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my what a wonderful day!
Plenty of sunshine heading my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Mister Bluebird on my shoulder
It's the truth, it's actch'll
Ev'rything is satisfactch'll
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!

Why am I so happy that I'm singing Zippity Doo Dah today? Today is DS1's Birthday! I featured pictures of my dear daughters earlier this month, so now I will take the opportunity to share some photos of my two dear sons from a few years back:

DS1

DS2

Aren't they just so handsome? DS2 will be having his birthday next month. Anyway, more about Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah:

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah is from the classical Disney Musical, Song Of The South. I have found that back in December author Jim Korkis published a book about the about the controversial musical,“Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South?” It sounds worth looking into.

Did you know that there is a whole website devoted to Song of the South, and that the Disneyland ride Splash Mountain is based on this movie, featuring characters and songs from the Disney show? In fact, the ride was originally going to be called "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah River Run." Why did I not know this before? Well, I've only been to Disneyland once, and I refused to go on this ride . . . the line was long, and I really am not a fan of amusement park rides . . . or maybe . . . was this the first ride that we went on that day and it was Space mountain that I refused to ride? Hmm, my memory is getting shot. But I think I do remember starting out the day getting wet. In fact, the trip to Disneyland was a gift from DS1 who lives in the area. DD3 spearheaded the idea of sending DH and I there for our anniversary several years ago, and all of our dear children chipped in to help. DS1 was actually the one who let us use his passes . . . and so I finally visited Disneyland in my older age.

Another reason to sing . . . I've made it through the month of April blogging from A to Z; I've done it! And . . . it is almost May and spring is really here! It's my favorite time of the year!

Zippity Doo Dah! Happy Spring everyone!

Yard . . . . Work

Usually my yard looks it's best in the months of April and May.  Spring flowers are blooming and the grass is a lovely green from plenty of rain and snow.  This month has been unusually cool with plenty of rain and snow, so the flowers and grass are lovely, but because of the rain and cold and the blogging from A to Z challenge, I haven't done much in the yard except for mowing the grass a time or two.  And so, the yard is in the need of  a lot of work:

Tulips borders are blossoming in spite of being surrounded by tall grass. It needs to be dug out.

Except for a few little peas and spinach plants, the vegetable garden is filled with a lot of grass and weeds.

The old dead groundcover needs to be cleaned out.

And old dead herbs too.

Dandelions abound and need to be sprayed.

The roses need to be trimmed and the grass dug out around them.

And so do the Raspberries.

May is almost here.  It is time to get to work . . . . yard work.