TWO DINNER DATES

All the little Ws have been out of the house at dinner for two Fridays in a row. Last week Tim and I took advantage of the time alone to have a date at home. Bauman's had just started offering a deli selection the previous weekend, so I zipped over to pick up a deluxe rosette tray, cranberry kicker sandwich (plus chips that came with it), and an apple walnut salad that we added optional chicken to. We sat in the sunshine at our picnic table and shared all the parts of our tasty meal before heading in to watch a movie from the library. 

Tonight we walked down to Hungry Lion for some teriyaki and brought along Spot it! for some pre-meal entertainment. 

The walk home was a little wet, but that's a risk during spring in Oregon. Nothing that changing into dry jams when we got home couldn't fix. 

Two dates in two weeks is unusual, but I'm glad it worked out to have some low-key time together. 

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for laughter. What's something that you're thankful for? 

3/12/21 - WORTH REPEATING

*****

Wherever I run, wherever I am

Healing is found in the scars on your hand

And though I may wander, though I may fail

There you are calling to me

Lifted me up

Now I can see

You made the way

There's mercy for me

~ Mercy for Me by Athey Music

*****

It is with books as with women; where a certain plainness of manner of dress is more engaging than that glare of paint and airs and apparel, which may dazzle the eye, but reaches not the affections. 

~ David Hume, quoted in Sublime Thoughts, compiled by James Clarence Harvey

*****

That's the thing about judging by external appearances.

Most people trying to impress you with them aren't worth emulating.

And those living the most meaningful lives have long since given up trying to impress you with a fancy coat. 

~ Joshua Becker in Don't Judge By External Appearances at Becoming Minimalist

*****

A person who calls himself frank and candid can very easily find himself becoming tactless and cruel. A person who prides himself on being tactful can find eventually that he has become evasive and deceitful.

A person with firm convictions can become pigheaded. A person who is inclined to be temperate and judicious can sometimes turn into someone with weak convictions and banked fires of resolution.

Loyalty can lead to fanaticism. Caution can become timidity. Freedom can become license. Confidence can become arrogance. Humility can become servility.

All these are ways in which strength can become weakness.

~ Dore Schary in the 12/9/93 Bits and Pieces (I heard someone quote this and have only found it sourced online from a 1993 edition of Bits and Pieces. I don't know what that publication is, but they used the quote 13 years after Schary died and I'm not sure where it was originally spoken or published.)

*****

A good woman is like the ivy which beautifies the building to which it clings, twining its tendrils more lovingly as time converts the ancient edifice into a ruin.

~ unknown, quoted in Sublime Thoughts, compiled by James Clarence Harvey

*****

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THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for chapstick. What's one thing you're thankful for?

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for pretty sunrises and sunsets. What's something you're thankful for?

BOOKS I FINISHED - FEBRUARY 2021

Butterfly Yellow, written by Thannha Lai

An older sister heads to a Vietnamese airport with her little brother in an attempt to find safety in America. Plans are foiled and her brother is taken without her. Several years later she finally gets her own chance to go to America as a refugee and sets out to be reunited with her brother.

p. 57, Dusk has always been her favorite hour, when the sun has grown bored of its harshness and is melting into a soft rose to give this side of the globe a break. 

p. 179, Everyone, he figures, has longings that won't fade even when clobbered by cold, brutal facts. 

p. 266, But Ba believed life is long, the universe will deliver justice, eventually. Ba chose to cultivate a life. Steered her sons from becoming soldiers, tended to her garden, stared into love and hate, beauty and ugliness, joy and anguish, healing and pain. To seek one is to accept the other, like chopsticks. 

<snip>

At any time in any place an act of horror is being committed. At any time in any place an act of sublimity is being felt. Each circulating, sniffing the other like dogs, but one cannot destroy the other.

Circa Now, written by Amber McRee Turner

When Mom's already depressed and Dad dies unexpectedly, life is hard. But sometimes there's a little magic in the mix, something that helps you move forward.

p. 5, Mom had once described depression as carrying a wet bag of sand everywhere you go. Heavy and messy and hard to shake. 

p. 7, (speaking of people with memory issues due to Alzheimer's and dementia) "After all," Dad had always said, "just because the book's too high up on the shelf to reach, doesn't mean the story's not there."

 

Fish in a Tree, written by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

A sweet story about the amazing influence of teachers, critical support of friendship, important solidarity of family, and the change from hopeless and embarrassed to hopeful and confident. It's about the incredible power of words, both written and spoken.  

p. 123, I say, "Well ... alone is a way to be. It's being by yourself with no one else around. And it can be good or bad. And it can be a choice. When my mom and brother are both working, I'm alone, but I don't mind it." I swallow hard. Shift in my seat. "But being lonely is never a choice. It's not about who is with you or not. You can feel lonely when you're alone, but the worst kind of lonely is when you're in a room full of people, but you're still alone. Or you feel like you are, anyway."

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A DOUGHNUT DEAL

We sometimes loan out or borrow puzzles from friends and today some friends stopped by to return a puzzle they'd borrowed and swap it out for a different one. We got the good end of the deal because they also brought a box of real doughnuts, our family's first Voodoo Doughnuts experience, to go with the doughnut puzzle they were giving back. I made them pose because that's all kinds of awesome!