A weekly round-up of various things that provided me with joy and happiness.
1. This cool little knitting shop a couple of blocks down from us. I LOVE the name.
2. Husband Robert (HR) behind irises, recovering from pneumonia. With a good appetite.
3. The incredible ability to see! To have vision. Look around!
4. Red Hots, or as I call them, Essential Vitamins for a Healthy Body and Mind.
5. The moon.
Have a beautifully visionary weekend ahead!
1. The ability to breathe. Deeply and fully. Take a deep inhale and enjoy the gift. (But don’t forget to exhale.)
2. My Morning Wall. Okay, that needs explanation. I usually get up before Robert each morning. This is what greets me above our breakfast table. I sit on the couch and stare up at it. It brings me joy.
3. My love of Georgia State Parks.
4. My husband.
5. My connection with you blog folks.
Blessings to you all!
What is a Happy Bringer for you today?
1. Watching and being SO encouraged, as well as entertained, by Mirabel and her crazy family in Disney’s Encanto.
By the way, therapists love this movie! (I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing for the movie.)
2. The incredible gift of eyesight. Even with my Coke-bottle eyeglasses. (Does anyone else even know what that means anymore?)
3. Robert’s yummy pizza.
For some reason he wanted a picture taken of him sprinkling the mozzarella. (Sometimes you just go along with it.)
But if you ask me, his Apple Watch is trying to steal the show.
4. The truth of one of my favorite and most encouraging affirmations: “My body knows how to be well and is always trying to move toward wellness.”
5. Grandson Gabriel playing in his first rec dept basketball game. (He’s also on a team at his school.)
Healthy Weekend to You and Yours!
Hope You Have a Ball!
1. A birthday greeting/art work from a buddy In Arizona.
2. Pretending that I have a clue about what to do with my new hand-me-down Apple Watch. I remember when a watch just told you the time.
3. The joy of simply waking up in the morning.
4. Chocolate on my fork.
5. Cornbread.
Especially when it’s made in my grandmother’s cast-iron skillet.
Weekend Joy to you all!
1. Hanging onto Christmas, far too long.
2. The often overlooked joy of simply being able to walk.
3. Making ambrosia, the food of the gods, for Robert.
4. Speaking of Robert, savoring his Fabulous Friday Frittata this morning for breakfast.
5. My healthy colon! (Yesterday I posted all about my recent colonoscopy.)
Happy, Healthy Weekend to You!
Seriously? 2021 is on its last breath?! Quickly then, here are Five Final Friday 2021 Happies.
1. Robert taking FOREVER to “set the stage” before taking pics of my second (what was I thinking?) fruitcake of the season.
2. Daughter Amy winning South Magazine’s Greatest Nurse Award 2021.
3. The sky.
4. The lunch I “created” yesterday (from use-‘em-before-they-spoil leftovers) for Robert and me.
My vision had us sitting across from each other, looking lovingly into each other’s eyes, then casting our gaze downward to the edible art inhabiting the space between us.
Smiling, we would have no need for dishes, for cutlery. And why would we?! We had our hands, our fingers, our hearts, our culinary freedom. As if we were dining in an authentic Indian restaurant, we would both be silently agreeing with award winning chef Srijith Gopinathan of San Francisco’s Campton Place: “There’s a reason people use their hands to eat. It’s because food is very, very personal.” I could see and hear Robert whispering (no longer in an Indian restaurant), “Bon appétit, mon amour,” as he fed me a finger of (two-day old, slightly brown but still delicious) genuine Mexican guacamole … from Whole Foods.
Doesn’t this look, not just pretty, but personal to you? And yes, I know the ham salad from Monday looks a little runny, but still.
Well, here’s basically the pre-lunch convo between Robert and me when he saw the table.
Him: “Wow.”
Me: (Not responding, except in silent joy, awaiting his next compliment.)
Him: “Uh, aren’t you going to put that ham salad in plates?”
Me: Sounding upbeat, perky, as if I were offering him an invitation to the Waldorf Astoria for their Waldorf Salad: “Ha, ha. No, silly! It’s a communal lunch, but just you and me, reaching and using our fingers.”
Him: “Oh, okay,” staring at a couple of mayonnaise-y green peas sliding off the “sorta charcuterie board.”
But believe it or not, after that slippery start, we had a great and fun, if not 100% fresh, lunch. And I relented with two (small) salad plates.
5. Getting through (sometimes sailing along beautifully, sometimes barely moving) yet another perfectly imperfect year.
Have a meaningful final day of 2021.
See you next year!
1. Remembering my INCREDIBLE Mexican Hot Chocolate last weekend at Cafe Intermezzo in Atlanta.
2. Finding Joy in unexpected places.
3. My Chex Mix!
4. Doctor appointments that go well.
5. Celebrating Miss Virginia, the oldest (and still very active) member of our church, Asbury Memorial here in Savannah.
************
A Weekend of Good to You All!
1. Robert’s hasselback potatoes the other night. Yum!
2. Always having enough water. And being aware of always having enough water.
3. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s holiday concert, Christmas with the ASO last night.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Choir, the incredible Morehouse Glee Club and the Gwinnett Young Singers joined the Orchestra to get us all in the holiday mood. Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky mixing it up with contemporary composers. And “Hallelujah!” special thanks to Handel.
But that’s not all, Blog Fans, I have some Very Exciting News to share with you about last night. News which, if I know you like I think I know you, will make you even prouder of me than you already are. Are you ready? Maybe you should sit down.
Robert and I were SPECIFICALLY INVITED to sing “The First Nowell” (their spelling, not mine) and to be backed up by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra! Seriously. Little us from Savannah. Can you imagine how thrilled I was the moment I realized that Robert and I were being asked to sing?!
[I’ll pause and give you a couple of minutes to try.]
I’ve always thought I had a terrible, adequate, good, stellar voice, but I was just so very humbled yet honored to be asked. I am so glad I wore a sports coat and put a little Suave Professionals Styling Gel in my hair. I tell you my my knees were shaking when we stood up to walk up to the stage and sing. And the performance was, in my unbiased view, nothing short of festively spectacular.
P. S. Robert is insisting that I include this minor and inconsequential (if you ask me) “fact” (according to his definition) from the above concert program …
Well, “we” did get an invitation.
4. Visiting Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta. The Gothic-Tudor style mansion was built by Coca-Cola president/zillionaire Charles Howard Candler in the 1920’s as a private home. Each Christmas they have a neat beautifully decorated Christmas extravaganza.
Do you see what I saw on the holiday garland to the left of Robert? Pine cones (HUGE) from my favorite tree, the Longleaf Pine!
I could … bearly contain myself with excitement!
5. Hope and expectation.
A Weekend of Wonder to You!
1. Realizing there’s nothing like the old classics …
2. Robert wearing his Christmas Bear sweater in near-70 degree (!) weather for the Design District Walk.
3. Making our first holiday treat—an ICEBOX FRUITCAKE (you’re yelling “YUM!” right?) using my mother’s time-tested recipe (okay, with a few healthier upgrades).
Robert’s “important” part of the process …
Ready to go into the oven … I mean refrigerator!
The next morning …
(It sorta looks the same as before it got put into the oven refrigerator. Except upside down.)
Here’s me taking a picture of the finished Yum! while Robert takes a picture of me taking a picture of it. Whew.
And here’s me looking frazzled and absolutely exhausted thinking about the possibility that I might actually write and photographically document SO VERY MUCH about a */!§£{¥ FRUITCAKE.
Seriously, it’s just delicious!
4. Helping ex-wife Donna decorate her Christmas tree.
Btw, I’m still waiting on someone smarter than yours truly–i.e., everyone reading this blog–to give me a better word or phrase for “ex-wife”
5. The knowing knowledge that we are alive right now in this very moment. We are alive.
Have a Fabulous Friday and First Weekend in December!
P.S. What brings you a bit of joy this Friday?
NealEnJoy 