Note To Self

N o t e    to    S e l f

1.  Find the beauty

2.  Laugh out loud

3.  Clear the air

4.   Rest enough

5.  Create something pretty

6.  Hang out with the Father

Reminding myself

of what makes life beautiful for me.

Wishing you glimpses of heaven in unexpected places!

photo source:  Antique Images

Changing Word Verification

FURTHER TO MY word verification woes (see my earlier posting)....  

With some instruction from Mr. DarkUFO from Blogger, we've been able to turn off our word verification. Yaaah!  I was accessing Blogger via draft.blogger.com which turned out to be the problem.

Here is what DarkUFO told me to do (in case someone else out there runs into the same problem):

Ok, you need to stop using Draft Blogger. Using draft stops you from going back to the Old Interface.

Go to www.blogger.com and on your dashboard there should be a checkbox/tickbox that says something like "Make Draft my default". Uncheck that then load www.blogger.com.

You should then see the Cog icon (little gray wheel) and in the dropdown should see the Old Blogger option.

And yes, there it was!  So, let me know that it's working for sure, will you?  That is to say, you shouldn't have to key in those two hard-to-read word verifications any more.

Another lesson learned in the world of blogging.  Thanks DarkUFO!

Photo source:  glitter-graphics.com

Gotcha.....

 

IN MY RECENT posting the other day, I mentioned seeing the Northern Flicker hanging up-side-down from one of our small bird feeders.  Only I didn't have the camera nearby to catch him. 

Fortunately yesterday, when I heard the now familiar whistle and my glance out the window confirmed he was indeed out there, I was ready for him.

Hanging by a toenail, happily poking out his share of the seeds, he seemed mindless of any shadow or movement my camera and I might have made.

We were delighted to catch his pose... and we love that he considers our yard a regular stopover now!

 

Word Verification Woes

I HAVE TRIED... 

honestly...

to turn off the word verification....

  

But apparently I'm on the new Blogger interface, and for whatever reason the word verification is not available on it.

Which means, after some research, I need to go to the Old Blogger interface (that's where you're supposed to click on the little grey wheel in the right hand corner under your photo on the new dashboard).

Because clicking on the little grey wheel gives you a drop-down menu, and you should be able to select 'the old Blogger interface'.... only in my case...

It's......

Not.....

There!!!

W-a-a-a-a-a-a!

I see other bloggers* are having the same issues and I did leave Blogger Admin a note.... hopefully someone, somewhere will find an answer for us.

In the meantime.... I apologize for the inconvenience of you having to try and interpret the ugly two-word verification so you can leave a footprint in my comment box. I hope you won't give up just yet.

There... I feel better now.

 

Wishing you a wonderful day... because in spite of word verification, it's still a beautiful day!

*PS.  Here's a link to one blogger at 66 Square Feet, who did find the old blogger interface -- she shares the steps of how she got rid of the word verification.

Photo source:  Google Images

My Newest Favourite Piece of Music

I HEARD ABOUT the movie, but never got to actually see the new silent film The Artist.   Did you see it?

Then yesterday while I was out doing errands, I heard a piano piece from the movie being played over the radio.

I was smitten!  I was so entranced I almost forgot to drive (well, not really).

Trusting that I'd find it on Youtube, I made sure to fix the name in my mind so I could search for it when I got home. We were in luck.

So I'm notefully delighted to share my newest favourite piece of music.... in my view a glimpse of heaven 'for your ears only'........  the lovely and very moving Comme une rosee de larmes, by Ludovic Bource.

Enjoy!

PS.  Mmmm... looks like this movie is up for lots of Academys!

A Glimpse...Or A Flicker?

IT'S BEEN SNOWING.  Nothing serious... but the world is white as I peek outside this morning. Birds are very active out in the garden these days.  Mostly Redpolls at the momemnt.

I heard the whistle first, then saw our Mr. Northern Flicker sitting in the Hawthorne.  If he didn't repeat his antic from yesterday, when he tried his hand (or should I say feet) at hanging off one of the small feeders.  He looked so funny.  

The proportion seemed so odd -- a large bird trying to perch on a feeder meant for tiny finches. I 'told' him that he should go and sit on the larger feeder with the big tray -- he'd be much more comfortable there instead of hanging up-side-down like a woodpecker.

But then after reading up about him, I realized he is a woodpecker.... smile...so no wonder he was fine with the posture. 

Alas, you'll have to imagine the up-side-down bit -- I didn't want to disturb the fella by casting a shadow across the window to fetch the camera... sometimes he's persnickety about movement.  This is a photo I took of him earlier in the winter.

On that note.... I'm wishing you your own glimpses...and flickers... of beauty and wonder this Friday.

Hugs,

 

What Do You Like About Me?

THE OTHER DAY in my quiet place as I spent a few moments with God, I asked Him if He'd share something that He liked about me.

I heard Him say, "I like how your face lights up when you think about Me."

Can you imagine how precious that was to hear?  Oh my..... it spoke deep on the inside. 

Well, just this morning, I was reading a Facebook message a friend sent me -- she told me about how a patient had encouraged her recently with the words that she could see Jesus in my friend and how that filled her with such joy. 

My friend went on to say that for years she'd longed to be thought beautiful and to be told it by someone.  Now, she was being told that she looked like Jesus to her patient; well, for anyone who loves Him, we recognize just how affirming and meaningful those words really are.

As you can image, I was delighted to respond to such a note.... I wanted to share with you an excerpt of what I shared:

Hi K---, Thank you for your lovely note. What a wonderful moment for you that your patient saw Jesus in you! WoW! I can totally understand how that would have moved your heart. It moves me even to read it....

Right now I 'see' Jesus gently cupping your lovely face with his hands... and covering it with tender kisses...... He loves your face. He likes how it lights up when you talk or think about Him. He sees your love for Him when He looks at your face. A woman in love is always beautiful .... you are beautiful.

Here's something I do often with worship songs we sing. If they are love songs, I often image Jesus singing the words (where applicable) back at me. So that piece we sang on Sunday about Beautiful face, beautiful eyes..... as I sang that to Him, He was singing it back to me. I found that so, so precious.

Perhaps this is the day you might want to ask Him what He likes about you!  You can trust that He will say something that is beautiful, kind, and loving.  Because that's just how He does it.


On that note... here's wishing you a beautiful day with lots of heaven's glimpses everywhere for you to enjoy!

Photo Source:  Microsoft Images

Happy Heart Day

YOU, dear friends, are one of God's nicest thoughts!

So glad our paths have crossed.

 

Here's wishing you a beautiful heart-day celebration.

Hugs,

I Posted Here Today....

WE POSTED OVER at Perfectly Pink today.

I invite you to stop by and read

Living Beautifully:  You're The Queen.

 Wishing you a happy day!

***

"We look for visions of heaven,

and we never dream that all the time

God is in the commonplace things and people around us."

~ Oswald Chambers

***

Glory Be... The Lost Has Been Found!

HALLELUJAH... we're back!  Talk about having a shock yesterday morning when I went to check my blog to find it wasn't there.....anywhere....  What I did find was a note from B*logger saying that it had been removed. My beautiful life blog, as well as the other two blogs I have.

Thankfully computer savvy nephew was home from work for the day, and so he helped me go through the info given in a link as possible reasons my blogs might have been removed (we could be a spammers, we could be violating copyright or other terms of service policies, blah blah blah...).  We sent in a 'report' to Google for help in identifying the problem. And waited...and waited and checked... and checked again.

At least I didn't feel 'alone' in the situation, for I found other people were experiencing the same thing.  Looking at comments left by them and other bloggers, it seems that sometimes these things happen because B*logger is doing system maintenance and things happen when you're 'cleaning' up stuff.  It seems to happen also, because there are so many blogs that are spammers or violating terms of service... with the ga-zillion users, the innocent get caught up in the mess sometimes.

After the initial realization that yes, my stuff was AWOL, I thought about it... and felt a peace that I knew wasn't my own. After all, I remembered I'd asked God to protect all my online stuff when I first started, I knew He was reliable.

But as the day progressed.. by the end of the day, I was feeling a bit ticked off.  At myself... for not having recently backed up my content (now there's a lesson for us all)... and then that it hadn't shown up by the time I was ready for bed.  Hey, I want my blog back.  I wanted my connection back to my wonderful blogging friends.

I've been re-reading Jan Karon's Mitford books with Father Tim...(I'm not meandering here.... there's a thread if you'll bear with me...).  I'd recently read the bit where Father Tim's dog, Barnabas, was violently snatched from him by some real nasty ones.  Missing him terribly, Father Tim finally had to come to terms with the intense sorrow of the loss. In that moment he 'gives' Barnabas back to God and thanks him for the gift of this canine friend of friends, and releases the burden of it to Him.

Somehow I felt that what I needed to do with my blogs. Even if my content was lost 'forever' if I give it to Him to 'keep' for me, should the unthinkable happen and I never do see it again, it would not be lost in the 'awful' sense of the word.  He'd have it...He knew where it all ended up. 

And with that, I went to bed peacefully.

Now here it all is restored with nothing missing.  I'M CELEBRATING!  And I'm off to back up my most recent content pronto.  Not to mention give thanks that it's been given back... almost like a gift.

Boy, am I ever grateful that I did not rant or rage against our web host, even in my thoughts, so now I don't have to ask for forgiveness -- LOL.

 

Now... if you've been putting it off... go back up your blog.......... and if you don't know how, you might want to check out these links:

wacky jacqui's designs

business2blogger

Wishing you a beautiful day......

Photo source:  Microsoft Images

The Pleasure of Ca-plunk

IT'S THE ODDEST things that make me happy sometimes!  Most satisfying too.

At work in the wee hours... by the way... I recently started doing a part-time cleaning job at our local performing arts center.  I'm glad it's not cleaning grocery stores or downtown offices...nothing wrong with that, but there's a certain romance in putting to rights messed-up dressing rooms. Maybe there's a feeling of being 'backstage' even though the 'stars' are long gone when hubby and I arrive in the wee hours. We're titled "Housekeeping" which, in my view, sounds a whole lot nicer than custodian...or janitor, don't you think?

So, there Miss Molly and I were vacuuming the large lobby and putting everything to rights.

Mmmm.... seems vacuuming gets rid of a whole lot of debris, not only from the floors and carpets, but from my mind too.  Having to get up so early, roused from my toasty snuggery on a wintery night, takes my soul a little adjusting to the task and uncovering the 'beauty' in it.

Sometimes I have to look a little harder than other times... but as I methodically move back and forth, the rhythm soothes my own mind and brings order to the chaos of clutterd thoughts. How often have I gotten inspiration for a new piece to write or figured out what's been fretting me.  Amazing, God doesn't seem to mind visiting when I'm vacuuming...often I'll catch the 'still small voice' whispering something inside.... funny, I can hear it above the roar of the cleaner too.

So tell us already....what was the satisfying bit?  Oops...we're meandering... why, it's the sound of sand and gravel, stray candies and peanuts, and other whatnot ca-plunking and clattering up the hose. I ask you, what's the use of vacuuming if you can't hear it complaining as it gets whoosed up?

Ooooo...this could be one of those teeny tiny pleasures from my list yesterday.

Well there you have it... more funny things that tickle my fancy.  Now on that note, I best be off.  We're meeting friends for lunch and then we're going to see Meryl Streep in her latest film, The Iron Lady.  Looking forward to the outing.

Wishing you the BEST day......... 

 

Photo Source:  Vintage Feed Sacks