by jphilo | May 7, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
Finally, spring has arrived with a contagious swing in its step. What’s so good about spring? Here are my top ten answers:
10. When you go out for a walk, people smile and wave as they drive by.
9. As far as the eye can see, it’s green, green, green.
8. The carry out personnel at the local grocery store are so eager to go outside, they line up three deep waiting for customers.
7. Tulips, bleeding heart, and magnolias are blooming with wild abandon…but the asparagus patch is gone!
6. The air smells so good and feels so warm, a person can open windows and blow the winter stink out of the house.
5. Bleeding heart bushes grow an inch or two every couple hours.
4. A soft breeze on the face.
3. Tree frogs singing by the pond.
2. The glimpse of a cardinal in the top of a tree.
1. Sunshine on the shoulders, like John Denver said, makes almost everybody happy.
What do you like best about spring? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Apr 30, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
10. The dog ate the list. On wait, we don’t have a dog.
9. Hiram’s home today trimming the hedge and the noise is distracting.
8. I’m too busy doing a happy dance because the basic outline for my mystery novel is done.
7. My schedule is off because of visiting Mom on Monday instead of Tuesday this week.
6. Much of yesterday was spent in a futile search for navy shoes to go with a new navy and white dress. Who knew navy was out, out, out this year? No wonder the dress was on clearance.
5. Being over 50, I plead the 50th in all memory failure situations.
4. I figured out how to unfreeze my iPod all by myself, but then spent too much time patting myself on the back for doing it.
3. I’m guest hosting a special needs parenting discussion at Moms Together today. Come join us if you like.
2. Now that spring has arrived, I’m too busy admiring the daffodils, tulips, bleeding hearts, magnolias, budding trees, and green grass to think about top ten lists.
1. I’m black and blue from pinching myself about a new contract with Discovery House Publishers, this time for a Caregiver Notebook for those caring for kids with special needs and adults with health conditions.
by jphilo | Apr 23, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
Hmmm…is the topic of time management really so sad?
Last weekend, I attended the 2013 Accessibility Summit near Washington, DC. As always, traveling is a wonderful opportunity to people watch and be reminded of life outside my own circumstances. It also leads to a multitude of random travel observations, which you’ll be relieved to know have been gleaned to this top ten:
10. Skinny pants still don’t look good on anyone over the age of 8.
9. From the looks of things, 90% of this year’s pansy seedlings are beautifying the highways and byways of the DC area. What will the rest of the country do if spring ever when spring moves further west?
8. I felt very cosmopolitan walking around the international terminal at the Waskington Dulles airport. However, I looked very midwestern. Sigh.
7. God, pour our your blessings on parents traveling with infants and toddlers.
6. Seeing green leaves sprouting on trees, red bud and crab apple blossoms, and tulips in bloom several weeks before they bloom in the rest of the country makes jet lag worthwhile.
5. When your luggage on the way home is heavy with unsold books, all you have to do is ask someone to help, and they will. Don’t ask how I know this.
4. Flight attendants deserve more pay.
3. My friend Rebekah Hamilton of Key Ministry has ushered in a whole new era for non-profit fund raising. Turn paper toilet seat covers into fashionable headgear and people will pay to see someone else wear them in public.
2. Kuddos to the Dulles airport staff for handling a medical emergency with a minimum of fanfare and a maximum of speed and competence. You are amazing!
1. Walking around the airport and watching crowds of people from different places and cultures milling about, realizing many more people are milling about airports all over the world, the words of a hymn came to mind:
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His Son for us,
To make a wretch His treasure.
How deep and vast indeed!
What travel observations have you made lately? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Apr 16, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
Saturday morning, I was driving to a speaking event when NPR broadcast a story about a newly released John Denver tribute album, with songs performed by current popular singers including Dave Matthews, Emmy Lou Harris, Josh Ritter, and Olde Crow Medicine Show.
I sure wish the man of steel, who thinks I don’t like music much, had been along to see the tears streaming down my face when the radio host played several John Denver songs popular during my teen years. Those songs evoked such strong memories of my older sister (who I thought knew everything) describing this new folk singer she said I would love, of dancing to John Denver songs at high school sock hops and college dances, and of our kids singing along to the John Denver and the Muppets Christmas Album.
The radio story got me to thinking about my favorite John Denver songs and resulted in this top ten list.
10. Lady, My Sweet Lady–My friends and I usually went stag to high school sock hops and spent a lot of time imagining slow dancing to this song.
9. Rocky Mountain High–Many of you might rate this song higher, but I love prairies more than mountains.
8. Leaving on a Jet Plane–We thought deeply significant thoughts while singing this song in tenth grade chorus.
7. Thank God I’m a Country Boy–The lyrics make me think of my dad.
6. Merry Christmas, Little Zachary–This one tugs at my parent heart every Christmas.
5. Follow Me–Yes, about every other wedding from the 1970s used this song, and musicians got tired of it back then. But now, the song makes me think of the people in those weddings, and I like that.
4. Sunshine On My Shoulders–Because sunshine on my shoulders does make me happy.
2. Annie’s Song–Because of our daughter.
2. Country Roads, Take Me Home–Because of our son.
1. Grandma’s Feather Bed–Because my Grandma Josie shooed her grandkids to the basement where we slept in a bed almost as crowded as the one in the song. We didn’t get much shut-eye, but I wouldn’t trade the good times and good memories for a full night’s rest.
What are your favorite John Denver songs? Why?
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by jphilo | Apr 9, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
National Library Week (April 14–20, 2013) is almost here. To celebrate the event and as a life long library lover, it took only a few minutes to come up with the ten things I love best about libraries.
10. Books smell good.
9. Going through the security gate at the library gives the illusion of air travel without packing a suitcase behind you or having to take off your shoes for the TSA officials.
8. Every item in a library has a proper place…a very soothing prospect for those of us who are OCD who crave order.
7. Walking into a library where you have free access to books, DVDs, audiotapes and much more is a most luxurious, almost decadent, sensation.
6. Libraries are full of librarians, most of whom are very friendly and helpful people.
5. Libraries are adventures waiting to be experienced.
4. Reading books read by others makes me (and I hope you) feel connected to other readers.
3. Going to the library with Mom is one of my earliest memories.The library was the only place she let my sibs and I visit as often as we liked.
2. Taking my kids to the library is one of my happiest Mommy memories, too.
1. Life is always better when accompanied by a book.
Please feel free to add your reasons in the comment box. Maybe we can encourage more people to visit their local libraries more often!
by jphilo | Apr 2, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
A favorite recent pastime of mine has been watching BBC TV comedies and dramas via Netflix streaming. The origin of this bad habit can be traced directly to last spring, when Hiram was laid up with a bad back for 6 weeks. After 2 weeks of me driving to the library every day to check out more DVDs for the man of steel to watch, we decided a free month of Netflix was well worth the money.
Well, you know how that kind of thing goes. By the end of our free month, we were hooked on Doc Martin and Lost. We’ve been paying for the service ever since, and to make sure we get our money’s worth, a whole lotta BBC TV dramas…and a few comedies are part of our instant queue. So now, almost a year into my addiction, here are the top ten perks United States citizens can enjoy while watching BBC TV entertainment shows.
10. BBC miniseries of classic English novels are a much more entertaining way to “read” CliffsNotes than CliffsNotes.
9. Dr. Who is an inter-generational bonding experience. Hiram and the kids talk about episodes all the time. So do high school kids when I talk to their classes. So do middle and high school kids at church. Though I have yet to watch the show, the time is drawing near to bite the Dr. Who bullet and start laughing with them.
8. BBC shows allow Americans to vicariously enjoy a good, old-fashioned English tea–complete with scones, clotted cream, lemon curd, and cucumber sandwiches–while wondering how the English can eat 4 meals a day and not struggle with obesity as much as we do.
7. Nobody does costume dramas like the BBC. Ever heard of Dowton Abbey? Case in point.
6. Thanks to the scenery shots in several shows, Hiram and I are developing quite a list of places in the United Kingdom we plan to visit when we are rich.
5. All those Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Cockney, Yorkshire, and aristocratic English accents make a person admire Hugh Laurie for nailing his plain, old, ordinary American accent in House.
4. BBC shows are the perfect opportunity to visit a different culture without having to learn a new language.
3. Then again, you can feel sorta bilingual once you’re able to translate the following UK English terms into good ‘ole US of A English:
jumper=sweater
trainers=tennis shoes
boot of a car=trunk
bonnet=hood of a car
vegetable marrow=squash
spanner=wrench
torch=flashlight
2. When you get tired of watching BBC shows, you can day dream, as I do, of a movie where Rowen Atkinsen and Robin Williams are co-starts. Do you think they would stick to the script?
1. English actors rotate from show to show, and from miniseries to miniseries. So every new series or production is like old home week. For example, consider the BBC miniseries North and South based on the English novel by Elizabeth Gaskill. (Not to be confused with the American miniseries based on John Jake’s books.) The male lead, John Thornton, Richard Armitage, plays Thoren Oakenshield in The Hobbit. Anna Maxwell Martin, who is Bessy Higgins in North and South, was the female lead in Bleak House. And guess who plays Nicholas Higgins, the father of Bessy? Brendan Coyle, also known as Mr. Bates in Downton Abbey. Kinda feels like watching Hollywood westerns from the 1960s when the same actors played the character roles in every movie.
What are your favorite BBC perks? Leave a comment
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