Hannah Bear Sings

Hannah Bear (Hannah Noel), my niece, is 2 and 3/4s

and is a wonderful singer.

She came to stay here at Grandma's house

(Grandma and Grandpa are in the

last picture with Miss Hannah)

after they came home from Arizona

visiting Hannah's Great Grandpa.

She has sung for your pleasure...

~

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Tangle In the Hair

John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt

Soup Bowl for a Friend

We... Hubby and I... are in Idyllwild this weekend. It is a lovely little mountain community about an hour and a half drive from our home. It is where my parents live. But this weekend my parents are in Arizona visiting my grandfather for the Thanksgiving holiday so we have the cabin to ourselves. It has been lovely.

There is not much to do up here. Hike, sit and read, sit and do whatever hobby you like (I did a bit of painting but nothing seemed to work well). The town is small and once you have walked it, wandering in and out of the little touristy shops there isn't much else. One place I do enjoy is the paint-your-own-pottery place, Earth & Fire. Raw pottery lines the shelves you pick out what you want, bowls and plates, cups and piggy banks, knicky-knacky stuff, and paint with glazes and they fire it over night. We come up here to Mom & Dad's mountain to stay and relax quite a few weekends out of the year and so we have quite a fun collection of our own silly painted bowls and plates. But it is even more enjoyable to make something for someone else.

This bowl (not yet fired, thus the dull colors) is for my Highlander friend in Scotland. Those who write (or read) at Pictures, Poetry & Prose will know him for his photography, which is wonderful. I know him for so much more, his generous heart, his sense of humor, his grumpy moods and his ability to cheer me up with a single word. And he likes soup, a lot it seems. So I offered to make him a Laura Jayne special soup bowl. Because every man needs a bowl with ladybugs on it!! I did include some wee four leaf clovers for luck. It is always more fun to make something like this for someone else. They just have to like it, even if it has bugs on it.

Hubby made a wonderful pasta plate that will go into use tonight when I make pasta for Mom and Dad's homecoming. I think something with seafood tonight and a fetuchini and maybe a white sauce. We will have to see, I tend to just toss stuff in until it seems done. Maybe I will pay a bit of attention this time and offer up a recipe or two here. I do so love to cook.

P.S. Just picked this up from the pottery store. I like it. :)

Listen to the Rain

I can hear the rain falling gently outside. It comes softly down and down through the boughs of the pines until it reaches a ground carpeted by the recently fallen oak leaves. And the sound of each drop is muffled by their wet softness there. A thousand, ten thousand drop in a moment make barely a whisper. It is as if the world is offering up a quiet sigh. And there is a peace to it.

I could sit for hours and listen to the rain. To breath in the freshness of it all. To feel the giving of it all. Life is water. That is no metaphor, it is simply a truth. Without water we all will die. And so in these moments is it mortality I feel? I am not sure. But I take a deep breath and feel renewed, alive, special in that I can slow down long enough to be truly alive, aware in this moment.

I want to see more clearly the moments that matter. See that taking time to cook a meal matters. Not for the mere sustenance, but for the offering of myself to others. See that knitting a scarf, or painting a picture, offering a sentence of beauty, or any other thing that I do, that I share is good. See that taking a walk and seeing nature is good for my soul. See what I do in the world, giving a helping hand to another, being kind, sharing myself, doing the right thing when it is hard. All of it matters.

And so in this holiday season, I will try to refocus. Not on the things and the stuff and the trimmings that sparkle and twinkle, but on the people. Not on the gifts, but on the giving. I will write a note of caring and take the time to put it in an envelope, not because I must out of some peer pressured holiday guilt. No, I will do so because I hope when my friends and loved ones open that envelope I will have made their lives better. It does not matter our religion, our beliefs in any God, what matters is our hearts, our human hearts and the good that is in them. I want to remember what makes us the same, rather than what makes us different.

It is the season, for love and caring. And that can be difficult in trying times when the world seems out of control with worry, hate and fear. But I will try to offer what I can to make the caring for others, for doing good the thing. I will take the time to listen to the rain and be renewed in love.


Cross posted on Pictures, Poetry & Prose for the Tis the Season prompt.

Thanks for Hubby

Thank you Hubby,

For dancing in the kitchen with me last night. For walking in the rain with me. For snoring next to me.

Thank you for the kisses on my forehead, and for checking if I have a fever and telling me I do even if I don't because when I feel ill for some reason it makes me feel better to think I have a fever. Thank you for laughing when I give directions wrong and knowing I get left and right mixed up. Thank you for telling me you like my bottom and meaning it. Thank you for holding my hand. Thank you for driving slower than you want so I won't panic.

Thank you Hubby for snuggling up to me in the night and wrapping your arm around me and pulling me in tight. Thank you for coming to the pound with me and saying no to another dog, but still going to the front counter and paying the fee. Thank you for eating anything I make, even all the desserts when you don't much like dessert, tasting five different pies on Thanksgiving is a lovely thing for you to do for me. Thank you for coming to chick flicks with me even though you roll your eyes. Thank you for always putting me to bed and never leaving me sleeping on the couch.

Thank you Hubby for coming back into the house when you are leaving for work just to kiss me one more time. Thank you for looking at me in the morning light with messy hair, and sleepy eyes and no make up and telling me I am beautiful. Thank you for the 1,000 more things.

Thank you Hubby, for loving me.

I love you.



Inspired by today's prompt at The One Minute Writer.

I'm in the Mood for a Melody

"Sing me a love song, something happy."

"But I don't know any happy songs. I am sad today."

"You have to know one happy love song."

"No, all are about loss and heartache, pain and suffering."

"Please, I love your voice, but I want a love song from you."

And he took a breath and he began to sing to me.
I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see them bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.

It was soft and deep and rich, but just barely a whisper in the dark. I closed my eyes and we just were there together in a place of happiness for these moments. His voice wrapped around me and made my heart full of joy. And I closed my eyes again in the night and heard his voice in my head as the last thing before sleeping.
I see skies of blue..... and clouds of white
The bright blessed day.... the dark sacred nights
And I think to myself... what a wonderful world.

Do we slow down often enough to sing a love song? Do we appreciate these beautiful, wonderful gifts from one person to another? You have to tell them that it is meaningful when they sing for you. You have to offer your own melody back in whatever way you can. Sing with your own voice to the one you love. Sing with words, with actions, sing with slow dancing barefoot in the living room, with a pineapple up-side down cake or with whatever that thing that you do is that says I love you. Just sing a love song of happiness.

And this is my song for you my darling. And it is a wonderful world because you are in it.

Poetry From Insomnia

There was a post over at this wonderful blog Eat a Pomme that inspired me this 3 a.m. titled - 16 Word Experiment

I enjoyed the challenge and was a lovely thing to write poetry while not sleeping.

******

The train whistle blows
warnings at 3:18 and I know
such things should
not be heard

******

I close my eyes
but no dreams come
only images of
children lost in the
night

_________________

And at The One Minute Writer this morning the prompt was for a Haiku (5-7-5) after closing your eyes and turning around to write what you see.

******

It is the darkness
that envelopes me here, now
that tears at my soul

*****

I swear I am not depressed.

A Bit of Rambling

The world turns on a wobbly axis. Some days it seems as if it is just a little off. As if the world shifted a bit and is spinning wrong. Today may be one of those days.

Hubby is back to working days this week. The last three he has been working nights and I just entirely hate that. And I don't sleep well without his snoring next to me. Isn't it funny how we get used to such a thing and grow to need it?

It is Thanksgiving week. I am not a holiday lover. Would rather skip most. Partly I think because for so many years Hubby and I had to worry which home our children would be in. We are both here together in our second marriages and for 15 years made it work driving children here and there and trying to make the abnormal... normal on the holidays. They are grown now... 20, 20, 21, 22... but still we share them with the ex's and I suppose before too long it will be with in-laws, sighhh. And this year's Thanksgiving Hubby and I are driving up to the mountains. Any kids that come along will be welcome, but I think there will probably not be a turkey on the table, maybe a lovely pasta dish instead.

Today's Quote -
There is a quote from the movie Bull Durham that struck me today that works for baseball as well as life.

"You have to play this game with fear and arrogance."

~ Crash Davis

Because I didn't have enough to do...

Yes, I didn't have enough to do so I decided that yet another place to fill up white space with my words is vitally necessary in my life.

So welcome to my personal blog.

I am Laura Jayne.

As it says in my profile I am many things... wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter, etc. Yes, there are more titles you could put with me. But this covers all the main me's. And I do many things... write, paint, count beans, blog, chat, knit, etc. I think this is all pretty accurate and yes there are a few etceteras (eceteri?), as I will try many new things that strike me as interesting or challenging or fun.

I am a glass half full kind of person. I find happiness not a challenge, but goal worth reaching for every day.

I hate laundry. I love my husband. I love going out to dinner. I love cooking. I hate bell peppers. I love garlic. I have three little dogs, and all of them are bad. I once won a bubble gum blowing contest. I never learned well my left and right hands and so if I ever give you direction, turn left if I say right. I married young, had my children young, both of which were challenges in my life, but now the children are grown, husband not entirely and I have much more freedom to explore all that I find worthy or more often, fun.