They are All My Family

Forty years ago today...the fall of Saigon.

I was a silly high school senior.  Didn't know a thing about what was going on in the world.
This is the kind of story that teaches me, brings light to a certain situation.
CBS This Morning aired this...this morning.





When people act in noble and selfless ways
it makes me cry.


Inspired,
Donna

photos with words on them....

I like putting words on photos.
Here are some that I found going back just two years.

I hope you like them :o)

Donna

Sure was fun.

Well, hey, that was fun. Thank you for chiming in with your comments!

I think I have learned something!

hehe

*****






Ginny does not want to get a burn.



****

And a little chuckle.....

Encourage one another,

Donna

Words and meanings

My husband and I had a misunderstanding on the iphone on Saturday.
I drove Katie up to a friend's house and on the way home I wanted to stop at Chick fil a for dinner.
We had earlier in the afternoon decided not to go out for dinner.   But I thought a drive thru was fine...and I was right there...So I texted him to ask if he changed his mind.

I texted;

Are you sure you don't want Chick fil a?

He wrote back;

sure


*****

Immediately I understood that he did not want Chick fil a.

In my mind, he was sure he did not want Chick fil a.

When I got home Patrick paused the tv and followed me in to the kitchen.

"Is this mine?" he said about the bag on the table.


Oh my gosh!  He wanted some.

His "sure" was a 'sure...get me chick fil a'.

I felt terrible as you can imagine.

I had him look at the text again and he could see what went wrong....
He understood and his stomach growled....

The next day when we went to get Katie I told her the story and asked her if dad's 'sure' meant...

no thanks or yes.

She thought his 'sure' meant yes.

oh man.



So....what would you have thought?

Get him some...
or don't get him some?


btw...Patrick is not a big Chick fil A fan like I am.  He can usually take or leave it.
but then...we didn't have much in the house to eat....


I'm looking forward to hearing how you would have responded.


Encourage one another,
Donna

Missing Sue.

in which i take a bullet...

as long as everyone else looks amazing!

mugs up in columbia

this is my favorite picture of sue

march 2010

sue and her boys

thanksgiving 2009

cindy's family and sue's family

top picture.  the twins.

bottom picture irish twins.

sue died on april 24th 2010.  every year the two months leading up to this anniversary are 

yucky.  i can't help but think, 'on this day...this happened....on this day....that happened...'

it was shocking then.  it is shocking now.  

i miss my sister

she was a really wonderful sister

love you

mean it

donna elsie

Baaaaaa

This video is from March 19th 2012.






Our grass is green today .....  but we have flurries again and it's in the 30ºs.

I feel that sheep.


Yesterday Katie played softball in football weather.
It was absolutely freezing.


Also yesterday was a Choir Festival at the local high school....Katie spent the day listening to choirs from all over and then they sang and were critiqued by judges.  I went to listen to her choir sing.  They sounded very pretty.



Thanks for stopping by and being a part of our lives.
Love
Donna

Baby names?

Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge is due reportedly on April 25th.

What do you think she will have?

Boy or Girl

What do you think they will name the baby?

Kate has been wearing a lot of pink.  Maybe it's a girl.....I hope it's a girl.

Will they name the baby Diana?

Victoria?  Alexandra?  Elizabeth? Mary?  

I can not wait!!

What do you think??

Lady Donna

Yellow. Ginny.

I went outside today to see what pretty things I might be able to photograph.

This one weed, overgrown, who-knows-what is gloriously yellow.

But the tips of it are green.

And look who was watching me so nicely.

Ginny wasn't interested in looking or smiling at me until I put my camera down.

So I took these sweet pictures holding the camera below my chin and chatting to our happy girl.

We love her.

“It seems to me that the good lord in his infinate wisdom gave us three things to make life bearable- hope, jokes, and dogs. But the greatest of these was dogs.” 

~Robyn Davidson 

Encourage one another,

Donna

p.s. I am leaving infinate spelled as the author wrote it...she is Australian and maybe that's how they spell that there. :o)

Throw back post. April 2009.

How I love these dishtowels.
I love that someone took the time to make them and I wonder if they noticed what a hard time the
young dutch girl was having with her home making.
I wonder if that is why she chose this pattern, because she too had a hard time with home making.







Oh no! The pot is boiling over.




Oh! my!

Ironing can be so steamy!




Dear me!

She must have forgotten her list or her money or her way.


Seems for this little homemaker, peril awaits her on every day of the week.




Except Sunday.


Bless her hard working heart!



Encourage one another,
Donna

Back in the day. Pinterest

I was a beta tester for Pinterest and I loved it right away.
I was worried about copyright issues but I do think
they have addressed those.

Here are a few of the very first pins that I pinned.
Four years ago.

From posters and words...

Pictures I love

Beautiful

Fantastic finds

For the Home

Iris' kitchen in The Holiday

This looks delicious

My style pinboard

haha.

Yoohoo....Chubbies!!!

I wonderful how this would fly nowadays.

She looks quite happy....

Art

I took this picture in Milwaukee at the Art Museum.  I'll have to do some searching to find the name of the piece and the painter.  

I used to cut pictures out of magazines and keep them in a expandable file.  Now I  pin pretty, interesting, helpful things to my Pinterest boards.  

It's fun to look back.

Happy Hump Day!

Love

Donna

rabbit trail

I love Pyrex bowls.
It is their 100th anniversary this year.

Emma found this little dish at a thrift store in Chicago.
When she sent me the picture of it,
I said, "For me?"  (In true Cindy style)

And the next time we were together...she gave it to me.

I love it.

There is something about Dutch things....
One time, a very long time ago, we looked at a cute cape cod house on State Street in
Marinette Wi. We walked in the house and the stairs went straight up.
The hallway had the most enchanting wallpaper I had ever seen.

It was black with dutch people and designs on it.  I loved it and have looked for something like that on vintage wallpaper sites for years.  But alas, it can only be found in my memory.

Wallpaper is making a come back.

I'd like some toile wallpaper.  It would make me think of Susie.
Sad and happy thoughts.


The "wallpaper" on my phone is wallpaper.

Beautiful, no?

Happy Tuesday!

Thank you for stopping by!

Love

Donna

Spring Wind.

I just drove Katie's lunch over to her at school.
With the window open I could hear a few old brown leaves skittering across the cement and it sounded so beautiful to me.

Blowing Pines.
Chriping Birds.
Skittering leaves.

They are my favorite sounds.


****






Spring Wind by Greg Brown


***

On the bacon front,
I made thick bacon today in the oven and it took 19 minutes.



****

Looks like a lovely week in the 60's....
it will be great softball weather and taking Ginny to the dog park for the first time.
I sprained my ankle two weeks ago so walking has been very difficult...
but I think I can make it around the dog park....slowly.
And I mean slowly.
Hello turtle.
Hello snail.

How you doin?


Happy spring!

Love
Donna

Beautiful Rumba. Gifted Mind.

I thought this dance was amazing!
I usually hate the Rumba.
Not this one!  I think it's my favorite dance of the season.

Speaking of which....
I'm watching and enjoying it.

How about you?


***

Patrick and I watched The Imitation Game last night.
It is the true story of the men and one woman who broke the Nazi code during WWII.
And pretty much invented the computer.
I liked it very much.

****

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Love

Donna Elsie

Sometimes it's the things you don't think you will like,

that you like best of all.

~me

I see you.

In 2009 I made storyboards.
These are a few that I found.
I like them.

I need to do more of these.

Donna

Blessed to have had such a momma.

quotation written by lettergirl on Etsy

I'm thinking about my mom today.
It's her birthday.

She was full of love and full of fun!  I miss her terribly. Still.

'She had every gift but length of years.'




Love you.
Mean it.

Donna Elsie

learning

We had such a nice time together.
I hope you had a joyous weekend!





1. Line a cookie sheet with edges with foil
2. Place bacon on foil/cookie sheet
3. Then put it in a 400° oven for 10-12 minutes.  

Why did it take so long for me to learn this method!?
Bacon frying was such an unpleasant task before but now it's
super easy.

When I first tried this method I used a fancy cookie sheet (Expensive and thick)
it just did not cook properly.  A thin cookie sheet works best.
If you use thick bacon, you will need to cook the bacon for about 16 minutes.
Just keep an eye one it.


And that's what I have been learning.

:o)

Donna

He is Risen

Les disciples Pierre et Jean courrant au seplulcre
le matin de la Resurrection

Eugene Burnand

Musee D'Orsay


I love this interesting interpretation of the Resurrection.
They look so worn...
from grieving.

This painting really takes me to that moment.
It's awesome.


Happy Easter dear friends,
Donna

An important prayer.

Prayer for Duke Community following the Noose Incident

After reflecting upon the events of last night where a noose was hung on a tree in the Bryan Center Plaza, and after attending the lecture today by Dr. James Cone at the Divinity School on “The Cry of Black Blood” as well as the university forum held today on the Chapel steps, I offer this prayer for the whole Duke community:

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far along the way; Thou who hast by Thy might, led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray today. We have come over a way that with tears has been watered. We have come treading a path through the blood of the slaughtered. Many today come with tears of sorrow, tears of anger, and tears asking challenging questions. We ask our own question to You, God, “Why this, again?”

We remember what happened last night on campus calling to mind how – as Billy Holiday sang:
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.

We remember,
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees.

We remember,
[This] strange and bitter crop that still bears its rotten fruit even at major research universities, dangling from a Bryan Center Plaza tree.

I am reminded also, as a Christian minister, that this is Holy Week and we are approaching the Friday when we will even gaze upon the strange fruit of God hanging from a tree on Mount Calvary.

Yet, we stand in solidarity at the foot of the cross with our feet firmly planted on the ground of crucified hope and as we cry out for justice and cry out for truth and cry out in despair, we ask that we may look for ways to sow seeds that will bear the fruit of love, justice, mercy, righteousness, peace, understanding, and hospitality, and that we might lift every voice until they ring with the harmonies of liberty and freedom. Set us free.

In the name of our crucified God, Jesus Christ, who cried out for us. Amen.

In Peace,
The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery
Dean of Duke Chapel

*****

I felt this was timely and wanted to share this beautiful prayer with you all.  A prayer for all.

"we ask that we may look for ways to sow seeds that will bear the fruit of love, justice, mercy, righteousness, peace, understanding, and hospitality,"

Amen.

God bless you,

Donna