Round here.

Last Saturday night, between the evening downpours, we visited Buckingham fountain.

In all my years living and visiting Chicago I had never been.  It is very pretty.  I'd have liked to sit and relax...but there are no benches.  

Right when we arrived I heard a band in a distance, Emma said there is always something going on in the city.

Then I heard a song I knew and really loved.

It was Yellow.

By Coldplay.

I grabbed Emma's arm and screeched, COLDPLAY!

She jumped and screamed.  Cause I scared here.  Eeek

But. yep.  It was

 Coldplay preforming at Soldier's Field and we could hear every song and we could hear the crowd cheering and singing along.  

So we had a free concert. 

kindasorta :o)

Just beyond the fountain was a 'wedding tent'.  

They were playing music too.

And they had a Good Humor truck for the guests to have a Chocolate Eclair bare or a Strawberry Shortcake bar.

Cute. Charming. Nostalgic.

Love.

Today is Katie's final day of beach volleyball. The training has been very good and she has enjoyed it.

She, once again, did not have a partner to go to tournaments with.  

All I can think of is....

not. meant. to. be.

Can you believe it is the end of July already?

XOXO

Donna

Suffer and like it.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time. ~John Lubbock

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker


xoxo
happy heat wave.
donna

The half life of love is forever.

. “The half life of love is forever.”

~Junot Diaz

Little Cindy, too little to cross her legs.

She is having a birthday tomorrow.  

Our California girl.  

She is incredible....an real life living angel....if you only knew.

Happiest of birthdays to you!

I'm forever thankful for my siblings.

xoxoxo

donna elsie

Ordinary Folk

I think the most powerful people are parents, teachers, church folk, neighbors, co-workers, family and friends.

They are the most powerful because they can impact the lives around them with the power of their influence and their example.  

I think we need to  remember and be aware of how important relationship is.

People with great power seem to be totally missing it.

There are millions of little people out there, quietly helping in their communities, neighborhoods and on mission fields around the world.  Beautiful souls who are helping in refugee camps, teaching in inner-city schools, feeding the hungry.  Gosh, I have so much respect for these unsung, mainly invisible helpers.

(I saw a clip of a refugee camp of 300,000 in South Sudan the other day.  I am astonished and thankful that someone is coming to the aide of these people.  And just imagine....this is but one.  How many other places are people suffering and others are trying to alleviate the suffering? )

Gandalf is right.  These ordinary folk are keeping darkness at bay.

God bless them.

Keep them safe.

 Encourage one another,

Donna

Put on your positive pants.

I saw this print on Instagram.  I've included the poster's name because I wasn't sure who made it...but I just loved it.  

You may not believe it, because I try to be very positive on the blog, but I am not always.  In fact, in the last few years I have been much less than positive.

Katie on the other hand seems to handle things better than I do.  

She is calm and gracious and even.  

Like I am on the blog.  ha.

But in real life I worry and freak out...way too much.

So when I saw this funny post I sent it on to Katie...cause I knew she would understand that I was talking about myself.

No one likes to be around Debbie Downer.

How I live in my real life matters.

It matters the most.

Encourage one another.

Love

Donna

Francis and Frodo

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

when there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand,

to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.

St Francis of Assisi

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 

~J.R.R. Tolkien

Encourage one another,

Donna

When Green Becomes Tomatoes

When Green Becomes Tomatoes by Julie Fogliano.


when green becomes tomatoes there will be sky and sun and possibly a cloud or two
 when green becomes tomatoes there will be leaves and flowers tall and standing straight and someone splashing, jumping, diving down
 when green becomes tomatoes there will be wings and something inching, green and small and a sweetly, tweetly chirping song
 when green becomes tomatoes there will be round and there will be red and there will be tomatoes (more red than green) (more round than seed) (more on the vine than way deep down)
 when green becomes tomatoes

Thank you Jep for sharing this colorful poem.


XO
Donna