Creating Beauty

   
Hi Everyone! I'm back. And it hasn't even been 3 months. ;-) I had a nice birthday. My husband and kids blessed me with some great gifts and a trip to the infamous Mall of America. Jim took me out to lunch at a new for us restaurant, where we had THE best guacamole, made tableside, that I've ever had in my entire life. And that's saying something now that I'm so old! I also got two other lunches out of the birthday deal the following week from friends. Speaking of friends, my dear friend, Tracy, got me a stove! Seriously, how awesome is that??!!! OK I know that's not the typical birthday present, but you probably are unaware of my stove challenges. LOL I don't seem to be limited to normal challenges. I have definitely had some unusual ones throughout my life. So, I had this really great stove (TWO ovens even) that I got a great deal on a little over a year ago. But it had a flat cook top where the burners are covered by whatever material it is that goes on top. Fiberglass? Anyway, I had some heavy pans on top of my fridge, which is literally right next to my stove cuz of how the outlets are set up in this crazy old house of mine, and they fell onto the stovetop and broke through the covering, which ended up destroying 3 of my burners, so I've been cooking with only one burner for about a year, which gets really annoying when you make most of your meals at home. And which would have been a real pain in the patoot for Thanksgiving. But, Tracy and her husband came to my rescue. Yay! Also, another really cool thing about my birthday was that my son, Cory, remembered (Hey he's a 22 year old guy!) and although he couldn't really call because he was on a training exercise (Marines) in Norway, he posted a nice birthday greeting on my facebook page.

I'm now on week 6 out of 8 in my ethics and law class. Still have an A so far.

OK so as far as the 55 by 55 is going.... I started out well the first week. I lost 2.4 lbs. But the second week, I gained back 1.4 of those lbs. In my defense, there were two birthday lunches, a church potluck, and Thanksgiving. So, that puts my grand total of lbs lost at a whopping 1 lb. Not exactly an impressive start, but I'm trying to do better with food choices this week. 54 lbs to go over the next 50 weeks.

So, I was thinking about what it is that I'd really like to learn how to do. While there are probably dozens of things I'd like to do, it's not lack of knowledge that's usually the issue but rather lack of resources, which is usually money. But one thing that I think is also, at least partly, due to lack of skill is creating beauty in my life. What do I mean by that? I'd like to surround myself with more beauty and less chaos in my environment, in particular my home. I'd like to be able to make pretty things, look as attractive as possible, wear beautiful clothing and accessories, etc. Things like cleaning, organizing, decorating, crafts, gardening, yardwork, repairs, makeup, skincare, beauty routines, creativity would all fall under this category, so would things that are non visual. I'd like to experience beautiful sounds, smells, taste, and touch by learning how to incorporate these things into my life and the atmosphere of my environment to a much greater degree than I do now. But, as with pretty much everything, I do better with a plan, and at the moment, I'm not sure how to put one together. It's something I will need to pray about, ponder, and maybe research. I guess I could start with some pics of beauty that speak to me. So in no particular order here are a few.

  https://goo.gl/images/VgK14x       https://goo.gl/images/RBjAN4       https://goo.gl/images/uyyqdn

https://goo.gl/images/ahSrAv       https://goo.gl/images/EbPc5j     https://goo.gl/images/5HBuQ8

 https://goo.gl/images/pX5B5m   https://goo.gl/images/sW1FCm  https://goo.gl/images/igbRDN

https://goo.gl/images/8noLWt      https://goo.gl/images/Ka2eHN  https://goo.gl/images/4t2tta

So, what do you find beautiful? How do you create or bring beauty, physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, or in any other way into your life? I would love to hear your thoughts. Until next time, beautiful blessings, my friends!