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i lasted two whole days.  two whole days of fruits, vegetables, and today a whole wheat tortilla with lentils and brown rice.  but when i arrived back home to a small tray of cookies with the words “To Louissa, From Lisa” written on them, i felt conflicted to the very core of my being.  should i eat them?  i couldn’t let them just sit there, but i could hardly give them away to other family members.  they were my cookies!  i decided that exceptions must be made and this seemed like an opportune moment for just that.

and here is the tale of the cookie eating:

one evening i felt a wee bit special.  someone heard i was craving cookies, made some, saved a few for me, and dropped them off at my house!

the only proper way to consume a cookie is with a glass of milk for dunking and i made sure i had a big one.

all this made me happy!  white flour, refined sugar, and chocolate!

unfortunately, this doesn’t end altogether that well.  i quickly learned that feasting on too many cookies and a large glass of milk might make your tummy feel a little funny — especially when consumed in mere minutes and at 10:30pm.

i think i shall let the others finish the rest.  tomorrow i shall eat my fruits and veggies.

i fell asleep last night remembering her smell, laugh, and wonderfully goofy grin.  i wondered where she is and who she’s with.  i wondered why-oh-why we had to let her go.  and i wondered why there must be such heartbreak in life.

you’re not supposed to have favorites but she was mine.

i’m too tired to narrate much so just two pictures.  be happy.

1) dream come true.  you better believe that’s me on a zamboni, baby.

2)  some of the people in the world that i love.  i’m not sure there will ever be one picture that holds everyone i love.

today was spent around the house.  well, okay — so i was gone from 9:00-3:30 — but it felt like i was home for a good long while!  i’m tired and hot and very glad to put pajamas on at 9:15pm and think that the day is almost over.

want to see some of what i did this afternoon & evening?

i spent a lot of time in the kitchen.  i cut up fruit for a salad the family shall eat tomorrow.

i made a berry cobbler of sorts (also for tomorrow).  it’s the kind where you take whatever fruit you might have on hand and toss it into a baking dish and then you try to estimate how much topping you’ll need for however much fruit you just threw in.  to say that the cobbler i pulled out of the oven could use some more of that topping would be an understatement.  i guess i’m one of those who has to stick to the recipe.

i spent some quality time with brushes and rollers and a gallon of paint.

this is the second saturday in a row (wow, my weekends are starting to look alike) i’ve spent a bit of time in my parents bedroom trying to help the transformation the mums has been working on for a over a month.  we’re trying to cover her khaki and brick red walls with the lightest pistachio you can imagine.

there were boring chores that required me to use cleaning products like these:

and i am that sister.  these are my brother’s clothes that i folded:

i found myself feeling rather beat and wanted to do nothing else but relax in front of an X Files episode.  guilt from not running once in an entire month hit me though and i decided i had to go out and do just that.  i’m not sure i’ve ever had such little faith in my entire life.

this is my little faith face (and yes, i look that tired because i am that tired):

a whopping one mile later i made it back home as red faced and breathing as hard as i did one month ago when i ran a 5k.  why in such rough shape?  it could have something to do with what i ate today.  if i told you what that is exactly, you’re arteries would surely clog immediately and diabetes would instantly plague your body.  i am a very unhealthy person.

go big or go home.  so i’m going big at attempting to right my dreadful lifestyle.  refined sugars and white flour only on sundays until i learn some self-control.  hold me to it, folks.  hold me to it.

sometimes habits just fall into place without you noticing.  for the second weekend in a row we found ourselves sitting around a table too late at night playing a game that involves dominoes, trains and well, with my rowdy group of friends — a whole lot of talking, random outbursts of song, and much laughter.  i’m not sure if two times in a row qualifies as a tradition and i can’t say what we’ll be up to next weekend, but this train game is certainly one of our favorites.

we played tonight in the midst of celebrating a birthday.  the birthday boy bought steak for all of us (completely wrong, right?), i made a cake, and we called it a party.

i may have a smoothie with cinnamon-and-pudding-filled bread for dinner because i:
a.)  have a sweet tooth
b.)  find it a waste of time to prepare a “real” meal for just one person
c.)  enjoy simpler foods now and then
d.)  all of the above

if i’ve learned anything this summer, it’s how special my friends are.

meet bubs the snubs (or snubs the bubs or snubby dubby bubby or bubsie or just plain old ben):

(sorry for the blurriness.  cell phone doesn’t always equal the best quality photos.)

basically everyone thinks the world of him.  he plays the violin like no other, can build or fix or do any handy work you might need, will act and sing and write his own rhyme in gangsta style when asked, and oh, he makes movies too.  pretty much it goes like this: anyone who meets him becomes his fan.

we friends are were his biggest fans.  and then he walked into a gathering tonight with these on his feet:

hmm.  we aren’t so sure about socks like that on hairy man feet.  yeah, about that…

sometimes i find things in these small towns i’m surrounded by that just amuse.  my discovery today was mr. robot:

huh.  not the usual graffiti one might find.

mr. robot wanted a picture taken with me.  don’t mind my not-so-joyous expression.  i was pondering the phrase and considering whether i might be more robotic than human.

a long day was worked by many.  a quiet dinner was had of cornbread and salad.  a kitchen was cleaned.  an evening walk beside fields of corn was taken.  and i kept thinking of this written bit that spoke to this quiet soul today:

“Love of my heart, my stream runs dry;
O Fountain of the heavenly hills,
Love, blessed Love, to Thee I cry,
Fill all my secret hidden rills.
Water of Love, O pour through me;
I must have Love; I must have Thee”
Amy Carmichael

i didn’t set my alarm correctly for my waking this morning.  you would think that after using the same exact alarm every single morning for a whole year i would have the system down.  guess not.

there is nothing that i hate more than sleeping later than i planned.  especially when i have things to do and places to be and people depending on me.

but my day was lovely.  i mean, it was lovely after the initial “OHMYGOODNESS!  WHAT TIME IS IT?!?!” that the mums received when she poked her head in my room to see why i was still in bed.

i also had a few revelations concerning my aging process.  contrary to popular opinion, i don’t think i’ll always be the Barbie character everyone thinks i am.  i chose a Bach cd when i could have listened to anything.  Barbie doesn’t listen to Bach.

anyway.  enough of this frivolous talk.  i sat at a lovely island in the middle of a lovely kitchen while a lovely lady chatted with me this afternoon.  well, i don’t think this rather quiet soul did much talking — i just wasn’t in a talking mood.  but i sat and listened and drew all over her island.  don’t get nervous.  you’re meant to draw on it.  see?

it’s a lovely afternoon activity, isn’t it?  and my day was full of such loveliness.  i just didn’t snap pictures of the rest.

i’m one of those annoying people who 99.9% of the time has music playing in their car.  perhaps it’s bad.  or not.  i haven’t decided.  at least i’m not one of those people who keeps my music at such a ridiculously low volume level that you don’t know whether to scream or cry from the frustration of just being able to hear the music.

anyway.

when i don’t have my itouch or if it dies, then i almost always have this station playing:

i like music that entertains and keeps me awake moving.  yup, i’m also one of those annoying people who sings and dances while driving.  as i went through town the other day i realized what a sight i must be when i realized that several other drivers took turns staring into my vehicle as i belted out a tune and danced as much as one can while strapped into a seat at a stoplight.  i’ve always been teased about a certain face i make when dancing:

okay.  i see why everyone teased me so.  “dance face” shall never be seen again.

it’s right now at 1:40am that i’m regretting this decision i made.  i knew it would happen eventually but didn’t think it would come this soon.  whatever.  today’s photos:

i tried a new recipe.  it was mostly peaches and blueberries.  can’t go wrong with that, right?

well, it called for a cornmeal sweet biscuit of sorts to be plopped on the wonderful fruit.

i was told it tasted like soggy graham crackers.  guess we’ll put that recipe away and never make it again.

i went for my first motorcycle ride tonight.  while relaxing by my sister’s new pool after a strange day at work i received a text from a friend asking if i’d like a ride.  did i want a ride?! of course!  i’m not sure i’ve ever been so excited about something.  so with a helmet and one of those tough looking jackets on, my friend took me for a spin on his very fast and powerful bike.  and i loved every single minute of it.

my happy face after the ride:

dear santa, i would like my very own motorcycle for christmas.  okay fine, i’ll settle for a vespa.  my daddy would be too worried if he had a little girl out riding around on a motorcycle all the time.  sincerely, louissa

best after work snack:

right now there’s nothing that i’d rather do more than curl up and fall asleep to angela lansbury’s voice in her old show, Murder, She Wrote, but it would be rather pathetic of me to quit on day 2 of a photo a day.  so here, here’s a little man who i spent my afternoon and evening with:

what better entertainment than playing with a ping pong paddle and wearing an oversized red sox cap?

i’ve been an uninspired blogger of late.  the desire comes and goes — and comes more in the cool months of dark settling in at 5:00pm, warm apple pie sustaining your very existence, and afghans wrapped around you being a must.  the hot long days of summer beckon me to gallivant in the great outdoors and not spend my evenings on my computer.   but i don’t really want to be one of those bloggers who takes up cyber space but does nothing with it.  so, i’m challenging myself.

a photo a day for 30 days.

i don’t even care if it’s off my poor quality cell phone or laptop.  my busy summer schedule doesn’t have to be so busy that i can’t stop to notice at least one (or two) special happenings.

today, after spending 8 too many hours in my very warm office, i came home, cleaned a bathroom, and wanted to do nothing else.  then i remembered my most recent find at a local flea market.  nothing makes me happy like vintage.  and nothing makes me more happy when vintage item comes into my possession.  i scrubbed and dried and made my new scale look just this good:

to the dismay of many, my tastes can sometimes run along the lines of being quite tacky. when i saw this in a free pile, i instantly fell in love and had to grab it.  it awaits the decision of where to be hung in my bedroom.

and that, my friends, is the first installment of my new 30 day challenge.

And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view! Psalm 84:5-7

i looked after one child this evening.  for an hour and a half it was just the two of us and we played trains, split a chocolate chip scone, took a walk down to the water where he worked up the courage to place a finger or toe in, and laughed a lot.  that’s what he does.  the babe doesn’t have many words in his vocabulary and although sometimes you can figure out what he wants from grunts and his own version of sign language, for the most part you just laugh with him.  that’s what he does.  he laughs as he enjoys everything around him.

we laughed at flags waving in the breeze, the dog barking in town, the wonder of dipping your feet in water, the deliciousness of his mother’s amazing scones, and the funny sounds we both could make.  if you can, steal this child away and spend an hour with just him.  he’ll win your heart and make you feel more in love with the small wonders of the world as you experience them through his eyes.

- cups of coffee every morning
- being surprised with 2 quarts of strawberries
- a black leather bound Bible that’s slowly being worn in favorite places
- campfires, campfires, and more campfires
- canoe rides at 11:30pm
- a mums that comes in my office on a regular basis (when i’m in desperate need of human interaction)
- babies back in their little yellow house for me to kiss and listen to and hold
- fresh seasons, fresh mornings, fresh beginnings — always

i spent most of my time today by myself and oh-so-tired.  the office was so cold that i considered turning the space heater on at one point and the sky so grey (most of the time) that i was convinced it was telling me to quit life, crawl into bed, and sleep myself into an oblivion.

obviously i couldn’t do that and i had to keep myself awake somehow so these are a few things that kept me company and brightened my rather lonely day.

1)  chatting with my dad online.  haven’t experienced that?  you probably won’t.  he reserves his chatting for employees and employees alone.  so, let me just tell you that it’s unlike chatting with anyone else.  apparently he hasn’t received the memo that nobody capitalizes, uses proper punctuation (especially a semicolon), or types a whole paragraph before pushing “send” on gchat.

2)  a perfectly scrumptious orange.  while it was chilly and overcast and windy and everything else that didn’t help me wake from my zombie-like state, i pulled out that perfectly delightful goodness and was quite happy to find that i grabbed probably the juiciest and tastiest from the fruit basket at home.  i always pretend that i’m in Little Women and oranges are a rare treat.  it makes it taste better.

3)  ingrid michaelson music.  she sings to me.  all the time.  and i’m not sure she realizes how greatly appreciated she is.  that little blue office would have been eerily quiet without her today.

4)  the random man who strolled into the office in the afternoon with a delivery.  it wasn’t actually for the church, but the golf course that we lease, so i strolled with him outside to find the right person to deal with.  he told me stories of when he had gone to school in our building and how strange it was to walk through those doors again.  i like those people the most.

5)  later in the day the sun came out.  and it was the best companion a girl could ask for.  nothing does better than good ‘ole mr. sun.

velogogo.

it’s hard to start when there’s been such a long break.  my brain somehow doesn’t know how to put words together.

so, i’ll just say that although a sweater has been worn for the last few days –  summer is here.  when the calendar turns to june everyone decides it’s time to vacation and relax and do everything out of the ordinary.  while most of my family is out of town, i’m spending my second evening down the road at my sister’s yellow ranch house.  it’s my own way of saying i can live in a vacation sort of mode even though i leave every morning for a day in the office.

i love summer.  so much.  speaking of summer, it’s meals like this that make my summertime heart happy:

Please pray for the workshop on websites & networking. Even when it is over pray that those who came will be equipped for the work of the kingdom. That they would accomplish much for the King. Pray God’s blessings on Pat for his service!

I am in search of the world’s most delicious food or meal. Unfortunately, after much searching, I came to the realization that every culture’s and every person’s tastes are so vastly different, that even locally-popular foods are hardly noticeable on a global scale–it is even difficult to form a list of the most popular foods! I guess this adds to the value of and great feeling associated with cooking for others and sharing with them one’s own food experiences.

So, here I ask you, what are some of the best foods/dishes that you have had that you recommend trying at least once in life, and is there a noteworthy setting that added to the experience?

is worth a thousand words.