Me and Music

Let's face it, I'm an ardent hummer.... and singer...... and lover of most anything musical. This can be a very good thing as I can entertain myself for hours humming poorly harmonized notes. On the other hand, this habit can greatly annoy anyone unfortunate enough to be around me for extended periods of time. It especially gets bad at the end of the day when I'm getting tired. The singing makes me feel better, but this is also the time of the day when everyone else is trying to relax and, apparently, my noise doesn't  help most of the time.

I still love music though, and enjoy dabbling at making tunes on many instruments. I would call them songs but most of the time I end up just playing random notes. One of the most recent instruments I learned to dabble on is the ukulele. I like this instrument because I think it matches my personality and I can sing with it while I play. This means I can get double the musical urge out of my system at the same time.

Below is one of the first songs I learned to play.

Growing up

A large part of me (as you can tell by this blog) is still a child at heart, but there is another part of me that is a maturing teenager who sees that growing up is inevitable and reasons that I had better get it all out of the way as soon as I can.

The teenage side of me is what pushed me to get a job and enroll in a college class (yep, just one). In some ways this has been hard, being homeschooled I never had to be anywhere every day or have a paper ready by a certain deadline, but in other ways both sides have enjoyed this step. It gives the reasonable part of me a sense of accomplishment, and the fact that I get to work with kids and I am enrolled in a writing class, gives my younger side a chance to exercise my imagination.

These two personalities are like sisters, they go everywhere with one another, but often, have disagreements on what the best way to do things is.

Kid me: OOOOHHH butterfly! Come on let's follow it. :)

Teenage me: Whoa, whoa, hold on. Come back over here. That is a pretty butterfly, but look  at that old gentleman walking down the street. What is he going to think about you? And besides, we need to head back home so I can work on my essay.

Kid me: No, no, that  old guy won't mind. It will probably make him smile and your essay can wait just a little bit longer. 

Teenage me:  I tell you what, if  we go back and work on the essay right now, we can have some of that chocolate I have been saving.

Kid me: Chocolate?

Teenage me: Mhmmm.

Kid me: Okay. :)

I would never want to get rid of either part of me, but as I get older, I find my mature (ish) side starting to win more of the arguments. That is one of the reasons I started this blog. I see it as a place where the kid side of me can win the battles. Even if the mature side puts up some fuss sometimes.

~ Real contentment must come from within. You and I can not change or control the world around us, but we can change and control the world within us. ~ Warren Wiersbe
     

☼ The Perks of Spring ☼

Lots of people have favorite seasons. Me? Every season is my favorite season. The reason for this is that I don't want to limit my happiness to a certain time of year. Why not throw favoritism to the wind and have the best time you can with the special perks of each season?

That being said, my favorite time of year right now is spring (go figure). I always forget how much I love the vibrant blue sky until the spring winds come and pull the clouds back, like a curtain, to reveal that crystal clear sky. Somehow,  even when I look out five minuets later and clouds cover the sky again, that little glimpse of radiance supplies my heart with joy and the reassurance that even though I can't see something, it's still there.

So let's dive into just a few of the things that make spring special to me.


       ☼  Warm Weather
Here in the Rocky Mountains, this perk must be taken with a grain of salt, or rather a flurry of snow, but we have had a few days over 70 degrees. I love not having to wear a huge coat when I go out to do chores.

       ☼  New Growth
Whether it's a flower, grass, a tree, or even a weed, new things are bursting forth everywhere, and who isn't encouraged by that?

       ☼  Birds  
We have some birds here in the winter. But not enough to satisfy me. I love the first morning that I wake up and am greeted by the cheerful chirping of the songbirds.

       ☼ Baby Animals
I found this lamb picture on the internet and a picture is worth a thousand words.

       ☼ Puddles
Do you ever swerve  just so you can drive through the puddles on the road? Well I do. We haven't had enough rain yet to warrant any big puddles, but I'm still hopeful.

       ☼ Spring Break
Being homeschooled, I never got to experience to joy of this (we were lucky to get Christmas off), but now that I am taking a college class and work as a sort of teacher, I've learned to appreciate it.

      ☼ Happy People
This is technically not a season specific perk, but seeing other people happy makes me happy and I have been noticing a lot of cheerful folks recently.

     ☼ Sales
Okay, so this one is a little abstract, but yesterday I went to Kmart and all of their fall/winter stuff was discounted. I don't just mean discounted, I mean DISCOUNTED. Well, maybe not that much, but it made me happy all the same.

There are so many other things, but I hope this small list has brightened your day somehow and I hope you are enjoying your spring.

I couldn't help one last picture.
(I did take this one.)

"Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf of spring-time." ~Martin Luther~

Watching the Stars Wake Up

Sometimes, on clear nights, I like to sit outside and watch the stars wake up. I think that here in Montana, where I live, is the best place to watch the stars. It's quiet, doesn't have too many lights, and lives up to its nickname; Big Sky Country.

In essence, when you look at the stars you are looking back in time, because the closest star (other than the sun) is 4.3 light years away. That means the light we see actually shone over 4 years ago. I know this is sort of a simple concept but I love thinking about it and it gives me the assurance that there is Someone bigger, watching out for us.

Recently, I found one of these tutorials for making small origami stars. I instantly became obsessed with these cute paper crafts and have made many since. I personally like cutting the paper to be slightly thinner, but I have found that no star will be exactly the same. My favorite part is drawing the faces on.

Here are some of the ones I made. Hope you enjoy!



The clouds were so pretty today, I had to take a picture.

Cookie Butter

I love cookies, you love cookies, my uncle's dentist's cousin loves cookies. We all love cookies. Because I love cookies so much, I'm always looking for new ways to enjoy cookies whether it's in cookie bark click here for recipe  or cookie fudge click here for recipe. ( p.s. I have never actually attempted to make these, but they sound awesome.)



The latest non-typical way I found to enjoy them is cookie butter. (Yep, that is a thing.) It is similar to Nutella but, in my opinion, it is 200% better. I discovered this while walking through my local grocery store. One of the store employees asked if I would like to try some Cookie Butter. I would never refuse free food so I agreed to taste it. When the pretzel she spread it on, entered my mouth I knew I was in love and I bought a container.

The thick spread is cinnamon-brown in color and, really, doesn't resemble anything that marvelous in looks. When you taste it, however, its wonderfulness will be impressed upon you forever. The flavor starts as a rich, creamy taste closely resembling peanut butter but as it melts in your mouth, instead of a peanut flavor, you experience something closer to a cinnamon graham cracker. The end result is heavenly. 

 This taste is achieved by actually incorporating Belgian Speculoos cookies into the butter. In fact, according to the label, the cookies make up for 50% of the ingredients. I Googled the cookies and as far as I could find out they the grownup, gingerbread version of animal crackers.

Speculoos Cookies



As far as I am concerned, this cookie butter could be made out of fish eggs and I would still eat it. It is just that delicious.

 

 

* This is NOT a sponsored post

Handsome Cupcake

The pure joy and innocence of  four year old girls never ceases to put a smile on my face. They all are individuals, some girls' favorite movie is "Frozen" while others enjoy "Spiderman", but they all share some common notions on certain subjects.

At work on Friday, four girls and I gathered at a round table for snack. We were all happily enjoy our chips and salsa when a woman who use to help in the classroom gave us a phone call. She wanted to announce that she had gotten married and is now expecting. When the girls at my table heard this news they were astounded.

" Ahhhhh! Sarah is married now, did you know that," one of them exclaimed.

With a serious, yet halfway dreamy face, another replied, " Yeah, and she even got to kiss her handsome prince." This statement was followed by giggles all around the table.

" Ewww!" One curly haired girl exclaimed, " I don't want to EVER kiss a boy, so I'm not going to get married."

I exchanged an amused look with the teacher at the table closest to mine, but didn't say anything.

All of the other girls quickly agreed with her as she continued, " I will kiss a handsome cupcake, but never a boy."

Despite my efforts, my laughter rolled out in cheerful bursts.

All of the schoolgirls looked at me quizzically. Then a smile slowly crept onto the curly haired girls face. " What I said was funny wasn't it ?" she inquired and the whole table erupted in another round of giggles.

                         


Oh, and I forgot about preforming an act of kindness, however, I analyzed my actions and decided that the closest thing would be that I stayed late at one of my college classes when a classmate asked for an extra review on their essay. I don't know how helpful it was but it counts as kind, right?


P.S. For the sake of confidentiality, I changed "Sarah's" name.

The Girl Inside

On first impression some people might call me childish. They would be right, but you know what? It doesn't bother me one iota. When I get old and gray, I still want to be known as the girl with the contagious, girlish giggle, the one who still chases butterflies, plays with Playdough, and draws stick figures.(That last one is only because I don't have the patience to learn how to draw.)

I'm always striving to please others, this blog will be where I draw the line. I'm going to post what I want to, so what if only one person reads it and thinks its lame. I don't want to lose "me" looking for someone who doesn't exist.

I said all that because I want my main focus on this blog to be expressing the kid inside. It's that small part of us that never grew up and never will. It's the thing that makes your heart jump when you see a shooting star. It is that irresistible urge to swing on the swings or to splash  through the mud puddles.

 I have been blessed with all of this "kid-ness" because I work in the preschool room at a daycare. I can't credit it all to the kids in the class, (I was born with an extra large quantity of child I think) but when you spend several hours a day with three to five-year olds, you get an extra dose of sunshine.

Before I get too carried away with explaining how childish I am, I had better end the post, but I wanted to challenge all of you (my hypothetical readers) to do something nice for someone this week.  It doesn't have to be something huge it could be just smiling at a stranger, holding the door for someone, or even buying a family member or co-worker coffee. I'll do it too, and let you know how it goes in my next post. (In a few days I hope.)