Observations in October - 2018 - #SLS on Monday

I was at a very interesting vision workshop all day yesterday so I didn't have time to post my song for the Song Lyric Sunday bunch.  I like this song so I'm gonna post it now. 

It is called "Hideaway" and is from the "Guilty Pleasures" album by Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb.  This is one of my favorites.  I really like another song, "Come Tomorrow" a lot but that doesn't quite fit here.  They did a previous album together called "Guilty" which has some really good songs on it as well.

The video:

The lyrics:

Hideaway

Barbra Streisand

I saw you looking in the mirror
I saw you fighting with your conscious
I think you need a little time away
And I may give you mine

And you could find me in the moon glow
You find me underneath your pillow
And we can find a little hideaway
Where we can go

I'm in the corner with a friend of mine
I stood with my defenses down
So many things that bring you close to me
That we be led astray, the wonder of desire
To love the things we cannot touch

Maybe we turn and say goodnight and walk away
And then the story can go on without a single tear
You take a chance on it and change the history
And for a time, we fall in love with someone

So who am I to say the words that say
We have found each other?
Can we imagine any hideaway is right?
And our adventure down in paradise
Borne upon the wind and we are one with the night

Maybe we shuffle off to Rio
A little Rio de Janeiro
And then I get a little chance to say
I'm falling into you

And you and I can change the world if we just try
(Hideaway)
This lonely heart of mine has found a mission for your light
(In your world)
To make the sense of it and solve the mystery
(In my arms)
It's just the love you forever leave with someone

So who am I to say the words
That say we've found each other?
(Sunny day)
Can we imagine any hideaway is right?
(In your world)
And our adventure down in paradise
(In my arms)
Born upon the wind and we are one with the night

And our adventure down in paradise
Borne upon the wind
And we are one with the night

Songwriters: Ashley Gibb / Ashley R. Gibb / Barry Gibb / Barry Alan Gibb

Hideaway lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group

Better late than never they say.  Thanks to Helen for another great day of songs. 

Observations in October - 2018 Spirit

Ali has definitely given us something to think about with this prompt, "Spirit."  One definition of the word spirit is:  "The non-physical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul.

It's no secret that I have a positive outlook on life in general.  That's not to say that I am always happy or that things never go wrong.  It's more of a deep seated feeling that everything happens for a reason and even though I don't always know what the reason is at the time, eventually it makes sense. 

Maybe my "Spirit" or soul is at peace with myself.  I remember as a child my mom would rock us to sleep and sing a song that was just a simple tune and it started like this:  "Mommy loves Janet, Daddy loves Janet, Sister JoAnne loves Janet, Sister Judy loves Janet..." and she would proceed to sing that everyone in our family loved me.  What's not to love about this girl? 

I sang the song to my kids as well.  If I was having a particularly rough time getting them to sleep sometimes the list of people who loved them would extend to cousins and neighbors, the mailman, etc. before they'd fall asleep!

I'm sure part of it has to do with my religious upbringing.  I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic grammar school for 8 years.  Although I am not a "practicing" Catholic now and I don't always agree with everything the church teaches, still I feel a calmness come over me on the times when I do make it to church (maybe once every 5 or 6 years?) and I believe the basic teachings about God and his love for us.  

I try to pass that peaceful feeling on to others too, that's why I am such a proponent of the smile and the power it has.  I think everyone should try smiling more often!  

That's my take on Spirit.  What about you?  What's your spirit like?  Remember any songs your mom sang to you?  Share!

 

Observations in October - 2018 Read

Our day 3 prompt is "Read."

My first memories of reading is having my mom read "The Poky Little Puppy" to me.  It was a "Little Golden Book" and I just loved it.  So much so that I read it to my kids as well and still have a copy of it (or at least I thought I did until my daughter said she had taken it!)

Little Women is my all time favorite book and I just re-read it last year.  I love mysteries mostly and have some of the original Nancy Drew books along with some of the newer ones.  For a while I was collecting them if I saw them at garage sales and the like but I haven't gotten any in a long time. 

I also have a collection of Agatha Christie novels and I realized just recently that I don't remember reading some of them!  I love the look of book collections.  Sherlock Holmes is another favorite.   

For the past few years I've been trying to follow the PopSugar reading challenge.  I find it gives me the push to read something besides my standard mystery stories as I try to find different things to fill the categories with.  I had set a goal for 25 books this year and I've already passed that.  Pretty proud of myself there, especially since I only read at night before bed mostly. 

I have never really been into the "Romantic" novels, although I do like the books like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.  Science fiction is not really my thing either, although I have been reading some books about time travel.  I also can't read more than one book at a time.  I don't know how people do that.  It is hard for me to stop reading a book I don't like too.  I don't know why that is but I'm starting to get a little better.  I give it a few chapters and if I really can't stand it, I'll stop.

My first job was working in the local library.  I was a "Page" which is what they called the person who put the books away after people returned them.  After a while I was able to help check out the books too.  Now it is all done electronically and you can do it yourself by scanning your card and the books.  Still need someone to put the books away though.  Maybe I should apply for that job again since my typing is slowing down.  Bet I could handle that easier than I did working at Michaels! 

I have also just recently decided that it is okay to "repurpose" books.  I wrote about making a "junk journal" from a book I got at St. Vincent de Paul's.  I read it first but then I actually took it apart and am using it as a place to hold snippets of different things like favorite quotes and cards.

At one time I would have thought that was sacrilege, but now I realize that I am just enjoying the book in a different way.   

I've participated in a couple of read-a-thon's this year and another one is coming up hosted again by Jay Cudney at Thisismytruthnow.  It is going to be a fun one I think because the topic is cozy mystery series.  Come and join us if you want!  If you go to his site now you can help choose the author/series.  It starts in November. 

Okay, that's my take on "Read."  What is your first reading memory?  Have a favorite book/author?  Would you take a book apart and use it for something else?   

Ali Edwards has a lot of different classes to choose from.  If you haven't checked out her site before, it might be fun to do so now. 

Observations in October - 2018 - Jewelry

I am going to be spending the month of October doing a project I've been meaning to do for a while now.  It is called 31 Things and it is offered as an online class by Ali Edwards.  Last year I did the One Little Word class with her where each month she gave us a project to do based around our word of the year.  It was very interesting to try to bring my word (which was Believe) into my life in different ways.

31 Things is similar but this time she gives us a different prompt each day for 31 days and we are to explore those in depth.  She suggests making an album which of course I am going to do but it is going to be slightly different than the one she suggests, which is a 12 x 12 album with two words on each page.  I'm using a smaller journal type book and putting a picture on one page and doing some writing on the other.  For each word she will give us questions to think about in relation to that word.  I'm hoping to be able to post each day here too.

The first word is "Jewelry" and here are my thoughts on that:  Always silver, white gold or platinum.  I think the diamonds sparkle more in those settings.  Even if there are no diamonds, I still like the silver shine. 

The most important piece of jewelry to me is my wedding ring.  I clearly remember the day my husband proposed.  He didn't have a ring to put on my finger because he knew that it would be something I would wear every day and he wanted me to like it.  We went shopping together and I chose the ring I did because when you look at it from the side, to me it looks like a castle on top of a winding hill. 

When we had been married about 10 years, I thought it might be nice to have an anniversary band to go with the wedding ring so we got this one:

I don't have a picture of them together, but even though the stones are of a different cut, they stacked well and I wore them every day for another 20 years.  In 2015 I happened to look down at the palm of my hand and noticed that the rings looked funny.  I had trouble taking them off and when I did, this is what I saw:

I have no idea how that happened.  My hand itself was not injured.  Obviously I had to take the rings to a jeweler to have them repaired.  First time I would be without my rings in 30+ years!  My hand felt naked.

I wore this ring so I wouldn't notice the empty space as much. 

It seemed to take forever for them to get the rings back to me and the anniversary ring was never quite the same as the stones could not be put back into the proper alignment.  It bothered me to wear it and since we were now at 30+ years of marriage my husband said I could pick out something  different.  I got a ring wrap or enhancer and my wedding set fit nicely inside it.  This is what it looks like now:

I'm expecting it to last another 30 years as the back is soldered together to make it stronger.  

Another piece of jewelry I wear quite a bit is this locket.  In it I add a quote or saying for my word of the year.  The picture is from last year when my word was "Believe."  This year is "Create" and the saying is "Create the life you want to live."  I am really trying hard to do that, little by little.  When I have the necklace on, it seems to strengthen my resolve. 

This silver ring is probably the other piece I wear most often.  It came with a bag of marbles and I can change it up to match whatever I'm wearing.  So versatile and definitely a conversation piece.  I get a lot of comments on it since it is pretty large.  People are amazed when I pop out the marble.  Some of the marbles change color depending on how the light hits them.     

Since I work from home, I don't generally get all dressed up with a lot of jewelry but in addition to my wedding ring, every day I wear a necklace and some bracelets.  It is kind of a tradition that every year at Christmas I pick out a little bauble that I like and give a picture of it to my husband and that's what he gets for me.  They are usually not extremely expensive but most of the time it has a special meaning like the Journey necklace which symbolizes the way the journey of love goes (starts out small and keeps growing), 

 

I switch the necklaces out every few months, but I always have one on.

My constant bracelets are an "Open Hearts" charm, an aquamarine stone bracelet and a bracelet our daughter gave me one year that I was supposed to add charms to.  I have the charms but never added them.  Maybe that's something I'll do this year. 

One more story about rings...When I was 4 or 5 I had my tonsils taken out and it required an overnight stay in the hospital.  Even though I was not a baby, I remember being put in a crib-like bed.  When my mom was there with me I remember her putting her hand through the slats in the side and I played with her wedding ring.  Fast forward to about six or seven years ago, after my dad had passed away, my mom was distributing things to us girls.  She gave me her wedding set.  I wore it on my right hand and noticed that the band had cracked a bit.  Instead of taking it off right away and putting it in a safe place, I wore it one more time.  I don't remember feeling it fall off but when I went to bed that night I noticed it was not on my finger.  I was so upset.  I didn't know how to tell my mother.  She and my dad had celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary shortly before he died.  My mom was so calm about it.  I was crying as I told her and she just said, "Don't worry honey.  It's just a thing.  I gave it up when I gave it to you and I still have the memories of your dad and I.  I don't need the ring to remember him."  I still feel bad and pray sometimes to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, to help me find it.   

So, there is a pretty in depth coverage of my relationship with jewelry.  Got any jewelry stories to tell me?  Love to hear them!