This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life. ~Anonymous
photo art
Click on the photo to blow it up and see all the tiny pictures that created it. Make a mosaic from your own photos here.
smarter than a fifth grader
If you click on the orange badge it takes you to a fun website that analyzes your blog’s reading level. I’ve noticed it can vary from day to day though, I suppose along with the length and depth or your posts. The first time I tried it I was at the High School level, today I’ve dropped down to Junior High, same as the popular and intellectual celebrity gossip blog TMZ so I guess I’m in good company. I had a heck of a time finding any blogs at the College Level until I came across A Blog Around the Clock and then I stumbled on a Medical Humanities blog that earned the elusive Genius Level badge! I’m not really sure it deserves it though. I tried to read it but for some reason it didn’t really make much sense. I think that blogger just likes to throw around a lot big words like hegemonic and neuropsychoanalysis. Hmm, maybe if I paste a few more of those fancy words on my blog today I can get back into High School:)
Merry Christmas!
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exists, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. ~Charles Dana
wordless wednesday
Sarah McLachlan – Wintersong
A song for our little dog Nikki, for baby Kylie, for my mom and Brenda’s sweet Payton, and for Julie’s dear husband Rick. We hold you in our hearts this holiday season and always.
2008 best book lists
We’re kitty-sitting my daughter’s cat, Mr. Boo this week. I caught him checking out my bookshelves this morning. He just finished Dewey but when I tried to get him to read Marley & Me he said he’d pass, that he finds dog books, “trite and overly sentimental”. I’ve compiled an eclectic mix of best 2008 book lists for you, take a gander and see if you missed anything that sounds interesting!
Washington Post, Amazon, NPR, Publisher’s Weekly, Barnes & Noble, New York Times, Stephen King, Slate, Library Journal, Salon, Seattle Times, LA Times, The Sunday Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, The National Book Awards, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Village Voice, The Pulitzer Prizes, New York Magazine, PEN/Faulkner Award, Penguin Writer’s List, Salon Author’s Favorites, SF Chronicle
I was born with a reading list I will never finish. ~Maud Casey
skywatch friday
The other day I was driving home from running errands and I saw that little patch of blue sky peeking through a blanket of lead colored clouds. During the winter, the landscape around here seems to lose its color. But I think maybe we sometimes simply lose the ability to see the muted colors of the season. That little bit of bright blue sky reminded me to look a little harder, to look past the naked brown branches of the trees and the withered flowers in my garden. I went across the street and photographed the fishing pond in the park again, frozen now, but rimmed with bronzed grasses and crowned with just enough blue sky to renew my fragile faith.
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. ~Mother Teresa of Calcutta
(almost) wordless wednesday
When all’s said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it’s not so much which road you take, as how you take it. ~ Charles de Lint
bookbabie 