The Happy Award comes to Do Beautiful Things

I am excited to receive the Happy Award from Simone at The romantic query letter.  I have long followed her through my other blog, Southern City Mysteries, and was pleased that she stopped over here and became my first follower.  Simone writes beautiful poetry that disguised as prose.  Historical fiction, romance, call it what you like, but stop by her blog and read a sample.  You won't be sorry that you did.

The Happy comes with a few conditions, which I repeat for you here:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and link to his/her blog
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blogs to let them know!

First, for ten of the things that make me happy...

Snow sparkling in the sun................................
.........................................................................My children laughing together...
Bartlett Pear candles from Bath&BodyWorks......................
.......................Creative jewelry from Moon&Lola..................................................
Yoga and the healing voice of Margaret at Yoga Garden...............
.......................................My husband....
...........................................................Blog comments (I can't help it!  It's invigorating!)
Thinking like a writer--writing every moment in my head........................
..............My son using big words like "injured" and "actually" (he's 4)...
The quiet that sets in when my children are asleep and my husband is ready to go to bed.  The house has settled and we are all at peace.  It is time, our hearts say, to rest for the night.  A good book, a quick thanks to God for our day and our lives, and we will close our eyes to dream.  No worries about the next day.  Just the darkness and the warmth and the closeness of each other......................................................

(The picture above was assigned to me by Simone when she gave out the Happy Award. If she thinks it is a "beautiful thing," it is worth re-posting here. Thank you, Simone!)

I give the Happy Award to:

Chris at Living with Fibromyalgia -- I learn so much from her!

EmcogNEATO of EmcogNEATo -- because I think she could use a little cheering to get her through having no ice in her freezer!

Kris of The Cajun Book Lady -- because she is creative and pretty darn cool.

And, though she has received it before (maybe even from me, I can't remember!), L. Diane Wolfe of Spunk on A Stick's Tips--she has guest blogged on Southern City Mysteries, supported me here on this blog and is an all around great blogging friend.

Thank you, friends.  And I encourage you all to click on all the links and check out the fabulous blogs!

Friends

The comments section should now be working!  And that is a beautiful thing!

This weekend I have my longtime friend, Jenn, in town.  She and her husband always bring excitement and intellectual stimulation into our home.  Jenn works in D.C., but her office is the entire world!  She travels around promoting agricultural, economic and cultural improvement through projects in places like Sierra Leone, Tajikistan and Bosnia.  Her husband, Ryan, is a lawyer at the FERC court in Washington.  He is quite possibly one of the most intelligent, hilarious and interesting people I have ever met.

Needless to say, when they visit we are carried away into political and social worlds we rarely meet in Raleigh.  Our small, family-centric life seems so quiet (even with two children under five!) next to their globe-hopping schedule.  But Jenn is the kind of friend that never makes you feel insignificant.  And that is why we have been friends for so long.  I am blessed to have her in my life, whether she is 300 miles or entire oceans away.

Do you have a Jenn in your life?  Who is your go-to person when things get tough or when you have good news to share?  (In my case I am leaving my husband out of this question, but you may answer as you like!)

Happy Sunday.

A Card for the Miles

A coffee shop.  A warm fire.  A picture window front.  Milk steamer sounds spiked with laughter.  Chairs scraping across the torn wood floor.  Papers crinkling and laptop keys tinkling.

Through the sights and sounds I see the glint of glitter.  A carousel of cards turns slowly as a patron peruses its holdings.  How beautiful most of them are.  Each has a bit of gleam to it - a small rhinestone here, a dash of colorful sparkle there.  One in particular catches my eye and before I know it I'm on my feet and the card is in my hand.  So is my credit card and the beautiful card with the beautiful woman is mine!  Her eyes are adorned with red rhinestone eyeshadow and ruby glitter glows across her dress.  Raven-colored hair sits perfectly on her head and she expertly sets her lipsticked lips in a fashionable smile.  I know I will do something beautiful with this card.

I have a good friend who lives in a cold place.  She and I used to do everything together.  We used to run wild and crazy and meet wild and crazy men in bars and take home phone numbers and compare how many we got in a night.  We used to talk every day or at every other day at least and use each other as excuses when our parents asked where we had been the night before.  But we grew up.  We got jobs and responsibilities.  We got married and I had children.  We moved thousands of miles apart and life threw even more emotional miles between us.

As I hold this card I don't hold any hope that is has healing power.  I don't believe that it will suddenly bring back the closeness that was or the life that pre-existed adulthood.  But I will use it to reach out.  I will use it because I am a writer and it is a beautiful thing.