Wanda
Shopping
Shopping for hours, I’m dead on my feet.
Laden with gifts for the grandkids large and small.
I gaze at the stairway and shudder with dismay, oh look the escalator is this way.
Wanda
Friendly Fill-Ins Week 92
Here are my answers for this week.
1. The Winter Olympics are my favorite games. I love to watch Curling. I became addicted to it when my son discovered it as a child. And who doesn’t like figure skating? I am looking forward to watching as much of it as I can.
2. I think the most romantic movie (or book) is I can’t say which book or movie is the most romantic for me. I am a fan of old movies where romance was the order of the day. Most movies now are not romantic as much as sexually
3. Recently, I had an odd experience when I was shopping and ran into a woman I thought I knew. I was exuberant in saying hello and she was the same. We started talking about our quilting and as the conversation continued I began to suspect I had made an error in thinking that I knew this woman. All of a sudden she got this funny look on her face and said to me “I don’t think you who I thought you were.” I laughed and said yes I think we have definitely made an error in judgement here. The thing is, we have been keeping in touch ever since. Seems our common interest in quilting has sparked a friendship.
4. I believe that love is the most important human experience. Without love, we are just islands with no bridges between us.
Wanda
One Liner Wednesday
A picture paints a thousand words, serene, tranquil, peaceful are just a few.
Wanda
The News
Daily Prompt: Bewildered
In the evening after day is done
I listen to the news of the day.
I wait and wait for something uplifting.
Something of faith, or charity, or kindness, something good.
Instead, it’s the noise I hear…
It emanates through the airwaves carrying with it
The atrocities of the day while trying to crush my spirit.
I can’t give into that oppressive fog drifting over me.
I fight it.
I can’t believe there is nothing good to share.
Where has the good gone?
Why can’t anyone find the good to share?
I am bewildered.
Wanda
Daily Prompts, and Challenges, and Comfort Zones, Oh My
Daily Prompt: Enroll, Permit, Creature
Since I have moved over to WordPress I have endeavoured to participate in the daily prompts & challenges offered. I haven’t always been successful. I mean I had gotten so busy with life I posted little of anything in the recent past. Well, I am attempting to change that.
I have begun to get back into the blog challenges that I enjoyed taking part in. Even enrolled in some of the self-help offerings that WordPress makes available to improve my meagre blog offerings. So permit me to apologize to you at the beginning of this post if they have fallen short in any way.
We are all creatures of habit. Without realizing it, we gravitate to what is comfortable to us. Before we know it, what we think of as our style is actually only the limits our comfort zones impose on us. It is now and has been since I began this journey into the blogosphere with Cookies & Moo to venture outside my comfort zone. Sometimes I am successful and those are the posts I am most proud of.
I will tell you that my photography has improved with the photo challenges. So much so that I started a sister site Wanda’s Photography. If you haven’t seen it, take a look and please by all means let me know what you think. I love constructive criticism. I found some very generous bloggers who share tips and tricks about photography and I am so very grateful for their generosity.
I also created Wanda’s Reviews where I post my reviews of the books I have read. My reading has slowed down a bit over the past year, but look for that to pick up again soon. Again, your input is welcomed.
Last summer I had written a post in the form of a short story. I sent it to my daughter (she’s talented and brilliant) who at my request edited it for me and gave me her input. I decided not to publish it because I thought about turning it into a series of children’s books. I used to love to write when I was young, but life became so busy with family and career that I gave it up. But now, I think the time might be right for me to explore moving forward with the series.
I guess my point is that this silly blog has pulled me from what I have become so comfortable doing into exploring other possibilities. I have met (well communicated with through this vehicle we call blogging) so many wonderful supportive people who have shared their time, talent, and trials most generously. I am very grateful for their example and it is their example which is pushing me to stretch my blogging abilities.
Wanda
Cee’s Share Your World
Here are this week’s questions with my answers.
What would be your ideal fantasy way to spend Monday? I have never fantasized about ways to spend Mondays. I know that many people have fantasies about not having to start their work week. But for me working as a nurse on the night shift, Monday’s held no real significance for me. I often worked on the weekend so Monday was just another day. Honestly, I would have to say it would be the same as any other fantasy of spending the day on a beach with white sand, warm breezes, gazing out over beautiful blue water reading a good book.
What one person that you are out of contact with would you like to say thank you to? I would like to be able to say thank you to my husband Gary. I lost him suddenly in 2016 just one month short of 41 years of marriage. I didn’t have the chance to tell him all of the things we always think we have the time to say. I would like to thank him for being the most wonderful father any children could even have and to thank him for spending our marriage doing everything he could possibly do to make me happy.
List your favorite toys or games as a kid? I loved dolls. My favorite baby doll was Tiny Tears. I named her Janet. Susan was my Gerber Baby. I still have them. My favorite stuffed animal was Mr Dog. He was actually a she and came with three puppies that were zipped up in her back. One black, one brown and white. Mr Dog looked like a basset hound with long drooping ears and was the best mommy to her puppies. I still have her. One of her puppies has gone missing though. I got her for my first Christmas in 1951. In 1957 my Pop Pop took me shopping to Lits Department store in Trenton, New Jersey. I fell in love with a small blue and white teddy bear. His left ear squeaked. He is no longer the pretty blue he once was, but I still have him. My grandfather died of cancer the following year. That little Teddy bear still means the world to me. I also got the first Barbie that came in a black and white striped one-piece bathing suit. Mine had a dark brown ponytail. I lost her when we moved from one place to another, but have replaced her with a reproduction. Lastly, Patty Play Pal was another favorite. I also lost her, but several years ago an anniversary edition of her was produced. I had to get her too.
What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? This past week I got to spend time with some very talented quilters. One thing about quilters, they are very generous people. They share their supplies, they share their talents and they share their time. Since moving down to North Carolina, I have been abundantly blessed by getting to know many of these women who I now number among my friends.
Wanda
Weekly Weather
One Word Photo Challenge
The Ealges Flew Right Over the Patriots
So Philadelphia now has it’s first Superbowl Championship team. I wish Gary had lived to see it. Of course, if he had, I would never hear the end of it. Being a true Redskin fan since I don’t know, forever, that would become old really quick. However, I am very happy for Philly. It was a long time coming. So, Nick Foles, the back up QB led the team to what many have not been able to do in the Eagles history. Kudos!
I know that you will be able to hear the noise from the streets of Philadelphia into the depths of outer space as the fans welcome home and celebrate the victorious players. The razzle-dazzle of the celebration will put a rosy pink in the cheeks of the players and their families who have had to listen to the naysayers all season long. Just think those who have called the Eagles the underdog all year are now turning purple with embarrassment at their lack of respect for the team.
No worries say the Eagles. They wore that badge with pride as they marched through New England filling their piggy banks and those of the owner.
Philly can certainly celebrate better than any city in the country. The Mummers will be strutting to the tune of Fly Eagles Fly and the fans will be going wild. The sun is finally shining on the Eagles.
There is only one bittersweet aspect to all of this. My husband Gary didn’t live long enough to enjoy this victory with his daughter Samantha who has taken up the Screamin Green.
Have a good one.
Wanda
Cookies & Moo 