“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
Our youngest son celebrated a birthday recently.
And both Cuppycake & I were so very grateful he invited us to share this special day with him.
(At least we were invited to parts of it!)
Whenever we are together there are so many smiles to go around it is like a bathtub filled with bubbles! And always one must check themselves at the end of the night to remember & take their smile off at the departure door. I’ve caught myself, on occassion, wearing the same smile hours after we’ve left him! (Removing a frozen smile can be a painful experience, although who can complain?)
I decided however, this time as we said our good-byes, to leave the smile in place for the Monday giggles which were just around the corner!
So today I dedicate these special giggles to my tender-hearted-little-boy-now-turned-creative-young-adult-man and thank him for all the smiles he so generously provides to all whom he meets!
My dear son,
in honor of the bubbles you chase & those you create…
I feel so blessed God gifted you to our family!
Never sing in the bath! Singing leads to dancing. Dancing leads to slipping. Slipping leads to falling. Falling leads to Paramedics coming and seeing you have no dance-moves. So, don’t sing in the bath!
The following bath bomb products were created by our son & his business partner, who recently started providing these lovely products to others through their company,
Loving friend, the gift of one
Who her own true faith has run
Through thy lower nature,
Be my benediction said
With my hand upon thy head,
Gentle fellow-creature!
Like a lady’s ringlets brown,
Flow thy silken ears adown
Either side demurely
Of thy silver-suited breast
Shining out from all the rest
Of thy body purely.
Darkly brown thy body is,
Till the sunshine striking this
Alchemise its dullness,
When the sleek curls manifold
Flash all over into gold
With a burnished fulness.
Underneath my stroking hand,
Startled eyes of hazel bland
Kindling, growing larger,
Up thou leapest with a spring,
Full of prank and curveting,
Leaping like a charger.
Leap! thy broad tail waves a light,
Leap! thy slender feet are bright,
Canopied in fringes;
Leap! those tasselled ears of thine
Flicker strangely, fair and fine
Down their golden inches.
Yet, my pretty, sportive friend,
Little is’t to such an end
That I praise thy rareness;
Other dogs may be thy peers
Haply in these drooping ears
And this glossy fairness.
But of thee it shall be said,
This dog watched beside a bed
Day and night unweary,
Watched within a curtained room
Where no sunbeam brake the gloom
Round the sick and dreary.
Roses, gathered for a vase,
In that chamber died apace,
Beam and breeze resigning;
This dog only, waited on,
Knowing that when light is gone
Love remains for shining.
Other dogs in thymy dew
Tracked the hares and followed through
Sunny moor or meadow;
This dog only, crept and crept
Next a languid cheek that slept,
Sharing in the shadow.
Other dogs of loyal cheer
Bounded at the whistle clear,
Up the woodside hieing;
This dog only, watched in reach
Of a faintly uttered speech
Or a louder sighing.
And if one or two quick tears
Dropped upon his glossy ears
Or a sigh came double,
Up she sprang in eager haste,
Fawning, fondling, breathing fast,
In a tender trouble.
And this dog was satisfied
If a pale thin hand would glide
Down her dewlaps sloping,—
Which she pushed her nose within,
After,—platforming her chin
On the palm left open.
This dog, if a friendly voice
Call her now to blither choice
Than such chamber-keeping,
“Come out!” praying from the door,—
Presseth backward as before,
Up against me leaping.
Therefore to this dog will I,
Tenderly not scornfully,
Render praise and favor:
With my hand upon her head,
Is my benediction said
Therefore and for ever.
And because she loves me so,
Better than her kind will do
Often man or woman,
Give I back more love again
Than dogs often take of men,
Leaning from my Human.
Blessings on thee, dog of mine,
Pretty collars make thee fine,
Sugared milk make fat thee!
Pleasures wag on in thy tail,
Hands of gentle motion fail
Nevermore, to pat thee.
Downy pillow take thy head,
Silken coverlid bestead,
Sunshine help thy sleeping!
No fly’s buzzing wake thee up,
No man break thy purple cup
Set for drinking deep in.
Whiskered cats arointed flee,
Sturdy stoppers keep from thee
Cologne distillations;
Nuts lie in thy path for stones,
And thy feast-day macaroons
Turn to daily rations!
Mock I thee, in wishing weal?—
Tears are in my eyes to feel
Thou art made so straitly,
Blessing needs must straiten too,—
Little canst thou joy or do,
Thou who lovest greatly.
Yet be blessed to the height
Of all good and all delight
Pervious to thy nature;
Only loved beyond that line,
With a love that answers thine,
Loving fellow-creature!
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Happy Birthday Helen Kowalska! We thank you for being the Best Golden Retriever in the Universe! Today & everyday we cherish your Golden Smiles!
hugs n’ wet-sloppy blessings to be shared in a golden way today!
The mail comes routinely at 4:30pm every afternoon. And no matter where we are in the house both Helen & I can hear the mailperson deposit the daily delivery through the mail slot; which then is quickly followed by the sound of each item slidding across the top of the still present 1950’s milk-box, before they then cascade in a stream onto the floor below. The clink-clunk of the brass mail-slot cover closing behind the mayhem, now puddled all together, is a call for us to discover what has been left for us today. Somehow though, when Cuppycake is home, he never hears any of this. (Hello???)
At some point in time, I believe around the mid 1980’s, I became the unofficial unsolicited poster child for: Catalog Queen! Oh, lucky me!! I know there must be some perpetual list out there where my name may never be removed. Truly….it is as if I am at the top of every catalog distribution list. And if it were ever to be permanently erased I do believe a complete collapse of Catolog distribution would occur. TRUST ME! No matter how many times we have moved…the catalogs follow me. Phone calls and on-line opt-outs help for a period of time to slow down the delivery traffic; however, some anxious, antsy, higher-catalog-power relents under pressure and I am somehow back on the distribution list once more, so that balance may be restored.
I always feel sorry for our mail delivery person too and frequently find myself apologizing for the large bundle they must lug around in their mail sack until they at last approach our door. I’ve left Massage Therapy gift cards as a means of Care & Concern. I absolutely hide on the day the thick enormous Restoration Catalog is delivered!! Some days they relent by rubber-banding the large pile together to be left lumped outside on the ground below the slot or have, on occassion, opened the exterior door to the milk-box & slid the 8 inch high pile inside. (It only took a 3 day supply to fill the box!)
I am sure you are curiously wondering, “Do you look through all these many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many catalogs each day???”
No.
Well…not all of them.
Just a few.
Especially the thin ones. It’s easy to flip through those while I’m standing over the pile and Helen is sniffing through the puddle, sorting them for me down below. OCCASSIONALLY, in one of those flipping through moments, my attention is caught. I may put that catolog aside & dog-ear the page to look at more closely another day. And then of course there are those times, where as I am flipping through, suddenly….the world stops spinning for just a brief second…and everyone can hear my squeal of delight!
I’m sure you ALL heard that moment when it happened yesterday, right? Please, oh please, I pray at least my Cuppycake did! (Hello????)
This would be the moment I discovered, in one of these cursed Catlogues, that…
LONG JEAN JACKETS are COMING BACK in Style!!!!
The most PERFECT gift for someone turning 50 this year, don’t you think!!!
The long jean-jacket was my most coveted piece of clothing in my late teens! I worked 3 retail jobs when I first became of working age. Most of my earnings went to savings, gas for my beloved rust-bucket car, and auto-insurance. But I will never forget the day while working my shift at a popular clothing store in our local Millcreek Mall, Foxmoor’s, when I was unwrapping the day’s inventory boxes which contained…the Long Jean Jacket(s)!!!! I had never seen anything so cool and chic! I wanted one sooooo badly. I knew with some over-time at one of my other jobs and some penny pinching in other areas I could manage (what was for me,) a splurge-purchase. My retail manager gave permission to put one in my size aside and it took me 3 pay periods, with the little I could put aside at a time, to finally pay it in full so that at last…I could wear it home. Magically, (I believed) it went with EVERYTHING!!
Who knew the fashion world would come full circle to spread that same
long-jean-jacket-designer-magic again?
And I’d have never discovered this…unless a pesty-little catalog company hadn’t persited in continuing to spill through my mail-slot, despite my annoyance.
Now I just have to hopity-hope….“Cuppycake…are you listening?” (Hello????)
hugs n’ happy surprise blessings to everyone who is listening!!!!
hugsnblessings 