A Little Discussion

Yes, as I was saying, I had jumped to the New Interface before I got pushed. I jumped back to the Old Interface last night and will just wait for the shove. (There's a little gear in the New Interface in the top right corner where I found the portal back.) When it comes, I do believe it will end my days of blogging on Blogger. I have already set up a new blog with WordPress. That's how much I truly dislike the new interface, the new dynamic views, and this push to have all things interconnected like a giant spider web. It makes me nervous. Ugh. It also makes me wonder if that was the plan all along — to do some winnowing, but then I can be highly skeptical and suspicious, too.

Because I needed information, I thought you might like some, too.

An Overview of the New Interface from Blogger

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More Paska baking today and yard clean-up. Plus my darling made me a handy-dandy trash picker-upper and now when I go walking, I can also do a bit of cleaning up. I have grumbled so about the litter along the sides of the road that I feel compelled to change it. Easy enough with this little tool. Lady Bird Johnson had one of the best and most meaningful projects ever when she was the First Lady: Keep America Beautiful. It worked for a long, long time and how I wish that we could get back to that ideal.

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Oh, nearly forgot this resource I found yesterday for meaningful things to do with children at Easter time. Thanks, Deanna, for mentioning the Empty Tomb Garden because it made me so curious I had to Google. I found one at Happy Home Fairy right *here.* (This blogger's family just welcomed a new bunny to the nest. I was so surprised to see that this morning.) Anyway, check out her sidebar as there are lots of neat and meaningful projects for children.

So this is where I leave you until sometime next week. (I think.) Have a truly blessed Easter.

Seed Packet Garland, Et Cetera

I switched to the New Interface just before I started this post last night. I remember being none too happy with it the first time around so I'm hoping that the bugs have all been worked out. When I saw that there'd be no choice and everyone would be switched to the new interface in April, I decided to jump instead of be pushed.

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  ~lining up my dollar store seed packets~

 ~pulling Hug Snug through punched holes with a bodkin~

I like the look of my new seed packet banner in tandem with everything else that's going on in the bay window, but my photography skills need work and this is the best I can do to show you how it looks. At one point, I thought I had the whole window/room photography thing figured out. Nope. If it ever comes together, I'll pop another photo in.

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Played with place settings yesterday and have decided to use the pink depression glass. Not sure what I'll use for the actual plate and I'm going to have to move on to Plan B with the tablecloth as well.  Decisions, decisions. Have you got your Easter plans all figured out?

Once I get back from my walk, I'm going to do a little blog reading and then start baking Paska. I want to give some away to some dear ones who need life to sweeten up a bit. This recipe can do that!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Early Morning Walk

Up early, I stripped the bed and made it up again with a fleece sheet bottom and a crisp white cotton sheet top. My morning cup of coffee was waiting for me by the time I arrived in the kitchen. John had already been downtown for the paper and was seated at the table reading intently, sipping his coffee every so often.

I popped a piece of 12-grain bread into the toaster, measured out my tablespoon of peanut butter, and then leaned back into the cabinet waiting. I decided to feed the pets; they always appreciate my remembering, and while I nibbled on my peanut butter toast, I wandered about the house looking for my shoes.

For in those few short moments I had decided to go for a morning walk. Perhaps reading about Happyone's morning walks had influenced me. I have enjoyed her descriptions of spring mornings and wondered if I might find anything of interest. That, and I had nothing planned here at the blog. =D

I was not disappointed. The birds were in full song. Try as I might to capture one's photo, I could not. I took a number of photos of tree tops and managed to miss every single soprano and a tenor or two. The chickadees were singing their spring song, "Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe."

The river beckoned, I could hear the water gushing over the rocks. When I arrived there, I didn't see a lot of "over the rocks" action at all. This is a bit concerning as  there are fears of a drought. I did see the sun on the water and took a careful shot lest I put your eye out.

Do you see the garbage? Ugh. Why do I feel compelled to point it out?

~A reflection of the old mill and a gnarled root system exposed.~

No flowers, lots of birdsong, brisk morning air (30F), and bright sunshine—exhausting. ☺ I turned for home and found Haven waiting.

Have a great Tuesday. Have you been for an early morning walk lately?

Chickies

Some gals get excited about the real thing. Me? I got so excited about these little chickies you wouldn't believe. They're a gift from my daughter who purchased them nearly a decade ago, tossed them into a drawer, and they just got out yesterday. I think they're happy, too. This is definitely a case of the bottom of the vase being more interesting than the top.

Look at those darling expressions! They really should be careful, though. Every time I walk past, I think that they look good enough to eat.

What's your favorite Easter decoration?

Maple Syrup Season Ends~Mosaic Monday

This afternoon, Fioré and I watched as the maple syrup buckets and taps were removed from the trees. Okay, Fioré mostly goofed off.

Don't the trees look naked now?

What a disappointing season for the maple syrup harvesters. Hope that next year is a better one for them.

Joining Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

No, Really, Who is He?

A few days ago, I was searching Google for an appropriate image to use for this Palm Sunday, I found one showing Christ entering Jerusalem on the back of an ass's colt. He looked regal enough if He had been riding a stallion. I kept looking at it and looking at it thinking Lord, why? Why did you choose a colt? You look kind of silly. What man would choose an ass much less the colt of an ass?

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! 

Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! 

See, your king comes to you, 

righteous and victorious, 

lowly and riding on a donkey, 

on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 

One answer is that to do so was the fulfillment of prophecy: Zechariah 9:9. The other answer: to show His love for you, for me.

Again, we must decide what we think of this Jesus. Today. This week...


I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. ~C.S.Lewis


This week will give us many times to reflect. If we were time traveling, we could see Jesus riding into Jerusalem today on the colt; tomorrow, we would see Him clearing the temple; by Tuesday, He'll be making an amazing escape from those who wanted to capture Him; Thursday, He is making preparations to celebrate Passover in an Upper Room; He will spend a vile night being abandoned, questioned, beaten, and by Friday. Well, by Friday, we know...

For you, for me.