LKF

A little known fact about me: I'm crazy about grammar and spelling. I am certainly not perfect but I do my best to be educated and precise in my writing and speech. On that note, here's a little something I read recently that greatly satisfied my prideful streak, as it relates to grammar and proper English:

The misuse of “I” and “myself” for “me” is caused by nervousness about “me.”

It's an article I found on the Washington State University site, via Google. Read, be informed, speak well. Please.

Things I love

Jessica Claire is sharing herself with us and is asking for us to do the same with her (in the comments). I decided to bring one back here with me to share with you.

Something I love:

Knitting in the quiet after midnight in my pajamas, days before Christmas/birthday/anniversary for someone I love and adore, thinking of their smile and laugh, that radiance which comes when they are truly pleased.

I love to love. :) How 'bout y'all?

Sharing My Favorites - Erin Vey

Part of sharing myself with you is sharing the people in my life - on many different levels and planes - who affect me positively, inspire me to be bold, different, true. It is my sincere hope that you will like these people too - that you might find in their stories a source of inspiration, hope, or joy.

It is with that intent that I plan to feature people here who have brought those things to me, mostly unknowingly. Today I'll start with Erin Vey.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am passionate about a great many arts, one of which is photography. With the help of my google reader, I follow about 40 photographers on a consistent basis. I look at their art, take mental notes, and soak in their brilliant personalities as best one can through the blogsphere.

Erin is one of my absolute favorites. Not only is she a brilliant photographer, she has one of the most gorgeous subjects of all time... Miss Gracie!



Click on any of the photographs to see the original post by Erin.

Erin is a Dog Photographer and I would dare say the best I have ever seen. Her style is classic, funky, fresh, real.



She has an unreal eye for capturing the beauty and essence of each animal she photographs.



Not only does she clearly understand the significance of the relationship between a dog and his owner, she appreciates it in a way so profound, it can't help but emanate from her work. You see her photographs and you KNOW she loves this. She loves THEM.







Erin is a truly talented and exceptional person. I've never met her in person and likely never will. She will likely not see this post nor ever know my name. The love she has for her work, however, has touched my life and my person and for that I am truly grateful.



I am happy to share this gem of a person with you and hope you will stop by to see her often!

(And if you have a dog-lover in your life, be sure to purchase Miss Gracie's 2009 Calendar! It's sure to please.)

Until next time...

Neither here nor there

I think I'm going to start calling all of my "random" posts "Neither here nor there". Sounds like a name I could live with. I suppose it's neither here nor there.

Oh, come on. That was funny.

It made me laugh.

Anyway, I decided that it was high time to stop dreaming about all the wonderful things I wanted to do in life and just go about doing something concrete and productive. This is not to say I've stopped dreaming, it's just that I've also started doing. Dreaming and doing. It's wonderful.

Speaking of dreaming, I'm dreaming of winning this contest. I'd love to keep it all to myself, but that wouldn't be very friendly and giving of me. I strive to be friendly and giving. Don't let my stink-eye scare you away. You don't know about the stink eye? Then you don't know me! I mean... isn't this damask thank you card just lovely?!



Hurry on over and enter the giveaway! And don't forget to mosey around the blog while you're there. Heck, go ahead and add it to your google reader like I did! You can never have enough blogs to read...

Speaking of reading blogs, how is it that I now come to a reader each day with over 150 unread posts?! That's unreal. UN-REAL. Actually, it's very real. Which is why I'm telling you about it. But enough about me... more about me!

I was looking through images on my cell phone again the other night trying to decide which ones I simply must keep and which ones I could delete. The thought of parting with any of them is way more overwhelming that it should be but somehow accepting and sharing my psychosis as it relates to such a trivial matter makes me feel okay with it.

What was I talking about? Oh right. Cell phone pictures. I found this one:



Is this not a gorgeous cat? My eyes are already watering and burning and itching and driving me nutty just looking at the photo but really! It's beautiful!! -- What is it anyway with developing allergies so late in life? I mean, this wasn't a problem when I was young the way it is now. What gives?

My birthday is Sunday and I'm honestly dreading it. I think this is the first year I can remember that I actually wish I could just skip the day. Last year some families for whom I babysit threw a party at Matt's, a local Mexican restaurant, for me when my own plans failed to execute. It was a big birthday last year and I thought I had to do something. I'm glad I did but... I'm just not really up for any of it this year. I don't like the big fuss. It's just another Sunday.

Some things I am not dreading and for which I must remember to be grateful:

- Helping a friend pack for her move to Kansas as she was recently engaged! I'll miss her terribly but am ecstatic for her and this new chapter in her life.

- CRHP get-together on the 15th (those girls are just lovely), wrapping party tonight, and cookie swap (hosted by a CRHP sister) on Sunday

- Helping with the Magi Tree sorting and distribution on Saturday

Not to mention the White Rock Marathon is Sunday morning and I cannot WAIT!! Wanting so very desperately to venture into running myself, this is one of the highlights of my December.

In November, I volunteered for the DRC Half Marathon. I called times at Mile 9 and had a blast. I had almost lost my voice by the end of it but it was still fun. I loved watching my friends pass, sweat gleaming and smiles shining. So awesome!

Since I've nothing more to say, I'm checking out before I totally lose all readership I may have gained the past five minutes. Peace!

Mark Shea to visit Dallas!

Mark Windsor writes

It's confirmed.

Mark Shea will be at St. Anthony's in Wylie on January 24.

Festivities commence at 9:45 with 101 Reasons NOT to be Catholic.
Continuing at 10:45 with This is My Body: An Evangelical Discovers the Real Presence.

Lunch (hotdogs...nothin' too fancy) at 11:30.

The final talk is at 11:45 - Making Senses Out of Scripture: Reading the Bible as the First Christians Did.

See Mr. Shea's blog here.

I'm very much looking forward to this! Woohoo!

a little about the design

I really enjoy having themed designs here at the blog. In the past I've only really had themes for Lent and Easter. And actually, that was really only holy week and the first week of Easter!

When I saw these candles, I knew I had to have them as a part of the blog! Obviously I will "light" each candle as the weeks progress through this advent season. I chose black as the overall background color to portray (though not very artistically) the sense of the world being in darkness as it awaits its King.

I hope you all enjoy it. I'm so glad to be back!

Lenten/Advent Meditation – “Loves desires to see God” - St. Peter Chrysologus

From Micah, who stumbled upon this blog recently...

When God saw the world falling to ruin because of fear, he immediately acted to call it back to himself with love. He invited it by his grace, preserved it by his love, and embraced it with compassion. When the earth had become hardened in evil, God sent the flood both to punish and to release it. He called Noah to be the father of a new era, urged him with kind words, and showed that he trusted him; he gave him fatherly instruction about the present calamity, and through his grace consoled him with hope for the future. But God did not merely issue commands; rather with Noah sharing the work, he filled the ark with the future seed of the whole world. The sense of loving fellowship thus engendered removed servile fear, and a mutual love could continue to preserve what shared labor had effected.

God called Abraham out of the heathen world, symbolically lengthened his name, and made him the father of all believers. God walked with him on his journeys, protected him in foreign lands, enriched him with earthly possessions, and honored him with victories. He made a covenant with him, saved him from harm, accepted his hospitality, and astonished him by giving him the offspring he had despaired of. Favored with so many graces and drawn by such great sweetness of divine love, Abraham was to learn to love God rather that fear him, and love rather than fear was to inspire his worship.

God comforted Jacob by a dream during his flight, roused him to combat upon his return, and encircled him with a wrestler's embrace to teach him not to be afraid of the author of the conflict, but to love him. God called Moses as a father would, and with fatherly affection invited him to become the liberator of his people.

In all the events we have recalled, the flame of divine love enkindled human hearts and its intoxication overflowed into men's senses. Wounded by love, they longed to look upon God with their bodily eyes. Yet how could our narrow human vision apprehend God, whom the whole world cannot contain? But the law of love is not concerned with what will be, what ought to be, what can be. Love does not reflect; it is unreasonable and knows no moderation. Love refuses to be consoled when its goal proves impossible, despises all hindrances to the attainment of its object. Love destroys the lover if he cannot obtain what he loves; love follows its own promptings, and does not think of right and wrong. Love inflames desire which impels it toward things that are forbidden. But why continue?

It is intolerable for love not to see the object of its longing. That is why whatever reward they merited was nothing to the saints if they could not see the Lord. A love that desires to see God may not have reasonableness on its side, but it is the evidence of filial love. It gave Moses the temerity to say: If I have found favor in your eyes, show me your face. It inspired the psalmist to make the same prayer: Show me your face. Even the pagans made their images for this purpose: they wanted actually to see what they mistakenly revered.

Coming Home

I'll be moving back here again. Just because the feel of my blog has changed doesn't mean I need to change addresses! So, I'll be moving the other posts here as soon as I can. Please be patient! :)

Thanks!