Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 18- Sweet

Isn’t Pinterest great? The possibilities are endless! You can inspire yourself with motivational quotes and articles. You can find projects and ideas that could keep you busy for the rest of your life. Or it can give you something to dream about to pass the time.

I’m a failure in the kitchen. I just can’t get anything right but looking at these cookies I thought, hey, 3 ingredients? How hard can that be? Looking at the picture,they look sweet….very sweet. Those 3 easy ingredients? Cake mix, Cool Whip and one egg. Yeah, probably REALLY sweet once you roll them in powdered sugar and add sprinkles.

SOOOOOOOO, there’s my end result.* It’s okay to cringe or snicker. They are undercooked and flat and floppy. And actually the only thing that was right is the sweetness. They aren’t sickeningly sweet.

I just had to share my “Pinterest Fail” when I saw this week’s Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 18- Sweet. You can check out the guidelines to participate in this fun challenge and to check out all the entries.

* Here is a screenshot of the original pin…..so you can see where my cookies fell a bit short. 

 

Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 17- Calm

I have a nice peaceful view in my backyard. It really is the first thing that comes to mind when I think “calm” but then I was packing up Easter gifts to send to my college kids and I found a box of Cadbury Creme Eggs in the bag from the store. My husband must have slipped them in as a surprise for me, knowing how much I LOVE them!

As I peeled off the wrapper of my first CCE of the season, I felt a sense of peace flow through me and I knew this was IT!

There are SO many other things that calm me but right now in this moment, the sight of this package sitting on my desk does it for me. 🙂

This post is my entry for Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 17- Calm. To take part in the challenge or check out other entries, click above. 🙂

The Great Book of Lists: Chapter 3.1- A Party of Choice

 I was thinking we could do a list of the people we’d like to meet throughout history. Anyone dead or alive. Relative, movie star, singer, etc. 

This very special gathering takes place in a beautifully lit backyard, similar to the Zeke and Camille Braverman’s (Parenthood)  on a warm spring night.

My guests would include:

• My grandparents
• John Lennon
• Harper Lee
• Harry Connick, Jr.
• Audrey Hepburn
• Jane Austen
• Katharine Hepburn
• Harrison Ford

To find out more about The Great Book of Lists and see who the honored guests are at others’ parties, click HERE.

Blessings and Lessons

I’ve been thinking about parenting and children a lot these days. Having my son and his family living with us and having the college kids home last week, I was really conscious of my children- who they were and who they are. I realized (for the zillionth time) how precious they are to me. But I also realized how much they had taught me. In regard to Mother Teresa’s quote, I feel that children are both a blessing and a lesson all rolled up into an amazing package.

It’s easy to count the blessings. There is a love that is often indescribable. Joy. Pride. Exhilaration. Excitement. Wisdom.

But the lessons- those are the real blessings.

Rocky Mountains 2004

I put in endless hours, effort, emotion, worry……. into a labor of pure love that might not reap anything. Parenting is a crap shoot at best. You can do everything right and still have unpleasant results. I’ve witnessed it in other families.

And the lessons I have learned are priceless-

• Putting all this work into these little beings with no guarantee of their outcome taught me faith.
• Being taken down by the most stubborn three year old in history taught me humility.
• Finding out that the third child can defy every parenting rule you know and challenge every parenting skill you have taught me to be adaptable.
• Having a child who moves at a different pace than the rest of us taught me patience.
• Sending these precious little guys out into the world to learn lessons on their own taught me vulnerability.
• Watching my son mirror my own parenting style with his children taught me that even when it seemed like no one was listening, I did get through.
• Enduring over 12 years of parenting teenagers taught me restraint.
• Experiencing three wildly unique personalities taught me to celebrate each one’s individuality.
• Living through these past 2+ years since all of my children reached the ages of 18 and older taught me that parenting is a job that never ends. 

  

  Airport last month

Dedicated to Michael, Kris, Andrew, C.J., and Beej- my true blessings

-Kat

 

This post is part of Writer’s Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge- Wisdom hosted by Ronovan Writes and Silver Threading.

 

Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 16 – Behind

This week, show me a photo of an object or person that is behind something. Maybe it’s a family pet thinking it’s invisible standing behind a tree, or of a person standing behind a shop counter or behind a lot of other people in a queue?

Here is my entry for Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 16- Behind:

On one of my antique shopping expeditions, I found this locked room in a very crowded attic. As you can see, behind the door was a small room of very old dolls. The room was actually darkened. I had to lighten up the photo so you could see the dolls. I wish I had taken a photo of the entire door so that the lock was included.

I remember working my way toward the door out of curiosity but as I got closer, my steps slowed down. I was a little creeped out to find this room of dolls…….definitely something we might find as the twist in one of Hugh’s stories……

My feature image is one of my favorite writing spots on my patio. I love sitting there with the view right behind my laptop. 🙂