Monthly Archives: February 2024

Instructions for living a life.     Pay attention.     Be astonished.     Tell about it.     —Mary Oliver Nowadays some psychologists are studying that and are calling it the power of awe. I call it “being blown away” by something. This, of course, was … Continue reading →

Some skills take a while to learn. It takes baby elephants about a year to learn to use their trunks. A good reminder not to get discouraged when we don’t learn things right away. February 8, 2034

Yesterday was my nine-month anniversary of using Duolingo and learning Spanish. I started because I was getting tired of the word games and Sudoku I was playing and I knew learning another language was an even better mental exercise. Duolingo … Continue reading →

Happiness is contagious. Be a carrier!! — Robert Orben Do you agree with that? Not everyone does. About 30 years ago a friend looked at me strangely and said, Maybe you do know something, Jean. I always thought you were … Continue reading →

Commenting on yesterday’s post Linda wrote, That reminded me of the stage when our daughter had all the inflections right but no real words. And a friend’s daughter was telling jokes before she had words. Cracked us all up. That … Continue reading →

The story about Kaitlin and her gift Friday reminded me of when she was a baby. I was working 10 hours a week so had a babysitter for a few hours a day. One day when Kaitlin got home she … Continue reading →

This isn’t a good picture, but it shows that our tomatoes are getting bigger now. The largest one is 4″ long. We’ve been having tomatoes regularly and the old plant has finally worn out. For some reason the ones from … Continue reading →

The Kurt Vonnegut quote I posted Tuesday, I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” reminded me of one I … Continue reading →

Here’s what the Jeep and our clearing looked like yesterday. That’s quite a difference from last year, when on January 23 they were pulling the truck out of the snow drift it had gotten stuck in. February 1, 2024