I think Eustace spent too much time on the tractor yesterday while we were gone. He was still working when we got home, and stayed out until after the sun went down. The camel looked positively exhausted when he came in for dinner.
I walked him out to the barn after dinner, just to tuck him in for the night. When I went out this morning to check on the camel, I didn’t have the heart to wake him. He looks so peaceful, doesn’t he? What ever would we do without this cheeky, yet, oh so loveable camel, I wonder. I’ll just be grateful for him being here.
I think we should all have someone like Eustace, don’t you? Someone that always thinks of us, of our health, and of our happiness. You’ll have to find your own, though, because this camel is taken!
While my life hasn’t exactly been a bed of roses, I honestly have so many gifts that come to mind for this prompt.
To save us all a great amount of time I’ll just say that God has been so very good to me, lavishing me with gifts on any given day. He’s been doing it for more years than I can recall.
The funny thing is that these gifts were often small, and rather unnoticeable to most… but not to me!
There were times over the years that a gift received felt like the best gift, ever! That was, until the next really beautiful gift arrived, requiring that I make room for yet another precious thing to share the favored spotlight.
Take my children, for instance! How could I ever say which one was a better gift than the other? Or what about any of our seven precious grandchildren born to us, or those still yet to come?
Then there’s all of my fluffy, furry, and, oh so loved pets… what about them? I couldn’t choose one over the other, because each had something special.
Basically, anytime a gift arrives with love attached, it will fall into my favored folder.
Why else do you think I make you virtual cookies each morning? I know it’s only a sentimental, and rather silly, way of expressing my feelings. Hopefully, you can look past the silly part, in order to accept the love part. Though they be only an image on a page, know how much love has been prayed into those little morsels. They’re a gift!
Cookies?
Sorry, but I ate one of the letter E’s… I was hungry, ok!
So I decided on the final image for mini Wiwohka, and went ahead with the character creation feature, using the image you saw last week.
Let’s made a whole new portfolio for her this morning, now that we’ve a new and revised avatar. I started with collecting some profile shots…
So far, so good. Now let’s try changing her outfit…
Wow! I’m really impressed with how they’re keeping her so true to the original. But, what if we take her out of the studio and into the real world…
She’s coming to life, in my opinion. And, she fits in perfectly at the Barnyard, both in doors…
… and outdoors.
Well?
What do you think?
I know that being the one who created her images, I feel rather partial to mini-me. If it were possible, I think I’d adopt her and bring her home with me!
I haven’t tried to alter her hair color yet, but I’d like to see if we can change that little red streak to another color… just to match her outfits. I think we’ll try that next week, right before we move on to some more work with Brutus.
I think it’s time to go deeper into the dragons facial features, now that OpenArt has revamped their system. I’m kind of liking the changes, but don’t tell them that… it’ll probably just go to their heads.
Not only is a good budget impossible to approach in our current society, but whatever that thing is in the image… you don’t want to get close to that thing either.
The art program I’m using was just as frustrating and disappointing as a budget I didn’t agree to, what with offering me a rabid African deer instead of a roaring lion. Typical budget, these days!
I had to give up on budgeting about six years ago, when Covid landed on our country’s shores. When you lose everything you own, fall through every crack in the fabric of society, and wind up homeless at the bottom of the proverbial human pile… a budget no longer helps.
With my husband back in college gaining a new career path, my health has kept me homebound, and alone. Mornings are spent in scripture and prayer, then to my writing… that’s the only budget I’m approaching.
God willing, my book will fall into the hands of a competent publisher, and perhaps then I’ll have need of approaching a budget. One needs to have actual dollars in hand if they’re to do anything, really.
I used to say that you can’t leave home without spending money, but that’s changed since Amazon. Now you can spend money without even getting up out of your bed. Isn’t that a hoot!
That’s what I love about baking virtual cookies… they’re free! No budget needed here.
Honestly, if one tries hard enough, they can learn something new every day!
I know this may sound silly but I’ve just discovered something hidden in plain sight, so to speak.
I’m fairly certain that you’re well aware of many different words in the English language, carrying two meanings that are only separated by a single letter.
Take the word compliment, for instance. Were you aware that it’s not the same as complement? I’m only aware because I asked Google. Don’t I feel like a silly ant! How many times have I used this word with the wrong spelling? Check this out…
Key takeaways:
Compliment refers to praise or a positive remark. It’s something you say to appreciate someone or something.
A complement completes or enhances something else, making it more complete or better.
A compliment is used when expressing admiration, flattery, remarks, or praise, either as a noun (“She gave a compliment”) or a verb (“He complimented me on my work”).
Complement is used when something enhances or completes something else, either as a noun (“The sauce is a perfect complement”) or verb (“The new features complement the product”).
Now, I’m not saying that anybody else missed this little tidbit of knowledge. Maybe it’s because I’m an ant, and this truly is my literary education stage. I mean, I did say that I wanted to learn to write better so I could become a journalist one day, right?!
Since that means I’m off the hook for not knowing a thing, maybe I’ll keep things short and sweet this morning. Instead of a long drawn out language lesson, which I’m nowhere near qualified enough to instruct… I’ll make you virtual breakfast!
This is to make up for Wiwohka not baking you cookies…
However unlikely it may be that anyone would write a book about me, I’ve chosen to go the extra mile this morning.
Not only did I come up with a snappy title for the prompt, but since it’s Saturday, I offer you the Title, the Cover Image, AND any possible illustrations needed for the book in its entirety…
Against All Odds
Additional Illustrations –
Doesn’t this prompt make you wonder what might be written of your journey from the eyes of someone else? I bet the book would read as an Action/Adventure story. What about yours?
Don’t forget to grab a cookie while your thinking of an answer…
For others, it’s not so easy, nor does it elicit any feel good memories to recount for others.
While I may be one of those who doesn’t have any of the mushy pleasantries to offer you, I don’t wish to make the prompt into something sad. There are many wonderful legacies being made by loving and decent human beings. Just not in my family tree, that’s all.
Though I don’t wish to point out the obvious here, aren’t most folks doing the same things as mine, when it comes to the average day to day living? I’m unsure what the prompt expects for an answer.
Being in my late fifties, I suppose that I do mostly what other mid fiftiers are doing… you know, worrying about my cholesterol, wrinkles, and hair loss. I suspect that it was the same for everyone around that age, back in my parents day, too.
Well, that’s all I can really say about the whole ‘what were your parents doing’ thing.
Cookie?
You don’t have to eat the one with a bite out of it… I was hungry.
Ahhhh, the laws of nature, the laws of Government, and yes, the laws of mankind, themselves. One might pick from any number of lists, in order to locate a law that seems in need of being changed. Would the change even remain, once enacted?
If we’ve learned anything at all regarding the law, it’s that if man is involved in it’s creation, modification, or even dissimilation… it won’t last!
After all these generations of humanity, we still struggle with racism, hate crimes, corporate greed and injustice, along with a completely inadequate educational system. Why is this still occurring? Human Nature, that’s why!
Until we learn that we never had any power in the first place, we’ll never stop making mistake after mistake after mistake!
I vote that instead of trying to find some law that we think we have the power to change, we start giving God the space to start making changes within our very hearts! Big, and very powerful changes are possible from the smallest of humble surrenders. I know who holds the power… and it’s neither you nor me, but God and God alone!
When I am weak, He is strong!
When I am lost, He makes a way!
When I am powerless, unseen, and discarded by a very broken and fallen world, He lifts me up, surrounds me, and covers me with His providence… and His Power! Since I never had the power to change the world on my own, in the first place, I never really lost anything of myself, aside from the fear, shame and self-loathing that usually comes with existence.
Since God’s the only one with any true power to change what needs changing, I choose to let Him do that which I cannot! That’s all I wish to focus on til I get home…
Journey With Me! 