I’ve even thought a great deal about my dream home…
But it’s not nearly as easy to write about a dream home, as things keep changing, the longer you’re awake!
Beautiful colors, and exquisite designs fill the rooms of this dream house, but each time I try to dream it again, the rooms have all changed…
What makes something dreamy, at all, really?
Is it the sights, the sounds, or the smell of a dream home that make it dreamy?
I’ve found that when you dream on a thing too much, you miss all the other dreams you could’ve been dreaming.
Truthfully, that saying about home is where your heart is, or the scriptures about storing up your treasures…
those are really good things to think on.
You can stuff your home with every manner of beautiful, and yes, dreamy things you wish. Hopefully, you’ll come to realize that it’s not what’s in a home that makes it a dream home… it’s what you do when you’re there!
Love changes the way everything looks and feels, making even the smallest of spaces quite beautiful and dreamy…
While I could show you a video of my own very excited, and amazingly fantastic news dance, I’ll show you the video of how I learned to do it. No one does it better than Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska…
Seriously though, I really do dance a bitty Jig when I get really happy. You should’ve seen the crazy dancin that went down at the birth of each of my grandbabies. I could have been a star (not really).
The next best thing to do with good news is to bake cookies, and I’m very good at that! Well, at least I think so…
I’ve always had the desire to travel along the Nile aboard one of those beautiful boats, or possibly sailing over the waves on an authentic Pirate ship. I wouldn’t even mind taking all those sea sickness pills, just to make sure I don’t get ill.
I’ve been on a charted fishing boat, but those waters were so wild that I barely made the 4 hour trip without running for the bathroom… but I didn’t get sick!
Now that I’ve remembered that little excursion, I think that my ideal day would have to be experienced on the calmer waters of the Nile. I didn’t say calm waters, but calmer waters. I’ve seen videos of spots on that river that are rather sketchy.
However, for all intents and purposes, let’s just say that our river excursion would be the calm stretches of water. I mean, this is my ideal day, right?
To wake up in one of those stately rooms, aboard a beautiful river boat, would be divine. Lying on a posh bed, covered in crisp, clean linen and immense fluffy feather pillows. I can hear the waters gently lapping against the side of the boat, outside my window.
Stretching lazily, I roll over and ring a small, delicate bell, alerting the attendant that I’d like my morning tea. (Nobody put any budget limits on this prompt, so don’t judge my imaginary poshness!)
When I’ve finished my first tea of the day, a bath has already been drawn in one of those beautifully crafted claw footed basins. All the towels smell of Jasmine, and there’s a side shelf with all differing types of bath oils, and soaps. I pick an argon oil mixed with some sort of fragrant flower, making me feel exotic and mysterious.
The whole of my morning will be spent on deck, sipping more tea, and watching the land as it passes me by.
Of course, most of the day will be spent touring one of any number of historical sights along the river. I’ve always wanted to travel along the Nile, watching numerous documentaries about the land, the culture, and the people. Honestly, I should have become a journalist for National Geographic. Oh, well. Woulda coulda shoulda, right?
Anyway, after a long day of adventuring through the pages of history, I’d spend the rest of my evening on deck, playing cards with the porters, and listening to them tell stories about themselves, and their families.
When one spends an entire day running through the desert seeking history and adventure… that beautiful bed, covered in all those pillows and fine linen feel simply divine…
Cookies?
There’s plenty of tea and coffee, as well. I spared no imaginary expense!
Good events, bad events, and events that are happy or sad, all have one thing in common. They’re all significant!
What we choose to glean from those events, whether we like it or not, will form the perspectives we have later in life.
The things we encounter become our defining hour, not by what we overcame, but how we overcame.
Age, and the passage of time, have taught me that my perspective can be intentional, rather than being brought about from life’s influences.
The only perspective I desire to attain is one shaped by God. If he deems it so, then I allow things of the past to influence my perspective. For example, putting myself in someone else’s shoes, or something like that.
I’m certainly not saying that I don’t think I’ve been influenced by things from the past, because none are immune to it.
I will say this… the experiences I’ve lived through, and those that I put myself through, have all left an indelible mark upon my heart, but from there it’s been my choice whether to be a statistic or a survivor.
The mind is a powerful and complicated thing. We need to take captive every thought, every word, and every perspective. Humans are wishy washy with our attitudes, motives, and yes, our perspectives.
From the beginning of time, God gave mankind the free will to choose their physical, emotional, and spiritual choices. For the most part, we’re terrible choosers! We allow things of this world to control our perspective, but those things are just that… of this world.
When I let go of my own opinions and perspectives, laying them before God, he provides the perspective that should be within my spirit. F.Y.I., I said when I let go, not I always let go.
I tend to build mountains out of mole hills, while God leads me right up over em! Being carried is always a humbling experience, but such a blessing.
God does the heavy lifting, so I’m left to watch him work, and in turn, form a Christ like perspective. When God’s the one in control, there’s life in the learning. That’s what I call influence!
I finally quite making those ridiculous to-do lists, as they only reminded me of what seemed to never get done!
Since there are no longer any of those discouraging lists lying around, I’m free to take one day at a time, while savoring my successes and rethinking my failures.
Whether I ever come to any financial success is no longer a priority, but rather, where I put my faith and hope. God speaks to me freely, and without handing out any lists.
I know that we like to make lists to make us feel like we are moving forward, or getting a thing accomplished. I suppose that’s all well and good, to a point. However, for many folks, we tend to take things a bit over the edge. Notice how I’ve said we, because I’m no different than anyone else.
It’s alright to make a list of things essential for the day’s comings and goings, but beyond that? Perhaps we should just put “don’t let the tires out of your nasty neighbor’s tires” and, “smile when you feel like crying” on those lists.
My point is that we often put the wrong things on our to-do lists, which is why they never seem to get done!
We humans tend to make things an awful lot harder than we need to, especially when it comes to our to-do lists.
I vote for a to-do list burning party! I’ve got the cookies…
This may be a repost of last year, but it’ll do. Plus, we’re no longer in that hotel room, so don’t panic!
Since I’m too lazy to look back and find my answer from last year’s prompt, you’ll get a fresh answer, though it won’t be a so called “favorite”… but it’ll still probably make you hungry.
Our room only comes with a microwave, countertop range (two spots to boil or fry something), a glass mixing bowl, one frying pan with a lid that belongs to a smaller pan, and a handful of kitchen utensils, and there’s no cooking going on in here, unless I want every single item we own to smell like our last meal. For everyone’s benefit, I’ll write about what I used to cook, instead.
There was my mother’s homemade chili, hamburger/cornbread casserole, or her lasagna… that lasagna was to die for!
During my children’s young years was the proving ground for my culinary skills, which were quite undervalued and appreciated, in my opinion. While they may offer mixed reviews, I feel quite accomplished in both cooking and baking. In truth, due to the creation of the Easy Bake Oven, my baking is probably the better of the two.
Meal wise, a sure fire winner would be my Brown Sugar Burgers. But only use the good buns, because the cheap kind always fall apart like wet paper! I think that I may have written about a Chicken, Mushroom, and Artichoke Fettuccini Alfredo, with fresh Sourdough Garlic Bread. Oh well, I won’t bore you with the details, but it was really good!
Dessert wise, I’ve been told that my Snickers Cheesecake was better than ‘you know what’, but my personal favorite desert would have to be in the cake department. It’s a homemade pound cake with French Vanilla Cream Cheese frosting, covered in fresh strawberries. The strawberries were sliced and covered in a sprinkling of sugar overnight. I always used the syrupy juice to drizzle across the top of the cake, right before it was sliced!
Hands down, cookies will always be my prize winner, but sometimes we have to remember the rest of all that yummy food. With that being said, I’ve done my part in offering a sincere answer to the prompt, but there are other things I wish to spend my time doing this morning, so I’m off for now…
You didn’t think I would forget the cookies, did you?
There are so many activities to choose from when it comes to the Olympics, right?!
Just add a bit of honey to a cup of chamomile tea, and put on your favorite pair of night goggles, and then let the games begin!
There’s Snore Skiing, Dream Car Driving, or Powder Puff Pfootball… ok, that one was reaching a bit.
Well, what about 40 Wink Figure Skating? Or Siesta Skating? No?
Ok, ok… how about Dozing Dragon Dancing? That’s a tough sport to enter though, just saying…
I don’t like to brag, but I’ve actually earned my wings in this sport, so to speak.
If you’ve never tried Catnapping, you really should. It’s the rage, right now!
(I wouldn’t recommend this if you’ve an allergy to the little furballs, though. No worries, because they’ve a competition that’s adjustable for those with kitty boo sensitivities…
There’s even a Bedtime Baking category…
How’d you think I was able to keep up with all these cookies that I bake for you each morning? You better grab one before I roll on them.
While most may assume the lottery to mean cash money, there are a number of other possibilities…
Such as peanuts! Why can’t there be a lottery for a lifetime supply of peanuts?
Or flowers, perhaps…
What about a lifetime supply of all the most beautiful spring blooms? Wouldn’t that be heavenly? Well, at least the fragrance would seem sent from above, in my humble opinion.
Then there’s babies…
Ok, so maybe that’s going a bit too far… but you can’t blame a girl for trying!
Now, books as a lottery?
SOLD!!!
Since the likelihood of an All-You-Can-Read book lottery isn’t that high for me, at this moment, how about we settle on a Cookie Lottery…
Honestly, I can come up with a much bigger list of books that I’d like to read again. From what’s currently being published willy nilly, I can’t say that I’ve any list at all!
Why do they ask these kinds of questions, anyway? Personally, I think it feels like they’re just trolling once more, in search of more information to sell to the highest bidder on the market.
However, in keeping with my earlier commitment to make honest efforts in my answers to these repeat prompts, I will leave you with a short, and probably repetitive answer…
Books I’ve read that are worth another go:
Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary
Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman
Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hannard
All of C.S. Lewis’s work
All of the Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke
The entire Redwall series by Brian Jacques
The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkien
I’m sure if I thought about it long enough, I could make that list go on for a good while. But, since my tummy is growling for some oatmeal, I shall cut this off, here. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day…
Cookies can be considered a breakfast item, can’t they?
Journey With Me! 