Meme Monday #3 and Sharing of Awards

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!!!

Thanks for visiting ;--)

Today's 'meme' comes from Give Me 5 Monday. The prompt last week was: "Give Me Five ways you like to de-stress, relax, wind down or kick back."


1. I love to play with Molly whose joy & energy know no bounds! She keeps me young & active ... healthy & whole ... generates laughter & merriment ... and makes new friends wherever we go. She's now 3 years old but believes she's a puppy and acts like one too.

2. I read ... (fiction and non-fiction ... poetry and prose) and I write ... mostly in my journal but sometimes creating word doodles. I quote myself from a previous post:

"My 1st "visual scribble" resulted in a veritable deluge of comments and led to others like it later on ... adding #2 here, #3 here, #4 here.

3. I get together with friends and catch-up with what's been happening in their lives while sharing what I've been up to as well.

4. I love to work in my garden and visit with neighbors ... sit on my patio and drink lemonade made with freshly squeezed lemons from my tree while enjoying the great outdoors.

5. Of course, I discovered the joys of blogging about 5 months ago and have taken to it in a big way ... as witnessed by what's here at Small Reflections and my other blog, Sacred Ruminations.

What do YOU do to 'de-stress, relax, wind down or kick back' ... please share. You know I don't like to 'tag' ... but I'd love everyone to play. If you decide to post answers on your blog like I did, please leave a link here so I can read them. If you want to share it comments, that's fine too ;--)

I want to thank Rhonda (aka Chuck) of Foster Me Up
for this 'Easter Egg Thank You" award.
She made it herself ;--)

I'd like to share it
with anyone who left a comment
on any of my 'weekend posts' here

Sunday's - It's been a while since I've done this ...
Saturday's - An emailed message worth sharing

and/or who decides to
comment on one or both of those posts today.

I'm honored
that
Melissa Markham
of Melissa's Idea Garden
awarded this Excellent Blog Award
to Small Reflections last week.

I received this award previously for
Sacred Ruminations and passed it on to
the following 11 bloggers there mid-February:

His Girl Friday at Wellied on Life
Karen at Journey to Authenticity
Ladybug at Living in the Light I Find
Lucy at Diamonds in the Skywith Lucy
Mama Zen at the Zen of Motherhood
Mother of Invention at Spilling Out!
MPJ at A Room of Mama's Own
Peajay at Mórán cainte ar bheagán cúise
Talking Bear at Sleepy Bear Hollow
Yertle at Smile, Play, Dream
Yolanda at Perfectly Imperfect

I'd like to pass it along today to
the following bloggers.

Betty at Betty's This and That
Chuck at Foster Me Up
Cricket of Cricket's Hearth
Eve at Adamswife's Weblog
Grandy at Functional Shmunctional
Greatfullivin at Gratitude Journal
Ivanhoe of Communique by Ivanhoe
Joy at The Joy of Six
Joyce at Mom's Musings
Mary at Mary's Writing Nook
Melanie at Livin' With Me
Melissa at Taking What is Left
Moana at Desperately Seeking Serenity
Nicole at the Happy Wonderer
PJ at Bits and Pieces
Pussreboots
Roger at the Daily Idaho Photo
Sandy at Momisodes
Sonya of Mo Mhíle Grá
Sue at Discombobula
the Dream at You May Say I'm a Dreamer
Tina at Tina's Odds and Ends
Zamejias at MakiMeji

The Rules: By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you agree to award it to 10 more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want but please award at least 10. You deserve this! Feel free to award people who have already been awarded.

Of course,

I'd like to say a special
by passing along this cool t-shirt
from MPJ of A Room of Mama's Own
(who shared it with those who commented
on her blog during February)

to all my new
Meme Monday friends
Ultimate Blog Party participants
and all others who have visited this blog
during the past three weeks and left comments
with a link to your blog so I could find you.

Today counts too ;--)

so ... if you've not yet introduced yourself
do it today ... and accept my 'thanks'
with this graphic to snag & share
as you choose.

Thought for Today
"The whole world opened to me when I learned to read." Mary McLeod Bethune

Click for others participating in
Meme Monday this week.

Visual Scribblings #4

Here's a 4th visual piece I created with my MultiMate and Palm V years ago. Once again, I have no clue what it says. I created each of these as experiments while learning how this device worked, and found them in my picture files recently. Some of the previous word doodles became readable when enlarged once published. I'm giving this one a try today, just because.

In case you missed the earlier ones, they can be found here, here, and here. Finally, you can find a Visual Piece I created years ago by hand. It does become readable when enlarged.

Reminder:
You have until December 15th
to email me your answers to the
Christmas Carol Quiz

Congratulations
to Peajay for being the first
one to figure out all ten correctly
and send me email.
Who's next?

Visual Scribbling #3

Well ... here's installment three of my early Palm V-Multi-mate "experiments" to see how it worked. I'm hoping it'll be readable like the first one. Guess I'm about to find out when I publish this post. It looks a little "ghostly" so perhaps I missed an opportunity to publish it on Halloween? I wonder if I'll happen upon one that looks like a turkey?

Visual Scribbling #2

By popular request, I've decided to check out & share another long lost graphic piece created in 2001 with the help of MultiMate on my now defunct Palm V (may it RIP with all the data it consumed). Long live my Palm Life Drive. :)

As before, I have no idea what it says ... but this time I'll know enough to click on it once I publish this post and see (thanks to Deborah at Spiritual Anecdotes).

Enjoy!

Addendum: Well ... I hope YOUR eyes are better than mine, for even when clicked on, these old eyes can't decipher what it says this morning. I wonder if I have the "original" around here somewhere? As I recall, the MultiMate left a paper trail in addition to an electronic one. (either 5x7 or perhaps 4x6. This piece IS visually reminiscent & representative of the larger 8x12 pieces in my collection created by hand with pen & ink. Those might be more easily read once scanned ... but I have no time to spend with Picasa or Flickr today ... so they'll will have to wait for now. Consider this an appetizer (or teaser?) ... your choice.

Progress and Setbacks

This weekend I managed to add the three pictures (taken by me this summer in Taos) to the top of column at the right. I'm not sure why I wasn't successful previously (because I don't thing I did anything different this time) but perhaps it was some small step I skipped. I'm just glad today it all works the way I intended. In addition, I managed to fix the "What Color is Your Aura" information (originally unreadable) just above the list of Quotes near the bottom of the right column ...(the only think I couldn't do was "center" the picture)... and I added another link entitled "What Color is Your Goddess" just after the list of Quotes. The links will let you take brief quizzes to determine your answers to these questions. Wandering this virtual world leads to interesting discoveries. :)

Surprised by the interest generated by my "Visual Scribblings" post, I've decided to make learning more about Picasa a priority (and/or get Flickr to work on my laptop and learn about it). Unfortunately, the lingering smoke in the air here in Southern California has taken it's toll on my throat & sinuses. Although I've been drinking lots of water, taking extra Vitamin C, and generally being good to myself (eating healthily, getting more rest, etc.) ... I suspect I'm coming down with a cold because I'm running a fever and my throat is raw. My mind doesn't work well when I'm sick, so this new learning may take longer than I'd like. I've learned the hard way NOT to push myself in such circumstances.

“Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”
~Chuang Tzu

I'm grateful I can give myself time to recover instead of rushing off to work. Retired life definitely is good! ;)

Visual Scribblings

Here is an example of the kind of writing I've done for years. This brief, simple piece is something I created experimentally using a gift from M. It was a device that linked electronically to my now defunct Palm V ... allowing me to write with my hand yet transfer the results to my computer. I don't recall what it says and don't know if it will be readable once I publish this post, but I offer it here today simply as a reminder to myself and sample of what's to come.

Once I learn how to scan what M refers to as my "graphic poetry" and save it in a readable format, I intend to post some of them here. In Taos, both Suzanne & Jen encouraged me to do so. This is a first step.