today's gospel-Lazarus and the rich man

In this age and place, how little most of us interact with the truly monetarily poor, but I was reminded in my Magnificat reading, http://www.magnificat.net"

"The poor are all those who stand in need of our love, our time, our interest, our concern. Our wealth is not necessarily our money. It is whatever good God has done for us and given to us."

two finished fun projects!

Look at beautiful Breezey and her 7 pups.

WilliamTellOverture

God bless all you moms!
Can't believe I was there once.

Luxury Auto Body

Luxury Auto Body Inc
9660 Aero Drive
San Diego, CA 92123
(858) 560-5898
M-F 8-5

If you ever need any body work done on your car, this is the place to go.
The personnel are extremely helpful and friendly and the quality of work is
phenomenal.
I feel so blessed to know Gerry Connolly!

Maker Faire

Can't wait to see this when we go to Austin!
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/maker_faire/

Even Mary Engelbreit is blogging

http://www.homecompanionmag.com/blogs/

What a privilege to puppy sit Perfect Prado and look at the beautiful rose smiling at me.

Marvelous Mercer - Today Show 9/27/07 - CCI

Luis Sottil with Canine Companions

lululemon manifesto

This is how it looks in real life.

You all know how I love quotes. Margaret, you first introduced me to lululemon. I love their philosophy (and the orange and magenta bag I bought in S.F. when I was with my girls) that is on their bags. It's so much more colorful in red and white, but not easily transferred, so we'll have to do with this.

lululemon manifesto

Drink FRESH water and as much water as you can. Water flushes unwanted toxins and keeps your brain sharp.

Coke, Pepsi and all other pops will be known as the cigarettes of the future. Colas are NOT a substitute for water. Colas are just another cheap drug made to look great by advertising.

Love.

A daily hit of athletic-induced endorphins gives you the power to make better decisions, helps you be at peace with yourself, and offsets stress.

Do one thing a day that scares you.

Listen, listen, listen, and then ask strategic questions.

Write down your short and long-term GOALS four times a year. Two personal, two business and two health goals for the next 2, 5 and 10 years. Goal setting triggers your subconscious computer.

Life is full of setbacks. Success is determined by how you handle setbacks.

Your outlook on life is a direct reflection of how much you like yourself.

That which matters the least should never give way to that which matters the most.

Stress is related to 99% of all illness.

Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to.

Wake up and realize you are surrounded by amazing friends.

The world is changing at such a rapid rate that waiting to implement changes will leave you 2 steps behind. DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW!

Friends are more important than money.

Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment. Living in the moment could be the meaning of life.

Take various vitamins. You never know what small mineral can eliminate the bottleneck to everlasting health.

Don’t trust that an old age pension will be sufficient.

Visualize your eventual demise. It can have an amazing effect on how you live for the moment.

Choose a positive thought. The conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time.

Live near the ocean and inhale the pure salt air that flows over the water, Vancouver will do nicely.

Observe a plant before and after watering and relate the benefits to your body and brain.

Practice yoga so you can remain active in physical sports as you age.

Dance, sing, floss and travel.

Children are the orgasm of life. Just like you did not know what an orgasm was before you had one, nature does not let you know how great children are until you have them.

Successful people replace the words “wish”, “should” and “try” with “I will”. Ineffective people don’t.

Creativity is maximized when you’re living in the moment.

Nature wants us to be mediocre because we have a greater chance to survive and reproduce.

Mediocre is as close to the bottom as it is to the top, and will give you a lousy life.

lululemon athletica creates components for people to live longer, healthier and more fun lives. If we can produce products to keep people active and stress-free, we believe the world will become a much better place.
Do not use cleaning chemicals on your kitchen counters or floors. Someone will inevitably make a sandwich on your counter or a baby will crawl on the floor.

SWEAT once a day to regenerate your skin.

ommunication is COMPLICATED. We are all raised in a different family with slightly different definitions of every word. An agreement is an agreement only if each party knows the conditions for satisfaction and a time is set for satisfaction to occur.

Move your body and your heart will follow.

So happy to have a pup around. Miss
Tara is a cutie lovebug!

Learning about zines

Yet another something I didn't know about.

Have to look more on etsy and photobucket.

And the learning goes on.

Thank you, God, (and Rod!)for this wonderful time in my life.

Hear the word of the Lord

AND act on it. Words from today's gospel.
I pray for courage to do what He asks.
I do love the coinkidink that today is the feast of St. Finbar and the story goes that he and his companion were sitting by a hazel tree that, as they were praying, it's branches became overloaded with nuts and my first 'client' happens to have the name of Hazel.

the end of the season

I always get sad around the end of baseball season and am losing faith that the pads will make the play-offs, but I'm still such a believer in Buddy Black and am so happy that he's done so well in his first season as manager. He deserves every success that comes his way!
Here's an interesting thought from Roger Angell, a baseball writer, talking about how nostalgic baseball can make us:
"I think it may be because we all came to the game through our fathers and at a time when we were children and everything in the world seemed good. But the quality of most experience is not confined to when we were young. Tomorrow I could see the best game I'll ever see"
Isn't that a cool thought - tomorrow could be the best day we'll ever have, so make today as good as it can be and wait to see what tomorrow brings.

two very silly things from my day

why have I never thought of this before?


when the doorbell rang today, I had a supicion it was going to be a solicitor of some sort so I picked up the phone and held it to my ear as I answered the door. It actually worked like a charm; they (two Jehovah Witness ladies) immediately said they were sorry to bother me and left.





the next is discovering sweet pea wigwams and finials. I keep wondering when/where I'll plant (rather, use the English form and say 'sow') my sweet pea seeds or when I'll fell like even working outside again. If nothing else in my garden I love my sweet peas. As I was reading a watercolor journal garden book I came across wigwams which is apparently what they always use in England for sweet peas. Here's an old fashioned image:

I did refrain from ordering any right now, but it's definitely something I'm going to try.

Today I'm adding a link to a woman who inspires me daily.
If you're reading this blog, please pray as Cyndi makes another pilgrimage to Medjugorje. I'm so blessed to know her and call her friend.

Padres Last Home Game of the Year

Dana, what a sweetie to get us the yummy ice cream!




Bud Black, my hero and ever the consummate gentleman!

Julie,

Thank you, we had so much fun in those fabulous seats!

learning, learning, learning

Another whole new world - mail art. How did I not know about this before and what else is waiting out there???

This is only my second attempt, but already I'm submitting it to a gallery in Austin for the Ephemeral Mailbox Museum. Who would've guessed???

Jane, I'm so grateful for the doors to learning and art you're opening for me.

my kids

I'm so happy that all my kids had such a good time together in austin. thank you,
katie and derek!

my north star here I come

Many of you know how much I admire the children's author, Peter H. Jennings. I was inspired by his book, The North Star. The premise is that each of us has a different start to follow and we are given gifts to help us along the way. Pam S. is a gift to me and shared her gifts to help me launch a new venture, following my star (I hope). Here I go:

I just added the link for Canines for Independence, aka CCI. Being a teeny part of CCI has given me the greatest joy. I've raised 3 amazing, beloved puppies, Tricky, Crista and Jelena. Tricky and Crista are what we call COC (change of career puppies). They are sweet and smart, but the working dog life was not for them. They chose the life of the beloved pet and give joy to their chosen families and all who come in contact with them. Jelena's fate remains to be seen. She's a sweet, beautiful dog that will give joy whatever her career turns out to be. I feel so blessed to have been their first moms and can hardly wait for my next puppy.

Signature recipes

What fun to have lunch and connect with someone I haven't spent time with since I taught her boys several years ago, Cathy F. I wish her so well in her new venture of personal training and I was so relieved she didn't make me feel bad at all!

When I came home I added a new goal to my http://www.joesgoals.com/, not having dessert, which I've been doing lots lately, but it's nice to see it written. I also added doing something green, I returned the Staples bag, little I know, but something.



So when I thought about not having dessert I did think I should add my signature recipes to this new venture of mine, just in case anyone wants to know, so here goes.

Deakers Chocolate Angel Cake
This comes from Ann’s mother and is a must for birthdays in our house!
12 oz. pkg. chocolate chips
2 T sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 pint whipping cream
1 angel food cake, store bought is fine
Melt chocolate chips with sugar (I do in microwave).
Beat egg yolks and stir into chocolate mixture, cool 5 minutes.
Beat egg whites until stiff; whip cream; fold egg whites and whipped cream into chocolate mixture.
Break angel food cake into bite-sized pieces; sprinkle a layer in the bottom of a buttered 8x12 pan or 8inch round spring form mold, using half the cake.
Cover with the chocolate mixture. Dot this with the remaining cake pieces; top with the rest of the chocolate mixture.
Chill over night.

"Share the Recipe Coffee Cake""1 pkg. Yellow cake mix1 pkg. Instant vanilla pudding¾ c. oil ¾ c. water1 tsp. Melted butter1 tsp. VanillaBeat the above together. Then add4 eggs one at a time. Beat 6-8 min.Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan. Then swirl in ½ c. sugar, 1 tsp. Cinnamon And ½ c. ground walnuts (optional) (Really swirl through cake until you can’t see it.)Bake 350 for 40-50 min.Topping (Brush on top of warm cake3 T. milk½ tsp. Vanilla1 T. melted butter1 cup powdered sugar

Can you believe how cute this picture is????

We should hear today how many pups Breezey is carrying.

Books

The last 4 books I've read have been terrific - two mysteries by David Rosenfelt, First Degree and Sudden Death.
Assistance Dogs for children with autism totally reminded me why I love raising CCI puppies, even if they don't graduate!
(new mantra - nnign - no news is good news, re jels)
Eat Pray Love, tough in the middle, but way worth it.

you never know what the day will bring

two beautiful gifts from people i love:

It's been a month since I've blogged. I'm still debating between a blog and a website, but this might be the easiest way to go.
What a fun, productive month.
My cookbooks are darling, my birdfeeders are even cuter and then there's a return after many, many years to the quilting world.