Learning

There are so many ways to learn and in educational jargon, many different "learning styles".  I don't remember terms like, "going off the deep end" or "crying and sweating on the treadmill", or "going through old family papers and old journal writing", or "digging in the dirt".  I think those must be my true learning styles.

This has been a learning and remembering week.
 
I've learned that Zumba is not for me.
I've learned that wearing shoes while exercising doesn't work for me.  Maybe my old yoga is where I belong.
I've learned that I must disclose if people are to really know me.  No, I'm not a closeted personality.  I just have some baggage.
I've learned that letting the words fly IS theraputic and okay!
I've learned that I like to sweat and I MUST HAVE some time to myself each day.  I used to stay up to the wee hours when my children were young...just to hear the quiet and think.
I've learned that I have little tolerance for hurtful personalities.  In reality...

I'm glad to breathe deeply.

a little plain

You never know when the very simple will influence the happiness of a given day.  Our backyard fence was over 30 years old, I'm sure (no, we are not the original owners!)...we replaced it last year with the help of neighbors on both sides.  It was a good thing for all of us.  Now I am happy to be getting plants and shrubs in order around my house and it makes for very nice times to sit in the morning with a drink and NPR.  I've discovered the pleasure of this plant (portulaca) for Oklahoma heat and humidity.  It gives beautiful tomato-red flowers every morning and then closes down the performance during the evening hours. 

The barren area to the left in the top picture is a running start with a variegated ground cover.  We are watering the dickens out of it (let's assume it had a great deal of "dickens" in it to begin with!)...and it is progressing...covering more and more each week.  Should be a fun thing to keep the other grass and weeds from setting up camp there, but that one was NOT my call! ~ and guess what?  I don't tend to that garden! :)   ...from the peaceful porch~  Lana

Moments From My Childhood

This is what I'm dreaming of for next summer at this time.  These adorn the picket fence three blocks from my house.  I've had the pleasure of driving by these hollyhocks whenever I get out to that "other world" of economic scramble...Target, Wally World, QuikTrip for gas, etc.  These just take me back to a reality I had as a child...at the back of my next door neighbor's house.  We would turn the hollyhock blooms upside down and pin on a bud (can you see them at the top of the stems?) for the "head" of the doll.  The flourishing petals were the "skirts" and then we could pretend to be at the ball... Ah...southern Missouri in the 1950's.

Go Figure. It's Hot.

It's July in Oklahoma.  That sort of explains things in a few words.  We had this same sort of thing last year, though it was truly over 100 degrees for weeks on end.  My whole "nice system" shut down quickly.  I didn't want to go anywhere; didn't want to see anyone; didn't want to DO anything!  At the time I was working 5 days a week and as soon as I got home (thankfully, a quick 5 minute drive) I would put on my "sloppier" clothes, lie down on the couch, and promptly fall asleep.  One hundred degree weather will promote such activities...
Let's not have a repeat this year. Please.