Another Mystery Picture to Guess

Here's the new mystery picture. We'll see if I can be a tad trickier this time than last time. I was trying to be tricky last time, but obviously I missed the mark on that. I had no idea that all of you were country girls like me who knew your wood.
 
 
Here is the picture nearly all of you figured out. And then the rest of the picture. I was imagining you seeing canyons and who knows what else. But most of you saw exactly what it was. A slice of tree trunk. Still, it's pretty neat, don't you think? I spotted it on my walk last week. A little bit of a tree sawed down and deserted. No fire made with it. 

When I was a kid, one of my chores was to carry in loads of wood and stack it on the back porch for the woodstove. Helped develop my muscles. Even after I married, we burned wood for heat until a few years ago when my husband developed allergies. Nothing like the warmth of wood heat. Sitting by a fire, reading a book, drinking a cup of tea. Simple pleasures.

I've got all of you who made a guess on the last picture entered in the giveaway for one of my books and another grab bag book. Remember, I'm picking three winners on February 1, 2015. You have to be 18 to enter and a USA or Canadian resident to win the paper books. But if you live in other countries and want to play the guessing game, I'll send you an e-book if you win. If you guessed on the last picture and then guess again on this new picture, you get another entry. Each guess on a new picture earns an entry for you.

So what do you think it is? I do hope I have a few of you at least momentarily puzzled with this one. LOL. We'll see. You all are hard to fool. Remember, it's more fun to guess first and then check out the other guesses. The most important thing to remember is that it's all for fun. Wrong guesses get an entry the same as right guesses. But you do need to leave a way to contact you. If you don't want to leave your e-mail here, you can send your guess via my e-mail, annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com or leave a message on my Facebook page.

Okay. Time to guess!!

What are Your Everyday Summertime Joys?

A       "An unthankful heart is like a finger trying to sift the sand for iron–it doesn’t discover God’s mercies. But a thankful heart, just like the magnet, sweeps through life’s circumstances and finds daily blessings from God.

                                                               ... Ellen Banks Elwell

In my recent newsletter I ended with a list of Everyday blessings. Some of you added your own simple but treasured blessings when you entered my Love Comes Home Book Celebration Giveaway (If you haven't entered, you still can. Check details at my website.)

So why not think about some more on this first week of summer. Here are some to start you off.

Summer Day Treasures and Blessings

•    Swinging on swings.
•    A cold glass of lemonade or sweet iced tea.
•    Running through sprinklers.
•    Watching the sunrise.
•    Ripe tomatoes out of the garden.
•    Butterflies and hummingbirds.
•    Blackberries hanging heaving on the vine.
•    Old Hymns (especially the memory of your mother or grandmother singing them in the kitchen while she's cooking supper.)
•    Hearing the smile in someone's voice on the phone. (Especially if it's your grandchild smiling.)

And here are a few simple blessings shared by some of you already: 

•  When one of the teenagers does something for you  without a motive/reason. (That might not be one of those EVERY day blessings, right, Denise? :))
•  A good book to read & a small project finished. (ELF)
•  A cat's purr 
•  A baby's laugh 
•  Young children's giggles (the last 3 from Ellen)

What would you add? This morning I can add looking at my little flower garden and being glad the neighbor dogs haven't decided to dig in it. And also the sound of the Bob White Quail. 

So many blessings, but I want to hear what you say too. And if you leave a comment (with a way to contact you) I'll pitch your name in my giveaway hat to perhaps win a copy of your choice of one of my books. I'm drawing for five winners on July 1. Remember each comment on a new post in June gets you another entry. (You must be 18 to enter and print copies for USA or Canada and e-books overseas.)

So what everyday blessing is making you smile today?

Life's Simple Pleasures

 

Finding fun in simple ways makes the happiest days. (Unknown author)

Are you happy? I hear you. Some of you are out there saying nobody can be happy all the time, and of course, you're very right. But do you seek and find an underlying happiness that brings joy to life in many little ways? Like the fun of jumping into a pile of crunchy leaves with an abandon that doesn't worry about getting leaf crumbles down your shirt or landing on a spider or... Well, you get the idea. Maybe even more fun is being the grandmother raking up the leaves for the happy fun of watching the grandkids enjoy toys that only nature can make. I didn't jump in the leaves. I do realize that me landing on the ground in a pile of leaves is no longer one of life's simple pleasures. It would be a jarring ouch. I don't land as soft as the little grandkids. But I do get a lot of simple fun just walking through a layer of fallen leaves and seeing them stir around my feet, hearing their rustling crunch, and catching the scent of autumn. Simple pleasures.

The plaque above names over some other simple pleasures - all gifts of nature. Watching the sun set. The wind across a field of wheat or grass. The waves against the sand. The glitter of the stars when the city lights are far away. Sometimes we just need to get back to the basics of nature. 

At times nature can slam us with disasters the way the hurricane did last week and bring hard times that have no joy in them. So if you're suffering from the aftereffects of that, you might not be feeling too generous toward Mother Nature, but I hope there are still little blessings finding a way into your days. 

The real joy of life is in its play. Play is anything we do for the joy and love of doing it, apart from any profit, compulsion, or sense of duty. It is the real joy of living.  ~Walter Rauschbusch

May life bring you joy this week. And go kick around a few leaves before you get out the rakes or the leaf blowers. We'll have to do something with our leaves this weekend - probably mulch them with the mower. But my husband did leave them for the kids to play in at least one time because a kid and a leaf pile is definitely one of life's simple pleasures.

I'm going to have a writer's simple (or not so simple) pleasure this weekend and get to meet and talk with readers and other writers at the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort on Saturday. Over 150 authors and their books. A great place to do some Christmas shopping. If you're in the area and decide to come, please stop by my table and say hello. And then I can say, in person, thanks for reading!