Flashback Friday

Hooray!!!!
I have been most exuberantly excited for this theme.

And, seeing as it is relatively self explanatory... I think I'll just skip the introduction and go on ahead and make a real-life post about it.

Brilliant.

Here follows a series of photographs depicting the transition from childhood to awkwardness to maturity, featuring my little sister and myself:

(although, the "maturity" part may or may not have ever actually happened... you be the judge).

Well, that last one may not have been us.

But pretty close.

I ride Shamu backwards,
Monica.

Green and Thrifty Thursday

Now, goodness knows that I have yet to figure out how to get all my life's necessities from second hand stores, or how to coupon my way out of paying for groceries.

Nor are my hands entirely clean and spotless when it comes to taking care of this beautiful planet that God has given me.

But there is something to be said for aspirations, yes?

And something MORE to be said for progress.

And this is what Thursdays are for:

Tales of adventure, danger, and mystery
on my quest to become friendly to both
my wallet
and my good buddy,
planet Earth.
And, I'll be honest, when it comes to the "planet Earth" stuff, it may get a bit...
opinionated. Because sometimes there is an assumption that being religious and being an environmentalist are two opposite ends of
some kind of spectrum....

Rubbish!
Folly!
Balderdash!
et cetera, et cetera.

I am allowed to love trees without being a "tree hugger."
I am allowed to save the whales without being a "hippy."
I am allowed to recycle, make my own cleaning products, prefer organic food, do yoga, wash and save all my plastic and glass containers, have minimal red meat consumption, grow my own produce, wash my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar, believe in animal rights, and even...


...tie-dye a t-shirt now and then.

I am proud to call each of these beauties my very own:

And I am also allowed to believe that God created all things and has given us agency and stewardship over this Earth and that we are His children.

Now, have I done all of these things yet?

No.

No, I have not yet saved the whales. Or the tigers. Or the black-footed ferret.

Sorry guys.

But I like baby steps.
And I like to share my baby steps with others, so that they can maybe take some baby steps, too.
And hopefully give me some pointers.

After all, being environmentally conscious starts with just that:
Being CONSCIOUS of it.


I proudly keep my treasured childhood orca
on my dashboard,
Monica.

On a Whim on a Wednesday...

...on a Thursday....

Why is Wednesday on Thursday?

Because last night at 11pm, I realized that I had yet to blog.
(hey, I'm new at this).
And so I whimsically decided that I
really didn't feel like it.
I also decided that I am allowed to embrace such whims on Wednesdays.

And, you know... any other day I don't feel like it...
or forget....
But if I HAD posted something yesterday, it probably would have been along the lines of this:

This "daily blogging theme" is probably my favorite of all of them. Because, come on, isn't it just ridiculously fun to say?

(Go ahead, say it a few times. You know you want to).
Another reason why it is my favorite:
I get to do whatever I want.

The "daily themes" is definitely a needed structure. It keeps my thoughts all nice and sorted, making it possible for me to actually write posts without feeling like I'm leaving out something.

However,I'd be lying if I said that I never have thoughts and feelings that simply don't fit into a category.

Whims.

Yes, that is what they are called.

And Wednesday is a good day for such whims!
No, not just because of the splendid alliteration opportunity.

But because I think we could all use a little
uncategorizable WHIMSY
in the middle of the week.
I really don't want to make this post any longer than it is, because it really shouldn't even belong on this day, and it is kinda sorta about nothing at all....

So I will just close with a one-sentence whim:

Last night I pulled into my parking spot and my headlights startled a little white kitten that had been climbing up a tree trunk about four feet in front of me and had its legs wrapped around it and its tail sticking out to the side and it turned to look at me all guilty with its eyes all green and shining in the light, as if it had been caught doing something really mischievous, and then jumped down and bounded away under a nearby car and proceeded to meow at me as if accusing me of being a party pooper....
Yeah... I kinda had to work at that in order stick to my "one sentence" claim.

I can write a run-on sentence
if I darn well feel like it,
Monica.

P.S. I can't bring myself to publish this post without including at least one picture.
So I choose this one:

Because what's cooler than an Okapi???

Tuning in to Tuesday

Yikes.
Day 2 of "daily" blogging, and I nearly forgot about it altogether....

Good thing there are still a couple hours left in this Tuesday.
And what a glorious Tuesday, it has been!

Now, to introduce the "tuning in" concept:
Really, I think all I mean by this is that Tuesday posts will have something to do with music...

Just, something....
Because music makes my little heart flutter.
And goodness knows, I can gush about it!

So there will probably be posts with music videos.

Posts with favorite lyrics.

Posts with playlists (because making those is like... my favorite thing, ever).

Posts with instrumental endeavors.

Posts with musician profiles.

And maybe even some posts with
deep, thoughtful, psychological analyses....

Like this:

But probably more like this:

Hmmmm... YES.
Anyway, to add a little bit of intrigue to this rather dry, rambling, tumbleweed of a post, I think I will do a bit of an experiment.

Ever wonder what would happen if I put my entire iTunes library on random and wrote down the first 10 songs that came up?

Come on, you KNOW this question has
kept you up at night.
Well, fret not.

First 10 songs to be randomly selected:

1. Adeste, Fideles - Enya
2. Come to the Isle of the Skye - Steve McDonald
3. It Ends Tonight - The All-American Rejects
4. The Pirate That Should Not Be - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
5. One of These Days - Tim McGraw
6. Don't Let Go - Bryan Adams
7. Going Home - Mary Fahl
8. Humble Me - Norah Jones
9. Bad - U2
10. Sarabande in D Minor - Johann Sebastian Bach

So, um... what does this say about me?

I love a good soundtrack, celtic melody, or Baroque piece....
And yet my heart also beats for Tim McGraw, The All-American Rejects, and U2.
And then there is Norah Jones... somewhere in the middle of it all....

Is this embarrassing, or validating???

Let's go with the latter.
Yes.
Bach and U2 are my heroes,
Monica

Mountains, Trees, and Mondays

Today is THE DAY!!!

My daily blooging themes have been filed away in my mind for months now....

(Yes, that should say "blogging"... but the giggling I experienced thanks to that typo was just too delightsome to keep to myself.

You're welcome.)

....But seeing as I made my posting intentions "official" with my last post, I have been itching to really get the ball rolling!

Maybe like this:

But probably something closer to, you know...

Blogging.

For my first week's attempt at this "daily themes" stuff,
let's keep it simple!

I'll probably just introduce the general daily themes and what manner of posts we can expect from them.

(In other words, I'll be putting my own thoughts and intentions into writing... mostly for my own purposes of rounding up all my jumbled thoughts into some kind of general guideline. You know, like rounding up sheep. Or putting all your ducks in a row... and all the chaos those things entail).

Without further adieu,

Introducing,

MOUNTAINS, TREES, AND MONDAYS!!!
Hoooorrrraaaayyyyy!!!!!!!

So, um... what IS that, exactly?
Good question.
And... I'm not really sure.

But it probably has something to do with yoga poses like these:

And places like these:

And adventures like these:

And, AND....


....a general feeling of this:

So in other words, anything and everything that fascinates me about our beautiful little nook of the universe.

the hills are alive,
Monica

New Look! Same great taste.

It is very possible that the phrase I used for this post's title is more applicable on breakfast food boxes.
Not blogs.

hmmmm... debatable.
But it gets the message across, I think.

I have decided that it is time for a new blogging strategy!
It will involve categories.
Schedules.
STRUCTURE!

....All those wonderful things
that help me to channel my undeniable
whimsical/spontaneous/adventurous/"Indiana Jones"
personality...

...into manageable chaos.

You know, probably something like this:

But minus the predator.

(Oh, how I can get carried away by a good, sufficiently ridiculous analogy. But now back to real life in which I am NOT in fact Indiana Jones or a school of crafty fish).
The idea here is to avoid the "I want to blog about everything in the entire world at the same time and can't decide what to choose therefore I end up avoiding it altogether" scenario.

Here's a little snippet of what I'm thinking for my daily blogging topics:

Mountains, Trees and Mondays
Tuning in to Tuesday
On a Whim, on a Wednesday
Green and Thrifty Thursdays
Flashback Friday!
Sweet and Savory Saturdays

Let's see where this takes us, shall we?

Aspiring to be like the fishes in the sea,
Monica.