We had a dreary day this weekend, and I wanted to curl up under my electric blanket. Unfortunately, the cats didn’t want to share the bed! That’s alright. Since I couldn’t sleep, I got some of my work done. Imagine for a moment trying to actually sleep at night with those five cats on the bed and my spousal unit sprawled out beside me!

I want a king sized bed!

But, the cats will still curl up right on top of me! The good side is that they are warm (so I don’t have to use the electric blanket as much) and they are loving to me. Yes, I’m intelligent enough to know that “cat love” is conditional. If I feed them, and they feel like it, they will be loving to me.

Now, I want you to look at this picture and see Only The Good. If you are a cat hater, I know that might be difficult. I don’t want you to fuss about the cat hair and allergies (I already know about those). Find something good in this picture! If you can look at a picture and see good, you might be able to look around yourself and see your world with a less cynical eye. It really does work, and I decided that now is a good time to practice. I’m having a rough time seeing all of the good right now; it’ll get better, but life is a roller coaster ride at my house at the moment. I could tell you the good that I see in this picture, but I want your thoughts.

Marcia, at Tumbled Words, had the idea to practice seeing the good in things by looking at pictures and not seeing the negative. Nancy J. Bond took that idea and ran with it. She created a website just for this exercise, called Only The Good. You can find other people practicing this at Soliloquy, Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters. All of them are worth the read any day of the week.

She’s baaaack!
Well, almost.
She has been talking here at the house for several days, trying to get up the oomph to visit.

The Dear Abby writing contest is going to happen this week! Last time, I asked you to write a humorous letter to Dear Abby in fifty words or less. I’m going to give you 75 words this time, so you can strut your stuff. Watch later in the week for more details. And, start thinking about what you might write. If you are a blogger, I will ask you to write a post with your entry. If you are NOT a blogger, you will be able to write your letter on the comment section of the Dear Abby post. I have some Lush-ous prizes. Remember that the readers will be the judge!

Technorati Tags: Cats, Only The Good, Dear Abby writing contest, humor

This is the chaos I left behind in my guest room, as I headed down to Houston for two weeks of work. Of course, I brought a carload of afghan squares to work on while I sit in the hotel in the evenings. I’m not very adventurous when it is a working week, but maybe I will explore on the weekend. During the week, I’ll spend the time working on Share A Square.

Now, I know that poor guest room looks awful. However, there is a little bit of order to the chaos. Those granny squares are stacked according to who made them, and I can grab one from each stack when I’m wanting to put together an afghan. I want you to look beyond the mess and see Only The Good. Tell me what you see. Then, maybe you can go out into your own world and look for the good. It’s there, but sometimes when we get overwhelmed with living, we have to remember to stop and look for it.

If you’d like, you can visit some other sites that participate in this exercise at Soliloquy, Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters. Or YOU could post a picture and challenge the rest of us to only find the good. Let me know if you do, and I’ll link you right here.

This trip I have a decent bathroom with a jacuzzi tub (unlike a previous trip that gave me a “sinking feeling”). Y’all excuse me now. I’ll get back to you tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Share A Square, granny squares, Only The Good

I can laugh about it now. But, when we walked into our room at the Mendocino Hotel, I was not amused! This was the extent of my “bathroom.”

The toilets and showers were down the hall!

People, people, people!

Do I look like the kind of person who would be OK with sharing bathrooms? If so, look harder! We did enough camping when I was a child that I prefer at least a four star hotel these days. After those vacations having to shower in skanky old KOA bathrooms, I won’t shower in a “public” bathroom without flip flops for my feet. I’m not exactly phobic about germs, but I don’t want someone else’s fungus. I also prefer to “do my business” in private, thank you.

“It is a minor glitch. The room is really quite charming, although tiny. No, no, it’s charming. The sink is pretty. It’s only a sink! At least you have that, Shelly. It is only for one night. A whole night? Can I “hold it” that long? Yes, you can, you’ve done it before.” This was the mantra I chanted while we stayed there. It wasn’t so bad. And, on the up side, I came home and discovered that I can make my closet into a bedroom that is as big as that hotel room!

I’m trying to see “only the good,” and I think I’m doing a fantastic job at it.

Look at the picture, and tell me the good that you see. It isn’t that hard to do. At least, it isn’t if we practice now and then. In fact, I credit this very exercise with helping me stay calm and in control when I saw I didn’t have a dadgum bathroom! OK, I didn’t stay totally calm, but it wasn’t a total rant.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that we had gotten to stay at The Hill House in Mendocino the night before. Its exterior was used as The Hill House of Cabot Cove in the television series called Murder, She Wrote. You can see that they kept one of the signs. That room was spacious AND had a bathroom!

I can tell that you don’t feel the least bit sorry for me.

If you’d like, you can visit some other sites that participate in this exercise at Soliloquy, Inside Mo’s Mind, Life in Westcliffe, Lives Less Ordinary, and Miscellaneous Matters. Try it. It’s good for you.

Technorati Tags: Mendocino Hotel, only the good, Hill House in Mendocino