Category Archives: I love my friends

Nicole’s Mom’s Sugar Cookies, a.k.a., the best sugar cookies known to humankind

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Yesterday we had another big snowfall; I don’t even know how many that makes so far this year – four? five? I have already lost count – but I watched the thick, fluffy flakes fall from the sky and it was like a switch turned on in my brain.

As I had mentioned in my last post, I have finished my shopping, but I will tell you this: the super-festive-Nicole-the-Elf feeling did not kick in until yesterday. And hoo boy, has it kicked in. Keep my husband in your thoughts, for I think I may be already driving him crazy. This morning, as I sipped on my seventh – yes, seventh – cup of coffee, I talked in a rapid-fire voice about how I had picked up extra coconut milk and I was thinking maybe this year I’d make peppermint truffles in addition to my usual dark chocolate, and I wonder if dipping some in white chocolate would be good, or too much, and should I roll them in crushed candy canes? He just looked at me in the way you might look at someone who is in danger of spinning off the earth, at 7:00 am, and then left for work.

I ventured out into the Winter Wonderland yesterday to pick up a few items from my local Co-Op, and when I walked in became immediately immobilized when confronted by the giant festive display inside the store. When I say “immobilized,” I mean I stood there staring at all the items for sale for at least five minutes before strolling over to pick up bread, avocados, and peppermint extract, and then circled back to choose three different kinds of candy canes.

Speaking of peppermint extract, has anyone else found it difficult to obtain lately? Is there a shortage? When I find it, the price seems to be the same, but it has been hard to find lately.

So the house is now stocked appropriately with coconut milk, chocolate, peppermint extract, molasses, and candy canes; all things I need for my usual holiday baking sweatshop. There’s just one little issue: I don’t have a whole lot of people to bake FOR.

See, here’s the thing: when the kids were in elementary school, there was always a bake sale or a classroom party or a potluck for the teachers to bake for. This year: nothing. And while the kids are in the human-garburator stage of life where they eat so much it makes one’s head spin, they really cannot eat eight dozen cookies prior to those cookies going stale. They really can’t. And yet, I have already made double batches of both sugar cookie and gingerbread dough, both sitting in my freezer, waiting for the day they come alive to be eaten. And that doesn’t even account for my giant batch of gingersnaps I make come December. When I told my older son that we would have at least eighty gingerbread men to decorate and I wasn’t sure why I had made so many, he said “It’s okay, Mom, we can give them away to people!”

Bless the child. YES WE WILL. So prepare yourself, people in my circles, because you will be the recipient of baked goods this year. I’m already planning my random acts of cookies so watch out, you might have something sweet forced on you, and if I’ve had as much coffee as I’ve had this morning, you may be alarmed at my beaming face.

But this recipe! Recently a friend asked me for it and I was appalled to see that I did not have it anywhere online. Let me tell you, it is my number one most popular cookie recipe. My kids’ friends are always asking me to send it to their moms, teachers used to email me for it, and I have sent it out myriad times. Yet, I have never blogged it*. This is my mom’s sugar cookie recipe and I am just going to humbly tell you that it is no-fail, amazing every time. Well, once it failed since I forgot the baking powder. But if you actually follow the recipe, it’s no-fail. My friends used to love these cookies when my mom made them, back in my childhood days, and now my kids’ friends do, and it feels like this beautiful cookie-circle-of-life.

Nicole’s Mom’s Sugar Cookie Recipe

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in eggs. Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt.

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT STEP: EITHER CHILL THIS FOR TWO HOURS UNTIL EASY TO HANDLE, OR FORM INTO 2-3 BALLS, WRAP, AND FREEZE UNTIL YOU FEEL LIKE CUTTING OUT 7 DOZEN COOKIES. I usually make the dough, freeze it, and then a few weeks later, actually bake the cookies. Pro-tip! You don’t have to do everything at once.

On baking day, obviously you will have thawed the dough, but kept it refrigerated. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, or 325 for convection oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and do not think for a moment that you can skip this step! Use the parchment paper, trust me.

Roll out dough on floured surface, about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into festive shapes (for birthdays I make stars, for Valentine’s, hearts, and for Halloween, there are cats, pumpkins, and ghosts). Bake for 10 minutes, until edges are browned. I like very soft cookies, if you like crunchier ones, then add a couple of minutes to bake time. Allow to cool before frosting.

Now, some of you (HI LIV, MELODY, AND AMANDA) are die-hard pipe-and-flood types, but I, alas, am not. I am more a “whimsical smear of buttercream with a few random sprinkles” kind of a cookie decorator. There is room for all of us in this world. If you, like me, are limited in your decorating abilities, then I recommend the following delicious frosting to spread on the cookies:

Nicole’s Easy Buttercream

1/2 cup very soft butter

4 cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

2-3 tablespoons milk

Cream together the butter, icing sugar, and vanilla (add the icing sugar slowly or you’ll have a hot mess of a countertop). Add the milk to thin to the correct consistency. This might yield slightly more frosting than you need, but YOU CAN FREEZE IT TOO. Amazing. Add food colouring if you wish. Get ready for compliments, people!

*edited to add: apparently I have already blogged about these cookies! But, the recipe is so nice, we can have it twice.

Tis the season to start shopping

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I know many of you loathe November with the fire of a thousand suns, and for those of you I offer you a big hug and also the not-really-news that it is already half over! It feels like it was just Halloween, just a day or two ago, and here we are, less than six weeks away from Christmas.

I officially finished my Christmas shopping yesterday; it’s the one task I like to accomplish early so as to not worry about the mall, or, more often, shipping. I will confess that the vast majority of my shopping is done online, because really, what could be easier? Click click click, and boxes show up on my doorstep. However, sometimes a trip to the mall is necessary, which is what I did last week, to pick up a few special gifts. It’s still early enough in the season that no one was road raging in the parking lot and the customer service people were not yet in the depths of despair; on that note, don’t forget to be nice to the people working customer service. It’s a hell of a job this time of year.

Digression: I have become obsessed – OBSESSED – with PC Points, to the point where I get really excited every week to view my new offers. Sometimes they are great – 200 points per dollar spent on cauliflower, 400 points for red wine vinegar – but often they are nothing I would ever buy, which is more disappointing to me than it probably should be. However, I am avidly collecting my points and, like my Type A personality might indicate, I try to be super-efficient and collect as many as possible while not going off my actual grocery list. It’s like a linear algebra equation!

Anyway, I was involved in a conversation regarding such things, along with in-store savings, and a woman I don’t really know said When a cashier says “you saved $25 today!” I say “No, I spent $200, YOU’RE WELCOME.” This person has clearly never worked customer service: a) cashiers usually have a script that they need to follow, in order to keep their jobs, and b) wow, why would you be so rude? I invite such people to spend one day working customer service; it’s no picnic. Too long, didn’t read, BE NICE, PEOPLE.

The past two weeks have felt weird and a bit hazy; I think it’s due to the time change and our sudden plunge into darkness. No, I know it’s theoretically the same amount of daylight, minus the several minutes of daylight we lose each day at this dark time of year, just shifted, but when the sun sets before five o’clock and it’s pitch black when I’m making dinner and I know there are still five weeks left before things start to get lighter, a little bit, well, it’s disconcerting.The last few days have been foggy and ice-crystally and the sky was the same greyish-white as the ground, and it was a bit gloomy. The hoar frost was pretty but that was the only visually redeeming quality.

Bringing a little bit of joy to the gloomy day was my afternoon spent finishing my shopping yesterday. No, I didn’t go to the mall, I visited my good friend who is an artisan and she makes the most beautiful malas and bracelets you have ever seen. She custom made a bracelet for someone on my Christmas list and I was just blown away by the craftsmanship and beauty of it, and all of her wares.

Gorgeous, right? She also has something called The Goddess Collection, and you can find her on Etsy right here. She’s a dear friend of mine and I’d love it if you’d check it out or let anyone who might be interested know about it.

The new Book Fair Lady at the elementary school (HI HAYDEE) had sent me a message about the fair going on right now; the first one without me since 2009! I was happy to hear that she answered “The posters are five dollars” several thousand times; the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Today was Parent-Teacher Conferences, and there was a book fair being held at the same time! The boys perused the offerings after the conferences and I spied this:

EACH. ONLY $5.00 EACH! We had this exact same sign in the elementary school and yet it did nothing to quell the steady stream of questions regarding the monetary value of each poster. However, once one gets to junior high, the comprehension skills must be more advanced; I did not hear any such queries during my short time at the fair.

The World Is A Rich Tapestry

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You guys, it is happening. IT IS HAPPENING. Remember back in 2012, when I predicted we would see a resurgence in the popularity of the names of our mothers’ generation? I have now made the acquaintance of two young women named Barbara and Brenda; these lovely ladies are, I believe, the lead-offs in the trend that we will certainly see unfold over the next fifteen years. Mark my words, Barbara and Brenda will soon be joined by a whole host of Beverlys, Donnas, Corrines, Carols, Lindas, and Susans. IT IS HAPPENING. There is a very good chance that our granddaughters will be Bev and Barb.

Then, thirty years down the road, Bev and Barb will have their own granddaughters, and we will suddenly be swarmed by a sea of Jennifers, Julies, Michelles, Melissas, and, yes, NICOLES.

It is mind-blowing, people. Mind-blowing. Just as mind-blowing as seeing girls wearing pleated, high-waisted, belted shorts with little crop-tops. None of us learn from previous generations, we do not, not one bit*.

* Since the writing of that post, I have fully embraced skinny jeans and their beautiful ability to pair with tall boots. I know that the tide is starting to change, however. I know this because I saw a young woman, named neither Barbara nor Brenda, wearing straight-cut jeans with a belt, loafers, and a cropped top, taking me back to the days of “going dancing” and drinking vodka “slimes” out of a pitcher. Young women are the Indicator Species of fashion, as we know. Bodysuits will not be far off, MARK MY WORDS.

But I digress. One thing that we also do not seem to learn is that some things recur on an annual basis, and every year we see individuals become extremely combative with regards to the desirability or otherwise of these recurring events. For example, for every individual who lives for summer there is another who loathes the heat, for every skiier and snow-lover there is a Reynaud’s syndrome sufferer who dreads the long, cold winter (i.e., me). At this time of year, we see people firmly divided into two camps: those who love all things Pumpkin Spice, and those who do not. And of those who do not, there is a subsection of people who feel the need to disparage and shout from the rooftops how much they hate Pumpkin Spice, and how Pumpkin Spice things need to die in a fire and that Pumpkin Spice is the worst of everything and a harbinger for death by White Walkers. Or something. These are the same people who proclaim loudly that they Hate All Sports while everyone else is enjoying the Super Bowl, or that The Olympics Are A Giant Waste Of Money And Everyone Who Watches Them Are Contributing To The Decline Of Society.

We all know these people. We know, we know, such pleasures in life are just too bourgeois or pedestrian for you, special snowflake that you are. It’s not enough for you to NOT partake, you must mock all those who do. I am not a Pumpkin Spice fan myself, but far be it for me to ruin it for any of you who do love it (Rebecca, enjoy your PSL!) (HI REBECCA). While you’re enjoying your Pumpkin Spice lattes and Oreos and breakfast cereal, I will be over here waiting for MY favourite flavour season – Mint Chocolate. It’s coming.

As Swistle says, Do Not Yuck Another Person’s Yum. (HI SWISTLE). Some of us have the Cilantro Is Delicious gene, and some of us do not, and our differences make the world go ’round. The world is a rich tapestry, people.

Speaking of rich tapestries, I have been on a roll with reading excellent books lately (go read A Man Called Ove! It’s excellent.). One of the things I started doing this year, in a bid to be more like Allison (HI ALLISON), is recording the books that I have read so I can look back on the year, and recommend ones I loved. It’s also a good way to see how much I read in a year – so far I am on book number 59. I have the Calgary Public Library app on my phone, so as soon as I hear of a book recommendation I immediately put it on hold. I love the library. I love how I can read things I wouldn’t want to necessarily buy, and I love exposing myself to different genres. Once in a while, though, I pick up a book that has rave reviews and it turns out to be…how shall I say this…not for me.

I just finished a book that sounded so promising – two estranged sisters, coming together under the mysterious circumstances of their missing sister and the murder of one of their husbands – it was touted as a thriller and a mystery and I guess it was. If you really like books about the abduction, torture, rape, and eventual murder of young girls, then this is the book for you! If not, well, maybe learn from my mistake and don’t read Pretty Girls. I was somewhat traumatized after finishing it – I kept reading in the hopes that it would get better and be less violent, and IT DID NOT – and so I was happy to pick up the book I had put on hold a while ago, Difficult Women by Roxane Gay. It is a collection of short stories, and the very first one featured the abduction, rape, and sex slavery of two preteen sisters. So that wasn’t the best for my state of mind.

However, I would still very much recommend Difficult Women as it is a very compelling series of short stories; even the first one is not graphic, not really. I have had four books on hold suddenly all come in, and the next one I am reading is a “light British novel about life around a bookshop” so I am really hoping for no details about abduction, torture, rape, or murder.

Abbie’s Favourite Cookies

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On the radio last week, they were having a contest to win tickets to see Brian Wilson – of Beach Boys fame – in concert. I actually thought that Brian Wilson died a long time ago, which is the reason I am rarely, if ever, upset by celebrity deaths. I often think that the death has happened already. In any case, today I learned that Brian Wilson is the same age as my mother-in-law, which seems a bit old to be singing Surfin’ Safari and Fun Fun Fun, but who am I to judge? You do you, Brian Wilson.

The concert itself is titled Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds – The Final Performance. That feels a bit ominous and if I were him, I probably wouldn’t want FINAL in the title of my performance, but perhaps it helps with the ticket sales. Who knows? I remember a few years ago I saw KC and the Sunshine Band on television – maybe it was American Idol? I don’t really remember – performing Get Down Tonight and to be frank, it was pretty grim. There is something inherently depressing about watching disco stars attempt to perform in the exact same way as they did in the 1970s. Change can be good, aging disco stars. Embrace the change.

In other local performance news, Wayne Newton is touring. I repeat: Wayne Newton is not only alive, but touring! I was even more shocked to hear that than the Brian Wilson news. Sadly, it appears that touring is something that Mr. Las Vegas needs to do since he is – allegedly – in financial distress, which should be a cautionary tale for anyone whose expenditures exceed income. Of course, if at any time you feel that you just cannot live without a peacock aviary and exotic animal menagerie, perhaps you might need a new financial advisor.

I just this moment learned that Judge Wapner passed away, at the great age of 97. Again, who knew he was still kicking? Certainly not me. RIP, Judge Wapner.

One thing I love very much about being part of a yoga community is that I get to make friends with people of all ages. I have many sweet young friends, and it is lovely to be able to celebrate with them as they go through their engagements, weddings, and pregnancies. At the moment, I know of four little yogis due to be born between April and July, which is exciting and happy news. I highly recommend becoming friends with such sweet young mamas, so as to share in a lot of joy and excitement.

One very special yogi was born back in November; her mama (HI ABBIE) is a wonderful, sweet friend of mine who I miss a lot, since she moved away a few years ago. I used to make these cookies for her, since they were her favourite. In my head, I always call them Abbie’s Cookies. Last week another young yoga friend had a birthday, and so I baked these cookies for him; I kept the base the same but added in lots of healthy extras, because he’s a very health-conscious individual, even on his birthday.

My much-loved grandma once told me that when she experiments with a recipe, she would make it exactly as the recipe stated the first time, and then would change it subsequently to her own tastes. When I first started cooking and baking, I would be terrified to do this, convinced that one wrong step would ruin everything. Let me reassure you: rarely is this the case. I mean, yes, I have had some flops in my time. Observe, if you will, my attempt at free-styling white chocolate raspberry cookies:

But to be honest, mostly things work out. And so I loaded these cookies with lots of yummy healthy things, like chopped apricots, pumpkin seeds, coconut, hemp, and flax (and chocolate chips too, because I’m not a monster). When I would make them for Abbie I would add in peanut butter chips. You could swap out everything for dried cranberries and white chocolate, you could put in butterscotch chips and raisins. What I’m saying is that you do YOU. Have fun with these cookies. Throw in everything but the kitchen sink or take out everything but the chocolate. Just bake them with love and watch the love come back to you. xo

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*click here to learn everything you ever wanted to know about flax eggs

Uh oh! Looks like someone’s got a case of the Blue Mondays!

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Welcome to Blue Monday, statistically the saddest day of the year. According to the professor who came up with the formula, this could be the bluest Monday on record due to well-known political events, along recent death of childhood heroes, which serve to remind us all of our own mortality. Well.

I will say that I don’t feel particularly blue today, but because statistics don’t lie, I shall endeavor to write a blues-combating post of all the fun things going on around here. Right? We do not have to be victims here! Let’s revolt!

In Praise of the Astronaut

I am reading Commander Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and it is simply wonderful: full of humour, inspiration, and background information on training to become an astronaut. He talks about preparation and learning, just in case, even when the odds of success are nearly zero. That’s a really interesting concept, to me. Just learn for the sake of learning, on the off chance that you might need it someday; there’s no such thing as being over-prepared when striving for excellence.

I keep reading little tidbits from the book out loud to my kids, and I think they are taking it in. Maybe I should take up cross-stitch and make a wall-hanging: What Would Commander Hadfield Do? He wouldn’t slack off on any of his obligations, that’s for sure.

In A Committed Relationship With Avocados

My friend Allison (HI ALLISON) sent me this makeup bag and it is my everything.

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We Are Living In The Future

I was having coffee with my friend Lyn the other day (HI LYN) and she mentioned how paying for coffee via an app on her phone feels like living in the future. I, for one, embrace it. I mean, I’ve been reading Allison’s annual book review posts, and every time something sounds interesting, I put it on hold at the library using my app. How much easier does it get? Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, and probably will mention many more times, ROOMBA. Roomba is whirring away right now. The only way life could be improved is if Roomba could somehow do stairs. Or, if I finally got around to making a DJ Roomba:

What’s hot, DJ Roomba?

Aging Gracelessly

For a few months last year, I decided to try an expert’s advice and NOT use eye cream but instead use a very good regular moisturizer around my eyes. My Kiehl’s had run out and I was feeling a bit, well, Scottish. IF YOU KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING HERE.

Suffice it to say that not using eye-specific cream wasn’t a good plan for me. One day I looked in the mirror and…well, I looked like a cross between a raccoon and the Crypt Keeper. I did a little research and decided to go to the Clinique counter to buy a little pot of All About Eyes. Do I have to say this isn’t a sponsored post? It’s not.

Anyway, I went to the Clinique counter, mentioned I was looking for something for puffiness and undereye circles. The sweet, pretty girl at the counter directed me to All About Eyes “Rich” for, as she put it, “all my wrinkles, too.” I have to say it’s worked fairly well, although for $45 I was hoping for something a little more dramatic: like I would instantly look 15 years younger or something. I guess what I really need is an Instagram filter, but for life. However, I shall take what I can get.

Okay, deep breath. Here’s the before and after. The first photo was taken in mid-November, the second after a week of use.

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I mean, it’s an improvement to be sure, but it’s not cosmetic surgery results or anything. And frankly, I wanted cosmetic surgery results. But the search continues and I will be sure to let you know how it goes. First, I need to finish my Clinique stuff because, Scottish. I am open to suggestions!

My You Tube Search History Really Says Something About Me

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I’m just not sure what that “something” is.

I Love My Hair Therapist

This is how my relationship is with my hair therapist: I walk in and sit at her chair. Without talking about it, she mixes my colour, applies it, rinses it, uses special strengthening treatment, dries it and trims the ends in what is always the perfect amount. WE NEVER TALK ABOUT IT. There is something so comforting and freeing about this relationship. I always leave happy, and usually rested since I almost always fall asleep in the shampoo chair and then startle myself awake. I was there just last week and, as usual, she brought me Hello! magazine without judgement. What can I say, I like to catch up on all the news about the British Royal Family.

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That’s about all I can think of for Blue Monday! Why not pay it forward and be extra nice to everyone you see – they might be blue. xo

The Golden Girls Action Figures ARE On My Christmas List

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On October 6, I was alerted by three people that the world has become a perfect place; there are now Golden Girls action figures to be had. Since that time, I’ve had messages from no fewer than eight people about the existence of such a glorious thing.

You know, we all just want to be heard, and to leave our mark on the world, and my friends messaging me about the Golden Girls action figures means that I have been heard. I have left my mark. I truly felt warm and happy, knowing that my Golden Girls love is that well known. Thank you to everyone who has mentioned them, and yes, they are on my Christmas list.

The thing about the Golden Girls is that it was a show about women supporting and accepting each other, and I think that is what is the most appealing thing to me. I think about my friends – you know who you are, right? – who are really more like sisters to me. My friends who I see daily, my friends who I see almost never but talk to often, my friends who are there for me no matter what. If I could build a giant commune somewhere warm, we could all live together, eating vegan cheesecake and drinking coffee (with vegan Bailey’s).

I was thinking about women supporting other women this weekend, when my friend (HI VALERIE) posted a piece entitled “When Her Good News Makes You Feel Bad.” I read these words over and over: …quit fighting over a bigger slice of pie and just bake a bigger pie and invite everyone you know to share it with you. Isn’t that the most beautiful way to live? Bake a bigger pie, or vegan cheesecake, as the case may be.

I know so many amazing women, I think my cake will have to be Olympic Oval sized.

On a much less inspirational note, the battery in the wall clock in the kitchen died last week, and this might seem like a small thing to you, but to me it seemed to be indicative of a looming loss of sanity. If you want to discover how many times you instinctively look at something in one day, change it up. Apparently I check the time approximately several hundred times a day, even though there are digital clocks on both my oven and microwave, as well as the one on my laptop that I often use at the kitchen table. Yet, it is the wall clock I look to for reassurance that I am on schedule throughout the day. Several hundred times a day.

We all know that a stopped clock is correct twice a day, and yet, a stopped clock is still pretty much useless. Yes, I could have just changed the battery immediately, but for some reason I did not. Well, that reason is that I was probably lazily hoping my husband would just do it. In any case, I let this stopped clock issue go on for a good thirty six hours, at which point I was about to lose my mind, looking at the wrong time constantly. I pulled over the high stool to reach the clock, efficiently changed the battery, and hung it back on the wall.

Or so I thought.

I had apparently not secured it to the wall, since it came crashing down, shattering everywhere.

Do you want to know what’s more annoying than a stopped clock? A non-existent one, a bare space of wall that you constantly look at because apparently you have a tic that causes you to look at the time several hundred times a day what is wrong with me why am I like this.

Today I finally had a chance to stop at Bed Bath and Beyond, which always makes me think of Frank the Tank (I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll have enough TIME) and I purchased a clock which is now affixed to my wall and my sanity is saved. The only problem with going into Bed Bath and Beyond is that it immediately makes me want to be The Ultimate Consumer. I want EVERYTHING. I feel like I need every little gadget from the non-stick rolling pin to the Magic Bullet to the little scrub sponges that are in the shape of happy faces. I don’t know who sets up the displays, but they are extremely effective.

And, for the love of god, the Christmas displays are up, everything smells like cinnamon, and I had to physically restrain myself from buying a miniature light-up tree meant for a coffee table, a leg lamp, and a set of tea towels with reindeer embroidered on them. I left with ONLY the clock, feeling virtuous and regretful. I really wanted those tea towels.

But if you ever throw a party, and invite everyone you know, you’ll see that the leg lamp will be from me. And the card attached will say Thank you for being a friend. xo

Friendship Friday

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Gonna put the world away for a minute. Pretend I don’t live in it. Sunshine gonna wash my blues away. – Zac Brown Band

There is a distinct lack of sunshine right now, both literally and figuratively. This was the view from my back yard at 11:00 this morning.

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And this is what my living room looked like at noon.

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It’s hard to feel upbeat when everything seems like it is going to hell.

Last night my husband and I went to see the Zac Brown Band in concert, and while it’s been about twenty years since I was at a concert, it did seem to me like it was the greatest performance I had ever seen. Incredible talent, and so entertaining, the band mixed their own fantastic music with very interesting covers of other artists’ songs, such as Into The Mystic, Enter Sandman, Jack and Diane, and Teenage Wasteland, of all things. They also covered The Devil Went Down To Georgia and it was, in my humble opinion, the best showcase of musical talent possible. I felt so incredibly happy and exceedingly lucky, and at one point I closed my eyes and just willed myself to remember it forever. I looked around at all the people dancing, singing, and cheering – the whole Saddledome full – and then I thought of crowds just like this being attacked.

It was not a good thought.

But there is nothing I can do, not really. I cannot do anything about a monster who murders a five-year-old girl and her mother, I cannot do anything about a sick fuck who walks into a party not three blocks from my house and murders five young people just starting out in life. I cannot do anything about terrorist attacks, mass shootings, or racially-motivated killings.

What I can do is make my own little world a little better, I can make my own circle happier, and in the absence of actual sunshine, I can make my own. That is all I can do.

My mother-in-law called me the other night to tell me that she was out and was waited on by someone, she said, who was Just beautiful, just like you, and she had this big beautiful smile, and I said to her, you remind me so much of our Nicole. I thanked her very much for saying something so kind, and she said Well, dear, with this world the way it is, I think if you THINK something nice, then you should SAY it.

She’s absolutely right. Sometimes people need to be celebrated, and sometimes people don’t even know that they’ve affected your life in a positive way. You have to tell them.

Friends Who I Want To Thank

About ten years ago, my friend Eera (HI EERA) brought me a whole bunch of beautiful columbines from her garden. They bloom beautifully every year, and every year I think of Eera and her love of gardening. I want to tell Eera that even though we haven’t seen each other for years, I think of her every time the columbines blossom, and reseed themselves. Thank you, Eera.

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My friend Karen (HI KAREN) who is the hardest-working person I know, just became a registered nurse. Congratulations on all your hard work, Karen! You’re a living, breathing example of how motivation and hard work can pay off.

My friend Sharyl (HI SHARYL) is a yoga therapist who works with stroke survivors. Her work is an absolute inspiration to me, and I only wish I could be half the teacher she is.

Blogs That I Am So Happy To Read

Gwen (HI GWEN) and I work together at YMC, and we bonded right away over our mutual love of avocado and coconut. Gwen has a beautiful food blog as well, and whenever a new post pops up it makes me so happy. Thank you, Gwen.

Dawn (HI DAWN) and I are new friends; we both contribute at Life in Pleasantville, and I have just discovered her lovely blog. I love the name as much as I love her delicious-looking photos: Cupcakes and Tiaras. Two of my favourite things! Thank you, Dawn.

I don’t know the ladies behind Finding Isvara, but this is a fabulous blog for us yogis, especially Ashtangis. Check it out, yoga friends!

It’s been a quiet day at home; the kids and dog are at Camp Grandma, but it won’t be quiet for long, so I will close for now. Thank the people in your life who maybe don’t have any idea how much they affect your life. Thank YOU, all of you, for being kind and reading this blog. xoxo