the lifeblood of happy: GIVEAWAY!

Back in January, I entered this:

Today, I was giddy to receive all this in the mail:

LOOK at those goodies! A silk tartan scarf, hand-carved wooden spoon, collage-print note-cards, a little wooden box, embroidered hankies...SO me! The bird's nest drawing? A little metal plaque...and the bird is one of 6 magnets! Seriously, the contents were so personalized, so specific to me and what I like, you would think that Missa and I were old friends...but the truth is, she's just that observant! Thank you, Missa - I LOVE it all!! 

See the how at home the little blue box is on the mantel with the yellow wooden box I bought for Henry's ashes? Perfect!

But wait...it gets better! How, you ask? Well, when this all started (here), Leah had the idea that each winner would host their own giveaway, and pass the goodness on. So, now it's my turn to fill a box with specially chosen goodies for one of you, who will, in turn, do the same for someone else! Fun, right?

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post.  I'll let the Random Number Generator pick a winner on March 11th (my sister's birthday, a week from today...) Be sure I can reach you via your blog or email, in case you win!

By entering, you take the following pledge: 

i __________, promise in good faith, to pass on some love of my own. i will get a small flat rate box from the post office and fill it with my own goodies and pass it along to someone in my own giveaway/contest/whathaveyou. and i will ask them to pass their love on as well, and so on and so on. i will also come back to this post and let leah know when i am doing this so she can follow along.*

* and here, so I'll know, too!!

Good luck! : )

Giving is the lifeblood of happy living. 

~ Todd Parrish

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/

the world so sweet

I was a child in another age. I am not so foolish to think it was all, by default, a better time, but that it was less complicated is a simple fact. 

me

In grade school, we stood each morning - hands over hearts - faced the front of the room, and solemnly pledged our allegiance to flag and country. 

We learned to read with Dick and Jane (and Mother, Father, and Sally, and Spot and Puff), practiced our penmanship in Big Chief notebooks, and played tether-ball, four-square, kickball, or jumped rope during morning and afternoon recess. 

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At lunchtime, we all lined up with our lunch-boxes or lunch money, and just before we walked through the door to file down the hall to the cafeteria, we sang, together, this song of gratitude:

Thank you for the world so sweet,

Thank you for the food we eat. 

Thank you for the birds that sing,

Thank you God for everything.

I welcomed any excuse to sing, and so would have loved this daily ritual for that alone. But I also loved the idea of the world so sweet, and the notion that there was so much to be thankful for that the only way to encompass it all was say thank you for everything. Ev-'ry-thing.


Since I wasn't raised in a church my idea of God was somewhat nebulous, but I was a smart little girl, and so deduced that God was responsible for the goodness of everything, and because I was also a polite and grateful little girl, I was happy to say Thank you every day.

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In many ways I haven't changed a bit.

So, again I say, from the bottom of my heart:

Thank you for the world so sweet,

Thank you for the food we eat. 

Thank you for the birds that sing,

Thank you God for everything.

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/