And the (N)Oscar Goes To...

Well, it's January so you know what that means. It's time for Hollywood to host its 4,728 awards shows to remind us all how fabulous they are.  Maybe I'll yak about that sometime, but today I'm just using it for some jumper cables to start a  little blog gala of my own. It's a big old party for one.

You see, even though I stepped out of Blogville for nearly half a year, I actually did have a life going on during the hiatus.  Yessiree, things were hopping here in Debbie Land. Had I been blogging, I would have yakked all about it.

But I never did.  I was a non-blogger.
  A Nogger...  

So in the interest of chronicling my life, I thought I would host my own awards gala and show you some of the winners for what I have decided to call the Nogger Awards. That's where I shout out  favorite things that I  never blogged in 2013.

In the interest of keeping it brief, I will only share four of them in this post. Let's start with a favorite pastime of mine, setting the table.

Favorite tablescape I never yakked about

There were several nominees in this category, but the Nogger goes to the Farm Sister's luncheon club table.

She drew the lot for September, but since she's already done a lovely autumn theme (more than one in fact), she went yellow and sapphire on us instead. I loved it.  I wish I could have gotten a better shot of the centerpiece because it was show- stopping. Unfortunately, I didn't arrive early enough to get any better pictures, and once the other girls arrived, I was busy with a yakker of a different sort.

Most exciting opportunity I never yakked about 

That would be the night the Duchess, Farm Sister, and I went to hear former First Lady Laura Bush speak at the local university.

We weren't in those cheap seats way up yonder in the bleachers, either. We were able to sit right down there on the floor with tickets courtesy of the DC daughter that I procreated.  Yes, indeed. She has finally made up for the 10 hours of labor, big head, and broad shoulders.

Oh, who am I kidding? She made up for all that in the first minute...

But oh how lovely the evening was! I can tell you sincerely that Laura Bush certainly earns the title First Lady. You would think I would have better pictures, wouldn't you?
But no...

Favorite DIY home project I never yakked about

No contest here, the Nogger goes to my made- over kitchen chairs.  

First, some before pics

They stayed black for a while, but when the new dining room chairs that I did yak about arrived, it was time to move them to the kitchen. Black wouldn't do. The seats were uncomfortable, too.

So I made my own chalk paint recipe because I'm cheap like that. Then I added this little medallion  to sort of jazz up the back. I stained it first, and then just sanded it lightly  to get the look I wanted.

Then I replaced the poor excuse for a seat with some new, thick, foam and batting and covered them with a burlap.

I feel the need to tell you that the seats have yet to be attached in this picture.  

I think the burlap does a nice job of balancing the stark white.  Plus, they go with the farmhouse thing that I have going on in my kitchen. Clean, white, with just a bit of color for balance.

 Told you taupe could actually be a pop of color...

And finally...

Most ironic thing I never yakked about

Well, you might not *get* this if you do not remember my last post before disappearing into the blog mist, but here it is:

The Love Shack got a new cat. 

Actually, she's a kitten. They rescued her from the barn and named her Waffles. 

Of course, with a face like this, 

I think I'm going to call her Lil Foxy instead.

And that's all I have for today. Now it's time to scoot and attend to the balance of living. Besides, I need to shop for a designer gown before my next Nogger Awards, the family fun addition.

I'm thinking something taupe... 

*****

What's the favorite thing  you didn't blog about lately?

Along the Way, Take Time...

Well, here it is.  It's a mere 15 days after jumping back into Blog Land, and I'm already lagging behind. I'm behind in my writing and behind in my reading.  The house needs dusting, and there is a load of clothes in the dryer waiting to be folded. Out in the garage, the cars are protesting because of the boxes of Christmas schtuff which have yet to make it to the attic.

And what's worse? Once again, I'll be the last guest to arrive at the 

The Note Card Party

 at A Haven for Vee. 

Because I lack balance, that's why...

I hate to shush people, but... Shhhh, people! I'm working on it.  It's my whole theme of 2014, in fact. Before I box 2013 into the blog archives forever, though, I wanted to leave you with a final remembrance of the theme from last year.  

Starring the Shiny Red Kodak. 

  

(posted HERE)

Actually, that's Shiny Red Kodak, Sr. He kicked the bucket a few years ago and was replaced by Son of Shiny Red Kodak. He likes the drive- by  just as much as his daddy did, and his very favorite reason to slow down last year was a little pop of red.

Like little red berries

and little red shacks

and little red bridges.

And there you have it, the first note card(s) of 2014.  

And if in so doing, you lag just a little behind, is that really such a big deal?

No, I don't think so either.

Sharing at A Haven for Vee

Yet Another Word of the Year

I may have mentioned a time or two hundred that I teach a Bible study class every week. I love my class. We're called the Lydia Class, and we've been meeting together for over a decade.  We have a class verse and a class prayer and a class song. We even have a class color.  It's  purple. Maybe I'll yak about that some day.

Just not today

 What we've never had was a class motto or a even a Word of the Year. This year, I decided to remedy that and dub up one. The spiritual chocolate today is all about it. 

I'll start this post the same way I started our lesson,

 by making you guess what that word is.  

So... open your Bibles to the following verses, and see if you can spot the word of the year. 

From Jesus  himself  (John 13:34)

A new command I give you: Love one another. 

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

and again from Jesus (13:35)

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, 

if you love one another.”

There He goes again...(John 15:12)

This is My commandment,

 that you love one another as I have loved you.

and again (15:17)

These things I command you, that you love one another.

and from the Apostle Paul (Romans 13:8)

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.

And John the Beloved  (1 John 3:)

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Even my favorite Apostle weighs in on the subject.

(1 Peter 1:22)

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart

There were other verses as well, but I think you get the drift. Every single one of them contains the same Greek word.  I'll ask you the same question that I asked them.

 What do you think is going to be our word of the year?

I'll betcha some of you are thinking that it's love. You might even be like some of my Smartie Arties and be thinking of the specific Greek word, agape.

They got a gold star and bragging rights for knowing that, but they were still wrong. While agape is indeed in every verse, love in any language is not our word of the year. Our word is another Greek word.  It is found in every verse as well, but maybe you were so focused on the love that you overlooked it.  They did.

Or maybe, you were a bit duped by that *one word* business. I wasn't really lying to you. Our word really  is a single Greek word. It's allelon (pronounced  al-lay-lone  ).  It just doesn't have a single English word equivalent.

That's probably a good thing since it's impossible to practice  allelon in the singular. (It's actually impossible to *practice* it at all since it's a pronoun and not a verb, but...)  Allelon is the Greek plural pronoun which means one another.

One another. 

You see, inserting the word allelon in those verses changes the love a bit. This love isn't the unrequited kind like loving our enemies or even our neighbors. This is a love of  allelon,  one another.  It's not designed to be one-sided. In fact, by very definition it can't be one-sided.  Allelon is a  reciprocal pronoun. What one does... the other does right back.

It's part of God's perfect design for the body of Believers.  Pretty wonderful, if you ask me,  yet based on casual observation, it raises a question:   

Is it possible to have our noses pressed deeply into the Word yet still manage to overlook one another?  Is it possible to be so focused on the good stuff... the very important stuff like love... and still manage to overlook one another?

I think so. (Maybe you just did.)

What's more, my class agreed with me. 

That's why we're dubbing this year Allelon: The Year of One Another.  We began last week just the way we ought to, with our noses pressed deeply into the Word without overlooking one another.

All told, Allelon is used in 94 different verses in the New Testament. Within those verses are over 30 different commands as to how believers should (and should not) treat one another.  Because I never do anything half way, we'll be studying every single one of them.

And we started at the beginning... For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. (1 John 3:11) 

*****

Comments off

Happy a happy Sunday, one to another. 

Debbie the Diva and the (Little) Taupe Dress

It all started in the dressing room.

Have I mentioned how much I hate clothes shopping? Well, I do. It's not so much the casual shopping that I hate; it's the commando shopping. You know... the kind that you have to do for what I like to call a Loomer.

Now, I don't know how you handle the Loomers, but I generally follow a few simple steps. First, I procrastinate. Then, since procrastination does wonders for my appetite, I move into phase II: The panic diet phase. It's during the panic diet phase that I realize it's time for the commando raid to find the appropriate Loomer wear.

It's not a good mix. 

That's because procrastinated panic dieting rarely does what it's intended to do. About an hour into my commando raids, I usually decide to surrender, buy yet another black dress, and loom in the shadows. 

Can anyone relate?  (please?) 

(Yes, I realize that the phrase yet another black dress implies that I have a multitude of them. I do. They're just never the right black dress for that particular Loomer.  Plus, they don't fit. Try to keep up, people...)

So that's where I was, standing in a dressing room in middle Georgia, crying because not one of the 4,726 black dresses I had tried on that day was working for me. 

That's when the size 2 clerk who probably never had a case of Loomers in her life knocked on the door. She handed me this:

Does that look like a black dress to you?

Now, the typical Debbie thing to do here would be to take the dress and pretend to try it on. However, I might possibly have turned into a Diva in need of a Snickers at that point because what I did instead was flatly refuse. 

And I said,

 "Sorry, I can't wear that color."

And she said,

 "Who says so?"

I was about to tell her that everybody says so, but I knew in my head that it was sort of a stupid answer. I'm pretty sure that every person on the planet has not weighed in with his opinion as to wearable colors in Debbie Land.

Instead, I murmured something about being a blonde so anything beige just washes me out. 

While she agreed that I should not ever wear the color beige, she said that taupe was completely different. It's all in the shade, she said, and she began to prove it by holding every piece of beige in the store against my face to contrast it with that taupe dress. 

The next thing I knew, I was checking out. Then, she gave me directions to the best little accessory shop she knew and the name of a woman there who would be able to help me find a pop of color to go along with it. 

I was thinking red or coral or something,

 but the color maven suggested this:

Does that look like a pop of color to you?

It didn't to me either. I guess I protested too loudly, though, because before I knew it, everybody in the store really was weighing in on the wearable colors in Debbie Land.

I was still unconvinced, but since I had dubbed 2013 the year to step out of my comfort zone, I did it. I bought the single most daring outfit I have ever owned: Taupe on taupe.

And you'll never guess what happened next. 

My daring taupe outfit was a big hit. Seriously, not since the electric blue pant suit of '83 have I gotten more compliments on an article of clothing, specifically about the color.

On me.

As in, why don't you ever wear that color?

 It's wonderful on you.

What?

Then, since I never do anything in moderation, I began to buy more of that taupe-y stuff.

Taupe shoes...

Taupe sweaters...

A taupe scarf...

I even tried to taupe-stain a lace blouse with some strong coffee, but it was an epic failure. After three washes, it turned an unfortunate shade of beige, and my closet still smelled like Starbucks. 

You can't win them all, folks.

With all that taupe in the closet, it just seemed reasonable to go ahead and make it the 2014 Color of the Year. When God laid the word balance on my heart, it was a match made in Heaven. 

And there you have it: How Debbie the Diva learned to love taupe.

But now... if you have stuck with this too-long-yakabout for this long, I think you deserve a moral of the story as well.

And here it is:

Maybe you can do the thing you think you cannot do.

Maybe, just maybe, you need to do it a shade differently. 





*****
(I have no idea why that font suddenly changed. I can't fix it either. Ugh.) 

Because It Doesn't Have To Be Black Or White

Ugh.

Here I go again.

I was all set to yak abroad my color of the year and tell you the little story that inspired it, and for the life of me, I can't get the post on the page.  Oh, I'm getting words on the page... lots of them in fact. I just can't seem to spill the beans without making a whole pot of chili.  And so?

 I. Post. Nothing.

Can anyone relate?

A favorite blogger who shall remain nameless  has suggested that maybe, just maybe, I'm something of a perfectionist. Though that would probably surprise the dust bunnies living under my bed, she's not completely out in left field, only instead of a straight-up perfectionist, I'm more of what you call an extremist.

As colors go, I'm more of a passionate red, bright yellow, or hot pink.  My neutrals are either black or white. 

It's sad but true. In Debbie Land, it's either freezing or boiling. (Feel free to take that comment literally, by the way.)

 I'm either Richard Simmons or Henry the VIII.  

source  source

Sue Ann or Roseanne

source  source

OK, strike that one. I'm proud to say that I have never been a Rosanne.  ( I'm not exactly Sue Ann Nivens either, but that's not relevant.)

But really...

 Don't you think there's some space in between?

Yeah, I think so too. 

This year, I'm going to figure out a way to embrace more of it.

I'm not just doing it for myself, either. If you think it's frustrating for me, imagine being married to a pendulum for 30 years.  Therefore, for the sake of all concerned, I have decided to put my focus this year on the practice of moderation. Life doesn't have to be an all or nothing life, after all. It just needs some healthy balance.

That's why balance is my word of the year.  And the color I picked to go along with it? 

It's taupe. 

Yes, taupe. Don't even try to tell me that taupe doesn't have possibilities. It does. Taupe isn't the same as beige or cream or buff. I would never choose them for a color of the year. For one thing, they're boring. For another, I like to wear my color of the year, and I can't wear beige, cream, or buff.

Taupe, on the other hand, has just enough depth to distinguish it from the creams of the world.  Taupe has a personality; it's just a quiet one. It works and plays well with others, too.  It can be both a neutral and a pop of color.  Oh sure, it doesn't pop like red, but who says a pop of color has to scream at you? Why can't it just sort of converse?

That's what taupe is to me, a warm and conversational kind of color, not too loud, but with enough hue to keep it from being bland. Taupe is a color with perfect balance, and that's why it's my 2014 color of the year.

Ta da!!

****

And now that I've finally spilled the beans,  I can get around to visiting.

Yes,  I'm oddball enough to admit that I was afraid to read blogs  lest someone choose the word first and think I was a big, old, copycat. 

   So... even if you've already blogged it: 

What's your goal for 2014? 

Inquiring minds want to know. 

It's A Brand New Morning

Of a brand new year! 

(Yes, I did wake up in time to capture the first blue hour...)

I'm pretty excited about it, too. I generally love the first day of a new year, and I particularly like the start of an even one.  I don't know why; I'm just odd like that.  I'm not actually a big numerology girl,  but if I were, I think I would like the year 2014. After all, 7 is a Biblically perfect number... and it takes two 7's to make a 14.  Therefore, I'm thinking that the 14th year of a new millennium might be practically perfect in every way.

You know, kind of like Mary Poppins.

So I'll bet you think I picked something poppy for my color of the year, don't you?  Well, I didn't. Try to keep up, folks.  I did the poppy thing last year.  This year's color has an inspiration all it's own, and  for my life right now, it's practically perfect in every way. I plan to tell you all about it in a day or two.

Or if things roll the way they did last year, maybe around March...

This morning, I just wanted to get my wheels turning with a New Year shout out to all my friends in Blogville.  I missed you, and I missed blogging. Oh sure, I got a lot accomplished in the past several months. My house is as neat as a pin. (OK, maybe more like a knitting needle, but it's neat, I tell you.)  It's organized too. I can actually grab things in closets without feeling like Chicken Little.

source

I completed some projects around here which I might yak about at a later time, and I even had an adventure or two in the past few months.  All in all, it was a time of great accomplishment.

But here's the thing: While stepping away from the world of blogging might have given me more free time and made me a touch more productive, it didn't make me happier.  I'm not saying that I walked around like Debbie Downer or anything. It's just that I missed looking at life through the eyes of a blogger. I still carried around the shiny red Kodak, but the pictures seemed incomplete without the yakabout.

Can anyone relate?

So for better or for worse, I'm back like a bad Henny Penny to try again.

I thought I would begin with a recap of our very adventurous New Year's Eve around here. Then, I realized that it was basically a remake of Mr. Fuddy and Mrs. Duddy, right on down to the restaurant of choice. This time,  though, I was smart enough not to choose the shrimp and grits.

So there you have it: My exciting return to the world of blogging.

 In case you missed it, I just managed to fill an entire yakabout with 432 words 

and say absolutely nothing. 

Apparently, I'm back. 

*****

Happy New Year, folks! 

So...what did you do for New Year's Eve?

A Merry Duchess Christmas and a Happy Birthday Too!

Somebody's having a birthday today!  

And her name  isn't Debbie. 

My birthday has come and gone, just like the rest of Christmas season...

and the rest of December...

and the rest of November...

and most of October too. 

I really and truly tried to get back into Blog Land. You have no idea how many times I tried. 

I thought I might get the groove again in time to celebrate Thanksgiving,

 but the next thing I knew, 

it was time to do this.

Oops.

And a whole lot of this

And for reasons which will remain unyakked, 

I kinda needed a bit of this

And some of  this

(Pssst... I'm the one on the left.)

But Suddenly,

I woke from my sugar stupor and discovered that if I procrastinated a visit to Blog Land for one more day, I would miss the opportunity to yak abroad a very auspicious occasion to the world wide web.

Or at least to the three people still around to read here... 

What a blockhead!

Not to worry. There is time to rectify the situation before the clock strikes midnight.  Besides, there's really only  one person who needs to see this post anyway, the one whose birthday we're celebrating today, the one who created this Christmas scene. 

  

  Happy 75th Birthday to
 The Duchess,

 the single most giving and creative 

Christmas lady I know.

I'm so proud that you are my mom!

*****
And yes,  I'll 'fess up  to the shameless ulterior motive
of showing her house this year before it's too late.

Admit it.
You're doing the  Peanuts Dance
and  singing,  "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
Aren't you?

Notes from Washington

Nothing like being unfashionably late to a party.  

Yes, I realize it's been nearly two months since I last made an appearance in Blogville.

 I'm not really back yet, either.

I just wanted to drop by before it was too late to join
 the Note Card Party at 

A Haven For Vee. 

My cards this month might more rightly be called  post cards.  They were taken during an adventure in Washington D.C.  Per Vee's new rules, I was allowed to use a few photographs which haven't been shared before.  The new ones were taken at the war memorials on the Washington mall.

This one is haunting, isn't it?

I thought about trying to crop the tourists out of the this next one, but it seems to me that there has been more than enough of that tourist cropping going on in Washington these days.

Some folks are pretty uptight about all that.

In fact, some  are more than uptight. They are downright angry that anyone would deny veterans the right to visit a memorial that was not only built for them, but by them, one battlefield at a time.

Maybe you're one of the angry ones.  

That's OK, I'm pretty ticked off too.  

But if you are, I have a question for you:

Before the veterans were shut out, 

did you know they were brought in?

Well, now you do. 

And now that you do, what are you prepared to do about it?

Those veterans, you see, are actually transported to Washington through the efforts of private citizens in a program called Honor Flight. It isn't a government program. If it were, don't you think the whole trip would have been shut down?  

Yeah, I think so too.

Let's face it.  It's easy to get angry. It's even easier to join arms with other angry people and call it righteous anger. Trust me, I'm well practiced at that.  What isn't always easy is putting our money where our mouth is. 

Here's the thing: When the smoke clears and all the silly barricades have been taken down...and the talking heads are talking about something else... and we the people have found some new cause to champion... 

There will still be veterans who want to visit their memorial in Washington, DC. 

The only  barricade standing in their way is the money to get there.  

I encourage you, friends, to click THIS LINK and read all about the Honor Flights.  I hope that you stay long enough to find out how to donate your time and resources to give our honored veterans a tangible gift of gratitude for their sacrifice and service.  If we're really passionate about the soldier's right to see his memorial, let's go the extra mile and pay his way to get there.

Unless, of course, the anger really had nothing to do with the veterans at all.