You may have stumbled here. Welcome. Or you may follow along. Thank you. What a gift to have you reading. This is where I mix it up a bit. It’s the end of August and I am joining my friend Emily P. Freeman (I love that she uses her middle initial. Someone else I know does the same thing. 🙂 ) from the blog, Chatting At The Sky . We are taking a look back at last month, recalling some things we learned during August. Here are seven things I have chosen to share. You should see the ones that didn’t make the cut. They may show up in their very own blog post or poem.
Get out now. Well I really would rather you stayed but I am trying to sort of warn you. It gets very very random from this point forward.
This was fun in June and July. Follow the link to go back and review the summer highlight reel with me.
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1. I learned what a “Dirty Chai” is. One of the recent things I have done slash happened upon which made no sense in hindsight involved lots of caffeine. At my favorite coffee shop one day around ” tired 4:00 ish pm” I asked if Chai Tea had caffeine in it. And the barista answered yes. And I then asked how can I make it more caffeinated and he responded “we call that a Dirty Chai”. Oh, ok. So one shot of espresso wasn’t enough so I ordered two. And a small wasn’t enough so I ordered a large. And the rest is sleepless history. It was deliciously caffeinated and I was really tired the next day. You’re welcome for the heads up.
2. So I am a big fan of Downton Abbey. Which opens up all sorts of other British drama possibilities once one goes looking. I am now a huge fan of “Call the Midwife.” I mean I am kind of NUTS about it. As in I may, may like it better…..no I can’t make that judgement. It is like picking a favorite ice cream or favorite child. After you watch an episode or two you can tell me what you think. Here is the trailer from PBS. The music is fab too. I believe we are up to Season 3, but don’t quote me. How do you like the royal we there. Oh and I follow them on twitter and facebook. So can you.
3. Parenting isn’t for weenies. And if I elaborate on this you will end up with a “War and Peace” ish tome on that very subject. I am just guessing, but I don’t think you signed up for that here. But I may be writing about it soon. #parentingisnotforthefaintofheart. I wonder if I can add 23 plus 18 plus 17 and round up since the birthdays are soonish and if that equals how many parenting years I have under my belt. #feellikeanewbie
4. Parenting isn’t for weenies. (that one needs to take up two line items of learned knowledge
5. I have decided I want to write music. Mildly obsessed with this, really. Maybe one day I will. But you all are so precious to listen to my dreams. It is number 5 because I sort of ran into this piece of knowledge. I mean, it kept haunting me. Finally, I said “Dream, nice to meet you. I think I will keep you.”
6. I am learning to seek poetry in more places. And I am increasingly fascinated by Instagram. Once a skeptic, now a big fan. (Should I rename this post “Some Things I Am A Fan Of This Month). Here are some fun peeks into my Instagram world. Am I following you on Instagram? I am @graceappears there.
The salt creek and brown pelicans will never grow old. To my soul they deliver joy and utter fascination.
I love this church at the end of my street. And though I am not a member, I love to visit. I don’t know why I want to giggle at The Chapel Of Ease, subtitle? It is probably really good theology. What if all Churches were chapels of ease, and grace and love and sweet warm invitation. Holy gracious goodness. I love this picture, this church and I love the front doors.
7. The “teacher” on Scrabble is sort of a show off. I have learned a lot from him/her and I do feel challenged by her skills. I play a two player Scrabble game where I take turns with myself. So after every move she grades me and says Outstanding, Excellent, Good or HMM. It’s when she says HMM that I get a little grumpy. And there are words, really, really that are words. Did you know “aa” is a word. And I could go on and on. Here are a few words I learned from the “Scrabble Dictionary”. I probably won’t be using any of these on my blog. And I just learned while I was looking up random weird words that I was using the British (Collins) dictionary. I switched it to the English (TWL) dictionary. Great. That should make a big difference. Aa,ab,ae,ag,oo,ee are all words and it gets weirder. She knows so many multi-syllabic words that I have never, ever heard of that it makes my head spin. Seriously, words I will never ever use in a sentence or a blog post. But I was taught not to question the teacher. So whatever. I think its like the casinos in Las Vegas. I am just guessing, the house always wins.
8. And 8 is my bonus item. I know I told you there were 7 but I learned that my neighbor’s parrot might be imitating me calling my dogs at night. I am going to post a video on Instagram of the parrot imitating me and then you can decide if you think it is me calling my dogs or the parrot. It is a hoot. When we were newly married, we had a parrot that imitated my husband calling me “Elizabeth, Elizabeth”.
I warned you it would get random here. 🙂 You all are good sports.
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This is so much fun, don’t you want to share a random thing you learned sometime recently in the comments. I would love to hear. Tomorrow it is back to poetry, but this rocks my world. Can’t wait to go to Chatting At The Sky to read some of the dozens of posts up over there. I love being a life-time learner. Life is never boring.
elizabeth w. marshall 
love the random, have been llving the random
This month, I learned that the mourning doves really are in cahoots with the little red squirrels — letting them know when the feeder is full again by kamikaze-knocking seeds out of the feeders to the ground. This way, the squirrels don’t have to brave the climb to the balcony until it’s worth their while. (Meanwhile, squirrels and doves alike learned there’s often a big brown and white dog waiting to chase them away).
I also learned that the virtual world is a small one, too, and unexpected connections can be found through snippets of random blog posts. 🙂
Aren’t these end of the month posts fun? Love them. Your Chapel of Ease reminded me of a drive to our son’s house in Arizona, back when we drove from California. We drove through a little tiny town called Hope. With a church, The Chapel of Hope… and a sign as you drive out of town, “You are now beyond Hope.” For real. My hubbie said the church should have been called the Church of Little Hope. But I’m sure they would not have appreciated that. Chapel of Ease does sound like a wonderful place.
And I can’t wait to hear the parrot calling the dogs – funny! Do the dogs listen?
LOVE THIS. I signed on this month, too – what a fun meme to do. Random is where it’s at, baby. Yeah. Life is random. In a providential sorta way.
This is hysterical, friend! I love this side
of you!! My husband and I are talking about the parrot right now. He said it would drive him nuts, I think it would be hilarious. I think I’d try mixing it up to see if the bird would be able to follow along. 🙂
This parrot must live outside and he is several yards over. He is quite entertaining. I am going to play with him a little, if you know what I mean. I may be teaching him how to sing Amazing Grace before its all over. I love writing these posts. I am so glad you enjoy reading. THey feel a little “out there”. You encourage me, always and always.
#5 made me so happy to hear! Thrilled you’re dreaming and sharing them. Go, Elizabeth! Xoxo
Thank you. Deep breathes. I love sharing with friends. I cherish the cheerleader that you are in my life, Ashley. I will keep you posted. Love to you.