I’m behind on my reading.  So what’s new?

I tried to join The Empty Shelf Challenge the week between Christmas and New Years. I made myself this handy little chart and started reading like a mad woman (for me, anyway). But I’ve lost some steam. Also, I m actually reading almost everything on Kindle and I am not falling in love with digital reading. I could always fall asleep reading, but I think the light is messing with my melatonin.

Plus, I am also currently reading 6 books (never, ever one at a time, seriously), but I am a little bit uncommitted.

Every year I swear I’ll complete the reading of 52 books. Every year I am wrong.

My top three so far: Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist, The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown (on a 3rd read-through because I need it and I’m in a club) and Becoming Myself by Staci Eldredge.

I should be through the 13th book by now…How are you doing on reading in 2014? Will you make your goals? Do you think I will? Be nice.

Life is a Mixtape by Handz on Etsy

How much do you think I love this? Yep. That much. The whole shop is filled with the cutest prints! Click above to go see!

The red-back hymnal gets noticed

I have a hymnal collection and I loooooooooove it and really the only hymnal glaringly missing, the one I probably should own,  is the red-backed hymnal I grew up with. It’s actually the one I can still name song and page number to, but I got rid of the ones I had a few years ago…because I needed some distance. But I am ready to embrace a copy now.  Especially now that it has gone and been honored on TBN’s presentation Of the Southern Gospel Music Guild’s annual Harmony Honors, which was hosted by Jason Crabb, the other night.

This year the Harmony Honors recognized Pathway Press as publisher of the classic “Red Back” Church Hymnal, used by thousands of churches across the South for over sixty years. Generations of gospel groups have dipped into the depths of the old “Red Back” hymnal for classic quartet and convention songs…

One day, I may even be able to come to page 333 (“Ill Fly Away”) without cringing. One day.

Ombre

Ombre hair is beautiful. But the ends should be lighter. The roots, darker. It should be like this:

Not this!  And NO – this is NOT me!!! But, it will be soon if something doesn’t happen…

Time to re-color, but dang-it – I cannot get the dark stuff out I used last summer!

I started going dark brown around Christmas of 2012 and got really bold with it last June. I did this extremely deep black-brown and loved it, twice.  But since, I have re-colored with brown, medium brown and light brown and I have tried color-stripper on it twice. That stuff stinks to high heaven – like rotten eggs for a week! Yuck. Just by the sheer torture I have put it through, my hair has faded some, but not all the way.

I am ready to go back to something lighter that will, *ahem, not be so highly contrasted with some certain, shall we call them, silvery strands that wish to take over my head?  What in the world?  Wigs may be my only, true hope…

This is one pretty mannequin, huh?    Wig, $33.99 {source}

I swear the stores are full of Joey Buttafucco pants right now

That cannot be coming back, can it?  Lord, help us all!

They are being paired with cropped tops so you can get the full effect and that isn’t going to make anybody’s butt look bigger.  Nooooo….just keep telling yourself that.

You had no idea what an artist I am, did you?

Wanna play Draw Something with me?

#tbt Throw-Back Thursday

This is my Grandpa and Grandma Allison and their little brood, circa 1944 or 45. I wish I’d seen this when my kids were little, I’d have tried to replicate it-you know I would have. I also had 4 daughters and one son.

Left to right, Grandpa is holding Aunt Judy, Aunt Helen was the oldest sister in the middle back, Aunt Pat near Grandpa, my mom near Grandma. Uncle Cab was on Grandma’s lap. My mamala is about 5 in this picture and I can so see the sweet gentle spirit she still possesses.

Grandma and Grandpa, also known as the epic, life-long lovers, Opal & Everett (click here), have gone on to heaven now. I don’t know, in the history of mankind, if there has been a man who loved his wife like my grandpa loved his. He adored her all the way to the end. I come from love, deep love.

My treasured Aunt Helen passed away over 20 years ago, much too young. Uncle Cab died a year and a half ago, the nicest man.

Here is my mom with her first granddaughter. Tara was about 6 or 8 months old. My raving-beauty mom was 41.

Norma Jean and Tara Jean – two of my life’s most important, most admired women.

I am sick

I don’t feeeeeeel good today. Weak, shaky, nauseous…But I think Dairy Queen could help?

You can change the world on Thursday

People think that you have to do something huge, like go to Africa and build a school, but you can make a small change in a day. If you change Wednesday, then you change Thursday. Pretty soon it’s a week, then a month, then a year. It’s bite-size, as opposed to feeling like you have to turn your life inside out to make changes.  -Hoda Kotb

Go, make the world a better place! Let’s meet back here next Thursday.  :)