Life Is Beautiful (a poem)

photo by: Jannie — May, 2006 (for those of you new here, mine’s the middle kid.)

Do you have fleas you can’t get rid of?
Nothing but bread crusts twice daily?
A board bed? One thin blanket?

Neither do I!! So let’s dance.
And write letters. And sing songs.
And fling our love to the stars!

(The alternate last line is, of course,
And fling our “bras” to the stars!)

Friday Flash 55 For The G-Man!

The Blog Party (a poem)

photo credit: midcoast- images

One by one the guests
stagger from the stars
into my comment box,

some bundled up in
garlands of little birds
laughing and dancing,

some robed in oceans
of late summer sunset.
Others in sepia scenes.

Some wear hats made
of rainbows, and socks
knit from lilies and lace.

Some smell like lilacs.
Some smell like lemons.
Some smell like the light
of the newlywed moon.

Two or three smell like
full length leather coats
not worn since 1975.

Some carry trays packed
with pies and maps and
freshly baked dreams.

Some carry only a rose.

Some flounce in early
with explosions of lupines
dripping from their hair,

to sway by the fire, then
float through the crowd and
slip out my music-room door.

Some limp in after midnight
soaked in beer, to swirl into
my heart and my soul and my
coffee mornings forever.

Others drift away in the fog.

But whoever the sweeties
– from whatever planet,
the more the merrier here!

– The End  

****************************

(If you liked this poem, why not hug somebody today?)

And friends, all these new poets linked below are hereby blessed with the “Jannie Funster Lucky Lupine Poetry Award” … Whoo-hoo!!!

I hope the honorees will leave a new poem on their blogs, linking Lupine Loving Jannie in the post, then pass the “Lucky Lupine” award on to as many poets in the universe as they can find!!

And the awards go to…

Jingle!

The Doubtful Poet

William’s Poetry Blog

Art Is My Religion

You Are Never Alone

Way Station One

Jaymie Thorne

Chocolate High

The Book Of  Noha

Beyond The Blog

Fiveloaf

imaGINAtions voice

Poems For All Occasions

the wisdom of gavroche

Moon’s melancholic mumblings

(I may be adding more poets to this list over the next few days (edit: decades) as I discover them!)

xoxoxoxoxo

Recover Your Blog BEFORE It’s Hacked — With John Hoff’s Wordpress Defender

Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and your blog was gone. Totally gone. Forever.

How much would you pay to recover your site? $500.00?  $1000.00?  Thousands?   A LOT more thousands?

I’d probably pay at least several hundred bucks to get all my precious bra-flinging tales and your wonderful comments  back.  And all the contact information contained within my blog — lost? Devastation.

Hey, don’t believe a malicious hacker would ever try to get into your blog? Think again. A site attacker does his evil deeds…

• Because he can.
• Because it’s there.
• Because it’s thrilling.
• Because it’s a challenge.
• Because he thinks it’s fun.
• Because he can brag about it.
• Because he’s training for bigger attacks.
• Because he doesn’t like you or what you stand for.

But blog invasion can be prevented in the first place!

Today one of our own, and a really good guy — John Hoff — is launching his “Wordpress Defender” Blog Security E-Book with its companion 1.5 hours of video on how to implement many of the security features.  There’s even a bonus — an affiliate program through E-Junkie to earn “Wordpress Defender” owners a 40% commission. Cool, eh?!

John learned the hard way from his wife’s site vanishing that he never ever wanted himself or another person to go through the agony and the fury of a hacked site.  So he poured his heart and soul into writing this 150 page book and producing the videos.

How would you feel if you could be 100% confident that no spammer or hacker could attack your blog – EVER? John Hoff’s “Wordpress Defender” blog security package will put your mind at ease.

“Wordpress Defender” gives you 30 security strategies you can implement today to fight back, defend and protect your blog from malicious hackers out to destroy what you worked so hard to build.

Some of you may already know John through his WP blog, or from his WP Blog Host site.  Follow him on Twitter here.  John is a good guy.  You can’t go wrong with his program.

What you’ll glean is GOLD. And easy to use. And at $39.00 it’s a gift.

Most of us put off blog security.  I know I did.  Don’t YOU put it off, PLEASE!!

Any questions you may have — I’m sure John will be happy to speak to directly in the comments.

………………………………………………………………………………..

Other respected bloggers who recommend  Wordpress Defender Blog Security E-Book …

Barbara Swafford of Blogging Without A Blog

Davina Haisell — Life Coach, Shades Of Crimson Blog

Hunter Nuttall — Personal Development For Polymaths

Betsy Wuebker — Passing Thru Blog

Texas Gold

Wednesday after school Kelly and a friend splished and splashed in Barton Springs in the dog area — which come to think of it — was surprisingly devoid of dogs that day.  Weird.  I guess the fowl had run off all the hounds.

The water was its year ’round 68 degrees, the air temp about 60.

(The whole picture.)

Both girls got soaked, of course, which tends to happen when kids say “I just wanna dip my big toe in.”

On the way back to the car both children expressed apparent dissatisfaction with some form of coldness they seemed to be experiencing.  Poor things. The other mom and I, from our dry and cozy state, offered them our sincerest deep condolences.

Later, we all feasted at the Kerby Lane Cafe. For me it was ceasar salad with chicken.  And peppermint tea.  Yummy!!

Dang, I’m hungry now as I prepare to post this, but I’m at the library and won’t get to a feeding station for at least another 50 minutes.  Boo hoo.

Is anybody else hungry??

Y’all have a glorious rest of your weekend!!  And life!!

xoxo

And I Used To Think Computer Games Were Just A Waste Of Time!

Some kids decorate their Club Penguin igloos like this…

chapscheats

this…

rummimort

this…

bearcub987

this…

clubpenguindrake678910

this…

omni warrior

this…

bolderdash

and this…

npfansite

But hey!  Guess who decorates her igloo looks like this…..??

Yep, Big Kid Jannie!!

Took me over 40 hours to “win” coins and decorate my igloo like.  Ahh yes, summer 2009 — when I temporarily went insane and joined Kelly in the Club Penguin craze.

So friends, you can imagine that while our Real House kinda looks like this…

and this….

(the 2 above of the room that once looked like this like this …)

and…

our Final Living Room (up over our new garage) looks like this…

this…

and this…

and the view from our front door looks like this…

… I’ve always got my igloo haven to run to for sanity!

Actually, I’m no longer a CP member — but I could renew any minute to find my igloo with every last palm-treed pixel in place!!  I could even pile 100 giant speakers to my little respite if I were so inclined.  Or 37 TVs!!! How’s that for some life control!!  And all for only $5.95 a month!! No contract required.

How would YOU (do you?) decorate YOUR igloo?? 

Have you ever played computer games with your kid?

Oh, Kelly wants you to see her new igloo…

toodle-ooo!  xoxo

Harbinger Of Great Things To Come

The above I took with my iPhone Monday on our Hike ‘N Bike trail.  Something’s putting out blossoms, not sure what, but its puffy white sweetlings sure are nice to behold.

(Notice the city across the way? That’s the Lamar Street bridge too. )

And sweet friends,  thanks so so much for “baring wit me” as I start to occasionally close comments.  This is really freeing me up to create wild new posts for you — ones you CAN comment on.  Like the one I’ll post tomorrow!  (And the one 2 days ago. Wait.  Was the one 2 days ago wild? I can’t remember back that far.)  Plus, I’ve got more time now to get around and read your wonderful blogs!

THANK YOU for sticking with me!  I love you all SO SO MUCH!!!!!

Jannie-Muffin
xoxoxo

P.S.  To see more photos of the beautiful Austin Ladybird Lake Trail, I posted some of my pix on it several months ago — ‘way back in the ancient days when my blog photos were a mere 500px wide.  

Portrait Of The Artist At Age Four

Kids are such wonderful natural artists!  And can be pretty prolific when given full reign to create whatever, whenever.

But if you save all their masterpieces, how do you organize them?

Anybody have any ideas for sorting / storing and / or displaying kids’ art??  And school papers? Oh, so very many school work papers since our little angel first entered the halls of academia at age 2. So much stuff collected over the years, I’m not sure what to do with it.

About the 3 pix in this post… For Mothers’ Day when Kelly was four, her pre-school teachers gave each of us a little album of our darlings at work and play.  Sweet, eh!?