Photo Challenge: Thursday’s Windows – Week 10

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Posting a day early because of the holiday.

I have borrowed a window again this week, mainly because it is one of my favorite window pictures, and it seem so very appropriate for this Thanksgiving week. I’m truly enjoying all of your pictures. Isn’t it amazing how something  so “ordinary” can suddenly become a thing of delight and even inspiration when we focus on it differently?  My mother taught me that. She was a poet, and almost every poem she wrote focused on the “specialness” that she saw in the “ordinary” people and things in her life. I will always appreciate that gift from her.

Be sure to leave the link to your pictures. And for those of you who live in the U. S., I wish you a warm, wonderful, delightful Thanksgiving!

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Doris at Masadiso79 (find her at this link: http://goomfh.wordpress.com/) paid me a great honor this week by nominating me for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award.”  I am touched by what she said when she notified me, and I can honestly say that knowing even a few people are inspired by some of the things I share makes all the effort worthwhile. 

One of the rules requires me to tell seven things about myself.  Oh my … what to say that you might find  — not boring:

1. I love my Lord Jesus Christ, and my primary purpose in life is to promote Him and His love for the world.
2. I am a keyboard musician and songwriter
3. I have one sister with whom I have always been close.
4. My first written work for publication was a play called Measles For Christmas, which I wrote for my 6th grade class to perform.
5. I love chocolate with a passion that is beyond describing with normal words.
6. I still stay in touch with many of my former high school students, even though they are scattered all over the U. S. and sometimes around the world.
7. An evening visiting with good friends and drinking great coffee is my idea of the most perfect entertainment.

Now for passing on the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award.” The rules call for me to pass the award to 15 bloggers, but I am nominating 17. All the following people are most definitely deserving of being honored as “inspiring” bloggers, and I do not see the award posted on their sites. However, if I nominate anyone who has already received the award, please just feel doubly-blessed.

Let me add here that I do not want anyone I nominate to feel burdened by the rules. Those rules ask you to post the award emblem onto your site, tell 7 things about yourself, and nominate 15 other bloggers for the award and let them know about it. However, when you receive the nomination from me, please feel free to carry out the rules only to the extent that you can do so without their becoming a burden. For example, if you are a new blogger and do not know 15 other bloggers to whom you wish to pass the award, just nominate any number that works for you — or nominate none. You deserve the award regardless, or I would not have passed it on to you. Be free to enjoy it any way you choose.

1. Hearing His Voice:  http://learning2hear.com/

2. Lubby Girl:  http://remissionary.wordpress.com/

3. CraftCrazyGran:  http://craftcrazygran.wordpress.com/

4. Adinparadise:  http://adinparadise.wordpress.com/

5. Danajoward:  http://danajoward.wordpress.com/

6.The Retiring Sort:  http://theretiringsort.wordpress.com/

7. KnowledgeKnut:   http://knowledgeknut.wordpress.com/ 

8. Patrick Latter: http://hikingphoto.com/ 

9. Chris Martin:  http://chrismartinwrites.com/blog/

10. S. Thomas Summers:  http://thelintinmypocket.wordpress.com/

11.  The Earth Beneath My Feet:  http://theearthbeneathmyfeet.wordpress.com/

12. The Dorset Rambler: http://thedorsetrambler.wordpress.com/ 

13. Dennis O’Brien: http://dnobrienpoetry.wordpress.com/ 

14. Ted Pavloff:  http://awalkintheword.wordpress.com/

15. Gerty Giggles:  http://gertrygiggles.wordpress.com/

16. Pure Glory:   http://pureglory.net/

17. Steven Sawyer:  http://stevensawyer.wordpress.com/

 

Thanksgiving = Family

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

When I was a child, we sang this song in school every November.

“Over the river and through the wood,
To Grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river and through the wood,
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
Spring over the ground
Like a hunting hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.

“Over the river and through the wood —
Now Grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!”

(Excerpted from “Thanksgiving Day”)
© Lydia Maria Child

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Add your thoughts here… (optional)

Merry Christmas, World!'s avatarMerry Christmas, World!

(This article was originally written prior to the current holiday season, but I see the same events transpiring this year as well.  People are making it clear that they need Christmas more than ever, so I’m sharing the article with new readers this year.)

I first started noticing something different about the second week of November. I drove by a house with a Christmas tree already covered with lights and glowing in the living room window. Then I passed a house with yards and yards of garland and brilliant lights that shouted Christmas for all the world to see. 

Now, I’m not talking about the stores and other halls of commerce, which regularly throw all their Christmas stuff on the shelves the week of Halloween just for the sake of making another buck. Although, frankly, that fact doesn’t bother me particularly because I love Christmas and all of its trappings…

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Green

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Just a little piece of graphic art I created one day when I was in the mood for fun instead of work.

 

I was amazed at how many different shades of green were in this picture taken from my front porch.

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Add your thoughts here… (optional)

Merry Christmas, World!'s avatarMerry Christmas, World!

A Little Music Lesson Before The Song:

“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” is my favorite Christmas song of all time.  Now, I love many Christmas songs with a passion, so, believe me, they get their share of attention.  But this one carol just worked its way into my heart years ago and nestled right down into its own special place.

So … you can imagine how unhappy I was when I heard someone sing it incorrectly. Of course, hearing it sung incorrectly once or twice in a lifetime is not much, and had that been the scope of things, I would not be sharing this little lesson. However, sadly, but truly, during the past dozen years, I can honestly say that every time I have heard the song publicly performed or played via recorded media, every single song artist has sung the song incorrectly — and, what’s worse — every…

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Jake Sprinter’s Sunday Challenge: Architecture

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Thanks to Jon at pdphoto.org for this amazing picture. He does terrific work.

Hop over to Jake’s place and join in:
http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/sunday-post-architecture/#comment-7531

New Christmas Blog!

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Hey, folks, I have a brand new Christmas blog: “Merry Christmas, World!”  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas!  And personally I celebrate it all year long — playing carols and Christmas movies 12 months a year. Yet there is something very special about celebrating it with everyone else in December as well. This year I have treated myself to a brand new Christmas blog.  I will try to include a multitude of different things on there so that, hopefully, it will become a place where all of you will feel at home.  

Be sure to go over and visit the site at the link below, and while you are there, look over on the right — in the widget column — and you will see a section labeled “Pages On This Site.”  In that list you will find a page titled “Christmas In My World.” That page is there for all of you to be able to share things that make Christmas special in your own world.  You may share a memory, a story, a poem, a joke, photos, recipes, or anything else your heart desires. Feel free to post as often as you like.

(Only Positive Things, Of Course: No comments from Grinches allowed.)

You may post everything you want to say in the “Comment” box, or you can leave a link there to your own site, so that visitors can come to your home and see what you have to share.

I have much more work to do on it, but it’s open for visitors any time. Some new people whom I’ve never met have already found it, so come on over and join us when you get time:   http://christmasiscalling.wordpress.com/

Photo Challenge: Thursday’s Windows — Week 9

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

I live in a small city that is a little over 100 years old, and I’m glad that several of the business owners have gone to the trouble and expense of refurbishing and restoring so many of our buildings.  I love to look down this street on a quiet day and see the windows in the upper level of these buildings.

The picture of the single building with the “Annex” sign was a very busy and popular movie theater in the late 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.  It has been re-claimed and turned into a coffee shop with a 1940’s movie theme decor inside.

The second picture shows the other end of that block of buildings, also with restored structures and windows.

Be sure and leave a link to your windows pictures.

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

This is an amazing true story by Ted Pavloff, and I want to share it to encourage the readers of my site as well.
Sandra

A Walk in the Word's avatarA Walk In The Word

In honor of Veteran’s Day, I am sharing this story with my readers. It is actually a small book, published by St. Ellen Press, which tells how God miraculously intervened in the lives of an entire Marine Corps unit during World War II. Although it’s my story, and that of the other 321 men in my squadron, it is primarily HIS story.  In the past few years I have shared free copies of the book with hundreds of soldiers who were in the midst of horrible combat overseas. In response, I have received numerous testimonies of how the book strengthened their own faith and helped them experience miracles of protection and deliverance as well.  I am grateful to be able to share it here. If you are reading this post and are a member of the armed forces — or you have a loved one who is — you may…

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Window Trouble

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

I’m not sure what’s happening this week, but I noticed that several people’s links for the “Thursday’s Windows – Week 8” are going up on other posts. Some are going up on “Week 7” and some on other people’s sites. I’m getting a notification of some of them, but they are not on the site of the “Week 8 Challenge.”  I re-posted the first one, thinking it was an isolated case, but I can’t take the time personally to re-post everyone’s links.

Just wanted to let you all know so that you can check your posted links to make sure you’re actually putting them onto this week’s challenge. I don’t mind which one you put them on, but I’m concerned that people won’t find the new ones if they are not posted in the comment section of this week’s challenge. Hopefully, we’ll get it straightened out so we don’t miss anyone’s pictures.

Photo Challenge: Thursday’s Windows – Week 8

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Below is my offering for this week.  It is a photo my sister took on her trip to France last year.  She loves Monet’s work and has always wanted to visit his home.  When she did so, she got some great pictures.

What fascinates me about the home is that it has SO MANY windows. You don’t see many one-family homes with rows and rows of windows like these, and I think they are what give the home a special, beautiful charm.

Be sure to post your comments and your links below.