This or That: Luke or Han?

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Sara

We finished rewatching the Star Wars trilogy, and I will say it again – there’s so much I didn’t remember, plot-wise. I did remember more about the third movie than the first two, for some reason. Ewoks are still so darn cute, I don’t care what you say!

Growing up, I seem to remember Luke getting a lot of love from the girls. Even though I didn’t remember the movies so well, I feel like I was more of a Han fan girl myself. Having rewatched the movies recently, I’m definitely a Han fan. Nothing quite like that bad boy with a heart of gold. I found Luke to be a whiny teenager, at least in the first movie – less so by the third, of course.

So I’m wondering, readers – Luke or Han? Who did you have a crush on growing up, and has that changed now that you’re older? Who did you idolize more? Who did you want to be more like?  Let me know in the comments below!

New giveaway rules – each comment on a This or That post in the month of June will be entered into a random drawing.  The winner will receive a 4×6 print of this photo:

House by the Sea

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Inspiration Tuesday

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Sara

 

The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen, available at amazon.com

The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen, available at amazon.com

I recently started reading The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen. I’m in Chapter 5 already (3 days in), so I would definitely say I’m enjoying it so far. I found it especially hard to put down last night, when the character of Chloe shows up. Chloe has a gift: whatever book she needs shows up when she needs it. As we’re introduced to her, she has kicked her boyfriend out for cheating on her, and the book that magically appears on her couch as she turns from the door is Finding Forgiveness. I’m waiting to see if she forgives the cheating bastard.

But it got me to thinking – Can you imagine?!

I mean, I love books, so I was instantly sucked into the idea that they can magically appear. Then I started wondering what would appear to me, right now? Probably Stop Making Excuses or some such title.

So, if books magically appeared for you whenever you needed them, what book would show up today?  What kind of inspiration do you need today?

Categories: Inspiration Tuesday | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

This or That: Cards or Board Games?

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Sara

Euphoria in board games is often at the expense of other players... (FlickrFriday #41 - Euphoria)

You must pick one, and you must explain why, but you can put any twist on it you want. Which would you rather play? Which is a family past time? Bonus points for telling me which card or board game is your favorite!

Personally, I like board games, but I’ve married into a card game family. They do play a lot of board games, too, though. Actually, they play a lot of my favorite kind of game – screw the board, just read the questions and yell out answers!

So what about you – Cards or Board Games?

No giveaway this week, but be sure to check back next week for a new one!

Categories: This or That? | 1 Comment

Inspiration Tuesday

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Sara

I was once in a college math class with a six year old in pigtails. She wasn’t a child prodigy, though. She sat in the back of the class, coloring, quiet as a mouse, while her mother, a fellow student, took notes. At one point, as the professor was explaining some mathmatical function or another, the little girl started humming softly, then started singing. “Night fever, night fever, we know how to do it.”

The entire class froze, stifling laughter. The girl’s mother was mortified, and hurried to the back of the room to quiet her daughter. The professor looked at the woman, smiled, said, “It’s okay,” and carried on.

Other than that one little disruption, the little girl didn’t cause any trouble. She just sat quietly, occasionally humming. She got some coloring done, and her mom worked on her education.

I was reminded of this when I read this awesome story of a professor soothing the crying child of one of his students during class. I love that the professor not only allows but encourages women to get an education, even with a baby in tow.

What’s inspiring you this week?

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On vacation rentals, Baby J walking, and the need to forgive

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Sara

I have spent the last three weeks looking at vacation rentals. Pretty much every nap time, plus an hour or more after Baby J has gone to sleep, I’ve been on rental sites weighing the amenities of hundreds of different rentals. I’m exhausted. But we’ve finally found a place that meets all our needs! So excited…

My mom, who was looking at rentals with me during this time (we’re meeting them for a family vacation), asked what I was going to do with all my time now that we’ve found a place. “Well, I still have two more vacations to plan this year, including one other family vacation (which means taking others’ opinions and needs into account), so….” Her response: ” OMG, I can’t imagine going through all that twice more!”

Yeah.

Regardless, I am determined to take a bit of time to get caught up on the blog. Get Inspiration Tuesday and This or That going again. Get three or four weeks of blog posts ready to go so I don’t get behind again.  And then when that’s done, get some journalling done. I’m so far behind on Baby J’s journal.  And I won’t even mention my “writing progress.”

So what’s been going on over the last month or so? Well, Baby J finally cut his first tooth, the same day he took his first steps! He now walks pretty much full time. I love it! I don’t get why people say, all dire-like, “Just wait until he starts walking,” like it’s going to be this stressful leap of skills. Walking is no more stressful than crawling. Which was a HUGE improvement from just laying there. I hated that part. I love that he’s mobile and can get himself to where he wants to be. Including following me into the bathroom!  I’ll leave the door partially open, and he’ll pull it open and peek around and smile at how cool he is for being able to find me.  What scares me right now is when he learns to climb on things.

We installed a baby seat on my bike, and Baby J loves going on rides.  Most of the time we’re out running errands, but hopefully as the weather gets better and his wake times lengthen, we’ll get out for a few joy rides.

A week or two ago, Stephen came home and was telling me about his day. He was leading a meeting, using his computer hooked to a projector, and his email alert popped up with something non-work related. No big deal, it’s happened to me, it wasn’t anything sensitive.  But it made me sit back and say, “I remember leading meetings.” Seems like it was such a long time ago.

For the first time in a very long time, I’m reading a book that I don’t want to put down. “Just one more chapter!” It’s nice to have that again.  It’s especially surprising because it’s in a genre that I’ve found particularly hard to get into over the last five years or so.  I don’t know what I’ll do when I finish.  😦

I’ve been a bit infatuated with a certain news story lately, one which I will not name here, because I don’t want to get into a whole discussion about it. What I would love a discussion about is the idea and merits of forgiveness. I find forgiveness to be overrated. I’m sorry, but there are certain things that are unforgivable, especially when the offender offers no contrition. A lot of people say you need to forgive in order to move on. I don’t agree. I think you can move on just fine without forgiving someone for something they did. It doesn’t have to stay with you or rule your life. The pain, the hurt, can fade, you can think of it less and less, without forgiving.

What do you think?  Is forgiveness necessary for a happy life, or is it overrated?

Categories: Random | Tags: , , , | 11 Comments

Inspiration Tuesday – Be naïve.

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Sara

“What’s wrong with being naïve? Wasn’t Christopher Columbus naïve? Wasn’t Ghandi naïve? Weren’t the 1969 New York Jets naïve?”
Eric Weiner, The Geography of Bliss

bliss_pb

I’m slowly working my way through this book, and I’ve been enjoying it.  He’s in Iceland now, and I find it interesting how a lot of his descriptions of the people there could easily apply to Finland.  He talks about how in Iceland, it’s okay to be naïve, “because you can always start over.”

What would you do if you could start over?  Or, have you ever started over, and how did it turn out?

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This or That: Star Trek or Star Wars

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Sara

You must pick one, and you must explain why.

I was late getting into the sci-fi geekery, so I never watched Star Trek or any of it’s affiliates.  I of course watched Star Wars, the first three (or the last three?), because they were pretty big hits – I don’t think Star Trek had a major popular movie around the same time.  So, up until now, I’ve been more a Star Wars fan.  I still have yet to really get into Star Trek, although I have watched a few episodes of TNG, and I fully intend to immerse myself in the franchise at some future date.  It may not be until Baby J is old enough to indoctrinate him, but eventually we’ll get there.  And maybe at that time I’ll be on Team Star Trek.  But for now, Team Star Wars.

What about you, dear Reader?  And what do you think of the new Star Wars trailer?  (Personally…it does nothing for me.  And from what I’ve seen on FB, I’m in the minority…)

We actually sat down and watched the original Star Wars movie last weekend – it had probably been 20 years since I had seen it.  And there was a lot I didn’t remember.  But that’s a topic for another post…

No giveaway this go ’round, mostly because I’m still trying to get all the already promised ones mailed out!  (This weekend, I swear!!)

Winner of last week’s This or That is H.B.!  H.B., please email me your mailing address!  (sara(underscore)sligar (at) hotmail (dot) com)

Categories: This or That? | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments

Inspiration Tuesday

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Sara

My heart is happy today, and it’s because of Facebook.

Go figure.

You see, as many faults as FB might have, however much people may hate it, it does manage to do one thing.  It helps you keep up with people you would otherwise lose touch with.

There are those that will argue that if you like the person enough, you would keep up with them.  But, come on.  That’s simply not true.

Look, there are plenty of people on my Friends List that I am not truly friends with.  People I haven’t seen in over ten years, people I’ve never even met.  People I would walk past and not recognize.  Most of these people, though, I still like to see what’s going on in their lives.  They get engaged, married, have a baby.  They get a new job, take up running, lose 80 pounds.  They go back to school, or realize a dream they never knew they had.

And I get to share in that a little with them.

There’s the sad, too, the loss of a parent, or a beloved dog, a house fire, or an illness that has a lasting effect.  But I’m glad to know those things, too.  Because these are people’s lives, and they matter.

What it comes down to is this:  I love seeing the people I know happy.  A friend who is so blissfully married it’s disgusting.  A friend who just finished a half marathon, and by the way, looks *amazing* (seriously, did you drop 30 pounds?).  A friend (or four!!) who have adopted and have the happy family they’ve always wanted. And today, a friend who got engaged.

My heart is grinning.

 

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This or That: Apples or Oranges?

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Sara

Simple one this week. You must pick one, and you must explain why.

I’ve always preferred apples, because I don’t like the pith on oranges. (I also hate pulp in my orange juice. But give me Simply Orange Pulp Free, and I’m a happy girl!)  I remember one time, I was in my 20s, and my grandmother asked if I wanted an orange. I told her no, that I didn’t like the white stuff around the orange.  About 5 minutes later she plunked a bowl of oranges in front of me, no white pith to be found.  She had cut it all off, just for me.  Now that’s love.

So, readers, which do you prefer? Let me know in the comments below, and you’ll be entered to win a print of this photo:

Door handle, Barcelona Spain

Door handle, Barcelona Spain

Winner of last week’s This or That is Jeremy! Jeremy, please email me at sara(underscore)sligar (at) hotmail (dot) com and let me know where to send the photo!

And, although Paris got more votes than London last week, it looks like we’ll be going to London sometime this year!  We decided to meet family wherever they wanted to go (thus giving us built-in babysitters when needed, and help the rest of the time!), and London was the pick.  But I’m sure we’ll make it to Paris one day…although maybe not with a baby in tow.  🙂

Categories: This or That? | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Inspiration Tuesday

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Sara

For a couple of years now, I’ve had a particular project in mind.  A photo project.  Actually, a photo display project.

It all started with this movable painting wall from memoryradio.  I loved the idea of having a stack of paintings (or photos, in my case) and letting friends rearrange them at will.  I also liked the ability to have a ton of photos available, but not necessarily hanging.  I have so many photos I love, but I can’t hang them all.  This seemed the perfect solution.  Only hang a few, but cycle through them by making them easily interchangeable.

The first problem was, of course, that I wanted different sizes.  I had intended on mounting the photos on wood, but I knew I wanted different sizes.  The different sizes immediately limits the arrangement of photos.  You can’t change out a 5×7 with a 5×5!  I considered doing framed and matted pictures on a dedicated picture wall, but the size differences were still an issue.  I hunted through pinterest multiple times, pinning things I liked and didn’t like.  Some displays were simply not big enough.  I hated a lot of them.  I love the idea of using photo shelves – it made photos easily movable (and stackable!) and you could use all different sizes.  This is still likely how I will do a photo display once we move back to the US and settle down.  But it wasn’t something I could do in temporary housing in Finland.

Then one day I saw this mirror and light garland, and thought, why not do that with photos?  I went and bought a cheap white curtain rod.  We just happened to have two nails in our walls to hang the rod from, so we didn’t need to put more holes in the wall.  I would have liked to use ribbon, and will likely change to that in the future, but for now I’m just using some white string, five pieces hanging down at regular intervals.  Tiny little decorative clothespins hold the photos on the line.  I printed off a ton of photos, and started hanging at random.

And I love the end result!

Photo display

IMAG0699

So, next time you’re over at my place, dig into our extra photos and feel free to rearrange or replace any you want based on what inspires you.  I want to see what photos you think should be hung!  🙂

 

 

Categories: Inspiration Tuesday, Photography | Tags: , , , , | 7 Comments

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