Wednesday Wanderings

Today I bring you more parenting links! I appreciated the message in each of these articles. Hope you enjoy them too!

Want to learn 25 ways to be a calm parent? 

Want to learn how to talk respectfully to little girls?

Want to see why you should let your child listen to scary stories? 

Want to learn 10 things that mothers in Haiti can teach us?

Want to learn how to handle your anger at your child?

Want to see why your child shouldn't be the exception to every rule?

Want to see how you can miss out on your child's dreams if you're glued to your iPhone?

Want to be encouraged if you're a mother with young children?

My sweet girl can be quite a challenge, so I'm happy to continue
learning how to be a peaceful, respectful, loving mother!

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This Moment: Faces with Sarah

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. ~ Amanda

If you're inspired to do the same, come share your moment with me in the comment section!

Linking up with Soule Mama on this final July Friday!

Many thanks to my dear friend Sarah for allowing me to share these photos of herself and Harmony. We all had such a great time together! 

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Wednesday Wanderings

Today's links brought to you as if they were news headlines! Because I'm sleep deprived and am trying to stay sane during this busy week! And because I'm pretty sure Harmony will be waking up any minute! And because I'm not sure how long my computer will be working this morning because it broke last weekend! And because I desperately need to go practice my guitar!

Enjoy!

Read Vincent Van Gogh's handwritten letters!

How clutter affects your brain (and what you can do about it)!

What the night sky would look like if other planets were as close as the moon!

"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" The most highbrow jokes in the world!

Even small amounts of exercise mean big changes in a person's expression of DNA!

Everyone's a Biblical literalist until it comes to gluttony!

Found after 10,000 years: the world's first calendar!

Free download of the amazing album "Flight I Took to Antarctica" by Like a Villain! You need to check them out ; )

(source)

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This Moment: Vulnerable

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - SOME words today - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. ~ Amanda

If you're inspired to do the same, come share your moment with me in the comment section!

Self-portraits are strange.
It's best just to point and shoot
without any fussing,
get it over quickly.
It's not often that I see myself.
If I look clearly,
will I like
where I am going
or who I am?
Thankfully this moment is 
not the end
of the road yet,
so there is still time
to take another turn,
to keep on becoming
who I hope to be.

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Wednesday Wanderings

Did you know....

... that the Germans and Allied Forces once fought together during WWII, on the same side?

... that a train system in Germany can project advertisements through their windows straight into your brain while you sleep?

... that people were honoring grave sites by strewing flowers on them over 10,000 years ago?

... that George Washington might have been the first person to use the term "United States of America"?

... that interplanetary internet connections are predicted to be in the works by the year 2030?

... that you can tow your house behind you on a bicycle?

(source)

... that NASA does astronaut training in Idaho because it resembles the actual surface of the moon?

... that Bobby McFerrin can sing through the entire "Wizard of Oz"in less than eight minutes?

Yep.

All those crazy things are true.

At least the internet thinks so ; )

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The Guitars Are Taking Over!

For the next few weeks, the only posts that will be here are the Wednesday Wanderings and This Moment, on Wednesday and Friday. I'm preparing for the benefit concert I wrote about earlier and playing guitar at several other events, so most of my free time needs to be devoted to music.

At least I have plenty of company while practicing : )

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This Moment: Letterboxer-in-Training

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. ~ Amanda

If you're inspired to do the same, come share your moment with me in the comment section!

Joining with Soule Mama after a week of exciting letterboxing!

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Wednesday Wanderings

Did you know that it is illegal to walk across the street on your hands in Connecticut? Or that the law prevents Wisconsin state prisons from giving inmates butter substitutes??? Here are twenty-five crazy laws in the good old United States.

For those of you who have always wondered what exactly the conductor is doing up there in front of the orchestra/band, here is a succinct article that helps explain all the baton-waving ; )

What is the world's largest dinner dish? If you guessed a camel stuffed with sheep stuffed with chicken stuffed with fish, then you were right!

Before the Inca built their civilization in South America, another people group called the Wari controlled most of present-day Peru from 700-1000 A.D. As you can imagine, most of the empire was completely destroyed by subsequent cultures. But now, scientists have finally found the first untouched, pristine royal Wari tomb! Please tell me that I'm not the only history nerd who is totally excited about this...

(source)

This story was very interesting: on this tiny island, men truly do have a language of their own. 

I love looking at abandoned buildings. Not creepy ones, but the buildings that have an ethereal, lonely sort of beauty, like these. 

Lately, I've been listening to this downloadable album by the "Oh Hellos". After spending a week trying to decide whether I liked it or not, I've figured out that when I'm in the right mood, the music is great! I just have to be in the right mood : )  Check it out!

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This Moment: Hello, Crayons

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. ~ Amanda

If you're inspired to do the same, come share your moment with me in the comment section!

Linking up with Soule Mama on this beautifully cool first July Friday!

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Wednesday Wanderings

For some bizarre reason that I don't have the brain cells to decipher, the formatting is completely screwed up in today's post. I apologize!

I love posting quotes and Bible verses where I can see them often around my home. Here is a website where one artist takes beautiful, encouraging verses and sets them against a lovely background, ready for you to print out (for free!) and hang wherever you want! Awesome designs. 


"People who go to museums and concerts or create art or play an instrument are more satisfied with their lives, regardless of how educated or rich they are, according to a study." Hmmmm, who would have thought that cultured people would be more happy and less stressed? 

“‘There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself “Do trousers matter?”’

‘The mood will pass, sir.’”

Oh, the magic of Jeeves and Wooster, one of my favorite literary duos. Here are thirteen quotes by the author of these stories, P.G. Wodehouse!

"The weapons scientist was told that in the future he could eat the fruit or store it inside his office safe with the rest of his classified documents, but if he left the orange out on his desk unsupervised, it was a security infraction that could be referred to the FBI for investigation... the orange left on his desk was, in fact, a classified object." Here's a very interested case where your job position made the shape of your lunch important. 

Ever heard of brominated vegetable oil? BHA? Olestra? Those are ingredients from foods America munches down every day... but they're banned in other countries for being too unhealthy or dangerous. Definitely staying away from these ingredients from now on!

What is this image? Turns out that it's grafitti for the blind. Check out this fascinating story about an artist creating something new. 

                                     (source: The Blind's Braille graffiti - (Ligue Braille de Belgique)

A band that I posted about last week, the Green Children, has a new CD coming out soon. I really like the song from last week that they shared, but this song... well, I'm still on the fence about it. I go back and forth between thinking it's silly, to humming the tune in my head, to disliking the lyrics, to thinking that the words are so apt for the situation. What do YOU think?

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Making and Doing Lately + Pictures of Crazy Haircut

Loving:: my new haircut. Sixteen inches cut off on Wednesday... it feels so light! Sending off the chopped ponytail to a donation agency to make wigs for cancer patients.

Introducing:: Harmony to outside water play. Great fun on super hot days!

Savoring:: a new treat that my sister brought home called Chocoshrooms. The perfect tasty morsel, kind of like Pocky, but much less messy!

Writing:: letters to a lady in Michigan as part of the Love Notes project.

Creating:: watercolor and pen postcards! Making art for me almost feels like dreaming; I get a chance to see what is going on in my subconscious, much of the time.

Planning:: the final stages of the benefit concert for Compassion International that I and several other musicians are putting together for August!

Watching:: the cooking competition series Master Chef as each new episode becomes available on Hulu! We're rooting for Jessie right now.

Anticipating:: the 4th of July parade that I'll be walking in.

Listening:: to some great new FREE music from the "I Care If You Listen" summer 2013 mixtape. I've been playing the penultimate track* constantly. Go check it out!

Hoping:: to make some delicious popsicles like the ones we've had at the local Farmer's Market from Native Pops. Their apple-pomegranate was amazing, but I want to try their peach-lavender!

Enjoying:: the rewards of the last closet cleaned out: we're (almost) completely clutter-free**! The last boxes of everything we didn't need were taken to our church's rummage give-away this weekend.

Reminding:: myself that these nights with a teething, screaming child do not last forever.

Diving:: into the joys of summer!

*Anyone who knows what the word "penultimate" means without looking it up is my hero. It's one of my favorite words, but I definitely had no idea what it meant until I looked in a dictionary : P

**Well, we're not COMPLETELY clutter-free. There's still a box of mementos in our closet, and two boxes of baby clothes in storage that we're saving for a potential next child, a linen closet with an entire shelf devoted to serving dishes that we won't need unless we have a fancy dinner party (or five kids) etc. But we're basically living in a one-bedroom apartment, now that my sister has moved in, and our home doesn't FEEL cluttered anymore, so I'd call that a goal accomplished for now : ) 

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