Nelis'

Horse droppings are not figs.

~ Dutch Proverb

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Every year when we go to Wakonse and drive by Nelis' Dutch Village, I want to go. We never go. I never get to do anything I want.

Well, I do get to go to Wakonse. And I get to do a job that I really, really like. And I get to have adventures with Leslie.

Just not adventures to Nelis' Dutch Village. For having such an easy life my life is really hard.

Help

We are all here on earth to help others;

what on earth the others are here for, I don't know.

~ W. H. Auden

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Helping is important. Everyone can be a helper to someone.

Even hamburger.

Drifting

   

We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. 
~ Blaise Pascal
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(pause)

Seriously, does this post even need a little anecdote to go with it? I think not. I feel as if it speaks for itself.

The end.

Breakfast

Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.

~ Alfred A. Montapert

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I hope my problems are related to bacon because MMMMM bacon!

Hoops

What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.

~ John Wooden

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You know that saying, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take?" Well, that's stupid. That was about hockey, not basketball.

Doing

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all love of what you are doing or learning to do.

~ Pele

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There are a lot of things I love doing. I love doing this blog. I love photography. I love going to the movies. I love listening to small children explain how the world works.

I do not love listening to small children sing about how the world works.

I don't like the sound of children singing. Mainly because most of them are not at all good singers. Combine that with the fact that many of them are loud singers and it is quite unpleasant.

Not always. Just usually.

Focus

Whatever you focus your attention on will become important to you even if it's unimportant.

~ Sonya Parker

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When we travel, I will sometimes get up early and if we are staying in a hotel, I will go to the lobby to do some writing, journaling, blogging. Sometimes I overhear conversations that I can use in my work. Sometimes I overhear conversations I cannot use in my work, but they make for good stories later on. 

Sometimes I overhear Fox News and I can't get any work done. I think that is true for a lot of people who overhear Fox News.

Sunset

The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire.

~ Pamela Hansford Johnson

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I love sunsets. I try to pay attention to them. I don't always succeed. Sometimes I am busy and not where you can see the sunset. Sometimes I am where I can see the sunset but I'm too busy in my own senseless worrying and frustration to pay attention.

I like sunsets. And I like it when Im are them a priority over the senseless worrying and frustration.

I also like orange Tootsie Pops, but that doesn't really have anything to do with this.

Sides

If you have God on your side, everything becomes clear.

~ Ayrton Senna

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I think whoever did the writing int he image above forgot the world "walk" at the end of the sentence.

Chickens

Left wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me.

~ Woody Guthrie

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The concept of someone running around "like a chicken with its head cut off" is pretty effective. I can picture that. I can understand the lack of focus and the confusion and chaos. 

However, if you were to say someone was running around "like a chicken"  or "like a chicken with its head still on" I kind of picture the same thing - chicken running around is chaotic with or without its head.

Food

It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it. 

~ Julia Child

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I don't particularly care if people post photos of their food. I have done it at times. More often I text photos of my food to people who might like the food (usually Kirk) but can't have it because they aren't with me (hahahahahaha!). 

What I don't agree with though is when people say, "Here is my obligatory breakfast photo" or "Obligatory birthday cake post." Since I know of no rule or law that requires people to post these photos one of the following must be true:

1. They don't know what the word "obligatory" means.

2. I am not current on food photo posting legislation.

3. They are joking.

4. Where they live the laws are very different than where I live.

Regardless, I'm glad I am not obliged to post photos of everything I eat. Some food is not at all photogenic - like lutefisk, Raisinettes, and veggies that look like monsters.

Busy

It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?

~ Henry David Thoreau

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The photo is above is from some stickers I got a while ago that I use my journaling or sometimes in letters to people. I had used several on this page when I noticed that the stickers were sending mixed messages. 

I think when we say, "I'm busy" that is only part of a sentence. We need to finish it. When someone says, "Can you meet on Thursday?" we should say, "I'm too busy to meet with YOU." When a child asks for our attention, instead of saying, "I'm busy!" we should respond, "I'm too busy for YOU." 

If we trained ourselves to do that, it would force us to think more intentionally about our activities. Is being on the phone or watching TV or doing some paperwork more important than a person who wants to talk with us? 

Often no. Often the idea of putting a task over a person will not be what we want to do and won't align with how we see ourselves.

(pause)

Sometimes it will because some people just suck the life out of you and you'd rather be organizing your coupons, balancing your checkbook, alphabetizing your recipe file, color coding your recycling, reading about anteaters -- really anything.

You know the people I'm talking about. If you don't, you are one.

Now get out of here, I have other things to do.

Flower

Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.

~ Stevie Wonder

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I'm glad that my mom's name is not "Mary Gold." Because if it was and she was my flower of love like Stevie Wonder's mom is his flower of love, then she'd be the kind of flower that I don't like the smell of.  Now if her name was Lilac, that would be something different all together.

That said, I'd like her last name to still be Boettcher. Lilac Boettcher sounds like a cool character from a novel. Someone who runs the corner grocery and knows everyone's business. And the name of the store would be "Corner Store" because Lilac Boettcher thinks things should be called what they are. 

Possum

Hey Susie Derkins, is that your face or is there a possum stuck in your collar?
~ Bill Watterson

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I have had this photo for a few years now. I just don't know what to say about it. 

(pause)

Sometimes I should just delete photos from my drafts folder instead of putting them up as blog posts.

Dad

A daughter needs a dad to be the standard against which she will judge all men.

~ Gregory Lang

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And a superhero needs a dad to teach her to fly (or make bigger humans bend to her will by giving her a piggy back ride) even is she has a sidekick fox because the fox's shoulder's are too low for a decent piggy back ride. Also it's a stuffed animal fox, so they aren't going anywhere.

Words

Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings.

~ W. H. Auden

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I think spoken word performances are good. Well, I think the good ones are good. Or I think the ones that I think are good are good.

But if I was going to do this kind of thing, I think I'd do unspoken word. I'm pretty sure I'd be good at it. I don't know what it would look like, but I think it would be pretty powerful.






There. I just did it. Was it good? 

Knowledge

We know more about the face of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean.

~ Lake Bell

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There are things we know and things we do not know. Sometimes we know things we didn't realize we knew. Sometimes things we thought we knew, we really don't know anything about.

Like the fact that I thought Sir David Attenborough was John Hammond. And then I looked up "old man in Jurassic Park" and found out it was John Hammond. And then I realized that John Hammond was the character's name and he was played by Sir Richard Attenborough. And then I thought Sir Richard and Sir David were the same person and I just got confused about what his first name actually was. And then I realized they are two different people, but that they are brothers.

See what I mean?

Recruiting

There is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly-taken-for-granted relationship.

~ Iris Murdoch

There is no substitute for hard work.

~ Thomas A. Edison

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience

~ Paul Coelho

There is no substitute for patience and acceptance.

~ Cesar Chavez

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There is no substitute for the teacher. Except the substitute teacher.

Property

Where there is no property, there is no injustice.

~ John Locke

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Also where there is no property, there are no Property Brothers. There, they are just Brothers.

Wind

May the road rise to meet you. 

May the wind always be at your back. 

May the sun shine warm upon your face, 

And rains fall soft upon your fields. 

And until we meet again, 

May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

~ Irish Blessing

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I love wind farms. I love them. 

I wouldn't mind being buried near one. But in all honesty - based on my personal philosophy - once I'm dead, I don't think I'd notice the difference between being buried near a wind farm or having my ashes put on a ceiling fan.

Whoever lives in the house with that ceiling fan would probably notice, though.

Buildings

We shape our buildings. Thereafter, they shape us.

~ Winston Churchill

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I watch some of the home remodeling shows. I wish that there was a channel that just showed you the last 10 minutes of all of these shows. All I really care about is the before and after.

Anyway, almost always the people come home and say how much they love the house. Usually it's accompanied with comments such as, "I can't believe you did this!" or "I can't get over how great this looks."

The people who did the work always seemed pleased with the homeowners saying this stuff. I'm not sure why, though. The subtext is, "I thought you were going to make this super sucky, but you didn't and I am shocked by that."

View

Your visions will become clear only when you look into your own heart.

~ Carl Jung

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You know that saying, "If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes?" I totally disagree. First of all, you can always peek around the dog in front of you. Second, the dog in front of you might die. Third, why are you confined to only following a bunch of dogs. You could choose not to conform run away and see whatever you want. 

Well, you couldn't see Nefertiti because she died. But you get my point.

Cabin

If you're holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time.

~ J. K. Rowling

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We were driving somewhere and we drove past a place that sold log homes.

Leslie: We could get our log home here.

Me: I will love our log home.

Leslie: I pine for our log home.

Fishing

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.

~ Henry David Thoreau

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So, we saw this dad and his boys on the beach fishing. We had ridden the ferry with them the day before. When we saw the mom working at the community store later that day, I tried to strike up a friendly conversation.

"I think I saw your family fishing this morning," I said.

"Hm." she said.

She was not friendly. And then later I wondered if maybe her family was supposed to be at home cleaning the house instead of fishing. 

Sometimes I'm an inadvertent trouble-maker.