Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts

Sticks and Stones


Sticks and stones will break
my bones but names will
never hurt me. 
 ~ English Proverb

Sticks and stones may
break our bones,
but words will break
our hearts.

~ Robert Fulghum


I love words.

Words can

uplift

encourage

entertain

edify

electrify

comfort



{My son wrote this on his white board yesterday.}
They can just
as readily

tear down

discourage

hide

bore

hurt


Last week I primed
and painted a closet
wall* in our garage.....
With chalkboard paint.
A lovely canvas
for words.



Next came the
chalkboard paint.
Schoolhouse Green.

Then.....

I pondered all
of the possibilities.
Famous quotes?
Places we'd like 
to visit?
Bible verses?


The wall remained blank
as I tossed these ideas
around.



Inspiration
came to me on
on the weekend
as my family bantered
around one of our
favorite word games.

The OR game.

The only rules?
You cannot say
BOTH and you
cannot say NEITHER.


Lemon or lime?
Early bird or night owl?
Concert or baseball game?
Apple pie or pumpkin pie?
The questions are endless.
The answers, limited.

It sparks some
great discussions!

I started the wall
and my family soon
jumped in, as vision
struck.




It's still a work in progress.

Seeing these words
every day has made us
all smile.

The
power
of
words.

Use them with care.


PS:  Speaking of words,
Google's spell-check now
pops up with the British
pronunciations rather than
the American on my computer!
Guess it's decided to channel
my inner Jane Austen,
too!

*Thank you, Dad,
for building this
closet for us!!


Images:  
1, 4 flickr ~ click for attribution
7&8, google images
All others:  Privet and Holly


Posted in ,

Davenports and Greengrocers



Isn't summer the most
old-fashioned of all our
seasons?  Despite the
many advances that seem
to constantly bombard
our world, summertime pleasures,
at their essence, have changed
very little over the past
decades.

Perhaps that is the reason
that summer beckons
the kid in us, as we revel
in simple delights....



root beer floats
bare feet
sprinklers
blowing bubbles
lemonade stands
rocking in porch swings 
{or rockers or tire swings}
catching fireflies




drive-in restaurants
drive-in movies
flashlight tag
baseball games
convertibles
bicycling
sparklers
swimming for hours




icy-cold libraries 
tomato sandwiches
corn on the cob
berries and cherries,
melons and butter beans 
fishing poles
ferris wheels



Simpler days don't seem
like a thing of the past
in the summertime. If
I close my eyes, I can
hear the slap of a screen door,
the smell of fresh-cut grass
and shrieks of laughter 
across newly shorn lawns.



Summer also reminds me
of precious time spent with
my grandparents.....in the
garden or at the beach or
sitting doing crafts at their
kitchen table....




And with my own kids,
visiting the zoo and reading
tons of books, painting outside 
and having impromptu 
picnics at the park.

Simple stuff.  
Good stuff.
Sweet stuff.
Summer stuff!




The other day I heard the
word davenport, which
made me smile, as it's an
old-fashioned term that 
seems to fit right in with
summer nostalgia.  I
can picture my grandpa
having a snooze on the
davenport after his lunch.
My glamorous GiGi
called sofas divans, another
word from way back when.
This daydreaming of lazy
summer days and grandparents,
davenports and divans led
me to consider other old-timey 
words that I associate with summer.....

greengrocers
clothes pins
dungarees
sneakers
breezeway
front stoop
coulee
rec room


Via

I love that none of these words
or memories are remotely technical.
Instead, they rely on fresh air, fresh
food, fresh places and fresh faces!

What are some of your favorite
summer words or memories?

I'll pour the lemonade; you pour out
 your sweet thoughts.  I'll even move
over and share the davenport, so
bring it on : ) !!

xx 
Suzanne




Posted in , ,

A Few Kind Words

Wow.
What a difference
a few words can make.

~ My William




As the only child
since his sister
flew the coop
with her school
group to Italy 
last week, my
son and I have
been spending a lot 
of time together.

Like the State baseball
tournament, where
we cheered our
varsity team on to
win the consolation
prize......



And our bicycle ride with
the bigger boy ~
aka his dad and my
hubby ~ on Father's
Day....

A few meals out.
Table for three.

And errands together.
A two-some.
Like the old days,
when his sister was
in school and he was 
the little brother,
longing to be there
with her, but also
happy to be my
co-pilot as we cruised
through days that were
gone in a heartbeat.


6AM Smiles

After we dropped his sister off 
last week in the wee hours of the
morning, we celebrated
her travel adventure over
breakfast at our local
mom and pop establishment.
Our waitress was a
real grump.




Today we
took ourselves to 
another local eatery,
where we felt like
royalty, simply because
we were thanked
several times for visiting
 and also told by at least 
two employees to have
a great day.

And that brings me back
to William's quote....

He noticed.

Which is saying something
when you are 12 and a 
half and your head is
filled with baseball and
X-Box and wanting to
start your own business.


{He plays a mean
Hotel California, too!}

Last year I happened upon
a small but powerful little
 book, titled Silver Boxes.  It 
was about the importance of 
positive words; how they 
are really like wonderfully 
wrapped gifts for those who are 
lucky enough to receive them.

When William noticed the
silver boxes that had been
eagerly handed our way
at the pancake house this
morning, it got me 
thinking.



Thinking about you and
all of the wonderful silver
boxes that I receive with
each and every comment that
 you leave here for me.


Words that lift.
Words that sing.
Words that edify.
Words that humble.
Words that bless.

And I am certain that 
you are the type
of person who also gives
silver boxes ~ those few
kind words ~ to others that
you encounter every day.
{And probably don't even
realize it!}



Thank you for that.

I truly, truly
thank you.

Now I'm off to finish
laundry and do some weeding
and pay bills that are due
and book plane tickets
for our summer holiday.  
We are still grasping a 
bit to find our new summer 
normal around here, especially
with our girl being gone.

But we're getting there.
Things ramp up over the next
month starting Monday, when
I'll become reacquainted 
 with my chauffeur's cap.



Until then, I'm going to
enjoy cheering at my son's
baseball games and listening
to tween boy conversation
in the car as we head to the
DQ with his buddies afterwards
for a Blizzard or a Mr. Misty : )

And if I can inject a few kind 
words along the way, I'm going 
to try my darnedest to do 
just
that!

Kind words are a creative force,
a power that concurs with the
building up of all that is good,
and an energy that showers
 blessings upon the world.


~ Lawrence G. Lovasik


xx
Suzanne


PS:
Be sure to enter
my Shabby Apple giveaway,
here.


Posted in , ,

Give Away {And Gratitude}


Privet and Holly was born
of a dream
to write and craft words,
to add images that would
help bring those words to life
and to share both with others
who might enjoy 
coming along for the ride.


What I didn't dream was
how quickly I would
make friends like you
and how important writing
for both of us
would become....


How my daily walks
through the bloggerhood
would inspire me
in myriad ways.


Not the least being your support.
The comments that you left
on my last post just blew
my family away with their kindness.


As a great big, warm thank you,
I am having my first giveaway to
celebrate my first 50 followers!

I popped over to one of my
favorite little stores....
You know the kind.
The ones with the little rooms and
 vignettes that make you want to just
MOVE IN?


I believe it is essential to elevate 
the small things that we do each day....
like washing hands...or dishes....into something special.  
With that in mind, I had fun picking out some little
treats just for you.


Enjoy this lucious
Ginger Flower Soap
made in the USA
by Fringe.


I've tucked this lovely
triple-milled soap into
a decorative nest
with two robin's eggs.


You'll also receive
gardener purifying hand wash
and gardener candle
by the Thymes, USA
one of my most favorites!
{smells like fresh-mowed grass}


and



Farmhouse Dish soap
in Herb Blossom scent
made by Sweetgrass Farm, USA

To enter, tell me how
you first discovered
on-line blogs.....
and give me an example
of one that you just adore.
Consider it an introduction
between friends.


I will go first.  I had a vague
sense of what a web log was
from the book Julie and Julia,
which I read in 2005.


But, it wasn't until January
{of this year!} that I really
stumbled into blogdom.

I was looking on-line for ideas on
how to organize my pantry.
I found several nice articles
which then led me to a food
blog.....which led me to another
one....and soon it was like
being in a maze and not being 
quite sure how I arrived where
I ended up!


I found myself on the web log of
lovely Lili, from Fearless Nesting.
I read and read and read and
took it all in.  It was a new
world of like-minded women
and I was so excited at
the discovery!

Fearless Nesting
Not understanding how to make
comments, I tiptoed over to
visit some of the neighbors
on Lili's side bar....

.....and got even further lost
in the maze.


I eventually found my way out.


{My pantry is still unorganized.}


The giveaway ends on May 12th and
then I will throw your names in
a hat and Tadpole {my youngest}
will make the big draw.

You are all winners, in my book.


xx P&H

PS:  I e-mailed or left a message on blogs
for those of you who left comments about
Sasha....please check your spam file,
just in case.  My parents and the
rest of my family thank you from
 the bottom of our hearts!

images 
[flickr: 1 fotologic; 2 mysza831; 3 brdwachr1; 4 bob jagendorf; 5 saxon]
[Privet and Holly, 6-11]
[flickr: 12 tim green; 14 son groucho; 16 andrew in raliegh; 17 psd; 18 jmodus]


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