Have you taken at look at groupon.com yet?  I’ve been blessed to get discounted vouchers for Cold Stone Creamery, Papa Murphy Pizza and NOW Barnes & Noble Bookstores!

Each of those particular vouchers were for places we do frequent for Friday Pizza/Movie night (when the week’s worn me out and I don’t want to make the pizza), for Parent/Daughter dates and of course….BOOKS.  But there are many other deals daily that might bless your budget 🙂

BUFFLEHEADS
by Lee Evans
Bath, Maine

I love to see them on the waves,
Along the beach, or in their trees.
I love to watch them fly away,
Without a running start, from me!

My father used to lurk behind
Four plywood walls that stood on stilts
Above the river nailed with pine,
His rifle ready at a tilt
Toward the vast and open sky,


Where ducks and geese would spread their wings
In Freedom, for which all must die–
All human and non-human things.


But I wear no such grim disguise
As I meander on the beach
In plain sight of the earth and sky,
Determined to let Nature teach.

These clouds, the seashells, shifting sands,
The wind, the cold, the winter sun,
The whistling swans: from these a man
Can claim more trophies than with gun.

Buffleheads photographed by Michelle, at the Mill Pond, Jackfish Lake area, British Columbia

Five Minute Friday: What’s the best mail you got recently – email, text, or snail mail? Take five minutes and illustrate with words how you felt opening it, reading it, or digesting it. Help us read it through your eyes…

The best mail I’ve received recently…is the mail I’ve missed.  The mail that is delivered to a Daddy who is home 1 week out of the month, and is great at living in the present.  All those paintings, handmade cards, bookmarks that are generated each week, day, hour…are lovingly laid on a pillow (his), the dresser (his side) and our bedroom doorknob (with To Daddy) and I feel a little slighted and start to think.

How do I wipe off the LOOK of “what do I do with one more piece of paper or woven piece of yarn” and exchange it with sincere gratitude in the moment of heart giving from those delightful young hearts in my home?

Today I’ll create a space to display those pieces of art love, and allow the admiration to flow…right into the hearts of those precious people given to me.

Of course, I’ll have to employ that wonderful Daddy to help me in this project…I’m not allowed to swing a hammer against any walls, as he has had the look of “one more piece of wall to patch” on his face a time or two.

joining in on Five Minute Friday over at Gypsy Mama.

And if you purchase through Swagbucks you earn 315 SwagBucks!  Click the banner above to join, or to do your searching!

Click here for $1 off 2 boxes of Kelloggs CheezIt or Crispix Crackers!

Barb at Harmony Art Mom hosts a weekly opportunity to participate in a online sketch community.  The kids get to send in their sketch “assignments” and on the following Tuesday, watch a slideshow of all the entries.  My lovely sketchers enjoy participating most weeks.

This week was “Something you Study in Science.”

To see this week’s slideshow and/or join in for next week, click here.

309. An email containing a lovely photo of beautiful people we love and miss very much.

310. Beloved Builder teaching me how to use Excel, to make my workload a little easier.

311. Scripture Memory Books!

312. Opportunities that inspire my children to creativity

313. Running into an acquaintance, and finding a new friend

314. Hearing her story.

315. Grieving her struggle, pain

316. Gasping gratitude for the lives we’ve been allotted and all that lies within, the evidences of HIS ever present LOVE and Grace.

317. Good books that point me to the ONE Best Book.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the past. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. That I want to pause and remember.

Other moments to be shared…