Meri's Musings

Stay tuned.... Share the Joy will post tomorrow As soon as I get the  new system hooked up. Update: Ok Guess I was overly optimistic. Still working on things.... See you next week.

It feels as if I am riding a carousel. . . .  Up and down, round and round But not making forward progress. I think I finally cracked the code  for loading images into blog posts so that's good (and it relates to using Chrome instead of Internet Explorer)  but mostly, it feels as if I've been stagnating. With my desktop in need of repair and my laptop  apparently beyond help, working on the books has ground to a halt. Art-making materials are spread out between the for-sale house and the new one, and Polyvore is too hard to manage on a tablet,  at least at my tablet-skill level. Maybe something is germinating under the soil,  but what that might be is a big question mark. I'm not used to feeling so aimless. What's the lesson here?

The computer issues still are plaguing me,  so this post will be brief. The server keeps rejecting photos I try to load,  even though they are stored in web albums. To this I say: BAH HUMBUG! So my joy will have to wait for later sharing. You can share yours by leaving a comment  which includes a link to your post. I hope I can get the desktop computer  up and running soon.  This is just a big pain in the tush.

After having a total hard drive crash, now  my laptop has died. I couldn't be without email, so I bought a tablet.  I must be doing something wrong because it's not letting me insert images in my blog posts. I'm also having problems adding the link code so all I can suggest is to leave a comment with a link to your JOY post so others can see ot and I'll try to get the tech issues sorted out by next week

For those of you who celebrate a U.S. style Thanksgiving, have a joyful day filled with  friends, family and food. I had another day filled with the 3 F's earlier this week. . . . Oliver's first birthday party. Oliver's mom's cousin Margaret baked him a "1" cake  just so he could do a face plant, but he surprised everyone by going after  a finger full of frosting at a time (though, as you can see, he managed to grow a blue frosting beard and moustache). I found him this spectacular bouncy toy. His legs are barely long enough to touch the ground, but he'll soon be able to master the art of the bounce. (And yes, there's a gate at the top of the stairs.) Big brother Logan had plenty of fun decorating a gingerbread man and didn't have the least hesitation about ornamenting outside the lines. And he seemed to enJOY munching the gingerbread boy's legs. What sparked

spontaneous find strolling along Cannon Beach this heart touched my heart

Blue skies and sunshine in November -- days like today -- make me energetic and full of possibility. Call me crazy, but the smell of oranges makes me happy. . .  as does wandering through a gourmet grocery story and delighting in the myriad of oolors and shapes (and sampling different kinds of cheese). . .   And speaking of oranges, I'm overjoyed and full of awe when I see a sunset like this. What sparked the fire of joy in you this week? Notice joy. Cultivate it. Celebrate it. Share it.   1. do a post that tells and shows what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post and paste it into  the Mr. Linky box along with your info. 3. Visit other players and let their joy infect you. Leave them a comment because everyone  enJOYS getting positive feedback. Let's keep the epidemic of JOY going!

Where do you find JoY? Is it in the decision of which treat will be yours or  when you take a bite and feel the flavor tickle your taste buds? When you see a silly green frog sitting on a table in the window of a shop and it makes you laugh? When you can hear your son's laughter  from two rooms away? When the night sky is clear and the moon  signals romance? Or two people in love, sharing secrets? What sparked the fire of joy in you this week? Notice joy. Cultivate it. Celebrate it. Share it.   1. do a post that tells and shows what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post and paste it into  the Mr. Linky box along with your info. 3. Visit other players and let their joy infect you. Leave them a comment because everyone  enJOYS getting positive feedback. Let's keep the epidemic of JOY going!

I hope you're all finding little pockets of joy to dig into this week. As for me, joy is taking a backseat to concern right now, as my mom was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's. There will be a family gathering this weekend and there will be lots of decisions to be made over the next few months. She is a woman of great faith,  a retired minister in the United Methodist Church, and I'm sure it would give her great joy and comfort if you find it in your heart to add her to your prayers. What sparked the fire of joy in you this week? Notice joy. Cultivate it. Celebrate it. Share it.   1. do a post that tells and shows what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post and paste it into  the Mr. Linky box along with your info. 3. Visit other players and let their joy infect you. Leave them a comment because everyone  enJOYS getting positive feedback. Let's keep the epidemic of JOY going!

My joy post will be a little on the light side this week. On Monday morning, I woke and, as usual, went up  to my office to check email but found a message that said, more or less, "Your hard drive is toast. Back up your files and find an electronics recycle station." So I went and bought an external drive and clicked on the button to have the computer do a back-up automatically. It failed four separate times. Oh no, I thought, it's if I can't find a way around this obstacle. I'd backed up my document files a while ago, but there was a lot of writing done on my memoir and the manuscript I'm almost finished with called Riding the Divorce Roller Coaster . I breathed deeply and tried not to imagine the worst. I can always write on a I thought, and that brought a smile to my face. But not as big a smile as starting the hours-long process of manually saving  all the stuff on the dying swan of a

  Isn't autumn just color-icious? Going for a nature walk is a sure way to ignite joy. What sparked the fire of joy in you this week? Notice joy. Cultivate it. Celebrate it. Share it.   1. do a post that tells and shows what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post and paste it into  the Mr. Linky box along with your info. 3. Visit other players and let their joy infect you. Leave them a comment because everyone  enJOYS getting positive feedback. Let's keep the epidemic of JOY going!

During this week of lingering sniffles, sneezes, and coughs, I've found JoY in having furry lap blankets and stacks of these. I finished Train Dreams, a novella my book club is reading,  and a couple of other things. What sparked the fire of joy in you this week? Notice joy. Cultivate it. Celebrate it. Share it. 1. do a post that tells and shows what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post and paste it into  the Mr. Linky box along with your info. 3. Visit other players and let their joy infect you. Leave them a comment because everyone  enJOYS getting positive feedback. Let's keep the epidemic of JOY going!

A ramble in an antique store always creates joy, because there's so much to look at and exclaim (or laugh) about. Some things inevitably unleash memories. . .  of the time when Cabbage Patch babies  were a hot commodity and you had to put your name on a waiting list and then my uncle, who owned a variety store  in the Pacific Northwest in a pretty much lily white community got a long-awaited shipment of dolls. . . that were African American. Many parents on the waiting list said yes, not worrying about having  black grand-dolls, but he was left with dolls he worried he wouldn't sell. I was working in D.C. then and easily found people in my office who were thrilled to purchase babies by mail. of spending some of my growing-up years living in Washington's "fruit bowl." and memories of reaching deep down into a cookie jar to find a treat.  What sparked the fire of joy in you this week?