ChooChoo!!

Genevieve Gorder is an absolute genius!! The ideas she has for our caboose makeover are out of this world and something I could never have thought up in a million years! I can't wait to see the finished masterpiece! I'm so thankful for creative people and the beauty they add to the world. And I love surprises -- she's like a pretty Santa Claus for grown ups:)

Little red caboose

Our caboose is getting renovated this week! Hooray!! I'm SO EXCITED to see what it's going to look like all restored!!! I'll post pictures when it's done! Thank you DEAR GENEVIEVE!!!

Yum.

I had a wonderful memory this week of my favorite drink when I was a kid -- Wildwood Cream Soda. We could only get it at my grandparent's house in northern Indiana, which made it a very special treat. The version I remember has been long discontinued, but the flavor lives on in my happy thoughts:) I found a website that is a can museum (ah, the internet) and it has pictures of favorite discontinued drinks. How do people think of these things?? I don't know, but I'm glad they do -- it was fun to see this beautiful can again:

Great Book

I am grateful for the awesome experience of bonding with my nephew over a book recently...what joy it was to be able to talk about our favorite scenes and characters and to laugh over a shared good experience. The book is from a series called THE PENDERWICKS by Jeanne Birdsall. It's a great old-fashioned story, the kind that makes you smile like Anne of Green Gables and Mary Lennox used to, but somehow feels fresh and alive and not stale or stuffy. I'm thankful there's someone out there today writing simple and true stories like this! There isn't an ounce of David Letterman to be found in it... (Oliver Stone once told me that the problem with writers today is that they all have too much David Letterman in their souls:)

And to add to the joy -- I had the great fortune to meet her recently, and was quite happy to find her a kindred spirit!

Let there be LIGHT!

After 6 days of no electricity (thank you, Irene) I am sooo grateful to have power again. Especially lights -- the cold glow of an LED lantern just isn't the same as a bright happy lamp. Thank you, Thomas Edison! Thank you, Alessandro Volta, for discovering electricity in the first place! And thank you, Michael Faraday, for inventing the generator so that we could keep our sump pump going and our basement flood free!

And most of all thank God for keeping us safe and sound through a pretty scary experience. I'm glad it's over!!