tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88014061122459999942024-03-05T21:35:03.626-08:00Whatsoever things are lovely...Whatsoever Things Are Lovely...
looking for life's beauty through faith, family, art, and nature.Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.comBlogger509125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-20831051408915433782014-12-31T16:09:00.002-08:002014-12-31T18:03:41.185-08:00Re-frame. If That Doesn't Work, Distract!
Oh my goodness, she's back at her blog! That's what I IMAGINE my readers are saying when this post comes up on their blogroll. Again, I IMAGINE that I actually am on your blogroll and if I am, that you are actually bothering to read past word one. Because I abandoned you. Ran off with the paper boy! Which I most certainly did not because we do not take the paper here in our house and Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-26730371572149635262014-08-25T11:09:00.000-07:002014-08-25T13:37:39.441-07:00Aletha, the Cherry Tomato
Aletha
By Debora Rorvig
In June I bought a tomato plant to sit out on my patio
for fifteen-dollars and ninety-five.
A tall sturdy sort with a fine thick stock and twelve little
green tomatoes
dangling from her branches.
The clerk said “she’s a corker!”
As it turns out, my plus-size girl
doesn’t like my patio.
She screams for water twice-a-day;
pouts if she doesn’t Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-70683688383330274522014-08-19T17:40:00.000-07:002014-08-20T09:32:55.410-07:00Buckets of Sand
Last week was my 40th class reunion. I've never gone to a class reunion before for a few choice reasons.
A. I quit school in eleventh grade, got pregnant and married, then went and got my GED. Maybe not the most well-planned scheme I ever hatched; but in the end it worked out. I had a beautiful son and later, two more children and went on to college later in life.
B. I transferred Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-57300266408031831592014-08-08T10:09:00.000-07:002014-08-08T10:09:00.927-07:00Looking back: a peek into my journal 7/25/05
An excerpt from my journal dated July 25, 2005. I've come a long way in my journey; having resolved most of this 'stuff'. But it's good now and then to look down from the mountain at some of the terrain you've covered. Maybe this will speak to other women facing the same thoughts...
"I've been contemplating the verse that says 'let your light so shine among men...'. The passages starts byDeborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-40418512879091103922014-08-05T21:22:00.000-07:002014-08-05T21:22:22.240-07:00Summer's Elegy by Howard Nemerov
Hello friends. Lately I've been noticing that leaves are getting crisper, the blackberries vines are heavy with fruit and the landscape is beginning to change. It's been unusually hot here in my little corner of the Pacific Northwest. I think we may have an early autumn. Though I enjoy the summer, I must admit, these little signs of fall stir my senses. Ahhh, the Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-75016708737725223332014-07-22T01:30:00.000-07:002014-07-22T01:30:49.370-07:00The Road to Grey: Act Three
It was over a year ago that I decided to go grey. It was a tough choice because I actually loved my blonde highlights. But the 'high' I got from my color was short lived. I needed a new fix every couple of months. Then I started reading about all of these beautiful women who were going grey. "Grey is the new blonde!" was their battle cry. So I decided to try it. I had nothing to lose but a $150Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-4705529378378126992014-07-03T14:23:00.003-07:002014-07-03T14:23:59.852-07:00It's Dad's Birthday. A Snapshot for His Descendants
Dad with his Aunt Ada Miller
[This piece, more than anything, is for my children and grandchildren, my nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews all the way down our immense family tree. It is a snapshot of your grandfather. I hope that when you read it, you will in some way see yourselves in my descriptions of Raymond Claude Miller. He was a wonderful, Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-90503100450004627462014-06-30T23:28:00.000-07:002014-06-30T23:32:15.117-07:00We All Have Our HI's and LO's!
I've been working out at the gym for 7 weeks now. I mean, I've been FAITHFUL! Spinning that elliptical machine like a hamster on one of those wheely-things. Pumping iron with the big boys in the weight room. Yep, it's me and a bunch of twenty-something hunks, three times a week; listening to Ga-Ga and workin' those glutes and abs. I can tell by the way those boys look Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-23499662809531330962014-06-29T19:42:00.000-07:002014-06-29T19:42:44.245-07:00Beautiful. Useful. Simple.
"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful,
or believe to be beautiful.” --William Morriss
I saw this photograph on Mother Earth Living's Facebook page of a simple basket placed by the front door with a pretty woven rug. The accompanying article was about how to eliminate allergic irritants. So much of the dirt and dust in our homes comes in on Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-57279523151923479532014-06-23T00:12:00.001-07:002014-06-23T00:12:31.831-07:00St. Francis and the Sow by Galway Kinnell
Salmon-Berry Blossom
by Debora Rorvig
all rights reserved.
Have you heard of Galway Kinnell? I just recently read something that quoted a few lines from this poem and immediately fell in love with his writing. The idea of reteaching a thing it's loveliness is so touching!
St. Francis and the Sow
by Galway Kinnell
The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-7506280666024834492014-06-20T11:30:00.001-07:002014-06-20T11:58:36.957-07:00Everyday Holiness--A Different Kind of Sabbatical
Some day I will travel to a monastery that overlooks the ocean. I will unpack a small bag that contains a pair of faded jeans, an old blue cotton plaid shirt, a pair of flip-flops, the Bible I've had for forty years with dog-eared pages, yellow highlighting and important thoughts scribbled in the margins. I will spend hours in meditation and walk by the sea, speaking to no one Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-27922661076194978162014-05-28T20:19:00.004-07:002014-05-28T20:32:35.912-07:00for Maya--Phenomenal
I woke this morning to the news that Maya Angelou had died. I feel as though I have lost a dear friend, a mentor; a She-ro.
To some, it makes no sense that I would be so profoundly sad for the loss of someone I never knew. But I would argue that I did know her. She spoke to me and it was personal. Her voice was calm and soothing, her words were always wise. She told Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-57922707046561687642014-05-10T09:32:00.000-07:002014-05-10T09:47:30.064-07:00School Lockdown
"Attention staff...WE ARE IN LOCKDOWN," came the announcement over the PA system in our school. It was Mary, our school secretary who made the call. Mary is the poster girl for cool-calm-and collected; but today her voice was different. Fearful. This was no drill; it was the real deal.
We sprang into action. Close the blinds. Hide the students. Joanne runs across the hall to check Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-80426686573882402862014-04-26T21:07:00.001-07:002014-04-26T22:30:21.553-07:00Some days are like a song
Some days are like a song.
Today was that day.
Blue sky,
quiet talks,
seagulls,
salt air,
life companions.
Downstream...by Supertramp
(Note: to hear this song, click the youtube link at the end of this post. Then close your eyes and daydream.)
Took a boat Sunday, down by the sea
It just felt so nice, you and me
We didn't have a problem or a care
Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-26302081493190574932014-04-23T15:01:00.000-07:002014-04-23T17:39:37.759-07:00Purple is My Faborite...From the Heart of a Para-Educator
Note to the Reader...
People often ask me what I do as a para-educator. It's hard to explain. Para-education, for me, is loving children where they are. Then the teaching follows. This piece is entirely fictitious; there is no Pietra. And yet there are thousands of Pietras out there who would never make it in school without the love and care of a group of Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-82364588767138739982014-04-20T19:59:00.004-07:002014-04-20T19:59:45.290-07:00Heart to Heart...a poem for my grandmother
The first time that my Uncle Edward visited my home he looked around at my hutch full of pretty dishes and all of the decorative plates hanging on my wall and commented, "You are like Grandma Lydia (his mother and my grandmother.) She loved pretty dishes too." This touched me, because I was just a little baby when she died. During the last few months of her life, she stayed in our home so Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-51688866402124428842014-04-06T20:02:00.005-07:002014-04-06T20:37:13.597-07:00Grandma's a Little Cra-Cra
Grandson Dane challenged hubby and I to do the 'Winter Challenge.' For the uninitiated...the Winter Challenge is a dare to run into freezing cold water; and then, in turn, to challenge others to do the same. Grandpa and I were up for the challenge. After much deliberation we chose Lake Whatcom for the big event. Even though it's mountain fed, it's not as frigid as the freezing waters of Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-54919014255919208862014-04-01T14:16:00.000-07:002014-04-01T14:16:52.613-07:00A Little Flower-Therapy
In case you've been yearning for spring as I have; here's a bit of flower-therapy from my trip to the local nursery...Cheers!
Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-57286748394617009682014-03-31T20:40:00.001-07:002014-04-01T09:04:30.196-07:00Four Questions Answered
Claudia Mundell, a writer and blogger friend has coaxed me out of my self-imposed blogging sabbatical with some 'writerly questions' posed in a blogging chain started by author, Margo Dill. Claudia is endeavoring to keep the ball rolling. So Claudia; this post is for you; and I will try to carry this blogger baton a little further in it's journey to who-knows-where! BTWDeborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-75854200768669761652014-03-08T01:14:00.000-08:002014-03-08T01:14:20.040-08:00Where has she gone?
Ya know how you feel when you've been following a blog for a long time and then suddenly they just stop writing? You wonder if they're on vacation or having a bout of the flu. Maybe it's writer's block. After a month or so you begin to get a little concerned. Wondering if everything's OK. Which make you feel a little nutso because you're feeling so concerned about this person you've never Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-72019825916293028812014-02-02T12:44:00.000-08:002014-02-02T12:59:09.723-08:00"Seattle" by Ana Byers
Introducing an original poem by Ana P. Byers
Ana is 10 years old and recently moved to Seattle from Portland, Oregon.
This gifted young writer just happens to be my grand-daughter!
Seattle
by Ana Byers
lights flashing
horns honking
phones being used
TV's blaring
restaurants overflowing
ferry horns' blast
balls fly through the air,
fans cheering "Go Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-32673871379533935572014-02-02T10:17:00.001-08:002014-02-02T12:32:31.317-08:00Twelveth Man
No self-respecting Washingtonian could let this day go by without saying SCREAMING two words....
GO SEAHAWKS!!!
Amy Woodward, a talented photographer friend; took this photo yesterday at our school. That is 500 elementary students screaming GO SEAHAWKS. This Superbowl run by our Hawks has fired up the entire state!
(I'm the one in the back row...LOL!)
**Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-36060552868023252902014-02-01T11:13:00.002-08:002014-02-01T11:20:36.726-08:00Three blackbirds--and a personal note
Three Blackbirds
daybreak's dewy fog
three blackbirds perch on pine--still
waiting for the sun.
**
Good morning friends! I've been absent lately.
I feel guilty about it, like a student coming into class late with a tardy slip with the whole class watching.
I know it's not really like that.
You all know what it's like.
We all have busy Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-49931231821204824602014-01-21T12:35:00.000-08:002014-01-21T12:35:46.188-08:00My Tribute to Michelle Edwards...Sweet Something's Designs
This is the photograph that made me fall in love with Michelle Edwards.
A few years ago I was idling away an hour on Houzz, looking for great Christmas ideas when I hit upon this photo. I was smitten the moment I saw it! Be still my heart...tartan! Who uses a tartan blanket in a tablescape? Who hosts a dinner on a rustic picnic table when it's cold outside?  Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8801406112245999994.post-36445159222388328342014-01-11T11:53:00.000-08:002014-01-11T11:53:49.763-08:00In celebration of an ordinary January day
One of my goals this year is to celebrate more. Not just holidays...but the little things in life. The ordinary. Last Thursday after work I decided to celebrate the day by treating myself to something fun. Just something small. So I spent a pleasant half an hour wandering through a sweet little local home boutique store looking for something that would make me smile. This made me smile!
Deborahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002468510668438210noreply@blogger.com5