Decorate Your Soul

This is 7 in a series of 10. You can see the rest of the free things here.

Who doesn’t love visiting the library? Well, maybe my husband. He’s a quick reader, but still prefers to reread his favorites on his bookshelf. I like to collect books, but have only reread a few. That’s why the library rocks! Borrow and return! Walk the aisles or look up what you need on the computer! Peruse the returns or peek over at someones stack next to you! The library is a great place to spend for story time or quiet time- it just depends how many are in our party. Sarah can check out as many chapter books as she’d like (I limit her so we don’t lose them), Ashleigh will assemble and take apart as many puzzles as she can in a 25 minutes and Lauren can pull books out from the shelves and repeatedly ask if we can buy them (I’m trying to still un-teach this habit). I love that my favorite hobbies have a special place in this building and if the book I want isn’t in it, the magic computer can locate it in a nearby community. Another great advantage to the library is that it’s like trying on shoes, but if you decide they aren’t the right fit, you can easily return it with no questions asked. And who doesn’t love trying on shoes that we don’t have to buy?

I must admit that we have been spoiled with some really amazing local library branches in all the places we have lived. We had to take a break for awhile when the girls were at the toddle-every-whihc-way-and-destroy-bookshelves-in-sight stage, but we’re back and we routinely visit about once a week.

Bottom line: Visiting the library is a free adventure any afternoon of the week. Recently, they cut back the hours of the local libraries, but they are still open everyday, so I put my Save the Library shirt away. We’re still safe.

A couple of years ago, I got all into the flickr craze and joined a group called “Jumping Project” where you could submit one photo a day to this pool of images with people jumping. No joke. That’s all the requirement was. You wouldn’t believe the amount of participants, let alone the creativity that folks have with their jumping shots! I had to join in. I probably got overly involved (and excited) by asking everyone I knew to jump with me (almost everyone )  Or for me – that is, for my camera. It’s also a favorite thing I love to do with my clients because it can instantly be a mood lifter.

I’ll tell you what, it’s pretty hard to keep a straight face when you let your feet take you off the ground by a foot or two. Simply put, you embrace your youthful side and have fun. I love jumping. AND, I love to capture people jumping. Here’s Sarah with her new friend Zoey yesterday and Lolo on the right. Zoey’s mama is getting familiar with her new camera, so we were both out playing with our dials. Good times, that jumping stuff and all. Bonus, it’s free.

I’ve gone back and forth on deciding if baking is technically free, but decided that the act (or art, depending on how good you are) of doing does not actually mean having to go and fork out money to enjoy the fun involved. Having said that, I present my third in a series of ten things I love to do that doesn’t cost a dime: Baking.

If you looked carefully at all the junk in our pantry a few days ago, you may have noticed (or not, it was a mess after all) the outrageous amounts of flours, sugars, Crisco and raisins (oh dear, NO one eats raisins at our house, they MUST be for baking) that always tend to have a home on our shelves. It’s an easy excuse to make a yummy with the girls on any given afternoon, to fill my home with sweet smells of baked goods, or to deliver a surprise treat to an unsuspecting neighbor. And bonus: Who doesn’t love to lick the bowl when it’s lined with warm chocolate?

And don’t get me started on dessert. I can’t help myself- I have no idea how people have so much restraint and pass on it when its offered. Baking for the reward of desserts rock.

I may not always be successful in baking adventures- in fact, the shot I have above was a recipe I made from Ina over two weeks ago and I let the buns bake just a tad too long. Baking seems to have a learning curve  to some degree and doesn’t work well with an oven whose temperature gauge is off just by that much (see my fingers an inch apart?).

Luckily, I enjoy baking enough, I’ll probably give it another go again soon.

(a meme from Carin that I will split into ten posts) (thank you Carin)

I walk into Starbucks, order my favorite drink and think to myself- I wonder how the barista’s day is going?

So. I ask.

A typical start-up conversation might go something like this (feel free to replace barista with cashier, Apple store tech or postal carrier):

Me: Are you having a good day?

Barista: Well, yes I am!

Me: Good! Have you guys been very busy?
(this question might vary depending on how long the line is and my observations and the closeness of proximity the person behind me in line is)

Barista: Not too bad, getting a lot of organizing/cleaning/ stocking and what not done.

And then comes the life story.

In a two minute conversation with new friend Barista, I learn the place he grew up in, the team he competes for at the local college, and his ambitions for the next five – ten years (keep your eye out for a diver from Indiana in two years!)

I walk away learning more about some stranger than I would have had I not asked two questions to this face in front of me.

My mom has always said, “You can talk to anyone that wants to be talked to,” and I wholeheartedly believe that. I have had many conversations that have touched me because I opened my mouth with a smile and one question.

It’s the face of a wide-eyed dreamer moving to NYC to realize her dream. Twenty-two and more adventures than I can count ahead of her in her new apartment in the financial district.

It’s the work-at-home-mom taking the afternoon off to play at the mall that gives me insight to not freaking out about every. little. thing. And good news for my bathroom, she’s a shower cleaning expert.

It’s the UPS delivery guy that not only predicts weather and wears shorts through December, but also has let me know that he IS NOT, WILL NOT, and REFUSES to be Internet savvy. Still a nice guy, though.

It’s the beautiful pastor’s widow at Smashburger that splashed the town in green 9topped with a 1920’s style hat) and blessed me beyond words with her lease on life at 90-years-old.

I don’t always inquire about peoples’ days. Sometimes I’m too frantic to get onto my next place or corral the girls off to dance! piano! Awana!, but I always feel like my life is richer for having taken the time to learn about someone else. And  I take those conversations and opportunity to pray for those individuals that have passed through my life because I may never know them again, but I may meet them in Heaven. And wouldn’t it be some kind of cool if those faces that I got to share a smile with here were smiling back at me there?

See, talking to strangers isn’t so dangerous. Just use some discernment and step out of your box