The world is always full of interesting stuff to discover. I never knew that cow ears were sold as dog treats until my husband bought one for Diva Dog, mainly because he was curious about what such a small dog would do with a big old cow ear. She grabbed it right away, ran gleefully around the house with it, and then settled down to gnaw her prize. It took her a while to eat the whole thing, but there was never any doubt she was determined to conquer it!
 

Small dog gnawing on cow ear treat. 

A few days later, my daughter was buying dog food at the pet store, noticed some dog cookies with “Diva” on them, and couldn’t pass that up. (The dog’s name isn’t really Diva, but we all started calling her that because she acts so much like one.)
 

Dog cookie shaped like a crown that says "Diva." 

So I decided this week’s Nurturing Thursday post would be all about a happy life from a dog’s perspective:
 

1. Life is full of unexpected Wow! moments, mainly having to do with yummy stuff you didn’t know about.
2. When a Wow! shows up, it’s okay to get super excited and run all around the house wagging your tail.
3. Of course you can eat it, no matter how big it is! Anything and everything is for eating!
4. Ooh, there are crumbs to lick up, too! Go ahead, they’re your crumbs after all, so why not?
5. It’s all gone, aww… but here’s a toy in the corner, so now it’s time to play again! Yay!
 

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Somehow I got myself into a mood the past few days where instead of actually writing posts, I started ruminating about why I write a blog, whether I’ve really accomplished much with it, and so forth. Instead of giving my creativity room to run around and have fun (which is, of course, the reason why I write a blog—it’s not that complicated!), I got sucked into a pointless black hole of navel gazing.

Then I decided to just sit down and write a blog entry anyway, inspired or not, to let the air out of my own absurdities. Because I don’t have a pretty bellybutton ring like my daughter, I refrained from illustrating this post with my actual navel and instead took a photo of a navel orange on my kitchen counter.
 

Navel orange on my kitchen counter. 

That looks so goofy, I feel better already just seeing it in the preview! There is no profound, world-changing insight to be found in this post, except perhaps the simple observation that I never was obligated to produce world-changing insights on a regular production schedule. And what’s more, the next time I start taking myself and this blog too seriously, I’m just going to come back to this post and gaze at the navel orange until I go away giggling.

March 1, 2015 · 2 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

I’ve been going through the old Halloween costumes, well-loved baby blankets, and other stuff in the basement closet that left me saying “Awwww!” My daughter was so cute dressed up as a turtle when she was in kindergarten. But rather than keep a jumbled heap of old costumes forever, I’m posting this photo to preserve the memory, and then I’m letting it go.
 

Child's green turtle costume. 

Like the turtle that won the race with the hare in the ancient fable, I’ve been working on my clutter at a slow and steady pace, and one of these days I’ll reach the finish line!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!