catnipoflife

Observe life at its best, Listen to life’s songs, Embrace life’s bounties, Breathe the breath of life, Savor life to its fullest!

The best Recipe!

Hugs across the miles sent with joy and smiles!

Ute smile

That is me……  but don’t eat me……just hug me….

18sep12

I love teddies and soft toys here are my favourites.

petzyted

This is Petzie and Retzi. Petzie is a German Steiff Teddy which is actually my sister’s and is over 50 years old dressed in our baby clothes. Retzie lives in London but was allowed to visit Germany, he does have his own passport.

TeddyMc Fluff (2)

This is Teddy Mac Fluff, our cool teddy.

Another collection:

Teddies are patient, loving, cuddly, soft, fluffy, cute and always happy.

I hope Manny from Marsha’s blog  likes all his friends here.

amazing1

Wishing you a day full of Sunshine, if not in the sky then in your heart!

View original post

6 Comments »

Inspiration: Meeting the Challenge 3

Visit Meeting the Challenge 2

Precious Moments: That is the challenge for this week!

Each of us is rewarded at some point in time with moments we deem simply precious. These moments stay with us stored away in our mental scrapbooks to be revisited as necessary through smiles, giggles, and sometimes even tears. Sweet memories!

Like the times the kids fought over whose cookie had the most chocolate chips. What a sight as they picked out the chips one by one just to prove a point! The next batch of cookies I dared anyone to start picking it apart threatening to bake non-chocolate, chocolate chip cookies. [ha-ha] I did decorate each one with a smiley face from then on, which brought on even more smiles and giggles, each delicate cookie equally branded!

Precious moments gently cradled ready to take flight

Meet the challenge! 

What warm, fuzzy stories do you have stored in your mental diary?  Think about it: Recollections of such precious moments might just trigger a poem, a story, a personal reflection.  After all, it is such accounts of life that keep us going, always on the alert for that next precious moment.

“Cherish those precious moments because they did not happen by plan or design
but by feelings, hunch, chance, fate, destiny or just the need to say hello
t
o a particular person at that point in time.”
~Author Unknown

Precious moments
Seconds in time
Treasured memories
Stored in the mind

Frets & falls
Tears have their place
Heartwarming smiles
Remnants of grace

Stories amid laughter
Echo & resound
Playfulness of heart
The true common ground

catniplogosm1
©2013 catnipoflife
Sharla Lee Shults

3 Comments »

Hugs Sent Your Way. . .

From catnipoflife

 

“Hugging has no unpleasant side effects and is all natural.

There are no batteries to replace, it’s inflation-proof and

non-fattening with no monthly payments.

It’s non-taxable, non-polluting, and

is, of course, fully refundable.”

~Author Unknown

13 Comments »

Inspiration: Inner Voice

“If a bird is frightened, or simply interrupted, as it sways and sings on a bough, it simply moves to another bough and keeps on singing.”

As I was listening to a radio program this morning, a similar scenario immediately caught my attention. The more I thought about it the more it became a puzzle piece of life. How many times has concentration been snapped apart and the melody or rhythm of the moment broken? We connect, disconnect, connect, disconnect throughout our daily routines as interruption after interruption ultimately becomes aggravation.

Eventually our inner voice cries out, “Enough!”

Next time one of life’s interruptions catches up to you, think about the bird and let your inner voice just keep on singing!

9 Comments »

Quips, Quotes, & Anecdotes, aka ‘Antidotes’

Ah-h-h-h-ha! Those sidesplitting quips, quotes and anecdotes [‘antidotes’, if you prefer] that bring on the tears from laughing so hard. . .where would we be without such humorous happenings? And, what better place to seek the most unusual challenges and ‘off-the-wall’ excuses than within the reflections of a classroom teacher.  You know – that person who holds the ‘cushy’ job, which starts late and ends early in the afternoon, and provides summers off to do nothing but lay around and bask in the sun. Ooooh! It is getting hot already. . .Yea, right! We wish!

From day care to pre-school to kindergarten. . .all the way into the college lecture hall are moments where innocence (the unintentional) turns wit into wisdom. Tales to be told, stories to be written, smiles, laughter, tears and frustration fill the pages of the teachers’ mental diaries. Teachers can quip all day about frantic antics, provide hundreds of thousands of daily eventful quotes and last, but not least, share humor beyond all boundaries that becomes the best ‘antidote‘ for a bad day. [Um-m-m? Sounds like the cat in my post Funny Cats:>)]

Enjoy and get ready to laugh. . .

“What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honorable, than teaching?”

 Harriet Martineau

Leave a comment »

10 Cutest Cat Moments

Of course, you know I could not stop with only one ‘cat moment’ posting. Here is another and a great way to end the evening or begin a new day with smiles and laughter (depending upon whether you read this tonight or in the morning)!

Smiles to you yesterday, today and tomorrow:>)

4 Comments »

Inspiration: The Butterfly Effect

Yesterday I ‘happened upon’ a Tweet [literally stumbled upon it among hundreds of Tweets] from writer Claire Cappetta that led me to her posting of the day Love and Coffee. Before going any further, be sure you click the link and read Claire’s ‘top of the morning’ greeting! Then, think about what your reaction would be if this happened to you:>) Of course, I smiled to myself as all kinds of thoughts passed through my mind! Um-m-m? Now, where DID I put that old coffee pot I decided to keep for emergency?

murphys-law2As I pondered the situation, Murphy’s Law entered my mind: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. The coffee pot scenario seemed to fit since anything manmade will at some point in time ‘decide’ to just quit. It can and it will! Unfortunately, more often than not it doesn’t end there: one thing goes wrong that leads to another that leads to another to another to another. . . and the beat goes on. If it can, it will go wrong and there is nothing that can stop it!

Claire’s posting at least let me start the day with a smile and a laugh along with, of course, hubby’s risque nature:>) However, the day did not proceed so light-heartedly, not even a giggle was able to creep its way in ’til the latter part of the day. In fact, it was hectic from that point on and very mind-taxing with my writing geared toward a totally different direction than that of catnip.

In order for you to understand the discovery and the inspiration that actually led to this posting, you need a little background information. Being an educational consultant, better still an ‘online learning specialist’ (just a fancy title for this ol’ retired school teacher), a lot of writing is necessary in response to the daily evaluations required of teachers’ online submissions. Well, this one video arrived that totally took me by surprise. I watched, I listened, I took notes; I rewatched, I relistened, I retook notes; I watched again, I listened attentively, I took more notes. The phone rang and rang and rang. I picked it up along with every other phone I passed on my way out to the porch, I laid all the phones down on the table and said, ” You answer it!” Then, I slowly turned around and walked back to the computer. A few short minutes later, I heard footsteps and only a head hesitantly appeared in the doorway. “I love you, Babe. Are you all right?” I think the hesitation came about of fear I might snap his head off but he knew the “I love you” gets me every time! He smiled, I trembled, we kissed!

OOPS! Careful animated_computer_studenthere, I am getting off track. Anyway, with attention back to the computer and trying to decide how to formulate the feedback, I decided to set it aside for awhile and collect my thoughts. Sometimes writing too quickly in the wrong state of mind can lead to misconceptions and unsupportive comments. That’s when I thought once again about Claire’s morning and I began to smile and giggle to myself. Still at the computer but now with thoughts of coffee and coffee pots I began a Google search. I cannot tell you what keywords I used nor how many searches I made but the words ‘butterfly effect’ caught my eye. Now, what on earth could butterflies have to do with coffee? When I began reading, it was not long before I was laughing but this time outloud, for right in the second paragraph I read . . .”Imagine you wake up in a good mood but then the coffee maker is broken. . . !

The next morning I found myself chuckling at yesterday’s musings. After many chuckles, the mood was set, I was inspired, and ready to write (hence this posting). Since catnipoflife focuses on life outsite the confines of four walls and a door (maybe a window), I ventured onto the porch with steaming coffee in hand, sat down in the rocking chair and watched as the wonders of nature begin to awaken my senses. Then, I saw the butterflies. I had bookmarked the site I found yesterday so I immediately opened it and read it again.

Have you heard of the Butterfly Effect? There IS inspiration here, my friends. Just click the words and you will be directed to Inspiring Yourself at Work. Claire, hope the rest of your day yesterday did not follow the path of the ‘butterfly effect’.

Where will you get your inspiration today?

7 Comments »

%d bloggers like this: