Getting Started

I had big ideas for a new blog in 2019. It was going to start in January (very near to day ONE) and it was going to be this wonderful explanation about why Discoveries is part of the title, and how I have made some pretty awesome discoveries already in the New Year.

Well. Here we are, with ONE day left in January, and the new blog does not yet have a first post. But I have the requirements to start. I have a title: Dani's Discoveries. I am Dani, and I have made a few Discoveries about myself: I procrastinate. I put off things like starting a new blog because I want to start things in a big, detailed way and I want to do things perfectly. When I can't do this (of course I can't!), I stall. I give up. I don't start.

On New Year's Day evening this year, we went to Toronto to be with Ricky & Jasmine for awhile. We ate supper at The Mandarin, and we each got the typical fortune cookie at the end of the meal. Mine was the paper in the photo above. (Do the numbers at the bottom have any significance? I have yet to discover.)

Today I shall regard my fortune cookie message and "start now". It's the only way to "accomplish more" on Dani's Discoveries!

I know that the DD posts will include text and photos, memories and quotes. They shall have to do with discoveries that I'm making as I go about life. Knowing this, I shall start.

Discoveries made already in 2019:

I continue to make fun discoveries when I use my new camera, both about the equipment and about the subjects. 

I went with Ken to Reading, Pennsylvania when he attended IGo Board Meetings there the first week in January. We stayed with Ryan & Amy Huber and their 4 young children. I discovered that Reading is a city situated on a hill and that it has many lovely old buildings. I discovered that young children can teach me about my relationship with God. (More about that in a future post.)

Winter sunsets can be fiery arrows of glory.

When babysitting (which should really be called hosting a four-year-old) my niece Zoe one day, I discovered that even a young child can be a great help (and great fun!) in the kitchen. She was so careful with the eggs when putting them in the kettle to boil.
And, I might add, it was no surprise to discover on the Zoe-day that Ken will make a good grandpa.

At the annual Grace Ladies' Retreat this year, there were the usual serious times, the funny times, and the amazing food. This was the last time for Grace-as-one-church to have this event. The theme was Finding Rest in Times of Change. (or something like that) I discovered that, although the group was large (70-plus ladies) and bittersweet emotions ran high, there was plenty of Grace to go around. 

Current discoveries are being made in the beautiful land of Costa Rica, as Ken & I celebrate our 30th anniversary. During the resort week of our two-week vacation, we are staying in that Tiki, the little hexagonal house up there on the hill between the palms in the photo. 

This Post's Quotable:

At supper one evening, I served thin slices of beef to my family. When the girls inquired what sort of meat it was, Ken promptly supplied the answer, "Flatypus!"

 

This Post's Childhood Memory:

I remember playing house in the woods when we lived in Northwoods Beach. One of my favorite domestic duties was to cook. Two of the foods I remember were tea berries and chicken. The tea berries were actual, edible fruits - tiny bright red berries plucked from dark green glossy-leaved  plants growing low to the ground. When you bit through the red skin, you encountered a white fleshy center that emitted a distinct wintergreen flavor. The "chicken", on the other hand, was purely pretend. We pulled great chunks of white breast meat from the centers of fallen, rotting logs. After a rain was best, as the moisture in the "chicken" was at its prime. I'm sure that, had we salted those portions, it would have been a short trip to real tastiness via our imaginations!