SunflowerMacGirl Opens For Business

I have a lot of irons in the fire and this is one of them. After 20+ years of playing with computers, smart phones, and now tablets like the iPad, I am loving spending time with other people helping them learn to use their laptop, desktop, ipad or iphone. 

I have another blog at SunflowerMacGirl.blogspot.com
Check it out! Well, give me a few days to add some stuff!

Count One Thousand Gifts in 2012

I don't update this blog much anymore because most of you are on Facebook, and it is just easier. I was challenged today to track my Joy Dare for 2012 on my blog, so I am going to.  I also am tracking it in a personal journal made especially for this exercise. Oh sure. I could do it on my iPad or iPhone, but there is something that I still like about a hand held journal. So I am going to take the Joy Dare for 2012, and you can follow along, or start your own. It's not too late to catch up!
A friend shared the idea and website info with me. My response back to her was, "Now just to find the time to do it!" Immediately I read our church newsletter online, and saw that Pastor John of Northwest Bible Church in Tucson was encouraging us along the same lines. I thought, "OK. I will AT LEAST look at the website." I was hooked and started thinking of all the possibilities. I started this actually last year after reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, a life changing book for me. So I have been journaling my Eucharisteo, or gratefulness for a few months. But my desire to do it comes and goes. Or I am not near my journal. So then I added the app to my iphone. Still, not as committed as I would like to be. I am hoping the Joy Dare will motivate me to keep with it.
We all need to stop and think about the things we are grateful for. It does so much for me. Also, along the way, I have been able to share with friends who are doing the same thing. On the way to a friend's for lunch in November, the three in the back seat were sharing how much they loved keeping a journal of their "gifts".
So I am going to share some of mine, and link with Holy Experience to share together.

Rush hour traffic in Tucson. Oh are we glad to be home!

Oh USA we're glad to see ya!

Chateau Gaillard

Paris

Definitely Today Has Been The Highlight of our Adventure

I will send pics in a minute from my phone but it is so much easier to type on the iPad.
As I said earlier we have had the great opportunity to stay just outside of Paris with our son Brian's friends Keith and Deborah Grimaud. Their home in St. Germaine en Laye is absolutely wonderful. Just what you would expect in a Parisian home. They have taken us for crepes, helped us navigate Paris metro, busses and tourist attractions, but today they surprised us with an unexpected road trip to Giverny, home of Monet. The drive there along the Seine River was so amazing in itself. They took us on a side trip to one of their favorite solitary places. Along the river there were beautiful little cottages, swans along the bank. It was just amazing. We traveled on to Giverny, home of Claude Monet. We visited his home and spent several hours enjoying his garden! It is just beyond description. We ate in a roadside restaurant under red striped awnings, then traveled on to Chateau Gaillard, a fortress in ruins, but still intact enough to be able to envision every story you have read with a setting in the 12-14th centuries. As I have said before, I am going to have to read Pillars of the Earth and other books with European settings again now that I have been to these places.
We finished off the day visiting a French supermarket and having a delicious home cooked dinner. We head back to London tomorrow, and on to Houston Saturday. We have just had such a wonderful trip.