This plant hasn't lost its sparkle. Literally.

This plant has seen better times. Life has been pretty rough, and I'm sure it doesn't feel like the plant it used to be. Back when it's petals were a little spunkier, it's foliage a little fuller. 

But no matter what, it won't lose it's sparkle/glitter. 

What is your sparkle? 

Sidewalk Ends

Every sidewalk ends at some point. Either ending in a dead end, a wall, or sometimes just undeveloped, uncharted area. And usually you don't expect the sidewalk to end, it just does.

And you find yourself unsure, peeking around the sign to try and figure out how to continue your journey.

What now?

What next?

Shouldn't there be a dang side walk?!

How do I do this?


But seriously, why are we even surprised? EVERY SIDEWALK ENDS. That doesn't mean your path ends, or your journey ends. It just means that you've hit a snag, a conflict, a puzzle, a point where you have to figure out how to continue. It just means you have to work out what to do next. Whether that means braving the rough ground, finding another path, or taking a step back. Or multiple steps.

Everyone pauses when the sidewalk ends. It's natural to experience that moment of "well crud, what do I do now?" But ending sidewalks are a part of life. Otherwise you'd end up just going in circles.

Ending sidewalks will eventually be what gets you somewhere.

When things fall apart . . .

Did the twig know it could do this?

So, at the beginning of garden season last year, I decided to try something new. A friend of mine takes her tomato plants and wraps them up with plastic wrap to make mini green houses. As a result, she is able to put them out super early in the season and then get tomatoes early as well.

I tried it. A couple of my tomato plants were OK, a couple of them died right off, and a couple of them were hanging on by a thread. I didn't pull up one of these barely hanging on plants, and I let my marigolds grow up around it.

It was basically a twig in the ground.

Then, at the end of the season, I found this! One lone tomato, decent in size, hanging from the top of that twig. No leaves, no color, and no growth. But on the top, a nice, juicy tomato.

I had another nice, big plant that I think only gave me one or two tomatoes.

Even when you're feeling like you are hanging on by a thread, don't count yourself out. Your influence reaches farther than you know, and more people rely on you than you realize.

And when someone comes along that seems like a better "plant" than you, just remember that looks are deceiving.

Sweet dreams are made of... cheese! Apparently.

How could I not post this picture? Whoever wrote this is pretty sharp. 

And I guess I just want to say...

For those days when you are feeling blue, and you feel like those around you aren't very curd-eous. Remember that others' actions are nacho fault.

You hear swiss all the time, when someone feels they are to blame for someone else's choices. It makes me want to scream! People Colby feeling like this for several reasons, but what it comes down to is it just isn't true.

And one more string: not only are you not responsible for some one else's choices, their choices do not reflect on you.

Que-so, you got this?

True Story: Would you like to pet the bee?

My cousin and I decided to meet at a local garden. We thought the kids would love to see all the pretty floral designs. Personally, I like to feed the fish in this garden's pond. But that is for another post.

At one attraction, where the flowers are planted around a fake carousel, the kids all stopped to admire a cute little bee on the flower. Specifically, the bee pictured above.

My cousin crept close and asked the kids if they wanted to pet the bee.

She was serious! Apparently this wasn't her first encounter with bees and she knew what to do. She reached forward, and gently pet the bee. 

I remember holding my breath, sure that she was about to get stung. Luckily, she didn't. 

Of course I was amazed. I mean, seriously? How can you pet a bee and not get stung?

I thought about being bold and just going for it. How cool would it be to say that I pet a bee? Unless, of course, it stung me. In which case it wouldn't be cool. It would be embarrassing, in fact.

Someone: "Hey Jenelle, how'd you get stung by a bee?"

Me: "Oh, you know, I tried to pet it."

Super embarrassing.

We all know someone that seems to have superpowers. They can handle or accomplish things that you would look at and think, "I couldn't do that," or "I couldn't handle that." And that's OK. We all have our strengths, and my strengths are different than yours. It's OK for us all to have different super powers and weaknesses.

What seems easy to one person, may seem hard to someone else. Like how my cousin could pet a bee and I froze, unable to accomplish what she made look so simple.

Someday I'll tell you about my other cousin and her wild tarantula powers. Again, true story. And again, not a super power that I have. But that is OK.

Um... this is awkward.

Wow. I found this beauty watching me from a bin at Walmart. It had massive, staring eyes and a wide, stalker-like smile. My initial reaction was, "What the... crud?" My second reaction was, "Someone actually took the time to come up with this product?" And my final reaction was to take a picture.

There are lots of people trying to sell us loads of crud. The trick is seeing it for what it really is.  Whether it's a lie, a cover-up, or sometimes someone will want us to do things for the wrong reasons. In this case, it's an over-priced, creepy pillow.

Stare at it for 10 seconds for maximum creep-out effect.