Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

The basics: Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

Here are the rules:

Structure: While Haiku may be written by some in other styles, for THIS meme only 5-7-5 is acceptable. At least one of your haiku must be in this format.
Theme/Prompt: We have a new prompt each week, and your haiku needs to be related to it, if not include the actual word in it. Feel free to leave a word suggestion in a comment!
Linking: When you post your link, link to the blog post with your haiku, not to the main page of your blog.
Reciprocate: If you participate and post your link on my website, you must have a link back here on your post. It’s only fair.

Folks not complying with the above risk having their links removed. Don’t make me be all “Grrrr” and stuff, it makes me grumpy! Thanks for your cooperation!

P.S. This is a really busy time for me – I may not get around to everyone each week. Sorry about that, but unfortunately I need to attend to business before pleasure!

This week’s theme is: Relief

Suddenly released
Pent up stress, anger, sorrow
Blissful in relief

Rough, dry, itchy skin
Winter weather plays havoc
Apply cream… relief

Dull irritation
Surly mood, keep your distance!
Caffeine..? Finally!

Carefully gouging
Sweep away what doesn’t work
Carving a relief

 

Next week’s theme: Love

‡ Folks, a quick note about comments: A few of you don’t have Name/URL enabled on your blogs, and I CAN’T comment in that case. Take a moment to enable that, will you? There are other ways to combat spam and still allow people with their own domains to leave their homage to your greatness ;) ‡

Nothing makes me happier than to see new people getting “hooked on haiku”! Keep it going to make it to the Hooked on Haiku List (if you’re not listed and should be, please [politely] let me know!)

To participate in this week’s event, please use the following code in your post on your own blog (if you don’t have a blog, post your Haiku as a comment):

<a href="http://youknowthatblog.com/tag/haiku-wednesday"><img src="http://youknowthatblog.com/SHW/shw1.jpg" width="350" height="188" alt="Join the fun!" title="Join the fun!"></a>

You can also choose to use only a text link, or either of these additional images I made for your use! Use This one (dark), or This one (light)!

A few days ago I stumbled across another blog – and DRAT I didn’t save the URL – that mentioned a cool thing called “Post Crossing“. Post Crossing is such a neat service!

From their website:

“The project

The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive at least one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world.”

This is how it works: You can have up to 5 postcards in transit at a time. Once a postcard is received, the recipient puts the code (provided with their address, which you must print on the postcard) into the system, and your address goes into the database for someone to get randomly and send you a postcard. It’s a slick, easy system, and it’s actually quite brilliant.

Now, the question is; why aren’t postal services around the world jumping on this idea? It seems like a really neat way to save their collective butts, don’t you think? Canada Post just increased prices yet again, because it can’t sustain operations without doing so. If they had more volume from things that really turn people on… you see where I’m going with this. Instead of whining that people aren’t using them anymore, they should be employing strategies that get people interested in sending things with a stamp on it again. Duh.

Hey, The Netherlands gets it – they’ve embraced the idea, and even issued an official Postcrossing stamp! How cool is that?

Anyway! I joined, and sent my first 5 out this week.

The first set went to Germany, Wichita (Kansas), Belarus, Russia, and the Netherlands. I included the address to my blog, and invited the recipients to come and say hi. So…

Hi Willi in Germany!
Hi Rebecca in Wichita (Kansas, USA)!
Hi Sevil in Russia!
Hi Willem in the Netherlands!
Hi Elena in Belarus!

Welcome to my blog; I hope you enjoyed the postcards I sent you for your collection! I can’t wait to start getting them too.

I’m going to keep doing this, and mentioning the people I send to and who I get postcards from here on my blog. It’s a really nifty way to bring people together!

This would be a cool thing for students to do too, don’t you think? Classes could do it as a group, and make it part of an ongoing Geography study.

I’m excited. Are you excited? Let me know if you join!

I want to learn…

1. To crochet. Moreover, I hope I can find the time to spend doing it! There are so many cool things you can make with crochet that you can’t with knitting… and so many great tutorials out there too! Where to start, where to start…



2. To better manage my days. I’d like to blog more, and waste time less. I’d like to get all of my actual work done, and have time to spend “offline” with the family and in other pursuits more than I do now! Out with the chaos, in with the structure!

3. To eat properly. Well, to eat at all would be a start. Most of the time I forget to eat, and that throws the ol’ (and getting ol’er) bod into starvation mode, which is a) stupid b) really hard on the system and c) makes you gain weight, or at least not let you lose it. Past that though, I’d like to structure myself so that I remember to and find the time to eat regularly, and properly. Sad, aren’t I?

4. Some new recipes that the family will ALL love and appreciate, and that are healthy and good! Any suggestions? The hubby won’t eat: ham, steak, pork chops, or roast beef (unless cooked to death in a crock pot). The kids and I won’t eat tomatoes… unless they’re no longer recognizable as tomatoes. The Teen hates fish. Pasta makes me physically hurt, although I will eat it if I don’t have to go anywhere for the next few hours.

5. How to give a better massage. I give a great massage, but I tend to use my hands more than anything else, and as I get older, that becomes more difficult. My RMT uses his weight and the pressure of his arms and elbows and hands to work me over, and it seems a lot easier on him. We bought a massage table a few weeks ago actually, from Costco. Best. Thing. Ever!!!! I will not go into details on the many uses, but let’s just say we’re both benefiting greatly from having it. (Rooowrrrrrr!) Still, the resulting massages do not leave me in the shape that my RMT does, so I want to learn better technique! I may do some research and even take a class or two. A couples class would be AWESOME… wonder if I can find one!!


6. To let go of the past. Oh sure, I’m a fine one to give advice, but I’ve come to realize that I don’t listen to my own advice, and there are several things I just can’t let go of. It’s not good for me to hang onto old hurts, and revenge of any sort is rarely worth the hassle. I’m sure the few people involved in said hurts don’t give me a second thought anymore, so why am I allowing them to live rent-free in my head all this time? They’ve gotta go! Maybe I should have a purging ceremony!

7. How to make fire with nothing but sticks or stones. Seems like a cool skill to have! (maybe I’ll just buy a flint kit… haha)

8. To be happy with what I have. I have a lot. I’m not as much of a pack rat as I once was, but I still have too much. Maybe I should rephrase that to say “I need to declutter my life of unhealthy things, people, habits, etc., and then be happy with what’s left!” Years ago I found FlyLady.net and I just loved the structure she provided me. I “outgrew” her, but then over time lapsed into some bad habits again, so perhaps I’ll revisit my FlyBaby roots this year. Certainly can’t hurt!

9. To love Christmas again. That seems weird to be saying now that it’s all over, but you have no idea how “blah” this past Christmas was for us. My mother said the same thing – it has lost all the sparkle it used to have for us, and become nothing more than Greedmas. This is not what I want for my family. We need to do something to shake it up this year, but we’re not sure what. What kinds of (non-religious) things do you do with your family to celebrate the winter holidays? I’d love to hear your ideas!

10. To meditate. “Ohhhhhm…” It eludes me, but I know there is inner peace to be had.

11. More about my family history. I don’t have any grandparents left, and I don’t know where any of their papers went. There are bits and pieces here and there, but nothing in the way of a time line, or family tree. I’m considering joining Ancestry.com… but I just don’t want to spend the big bucks it costs to do it. I’m cheap, I guess… how much is a family’s history worth? My friend Sandi joined and shared the subscription with her sister, and they found out all kinds of amazing things about their ancestors. I know we’ve got some amazing characters in our family history – especially on my paternal grandfather’s side. I’d also like to delve into the Hubby’s side – I know next to nothing about them, and he doesn’t seem to care. That annoys the bejeebers out of me.

12. To levitate. Pretty sure it won’t happen, but a girl’s gotta have goals, yo! (Boy, I had no idea coming up with 12 things to learn would be so difficult!)

I wonder how many of these I’ll actually achieve this year? Guess we’ll find out together, yes?

Many of you have been watching as things unfolded with my daughter’s grad trip cancellation, and I thank you for that.

As of this afternoon, the matter has been resolved to my satisfaction, and I have agreed to take the post down. Thank you for your public and private messages of support; they were appreciated one and all.

–Jenn

Since I introduced my dear friend Broot a couple weeks ago, I may have also sucked a few other unsuspecting girlfriends into the swirling, time-sucking vortex that is pinterest.com.

I am not even sure how I found the place. I think maybe I stumbled upon it when looking for design ideas for Wee One’s bedroom in our new house (not built yet). The rest is a blur. Suddenly I’m in the middle of it full bore, and I have folder upon OCD-organized folder on my hard drive with so many amazing ideas that there’s no possible way I’ll ever get to half of them.

Yesterday we had friends over, and I whipped up this unbelievably easy ice cream cake for dessert. So very easy, and everyone loved it! My only regret is that I didn’t double the recipe and make a bigger one. It even looked EXACTLY like the picture (which I grabbed from Pinterest – it’s not mine)

So many artery clogging yummy recipes to find! I’ve tried several of them too, and all were instant hits with all concerned.

Sensational decorating ideas, DIY plans and ideas, fashion (some of which is beyond weird, but oh well), and among many other things, innovative and sensational kid crafts too! Wow, there just isn’t enough summer left to do them all. This one looks fun – I think we’ll be doing it this week!

My name is Jenn, and I’m a Pinterest Addict. There is no known cure besides a power failure and a low battery warning on your smart phone (because yep, they’ve got an app too!), and I’m completely ok with that (even if it makes my buddies hate me sometimes!).

_{Tuesday update: The Teen has been on the couch with her iTouch surfing Pinterest for 2 hours now… Oh the monsters I have created…! But if it gets her interested in cooking and stuff, YAY!}