The Story of the Yellow Purse

  Once upon a time the Classroom Mom of Elisabeth's Kindergarten class hosted a bag party at her house.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm not a big bag person but this mom had done a wonderful job for the kindergarten class. Also proceeds from the party would be going to support the Art program at our daughters' school so I went.
   
   There were tons of  bags of many types, colors, and sizes. I'm a big fan of the purse/wallet combination and was even more so back then when I was often carrying a diaper bag and so I was thrilled to find some there.  In particular one that seemed to have right amount of space and that space was organized with the type of compartments and card slots I liked.  And at a decent price, bonus!! There was just one problem it was yellow. I don't like yellow.  On my kids, maybe. For flowers, curtains, and summer squash, definitely! But as the expression goes yellow is not in my color wheel for clothes and so even as an accessory I was struggling. 
   
   Being the wonderful hostess she is; my friend had seen me pick-up the purse, put it down, walk away and circle back. So on one of my circling backs she struck up a conversation and upon hearing my concern said the most brilliant thing.  "What a great color for summer; and come the fall you can change if the color is still bothering you." 
   
   Needless to say it was fine; more than fine even with me receiving many a compliment on my bold choice and beautiful purse.  So it was with a sad heart (as the strap broke for the third time) I had to admit early this week that after three years of consistent use my lovely yellow purse was beyond repair and it was time to start looking for its replacement.

💛Good-bye dear purse; I'm so glad I brought you home with me 💛

Quick Takes #235: Happy Belgium Day!

In honor of Belgium National Day I decided to focus on that lovely little country today.

1. About the size of Maryland, Belgium rest in western Europe above France and below the Netherlands. Luxembourg and Germany sits on the eastern border.
2. My mom is just back from a visit and I.can't wait to see the pictures and catch up on the news of friends and family.  While I never lived there; having visited many times and knowing that it is the homeland of much of my family (my mother's whole family, she was the only one of her siblings to stay here permanently) it has always felt familiar and dear.
3. The food is amazing with frites (french fries), chocolate, beer and waffles forming the four most commonly recognized cornerstones.  Other national favorites include mussels, rabbit, salad liegeoise, and tomato stuffed with shrimp salad.
4. Officially bilingual with Flemish spoken mostly in the north and French spoke mostly in the south.  My mom grew up in the capital Brussels which is in the south and so my mom's primary language is french, though all of my cousins also learned flemish in school and their children also attend bilingual schools.

5. Bruge, a canal city often called the Venice of the North, and Antwerp are two other wonderful cities to visit.  I was luck enough to visit Bruge shortly before my wedding and pick-up some its famous lace to carry.

6. There is also forty miles of beautiful seacoast,  and the Ardenne (the hill country) in the east, plus the Waterloo Memorial as other wonderful options to check out.

7. Happy Belgian Day, to those celebrating and Good Weekend to the rest!!

Please visit Kelly's for more 7QT's.

Reading Challenge at the halfway point

Happy July! Hope your summer is going well.  Mine has been made substantially better by the addition of some rockers on our front porch and the fact the weather so far has been warm but not too humid and often with a breeze.  Reading is absolutely one of the best methods of self care for me and hopefully has me modeling a love of books to my kids.  I also appreciate how the different categories in the MMD challenge provides direction and the push I need to read outside my comfort zone.

At the midway point from the reading for fun path (the one I'm focusing on) I've completed 6 categories:

a book set somewhere I'm interested in but never been:
A Year of Living Danishly

a juicy memoir:
Talking as Fast as I Can

a book about books or reading:
Howards End is on the Landing

a book in a genre I usually avoid:
Becoming and Belonging

a book you don't want to admit you're dying to read ( I modified this one to a book I'm embarrassed I've never read): 84, Charing Cross Road

a book I was excited to buy but had not read yet:
Winter Garden


I've only completed one category of the reading to grow path but do hope to complete a couple more while largely focused on the "oomph path"

Anyone else attempting this year's challenge?
What are you reading?