Eleven in 2010

I made some fun and encouraging discoveries this year.  As I have mentioned once or thrice, I do not live exactly on the cutting edge of what is cool & wonderful, so do not mock my pattern of coming late to the party.  That being said, the following miscellany have brought me much happy-happy in the last twelve months.   

1.  All my life I have loved poetry.  The lyrical flow of words never fails to make my heart sing.  This year I discovered someone who is seemingly unable to write without poetic beauty, and her words always, always turn my heart toward our Creator and Father.  Visiting Ann Voskamp's website is a nearly daily sojourn I take to encourage me in my spiritual journey...& I'm so grateful to have discovered her 2010!  Two of my favorite posts so far are this one, and and this one. 

I highly recommend you take a peek sometime when you don't mind shedding a tear or six.

2.  The musical stylings of Tenth Avenue North and Need to Breathe.  I admit to varied taste when it comes to music, but Need to Breathe's Let us Love makes me feel perky and ready to face my dirty dishes.  Just sayin.

3.  Pandora.  I will let all of my on-and-on Pandora ramblings from December speak for themselves.  But seriously, y'all, from Hillsong to Casting Crowns...Josh Groban to Shania...Pandora can take care of any musical needs you might face.

4.  Twitter!  It is way more fun that I would have expected to chat with both my children and semi-famous people that I will never meet...at the same time.  Good times, folks.

5.  Swagbucks.  This is a Katie discovery.  All I had to do was download the toolbar and I started earning "swagbucks" which could be redeemed for various items.  I went with Amazon gift cards and actually purchased one or five Christmas gifts with my earnings.  Free money?  Count me in!

6-7.  Netflix and Roku.  Cox Communications-who?  I haven't missed my cable at all since discovering Netflix and then buying a Roku box.  With the Roku I can stream Netflix, Pandora & a myriad of other various media-related channels.  I could watch Murder, She Wrote, and Monk 24/7 if I wanted to.  Fortunately I recognize my need for sleep.

8.  And ohmygoodness, Melanie, aka Big Mama, makes me amused and tickled, with the occasional LOL, every Monday through Friday.  She lives in Texas, loves Jesus, and has a young daughter who gives her much amusing fodder.  She is very lighthearted 99% of the time and makes me happy 100% of the time.  She also occasionally gives me great music discoveries.  It was on her blog that I discovered my SNTR-Holiday on the Pandora.  I will never be able to thank her enough for that one.

9.  Sophie, aka BooMama, is another blogger I discovered this year who makes me laugh! kind've a lot!  I may have picked up my exclamation point! habit from her...I really can't say.  She has a young son and lives in Birmingham.  She also loves Jesus and makes me laugh.  A great combination in my book.

10.  Same Kind of Different as Me.  No top ten list could be complete without a book selection.  This one was really, really good.  Kind've makes me want to go love on somebody who is all alone in the world.

11.  Homemade granola. 

Not a glamorous finale, but seriously people... homemade granola thrown on top of some Dannon's vanilla yogurt is some Heaven on earth, and I'm not even kidding a little bit.

That's it.  My first top-ten list that turned into eleven.  Feel free to check out any or none of my suggestions, but I'm tellin' ya - you will have a more fun if you do :)

* * * * *

Just kidding! 
I can't talk about favorites of the year
without a picture of my favorite new somethin' in 2010

I love you like crazy, sweet Owen.

Hope ya have a simply swell Thursday!
Renee