You know what I love?

Source

I love Mason Jars. In particular the blue ones, but on a broader level, I just love mason jars. I love the itty bitty tiny jelly jars to the long and tall jars that might be a vessel for someone's garden's year end giardiniera. I love the pint and quarts with the wide and narrow mouths. Our first set of Flour/Sugar/Coffee/Tea canisters were a set of Blue mason jars. I still have them and use them regularly. Right now they're getting ready to house cold brewed coffee when I put it together later on tonite for it to steep overnight. I love putting tea light candles in the little guys and putting them on a picnic table or around the patio to make little glimpses of soft light during a summer evening.

One of my favorite memories was of having walking pneumonia (no, that's not the favorite part - I'm getting there) and my grandma sending me home with a quart jar full of homemade chicken and noodles. Nothing tasted better than cracking that lid open and putting the ring and lid aside, grabbing a spoon, and helping myself to some of her special cooking. I can still taste it on my tongue.

Another memory I have is walking into my grandparents basement and seeing the shelves full of these jars. The damp musty smell would greet you before you walked down the wooden steps and as you turned the corner - as the basement was divided into two sections - the room would open up to floor to ceiling rough wood shelving. And there were literally hundreds of jars on those shelves. My grandmother used to have a large garden when they had lived out on the acreage and would can everything. Since moving to town she had less use for them but couldn't give them away. I remember when Kenny and I got on a canning kick after my granny had passed away, Grandpa had mentioned all those jars that were auctioned off and had wished he had saved them for us. Bless his heart.

In our built in china hutch in the kitchen, there is a whole shelf full of jars of varying colours and sizes. And every year when we go to can in the winter time, I love opening up the door and finding all these little vessels waiting to be filled with homemade goodness.

We have a full set of pint glasses with wide mouths that we use for drinking glasses. Nothing too fancy for the Fleming household. But, with children of all ages, they're sturdy and durable.

There are many uses for these little guys. But, I definitely enjoy using these little blasts from the past.

...or better yet, date a girl who writes...

Source

(found this on my tumblr dash and just instantly fell in love with it)

“Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.”

~ Rosemarie Urquico

Source