Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

Another weekend approaches and I am reminding myself that I still need to update my blog to add the right photos to not just one but two "Photo Challenge" posts. Actually, I haven't even posted the second Challenge post yet - even though it was supposed to be on my blog some five days ago - and still need to do that. How bad is that? I promised myself and my readers / visitors that I'd post photos every weekend yet haven't done so. Which means I've let myself down, and my readers and visitors too. As I go through my emails and read articles online, I try to gently nudge myself towards my laptop's "Pictures" folder. That's where the photos live once I've downloaded them from my camera onto my laptop. That's where I need to go. That's where I need to direct my attention. Yet knowing I need to do something and actually doing it are two very different things. I'm not usually this bad with sticking to my promises, with following ...

This Week's Photo Challenge theme is: YELLOW !!!!!!!!! With a lot of exclamation marks. Because yellow and exclamation marks go together like sunshine and smiles. Or like yours truly and books. Or peanut-butter and jelly or... Well, you get my point! As I like the colour yellow and have had the idea of doing a yellow-themed Photo Challenge in my head for some time, the photos span several weeks. Some song lyrics and a few words by yours truly tie this blog post together. Enjoy the craziness, fun and excitement of yellow! Yellow Duck out Exploring It's raining as I write this. Yes, really. The little yellow duck above isn't hanging out in a bathtub, however s/he's having a ball playing on my wet balcony today. Or just posing... The lyrics to Fools Garden's Yellow Lemon Tree sound and feel quite appropriate today! I'm sitting here in the boring room It's just another rainy Sunday afternoon I'm wasting my time I got nothing to do I'm h...

How cool is it to be mentioned or featured online?!!!! Thanks for featuring my photo / blog post Steve G. Bisig, I'm honoured! :-) Nature & Landscape Photography is out! http://t.co/vis0AtuIh0 Stories via @NLCT @nimavenl @RSarkuv — Steve G. Bisig Photo (@SteveBisig) May 19, 2015 Thanks for featuring my work Steve G Bisig Photo , I'm honoured!

Adorable kitten, playing. Get it! A photo posted by Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) on Aug 23, 2012 at 10:38am PDT

Being grateful. Sometimes it sounds very easy, at other times it sounds quite hard. When life seems to be going well, being grateful feels easy. We love our job, enjoy spending time with friends, attend interesting courses, we're fit and healthy - whatever makes us feel happy, satisfied and content, those are all things to feel grateful for. When life throws you curve balls and making ends meet or staying sane feels impossible, being grateful can seem pointless or futile. Life sucks - why should I be grateful for that? Yet even in the face of disappointment, curve balls, stress, grief, loss or hardship, we are alive and able to think about whatever may be happening in our lives. We are able to examine our lives, to look at what is happening and to find ways to get through whatever it is we're going through. One of the many perks of the way our minds work! Focusing only (or mostly) on negative thoughts, feelings and emotions like Life sucks / I'm a failure / Nobody love...