Is This My Beautiful Life?

Living Outside the Box!

2011-06-27T10:31:00.004-04:00

It's so easy to let life "box" us in. How easy it is for our daily lives to define who we are, how we live, and what's important to us. How easy it is to forget the larger picture of our lives in terms of spirituality, relationships, and what's really important. I recently lost a beautiful part of my life when my sister-in-laws mother died. Defining her as someone else's mother somehow does not do justice to how special she was to me and so many other's that knew her and loved her. She was the kind of person that lived her life with such clarity and purpose that when you were around her, it made you realize that each day on earth was given to us for a clear and specific purpose....to love each other and to take each moment as an opportunity to share that love. She was a Christian woman who quietly lived a life devoted to family, God, and service. Earth's loss is no doubt heaven's gain!

In the throes of grief, it seems impossible to find the bright spot so I won't try. I only hope that the memory of how she lived her life can be a daily reminder to cherish each moment and break out of life's box. May we all find our purpose and live with zest.

2010-12-02T18:07:00.003-05:00

Two words and a descriptive, "Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....it's cold!" Oh man, winter weather has come early! Sending warm thoughts of waterfalls and rainbows to keep the cold at bay.

May all your rainbows have a pot of gold at the end of them!

Zelda

2010-12-01T17:48:00.005-05:00

I just returned from a wonderful walk with my faithful Corgi companion. The weather is cold

and blustery and makes me oh so happy to be alive. I wish I could capture this wonderful feeling and bottle it. Worrying about retirement or money for college for my quarter-of-a-dozen children would no longer be a concern as I'm sure this feeling is worth millions. I didn't take any pictures today, but these pictures from our drive back from Canada exemplify this wonderful feeling.

Funny how time flies! Sometimes I look at my life and wonder, "Where the heck did the time go?" In my head, I'm still a "kid" with my entire life before me. While in actuality, I'm a middle-age woman on the other side of 40. Ah, but in geological terms, I'm an infant with millions of years to go before I'm done.

My oldest has flown the coop and is off at college. It's been an interesting and sometimes painful transition from mom-in-charge of her life, to mom-hearing-about-her-life only what she wants to tell me. Hopefully, we've instilled enough of our values and common-sense that she will mostly make the right choices. Although sometimes, making the wrong choices can be a good thing (or at least a fun thing). It's been an interesting experience!

May your day be filled with blustery goodness!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-30T10:09:00.004-05:00

Well, it's been awhile! Life has just caught up with me. My oldest is applying to college this year so I've been a bit distracted from most everything except that. What a journey this has been! I still recall when she was just a sweet little baby and now she's about to head off into the world. Unfortunately I don't have any of her early pictures in a digital format, so you will just have to imagine her as a 6 pound 13 ounce bundle of joy from this early (age 8) photograph. As I look at her photos, I have so many dreams and wishes for her.

Hard to imagine!

So a funny thing happened on my way to this blog....

2009-06-30T08:57:00.005-04:00

My original intention with this blog was to document my world through a daily photo and some of my thoughts. Great intention, but unfortunately the reality is that I have a full-time, intense job, three children, and a husband who works crazy hours which results in me being a "single" mom much of the time. As reality set it, I realized that a daily update was just NOT going to happen. Despite that, I do want to keep this updated....so rather than 365 days perhaps I should shoot for 182 days. :~) He he he...

I'm off for the month of July. Yeah! One of the perks of working in the school system, but I will be spending the month with my mom and children. We will be "traveling" and hanging out, but hopefully I'll be more faithful with updating. For those of you who are reading, thanks. For those of you who aren't...you don't know what you are missing.

Today's picture is of my mother-in-law and my super-pup Esme. Perhaps not a very interesting picture, but here's the back story. My in-laws came to stay with us for 6 months (that's another story). They live in India so when they come for a visit, they come for a LONG visit. This was their 4th visit. Before they came, the thing that they were most concerned about was living with a dog. They have NEVER known a dog, liked a dog, or had any experiences with a dog so they were verrrrry worried. By the end of their visit (when this picture was taken), my MIL was in love with super-pup Esme and was probably sadder about leaving her than she was about leaving us. MIL made a bed for Esme, took pictures with and of Esme, hand fed Esme and generally fell in love with Esme. It was very sweet. Ah...the power of a dog! Perhaps international relations experts should take this into account when having high-level negotiations. If it meant peace in the middle east, I would be willing to loan Esme out for a day or two. Esme certainly broke down international barriers in our house.

Have a good day!

Rut-oh!

2009-04-02T22:23:00.003-04:00

Ok...it's late and I'm quoting Scooby Doo, so we know it's bad. I PROMISE that starting next week, I will faithfully update my blog. I've been taking pictures, but life just got away with me. Next week is Spring Break, so my plan is to get in the groove.

I know these aren't "new" pictures, but they make me happy. We had been to a birthday party and the kids had their faces painted. They just looked so sweet. I love this picture of Jay. It completely captures her essence..soft, sweet, and completely unique. What blessings these children are in our lives!

Have a great day!

See you next week!

Black Shoes and Happiness!

2009-03-09T21:32:00.002-04:00

Despite the fact that my daughter said, "That's so Facebook!" when I took this picture. I did it anyway. Na na na! For those of you who are interested, the lovely shoes in the picture are Skechers and they are the most comfortable shoes ever! I was inspired to take this picture because of the weather. Believe it or not...1 week ago, we had 3 inches of snow and I was wearing snow boots and today it was a gorgeous 84 and I went sock-less. Now that's pretty cool if you ask me. With the lovely spring-like weather we've had today, I just felt so happy. Happy to be walking around without socks or sleeves and to be warm. Happy to be alive. It was a great day! Soon, we will have the unrelenting humidity and heat of the summer that the South is famous for, but for today it's just a pleasure to be alive.

I adapted the title of this post from the great book by Alexander McCall Smith, "Blue Shoes and Happiness." That book is from a series of books about a lady detective (Mma Ramotswe) and the series is quite delightful if you're interested. Hope you had some happiness today! Spread it around...

Esme the Corgi

2009-03-08T14:47:00.000-04:00

This is such a rare photo opportunity. I was thrilled to get it! My dear 2-year old Corgi Esme in a moment of repose. She's a high energy, bundle of fun that has brought such joy to our house. Rarely is she this composed when I get the camera out as typically the introduction of the camera sends her into a frenzy of barking and frantic running. Of the hundreds of photos I've taken of her very few are in focus as she takes off as soon as she senses the presence of the camera. She's such a trip! I've always had dogs and somehow ended up marrying a non-dog person. Not sure how that happened...I guess there may be more important reasons to choose a spouse. But anyway, eventually I convinced him that our children needed a dog so they could grow up and be normal. Since I've wanted a Corgi my whole life, we ended up with a Corgi (hmm...no surprise). Esme came to us a tiny ball of fur with the sweetest disposition. She's a great dog--not perfect--but great nonetheless. My in-laws were recently visiting for 6 months from India and they too are NON-DOG people. In having them come to live with us for 6 months, one of my biggest concerns was how they would adjust to a dog. Amazingly, despite the fact they've never had a dog or had a desire to have one, they loved her. In fact, I think my mother-in-law will probably miss Esme more than anyone now that they are back in India. Ah...the love of a dog!

Food is always better on a "real" plate said my son.

2009-03-08T13:46:00.000-04:00

I've decided to start the 365 day photo challenge. I read about this challenge on SCS (a site for stampers that I spend way too much time at) and it's essentially a challenge to document life every day by taking a photo and blogging about it. My first picture was inspired by my son's musings that food always tastes better when it's eaten on a real plate. For an 11 year old boy, I thought this was an interesting point of view. My husband and I were talking about it and he thought that perhaps our son's view was in response to the somewhat chaotic life we have been living for the last couple of months. We've had way too many meals on paper plates of late. I personally thought that his statement was more a response to the fact that he's seen way too much HGTV with his parents. Not really sure which is the best interpretation, but it certainly was an interesting comment considering the source.