Surprise!

Freshly pierced ears, a year early too. Ana and Nicole got their ears pierced at 13 and Christy was expecting to wait another year...she turned 12 Saturday...to get hers pierced. Little did she know her big sisters had been encouraging me to let Christy have her ears pierced at 12. I have always loved surprise presents and couldn't think of a better one for her! Looks like she agrees!

"The deeper our attachment to whatever provides us with this sense of completeness, the greater our fear of losing it, and the more brutal our pain if we do lose it."

The Joy of Living-Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness
Yongey Mngyu Rinpoche

Healing Hands

Another form of stress relief. ahhh!

Friday Fun!

Christy's Girl Scout troop is headed to the Dallas Museum of Natural Science to participate in all kinds of workshops and spend the night in the museum!! Tommorrow they have more museum fun, visit an aquarium and eat at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Another highlight for Christy is that tommorrow is her 12th Birthday! Happy Birthday Eve, Christy!

THREE FACTS: 1)I should have moved back a little so I could get all of Tall Nathan and the books in the photo 2)I like taking pictures of my handsome, smart, endearing son and 3)The title of the top book in his stack is "The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul". I asked Nathan to find a book for us to read and discuss. This one sounds very interesting! I got a stack of books equal to Nathan's in height, so you know what I'll be doing tonight!

Hope everyone has a FUN Friday!

I see this placque several times a day, as I go in and out the back door. The words are a gentle reminder for me to go "placidly". Webster defines "placidly" this way: serenely free of interruption or disturbance. What a worthy goal...to live serenely no matter the circumstances.

Think YELLOW!

This afternoon I received the most gorgeous, fragrant YELLOW boquet of flowers! Totally made me think happy, hopeful thoughts. Thank you sweet sister!!!!

High Tea

In honor of...
Rainy Days
Dreams of England
New Beginnings
Happy Endings
Nathan acting silly
AND
Nicole being accepted into the Economics Program at the University of Texas! WOOHOO!

Olfactory Experiences

SO SO...

GOOD....

WONDERFUL...

Therapy...

comes in many forms. Today it looked like this.

Mmmm Mmmm Good!

The kids and I ate at Schoepf's tonight. We had ribs, brisket, chicken and sausage. Good ole Texas BBQ!

Yellow

These yellow iris flowers have given me hope this week. When I was a little girl, I often drew the same picture...a house with a chimney and smoke, a large tree with a hole in the middle for the animals and I always colored the house YELLOW. I looked up the color symbolism for yellow and found that yellow can have "good" or "bad" connotations. For me, yellow has always held good connotations: hope, sunshine, warmth and home. The word Yellow even sounds happy to me. Today I am going to "Think Yellow"!

Letting Go

"To Let Go is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
To Let Go is to fear less and to love more."

To read the entire poem, go HERE.

India Bazaar

The outside of the Hindu Temple, where Christy and I visited this morning. The members were having an "India Bazaar" for the community and it was quite interesting! We saw beautiful artwork, saris, burthas and jewelry. Christy had her hand painted with Henna. We ate Dosa: rice pancakes filled with a potatoe mixture and topped with a spicey sauce. We met some very nice, beautiful Indian people who make their home here in Texas.
This little Indian girl caught my eye. Her brother held her hand as they walked around in wide-eyed delight.
There is major construction going on around the Temple, thus the scaffolding and electrical wires that are part of these photos. Two shrines are being constructed and are mostly finished. This is the smaller one. Inside the shrine is a statue and the sign says you can leave offerings outside on the steps.

Life As A Fish

These koi seemed so peaceful in their quiet, serene pond. They brought to mind Lady Julian of Norwich's words: "All will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well."

The Tip Toeing Bandit....

...quietly approaching Cali's food bowl.

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller

Homeschooling

We have been homeschooling sixteen years and counting. Our two eldest were homeschooled K-12 and now are halfway through college. Our two younger children continue on with this unusual form of education. We have six more years before the youngest heads off to college. Homeschooling has been wonderful, hard, exciting, fulfilling, exhausting and family enchancing. It's not something I would recommend for everyone. However, for us, it's been a journey well worth taking.

Vitamins A, C and B6

Sweet Potatos have recently been classified as an "Antidiabetic" food. If you want to know why, go HERE. They are delicious roasted with butter, salt and pepper.

Easter Morning

This beautiful backyard scene was only a few feet away from the sad scene below.
Our lovely Tulip Tree...broken under the weight of the snow.
By late afternoon, the electricity was back on and the snow was mostly melted but Christy's FIRST EVER snowman was still standing.

What's this white stuff?

Local Flavor

Margarita on the Rocks is a Texas favorite! I usually prefer my margarita frozen but last night John and I ate at Chili's and both had the "Presidente" margarita. I think those blue container thingies are really cute. This is "Margarita Madness" month at Chili's. We thought perhaps margaritas were half-priced but upon asking the waitress, we learned that no! they are full price but the waiters and waitresses get "points" for selling them and some sort of prize. We really couldn't see how that would inspire the patrons to buy more margaritas?!? Another curious thing about margaritas...in the days of old(thinking of when I first had a margarita, 30 years ago) they were always made with lime. Last night, I noticed that the strawberry with sugar around the rim margarita seemed to be quite popular! It did have tequila but is that enough to classify the drink as a margarita? Not for us purists. So here is John's version of a traditional margarita on the rocks. Our family believes he makes the best margaritas around!
2-3 tbsp frozen limeade concentrate
1 jigger Cuervo Gold tequila
1 1/2 jigger water
1/2 jigger orange juice
wedge of lime
Mix above ingredients in measuring cup and stir well. Salt rim of glass before filling with margarita. Serve over ice and with a wedge of lime.

Good Friday

Fridge Collage

Old and new pictures of family and friends cover three sides of our fridge. I enjoy glancing at their smiling faces when I take food from the fridge or wash dishes or cook dinner. Whenever we have visitors they always spend some time in front of our fridge. It's a happy place!

Iris Bed

Nicole weeding the overgrown Iris bed. My back thanks her!
I understand that the lady who lived here before us LOVED Iris flowers. She planted yellow and white ones in this bed and in another smaller bed. I always smile when the first one blossoms. They are such delicate flowers in design and yet hardy in their ability to multiply.

Finale

Saturday night was the final performance of "Hansel and Gretel". Here are all the gingerbread children right before the final act of the final performance. Christy is front row, far left. What a great experience this has been for her!

Merry Mail!

Don't you love it when you get books and packages and cool magazines in the mail? Today I received a book, written by my cyberfriend Colleen, and I can't wait to start reading. Also, there is a surprise package from my real life friend, Lisa. Look at the cool picture on top of the surprise package. It will go on my "vision board" because I'm visionating traveling to England and Ireland. Three fun magazines round out the treasure trove: Bas Bleu, L.L. Bean and Anthropologie. Time to grab a cup of coffee and dive into the "Merry Mail"!

x?vw#!

My camera must be playing a joke on me. IT has decided to insert the date of 10/27/03 on today's photo. This is odd, as it's the first time a date has ever appeared on my photos. Even odder, it's the wrong date!
WHY?
Perhaps something freakish happened last night when I finally captured the moon. Or maybe something of unbeknownst importance occurred on 10/27/03. Was this the day my camera was born? Or maybe the UNIVERSE is simply saying "Happy April Fools Day, Susan"!