Hopefuls... for the New Year

I am not one to make these traditional resolutions that are set in stone, pacted with blood, and recited weekly for stamina. I have only a HOPE I can find the excitement to look forward to this New Year with a renewed sense of life and learning. These hopes are the ones that I imagine will bring me closer to the lifelong purposes that I hold more closely to me.

I wanted to share them here with you...

Study the Old Testament for 2010... this is the book of scripture we are studying for the year in Sunday school. As I am teaching... this is terribly convenient for me.

Read the works of CS Lewis... I am beginning this with the Screwtape Letters, together with Heidi from Mt Hope Chronicles.

Uncover and develop the meaning of RESTORE in my life... through Ali Edwards blogpost One Little Word 2010.

Give Paul the wife he never had... this holds many meaningful, funny and hopeful endeavors!

Yell less, whisper more... to become more soft spoken.

Take family walks.

Self-study of photojournalism with Photojournalism: The Professional Approach

Daily gratitude journal.

Project 365... with a picture for each day of the year.

Plan and carry out monthly assignments to develop my photography skills with these two books,
Expressions: Taking Extraordinary Photos of Ordinary Life
The BetterPhoto Guide to Photographing Children

Hmmm.. try talking less, listening more.

Shedding of the debt, and building a surplus... finally!

Add to our food storage... additional dry goods, spices, medicines, water, and generator.

Study Latin with Hannah.

EDIT: Add to this list... more frequent and consistent blogging...

Takin' a peek...

I won't be able to stand over you for long, but while I can I must save a moment or two...

Dear Mark,
It would be all too easy to walk in front of you, all the while missing all you do.
Or to walk alongside you, I may take away from your child's ride through this life.
While near behind you I catch glimpses of what roads I missed, and learn to take the turns a little slower then...
But remember this, it is your ride here on Earth, that teaches me all I may and ought to be...

Top Moments from Labor Day

I can never get enough visits to the Bluffs back in Missouri. It is such a thrill and a certain peace (all at the same time) when we share these family traditions together. There is much more where these came from, but its late and I wanted to share what was on my mind.

This stone foundation is all that is left from a swinging bridge in Monegaw, MO. Its random, but the stories of family past and the reminder of the stone foundation always speak to me...

... family is only as alive and close as you keep it. We can feel far removed, or we can feel close as kin, either way it is of our choosing. Whichever we choose will make all the difference in our lives.

How this bridge support and the river that runs along the bluffs remind me of family, I may never know... but I do know that the love of family brings us back each time.

Then onto the rodeo... I must say, a rodeo is either good or its a DUD... Lets just say the company of family makes all the difference... and we will come back and do it again every time...

My Childhood Home

A little reminiscing for a moment.

Since I moved back to the Midwest five years ago, I have always wanted to go back to the childhood home of my memories. We moved to California when I was five, and though I spent my childhood growing up in California, the Midwest has always felt like home for me. Some people refer to it as a 'slower' pace, while I think of it as a 'simpler' life. I guess having family to come home to always made it a sweeter memory.

So this past week when I drove from Kentucky to Missouri to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday bash over Labor Day weekend, I went down memory lane through the town I was born in... Warrensburg, MO. Simple enough huh?!

So I thought I would share a few memories, with a twist on then and now.

This is the tree I used to climb while playing in the front yard. It still looks big to me, only because it has grown.

Okay, this is my favorite... this little niche in the wood post was made by me when I was a little girl. I used to take these red berries from the bush just next to it and squish them in the little round hole of the post. Hannah has had moments just like this, and it has always taken me back to this... this is Hannah's hand here...

Along the front of the house, which was a duplex, there was a walkway that gives an impression of a porch with the row of posts here in front. I used to run up and down here playing make-believe, and living the female version of Dennis the Menace to the old man next door.

This is in the front next to the infamous post, where the berry bush used to grow. Behind Hannah, across the street is a grass lot between two houses. There are railroad tracks running JUST behind the houses, so I used to count the cars of the train as it ran along here. Yet the train seemed to jump out to me as it appeared between the two houses behind this lot.

Simple enough... yet full of vivid imaginations for a four year old girl playing outside her childhood home.

On the road... and saying goodbye...

Well it has been little said if any, here on the blog, that we have moved to Kentucky. It seems with this move I don't quite have the words to express or explain our move from Independence, KS.

In the blink of an eye... that about sums it up.

Don't doubt my love, support or faith in Paul... he has worked harder than ever to make this life for us. I thank him for all he does in the name of family. I am blessed to have the opportunity he has given me.

With that very 'opportunity'... ahem... I was able to drive me and the kids from Kansas to Missouri... and then on to Kentucky. And kuddos to Paul for trusting me with such an expedition. So, my latest adventure...

ROAD TRIP!!!

And so... without further ado... this is US!! On the road heading to Kentucky... this was our side note in saying adeu to Kansas and those rows of sunflowers in the summer sun.

ADEU... we will miss all of you!! Terribly...

WiCkeD Musical in Tulsa

This was a bit of a going away celebration for me. After having our house packed and loaded, I staying in a local hotel and enlisted dear friends to babysit while I ventured off for an entire day to enjoy the comforts of my dearest girly friends and the comical, and surprisingly heartfelt musical WICKED. Its the beginning story of Glenda the Good Witch and The Wicked Witch of the West. Who amazingly had a friendship that conquers all... something we could all sing for...

The closing song offered up the words to define the friendships we shared here together. To loosely paraphrase... I am changed for the better because I have known you. If that doesn't tell the story, then nothing else ever could... I love these girls... I couldn't ask for any friendship more real. I love you girls!!

PS And they introduced me to PEI WEI... Thai food as a fast food meets fine dining experience... complete with lettuce wraps and Pad Thai. Oh my!! Its like Panera Bread minus the bread, soup, pastries and... well... it ain't the same... Thai at PEI WEI wins hands down!! Its my new fave... so where are you now Pei Wei?

Summer Days Together

While Daddy is away working his nose to the grindstone and polishing up the Campbellsville scene with Amazon.com, we are here in Kansas doing our best to pull ourselves away from the dearest friends God could bring into our lives.

I couldn't’t imagine we would be here 3 years ago, that is, here with such amazing friends and with such intense warm & fuzzies for these amigos that God has seen fit to place in our lives, and yet, pluck us clean out of it all for a place yet unknown to us all here. I hope this little reel of our summer days together will remind each of us of the joys of friendship, and a bit of the sadness that comes with being moved from the world’s best friendships… I love you dearly…

There is a sad girl here in Kansas… but she will pass from this place only by the hand of God (and her husbands)… I couldn't leave this place otherwise…