full

11-21-12: I am grateful for amazing sunsets and wild horses on the path. They are two more reasons to go out and run.

11-22-12: Still life with pumpkin pie. Grateful today for family, for a pre-dinner walk around the "swamp", dessert, scrabble games while the kids nap, beer, flowers from Andy, Brussels spouts and bacon, and love. Most importantly love (but bacon is a close second....).

11-23-12: gratitude for washi tape. It's the little things today.

11-24-12: Thank Gawd for these legs that let me run hard when I need to clear my messy mind and that take me to places that allow me to see the big picture (figureatively and literally). Also for amazingly blue skies and weather today that allowed a tank top and shorts on said run.

11-25-12: Grateful for the magic-spirit of childhood. I'm  not usually up for Christmas decorating this early, but the kid can hardly contain himself today. And so, it begins....

grattitude 18, 19, 20

 11-18-12: grateful for chocolate chip cookies. (Need I say more?)

 11-19-12:grateful I can fill the shopping cart with good for Thursday.

 

11-20-12: grateful art. Art is therapy, it means quiet time so I can make dinner, it makes me think and makes me dream. (and I also am grateful for this awesome new "coffee table"- which is an old flat file from my office that they were going to dump. score one for me! it's perfect for the living room, art, play and storage)

gratitude this week

11-13-12: grateful for the genius(es) at 3M. I *might* have a small addiction to sticky notes.

11-12-12: grateful for the Great Basin. The mountains that give me direction, the sky that kisses me with blue, and the desert that makes me feel small in the best way

11-14-12: grateful for the boy and the girl. For the stillness and the chaos of motherhood. For the really hard parts of parenthood. Because as they grow, I grow. For the really easy parts.  Because when things are easy it's simple to overlook just how good they really are. I am thankful for the two little hearts that once beat and grew inside my womb and now walk, run and jump around outside of my body. so grateful for these two healthy, happy, beautiful and crazy kids of mine.

11-15-12: grateful for my mama. Wyld Lil, you are an amazing, strong, beautiful, creative, smart and wonderful human being. I love you more than all the stars in the Gerlach sky and more than all the pine trees in Truckee.thank you for making me, for never giving up on me, for your guidance and your friendship. I love you. 

11-16-12: grateful for craft night with my sister in-laws. Sewing, crafting, and talking it up. Its nice to have family who gets the creative bug as much as you do.

11-17-12: grateful for the rain. The pitter-patter rhythm on the windows and roof, the wooooshing as a car goes by on the street. Grateful for this kind if weather that made it easy to stay in my pj's all day, an epic scrabble game to be played, lots and lots and lots of painting, and baking(brownies are done, banana bread up on deck and then triple C's if I have time). Perfect Saturday at home.

Gratitude, brought you by the letter D

date night

dog

dye

Days 5 & 6

11-5-12: 

Grateful for yoga. For a trusted teacher, for a studio that is like home even if I haven't been there in well over a year. I am thankful for my mat and the place it gives me to center, grow , strengthen, be flexible and find my comfortable edge, and most importantly a place to practice breathing.  I love what the practice does  for me mentally, spiritually and physically.

11-6-12: 

grateful for the right to vote. To have a voice, because at one point in this country (and to this day in other countries), women didn't (don't) have that voice or that liberty. Thank you for those who paved the way and made it possible for me to go to the polls and rock the vote.

11-4-22: Hello there adorable.

 

I am thankful for photography. 

For the creative outlet it gives me, for the way it helps me slow down and really see the world around me. For the connections I have made with so many others thru this passion.Never did I think that I would have people I feel connected to spread across the country, and in other countries for that matter.

photography has opened the world to me in so many ways. 

For that, I am full of gratitude.

day 2 and 3

11-2-12: grateful that I can fill fun bento boxes with food each day. That we don't go without and that my children are only hungry for knowledge when they are at school.

 

11-3-12: grateful for these feet, these legs this body.  Today I ran over ten miles, further and faster then I thought possible. I am thankful for a healthy and strong body, for coworkers that push me to train hard and laugh harder, for a husband and kids who make  Motivational Signs to Cheer me on  when i needed it the most and for that pint of beer at the end of the relay race. What an awesome day it was.

30 days of Gratitude

11-1-12: Thankful for the light. 

Metaphorically and literally.

I am not going to lie, the past few months have been very hard on me. They shouldn't have been, we are finally settling in to our own space, work is steady and not too over bearing, I have co-workers who make me laugh, make me run my ass off and up giant hills, the kids are healthy, Fifi is finally starting to sleep through the night, A. and I are healthy. But, there has been a serious storm brewing in my head. I find myself in a place where I sometimes can't breathe, where my heart feels like it is sinking into my toes. I want to run away or hide in the closet. And at the same time I feel like I need to scream and be so loud that no one can ignore me, so that I can't ignore myself. 

Everything that has happened in the past year is finally catching up with me. You don't just loose a job, your house, almost loose your mother in-law and then watch your grandmother fade to the other side and not have emotions. I was just so busy keeping things "normal" that I hadn't let the emotions surface or be acknowledged.

It is because of all of this that I am going to participate in 30 days of gratitude this month. I am making a point to see, photograph, and state those things I am thankful for. It is an exercise in positive reinforcement. I am going to make seeing the good a habit (again). I know I have so much to be thankful for, more then I ever dreamed I would have.

Maybe all of this is too much information. Maybe you didn't come here to read about the ick. But you know what, it's real. it's part of what is going down and I plan on turning it around. BIG TIME.
Maybe it is because I will be turning 35 next month, maybe it's because, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "When it is dark enough, you can see the stars"
I am ready to see the stars.
I am ready to move bravely through, up and and past it all.

So here we go, will you join me?

Winter Walk

Walking in the woods, by myself on a cold Sunday morning.

  It cleared my head and I could just be.



I love that photography has given me the gift of time.
I have an excuse to wander aimlessly around an area, exploring like a kid
and truly see the world around me.

Thank-full

It's been a wild ride, this past year.

Lost job, gained job, commuting, moving, worrying and yet, through it all I am continually grateful .
Every box I fill, move or store I am reminded about how much we really do have.



The house was just a shell to hold it all.
Each time I crack up laughing at the kids or hug my husband after a long drive home, I am reminded that I can laugh and hug them anywhere.
The house was just a stage to set the scene.

Each time I sit down at my work computer, answer my phone or an email, I am reminded that I have been given not one, but two chances to start fresh in an economy where most people are happy to find even a part time paycheck. Loosing my job of nine years was the best kick in the butt I could have gotten in so many ways.
Every time I see my family or friends, I realize what a fantastic group of people I (we) have to hold us up, to support us and to love us.
And really, isn't that all that matters?

So on this day and every day I say, "Be thankful, because I have so much.
Be thankful,
THANK-FULL."

326:365, it runneth over

I could be really in the dumps right now what with the house situation and having to move. But you know what, we are so lucky to have family helping us out with everything. So many people don't have that safety net.

Today I am so great-full that my cup does runneth over.

323:365, breathing light

We were relieved to hear that their house was safe. The fire only got the back fence and part of their lawn, other families weren't so lucky. It was a scary night for them and worried filled day for all of us.

keep calm

I have been a little anxious with all the news of what is happening in Japan right now. I am so sad for all the loss. The nuke melt down business had me in near panic yesterday. What kind of a world have I brought my children into?
This is the sort of thing that had me thinking long ago that I didn't want to have kids, because how could I bring another generation into the world with such scary things happening in/to it?

But my husband reminded me that maybe one of our kids will have the answers, that maybe they will invent a way to make it better... Thank goodness for him, oh and for yoga. For the fact that I feel better when I am on the mat and when I leave the mat. For the ability to send good vibes, well wishes and positive energy to those who need it oh so badly right now.  Thank goodness for little reminders of keeping calm...and carrying on.

bam! I love you

Happy Valentine's Day-
I hope you all find, are filled with and give away a little love today.

Thanks to everyone who stops by, either silently or with a comment. Thanks to everyone who supports me in my photography. For those of you who just see the end results and for those who allow me to stick my camera in their face, at our meal before we eat, or at their kids when we get together.

I do it out of love. :)

xo

first of december

On the first of December I woke up around 6am to little squawking in the nursery. I fed and changed the girl in a sleep daze- I had slept a good part of the night in a twin bed with a two year old and to say he is a bed hog is an understatement.
I walked down stairs, set the baby on her play mat and turned on the Spanish PBS channel to follow along with a yoga class that was already in progress. I haven't practiced since a week before Fifi was born and I could feel how much my body needed this. At one point she started to squeak again, so I picked her up and did Warrior 1 with her in my arms (a new pose perhaps? Warrior-mama 1?). I came into Mountain and she burped and then chucked across the room, then gave me a huge smile. relief.
I decided that was the end of my practice for the morning, better than not trying at all, right?
I placed Fifi in the ergo and we made coffee and got the lunches together and bags lined up for the departure. By this point it was almost 7:15, dang we are running late already.
I headed up stairs, and the O came peeking out his room with a giant smile and his blankie. At least he wasn't crying or crabby. I handed off the kids to a very sleepy Daddy-O and hopped in the shower. Dressed and dried I went downstairs to get my breakfast- it was now 10 to 8 (I am supposed to be at work by 8)... Daddy-O headed upstairs as O ate his "blueberry awfuls" with syrup and then we wrestled him into his school clothes.
I was heading out the door to get the car warmed up and all the bags (how is that I can have no less than 5 bags to carry out the door every morning) to the car. When O said to me, "Mama, I sittin' by Fifi. You take our picture, kay?"

"Not now, I am so late," I thought. And then I looked at them and realized that being late for work is better than being late to this moment. So I pulled out my camera and shot this photo.

Yeah, it's blurry and grainy- but so was this morning and so it works.

I am realizing more now that ever how laughing more than getting frustrated is going to work in my advantage, playing rather than scolding,wrestling and nagging will get us where we need to be, stopping to take a picture when they ask is only going to last so long-
and that I need to, I have to stop and notice just where we are at and enjoy it all.

Turkeys

I got pictures of these turkeys,

this pretty turkey,

and this turkey too.

But I some how managed to not take a picture of the actual bird. But trust me when I tell you that it was big and juicy (and done much faster than we had expected). We had a really nice thanksgiving. The kids had a blast running around together and the icebox cake that O helped me make was yummy, as always.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out around the house, a little bit of thrifting and fabric shopping. Some time in the sewing room and some time brewing a new batch of beer. It was cold and a bit snowy, so we really just hunkered down and enjoyed one another. And isn't that what it is all about this time of year?

Happy Happy, Thankful Thankful

Grateful for traditions, that kids still put olives on their fingers and that they still make hand print turkeys at school.

Happy Olive.CranberrySauce.Stuffing.Mashers.Gravy.PumpkinPie.Turkey Day tomorrow!

 

We have so much to be THANKFUL for today and always.

welcome back!

I am grateful today for co-workers who help make a hard day a little bit brighter.

It was my first day back from maternity leave today and this is what my office door looked like when I came in this morning. It was very sweet and it did help to make my day a little easier.

Fifi did great hanging out with my mom all day. I went home and fed her at lunch and snuggled her a bit too. When we got home around 5:30 this evening she wanted to nurse and then was out like a light. she is down for the count, being away from mom was a lot of work apparently. poor thing.

I did okay too. It was hard to go back, but I definitely wasn't a blubbering fool like last time. Having the short week to ease into things and also having my mom watch her this week makes things easier.

I am glad I am employed right now. sigh. being a (working) mom is hard.

cup half full

I am more than half way through the gratitude project for this month. It really is a wonderful way to stop and take stock of those things I have, to focus on what I really am thankful for, especially as the holiday season and all that comes with it moves closer. Here is a peak of what I have been thankful for so far this month...