A Month of Gratitude: Day Eight

Grateful for this boy.  This boy has taught me patience, the importance of giggling and unconditional love.

A Month of Gratitude: Day Seven

A gluten free beer in a frosty glass and a full gluten free menu, complete with baked brie on gluten free bread, crab cakes, and cheesecake.  My second best gluten free meal...ever.

A Month of Gratitude: Day Six

Owning a pair of these sloggers in this weather is something to be very grateful for and to have been gifted them by my husband is even better.

A Month of Gratitude: Day Five

Finding a butterscotch pudding in the bottom of the fridge that you didn't know you had...and dunking gluten free pretzels in it.

A Month of Gratitude: Day Four

For family that supports my need to fly the coop...alone!

A Month of Gratitude: Day Three

Grateful for the beauty of nature on glass

A Month of Gratitude: Day Two

Learning how to use my camera to slow down the shutter.  More importantly the connection this photo has to my Dad.  I am so grateful for my Dad.  He is a wealth of knowledge.  We are finding ourselves more connected lately.  Pond life, photography life and art life.  We do things very similarly...from my monster purse eyes to his 3-D watercolor eyes.

You can visit my Dad's website here.

Month of Gratitude: Day One

Bits of summer color dotting my yard in November.

Happy Halloween

 Amazing that I'm not still sewing.  In fact, costumes were completed Monday night...yes, almost a full week ahead of schedule.  We have one addition to Sam's costume for tonight, if it works, I'll fill you in.  If it doesn't, pretend you never read the previous sentence.

This week I found a filter on my camera.  Pretty cool, huh?  The original picture is below.  This was a face I found at Micheal's for a buck.  Super cute, they just stick into the candle like a push pin.  Warning...as the candle gets hot and soft, the pieces start to slip.

Amazing the capabilities I've found after reading the manual.

Also, if you look at the top right of my blog you'll see a project I'm going to attempt...a month of gratitude.  Just one photo each day.  We'll see if I can keep up!

My 7-5K-290

 

Sam.

Once you know him, you love him.

He has some quirks, but his heart is big.  One of his quirks is that he doesn't want to show how big his heart really is.

He also doesn't want praise.  Or at least loud, noticeable praise.

 Sam wanted to run a 5K with me. Ever since my first 5K (and my only) my knee hasn't been right.  I didn't want to continue to ruin it, so I stayed off it for a week.  Which turned into two weeks and a month and now it's two months and two days.

 So Sam started running with Tom and they registered for Sam's first 5K, Tom's second.  And they did it.

We weren't allowed to cheer for Sam specifically, but we cheered for Tom.

I only wish he knew how proud I am and how amazing running his first 5K at age 7 really is.

I'll keep reminding him.

Every time he runs.

Breast Cancer

Every item listing in Etsy gets 14 describers.  For this purse above I used:  Bags and Purses; Felt; pink; Musi; vintage pin; small; pod; purse; silver tone; etc.  Then I was left with one more option.  The more you list, the more chances you will be found.  The last one...I entered Breast Cancer.

After I did it, I thought it was odd.  Why did I do that?  Just because it was pink?  Silly.  Yet I left it.

This morning, I got a message from a gal on Etsy.  She is a three time breast cancer survivor and had a double mastectomy and reconstruction on her stomach.  She is having another surgery in January to get nipples.  And she wants to celebrate with a boob purse!

Who better to make a boob purse than WashMyCloth?  I'm really excited about this one.  I love the requests that come with a story.  The stories are the best.

As I write this I wonder if me writing that Breast Cancer description was in some way divine intervention. Yes, I'm sure others could make a boob purse, but for some reason, I'm feeling like someone else was involved in this.  It just feels different.

So my friend, I'll make you the pinkest, cutest boobs with the perfect nipples to take with you on your surgery date next year.

My List

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately.  Nothing huge going on, just me procrastinating on some items and then freaking out about them every day.  I had to renew the kids' health insurance and for some reason, I kept putting it off.  It only required one quick call for an answer.  Why do I do that?

I was going to tell you about all the crap going on in my life, but who wants to hear about that? I don't even want to write about it.   So here is my other list...my happy list.


1.  My N is sticking on my computer, but it forces me to work my pointer finger a bit harder, therefore increasing my muscle power in that finger.  That is happy.

2.  Missing my niece and nephews birthday party is making me sad, but the reason is that I'm going to Maryland to visit Tom's cousin.  Tom found it odd that I was going to visit HIS cousin and not him.  Maybe he should go visit her, too!  Anyway, we are having readings done by a friend of Kelly's.  I'm very excited, the guy already mentioned to Kelly that he is getting some messages for me.  Happy!

3.  Little Man diagnosed with sinus infection.  Happy because he will hopefully return to his chipper self.  The whining is clearly getting to us all!

4.  WashMyBooty!  I'm having so much fun with this shop.  I purchased a ring at an estate sale (here it is since no one saw it) and sold it by the time I checked back.  Love that!

5.  Photography.  I love taking pictures.  I attempted my first 'shoot' with 9 children ranging in age from 9 to 4 weeks (give or take a year on the high end).  It was tough.  9 kids that know each other and are outside can really get distracted!  But, it was fun.  I definitely learned some things as well.

6.  This blog.  I've been away for a while, and felt that it was a chore and I should write something.  Any you know what?  Now that I have, I feel better.  Again.  Blogging helps me focus.

I hope that you have a great day and remember, everything that causes stress or disappointment, always has something wonderful hidden inside it.

Clowning Asleep

Yesterday, I took the day off to spend with my best boys at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. If you live around here, you already know it is an amazing place. Every single time we go, we discover something new.  And if you ever come to this area, you must visit Strong.

It was Clown day and everyone got a clown nose. I think we came home with 6 of them.

And when I turned around to check out the quiet kids while waiting to pay the toll, this is what I saw.

This kid makes me smile even when he is sleeping.

And by the way...he denies this ever happened.