Favorite photos of 2014

I am planning on going through all of my photos this year and getting some printed and turned into books. With all of the photos that I've taken, I have almost none up at my house. And there are so many that I love, I should have started this years ago. But, there is no time like the present-- I guess this is my traditional new years resolution. Print more photos. So here are a few of them that made me laugh or gave me warm fuzzies while I was going through them!

Lamby has shown up in almost all of our photos!

These two have grown up since the first time we were all toghether. 

And these two who have such a sweet friendship!

These cub scouts and their crazy antics!

A frozen lake with our beloved Bon-bon.

Exploring creativity from new angles.

Winter hikes on warmer days!

Summer road trips!

Lamby in a Yoda costume!

The weekend before we opened the coffee shop. 

Quiet mornings. 

Write down who you are...

This may just look like our cozy little coffee station. A home for our electric Hario pot, cone coffee dripper, hand thrown mugs and Old Factory Coffee Beans. And it is, it does a fine job, but if you look closer, you'll see something that is much more important.

The chalkboard above tells more of our story than this little nook of heaven ever could. When we started our Family Meetings last year, it was out of near desperation to draw the four of us back together. We put out a big piece of poster board and we wrote down things we needed to remember on a daily basis-- we wrote down our rituals for living.

We chose things we wanted to be about. We chose guiding themes for what was important. We talked about or values. Then we wrote them down and put them up so we would be held accountable, by each other and by every person who steps foot in our house.

I encourage you to take time to find out who your family is and write down your values. It guides us toward who we should be every day.

Weekending

This weekend was the most wonderful mix of relaxing and hard work. Good conversations and great coffee. And of course, Halloween candy!

We started the weekend off super pumped for Trick or Treating. The kids jumped off the bus ready to get into their costumes. We drove over to pick up milk for the shop, they had to be in full regalia. They wanted to trick or treat by themselves but only made it a few houses away from us, but they loved the idea of being on their own. We ended the night with take out and the Great Pumpkin with our favorite friends.

On Saturday Eric woke up super early and worked at the shop and I took my regular afternoon shift.  

It gave me plenty of time to hang out with the kids and reinstate our ritual Sketchbook Saturday Morning. The kids reveled in their jammies: painting, playing, reading and hanging around. It was thrilling-- it had been a long time since we'd taken an at home day. We finished the day off together, snuggled up on the couch watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 

Today, we woke up early and enjoyed our extra hour. We went off to church and spent the afternoon having great conversations with the Room for All community at the shop. What a joy to be exploring inclusive community and becoming a safe place for ALL.

I hope you had a lovely weekend as well! Did you do anything fun?

Welcome Home

She grabbed my face between her soft hands and said, almost sternly, "Welcome Home."

Her exclamation summed up everything my heart felt. It had been so long since we had gone out to fly kites. It'd been forever since we laid with our backs on dewy evening grass and looked at the clouds pass. And here she was, laying stomach to stomach, face to face, pronouncing her little greeting, blessing and benediction.

Welcome Home.

In the last month, I've completely changed my daily life. I left my Fortune 500 company job as an Art Director to embrace the daily living that I'm meant to have now.

I felt like I had been living a double life-- deeply trying to find balance and rhythm in our home, but fighting for the illusiveness of time everywhere else. "Gotta do more, gotta be more" felt like a runaway train. So, I chose to disembark.

So here I am, barely a month of newness under my belt. I'm practicing healing. I'm embracing the life that is right here.

I'm choosing to reclaim wonder. I'm carefully putting my heart back together. Loving my husband and children, loving our little house and our rhythm.

I'll be here more often too. I feel like I've come home on so many levels.

In Defense of Solitude

I sat in the grass, under the shade of a tree and breathed in and out. I tried to drop my stubborn shoulders, they have hovered near my earlobes for quite a while.

And I contemplated how I had ended up in this grass. On a beautiful day. With about 20 people I did not really know.

My spiritual director administrated a retreat for those who needed a day of solitude, prayer and direction. And I paid a small fee, hopped in a minivan with two friends from church and traveled one town over for the day. And I have a really hard time taking time to myself these days. But, divinely, I took the plunge and made time for the retreat.

In the morning, we had prayer time, a guided reading and then we were set loose on the retreat grounds to find a quiet spot for a few hours.


I was a bit apprehensive, I had no idea if I could sit in silence for 2 plus hours at a time, but here I was.

After a bit of silence, I felt myself drift away to this quiet, spellbound place--  as if the solitude itself was feeding my soul. Gently handing bits of bread and sips of wine.  It reminded me of the line in a Eucharistic prayer, "Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal."

The quiet was as satisfying as a cool drink after a hot day. A part of me that was bound up-- tied in knots slowly faded away as my pen struck the paper of my journal. And it was not all comfortable, but it was stretching and growing.

After a few sessions of solitude that day, I felt refreshed, whole and hungry for more time, more bits of bread, wine.

I am wondering how to get this type of solitude in my life without a formal retreat, without an entry fee and without driving to a venue a town or tow over for a lake view. How can I take this time in daily life?

So I started bit by bit. When I walk at night, I turn off my ipod and run towards the sunset.
I find a quiet spot with my journal on the front steps of my home. Even if it is just for a few minutes.

"Glaciers move in tides. So do mountains. So do all things." John Muir

Do you take time for solitude? Do you set aside time to be alone? What feeds your soul?

Love After Love
Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Occupied

On Christmas day, I found all of us, busy with something that needed our attention.  I got a glimpse of our future and I think I like it.

Alone and focused, but very together.

This Moment: On the Street Where You Live

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Joining Soulemama

Yarn Along: Litany

We were snuggled in on the couch reading before bath time and Isabel read the cover of my book and asked, "What is a Litany?" I said, "usually short prayers where the priest will pray and we will respond. It's a practice of prayer, but in a structured way."

And then I begun thinking about Keeping House -- and the truth that it brought to light. Meeting basic needs of a community is spiritual practice.  I know that warm food, warm clothes, clean sheets make us feel safe and whole.

Last night, I had all three kids (my two plus our beloved Olivia!) in the snow. The snow was so wet, they came and changed some article of clothing, pants, gloves, hats, just to run outside again for more. When they came inside for dinner, their cheeks were rosy, their hearts were full and they were hungry. We lit candles, added a few more chairs, shared dinner together. And I realized, keeping house is much more than folding laundry or changing beds, but it is those things. It's a heart cracked wide open to the people we love and the community we live with.

---

This picture is the beginning of another pickles plain vest, it's off the needles, gotten a few wooden buttons and has been given to a sweet little man. It's knit in Plymouth Yarn- 553 Coffee Beans, colorway Gray 9389.

Joining Ginny for Yarn Along.

Daily Seeing: July

Outside: It's been a bit cooler. Tonight it's raining, I'm sitting near an open window listening to the wind and the raindrops. We've been setting up our water color painting outside lately in the afternoons. Isabel gave the sheep an art lesson.

Inside: We had a completely lazy Saturday morning, watching movies, playing legos, setting up doll houses and making/fixing things with the glue gun.

Listening: We all love different pandora stations, but we stop and dance for this song:



Learning: To practice happiness, joyful togetherness and deep listening. Everyday.

Wearing: This dress, on repeat all summer. I got it quite a few years ago and it is still a weekly wear. So comfy too!

Thinking: How quickly this summer is moving along.

Reading: Truman, Toy Story 2. Isabel, The Velveteen Rabbit (again). Me, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life. Eric, Young Men and Fire.

Praying:

Suscipe St. Ignatius of Loyola
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.

What have you been up to? What beauty are you seeing in your daily life?