It’s been a while… I’m busy… but this Super-Katie sighting simply had to be highlighted!

Two weekends ago we went to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA.

It was very quiet, I’ll just let my pictures tell the story…

Two weeks ago, these lovely little babies joined our menagerie…

Prince Thumper

&

Snowflake

Jme and I are leaving early tomorrow for a monastic retreat…

Silence here I come!

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

~ Mother Teresa

Sometimes the irony just makes me roll with laughter…

Peace. Be still.

I spent yesterday listening to my exit letter cd (hurry up and get your copy, there are only about 1800 left in the shed!)…  it’s darn fine.  I write good stuff.  I should get back to work on that front.

Oh yeah, Happy Girl Scout Birthday! 

So quickly the year has passed and it’s already time for another “Heather with ashes on her forehead” picture.

Every year at Lent I try really hard to think of what I should fast from.  Traditionally, folks do meat… or some other foodie thing they should consume less of.  Since I’m already a vegetarian, and started a new healthy diet at the beginning of the year – including (gasp!) only 2 cups of 1/2 caffeinated coffee each day – I figured I needed to look a little farther.

Then it came to me.

I am a pack-rat.

I don’t know if you understand what that means…

I save pretty pieces of paper and bits of ribbon and string and scraps of fabric and broken pieces of things in case a child wants to craft something from them.  I have at least 8 totes FULL of fabric… so much that I can’t fit my clothing in my closet (that’s where they are) and it just sits in a pile in the corner of the bedroom.  We have bookcases that are overflowing in every room in the house – even books piled on the back of the toilets!

And so, as a fast from my need to ‘keep’ things I’m cleaning out.

I’ll be sorting through all the stashes of “stuff” in our house and giving at least one “thing” away each day… and it has to a good, serviceable thing that someone else would want – not dryer lint or old socks!

We have been so very blessed with all this stuff – I don’t even know where some of it came from – and I’m hoping to share it with others who will put it to use, rather then letting it gather dust.

I’m not going to part with my real treasures – but I really need to take some time to make sure that the things I truly love are being cared for, not lost among brick-a-brack.

Wednesday started off with a bang as I cleaned off the porch.

I could say that wish I had a before picture, but honestly I really don’t!  We had truly become those people.

Yea, you know the ones that everyone in the neighborhood is whispering about – the folks with 37 pairs of kids shoes, 2 old suitcases, 9 dirty socks (none related to the other), garden tools, a stinky mattress, 3 broken jump ropes, a basket of pine-cones, 7 empty bottles of bubbles and 4 jackets… all on the front porch.

Well, it’s all gone now.  Except the basket of pine-cones.

This shelf is what makes me the happiest…

I finally have a place for my vintage bottle collection (remember what I said about treasures?).  Didn’t know I had one?  Oh, I do.  It’ s been living under the kitchen sink since we moved into this house… and it’s lived stashed in dark places for a long time.  I started it in high school, and have some really lovely pieces… if you like old bottles.  I’m going to add hooks and hang some of the little bottles wrapped in wire (this idea inspired by the neat-o bottle with a rounded bottom!).

Apologies to whichever neighbor my children stole the daffodils from.  They swear they were not “in a yard” just “on the corner near a yard” – whatever that really means.  But the flowers really did make my day!

I found this picture on my camera…

Lady, I swear… I have not done anything bad yet this morning!

Can I have a cookie?

——————————————————————————————

The boy couldn’t pull himself together yesterday.

His father happened to be home from work to witness the lack of focus.

After several hours of discussion that boiled down to the fact that: I don’t have time to argue with him anymore, beating him into submission is wrong (and probably exhausting!), a Military School is not in our budget, and public school is not going to solve the problems (and would most likely produce more) we decided on a complete removal of all distractions.

Bedroom Contents:

1 bed, 1 sheet set, 2 blankets, 1 pillow & case, space heater, desk lamp, desk, chair, alarm clock (set for 7am), 1 pencil, 1 journal, math worksheets, history class research articles, 1 notebook, 1 copy of The Silver Chair.

Rather like a monks cell, don’t you think?

Oddly enough, I don’t know when I’ve seen him this focused and happy.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Now, what to do with the baby…

I think she just needs more snuggles, but its so hard when she’s screeching like a banshee.  And she just seems to alternate between totally cute-as-a-button (as seen above) and monstrous.

I did pleasantly discover this past week that she can read BIG words (though she’s fighting tooth and nail over primer level ones).

I’m off to do something with all the things that came out of the bedroom and are now piled about my poor house in disarray.

I just spent about an hour re-reading old posts from a long forgotten blog.  I’d gone looking for some long-lost poem I’d written for jme… I wanted to find it and re-gift it to him for Valentines Day.

Reading the stories of my life over the past 5 years was rather cathartic.  Loads of drama.  A tuck load or two of ranting.  More drama – just for fun.

I lived a very chaotic life 5 years ago.

My life is still rather chaotic, but now in more good ways than bad.

I  enjoyed reading my own words.  Maybe I’m just a little full of myself, but I think I had some rather profound things to say – between rants and over-caffinated poetry… though some of the poetry is pretty darn good and will most likely find it’s way into some music over the next few months.

I admire the way I was able to spill it all out on the table.  I’ve become more reserved in recent years.  I know I have good reasons to keep my cards a little closer to my chest… and I’m thankful that the drama is so much less… but I was so brutally honest and truthful about my thoughts and feelings back then – with anyone who cared to read.

These days I’d really rather keep the mess in a tidy junk drawer.

I didn’t fine the poem.

But I don’t think jme will mind…

I was reminded that what I did find, in all that mess, was myself.

Twist me…

and turn me…

and show me an elf.

I looked in the water and saw…

three little brownies!

(note that two are in vintage uniforms circa 40’s & 50’s!)

The past few months have been a whirlwind ’round these parts.   Due to the digi-cam being killed by my cat from hell, there haven’t been pictures… I did dig out the 35mm camera (a rather nice one, at that) and dust it off.  Hopefully I’ll get those pic developed before the kids graduate from college!

This post will be some shots of what happened in our world after I opened  my present from Santa… I have a lovely new Nikon that – get this DOESN’T NEED BATTERIES!!! Oh sweet joy!

Phillip, our house gnome.

Advent light

The Christmas Tree

The Chanukkah Tree

Duck-Girl

The Boy

The Baby

Little Bird

Hunter

The Last Lights

And finally, my project while the all our girls were away… and this is all paint I got for free instead of it going into a landfill!