Thankful...

I am ever thankful on this day for...
-My body which is healthy and strong and allows me to enjoy this beautiful life.
-My two ladies who bring me smiles and inspire me with their words and creativity.
-Food!  Having enough, being able to spend time feeding those I love, and knowing where it came from.
-Music.  It inspires, it comforts, it is a gift...thanks to all who share their talents.
-Farmers who provide healthy, responsibly farmed foods for my family to flourish and enjoy.
-My home that I am ever thankful to have.  The security and warmth it provides us all.  Sanctuary.
-Water, being able to share the love of it with those I love, being fortunate enough to be on it in some way.
-My Irishman. He nourishes me and lifts me up.  His talent and artistry astound me and how he captures
  our little place in this world and this life we are making.
-Books.  Sharing this love with my family is a gift.
-Kindness of strangers.  Every now and then people show you that there is good in the world still.  This
  year that came in the form of apples.
-Laughter and giggles.  Silliness and the lightness that brings is the ultimate blessing.  There is nothing
  more beautiful than the sound of a fit of giggles!!!! 

May you all have a day full of those things that make you grateful and never forget how amazing life really is!

Happy Father's Day!!

My girls are lucky to have this man in their lives. He is patient, he is kind, he is intelligent, he is creative, he inspires, he encourages, and he brings order to our girly chaos. I only hope if the ladies someday settle down that they find someone with all the same characteristics as their Dad. He is an amazing person and I am so very lucky to call him my best friend! Thank you Irishman for all the many things you do to keep your girls happy! We really do appreciate them all!

Love comes simply...

Love comes simply in our house...

Coffee set up for your early rise...

A note telling you you are lovely...

Flowers all smiley and "You've Got Mail" esque...

Construction paper hearts with the very bestest 1st Grade spelling...
Veggie pot pie for dinner complete with love hearts...

Chocolate Puddle Cookies (ala 101 Cookbooks)...

A poem written from a very big 9 year old heart...

And time together snuggled on the couch thinking our blessings are very large!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! Hope you are finding snuggle times and everyday moments that make your heart swell!

La Serenata

What I wouldn't give to be ducking into La Serenata right now. With the promise of an awesome coffee and gorgeous Italian food. I dream about their lasagna! The building makes me happy with it's ancient stonework and nooks and crannies. It also has these fantastic stained glass windows. It was one of the first places I went to in Roscrea (Tipperary, Ireland). I had gone to visit John's family for the first time and he took me there for tea...at the time it wasn't Italian but still lovely and yummy...we called it the Restaurant of the Shaking Table because John in his nervousness of seeing me again after a couple of years apart bounced his leg the whole time causing the table to vibrate and the milk to slosh and the tea to tremble...and before we went over this year someone had told us it had closed down. I was saddened...so many memories so much foodie love...but thankfully they were mistaken and we got to sneak in and have a few meals and coffees. Bronwyn the pasta girl loved it. Ella like wandering around pretending she was in a castle. And John and I just soaked in all the memories and pretended we were young again and there weren't two cute little girls calling us Mom and Dad.

Where did December go???

Where did December go??? Why oh why did my Christmas Spirit fail me so?? I wasn't a Scrooge but Bah Humbug fit me much more better than Ho Ho Ho. I did gift, I did make some things, I did decorate, I socialized, I santa'd, I caroled, I tried so very hard to breathe...but this year it just didn't come. I felt like I was moving through December in some kind of bubble...I could see it all I could appreciate it all I just couldn't feel it all...

I don't quite know what happened. I do know that those two by the igloo and me and that Irishman in the bottom photo are getting on a plane on Friday and winging our way to Ireland. Once again I should be excited and looking forward to a trip many people only dream about, but I am tired so very, very tired. I am simply numb. I am hoping when all the pressure of the holiday and getting everyone ready for the trip is over that I will relax and have a truly wonderful trip...it is Ireland and they are Irish people so all the potential for laughing and letting go and moving on are really there. Just will I be??

And not helping any of this emotional stuff is my back. I am not even comfortably couched. I have meds that work but cannot work with the meds...so am hoping I can get myself back onto an even footing that the pain can be managed so as not to eclipse so much good. But tonight it is a gianormous eclipse over the good...I really just want to cry...and now the Irishman has the weather on and it looks like weather might mess up our trip just a bit more...I am not sure my normally strong self has much coping left...think I could come up with a big ole two year old sized temper tantrum but not much resignation and peace with any impending situations...sigh...I will keep shovelling!!

Hope you all are having a truly restful and very happy holiday season! Hope to give a bit of an update once we get across the pond...

Fifteen years...

Happy Anniversary to my best friend...

It has been fifteen years since we made this life of ours together official...let me tell you I cannot fathom how it could be so long when at the most it feels like a month. Life is just such a whirlwind, it is like it stops spinning for a moment and there it is...you get a glimpse of where you are then it just starts back up spinning around you again... But one thing I know in all the whirling is that I am truly blessed. I have got to spend my time in this life with my best friend. The one person in the world I can always talk to, the one person who gets me, the one person who always makes me laugh...I couldn't be more fortunate. He brings me peace and makes a very good resting place for my very busy head. May we have each other for another lifetime of adventure and giggles!

Squamates...it is a word!!!

Taking a break listening to some old time radio shows!

Bronwyn celebrates her Mammoth find!

Can't remember his name but that is in fact his head!! And his color was so vibrant!

I so would not like to meet the snake whose jaws could open this large!!

Bronwyn wanted me to take this to show how sad she was to see snakes had died so people could use their skins to make shoes, belts, and purses....future activist???

I love this guy!! One eye was looking at me the other at the Irishman!

Gecko foot!!

Ella matches some questionable looking tongues to the animal...

Nosy Lizard...

Bronwyn and the iguana...

So after school today, after the Valentine's parties, the great lunch at Cafe Zinc with the Irishman, after a stop at the library, the ladies asked to go to The Center For the Arts (conveinently located at the end of our street). The exhibit was for Snakes and Lizards and the ladies have been asking to go since they saw the first flyer about a month ago. This begging was definitely heightened by the appearance of a giant inflatable iguana on the top of The Center. So since there isn't any school for the ladies tomorrow and because we happen to have a members pass, we went...and it was just as amazing for the Irishman and I as it was the ladies. I must say the one I found most fascinating and creepy was the Mamba... if I was walking in the woods somewhere and saw it I wouldn't have been scared. It is a gorgeous vibrant green and has the cutest little face...it is thin and long and just not frightening. Yet this little lovely is extremely venomous!!! I would have been a goner for sure!!! The museum also had a motorcycle exhibit and Rodin sculptures that are touring... it was a nice evening!

The afternoon was saved by my friend Kate. The Irishman and I had scheduled an elegant little luncheon at a newer restaurant downtown that is not at all child friendly. But Ella's second half of school was cancelled because the teacher was sick...I was ready to be extremely disappointed but Kate saved the day. The restaurant was really lovely and every detail was perfection. It was designed like a French Bistro and I think it really has an older feel. It reminded me of a restaurant we would have gone to in NYC. And if you didn't know better you would swear it was a renovated older building not a completely newly built addition to a hotel!! The food was perfect...simple and well done, the service was fantastic...the selection of desserts/pastries was also fabulous, the prices were decent, and the feeling of getting away and escaping in this small town was priceless! We would definitely go back!! They even said the chefs work around dietary restrictions ie vegetarian Irishmen and can adapt and change recipes or menu items to suit!!!

So it was a day seized!! I also helped at two different Valentine's parties today and must say I am grateful I have two lovely ladies who more times than not are respectful, well mannered, and relaxed! Hope you all enjoy your Valentine's days and get to spend them with someone very special!!

Surprise...

So coming home from taking the ladies to school, I find this happy snow friend smiling out at me...a nice surprise on a chilly Michigan morning!!

I also got this little quip on a calender a friend gave me for my Birthday for women who do too much, and I really feel it is one of those things we let slip as wives, mothers, and really just as women...we spend so much of our days caring and tending and managing the worlds we move in that we forget to make time for wonder...

"Children can return us to wonder if we let them. We women who do too much need to exert great caution- perhaps even more than most people- not to lose wonder in our lives. It can slip away so quickly and so unnoticed."

I love the time after the girls have just gone to school when I get to come home and light candles and gather my books, grab a hot beverage, and listen to the silence...well usually I would pick silence himself has on RTE News on the ipod this morning which I must say is killing a little of my peace...but this morning calm is something I treasure and makes me smile and brings me a heartful of contentment and puts my crazy world in perspective... Yeah spirit!!!!

And the best part of the time while the ladies are in school...

Is time with this guy!

She's back and he is down...

Ella is back in her form...posing and performing and laughing and talking...and waking me up at 6:47am to check and see if it was morning yet...telling about her Teddy Bear's adventures in the washing machine...her tummy growling so loudly it made us laugh and brought up talk about grizzly bears...and her breaking into a bit of the Spice Girls song Tell me what I want...which left me laughing so hard my face hurt...

On the other end of the spectrum...the Irishman awoke at 2:43am to begin his journey with the bug...which I am still hoping will not take down Bronwyn and I this week...particularly since I have tickets to see The Killers on Thursday...so more tea, trash cans, BRAT foods...and bleach and hot laundry!!

Wishing you all continued health!!!!