Simple Moments~

A full week, but one which was full of simple smiling moments...


Hearing laughter echoing  up the stairs while kiddos and their cousins played a game during a visit.

             A first cup of hot coffee right after a cold run in the early morning.

                      Shopping with Molly-girl and buying shoes together.

Sipping wine with a good friend.

                                   My dog smiling up at me when I drive into the driveway.

No bills in the mailbox for 3 days straight.

                      A 2000 piece puzzle nearing completion.

             Coming out of the car wash with a clean car...if only for a few miles;)

Ben telling me excitedly about his 2 goals made during a hockey game and that he received an award for most Most Valuable Player.

                                                       Getting a text from my 18 year old telling me he loves me.

Emptying the laundry basket and having it stay empty....if only for a few hours;)

         Signing up for another marathon and 

having Corben high~fiving me that I did so.

Crawling into a bed with clean sheets and falling asleep 
within seconds after a very long day.

~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~

Simple moments that made this week full and precious.

Make sure to bank every single sweet moment. 

~Priceless investments~

Have a wonderful new week ahead, friends.

Tell me....

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

~Mary Oliver

"The Summer Day"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I feel restless.

A type of restless one feels before something big is about to happen.....

Similar to the feeling I get before a big race...a nervousness that I do not want this to happen...yet this is the one thing I've been working up to for days and weeks and months. 

And years.

And no matter how nervous I am...I wouldn't turn around and walk away from it for the world.

Maybe there's a restlessness because spring is coming and I can feel it in how the daylight lingers longer around the supper hour.....

or the snow seems different on a run. {Some days there is actually a mud puddle to run through!}

Or maybe?

 It's that I am finally seeing a light to all the things I have been trying to muddle through for so very long.

It's not all understood yet...but I can actually see beyond the curve in the trail.

I am thrilled.

Ecstatic over the fact that I no longer feel the need to turn back.

The tree-lined trail doesn't scare me anymore.

Neither do the bends in the road...the unseen corners.

This wild and crazy life we live is just that.

Wild and crazy.

Some live it beyond the wild...I feel I often live it by crazy.

Life can be wild, crazy, precious....

a learning ground.

I finally realize it as such.

And I will take the restless...

as I know it's leading me to where I need to be.

Finally.

Live today.

It's part of your one wild and precious life.

Mountain Exploration~

I am learning that Exploring the Mountain is better than letting it Overtake me.

~Have a wonderful weekend everyone!~

At the end of the day....

~Follow your heart regardless of others opinions.

At the end of the day it's you who has to live with what you 

decide.~

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

For Leontien

For Leontien.

You were the miracle.

For all of us.

Heaven is brighter now.

Investments

 The most important investment you can make, means using your 

time.

Your creativity.

Your ears and eyes.

And most importantly...

your heart.

Investing in Someone.

 It will never be short in returns.

~~~~~~~

(taken from Ben and Me...Summer 2012)

Tuesday~

Just another Typical Tuesday.

Unless of course you know where to look.....

Keep your eyes open for the 

Little Things

 that turn typical into 

Out-of-the-Ordinary.

~~~~~

And while you're doing that...here's a

Giveaway!

to check out.

Smack into Monday

Monday. 

A day which appears out of no where~and  after a full weekend~

 seems a bit more mundane.

Not everyone welcomes it.

I am no exception. 

Except that today~ it's different.

I ran smack into Monday this morning.

Molly and I have decided to start running together again.

This morning was run morning.

6am and it's dark. 

And cold. 

Instead of head lamps we used the Sliver of a Moon.

And about a million stars to light our country road of running.

Our polar bear of a dog clumsily runs around us, banging into our legs as we try to find our pace.

It's clear. 

And beautiful.

And did I mention cold?

Shadows fall on the road.

It's hard to tell what is real- and what is just shadow.

For a  moment my heart skips as I think I see a moose crossing the road up ahead.

Then I realize it's the dark laying shadow of uncovered gravel.

There is no sound. 

Except for the crunch of our shoes on the hard packed snow- 

and our breathing as we try to keep up with our legs.

And I guess there is also the occasional comment from one of us on the 

beauty of this perfect morning.

(Did I mention there was about a billion stars overhead?)

Then...

on the way back towards home...

as we begin to slow down because Monday is just about to begin, 

(or is it because our legs feel a tad bit tired?)...

a Star falls straight down in front of me.

One of the trillion that are shining above us.

I swear it lands at my feet.

And it is then I realized I just ran 

smack into Monday.

And I don't even care.

~Have a wonderful day.

It is Monday, after all.~

Step Forward

Life Upside Down

When we turn the self-focused

ME

into

WE

We gain greater perspective of the big picture and what it's all about.

~Living Life Upside Down~

2013

thought in quote

"I find it almost comical to the degree which people leave you alone when you're already there. Whether it's because you don't do what they think you should, or because they don't know what to say...you are lonelier then ever because of it. 

And so...you stand alone, and hope that the left alone part will turn you into someone stronger."

~author unknown

No Limits~

Happy New Year

~2013~

It's a new year.

Make the Sky your Limit.

~~~

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. 
Lao Tzu 

What if....

What if you woke up today

with only the things

you thanked God for

yesterday

?

Where is your Limit?

In less than 36 hours I will be embarking on the most daring run I have ever done.
I will try to run for 24 hours.

The earliest memory of me running, (besides running away from the kids in grade school who found it amusing to chase me with a plastic snake), was joining up with the Cross Country team in High School.
And the memories evoked when I think of that experience? Breathing into brown paper bags and coming in dead last in the one and only Run Meet I entered.

I am not a natural runner.
I begin each run with high hopes, thinking that THIS will be the run where it's easy.
On THIS run it will finally click and my running Talent will enter my legs.
THIS is going to be the run where I don't have slow to a walk.

Ahhh.... yeah.
Hasn't happened yet.

So why in the world do I run?

It isn't my favorite thing to do~
but oh the places it has taken me....and
the beauty I have been blessed to see!
 It's carried me through times I haven't thought possible to get through.
Running has been a tool in figuring myself out.
It's been a companion to me on days where I have felt alone.
And I love the feeling I have when I complete a run. Nothing better.
(Except for maybe the hot coffee I down after a morning spent in my runners.)

We tend to put limits on ourselves....
see ourselves the way we think we are or ought to be.
But in reality- we are always capable of more.
Proof of this lies everywhere.
(see one example: The man who runs without legs.)

I registered for this 24 hour run with the intention of seeing how far I can carry myself in the hours of one entire day.
Maybe it will turn into a challenge of seeing how long I can just keep going.
I am not sure what to expect out of this body of mine.

But it's a wonderful feeling to surprise your own self with possibilities hidden somewhere inside of you.
The trick is not putting a Limit on what you think that may be.
Something I may need to repeat in this head of mine during those (24) hours out on the trail.

Where is your real Limit? You may be surprised with the answer.

An idea with little substance....

Sand CASTLEs  by the Sea~

                             
  

sand·cas·tle

   [sand-kas-uhl, -kah-suhl] 

noun

1.

a small castlelike structure made of wet sand,  as by children at a beach.

2.

a plan or idea with little substance.

History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, 

and that child is the whole majesty of man’s power in the world. 

                                                        ~Heraclitis

15th year starts today....

Today marks the start of the 15th year I have taught my kids at home.

(Yes. Homeschooling.)

I started off having no idea what I was doing...and somehow managed to hang in through all the adventure...to get us to today.

It's had up and down moments- but I know there is not ONE day I would trade for ANYTHING.

I'm pretty blessed to be have been able to grow up with my kids!

Here's to a new year of learning together.

xx

Last of August....

Take mornings like this...

A room with a view....

(and a kitchen like this:)

Sights like these....

Then add some fishing....

Throw in landscape like this....

And nights with this sight off your "balcony"....

Add some together time....

And you have 3 wonderful days 

in which to see out the last of August!

the beautiful echo

For some time last night, I laid and listened to the haunting howl of some creature, 

longing to be heard.

It's howling echoed off the hills and ran together as if a song was being sung.

A beautiful, 

but misunderstood song.

It was....

                           .......it is

how my heart feels.

I have this ache and desire to be heard by those I love- 

a haunting heartache.

I can howl, even beautifully,

but as it echoes off the hills and then the mountains, 

those close to me hear only the howl...and an eeriness to it.

.

They don't really understand me.

Or the sounds my heart makes.

I get the creature which howled through that lonely night.

I understand.

And 

it is beautiful.

~taken from

 "my journey"

Just simple

For this new week ahead....

I want to live like I'm on the holiday I just came back from.

~Life as a beach~

I wish I could learn to handle 

the grey waves...

...as well as I do the sunshine.

Come to think of it,

let's forget

Flip Flop Lane....

...Barefoot 

might be the way to go.

Happy Weekend Everyone.

May you live the week ahead

~SIMPLY~.