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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Camping



When camping and hiking with a five year old they tend to notice the small things. I think Audrey spotted every mushroom and fungus along the trail! 

It was a great reminder to slow down and let go of the big picture every now and then. I would have missed some beautiful and interesting sites if I hadn't followed her lead. 



Friday, June 01, 2012

This Moment

{this moment} - 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.





With Soule Mama

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Isaac's Storm - a review


Reading has always been one of my passions. I love books and the journeys that I take while I am reading.  Mostly I read fiction, specifically science fiction and fantasy.  Once I had Audrey I didn’t have the time or energy to read like I had before she was born and I missed it  When Amazon came out with the Kindle app for the iPhone I was so excited that I could have a book with me at all times that I immediately downloaded it and started buying electronic books.  Well, that quickly became expensive and I had already bought most of the books that I wanted to keep.  Plus I had no interest in buying books that I would only read once.  When I started researching what electronic books the library had available I was very pleased to find out they had both quite a selection available and they also had an iPhone app.  Sometimes a book I want to read is on a wait list so I end up reading books I wouldn’t normally read.  In an attempt to work on my writing skills I thought I would do a book report on some of these books.  Ok, I’m not in elementary school anymore so I probably should call this a book review instead! ;)

By Eric Larson

When I was a teenager I used to go down to Galveston, TX on a regular basis so I knew the basics about the September 1900 Galveston hurricane, that there was massive loss of life and property and it was the reason why the seawall had been constructed.  So when I came across this book I thought it might be interesting to read more detail about the situation.  Isaac Cline was the meteorologist at Galveston during the hurricane and the story switched between his life, the days leading up to the hurricane and how the U.S. Weather Bureau had been formed.  It was interesting to read how the study of meteorology was started and how some people saw it as nothing better than fortune telling.  Meteorology a very political topic and I was surprised how the political factors played into how much advance warning Galveston residents received about the hurricane.  What was particularly intriguing was the rivalry between the United States meteorologists and the Cuban meteorologists. 

The story had more tension than I expected from a non fiction book because I knew that something horrible was going to happen, but I didn’t know exactly how or when.  Switching between the different story lines helped make the dryer parts of the story easier to read and more interesting.  I skimmed some of the technical information about how the hurricane was formed, but someone else might find it interesting. 

What were heartbreaking were the stories about the families that had to endure the hurricane itself with little or no preparation.  As a mother what affected me the most were the children that were literally ripped from their parent’s arms by the water, or the orphans that were drowned because the nuns had tied them together in an effort to not lose the children in the flood waters.  

Overall I would give Isaac’s Storm four stars out of five. Only four stars because some parts were very dry and because I wouldn't want to read this book again.  Overall I was surprised how much I enjoyed this non fiction book and decided to read more of this author’s books.  Maybe I’ll end up reviewing those as well. 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Look, knitting!

I have actually been knitting lately! I made a scarf for the Christmas gift exchange at my grandparent's place. I used 100% silk laceweight yarn doubled on a 10.5 needle to make a basic garter stitch scarf.



I think it turned out beautiful and my sister must have thought so too cause she "stole" the gift from the person who originally opened it!




I ended up using only 250 yards of a 1400 yard skein, so I have plenty more to either make one for myself or make something else out of this gorgeous yarn. I think the picture below better shows the colors. I had to take the above pictures the night before the exchange.




It is kind of silly, but I have to give myself permission to knit or not knit as the mood strikes me. There is no knitting police that will put me in jail if I don't finish a project within a certain amount of time. Here is to being easier on myself!

Monday, March 05, 2012

Simple

Audrey had a stomach virus last week and she was fascinated when I called it a stomach bug. She wanted to know how the bug got in there and after she threw up for what seemed like the hundredth time she weakly asked if the bug was out yet. I am so glad that she is back to her normal talkative energetic self.

I'm going to preface what I say next by saying I hate it when my kid is sick and I feel so bad for her when she is sick. But while she is sick, and as long as there is no reason to worry about it being something serious, it is nice that for a while her needs are so simple. All she wants is to sleep, drink something cold and cuddle.

Parenting can be so complicated sometimes that having a time when it is easy to meet her needs can be refreshing. Since I don't have anyone else to take care of, other than the dog, I spent two days in bed with Audrey making sure her fever stayed down, bringing her cold things to drink and doing lots of cuddling. While I hope that Audrey stays healthy for a long time, it was nice to set the real world aside and be able to focus only on her.

Does anyone else feel like this or should I just feel guilty? ;)

Friday, March 02, 2012

Brown Thumb






I've been playing around with Instagram and thought this picture of Audrey's plant turned out cool. We now have four of these tiny pots sitting on the kitchen windowsill. We picked them up at Target in the dollar section. This one is forget-me-nots and the others are pansies, sunflowers and daisies. So far the tiny plant at the back has died. I've got a brown thumb so hopefully they don't all die! Audrey was so excited when we planted them and asked every day if they were all grown up yet.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Road trip

Audrey and I took two massive road trips in January. Both were to Holly Springs, MS. We met her dad there so that she could have some time with him. Since he only gave me five days notice before the first trip I didn't have much time to plan any side trips. We did find a good park just off Interstate 40 east of Little Rock, but had to bypass some national historical sites because of lack of time. My biggest disappointment on the first trip was that we crossed the Mississippi in the dark so Audrey couldn't see it. I did tell her that we were crossing it and she said "The Mississippi River is the best river in the world!" I think she was a bit punchy after being on the road for 12 hours! Lol

So when I picked her up two weeks later I was determined to spend some time along the Mississippi River. We found a small park just south of downtown Memphis and even though the day was foggy I think we all enjoyed the side trip. Mom came with me on this trip and it was great to have so much time to chat. While we were in the park Audrey insisted that she wanted to take some pictures. I think she did pretty well for a four year old!
A view of the river




The monument at the park. Those houses were massive!




Mom and me. So nice to be in the pictures for a change!




I think she was trying for an artistic self portrait!




When the weather warms up I'd love to take Audrey back to Memphis and explore some of the sights.