a spirit of simplicity

  ~ ~ ~ Barbie weekend at Hopie's house! I surprised Abigail and Natalie with new Barbies and a new purple jeep for them to drive around in. Pretty fun. ~ I raided my daughter's garden when I went to pick up the children. We had beans and tomatoes for dinner and a vase of fresh flowers on the bedside table. ~ I met my daughter at a Massachusetts trustee of reservations property on Sunday.  We walked around enjoying the property, which was absolutely beautiful.  Afterward I went to a poetry reading on the property.  Various authors from a newly published poetry book read. The book is called, Leaning Toward Light, Poems for gardens and the hands that tend them. It was a beautiful evening. I'm so glad I got a chance to do it. ~ On Tuesday night I went back to the same property to attend an autumnal equinox sound healing.  It was a guided meditation with drums and bells. It was beautiful and relaxing. ~ I have been getting to work about a half hour early because of the timing o

~ ~ ~ t He made the storm be still,  and the waves of the sea were hushed.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Psalm 107:29 scripture and a snapshot

  The last of the summer gardens are blooming. Do you wonder if the flowers understand that this is the end of their season? This may be the very last coneflower before the cooler weather comes and it all goes to seed. Perhaps I think of these things now that I am in the autumn of my own life.  Now I appreciate the bright colours of a summer flower and also the beautiful brown of a seed pod. Now I am mindful of a quiet and still Saturday I allow the rush of getting everything done to pass me by. This is a joy of 60 years. This is a quiet contemplation in a garden toward the end of summer.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Love is all around I am grateful for a tiny green heart in the middle of a yellow leaf. ~ ~ ~  Little things Thursday Thankful Thursday thursday favorite things

 ~ ~ ~ I leave a bit early for work now to avoid the school traffic. We have at least 5 schools all starting at roughly the same time and all within a mile of each other on the way out of town! Oh, and did I mention that we don't have busses?  It's crazy trying to get out of town to work! So...I get to this beautiful beach about 20 minutes early every day and I park the car and walk the beach. It's a beautiful and calming way to start my work day. ~ We have 4 of these big, sort of ugly, bottom feeders in our fish tank in our classroom. They had babies!  Now we have 6 or 7 little baby bottom feeders! We will have to give some of them away as our tank isn't big enough for all of them.  ~ One of my co-workers this year is a paid intern attending the same state college I attended as an adult learner in 2013. In class one day we all signed a photograph waiver. I never gave it a second thought until the following semester when a class mate told me that she had seen my picture

 ~ ~ ~ A small vase of flowers on the kitchen table always cheers me. Makes me think of Proverbs,  A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. It was Verne's first day of first grade! My daughter grew peppers in her garden this year and they did very well.   They looked so pretty hanging in her kitchen.  I hiked with my brother, sister-in-law, and a family friend on Sunday. It was a beautiful day. At the beach with friends! Friday fave fives

 ~ ~ ~ Most mornings I leave for work about 15 minutes early. This leaves me time to beat the traffic and stop at the beach along the drive for a short meditation or walk. I won't complain about my commute.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Nature notes communal global my corner of the world Wordless Wednesday Wednesdays around the world

 ~ ~ ~ I am thankful for time with my family in a beautiful spot.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ little things Thursday Thankful Thursday thursday favorite things

 ~ ~ ~ There is nothing quite like reading el-fresco on a summer afternoon in a beautiful place. Hannah's blanket under the shade of a big old maple tree. When your children are grown (Hannah is 35 now) and you get a chance to spend some time alone with them...not at a holiday gathering where everyone is hustling and bustling, not at a crowded event filled with other people and over too soon. Real time...time you can sit on a blanket in the grass under an old Maple and do nothing together... every so often one of us reads aloud a particularly meaningful passage. We are comfortable in our silence and the companionship. You appreciate a picnic blanket that they left on the grass when they got up to do something different. When they are younger there is so much of their stuff around that you think it will never end and then one day you catch yourself feeling melancholy over a blanket that they walked away from. Every single tiny bit of who they are as grown ups becomes something so sp

 ~ ~ ~ The weather has been beastly hot and humid or raining almost all summer long. These past few weeks, however, have been a bit of foreshadowing of Autumn. The nights and mornings have been cooler. Right now I am recovering from a lithotripsy/uretoscopy and stent placement. I've been having trouble with kidney stones for a few years now. They just keep coming back and getting bigger and lodged in my ureta. Not much fun!  I had a list of things I wanted to do this weekend but instead I am home recovering. Thinking ...honestly, of how blessed I am to have a beautiful home to recover in, great medical care and a doctor that I really like and trust, and a health problem that is serious but not life threatening. On my reading pile.... I've been reading N. Scott Momaday. He is a native American writer and pulitzer prize winner. I really enjoy his books.  On my TV.... we have been binge watching Reservation Dogs. Love it! I don't have a favorite blog post this week.  Somethi

 ~ ~ ~ t Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart.  Psalm 5:3 the Passion translation ~ ~ ~ I often look up different translations of bible verses. It gives me a deeper understanding. I usually read the ESV, King James, or a Catholic translation.  Even though I don't read the Passion translation very often I particularly love the visual of this verse in Psalm 5.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ scripture and a snapshot You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

 ~ ~ ~ Camping in New Hampshire with my family this weekend. Both of my daughters, my son-in-law and my three grandchildren. My husband had to work so he couldn't join us.  So. Much. Fun. ~ They are watching daddy in ducking under the water fall.  I love that my daughter and granddaughter both have the exact same smile! ~ My daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren left on Sunday afternoon but my eldest daughter and I stayed over Sunday night as well. It was quiet and peaceful and I don't get to see Hannah that often so I enjoyed our time together.  ~ We a thunderstorm roll through on Friday evening. But the rest of the weekend was beautiful. On Monday I woke to this beautiful sunrise. It began to rain a few hours later but Hannah and I had packed up most of our things the night before so it didn't take us very long to dismantle the tent and be on our way. It was nice to get home early in the morning and have a chance to unpack and do some laundry.  ~ I took Tuesday off as w

~ ~ ~ This was the view from our campsite. We also had a view of a little waterfall that this water fed into. Just beautiful. communal global Wednesday around the world

 ~ ~ ~ For Today   Looking out my window It is rather rainy and windy out there. I can see the old harbour from the windows and it's rather stormy. I am off work today and plan on puttering around the house. I am thinking about how sweet it is to have a day off and be able to do some unpacking from my family camping trip...laundry and putting things away. I love stormy days. I am thankful for the opportunity to go camping this past weekend. My daughter, Hannah, found such a beautiful spot. My daughter, Bonnie and her husband, Dan, and my grandchildren, Verne, Abigail, and Natalie were all together! So much fun to be able to spend time with them. One of my favorite things is stormy days! I love the smell of the harbour, the sound of the wind, the sight of the rain hitting the windows and the waves in the Atlantic at the end of our street.  I am creating a nature basket on the coffee table. My granddaughters and I collected some beautiful natural items while we were camping and I put

 ~ ~ ~ I am so thankful for a visit from my sister.  She is one of the bravest people I know. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2009 and after 7 years of being "cancer free" it came back in her sacrum bone. Since then she has been through more chemo, more radiation and more tests and scans than one could count. She was told that it was not a matter of if it will come back it is a matter of when. And it has come back...a number of times. Each time she has a treatment that takes a permanent toll on her body and her spirit. She has drop foot and cannot walk without a brace or a cane/walker, she is in constant pain, and all this time she continues to go to one doctor appointment after another. The latest is a fracture in her hip because her bones are weak due to the radiation.  I cherish the times we get to spend together.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Little things Thursday Thankful Thursday

  My brother, sister, and I buried our mother's ashes on Friday morning.  It was just very simple, just the three of us. We went out to lunch at one of my mum's favourite restaurants afterward. The waitress very kindly took a photo of the three of us with Marblehead harbour in the backround. The ashes had been delivered to my brother and he put them in the car and took a spin around Marblehead. They drove past the home we grew up in and all of her very favourite places. My sister and I had an impromptu picnic on the beach of an evening.  It's been beastly hot but there was a little breeze coming off of the water and it was a lovely to while-a-way the twilight as we watched the young families with their children and reminisced about when our own children were younger.  This is an example of what the old hand-tub looks like. This one is from Mystic, CT. but my son-in-law pumps for one closer to home.  My grandson, Verne, is too young to pump but he helps out by pushing the ha

 ~ ~ ~ t She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Proverbs 31:26 I took my granddaughters to a revolutionary era reenactment encampment and there was a woman making corn husk dolls with her children. She and her young daughter made dolls for my  granddaughters. The woman was so kind and gentle.  Though it is hardly noticeable my granddaughter was born with a cleft lip/cleft palate and this woman noticed because her son (who was there as well) had born born the same. They both had surgeries at Boston Children's and she was familiar with my granddaughter's doctor.  She was just so kind and I couldn't help but think of this verse as she used her own example to teach her children what kindness is.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Scripture and a snapshot let's have coffee grace and truth

 ~ ~ ~ I had my granddaughters over the weekend! On Saturday we went to Fort Sewell where the Marblehead Glover's regiment (Revolutionary war reenactors) were having an encampment. It looked much like it might have during revolutionary war times when Fort Sewall was actually in use. There was cannon firing, marching, and mock battles. We stayed away from those things but we did have a lovely little girl and her mother make us two sweet little corn husk dolls. Of course, we also got some candy sticks and lemonade! ~ We did some guitar playing and dancing at home with my husband. Abby loves the way her dress twirls but Natalie is more of a break-dancing kind of a girl. ~ We walked down the street to the Driftwood for breakfast and then stopped at the harbour  to see the boats.  ~ We painted and we played with stickers.  ~ We walked to the local toy store and did some shopping and we stopped at a little book store and bought a couple of books. I picked up a copy of One Morning in Main