Motherhood

I stood there in awe as I watched this tiny little mama bird guard her precious unborn brood. The air that day was warm, but turbulent. She let me take as many shots as I wanted. I was tempted to reach out and touch her, but I didn't. I was a little bit afraid she might attack me. I know! I know! She is soooo small. I was also fearful she might not come back to her nest and care for her unborn young. I certainly did NOT want that!

I was completely amazed at how securely the nest clung to the branch as the wind made the branch buck and sway. I imagined her making so many trips out to gather the free building supplies and then back here to assemble them in this teensy structure. Everything about these birds amazes me.

I felt imspired to write a haiku:

Matronly she sat
upon her unhatched brood while
dutif'ly guarding....

okay! So maybe dutify'ly isn't grammatically correct...but it worked!

Tickled Pink!

I think I may have already used this title once...but is anyone really checking?

I love this image. If feels very soft. It feels very feminine. I am posting from my laptop right now and I have not been able to follow my regular routine of posting...it feels itchy, uncomfortable, just plain out of sorts.

This has been a very event-filled week for me. My kids have all returned to school and survived their first week, I'm planning a trip, our Wal-Mart finally opened I'm getting caught up on a lot of things I let go of over the summer break, I made a crocheted rag rug...and I'm still knitting like a fool!! We are settling into our school-year routines rather nicely. I have taken so many pictures of my little life and have just been so busy trying to put it all together, I just have not even had a chance to look at most of the pictures. I keep thinking I still had other photos I owed you from a few weeks ago and I still haven't even posted them. I promise...I'll get caught up. I miss my wonderful visits to the blogosphere.

I just want to get EVERYTHING caught up....will it happen? A girl can hope, can't she?

Despite all the craziness, here are some things I am completely loving right this moment:

*the quiet at the end of the day
*handwritten notes from my daughter
*text messaging
*beautiful, red roses delivered today from my Sweetie
*a coffee date planned with my lovely neighbor, Susan, in the morning
*my birthday is coming up...that means CAKE!
*knitting and the progression of a project
*all three of the cats are peacefully asleep right now...which means they aren't breaking anything or making messes...I swear! They are worse than kids!
*thrifting and wonderful thrift store scores!
*helping my daughter with her creative writing homework and realizing that she does listen to me...that my words to her do have an impact on her. What a good feeling THAT is.

It's all good....

I Can Feel It

I can feel it! There is definitely a different vibe buzzing in the air. Autumn. She'll be here soon. The sky is a crisper, denser blue. The sun is casting a warmer, amber light and longer shadows. I swear I can feel her chilly nip in the air when I sit in the shade.

Soon, there will be pumpkins to harvest and cider to sip and leaves to be raked. I can hardly wait for the change of seasons. I love Autumn. I love to wear sweaters and scuffle around the house in slippers and slipper socks.

I have enjoyed this summer. As always, its expiration date comes too soon. We started out with long lists of things we'd like to do and of course, the list still has things on it that we'll try to cram in before too much more time goes by. The kids start back to school in less than a week. It sure is hard to believe, but I'm sure we will have a wonderful school year, too.

CorKa!

This is my beautiful daughter, Kaitlyn, and her sweetie, Cory. They've known each other for a while now and have spent a lot of time together over the summer. They asked me to photograph them together. How coudl I deny that? We took a little drive and found a neat spot. The sunlight was almost PERFECT. We all had a good time snapping these little images.