13/52 and Favorite Photo Friday - all smiles

We've been on Spring Break this week with no
special plans other than to hang out, sleep in,
play with friends,
and enjoy each other's company.
Grace did have 2 friends sleepover
and we saw the movie, 'The Lorax.'
We highly recommend it.

(This boy loves to run).

The other day I took Will to one of his favorite parks to play.
You can see by his expressions how much he loves
this place!

I can't help but smile seeing this silly boy have fun.

Today Will has a long morning ahead at our local children's hospital with

 his yearly cleft team appointments.

We're hoping he won't have a surgery this coming Summer.

Texture Tuesday - Pink

{Cherry blossoms}

Our early Spring days have been glorious.

Taken yesterday at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, there was 

a canopy of fragrant blossoms above.

Edited with Florabella's classic color action

and two layers of Kim Klassen's 'Be Still' texture.

The first at Luminosity @ 15%

and the second at Pin Light @ 10%.

I removed a little of the texture off the foreground flowers.

Sunday Snapshot - a fun tradition

They were a bit tentative at first about getting into the water.
They hadn't been in a pool since last Summer.

But once they got in, my littlest fish took to the water.

As did his sister.

For 4 years we've made it our little tradition
to have a get away from the dreary days and cold of Feb. or March
 We meet halfway between Madison and Chicago with
members of our China travel group. Some years it's a bigger group.
This year was a small group but no one complained.
In fact there were only smiles and laughter.
And lots and lots of talking and catching up with the momma's!
Friends who truly are family.

(Taken last weekend).
Thank you for the prayers for our family, they'reso appreciated and felt.

12/52 - green

Is it so small a thing

To have enjoy'd the sun,

To have lived light in the Spring,

To have loved, to have thought, to have done.

~ Matthew Arnold

A little bit of green captured yesterday morning.
Welcome Spring!

Favorite Photo Friday - Hope Springs Eternal

Portrait of  my sweet Grace, taken last Sunday.

I had to look up the meaning of the little idiom, "Hope springs eternal."

It means that under difficult circumstances, people will always hope for the best - that better things 

will come down the road. No matter how bad things have been, they can always get better. 

We are hopeful and grateful.

Grateful for the outpouring of kind words and prayers for us right now.

We deeply appreciate and feel your prayers.

Dan has interviews next week out of state, so we're praying 

they go well.

Thank you to so many people who have reached out to me.
(And you know who you are).

We love you all.

Enjoy these beautiful early Spring days.

love, Gail

Sunday Snapshot - With Spring's Arrival Comes Changes

It seems that the only constant in life is change.
People come and go. Things come and go.
Neighbors change. Houses change. Kids grow up.

Some of life's changes come with challenges.

We've had our share lately with my husband losing his job recently.
We'll be busy wrestling with some of those challenges, so I may be blogging less.
The biggest challenge is that fear of the unknown and not knowing if we will move or stay.
You have to prepare as best as you can for whatever life may throw at you.

I've thought long and hard about whether to even post this and 

pretend like everything was just fine.

But it isn't.
It really isn't at all.

Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers.

10/52 and Texture Tuesday - It's a dog's life

Zoe - nearly 10 mos. old.

Taken yesterday afternoon of her resting.

What a life this pup leads, no responsibilities

other than to sleep, bark, eat, lick and sniff.

I almost forgot how she loves to roll in the snow.

She's a sweetheart.

Pretty nice life, ya think?

I used two layers of Kim Klassen's 

'Happy Hearts' texture.

The first at linear burn and the second at soft light.

Favorite Photo Friday - black and white

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."

~ Kahlil Gibran

(One of my favorites, taken about 3 weeks ago, I am loving it in black and white).


Those eyes clearly show what is in her heart.




Edited with Florabella's High Key bl/w action
from her Classic Workflow actions.
(Which I highly recommend!)

9/52 - Spring clean up

"The great purge and clean up of 2012"

I've been MIA from blogging lately and I hope to explain that a little better

eventually.

We are all healthy thankfully.

With Spring fast approaching I've been taking advantage of 

the time indoors (when it's still cold outside) to take 

inventory of the mess in my basement and house.

We've lived here for 6.5 years and I've never really purged our closets,

cupboards, rooms and the beast of our basement.

I would never show a 'before' pic, it would be way

too embarrassing.

Anyway, the purge and Spring clean up and organization has started 

and I think it's been therapeutic in many ways. 

Time to think, reflect, donate, recycle, throw away junk, and get ready for a ginormous garage sale in May.

We also have listed many things from Dan's late mother's home on Craig's List.

Have I mentioned how much I love Craig's List?

(Antique dollhouse that was my husband's Grandmother's when she was a girl).