lizard friends

My kids are desperate for pets. "When we will get another dog" is a daily discussion in our house (that always ends with no promises.) So for now, they are happy to care for the army of lizards inhabiting our back yard. They catch them, name them, keep them for a day or two, release them, and then re-catch them (because for some reason these little guys actually stick around even after being carried in the fist of a five-year-old for days on end!) Last week they were all shedding their skin (look close at the one below), and lately they are tiny so I think it's the new babies coming out to play. It's going to be one long lizard-filled summer here in Florida.

saturday sports

happy spring!

through the fog

One gorgeous evening last week we decided to drive over to the beach for dinner. From our house, we have to cross a bridge from Pensacola to Gulf Breeze and another from Gulf Breeze to Pensacola Beach. The air was cool and the sky clear blue, but when we reached the first bridge this is what we saw...

A fog bank had cocooned Gulf Breeze from one end to the other as far as we could see. By the time we got to the other side our view looked like this...

We kept driving right through it, over the second bridge, to the beach. The fog was patchy and on it's way out, so our dinnertime view looked like this...

We ate, played in the sand, threw stuff in the water (kids can do that ALL day) and enjoyed the table-side playground (a playground in the middle of a non-fast food restaurant, why haven't more people thought of this?!)

On the way back over the bridge, we caught back up to that funny little cloud and followed it home...

As the sun set through the fog over Pensacola...

printlife pic of the day

Check out my photo featured today on the Color Inc blog Printlife!

I had this and several other large prints made recently (remember, I said I would?) but unfortunately they are still sitting in their giant shipping box. I have yet to find the time to go shopping for frames (or maybe I've just been avoiding it because I know that little project isn't going to come cheap.) It only took me six months to print them, so maybe in another six I'll have them on a wall...maybe.

five things

hi. yesterday for their CC presentations, the kids had to share five things. since i took a few random photos over the past week or so, here's my five...

i got all those books for $15 at the friend's of the library sale. fifteen bucks, that's it. they are mostly "well loved" old library copies, but took about $200 worth of titles off our wish list. that's a good deal.

my veggie garden is coming alive with baby lettuces and a few other greens. mel's mix seems to be the way to go. i planted the rest of the bed just yesterday.

shawn is building a fantastic storage bench on the porch. once finished we will paint it white and cover it with pretty cushions. and then we will gaze at it through the window all summer until the temperatures drop again in the fall.

the kids are taking swimming lessons at the university on saturdays. as i watch them i find myself gazing with longing at all those still, empty lanes. i want to dive in and power across the pool with no other thoughts in my head except breathe, breathe, breathe.

it is very nearly spring. every tree and shrub outside is in bloom (the azaleas around here are spectacular) and every nose in the house is running. today we will stuff tissues in our pockets to plant flowers in the front yard.

this and that

that one looks really tiny on a baseball field, doesn't she?

this one had a rough week (we both did) but he's reading up a storm lately so I know his love of learning is alive and well. the other stuff, the school stuff, well it's working itself out.

that one has pneumonia. we've made the medical clinic our regular hangout lately and all the kids are pretty much on first-name-high-five status with the corpsmen.

this explains my absence from the blog I think?

that is all.

hello, new day

Ending February on a Leap Day -that was something kinda special, right? We should have done something special, something out of the ordinary (or at least a leap, right?)
But then life happens. A normal day happens, tears-over-math-lessons happen, that fun picture you thought you might take doesn't happen, or perhaps did happen but it's still in the camera...you know.

If I have been learning anything recently it is this: I must choose each day the things I will pick up, the things I will lay down. Each day. And in the right Light, ordinary days suddenly become something kinda special. They shine.
More and more, I am trying to let go so that I can hold fast...

Let us lay aside every encumbrance...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

Hebrews 12:1-2