Macro Friday - Ick!! - Day 234

Today I am linking up with Blogging From Bolivia for Macro Friday! 

Hope to see you there! 

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive.

Inside a Post Office - Day 233

I am in love with these old boxes.  They are the old combination boxes that most Post Offices don't have anymore.  I think they are so interesting and definitely worth mentioning.  They are over 100 years old.  I love the weathered and beaten look of them.  Today, when a Post Master retires, many recieve one of the old boxes remade into a bank.  I think it is a grand tradition. 

We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever.

Happy Birthday Josh - Day 232

Josh turned 21.  It was a special day for him.  Miracle made him a cake the night before and put a big note on it to keep the family out of it until he could share in the celebration.  I totally loved the note!

They really do grow up way too fast!!  Happy, happy birthday Josh.  Don't forget, in your quest to live on your own, how very much you are loved.  He is moving out in May and we really are going to miss him!!

Old Post Office

A recent trip to Globe Arizona gave me an opportunity to take several pictures of the old Post Office there.  I loved the detail in the building.  This was the better picture of all of them.  I didn't like the ones that were farther away because you could not see the amazing detail.  Globe is an old mining town and parts of it are very run down.  The Post Office used to house several different federal agencies and is amazing.  

"Architecture is music in space."  

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling

Pretty in Pink - Day 230

My sweet daughter, Anya, in her beautiful Easter Dress.  I won the skirt last month in a drawing on Just Be.

I hope you check her blog out.  I love her skirts and her handbags.  I was so excited when I won this, but waited to show Anya until this week.  It was a wonderful surprise for her.  

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems."
-- Rainer Maria Rilke

Macro Friday - More blooms

Linking up with Blogging From Bolivia today for Macro Friday.  Hope to see you there!

Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity.
 ~Lindley Karstens~

Wordless Wednesday - Reading in the garden - Day 228

Alligator Juniper - Day 227

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.  ~Martin Luther

Rolling in the Garden - Day 226

Some people like garden Gnomes, I like garden people.  This little guy caught my eye as he reminded me of the fun of childhood.  All of the plants are dried up and gone and waiting for summer to bring green and growing again. 

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt.  ~Author Unknown

The Long Road - Day 225

"We’re all pioneers. Across the years, and across the miles, we blaze our trails through our personal wild frontiers. In a wide variety of circumstances, we cross our plains, sing our songs, bury our dead, deal with our personal sorrows, bear one another’s burdens, visit, comfort, and show compassion. Blessed, honored pioneers!"  Mary Ellen Edmunds

Old Knot - Day 224

Perfection is achieved,

not when there is nothing more to add,

but when there is nothing left to take away.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Snow Crystals - Day 223

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Snow Again! - Day 222

Oh my, need I say more??

The Bible often says: "It came to pass."
It never says:
It came to stay.

Do you wanna dance? - Day 221

I saw this as I was driving to a friend's house and fell in love.  I really wish it was in my own front yard.  I thought it was beautiful, and reminds me of dancing through the forrest. 

“The journey between who you once were,

and who you are now becoming,

is where the dance of life really takes place.”

- Barbara De Angelis  

Fruits (or Vegetables) of my labors - Day 220

I started buying bountiful baskets.  If you are lucky enough to live near a place that allows you to buy them, they are amazing and I am totally in love with the co-op concept.  Every two weeks, I buy two baskets.  Whatever I can't use (or don't get around to) I bottle.  This is just a few of the recent jars of joy!

I have done several bottles of sweet potatoes, a stew mixture, and green beans.  I can't wait until my garden gives me some more goodies to can.  There is just something so fulfilling about making a difference.  

Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Canning Season - Day 219

"To 'put by' is an old deep-country way of saying to 'save something you don't have to use now, against the time when you'll need it.' "Putting food by is the antidote for running scared". Janet Greene
(I don't get the running scared part. I just love the feeling of having a full pantry.  I think it's very rewarding, saves money and the taste is so much better than store bought!!)

Cats Tail - Day 218

This is a fierce territorial kitty. She does not like to find strangers in her domain.  We don't know quite what she saw, but she was most definitely not happy about it.  

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in.
Will Rogers

My cat speaks sign language with her tail.
Robert A. Stern

When a cat chooses to be friendly, it's a big deal, because a cat is picky.
Mike Deupree

Work in Progress - Day 217

I hope you are not too bored here today, but I am in the mood to show off some very long awaited remodeling.  

Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts.  This is the secret of success.  ~Swami Sivananda

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind. 

The difference between try and triumph is a little umph at the end. 

Macro Friday - purple blossoms - Day 216

Linking up today for Macro Friday with Blogging From Bolivia

Hope to see you there!

Where flowers bloom,

so does hope.

Shave and a haircut - Day 215

I couldn't take it anymore.  So, I took him to a friend's house, 

and she took care of that poor little moppy face.  This is the yards and yards of fur

that was covering all his goodness.  I still think we lost at least half a dog somewhere!

If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.  ~Will Rogers

I totally need a haircut! - Day 214

We love this little guy, but this fur-ball is getting ridiculous!  Totally, totally stole our hearts though.

"My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet."   ~Edith Wharton

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. 

Helping Daddy - Day 213

“Learn to like your work. Learn to say ‘This is my work, my glory, not my doom’”

(Stepping Stones to an Abundant Life, comp. Llewelyn R. McKay [1971], 115–16).

Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success. 

Pray as though everything depended on God. 

Work as though everything depended on you. 

"Fewer and fewer parents ask their children to do chores around the house because they think they are already overwhelmed by social and academic pressures. But children devoid of responsibilities risk never learning that every individual can be of service and that life has meaning beyond their own happiness." 

H. David Burton

Pages of Love - Day 212

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and sings it back to you when you have forgotten how it goes."

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow."  William Shakespeare

Friendship multiplies joy and divides grief.

"A friend is one to whom one can pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keeping what is worth keeping, and, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away."

Flower Blossoms - Day 211

I know, they are so small, but they are actual flowers in my front yard!!  I am so happy to make their acquaintance!  Spring has finally shown her face in my town.  

Earth's crammed with heaven
and every common bush, afire with God.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

Purple Blossoms! - Day 210

The girls and I planted these bulbs at the end of last year.  

Look at the goodies that are coming up in my front yard!

"And the day came when the risk 

to remain tight in a bud was more painful 

than the risk it took to blossom."  Anais Nin

"Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. 

We are all children of chance and none can say 

why some fields will blossom while others lay 

brown beneath the August sun."  Kent Nerburn 

Macro Friday - Yellow Joy - Day 209

Joining in for Macro Friday today with Blogging From Bolivia.

Hope to see you there!

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is
     to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone
     with the heavens, nature and God.

Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and
     that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple
     beauty of nature.  I firmly believe that nature brings solace
     in all troubles.                                                                                  - Anne Frank