The Webb - Day 352

"The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes."  Leo Nikolaevich

"Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, at first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel."  Tryon Edwards. 

Indian Creek - Day 351

One of the things that I enjoyed in Kansas was walking along the creek in the evening.  I just thought it was beautiful, serene, calm and peaceful.  It was so peaceful to be able to walk among the trees and listen to the endless sound of cicada's dancing in the evening breeze.  

Peace is not merely a distant goal

that we seek 

but a means by which we arrive 

at that goal.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life is lived in the present. 

Yesterday is gone. 

Tomorrow is yet to be. 

Today is the miracle.

Sometimes, I don't want to sleep - Day 350

As I say good-bye to this so sweet little girl, my mind has a hard time believing the time has flown so fast.  The next time I see her, she will be a couple of months older and look completely different.  Thank goodness for Skype to help me pass the time. 

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.
Vincent van Gogh

Growin Big - Day 349

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things - 

Wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."

Edna J. LeShan

"Sometimes," said Pooh, 

"the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

Mama Loves Me - Day 348

No influence is so powerful, 

as that of the mother.

Sarah Josepha Hale

New Things - Day 346

The interesting thing about being in Kansas is all the new things that I get to see on this journey.  This is one of the states that I have never traveled through or lived in and I have found all these plants that I have never in my life seen before.  Take this one for example.  It was so beautiful, I don't know what it is, but it is beautiful anyway.  

"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."  

Oscar Wilde

"Vision is the art of seeing things that are invisible to others."  

Jonathan Swift

"What we see depends, mainly, on what we look for."

John Lubbock

Macro Friday - Little Feet - Day 347

Joining up with Blogging From Bolivia today for another Macro Friday.  I must admit, this picture is one of my favorites!  

Where we love is home - 

home that our feet may leave, 

but not our hearts.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

All Ready To Go - Day 345

When babies look beyond you and giggle

maybe they are seeing angels.

Eileen Elias Freeman

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer,

bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten,

and the future worth living for."

A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, 

hope, a dream of possibilities.
Eda J. Le Shan

On Daddy's Lap - Day 344

Time out with Daddy.  My fingers are itching for my turn!  There is nothing quite like a New Baby to love.  

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

~ Helen Keller

Baby Bath - Day 343

The belly cord is still inside, so our sweet Emma cannot yet have a bath.  This requires much extra work as we try and give her a sponge bath.  She does not like it.  I however, love the experience.

A new baby is like the beginning of all things, hope, a dream of possibilities.

Children reinvent your world for you.

As a mother, my job is to take care of what is possible, and trust God with the impossible.  

Ruth Bell Graham

"A babe in the house is a wellspring of pleasure, 

a messenger of peace and love, 

a resting place for innocence on earth, 

a link between angels and men."  

Martin Fraquhar Tupper

It is the nature of babies to be in bliss.

Deepak Chopra

Guests - Day 342

We opened up the back patio door of my daughter's house to discover these guests sitting on the back lawn.  They even gave me a moment to go get the camera, but got a little skittish when I tried to sneak up on them.  I thought they were so beautiful! 

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  ~John Muir

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting - a wayside sacrament.  Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beauty... is the shadow of God on the universe.  ~Gabriela Mistral, Desolacíon

New Baby - Day 341

I am totally busy loving on a new grandbaby, and not where I can download pictures today.  Hopefully, I will have everything fixed up tomorrow so that I can download and post this week.  This is straight off the camera phone.  I totally love the picture, just wish it was with my better camera.  

Teeny Tiny Blooms - Macro Friday - Day 340

Linking up with Blogging From Bolivia today for another Macro Friday.  I hope to see you there.  There are always so many beautiful pictures!  These blooms are about the size of a little fingernail.  I thought they were lovely.  

"Where flowers bloom so does hope."

- Lady Bird Johnson

Weeds Can Be Beautiful! - Day 339

A weed is a plant that has

mastered every survival skill 

except for learning 

how to grow in rows. 

 ~Doug Larson

 What is a weed?

I have heard it said 

that there are sixty definitions. 

 For me, a weed is a plant out of place. 

 ~Donald Culross Peattie

Spots of Yellow - Day 338

When summer gathers up her robes of glory,
And, like a dream, glides away.
~ Sarah Helen Whitman

"Ah, summer, 

what power you have to make us suffer 

and like it." 

Russell Baker

Everybody Wants To Be A Cat! - Day 337

"No matter how much cats fight, there always seems to be plenty of kittens." -Abraham Lincoln

"After scolding one's cat one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word. And has filed it for reference."-Charlotte Gray

This Old Pot - Day 336

I know, I know, it looks like an old coffee pot, and I am sure it was made to be one, but actually, it is a very old hot chocolate pot.  It makes the best hot chocolate on earth.  I think the flavor gets a little better for every year of use.  Of course, it could be just because it is only used when the family gets together to share.  

"The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain." - Thomas Jefferson

"Love is like swallowing hot chocolate before it has cooled off. It takes you by surprise at first, but keeps you warm for a long time."

Look Grammy, I can swim! - Day 335

This little sweetheart has been afraid to try and swim all summer.  I did pictures just a few weeks ago where she was wearing a huge frown on her face and would not even try and have fun in the water.  I just thought it was amazing at the difference a couple of weeks can make in the life of a child.  

Believe in yourself, not only in swimming, but in life itself. You always have to have fun. You have to have an open mind. If you're not enjoying it, don't do it. Life's too short. 

Debbie Meyer 

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. 

Woodrow Wilson 

Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it. 

Bill Cosby

Field of Mushrooms - Day 334

This was really an amazing sight.  The picture does not do it enough justice as it was at twilight and rather far away.  This long line of while dots are toadstools.  They went most of the way across the field.  The girls got pretty excited to see them as we don't get many of those up here.  They were behind a fence and in a meadow and I was not able to get as close as I would have liked.  Still, I thought that they were beautiful in their own way.  

Could we change our attitude, 

we should not only see life differently, 

but life itself would come to be different. 

Katherine Mansfield

Macro Friday - Mountain Thistle - Day 333

Today, I am linking up with Blogging From Bolivia for another Macro Friday.  This week, while walking the dogs, we came across some thistle.  I have never noticed it before, but when I looked close, it was actually pretty amazing.  I would not want to pick it, but it really was beautiful.  And yes, all those brown spots are bugs.  The thorns did not seem to bother them in the least!

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.   Abraham Lincoln

I learn more about God
From weeds than from roses;
Resilience springing
Through the smallest chink of hope
In the absolute of concrete....
~Phillip Pulfrey, "Weeds," Perspectives, http://www.originals.net/

Ring Around The Rosies - Day 332

Whenever kids get together, they find something to play about.  These girls enjoyed themselves, not only swimming, but playing a revised version of ring around the rosies that required underwater dunking.  As you can see from the smiles, it was too much fun!

I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful. 

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.  ~Phyllis Diller

Tarzan really had a great idea!! - Day 332

We were priviliged to go to a friend's family reunion for a visit.  We had so much fun.  Someone there made a rope swing for the kids.  Once the girls got over their fear of falling off, they had a ball!  These are just a few of the pictures from that amazing evening. 

Play energizes us and enlivens us.

It eases our burdens.

It renews our natural sense of optimism

and opens us up to new possibilities. 

Stuart Brown, MD

It is a happy talent to know how to play.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A child loves his play,

not because it’s easy,

but because it’s hard.

Benjamin Spock

Children need the freedom and time to play.

Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Deep meaning lies often in childish play.

Johann Friedrich von Schiller

Surely all God’s people…like to play.

John Muir

You can discover more about a person

in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Plato

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow,

yet we forget that he is someone today. 

~Stacia Tauscher

Play, while it cannot change

the external realities of children’s lives,

can be a vehicle for children

to explore and enjoy their differences

and similarities and to create,

even for a brief time,

a more just world where everyone is

an equal and valued participant. 

Patricia G. Ramsey