Michigan Dunes Camping Trip — Part Two

/ / Conquering Sand . . . We three were so excited to hit the big dune on the first full day of our camping trip that we set off unprepared. After our morning… Continue reading →

Michigan Dunes Camping Trip — Part One

/ / How To Camp at Warren Dunes State Park (for a First-Timers Family of Three) . . . Step One: Rise and shine. Well, at least rise. Shine might have to come after… Continue reading →

Beach, Weekend and Birthday Things

/ / Last weekend, the boys and I took a day trip out to Lake Michigan, ending up at a beach of which I’m not even sure of its name. That probably sounds… Continue reading →

Preschool No More

/ / Well, hello there old blog! It’s been too long. I don’t have the kind of free time I used to. But I couldn’t not get back on here for old time’s… Continue reading →

As I Am, With You…

/ / …and As We Are, With You. . This is the first of twelve in a series, or collaboration, that I will be creating along with some other moms and photographers… called As We Are,… Continue reading →

Fort Sheridan {Part Two}

/ / Here is the rest {part two} of my set of photos from my birthday day trip to Fort Sheridan. If you have a slow-speed device, it will take a while to… Continue reading →

Our Annual Anniversary Hike Through the Bog

/ / Though our wedding anniversary has come and gone and several days have since passed, I still wanted to post the photos I took from our annual trip to the bog… a… Continue reading →

Fort Sheridan {Part One}

/ / There were too many shots taken {that I liked and wanted to keep/include} during my traditional/annual birthday trip to Lake Michigan, and I am growing tired of slide shows {especially embedded… Continue reading →

Finally!… Florida

/ / …and with it, hopefully a healthy dose of inspiration! . . I can’t believe I’m finally getting around to posting about our Florida trip… the Florida trip we took last May! Yup…… Continue reading →

In the Living Years {Thoughts About my Dad Nine Years After His Death} and an Update… Scratch That… a First-Ever Post Documenting Our Kitchen Renovations

/ / {A zoomed-in view of part of our kitchen as it looked about a month and a half ago} . . I really hoped to get this post up first thing last Monday {August 31st},… Continue reading →

Second First

/ / It feels like I just posted about Izzy’s last day of his first year of preschool, and here I am already posting about the first day of his second year. ::sigh:: That… Continue reading →

A Life in Pictures… and Some Thoughts to Go Along With Them

/ / While it might sound strange, if I am honest, I’d have to admit that I had not been terribly broken up the first few days after I heard that my grandmother died on Sunday. At least not the… Continue reading →

One Century in This Life… ‘Ever With the Lord in the Next

/ / 1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.… Continue reading →

Why Four{ish} Is My Favorite

/ / Why this fourish st{age} Izzy’s in right now is my favorite?… In a nutshell, it’s because never in my life have I had more fun or laughed more than right now. Coming off… Continue reading →

Finally… A Proper Father’s Day

/ / I hate to put it that way… proper Father’s Day… when, what can be considered “proper” with all the terribly sad things that are happening all around the world today? Grieving fathers who… Continue reading →

Little Boy

/ / June, 15, 2011… at 10:32 in the morning… you were born, my precious boy. And it was the happiest day of my life. It’s a tale often told by so many…… Continue reading →

From August to May

/ / It’s official. Izzy is a learned {little} man. He now has one full year of schooling under his belt, and I have two thick binders full of the cutest little art… Continue reading →

Timely, Tried and True

/ / Dear Izzy, I think God may have heard my heart’s prayer asking for a different view. When we woke up today, there were about ten tree removal workers across the street, cutting down… Continue reading →

Life Lately

/ / “It turns out that bliss—a second-by-second joy + gratitude at the gift of being alive conscious—lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom… Constant bliss in every atom.” ~David Foster Wallace… Continue reading →

Easter Dinner

/ / I barely had enough time to cook it, so I certainly wasn’t going to take the time photograph it… but, since my Easter dinner plans called for 39 {yes, 39} eggs,… Continue reading →

Celebrating Mom

/ / A while back, I gathered up all my favorites from the collection of photos I have of my mom for her birthday… I think it was when she turned 70. I had… Continue reading →

Today

/ / Today, he’s 45. Today, I celebrate those years. Today, I celebrate him. Today, I celebrate him because he has a purpose here. Today, I celebrate that he is the father of… Continue reading →

100

 / / {Above is the cover… or front page… I made for the 100th Birthday Scrapbook that my sister and mom put together for my grandma.} . . Though it’s been two months since… Continue reading →

Reflections on Christmas and 25 Favorite Christmas Recordings Before I Take an Indefinite Break

/ / Lots of pictures and words tonight. But this is sort of a post for many days… for days past and days ahead… so it’s a long one.          … Continue reading →

Happy First Birthday

/ / Dear Anysia, I wonder if you know all this already. Perhaps… but I’ll tell you in a letter, anyway. Actually, I think this might be the first letter I will have written to… Continue reading →

Taking Stock

/ / Making… time for this short post… because I haven’t taken stock in a while . Cooking… …well, if one can call microwaving popcorn cooking, then… popcorn . Drinking… black cherry/concord grape juice… Continue reading →

There Was a Caesar Salad, But This Time, No Breakdown. And the Grief? I’ve Been Noticing How the Landscape Has Changed.

/ / So I went to Olive Garden with my husband and son tonight… to celebrate our fourteenth wedding anniversary. This might seem like a strange place for an anniversary dinner. But we… Continue reading →

Quintessential Summer – County Fair

/ / Oh, happy day! I hesitate to start my post this way… while there’s so much darkness, evil or heartache going on all around the world. But my writing about something good… Continue reading →

Sometimes All You Need is Your Red Bike, Some Grape Juice, a Sandwich, Popcorn and Minions, and a Friend… a Really Good Friend

/ / This will be the first of several “how we spent our summer” photo dumps here. Today’s is from our picnic last week. Yesterday, I spent more time than I would have… Continue reading →

The Parts of Our Days

/ / We had a weekend full of house updating {finally painting our hallway white so that we can finish our floors once and for all}. It felt wonderful to finish up another… Continue reading →

The Lighter Side

/ / I thought I would post the photos from our mini excursion last Sunday to Illinois Beach State Park in an effort to show the lighter side of life right now. I… Continue reading →