Kayaking...

We went Kayaking today...(after "I need Jesus" time..(church))

 It was gorgeous out and H.O.T.

 Pretending I'm in the deep Amazon paddling down the river...the Canadian Goose next to me would beg to differ.

 Yup...I need a pedicure.

That's a Watermelon Shark photo bomb...

Hope your having a great weekend!

Sparkling Baubles

Purchased some sparkly things yesterday at Hobby Lobby for cheap! Got some plans for these so stay tuned. Love me some sunny sparkles.

Flowers for the weekend

We're having beautiful warm weather this weekend and my flowers are doing so well. This year has been really good for them. Not as much rain drowning them so it's been a good year so far. Thought I would show some of them.

This is one of my favorite roses. I wish I could remember the name of it but the cabbage type of flower I just love.

I tried to plant a lot of flowers to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. I wish I could get a picture of the hummingbird visits but they're fast little buggers.

Have a great weekend!

Wookie Cookies

My son made an intergalactic, found only in the deep reaches of space cookie today. Well, the deep reaches of  the internets space.  They're Wookie Cookies to be exact and the recipe is found here..Wookie Cookies

He LOVES Star Wars and found a recipe for Wookie Cookies and wanted to make them...all by himself. No help from me and he did a great job!  Chewbacca approves! My baby's growing up.

Out with the old in with the new...

Ugh!

A couple of weeks ago I got the call I never want to get.

My husband drives around 50 miles to and from work everyday and I always fear the call..."your husband has been in and accident." Well, I got the call but it was my husband and he said.."I was in an accident". Thank God! he was OK! but his car was pretty beaten up. He knocked his head pretty hard on the headrest and came away with a pretty bad headache but otherwise, the car did what is was supposed to do. Protected my guy.

My husband was stopped behind traffic on the freeway. The woman who hit him was distracted and plowed into him. That shoved him into the guy in front of him.

It totaled his car.

The impact was absorbed by the car and it did what it was supposed to do. But, the impact from both ends messed up the insides and the frame. It wouldn't stay in drive.  I felt so bad for my husband, but so glad he was OK. He loved this car and took great care of it.

It was paid off and ran beautifully. NO car payments!! 

Well, until now.

This is what he's looking at now.

Now my freeway worry factor is going to skyrocket.

Yay! car payments.

Everything is alright..

This time of year we have some pretty spectacular sunsets. I feel pretty fortunate to have this setting from my bedroom window. 

This time of night and this type of  view always gives me a feeling of contentment.

 That everything is alright. 

Most of the time, I don't feel things are all right. So I love these moments where I get caught up in the beauty of something so much bigger than me.

I want these moments to last for ever but I know that life just isn't that way. 

Sometimes life gets really hard. 

For me, it's not really the battle without, it's the battle within. 

Those creepy feelings of not being good enough...not being enough.

Nothing is ever enough.

Ugh.

Today, though, I thought I would sink into thoughts of contentment. 

Contentment is to be satisfied.

To desire no more than what I already have. 

See, I have tremendous anxiety issues. I worry constantly. I think it's a soothing mechanism I use so if the outcome is not what I'm expecting...I'm ready. I've already thought through and lived  in my mind the worse case scenario so if it happens (and really, it never does) I'm READY! I think it's the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over with the same result.

Worry is a choice. An insane one for me.

But, today... I choose to be content.

Today... I tell myself ....everything is alright.

Today, I'm going to choose to be content in the situations in my life. 

At the end of the day, everything always turns out alright.

I'm just focusing on today.

Keep my mind in the moment and try not to out think it.

Breathe. 

Be.

Satisfied.

Content with the moment.

 

Last day of 6th grade..

My son's last day of the 6th grade was today. I can't believe how fast it goes and I'm so proud of him. Next...Junior High!!! Hooray! my little man!!!

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My Garden

I'm loving my garden this year. Done organically, and after all the hard work, it's paying off. We've lived here about 8 years and when we moved in, I was excited about the size of yard. It's small. In our last home, my yard was too big and a lot of work. I was excited to do something on a smaller scale but, as I soon found out, our yard was a great big drainage ditch for the hill behind and the houses to the left of us which are higher than us. It all came down into our backyard. Neat. After putting in a ton of french drains, amending the soil and finding the right plants for the right spots, I think it's coming along. I lost a lot of plants in the first few years with our drainage issues. Some areas have hard pan like concrete, which is typical Northwest suburb soil, so some areas we had to build up or just leave bare and put a pot. The hill behind will be planted with evergreens here soon.

Still lots to do but my flowers are making me happy. I'll be working on some yard art and bird houses with my son this summer to add a little fun to it.

Northwest Skies

When I was a kid we had a willow tree in the front yard of my childhood home. I would spend a lot of time under this willow in the summer time. I would read and nap or work on little crafty things ...and nap. My cat would usually hang out with me and chase bugs. I loved those days with no worries but what flavor popsicle I wanted or trying to stay awake reading my book. One of my favorite memories sitting under that willow tree was the sky. We were surrounded by pine trees so the contrast of the blue sky and the green of the trees was so beautiful. But the big puffy clouds were my favorite and I would sit for hours and stare at them. I was sitting outside in my own backyard and the look of the sky brought me right back to those peaceful lazy days. Great memories from the beautiful Northwest skies.

Flower Pillow

I went through a phase of fabric flower love. I was making fabric flowers out of anything I could find. I was obsessed. I'm trying to decorate my house and make it more of a home and one of the things I fell in love with on Pinterest was pillows with fabric flowers. I've been going through my stash and made a pillow cover out of fleece (to cover the old, dated one) and made flowers out of the scraps. I think it turned out really pretty. Here it is...

Lots of tutorials to make fabric flowers out there. I really liked using fleece as it gives it a soft look (and I have a TON of it cause when it goes on sale, something in me says, "you must have much"). I also scalloped the edges of the strips to make it look a bit like an hydrangea blossom. The hardest part was trying to arrange the flowers to look well...right. Balance and all. I like it.