something about rainy days.

Not sure about you, but after some warm days with sunshine, I find a rainy day so cozy.  As long as it's not snow in May (which yes, happens up here sometimes), the crisp bit of moisture is something I look forward to.  Now, here's hoping for sunny skies tomorrow(!).

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

pic pix: wet & green, today, my backyard

exposed

We were out for a walk the other day.  The weather was perfect - sunny skies, warm breeze, fall cool crisp.  I had my camera and couldn't wait to capture the beauty and colors.  I got set up as I continued to admire the golds, greys and greens ... "spectacular," I thought to myself.  After snapping what I thought was perfect, I checked the back of my digital screen to examine the results.  Though the image looked nice, it wasn't as *amazing* as what my eyes were seeing.  Usually, it never is, but I darn well do my best in trying to reproduce what I see.

But the colors in front of me seemed near impossible to emulate into my replicated, still image.  Where I live (where the Rocky Mountain Foothills meet the Prairies) most leaves turn to yellow, and the odd tree may have red leaves.  Grey overtakes the landscape as the grass turns grey and the fallen leaves reveal tree trunks that seemed to get lost in the composition.  The gold jumping out to the naked eye looks only like a simple yellow leaf with brown dots.  The sharp contrasts of colors - blue blue sky to the monochromatic palette - don't seem to pop as easy.

I feel sometimes life can look like that.  Different seasons, with different lights shining on and exposing certain areas ... not everything about me looking exact, complete and orderly all the time.  Though those attributes about me still exist, there are specific times of the year that my personality/character colors can't be captured on film as showpieces to be shared with others.

Right now, this is my season.  A time where I feel some of my strengths are being stripped down, and now exposed with my leaves all fallen off.  It maybe pretty in it's own way, but not ready to be photographed by others.  A time where my colorful palette is awaiting the debut time for when the Creator will fill my barrenness with a new vibrancy and gravitated qualities for me to share.

For now, it can't matter how others see me ... I know that God sees me as His creation ready to be photographed.  For in my exposed state, He still finds me beautiful, worth showing.

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. 

~ Albert Einstein

pic pix: hard to find colors, Fish Creek Park, AB, 16.Oct.2012 

our saturday night walk in the park

awaiting the arrival

My mind has been, let's just say, "occupied" with when baby will finally makes it's debut!  The actual 40-week due date was May 25.  I have officially come to terms that we will be having a June baby instead of a May baby (yes, I know it is already June 4th today!).  I haven't felt inspired to write/think of anything but "baby" in the last week, but figured, it's time I share a bit of my goings on (besides being pregnant)...well, since my last post!

Another Mother's Day...

My brother recently graduated from his 4-year program down in Texas, so we decided to celebrate Mother's Day when he got back.

**just missing me & my dad in these shots ...

I covered some ceramic pots with fabric & modge podge, as a gift for Mom ... I think they turned out pretty cute.

Big Buckets ...

Baby really is growing inside of me.  I can barely recognize myself in pictures/the mirror let alone, get my arms around my belly these days!! 

Fishing & Walks ...
We live so close to such a beautiful park ... it's a good guess I am down there on a sunny day!  While Matt fishes, sometimes I read, snap away with my camera, or just sit there and take it all in ...

 *taken w/vsco cam - iphone

*taken w/vsco cam - iphone

 Here's hoping my next post will have some baby news!!!



pic pix: my life as of late, Calgary, AB, May-June.2012

lovin' it

This morning I woke up to such a beautiful surprise .... the sun!!  It was 5:45am, and the rays were already warming our room with golden happiness.  I am NOT your by-the-book morning person, but I couldn't help myself from wanting to rise that early and enjoy it.  The last week or so has been rainy & gray in Calgary, which has brought us some lush green to look at.  But let me tell you, today was a joyous awakening!

Here are some other things that I'm just lovin' this morning ...

 

 My baby bump is barely allowing me to see my toes ... but, nonetheless, if I lean forward a bit,
I can still see that they are there. Just over 3 weeks to go!!

The seedlings are coming along quite nicely.  It is feeling like a mini green house in here!

Scored this soap & soap tin with a girlfriend yesterday at HomeSense.  Yellow always makes me happy.

I've been on the hunt for a used rocking chair since about week 8 of this pregnancy!  My original thought was to sand a used one down and paint it "fire engine red".  Up until a few weeks ago, I was still without my coveted chair until my mother-in-law mentioned this gem in her basement (!).  It is in such nice condition, I don't have the heart to paint it ... I just heart it as is! 

and, of course ... m'love  :)

pic pix: Calgary, AB, April-May.2012

rain brings...

"I like rain, actually."

Bill Rodgers

There's a constant trickle of water falling from the sky ... I almost don't want to sleep for the sole reason of enjoying the sound of it coming down!  The wetness can't dampen this girl's spirits.  For rain = green, green = freshness, freshness = new beauty. 

"Rain is grace...rain is the sky descending to the earth...without rain, there would be no life."

John Updike

pic pix: wildflowers in spring, Burnet, TX, May.2010
 

it's a lovely day

"...And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer..."

F. Scott Fitzgerald ~ The Great Gatsby

For some much needed inspiration - in my closet, and home! - I went to the thrift store the other morning, in hopes of finding some treasures.  I found this cute kid's vintage book (circa 1950s...for $.90!), a $5 skirt to wear for the next month, and a steal of a deal on a blazer that fits me now at 8 months pregnant and will fit me after.  I didn't give myself a ton of time there, which was probably for good reason...there were a lot of other things that I just may need to go back to "look at"... !!

I not only loved the fact that this vintage little book was in mint condition and oh-so-cute, but I was especially drawn to it's title.  It's simple reminder to view the day as lovely [lovely: highly pleasing or enjoyable].

It may very well be because summer is right around the corner, or that I am getting proper rest now, or due to the fact that I am TOTALLY ecstatic that baby is only a month away(!), but each and every morning, I am being reminded that I have the opportunity to view the approaching day as a new beginning.  In my eyes, lovely or not, it's all in how I choose to undertake it.

Sometimes, we allow our life circumstances, tasks, disappointments, responsibilities, emotions, pains, etc. to cloud our ability to see and make fresh a new dawn.  Before you know it, the day is gone and we haven't been able to snap out of it.  Being thankful is one way to overcome discouragement and charge it into a new perspective ... as is realizing that God has promised us that we will experience new mercies each and every morning:

"...Sing praise to the Lord, all you who belong to Him.  Give thanks to His holy name....Crying may last for a night, but joy comes with the new day..."
Psalm 30:4-5

There's nothing new about this message...quite honestly, in my own life, I've visited and revisited this thought time and time again.  It's merely another reminder for us not to lose sight and/or get stuck into thinking that we live in a desperate cycle of drab with no way out.  Today, regardless of where you are physically, emotionally, or spiritually, you have the choice to see "the lovely" that's right in front of you.

In Calgary, it's not supposed to be the "most delightful" of days (weather-wise, forecasted rain, rain, rain) ... but the way I see it,

It's a Lovely Day.

pix pic: my "new" vintage find, Calgary, AB, 23.April.2012

new growth

Spring is nearly here!  Grass is slowly creeping into new shades of fresh green, birds are waking me up every morning with their song, even the tulips are poking their way up out of the winter soil!  Talking to some friends down in South Carolina, they were already experiencing spring over a month ago, so I can imagine for some of you it may not seem as exciting(!).  The spring season doesn't last long up here, as we usually get an unexpected dump of snow (or two!) before the end of May.  By then ... we're pretty much in summer anyway.  So, every bit of spring that comes our way, I savor.

I decided to put my green thumb to the test this year and start some plants right from the seed.  This was all new "ground" for me.  In the past, I've diligently tended to my store bought patio plants, but I've never started from the "root" of things like this.  According to the plant lady at the greenhouse, I started the seeds about a week and a half too late for our short season, but I'm determined to try it anyway.  Because our little place faces north/northeast, the total amount of sun we get is limited, so I stuck with the leafy vegetables this year (kale, 3 different types of lettuce, etc...).

Much like my own life right now, new things are sprouting and coming to the surface.  Yes ... the baby of course is getting bigger (only 6 weeks to go!), as are some other areas in my life that have needed new growth.

I've been an independent person most of my life, always finding ways to make things happen.  And by that, I pretty much mean, working hard!  My jobs (even though I haven't always loved them) have always been the main reason for my daily routine and working hard at them have proven to give me productive, purposeful "meaning".  I always dreamt of the day when I wouldn't have my job(s) roadblocking and distracting me from doing things that needed to get done or that I really wanted to be doing - housework, sleep, creativity, personal time, running, etc...

Since I've been on maternity leave (March 23), I've felt lost in my own skin.  It's wonderful that Matt can work and I don't have to.  Trust me ... I'm not complaining here!  But it is quite the shift to have a feeling of daily satisfaction because of those career/work goals, to now, completely freeing my mind from them and pursuing a purposeful day from my personal objectives (with the evident new factors of being pregnant! - another blog post heh heh).  I've been asking myself again, "what do I really want to accomplish?". 

The beauty of having moments of realization like this, is that I don't have to prove anything ... to myself, to God, or to others.  Often, I've felt the need to push the normal standard just to feel validated in the work I do.  Sometimes missing moments because I've given into pursuing the goals others give me instead of own.  Obviously, working for someone, you have to(!), but I'm the type of person that won't let it rest unless I've proven something.  


I've been trying to curb that with the very truth ... that my value is not in what I prove.

The law of Your mouth is better to me

Than thousands of coins and silver ...

Your hands have made and fashioned me

Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments ...

Psalm 119:73-74

We've all been made and fashioned, way before we ever had those moments of "discovering ourselves" and "learning who are".  Why then, would I have to do things to authenticate who I am?

We are all fearfully and wonderfully made ... with no expectation to prove who or what we can do.

I pray you, as well, would find freedom in that promise today.   

 

pic pix: the sprouts, my studio - Calgary, AB, 16.Apr.2012

...reaches to the clouds

I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.  I will sing your praises among the nations.  
For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.  Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
May your glory shine over all the earth.

Psalm 108:3-5

pic pix: yesterday morning's sky, Calgary, AB, 08.Aug.2011