Holiday Cheer!

What a wonderful , festive Christmas we had this year,

Spending time with friends and family.

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Somewhere I read that

"Friends are the family you choose for yourself".

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We had our good friends over a couple of weeks before

Chrismas for an Italian dinner and gift giving.

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My sister-in-law and husband spent Christmas Eve

and all day Christmas with us. It was so nice to be together.

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My husband kept a fire going all day long. We even had

snow on the ground from earlier in the week.

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Both our sons were with us all day long,

and we met up with my family over the weekend.

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We couldn't ask for anything more. Even our dreams

of a White Christmas came true.

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Happy New Year!!!!!

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Buddy checking out the snow:

My "Protector" ~ taking care of the homestead.

Finally Fall

Fall has finally come to our area in the

Piedmont of North Carolina

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A pond near my home

showing vibrant colors

A

nearby

community

park

has

this

bright

red

tree

for

a

mascot!!

I never knew how much I loved trees until I started posting my favorite photos.

~~~

The bi-color leaves of red and green

or red and yellow are

gorgeous this year!!

~~~

~~

Happy Fall!!

Struggles of Life

This one is really for me, so feel free to pass over the thoughts I need to get out. After all, I started journaling online to work through all the thoughts that rage inside sometimes. I’ve been so inspired by our “community” of sorts, who blog regularly. Sometimes it seems like a place to put down just the good thoughts, but life so often hurts too.

We’ve had a couple of really hard weeks. They felt like they would stop my poor heart from beating for sure. We finally went to family counseling yesterday. We should have gone a long time ago. It is possible that my ‘superman’ son may be bi-polar. Yes, I knew he had some tendencies that resembled this, but I just didn’t want to admit it. Who wants to think you own son will have to fight a life- long battle that sometimes he will not win.

My husband was right again. He always is. If only I could just trust him in the beginning, life would go so much smoother. I just kept trying to fix everything. After all, it seems like it is my job to “finish” my son, as if he is a production of mine. Yes, I want him to be complete when he steps out into this world alone, but he is not mine to complete. I can only give him his beginning. I can honestly say; and he would agree, that I did all that was humanly possible to give him a good start.

My son, you have done well, you have held out strong among all the pressures of being a teenager. We couldn’t be prouder of you. You can do anything, you can make anything happen, more than anyone else I know. We are still here for you whenever you need us. I can’t save you and rescue you when you run yourself to the point of exhaustion. I can’t make you eat and rest so you will be ready for your next endless day of being all you can be. I can only watch what you will become and hope that you remember the strong foundation we laid for your life.

So I lay down my weapons, and will fight you no more. Please fogive me for trying so hard to help you, when I was really only hurting you further. I accept you as you are, a complete package, a whole person. You are whole because you truly are filled with love. Love makes us broken people whole. It is love that fills in the cracks of our broken hearts. So I offer you true, unconditional love for your whole life. I only wish you peace on your journey. I’ll always be here to listen, and love you always.

photo credits for both pictures of the beautiful NC seashore

goes to my brother, Craig Lipscomb

~~~

~~~~~~~~

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

Reid, you mean the world to us!

~~~

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!!

My dad on the left and my Granddad on the right

with fish caught at the Chesapeake Bay in 1969.

~~~

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At Dusk

Buddy and I are sitting on the new screen porch at dusk. It is almost silent. The fireflies are blinking all over. The tree frogs are just starting to sing their nightly song.

The greens of the trees and grasses are slowly turning to blackness. Through the trees, I can vaguely see the sinking sun turning the distant clouds to a beautiful pink. But no, I will not chase even that photo down tonight. Tonight, I'm searching for calm, quiet, and peace.

Down below me, there is a calla lily that my husband gave me two years ago. He brought it to my office not long after I got my job back. It was a deeper pink then, when it was smaller. It soon outgrew the pot, and I brought it home and planted it around the bird bath.

The white flowers seem to glow just before dark.

Lost, but not really!

My sweet dog, Buddy, was lost this whole weekend, but not really. In all of our preparations for graduation on Friday, I asked my son to take him to the pet resort for me. He had a while before getting dressed and leaving early for the school, and my husband and I were finishing up on installing the flooring and cleaning the baths. We had several sets of family members coming in from out-of-town.

Neil took Buddy and came home and said “Mom, they acted like they didn’t know he was coming, but they had room anyway”. Well, I had made the reservation the week before, so I called and talked with the manager to ask if everything was OK. She said yes, but misunderstood that I said Neil had already dropped him off. I thought I was clear, that is after all why I called in the first place.

So I go to pick him up on Sunday afternoon after all the family had gone their separate ways, and even my son Jonathan left town to go back home with my parents for a week. Everything was settled down and peaceful. Then I enter the pet resort and he said “I bet you’re here for Logan”. I said no, and could tell right away there was a problem.

Buddy was, thankfully, safe and sound, but had been dropped off at his vet instead of the pet boarding place. My son, Neil didn’t pay enough attention to what I said with everything going on. Of course, that is nothing new with 18 year olds especially on their graduation day. After telling him what had happened, his reaction was just “Well, didn’t it cost relatively the same?”

Sweet Buddy loves everyone and was perfectly happy at the Vet’s instead. I just hate the thought of him being in a cage instead of a run the whole weekend. Of course, he had no idea he was in the wrong place.

He is such a sweet, happy, go-lucky dog, he seems just fine.

Buddy is our only pet, and is a 4&1/2 year old mix between a cocker spaniel and a golden retriever. He is fairly small for those breeds and only weighs 32 lbs. He was born 4 days after my Granny died in 2004. We were not looking for a puppy when we saw him at our neighbors, but we were all very sad and lonely. We brought him home when he was about 6 weeks old. He stays indoors with us and usually sleeps under our bed.

In Transition

When I started this new blog a few weeks ago, I wanted to begin telling my story from the center of my heart, working outward. The last three weeks have been so challenging I’ve hardly had time to write.

My oldest son is graduating tomorrow from high school and we are giving him a party afterwards. Some of our family members are coming in to visit. My do-it-all husband has been working feverishly to finish up the addition to our house that he started over a year ago.

So everything is changing at our house, and sometimes change (even for the better) can be uncomfortable.

These roses are my neighbor, Loretta’s. They are so beautiful, and they remind me that things will be rosey again.
The weekends will go back to being a time of rest and relaxation in the mountains or along the creek banks.

And very soon we will be out paddling in our kayaks again or biking the nature trails near here. And I will be able to lay down my paint brush and pick up my camera again.

Happy Weekend!!

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A Little Glimpse of Heaven

My oldest son, a senior in high school, was typing up some poetry for his friend whose computer was down. He happened to leave it up on the pc and I found it. Completely disrespecting their privacy (that falls under the “Do as I say, not as I do” rule), I read the screen. Something about this poem touched me and made me cry. I can only assume he was talking about memories of the good times and love he shared with his family before he became an independent teenager, that time of childhood innocence.

Perfection

Take me back to the place
Where time moved so slowly.
A time that was so perfect
That it easily could be mistaken for heaven.
A time so dear, yet so far away from me now.

Can I ever return?
Would it be the same to me now?
Though I realize I can never return,
I know that I will never forget the memories
Of my brief encounter of heaven.

By Chris Fishel

How well I remember my time of childhood innocence. A time without responsibilities, when I was the apple of my Father’s eye and all of my grandparents were still living. You are always extra special in your grandparent’s eyes.

Some years my dad would have a great big hot dog roast for my birthday and all my cousins would come over. My birthday is in the summer and we would have such a great time together playing in the sprinkler. I truly lived in the country then, with dirt roads, halter-tops, and barefeet all summer. The woods bordered 2 sides of our house and there were even chickens and horses behind us. We had ducks and dogs and all too frequently come upon snakes in the yard.

So yes, I can remember heaven on earth. I only hope my own children will recall there were some great times that nothing material will ever replace. All my grandparents are gone now, and my parents are far away –even detached from my present life. I’m hoping to find that perfect feeling again, even if it is only for a moment.

Thank you, Chris, for allowing me to post your poem, for pricking my hard heart and making me feel again, and remember the ones I loved long ago. It is still bringing tears to my eyes now. I’m so glad you also had heaven on earth.

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Beginnings

Many say the hardest part of writing a story is the beginning.
So many influences shape our lives.

There are so many thoughts swirling around my mind and heart, it difficult to choose where to start. Maybe I’ll start at the center of my life - home, and work out from there, to my other interests and hobbies and travels.

All of you in the blogging community have been a real inspiration to me. My first photo blog, http://yadkinvalleyhome.wordpress.com/ was a starting point to express myself sharing photos of our recent travels. Now, maybe I’ll be brave enough to write about the thoughts in my heart. In the beginning, joining an online community was really trying to find a safe place for my mind to land. I get obsessed with things too easily and can’t seem to let them go. So, for distraction sake, I joined Facebook. It’s a great place to connect with friends, but not such a great creative outlet.

That’s when my photoblog became a place to test the waters. In a few short months, I’ve met several other bloggers and have lots of regular traffic. One of the fun parts is finding out all the countries my fellow bloggers come from. How amazing to be reaching around the whole world. It’s so inspiring to see their point of view on their surroundings, and to get glimpses into their lives, and to see their children.

My last entry showed some of my backyard and a farm nearby. We have been working feverishly for a couple of weeks to get ready for a party for my son’s high school graduation. My husband started adding on a dinning room and screen porch about a year ago, and is finally finishing up. I can’t wait to grill out on the deck and have supper in the screen porch while listening to the birds at sunset. Hopefully I’ll have some photos of the finished product very soon.

Home is where they love you!

We live in rural Davie County, North Carolina. That is just west of Winston-Salem in the Piedmont. We are surrounded by such beauty. The mountains are only an hour away, but we have several natural features closer to home as well. This baby colt and his mother live on a large farm a few miles down the road. Davie County has lots of pasturland with horses and cows. A few farmers raise sheep, and there is atleast one ostrich farm.

This is my backyard and the arbor my husband made for my birthday years ago. We brought it with us when we moved here.

Here is one of our resident goldfinches. It has been raining this morning, but the birds like it. This spring has had an over-abundance of rain for this area.

We are adding a screen porch and deck to the back of our house, so we can enjoy the birds and shade trees. Once we are finished, I'll post some before and after photos.

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