The Invitation

The colors danced and swayed in the morning light;

 laughing and playing,

and bidding me to come enjoy the wonderful sight.

 "We know there's work to do," they said to me,

 "but you can never capture this moment again.

Come run and and skip,

  Taking a little time to sip 

the sweet wine of the morning glory of the Divine."

I sat and pondered the invitation set before me

while I looked out my window again, and saw a sight to see:

 Water was still and undisturbed, like transparent mirrored glass. 

His Love, Reflection, held time frozen in her grasp;

It was impatiently waiting to pass.

Today she let it go slowly, as if to say,

 "Time can wait for another day."

Then the chorus of all creation cried,

"Time may push and Time may strive

to be the one that gives you your drive,

 But there is a better way: 

 Let peace be your guide.

 Once again, Come out, come out!

 Come out from among them;

 Come out from the clenches of Greed and Strife.

 You will only find that once you have given them your entire life,

 There is no turning back; the day is done.

Ambition is good, ambition is right,

 But don't let it be the only thing you keep in our sight.

Enjoy the now while you hold it in your hand;

Don't let it seek another Lover, leaving you with only an impression in the sand.

Open your eyes, look straight ahead.

It's time to wake from your sleepy days/daze;

 this dream is finished, now get out of bed."

C.S. Lewis

I don't know that I've ever read anything so challenging as C.S. Lewis's writings. He seems to find all of my hidden pride and expose it in the light of boldface truth. Ouch. :) In the venture to learn what it means to truly love someone, whether it be spouse, parent, sibling, friend, enemy, etc, I found this quote from C.S. Lewis's book, The Four Loves, to be challenging, encouraging and heart wrenching.

 "There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in the casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, is damnation. The only  place outside  of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

 "I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God's will than the self-invited and self-protective lovelessness... We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as a way in which they should break, so be it."

Caeden Mathias - A Birthday Card Blog

Caeden Mathias.

Precious Boy, 1 year old today.

How fast the last year has gone; it's incredible how much you've changed...

From your precious round face

 

to your chubby little toes

 We were completely overjoyed by your arrival.

 I will always cherish you, little man,

because you made me an Auntie

 

You always make us smile, and sometimes very, very tired.

But it's all worth it when we see your little face.

            Your Daddy already has plans for you. 

                        Mommy could just cuddle you all day.             

I like to read books to you.

 And Great-Grandpa is so proud.

You've become a permanent part of our hearts.

 Oh, those chubby legs!

 You are such a wonderful gift.

 It's fun to see you learn and explore

and find that not all Easter eggs are edible.

But don't worry, you can have your own Easter basket.

                            You are Mommy's little man and Daddy's world.

You were once my little ring-bear,

but you'll always be my cuddly teddy-bear.

You like the kitties at my house

and running up and down the halls in your walker.

 Sometimes you may get into some mischief, but who can be upset with that smile?

                 I loved it when you found your belly-button. It was very serious business!

                                          

 You make my heart sing with your laughter,

 and you should know that forever after

You are awesome,

Caeden Mathias Dawson 

 

 

Cucina

The first time I walked in to Joel's house (our current house), I was really quite impressed with the color scheme. I loved the earthy tones and the dark, rich colors of the woodwork. This was a reflection of Joel and his personal taste, and I liked it. Little did I know at that point in time that we'd work on making that space our space.

Since then we've worked on repainting some of the rooms and reorganizing. One of the main rooms I looked forward to redoing was the kitchen. I loved the cabinets, countertops and appliances he had chosen, but I wanted to tweak the color of the walls. He had chosen a wonderful fresh green color for the main living area in the house, and while we didn't want to completely loose that color, there needed to be... well, more color! I tossed around a lot of different ideas: red, pumpkin orange, brown, yellow... warm colors! It wasn't until Joel found this picture in a magazine that the color scheme came together.

 

I knew I wanted the kitchen to have a coffee shop feel, and this was perfect. We already had the green in the canopy, so all we needed was red and yellow. It was a little scary making the final decision at the store. I did not want to paint this room more than once... at least not for awhile. It was going to be a big project with all the trim. It was early fall when I picked up my buckets of paint, and Joel was just starting to get busy with harvest prep. I wasn't sure when he'd have time to help me paint, so why not surprise him with a finished kitchen? Joel in normally in and out of the house throughout the day, making it difficult to surprise him. I had one chance to pull off the surprise: a Saturday all-day-game-day he was going to with his buddies. I called on some of my girlfriends, Megan and Lauren, and we became the weekend kitchen warriors. whoo hoo!

Before pictures...

The Girls!

Yes, we are Angels.

 

 Most of the time.

Until you give us a paint brush.

Megan, why are you painting my hair?

Don't paint my hair!

Okay, so they're not painting my hair.

They just want to paint something. 

Enough silliness, let's get started.

No more green!

 LOTS of trim!!

Megan loves the red!

Red and Yellow! Joel is on his way home at this point...

One coat of primer, two coats of red and four coats of yellow... whew!

Yay!

 Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Joel's face when he walked in, but he was very surprised...

and perhaps thankful that he didn't have to paint it - hehe!

 The finished product

I love how the decor really pops out now

We hope to put another cabinet here eventually... 

I found these cute little shelves at Target

There's a bit of history in my kitchen;

the rolling pin is my Great-Gramma Emma's. It's over 80 years old!!!

This is Shakespeare... the Pig. He's a cheeky fellow.

I hope there will be lots of Cucina in my kitchen :)

 

  

My Hubby hung these up for me yesterday :) Thanks, Sweetie!

 We love to entertain, so make sure you visit us...

 In our new kitchen :)