After the Rain Photos

It rained all night long.  Thundered.  Lightning'd.  Rained and rained some more this morning.  All the roads were flooding.  Again.  The wet environment here in Texas takes some getting used to after six years of desert living.  And they say it's an especially wet year.

When the sun finally broke through midday, I was anxious to get outside.  The gray was gone and I needed to be out of the house so I could go find some nature.  My husband sent me on a photography venture.

I arrived at one of the Seabrook walking trails to find that it was muddy as ever.  Other trail walkers were coming back barefoot, shoes in hand, mud up past their ankles.  I was in long pants and flip flops, so I decided not to venture far down the path today.  I sat for awhile on a bench near the entry gate and listened to the sounds of birds chirping and insects singing.  I watched birds dipping down in the water, looking for an afternoon snack.  I lost count of the fish I saw jumping and flopping in the brook -- they too seemed to be longing for the sunshine.

Then I got curious about the things I could see at a distance on the other side of some trickling water along the opposite side of the trail.  My camera lens wasn't zooming in close enough.  So I decided to cross the water and get closer to the patch of cattails and tall grasses that grew over there.  I nearly lost a shoe as it stuck deep in the muddy stream bottom, but I was able to retrieve it. 

My journey across this three-foot wide creek was rewarded with an area rich with wildlife.  I saw a pair of Cardinals fly to their nest.  I watched an anole put on a mating display on a branch -- probably within eyesight of a female anole, which I did not see.  There were dragonflies, damsel flies and so many other insects and arachnids -- some new to me and others familiar.  There were teeny tiny frogs who thought they could elude me by tucking themselves in on blades of grass.  They were no bigger than the tip of my pinky finger, but I was close enough to see them here.

I grabbed my camera and went to work.  I am so rusty at this craft for lack of practice, but I still enjoy trying.  I felt good about some of the photographs I was getting and sure that many of them would be useless -- but still fun to attempt.

Then suddenly, my feet were on fire.  I looked down and saw swarms of Texas red ants crawling all over me.  Their bites are tiny, but vicious.  I took the last couple pictures and then made a run back through the water and up onto the trail again.  Mental note: I need some good galoshes for post-rain photography practice.

At home, after washing my feet and lathering them up in hydro-cortisone cream, I edited some of my pictures to share here.  I wish I'd been able to stay a bit longer and capture more of the beautiful creatures along the trail.  But I am glad for what I did get.  Next time I will try to remember bug spray and better shoes.  Maybe. 

Bugs and frogs.  If you are squeamish about either, move on, Friend.

23 Reasons

This is a recent photo I snapped of my husband at Penzey Spices in Houston. It's one of his "happiest places on earth," I think.  I like it.  I like him.  Today we are celebrating our 23rd wedding anniversary and this photo inspired me to make a list of 23 reasons I would marry this man all over again (in no particular order).

1.  He has been part of my life longer and more consistently than anyone not related to me by birth.  He knows me well.  The good, the bad and the boring parts.  He knows it all and he still wants to spend more years with me.  It's hard to find that in a person.

2.  He loves with a passion and dedication that very few people understand.  I don't get it most of the time.  He loves deep and he loves wide.  Once you are in the folds of his life, he will never, ever, EVER let you go.  And that's a good thing.  Really.

Yard Photos

So that I don't clog up my Instagram feed (any more than usual), I'm posting some nature photos from our yard taken today.  Just trying to get back into the habit of using my Nikon D90 a bit more -- though I still have a lot to learn and improve on -- and wanted to share some of the fun things I captured.

WARNING: These pictures do contain some insects and reptiles, so if you are not the kind of person who likes looking at those kinds of things, please skip this post.

breathe. pray. create. || Part 1

If you have been following my Instagram account (if you haven't, you're missing a bunch since I barely make time for the blog anymore), you'll know that the theme words God has revealed to me for 2015 are the title of this post.

breathe. pray. create.

On the surface, these seem fairly simple.  I have to breathe just to stay alive.  Check! Done.  Since it's already January 2, I have officially breathed in 2015.  I also breathed last year and the year before that  and all the other years before that since 1973.  And pray?  Well yeah, duh.  I'm a Christian and Christians should generally talk to God in the form of prayer regularly -- or at least now and then.  Create seems pretty obvious, too, especially for those of you who appreciate making stuff.  I like to write.  I like to take photos.  Lately, I've even started incorporating some regular painting and drawing into my daily schedule.

So if it's so easy for me to do these three things, why is it that God is leading me to really focus on the trio for the whole year?

That's the question I'm left pondering.  While it's still January, I want to dive in a little bit to each part of this challenge in a separate post and then possibly a post about all three as a unified idea.  That's five posts I'm promising this month, including this one you're currently reading.  Hopefully I'll do a better job of following through than I did on my month-long challenge that lasted like three days.  These posts are about some of the ideas that I think the Lord may want me examining in my life a little closer beyond just doing what the words say.

THEN, maybe in December or at least later in the year, I can recap and post about what I've learned over the year and what God showed me with regard to these concepts of breathing, praying and creating.  So I'll be able to see where I started and then compare it with what actually happens over the course of the year.  I have a feeling it's going to be good -- because stuff with God usually is.  So I hope you'll journey with me here in the blog (when I show up) and maybe even over there on Instagram (link to the right) and see where this theme takes me.

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, so I like this plan of hearing God whisper these words to me and seeing what He does with them in my life.  Do you have any New Year's traditions or practices?  This whole "word" concept is something I tried in 2014 and it had its ups and downs, but I don't think I really spent time doing the evaluation I needed to the way I'm planning to do with these words, so hopefully it'll go better this year.

Okay ... see you in Part 2.

O Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas in the shape of a tree!

I couldn't decide on just one... merry Christmas!!

Hello.

Hey, what's this thing here with my name on it?  It's vaguely familiar.

A blog, you say?  Wait ... I have a blog?  I almost forgot! 

Well, hello. 

I make no promises at this point about 30 days of posts or even two days of posts.  I'm seriously just here checking in ... do I even have people still checking this blog anymore?

If you don't check it any longer, don't feel bad.  I don't either.  At least not with any kind of regularity.

Anyway, it's just five days until Christmas and I was having trouble sleeping as I think about all it means for our family, so I thought I'd just take a peek and say hello to anyone still paying attention. 

This was nice.  Easy.

Maybe I'll visit again on another day.  Maybe I'll even think of something to write.  Who knows?!

Be blessed.  Merry Christmas. 

In No Particular Order, 31 in 31 - Day 5

Remember to click on the series title graphic above to see the rest of the lists in this series.

Thirty-one Words I Love to Use to Describe God

1.  Holy.

2.  Love.

3.  Grace.

4.  Power.

5.  Mercy.

6.  Shepherd.

7.  Father.

8.  Trustworthy.

9.  Perfect.

10. Sovereign.

11. Creator.

12. Giver.

13. Lord.

14. Omniscient.

15. Omnipotent.

16. Omnipresent.

17. Strength.

18. Glory.

19. Healer.

20. Friend.

21. King.

22. Compassion.

23. Jesus.

24. Spirit.

25. Light.

26. Way.

27. Truth.

28. Life.

29. Faithful.

30. Rock.

31. Necessary.

I could go on and on about my Lord and Savior.  He is my everything.  Everything else is just blessing poured out on me through Him.

In No Particular Order, 31 in 31 - Day 4

Thirty-one Health and Development Issues in Our Family

Regardless, of the challenges our family faces, this is our family. So while the diagnoses and labels help us research and help us to connect with others dealing with the same kinds of things, around home, we are working towards less labeling and more just loving each other for who we are - both the troubling and the blessing in each person's personality and our humanness. For the record, it's not the easiest to do when so many of us are "special needs."  I'm including myself in that category!  So I'm listing our current issues here - there have been others in the past that we have grown past or been healed by Jesus and probably others that we'll face in years to come. One day at a time, right? And lots and lots of grace. 

1.  Asthma.

2.  Seasonal Allergies. 

In No Particular Order, 31 in 31 - Day 3

Thirty-one Trips Since 2003

I've tried to share some of our travels in the past 11 years (Enter the Kids years) by way of photographs instead of just words.  The photographs aren't necessarily the best photos from our trips (some of them are), but they were significant in my mind to represent the trip.  I tried also to keep captions short.  It was really difficult to narrow down all of our trips to just 31!  We have gone so many places -- we are so blessed!  Anyway, here's a sampling of one of our family joys...

1. January 2003 - From New Hampshire to Coastal Maine.  This was just C and I.  This was about a year after we were licensed to adopt and just before the foster care department called us up and asked if we would consider foster parenting while we waited for our adoptive placement.

In No Particular Order, 31 in 31 - Day 2

(See other posts in the 31 days of Lists series by clicking the title picture above.)

Thirty-one Interests of Mine

1.  Faith.

2.  Family.

3.  Body of Christ.

4.  Writing.

5.  Photo-journaling.

6.  Photography.

7.  Genealogy.

8.  Reading.

9.  Travel.

10. Adventure.

11. Shopping.

12. Homeschool preparation.

13. Books.

14. Technology.

15. Organization.

16. Community activites.

17. Church service.

18. Singing.

19. Dancing.

20. Creativity.

21. Dating (my husband).

22. Beaches.

23. Photo book creation.

24. Praying.

25. Giraffes.

26. Joy!

27. Food.

28. Praise music.

29. Quiet time.

30. Trees.

31. Nature.