What I would be wearing in DC this time of year:

(image: fabyoubliss.com)

What I sport in Miami in the summer:

(images: ahaisshopping.com, salesalertshopping.com)

And what would work in either? 

(image: onepartgypsyblog.com)

you have indeed grown

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(Image: Catholiccompany.com)

My little girl is going to receive her First Communion this Saturday. It is something I am so happy to finally share with her, that of receiving Our Lord's very own body, to grow in her steadily and faithfully. I see her growing before my eyes, and it makes me so very proud. How lucky I am to be a Mom! Happy Mother's Day. Let's cherish this tremendous gift a little more each day!

Here's one for you all to listen with me:

My How You've Grown

Temperance

Good morning, friends!! I have been mentally checked out as of late. But it due to a good book! I am in the iPad this morning, so I have no pictures to post because I am not computer savvy. But it is entitled North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell! I can't put it down! It's too early for me to make comparisons with other authors which I am sure will come because that's what my mind tends toward, but right now I am just enjoying it for the plot.:) I will compare it to something else I tried to pick up: The Paris Wife. That story is about Ernest Hemingway's first wife and their relationship as it unfolds. And although historical fiction has been a favorite of mine since my Dad recommended Killer Angels based on the battle of Gettysburg ( part of the American Civil War for all of you out there not from the states, which I will also take time to mention I think that it is so cool that you read this!), the novel is always foreboding sadness. I think a great writer is more gentle and subtle with the point they are trying to make, but writing is tough and I will applaud the effort.

It's a good thing I went to a talk yesterday on temperance, the virtue that helps you choose the right amount- neither too much or too little. ( It is unfair to temperance that it has been so badly twisted in common usage to mean absolute rigid restriction.) This brings me back to my being mentally checked out and the book. This blog is not the only thing being neglected because of my lack of self-control with reading Ms Gaskell!!

I'm back in the fray. More to come! Have a terrific day!

aloha

No, I haven't been in Hawaii! :) I am sorry I have been MIA. I was on a retreat. It was a fantastic weekend!

And I have been slow at getting back to a routine. Vacation mode is also sinking in as the sun starts to envelope one down here in Miami. It is so amazing how the heat feels so different here. DC can be soo hot and muggy. Here? The sun's rays are just ever present and you can feel them. The nature of the tropics is actually one of my favorite things about living here. The other morning, my littlest one was up early so we sat on the balcony outside to watch the sun lighten up the sky and see the clouds change colors. That was beautiful, but what was striking was the heavy sound of the palms swaying. It reminded me of when we first moved here and the grass would crunch under my feet. Everything has a thickness about it that is close to you. What am I saying? Nature isn't something you appreciate only with your eyes or your sense of smell at a safe and respectful distance. Without touching it, you feel like you are touching it, its that real. Maybe that has something to do with the Latin culture being so unapologetically friendly and truthful.

I hope if you take a vacation to the tropics sometime, you have the opportunity to pick this up. It is another facet of life that I am happy to have discovered. That, and meeting friends impromptu at the beach on a Friday evening and chatting while the sun sets and the kids play...

(blogspot.americanfeast.com)

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

the sound of morning

Isn't life busy? It seems like every day we have somewhere to be at a certain time. This is all good and necessary, but sometimes, we need to have a morning where we enter into the simplicity of the morning.

As a child, the sound of morning was that of pots and pans clanking in the kitchen while I lumbered in bed and slowly came to. I knew life was happening downstairs, and it was happening for me, for the family. My mom would be working, starting the day getting organized and on Sundays, making breakfast from scratch, including caramel rolls. mmmm.

The same thing would happen when we visited my grandma's house in Minnesota. The kids would all be piled upstairs and the adults would be sitting for coffee in the kitchen with perhaps the next door neighbor. There was always clanking. Life was happening.

I am not a morning person.

But those mornings stick so sweetly in my memory that I want that to be something my kids remember as well. After my daughter innocently impersonated me one day asking, "Mommy, why do you look like this (aka zombie) in the morning?,"I knew I needed to change my tune and smile, letting them know I was ready for them.

So the simplicity of the morning can be whatever you chose to make it. This morning, it was entering into the process of making pancakes and watching the eggs slowly scramble together, figuring out how to make a friendship bracelet and yes, drinking my coffee. We didn't have to be out the door until well past that snuggly, sacred time of just enjoying being a family.


Enjoy your day, and enjoy this morning's Morning Bird

lightening up

Hello friends! I haven't written about my decorating schemes in awhile, and considering it is a big hobby of mine, let's let the good times roll!

I think a home should be pretty AND cozy. There are so many magazine pictures I look at and think they are so lovely, but when I imagine stepping into the room, they feel cold and lifeless. Why this is, I don't know. Perhaps it is entirely done by someone else rather than having that personal stamp. So I am on that endless journey of creating the home we all love, like so many of you!

Here is a picture I like for the color and the comfort. I realized that I have something similar going on in my own home!

( source ?)

I just added a couple more little frames today with my son and I like that it is more playful now.


Recently, I was considering the lovely lucite and its effects on a room. My furniture is so mixed that a bit of clean and clear modernity would be a welcome addition. I wanted a coffee table, but a) it would have broken within a week and b) both my husband and I like to put our feet up! So, the soft ottoman will stay. BUT, for my birthday, my parents got me this stack of three tables that I put around the house in different rooms and they add the lightest touch! Yay!

I hope you are finding inspiration where you are and are enjoying giving your homes the right feel!

Have a wonderful day!