Happy Birthday Shannon!

My Shannon
My Love
My little Hippie
My Lover of the World
I am so very blessed to have you
I Love you more than words can ever say
Thank You for being you
and
Happy 10th Birthday!


May you always walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings
right beside your door.
~Irish Blessing~

Intended

I may not have gone where I intended to go,
but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.
~Douglas Adams~

Anticipation

Ask a child to define anticipation...

In the Margin

Play with life, laugh with life, dance lightly with life,
and smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life’s only true lessons
are writ small in the margin.

~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie~

Purple Sky

I just wanna drink 'til I'm not thirsty
I just wanna sleep 'til I'm not tired
I just wanna drive 'til I run out of highway
Into the purple sky

But if I'm gonna live until I'm 50
I'm gonna need you by my side
Cuz I don't wanna dance without you with me
Into the purple sky

~Kid Rock~

Forever

Christmas is forever,
not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving,
are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel,
in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others
is good you do yourself...

~Norman Wesley Brooks~

Merry Christmas

From our houses, to yours

Peace and Love,

Becca and Susan

Happy Birthday Mom

A mother is the truest friend we have,
when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us;
when adversity takes the place of prosperity;
when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us;
when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us,
and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels
to dissipate the clouds of darkness,
and cause peace to return to our hearts.
~Washington Irving~


Thank you Mom

Time

The time between Samhain and Yule is, for me, a time for reflection.  Where have I been?  Where am I?  Where am I going?  I was scanning some pictures into the comp. last night and I found the picture on the left.  I knew right then that today's blog would be about time. 

When you're a child, time goes by so slowly.  You're never going to be 5, 10, 13, 16, 18, or even 21.  

As you get older, and especially once you have kids, you realize that time passes so swiftly.  You're 21, you blink, and you're 36.  

Cherish time.  Let it be your friend and not your enemy.  Make the most of every moment you have with those you love.

For those wondering, 1992 Jr. Prom that I dragged Kevin too is on the left and a picture of us at Red Robin in 2009.  17 years apart.  Crazy.  24 years of friendship and I don't see that stopping any time soon.

Not Nice Kids

You taught me to be nice,
so nice that now I am so full of niceness,
I have no sense of right and wrong,
no outrage,
no passion.
~Garrison Keillor~


We have done our Youth a great injustice,
by teaching them to always be polite
and not make waves.
These four Beautiful Children
don't have that problem.
Thank Goodness!


(Yes I do know the troubled road we have laid out for ourselves)
(I look forward to it!)

Home

I've heard people say that home is where you go where they have to take you in.  

I think home is where they keep the lights on, hoping you'll come back.

Give Yourself a Gift

Nobody can bring you peace
but yourself.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Dear Sun

Even when your warmth is hardly felt, your beauty brings me joy.

Beauty

Take the time
to see the beauty
It is there
Feel it in your soul
It helps

Fractions

The advantage of growing up with siblings is that you become very good at fractions.  

~Robert Brault~

Happy Birthday Sean

My Dear Sweet Boy.
13 years has gone so fast.
I am so very proud of the man
you are becoming.
Grow, Learn, Love.
Be proud of who you are.
I sure am.


May your troubles be less,
And your blessing be more.
And nothing but happiness,
Come through your door.
~Irish Blessing~

Reflection

Make sure that the reflection that you see in the mirror makes you happy.

Life

is all in how you see the glass.

Trees

Trees outstrip most people
in the extent and depth of their work for
the public good.
~Sara Ebenreck~

Standing

Everyone needs a little help staying up sometimes.

Thorn

My grandfather always said that living is like
licking honey
off a thorn.
~Louis Adamic~

One

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

~Everett Edward Hale~

Peace

The most valuable possession you can own is
an open heart.
The most powerful weapon you can be is
an instrument of peace.
~Carlos Santana~

Friendship

I blog about friendship a lot here at Happy Hippie Heart.

I blog about friendship because next to my daughter, friendship is the thing that makes my hippie heart happiest.

These are some of the dearest friends in the world and I am so grateful to the universe for bringing them into our lives.

They are weird, funny, sweet, kind, loyal, and just all around stellar people.

Loveth

It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country,
but rather for him who loveth the whole world.
The earth is but one country
and mankind its citizens.
~Baha'u'llah~

Inner Reflection

“If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.”
~ Michel de Montaigne~

Time

Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times,
it's the only time we've got.
~Art Buchwald~

K.I.S.S.

Sometimes, simple is better.

Elevating

The secret of happiness
lies in taking a genuine interest
in all the details of daily life,
and in elevating them to art.
~William Morris~

Definition

The past is our definition.  We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it.  

~Wendell Berry~

Simple

Part of the problem today
is that we have a surplus of simple answers
and a shortage of
simple problems.
~Syracuse Herald~

Let There Be Peace On Earth

 ...and let it begin with me!

Dreams

Don't let your dreams go up in smoke -
practice fire safety.

~Author Unknown~

See

To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature.
Most persons do not see the sun.
At least they have a very superficial seeing.
The sun illuminates only the eye of the man,
but shines into the eye and heart of the child.
The lover of nature is he whose
inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other;
who has retained the spirit of infancy
even into the era of manhood.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Arrested Motion

 

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.  

~William Faulkner~

Love and Respect

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.
When we see land as a community to which we belong,
we may begin to use it with
love and respect.
~Aldo Leopold~

A Wonderful Day

Life doesn't get any better than family, friends, and good food!

I am Thankful

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today
and creates a vision for tomorrow.
~Melody Beattie~

Pet Day

 

I decided we were having Pet Day at HHH.  

From the top left we have Sparkle (Big Buddy), E.T. (Eye of the Tiger aka Tubby), Aubrey in the middle, CC, and Jewel.

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.
- Anatole France

Tangled

The mind I love must have wild places,
a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass,
an overgrown little wood,
the chance of a snake or two,
a pool that nobody's fathomed the depth of,
and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind.
~Katherine Mansfield~

Keep It Simple

Food should taste good.

High-tech tomatoes.  Mysterious milk.  Supersquash.  

Are we supposed to eat this stuff?  

Or is it going to eat us?  

~Annita Manning~

Warm

Happiness is a warm puppy.
~Charles M. Schulz~

Understanding

Between our birth and death we may touch understanding, 

As a moth brushes a window with its wing.
~Christopher Fry~

Doubts

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,
but wiser people so full of doubts.
~Bertrand Russell~

What More Can I Say?

False Alarms

Last night the girls had a dance meet
that ended with a bit of
excitement.
Fun times
and
False alarms.

Remember in elementary school you were told that in case of fire
you have to line up quietly in a single file from smallest to tallest?
What is the logic in that?
What, do tall people burn slower?
~Warren Hutcherson~

Leaves

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.  

~Albert Camus~

*This picture was taken by me, not the talented Becca*

Art

Life beats down and crushes the soul
and art reminds you that you have one.
~Stella Adler~

Crazy Good

From the blueberry "eyeball" muffins my sister made, 

to the dropping off of Sarah and Abby, 

this was a crazy good weekend!

Thank you to Becca and Beth for their extraordinary work this week to make Kim's whole birthday week amazing!  You are both awesome women for which Kim and I are grateful!

Only

Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be.
~Karen Ravn~