Happy 12th Birthday Shannon!

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.  

~e.e. cummings~

You have that courage and strength more than anyone that I have ever known!

I am so proud of who you are and who you are becoming!

Always be true to the beauty that is inside of you.

Know that you are loved and loved well.

You are never alone and we will always be here!

Happiest of Birthdays my little Hobbit!

I love you so much!

Susan

Make Orange Juice

When life throws you lemons, make orange juice.  

It will leave them wondering how the hell you did that.  

~Author Unknown~

Reminder

Confront the dark parts of yourself,

 and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness.  

Your willingness to wrestle with your demons 

will cause your angels to sing.  

Use the pain as fuel,

 as a reminder of your strength.  

~August Wilson~

Attainable

 

With ordinary talent 

and extraordinary perseverance, 

all things are attainable.  

~Thomas Foxwell Buxton~

To Give It Sweetness

What good is the warmth of summer 

without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. 

~Author Unknown~

Get Better SOON!

Feel better and come home soon Papa!  

We love and miss you!!!!

Merry Christmas

Mankind is a great,

 an immense family.

  This is proved by 

what we feel in our hearts 

at Christmas. 

 ~Pope John XXIII~ 

From our Hearts

to yours.

Merry Christmas!!!

A Hole in the World

Where you used to be, 

there is a hole in the world, 

which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, 

and falling in at night.  

I miss you like hell.  

~Edna St Vincent Millay~

 Happy Birthday

Mommy

Time To Take Risks

We have all taken risks in the making of war. 

 Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?  

~J. Ramsay MacDonald~

Silence

 

Silence is a source 

of great strength.

  ~Lao Tzu~ 

 

I Love to Silent

Hush that snow creates.

It makes the world

seem so very peaceful.

In Search Of A Word

Music is love in search of a word.  

~Sidney Lanier~

Magical Event

The first fall of snow is not only an event,

  it is a magical event. 

 You go to bed in one kind of world 

and wake up in another quite different, 

and if this is not enchantment 

then where is it to be found? 

 ~J.B. Priestley~

All The Whole Year Through

Wouldn't life be worth the living
Wouldn't dreams be coming true
If we kept the Christmas spirit
All the whole year through?

~Author Unknown~

Greatest Hunger

 

For the spirit of Christmas

 fulfills the greatest hunger 

of mankind.  

~Loring A. Schuler~

Happy Happy Christmas

Happy, happy Christmas, 

that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; 

that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; 

that can transport the sailor and the traveller, 

thousands of miles away, 

 back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!  

~Charles Dickens~

Happy Bithday Sean

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Sean it is so hard to believe

that you are 15 today.

You are growing up

to be a truly 

remarkable person.

I could not be more

proud.

I love you!

Boys are beyond the range of anyone's sure understanding,

 at least when they are between the ages of

 18 months and 90 years. 

 ~James Thurber~

Sing

 

I don't sing because I'm happy; 

I'm happy because I sing.  

~William James~

Friends

No one could ever know me
No one could ever see me
Seems you're the only one who knows
What it's like to be me
Someone to face the day with
Make it through all the rest with
Someone I'll always laugh with
Even at my worst I'm best with you, yeah

It's like you're always stuck in second gear
And it hasn't been your day, your week, your month,
or even your year...

I'll be there for you
When the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
Like I've been there before
I'll be there for you
'Cuz you're there for me too...

Every Month

 

I wish we could 

put up some of the 

Christmas spirit in jars

 and open a jar of it

 every month.  

~Harlan Miller~

Challenge Your Beliefs

All of us cherish our beliefs. 

They are, to a degree, self-defining. 

When someone comes along who challenges our belief system as insufficiently well-based 

– or who, like Socrates, merely asks embarrassing questions that we haven’t thought of, 

or demonstrates that we’ve swept key underlying assumptions under the rug 

– it becomes much more than a search for knowledge. 

It feels like a personal assault.

—Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World~

Challenge your beliefs!

Ask the embarrassing questions.

Search for knowledge.

It is not a personal assault.

It is a privilege and an obligation.

More than Gold

Remember
This December,
That love weighs 

more than gold!
~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon~

The Best Decoration

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.  

~Author Unknown~

Teach Your Children

 

If you teach your children nothing else,

 teach them the Golden Rule 

and "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey." 

 ~Robert Brault~

Interpretation

 Be careful how you interpret the world:  

It is like that.  

~Erich Heller~

Happiness

There is no way to happiness - 

happiness is the way. 

 ~Thich Nhat Hanh~

I'll Work It Out

Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes, but I'll work it out... 

~Dave Matthews~

Past

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~

Found

Know that you are never so lost that we cannot find you!

You are so loved and so cherished 

by more people than you will ever know,

our beautiful girls!

~Moms~

True

 

Sometimes you believe a thing that isn't true 

because in the world you wish to live in,

 it would be true. 

 ~Robert Brault~

More Beautiful

Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods during the sunrise.  

~George Washington Carver~

Carry it with us

Though we travel the world 

over to find the beautiful,

 we must carry it with us

 or we find it not.

  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Thin Ice

It's a strange world of language 

in which skating on thin ice 

can get you into hot water.  

~Franklin P. Jones~

Pie

 

Pie...it fills the cracks of the heart.  

Go away, pain.  

~Kevin James, Mall Cop~

Happy Thanksgiving

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. 

I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, 

we had an enormous feast, 

and then I killed them and took their land.

~ Jon Stewart ~

Happy Thanksgiving

Love

Susan & Becca

From the Heart

 

He who thanks but with the lips
Thanks but in part;
The full, the true Thanksgiving
Comes from the heart.
~J.A. Shedd~

The Highest Appreciation

As we express our gratitude, 

we must never forget that the highest appreciation 

is not to utter words, 

but to live by them.  

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy~

New Day

                             

                                I welcome this new day. 
          It is a gift to me, a new creation, a promise of resurrection.
       Greetings to the Four Realms, the Goddesses and Gods, 

                              and the Kindred of Yore.
           I salute the Sun, the Earth, the Seas, and the Sky.
                 I am thankful for being alive this morning. 
               Thankful for the sleep that has refreshed me.
                      May my hands do the good work.
                           May my eyes see the truth.
                         May I speak compassionately.
                May I make the world a better place this day.
                                          Awen.
                                    ~Ceisiwr Serith~

                                  Book of Pagan Prayer

Saving Thanks

I don't save my thanks for one day a year.

I give it each day for the blessings in my life.

Action

 

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. 

 Action always generates inspiration.  

Inspiration seldom generates action. 

 ~Frank Tibolt~

Who

 

Who is wise?  He that learns from everyone. 

 Who is powerful?  He that governs his passions. 

 Who is rich?  He that is content. 

 Who is that? 

 Nobody.  

~Benjamin Franklin~

Wishes

May the sun shine, all day long,
everything go right, and nothing wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you,
and may all the wishes you wish come true!

~Irish Blessing~

More Alive

 

I often think that the night is more alive

 and more richly colored

 than the day. 

 ~Vincent Van Gogh~

Indecent Haste

Dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste.  

~J.K. Rowling~

The closer one looks

 

Our dreams disturb us because 

they refuse to pander to our fondest notions of ourselves.  

The closer one looks, the more they seem to

 insist upon a challenging proposition:

 You must live truthfully.  Right now.  And always. 

 Few forces in life present, with an equal sense of inevitability, 

the bare-knuckle facts of who we are, 

and the demands of what we might become.  

~Marc Ian Barasch~

Lucky

I count myself lucky, 

having long ago won a lottery 

paid to me in seven sunrises a week for life. 

~Robert Brault~

I am Free

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. 

If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them;

 if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. 

I am free because I know that I alone 

am morally responsible for 

everything I do.

~Heinlein~

Excellence

Excellence is not a skill.  

It is an attitude.  

~Ralph Marston~

Improve

Don't speak 

unless you can

 improve on

 the silence. 

 ~Spanish Proverb~

Laughter

You can't deny laughter; 

when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair 

and stays as long as it wants.  

~Stephen King~

Feeling Blue

Whenever I feel blue,

 I start breathing again. 

 ~L. Frank Baum~