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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Our Baby is 16 Today!

For Azure on her 16th Birthday


I sit here at home, you're still 15 tonight
I'm thinking the color for 16 is WHITE
The years have been colorful, happy, and fun
Now 16's upon us, real life's just begun.

15 was a rainbow - a year full of changes
feeling the colors , the hues, all the ranges
of emotion and thoughts, growing up, ever learning
about life and the gospel, your testimony burning

14 I'd call red. Full of fire - what a flame!
Not all bad, mostly good .. in a rush it all came
upon you and on us ... it hit hard all at once
Your passionate nature increased by a bunch!

13 was light pink - girl things were a hit
At last in our shoes and our clothing ... you fit!
Cute shoes were the craze, we bought every pair
From mostly garage sales, but who cares - they were there!

12 was a sweet age I'd label as green
Soothing and healing and somewhat serene
The change from small girl to young woman was clear
You could still make us laugh, make us smile ear to ear.

11, let's see ... let's say it was peach.
Girly and sweet and easy to teach
But don't misunderstand, you weren't wimpy at all
You've always known you're the clown - sent to help us LOL.

At 10 you were sparkles, all silver and gold
That's when we left Sitka - you weren't very old
Remember the play date with that boy, Spencer S?
And now you'll be dating! My WORD! Who'd-a guessed?

Orange is the color I'd assign to 9
Like you, it's happy, it's the year that you'd find
that friends mean a lot, yup - it's true, they really do
but your best friends are family - always there just for you

Purple- all shades - that's the color for 8
What a year! happy times! that year was just great!
Your baptism's a highlight, but remember there's more
Caci sewed your dress on you ... the one that you wore

While 7 you still wore the PJs from Riki
They fit as a baby, and now they were nickies (look it up - it means short pants!)
The color is periwinkle, a cool shade of blue
Multi-age class meant Sierra was always with you

6 - AH! Happy! So the color is yellow
Don't worry though, even at 6 you weren't mellow
Your antics kept us laughing (inappropriate at times)
When you were around, always everything was fine

Remember age 5? You started at school
Left dollies at home - you became somewhat cool
The color for cool, and for you in that year
Is black because reading and writing was clear

4 years old was cherubic, your cheeks were still chubby
Lime-green is the color (we'd all squeeze your tummy)
whenever you'd snuggle (yes, you still snuggled then!)
you were all-of-ours-baby .. shoot. When did that end?

The color for 3 is very light red
no - not pink, and not bold. It's the color of glad.
Glad that we have you, glad for your smile
Glad that you climbed in our beds for a while

At 2 most kids are wild - and yes, you were that
At 2 you were stripes of purple, pink and black
The purple because it's the one you liked best
Pink and black for extremes of pouts and smiles (each day a fest) [as in festival ...]

Age 1 - remember Barney? The party was great
Neighbors all came - mostly just for the cake
(that I made) but that year was awesome - 1 was perfect for you
I bet you're expecting the color is blue

And maybe it was, but I really believe
That blue is the color I wanted to save
for birth. Because Azure, you're named perfectly
Blue is YOUR color and soon you will see

That when others are near you, their hearts get all warm
from laughing, from feeling that obvious swarm
of acceptance and peace that only you bring
with your genuine love. Azure, you are a queen.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday, August 18, 2013

I woke up grumpy so ...

I knew I needed to count my blessings.
You know how sometimes you carry over something during your sleep and you just wake up disgruntled? Well, that happened to me a couple of days ago. I frowned and grumped for a few minutes till I had a little talk with myself: "You know you're only grumpy because you're thinking about yourself and not about other people, right? And you know it's impossible to be grateful and grumpy at the same time. So get counting now - what are you thankful for?" And it was easy. I'm so blessed:


Who gets to send their husband off to work and watch him paddle away in a canoe? I do. We walk for about 2 minutes from our front door down to the river.


ok. let's skip the whole "there are people in this world who are starving" thing and the gratitude that I get to eat at all and jump right to the OH MY WORD is that homemade bread and freshly made peach jam you're eating?! Yup.


... and fresh peach pie that you accidentally dumped rather than sprinkled cinnamon on? yup.


The temps here in Upstate/Central New York have been fabulous. low 60s in the morning, up to 80-ish in the afternoon. So I love that I get to walk through the lush, green orchards and hills - shooing geese out of my way - enjoying the stroll ...


... picking blueberries,


.. raspberries ..


... cherries ...


... and peaches. (ok - I didn't actually pick the peaches .. I bought them at the Amish store)


and all the while enjoying the company of family:











... and then there are outings with my husband:














and with Azure:














and with the grandkids (missing the cuties in California!):








and living where it's cool enough in the mornings to go for a run


with beautiful scenery to help the time pass


I could keep going, and I did keep going as I was counting my blessings - but this is so long now that even I'm tired of looking at my pictures, so I'll close with just this. I am so blessed.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friday, August 9, 2013

Why I Love NY ... Reason #5

The other day I bought this basil, took it home and planted it:


Now, I know you can buy basil plants anywhere, but here's the thing ... we put it on our lanai and I've just ignored it. It keeps growing and growing - when it rains, it waters the plant. No more dried, shriveled up herbs here! Anyway, today I snacked on this:


and it tasted so good I added some spinach, fresh peaches, pears, celery and ate this:


The peaches came in this crate from the Amish store. Can I just say again:


I LOVE NEW YORK!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad