Just one question.......

What

would

you

attempt

to

do

if

you

knew

you

could

not

fail?

Soak up the Sun

For those of us who dread winter, these are the days to get outside and soak up all that sunny goodness. These warm, sparkly days are just the best.

Today my adult troubles loomed so large. I made it a point to go outside with Lilly and just be with her. She chased the dog, ate the last of the strawberries out of the garden and reminded me that in this very moment EVERYTHING is okay. She has brought such joy into our lives, we barely remember life without her. I think my troubles are big and then I remind myself that if everyone threw their troubles into a pile we would all race back to pick up our own. All things are blessed, including those things that seem to be your biggest obstacle. Whatever squeeze I find myself in is just my greatest yet to be trying to burst forth. I remember a quote from Arthur Ash the tennis champion...

"If I have to ask why me about my burdens, then I would have to ask why me about my blessings."

Instead, I will just say thank you for every single bit of it.

Without the dark I would not recognize the light.

We need contrast to put our lives into context, I now understand this. Thank you to Neale Donald Walsch. His book "Happier Than God" really helped me to see this. Don't let the title be misleading. It is quite a scientific book and truly has the power to change the course of your life.

Read it and see.

I am getting very sleepy.....

I can  hear my nice, clean, white Rachel Ashwell sheets calling my name.

It was nice to chat with you, I hope you are tucked in safe and loved.

Nighty night,

Kimberly

Happy Birthday Dan Dan

Sunday at my Mom's house.........

A sure sign of Fall

Lilly and Dan Dan putting ladder ball together

Dinner cooking

Make a wish!

This was sooooooooooo good

Who is Dan Dan? He is my mother's boyfriend and I seriously wish there was another word for boyfriend because everytime I say it I just feel weird. Not because I don't think she should have one and not because I don't like him (because I very much do) but because boyfriend sounds so highschool. So that covers who Dan Dan is but why that name you ask? Well, our children call my father Dad Dad (a shortened version of Granddad). When Dan entered the picture after my parents were divorced we joked one time that we replaced Dad Dad with Dan Dan and it stuck. Isn't it funny how nicknames happen? My nickname is Bele (say buh-lee) because my sister could not say Kimberly when she was little. To this day she calls me that and never by my real name. I won't bore you with all the whys of how nick names came to be but here is a short list of some in my family.

Richard.......Gee

Beth.......Cuzza Wuzza

Scott.........Scotty Wotty Do Da

Jennifer......Jeffin

Heidi.........Hilly

Lilly..........the Bean

Gregory.......Mr. G

Sharlyn.......sissy

I think it is so endearing to have a nickname and let me just tell you one more story about the first one on the list. How in the world did my cousin Richard start going by the name Gee (not gee as in gee whiz but Gee as in the g sound in the word great) Got it? Good.

Apparently my Aunt Stella (who my Uncle affectinately referred to as Telly) use to babysit way, way back in the day. As in way back I am talking the late 1960's. It seems one little girl just couldn't say Richard and so she called him Gee. That name stuck like glue and out of our 90 plus member family we ALL call him Gee. A few years ago we were at a family function and his mother (Telly) informed me that Gee really likes to go by Rich and uses that name at his job and she was trying hard to call him Rich so he did not feel like a litte boy with such a silly nickname when he was a grown man. I can appreciate the fact that he would not want to be called Gee at his job but what do you think the chances of me calling him Rich are after 40 years of knowing him as my cousin Gee. I will tell you the chances are ZERO. Never gonna happen. Can't be done.

He has been and always will be Gee.

Now I must confess that one of the things that is so fun about keeping this blog is that I almost never have a plan about what I am going to write. I often upload  my photos and just share the images that strike me at the time. Those images are my jumping off point for starting to write and then I just wind up wherever I do. So today I went from Dan Dan's birthday celebration to nicknames. I love that about writing and I love that about life. Too careful planning often sucks the life out of life.

What's your nickname?

Talk to you soon,

Bele'

What I Can See From Here

So............ I am very happy about having an empty memory card so that I don't have to wait forever to upload 5 pictures because there are six months of photos on there that have to "read" first. Yay for me, I can really do this technology thing...kind of. So, in an earlier post I said I wasn't always going to be inspiring I was going to sometimes just post about the mundane beauty of everyday life. Welcome to my life this beautiful September day. I have done six loads of laundry, played outside with Lilly, vacuumed the dining room, made beds, talked on the phone to two friends and survived a call from the bank regarding scary mortgage on unfinished dream house. I was hanging out on facebook, checking my email and catching up on my favorite blogs and Lilly fell asleep on my lap. I decided that it would be fun to use my new (empty :) !!!!!) memory card to show you what I could see from here while I was serving as the bed for a sweet sleeping girl. Welcome to my desk!

reading a favorite blog

my favorite old sign and $7 fan from garage sale

random inspirational stuff

sleeping baby on lap

beautiful print from Sharlyn and Heidi representing future dreams

Try this sometime. Just take pictures without moving around. I found this pretty entertaining.

Hope you enjoyed the mini tour.

xo

Kimberly

Shine

Nothing needs fixing;

everything desires A Celebration.

You were made to bend

so that you could discover

all of the many Miracles

at your feet.

You were made to stretch so that you could find

Your Own Beautiful Face of Heaven

just above

all that you think you must shoulder.

When I appeal to God

to speak to me,

I am feeling just as small

and alone

as you are.

But this is when,

for no good reason at all,

I begin to Shine.

Em Clarie 2007

Hmmmm.....

I guess the assumption might be that if one starts a blog then one must always have something to say.

Not so.

 For days I have been thinking I should post here but the truth is I couldn't think of anything to write about. Of course potential topics are endless yet I am still coming up empty. I read other blogs and admire them and all that they share and I think I am still trying to find my "style". Some people write very specific blogs on subjects like cooking or sewing or simply their children. I don't think I am a specific kind of girl. I would get so bored to continue to write on the same topic. Just not me. I like so many different things. I enjoy cooking a good meal, becoming immersed in a decorating project, reading, writing, taking pictures, going to estate sales, TRAVELING, going to the movies, learning new things, sitting by a campfire and just simply being with my friends and family. I use to dream about being one of those people who is just obsessed with one thing, like maybe horses. You know what I mean, those people who are all about one thing. In the case of horses it would be their entire life. They eat, breathe and sleep all things horse. Or maybe fishing (I live with that guy) or maybe gardening, that would be a good one. I am NOT that girl. My father once said that I have the adult version of ADD, maybe, but I just love so many different things and when I master something or it simply no longer holds interest for me I want to move on. Sometimes I feel a panic at the shortness of my human life when there is so much I want to see and do. This life is so amazing. I feel like a kid in a candy store.There is so much to choose from and so many experiences just waiting on us to show up and have them. So I think I am finally ready to set aside any fantasy I have about being one of those horse people and JUST BE ME.
What a concept.
How come it takes so long to just be who we are?

No excuses.

No apologies.

I hope my children don't have to wait as long as me to embrace the truth of who they are.

The picture above is one of my four cats.
 Do you think he ever thinks he should be anyone else? 

Seems so stupid in that context doesn't it?

I feel such responsibility with a blog, especially as you start to gain a following outside of your friends and family. A feeling of needing to say something really good, to hold your interest, to make sure you come visit here again and again. I think the best way to do this is not to worry about it. Remember the movie "Field of Dreams" with Kevin Costner? Build it and they will come? So I think my blog will start to be a bit more documentary style of what goes on in my daily life. When we adopted our daughter from China I had a blog where I just took pictures each day and then told about what we did and where we went. Sometimes it would lead to writing something very touching and inspirational and sometimes it was just we went here and we did this. I like that. I think that is the direction that I want to go in now. I have put pressure on myself to say something profound every time I come here to talk to you and quite frankly I think that will start to be annoying to both of us. Some of the most inspiring things come from the mundane details of our everyday life. The simple moments. The quiet pleasures. The spontaneous hug from your two year old, the homemade pizza cooked to perfection, the clean table with a fresh tablecloth and flower from your own garden. These are the moments that I savor. So let me tell you what I am going to do today. I am going to take a bath, then I am going to go pay my homeowners insurance, then I am going to one of my favorite little country markets in the town I use to live in as a little girl. After that I am going to clean my house and think about how I can start working a plan to become financially free so my husband and I can pursue our dreams. We have a four year plan but it is top secret right now. I will share when the time is right, but trust me that this blog is one of the first steps on the path. You will want to stay tuned. A grand adventure is in the works. But when the hour of blue comes this evening I will make some dinner for my four children (make that 5 when my oldest daughters best friend is with us) and my husband. I will most likely fall asleep with my book in my hand and my two year old curled up next to me. I will say thank you for another day to be alive and experience the gift of my own life.

xo

Kimberly