The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand. – Vince Lombardi The Patio Project and the Rotting Deck My family has always used our backyard deck often, for dinnersContinue reading “The Unlikely Story of the Patio Project: Deck Demolition to Paver Patio”
Category Archives: family
A Dip in the Ligurian Sea on a Summer Sunday: Embracing the Simplest Things
I love spending time with my friends and family. The simplest things in life give me the most pleasure: cooking a good meal, enjoying my friends. – Cindy Morgan Bright, Intoxicating Summer Days These long summer days are intoxicating. Whether it is the heat and flowers and summer sun, the wonderful privilege of having allContinue reading “A Dip in the Ligurian Sea on a Summer Sunday: Embracing the Simplest Things”
Slow Down, Be Still: A Week of Bed Rest and Unexpected Joys
Taking time to do nothing often brings everything into perspective. – Doe Zantamata … So does a trip to the emergency room, or three trips to the emergency room within a week. The past two weeks have been much different than what I had imagined. I spent this past week on prescribed bed rest, whichContinue reading “Slow Down, Be Still: A Week of Bed Rest and Unexpected Joys”
A Chance to Unplug
“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.” – Harper Lee This summer has been beautiful. Here in theContinue reading “A Chance to Unplug”
Gratitude and Happiness
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. – Marcel Proust A few weeks ago, I flew to see my closest friend in Boston. We had lived four years together in Prague; she with four young sons, the smallest, a tiny infantContinue reading “Gratitude and Happiness”
Mothers Love
“Be a Mother who is committed to loving her children into standing on higher ground than the environment surrounding them. Mothers are endowed with a love that is unlike any other love on the face of the earth.” ― Marjorie Pay Hinckley I’ve always been fascinated with mothers. Whether it’s the mother Robin sittingContinue reading “Mothers Love”
The Beauty of Serendipity
Serendipity (n.) : discovering something good, valuable, or pleasant without looking for it. (Webster’s Dictionary) Last week was one of those which opened with sunshine and beach-like temperatures, but by Thursday, temperatures plummeted forty degrees and rain came in torrents along with a tornado. By Friday, rain mixed with hail at the top ofContinue reading “The Beauty of Serendipity”
The World’s Most Beautiful Beach
“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day awayContinue reading “The World’s Most Beautiful Beach”
At the Beach
“… so that the monotonous fall of the waves on the beach, which for the most part beat a measured and soothing tattoo to her thoughts seemed consolingly to repeat over and over again…” — Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse At the beach walking the warm sand, watching pelicans and gulls glide above the surf,Continue reading “At the Beach”
It’s a Wonderful Life: 40 Years of My Story
“Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! How could it be anything else?” – the movie It’s A Wonderful Life It’s a Wonderful Life has always been one of my favorite movies. I love Jimmy Stuart and his story of enthusiastic youth turned to despair, and being lifted back out again by taking stock of his life with theContinue reading “It’s a Wonderful Life: 40 Years of My Story”