walk with me

yesterday was the kind of fall day i dream about.

sunny.

warm, 62 degrees warm.  :)

sweatshirt only weather.

we took a drive up the coast to wolfe's neck woods state park in freeport, and walked the long way around.

"the road to a friend's house is never long."  - danish proverb

my dear faraway friend dani and i are contemplating a walk series. she and i taking turns doing a visual walk.  we dream of guest walkers to take us places we can only dream.  we have yet to iron out any real details, but a week ago i sent her my first walk  (from my door to our post office collecting nature along the way) and she in turn sent me hers.  it was like walking arm in arm together. 

simple mini slideshows of a walk, any walk,  a way to share in each other's worlds. 

she in the pacific northwest and i here in the far northeast.

2 nature loving, fresh air breathing, sunshine seeking friends, sharing walks with a country between them.  we hope this project keeps us walking during the darker colder wetter months of winter yet to come.

would you like to walk with us?  i hope so.  here is a slideshow from my walk yesterday with my family.  rocky coastline, winding woods, green earth, leaf carpet, osprey nest, and warm sun peeking through the tall tall trees and sparkling on the water. 

walking shoes on?  here we go!  ---> 

happy

indeed it is a happy friday.

ahhh the difference a day makes.

do i dare say i feel a little better?  i do!

i can breathe through one side of my nose!   this is huge.  isn't it true that when we have our health we sure can take it all for granted, but when we are laid up and hit hard by illness we sure notice the little things when they start to come back.  breathing is good, no headache is good, smelling food cooking in my crock pot, yum!   i am so grateful.  hope your friday is happy and healthy too!  oh and this most adorable smiley pola above? well that sweet little smiling square traveled from the pacific northwest all the way to the northern east coast.  sweet talented friends sure do make the world a happy place!

xo dani

"lame"

has anyone seen monsters vs. aliens?

we have.  

and in my best gallaxhar voice, i feel "LAME."

still sick.  it comes in waves.

feel a little better... wait a minute ... feel worse... (repeat)

blech.

at least there is a lot of pola love to be had this week. 

and soup.

yum.

oh and i just saw kellen over here! (thanks ladies)

giving his wishes wings....

rawr!

la la la it's roid week!

happy bench monday

bench monday the infirm jack-o-lantern edition...

or happy jacks. 

we just cannot kick these germs in our home..

kellen seems almost 100%,  but casey has had a relapse and now hives (she almost always gets hives when a bad virus grabs her.  poor thing)  and now i got it.  i mean really what did i expect when i slept with, wiped noses of, got coughed on by, the little people i love in my home for the past 2 plus weeks.  i drank LOTS of oj and took my vitamins and drank water and washed my hands a lot,  i was  just bound to lose the battle.   so here i sit, puffs plus lotion is my new best friend.  (for real,  how did i live 36 years without lotion in my tissues???)  i clearly remember the chaffing and chapping that blowing your nose usually brings,  so THANK YOU puffs!  i wasn't feeling inspired to jump on a bench at all,  but then i remembered the sad looking jack-o-lanterns sitting on our stoop which are destined for the trash man tomorrow.  they are quite slimy, rain logged,  and growing some serious mold inside.   i figured they deserved one last hurrah before they go.  so here we are,  all looking a little bit infirm.  happy monday everyone.

trick or treat!

halloween  happiness

(click happiness for a slideshow)

we truly lucked out this halloween.  it was a balmy 65 degrees!  so instead of having to layer under, or cover over their costumes, they could just put them on as is.  they were a butterfly and darth vader this year.  kellen had settled on his choice months ago so i picked that up first chance i could.  casey was undecided between a white kitty and a butterfly, finally settling on a butterfly.  the forecast was threat of rain by 5pm so we dressed a bit earlier than normal,  went to my mom's house first, then home to walk a loop around our block.  casey RAN from house to house, kellen following behind her.  they both get tongue tied at each house, forgetting what exactly it was they were supposed to say.  kellen was so thrilled to run around with his light saber he practically glowed.  and as an extra treat, daddy loaded darth vader's theme song on his ipod and played it from his pocket as we walked house to house.   it was quite cool.

kellen was just as excited to hand out candy as he was to get candy.  he sat on our stoop (which he completely decorated himself today with paper ghosts, spiders, and pumpkins) waiting and waiting for anyone to come.  finally we got a few kids and his night was complete.

they both fell right asleep after crashing from a major sugar buzz.

it was a happy halloween indeed.

365... the end

grat·i·tude (grāt'ĭ-tōōd', -tyōōd')  n. The state of being grateful; thankfulness.

(365 done!)

"Gratitude is noticing the extraordinary in the ordinary. And then taking the nanosecond to feel it." 

-Karen Krakower Kaplan

(i do have so much to say about the year and this project,  but for today i will just let it be. i promise to gather my thoughts another day and share them.)