Happy First Birthday Communal Global and Some Me Time...

Going back to The Spit was great...despite any fears I may have had about what I would feel.  My love for The Spit has changed and although I rather enjoyed myself, I knew deep in my heart, I love Olde Towne more.

It was a relaxing weekend filled with lots of laugh, great food, and even better friends.  I even managed some "Me Time", walking alone along the beach on a cold morning, shooting photos.

I want to wish Communal Global a Very Happy First Birthday!!  What a great group of people from all over the world to be a part of.  It truly gives you a window to the world and I am so glad I joined this group...not only is the photography stunning, but each of the contributors has an amazing soul.

I hope this image warms your soul today if you are dealing with less than stellar weather and temperatures.  Don't be fooled though...it was so cold and windy when I shot this, but it brings hope that warmer days are ahead.  Hope springs eternal!!

Tomorrow is a very exciting day.  Project Me at The Maddy Chronicles begins and I will be the first one to post!!  I am rather thrilled about it all!  I hope you join us.

This is Home Girl and I dream of warm days on the beach.  And you?

i heart faces ~ Favorite January 2011 Photo

Song for a Fifth Child

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth

empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

hang out the washing and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

I was reminded of this much loved poem when I shot this stunning photo of my best friend dozing off while rocking her youngest son.  I thought it to be a sweet sentiment that is all too fleeting...to forget about the things we think we "must" do and to remember the things we "ought" to.  

Like spending the time to cuddle our little ones, before they are not so little anymore.  

Please go visit all the other entries in this weeks, i heart faces challenge.  Just click on this button to go see some of the most amazing images on the web.  You will not be disappointed.  I never am.  

This is Home Girl.  Deuces.

More Secret Garden Love

Today marks a very momentous occasion for Home Girl.  Today, I am going back to The Spit for an overnight slumber party with my favorite four year old boy, Lil'A.  I am looking forward to spending some time with him and his Mom, but it struck me that in the past year, I have never returned to my former home.  I think it's time...I think I am ready, ready because I am going back on my terms...and well, let's be honest...when I last left The Spit, things weren't so wonderful in my life.

A lot has changed in a year, huh??

I should have trusted some of you more when you told me that things would be okay...that things would work out the way He wanted them to, but ya know me...ye of little faith and all.  I think one of the biggest things I have learned since last year is that, I am not the one driving the big bus called life.  He is.  I have learned to trust a whole lot more.  I still have issues trusting "people", but I have gotten to a serene place in my life where I completely trust God.  I look for the fruit growing on a vine that I might have looked past before.

I also recognize another huge change for me and that relates to happiness.  Use to be...I would equate happiness with what I was doing for others and what I was creating for others and there was no real fulfilment in that.  I was miserable, because ya know what...we can not make others happy.  They have to make themselves happy and then throw the collective pieces into one big bucket called happiness.

There are still bad days.  There are still bad things that happen, but it's in our approach that we seek the freedom from being miserable.  Sure, you can sit there and say, "blah, blah, blah...my life is so crappy", but what is the sense in that?  Turn it around and force yourself to focus on the moments of joy and your mood will lift.

There is beauty, even amongst the dead leaves and darkness of a cold, dreary day.

 There are moments when we get to see the sparkle of an old chandelier in a unique location.  

A home is just four walls that have found it's happiness.  I am so glad I found mine.  

This is Home Girl and I hope you focus on happiness today...pure and simple.