Grateful, so grateful...

It may be cold and wintery outside but it's warm and cozy inside. Gratitude is what is on my mind today as I sit alone in the quiet of my home on a saturday afternoon. As I am approaching my 55th birthday I feel the need to be grateful for all that I have and all that I do. First and foremost, I am grateful for my relationship with my Lord and Savior. Without that I am nothing. Everything I do I do for His Glory. My purpose is to do His will and do believe I am doing just that. Grateful, just so filled with graditute. So grateful for family. My husband, my soul mate, my bestfriend, my everything. I love waking each morning with him by my side and look forward to growning old with him. My daughters, such beautiful daughters, they are like girlfriends now and I'm learning to let go and let them live there own lives, it's time, hard to do but working on that. My puppy, who has unconditional love for me always and greets me at the door each time I enter my home. My home, grateful again. Grandbabies, so precious. My extended family, my dad, the other man in my life, sisters, brother, in-laws, it all good we're all close. I am surrounded by amazing friends, and a caring and loving church family. My work, love what I do and believe I am doing what God wants me to be doing. I am a blessed woman. I am loved and know it. So Creator of this beautiful universe, my maker, I give You all the Glory, Praise and Graditute for my life, the life your have given me and I am so, so grateful...Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Still Beautiful... summer '09

This year my husband and I are so called kid-less for the very first time here, our Maddy chose to stay home and our Ashley has her own family now and hasn't come down with us in years, we're giving them their wings, little by little, it's how life goes...my husband and I are getting to know each other again, I'm falling in love with him all over again, so cool... but as far as the beauty of this place it's all the same, the difference this year is I have taken my sketch book out more, still taking pictures, but not as much writing this year, I'll leave that up to my song writing husband this year and he is just banging them out... I do have to say I have gotten even closer to my Creator through much prayer and meditation which was much needed this year. All Glory and Praise once again... I am just so grateful and thankful that His presence is within me...

The Beauty of This Place... summer '08

I don't know what it is maybe it's just me, but this year has been different than the past eighteen years I have been coming here. Maybe it's where my walk is with God, and I see things differently but I have been in awe of creation here. Well whatever it is, it's a good thing. I haven't taken my sketchbook and pencils out once this year, (that was last year), I have been writing and taking pictures...photography is my thing, especially since I got my new camera, (thanks, dad) but writing seems to be the new me. So with that said and in no order because it's all so beautiful at different times here goes. I do a lot of watching here and also a lot of listening... first...The Ocean... so blue but yet so greenish, calm but at times angry, sparkling in the day and moonlit in the evening how endless it is...The Waves...crashing into the shoreline, they never stop doing their thing. Loud at some times, quiet at other times, I just love that they are never silent.. They are always knocking me down...The Beach...so hot to walk on during the day, so cool when the sun goes down, for walking hand in hand with another, for sitting and just watching, for sunning, for ghost crabs popping their little heads out to see who's around, for seashells and sea glass to be collected, seashells of all colors, pink, orange, yellow, black, white, brown, beige, and some seashells, all these colors mixed together and the sea glass, cobalt blue, green, brown, and white. I'm sorry to say but I believe it's becoming extinct, because bottles are now made out of plastic more than glass. It's been very hard to find these past years...The Clouds...oh my goodness, so beautiful...puffy, heavenly, pure white. I have never seen clouds like these anywhere else, but at times, black and scary before a storm, all shapes and sizes...The Palm Trees...deep green in color feathering out at the top, gracefully swaying, so proud and tall...The Pelican's...I am so not a bird person, maybe I'm mental from Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Bird's, but these are the coolest most prehistoric of the bird family, I love watching them flying over the ocean and then just dive into the sea when they see a fish...The River...we are located between a huge river and the ocean, there have been times I just could not make up my mind at sunset where to go, whether to watch it from the river where the sun sets or the ocean where the colors from the sunset also show up, because both place were so unreal. At the river, out on a dock, one night Maddy and I were waiting for the sun to set and five dolphins swam within a few feet from us, it was so awesome...The Sunrises and Sunsets...I have to admit I see more sunsets because I am not a morning person but the sunsets are colors not even in a crayon box, only colors made by our creator, especially the blues and purples, breathtaking is the only word that comes to mind...The Moon...I love the moon. Ashley and I love to send moon vibes back and forth to each other when we are apart. We will both go outside at the same time and look at the moon and think of each other, these are moon vibes and I know Layla her daughter will do the same some day, she loves the moon too. I have actually seen it rising out of the ocean here on a full moon and will never forget it, a moonrise, never knew there was such a thing, it was so big, so round, so glowing, so yellow like, but in the sky so bright and white, it lights up the whole sky, which brings me to...The Sky...the bluest and deepest of blue...The Stars...so many, so bright, so endless... and I don't know what it is but the lighting around this place at night is so amazing, it's always moonlit, like a glowing blue color, even when the moon is not out. It just blows me away and lastly...The Storms...they so need to be respected here, so loud, so powerful, so dangerous, so electrical, at night it looks like fireworks in the sky.Now the sounds here...my favorite has to be when the waves are washing back into the ocean, they glide over hundreds of seashells and it sound like chimes, you have to hear it to understand... the sound of the palm trees swaying before a storm... the sound of the thunder, sometimes it goes on for hours and there is no rain, heat lightning, it's called... the sound of the giant raindrops, no one does rain like Florida... and I just love the sound of no sound around here at all, the sound of quiet...All of this just awes me...I just have to give God, the creator of all of this, once again the glory and praise, like always, for The Beauty of this Place and also thank Him for being able to spend one month each year here. And thank you also to Ed's mom and dad for first of all, finding this place and sharing it with us and last and so not least Ed for bringing me here the last eighteen years of my life.