Sunday, March 20, 2011

City Park + 'Perfect Weather' = Fun, Fun, Fun!!!


Family time was had at the park Sunday!
Last week we went in the paddle
boat....with our dog, Annie....yes, she jumped in:)
This week we
walked the sculpture garden and the boys enjoyed bike time as well. The sculpture garden is fairly new to the park, near the New Orleans Museum of Fine Art. It is an outdoor oasis with beautiful landscape and some very large sculptures.

I LOVE family time and I LOVE City Park.

By the way, the picture above - Yea, I don't know. I have no clue how it is held up!

Daddy and sons looking at fish

This one (and many others) made me chuckle. It was called Conversation with Moon :)


So, I have that kind of man that sighs when I want a picture with him next to the LOVE statue, but he is also the man that has fun with us making our own art(pics below). Not so much the romantic but he is funny:)
I'll keep him!


The piece above is called Nelson Shadows and the one below is called Ninja's weapon



Whether it be with the family or without, this park is a sanctuary to me. Lets just say, it fills my bucket every time I go! City Park is 1300 acres of fun! Memories are made here by many adults and children. Im thankful that I live so close and can enjoy it anytime.
In the above picture we were standing under a very large Oak with various sizes of wind chimes.
They named it Singing Oak.


-my jewels-

The Leprechaun Trap


Follow the Pattern to the treasure!

Aiden had to make a Leprechaun Trap for his Kindergarten class. (I know, I am a little behind on posting this) It was a fun activity for him and I to do together. We first googled Leprechaun Traps and saw multiple ideas, chose one and we were off! Great ideas come from other peoples great ideas, right? :)
Aiden came up with the pattern idea.....


and I helped him with the idea of using beads for his rainbow. Its not a New Orleans school project without using Mardi gras beads!


On St Patrick's Day, Aiden and all his class mates showed up to their classroom with green Leprechaun footprints all over the room. The Leprechaun bombarded the room, sprinkled green glitter everywhere and left a note and some gold coins. Aiden shared with me on the way home that day that he thought the Leprechaun was in the art room (the teacher did not let them go in the art room). He then went to bed that night saying, 'I a lot of reallys want to trap him tonight at our house.'

The imagination is a fun and beautiful thing!

Friday, March 11, 2011

I Want To Be Brave

One Thousand Gifts - a dare to live fully right where you are

"I know there is poor and hideous suffering....I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks for early light dappled through leaves and the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July and the song of crickets on humid nights....and all the good things that a good God gives.

Why would the world need more anger, more outrage? How does it save the world to reject unabashed joy when it is joy that saves us? Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn't rescue the suffering. The converse does.

The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world. When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices,

LIFE grows.

How can this not be the best thing for the world? For us? The clouds open when we mouth thanks."

I want to be brave.

I begun this book and only in the third chapter I am being challenged. What are my thoughts through out the day? Are those thoughts bringing joy into my life or are they robbing me of joy? In honesty.... its been the latter.

I want to be brave. I want to see good in ALL things. I want to be obedient to the creator and sustainer of this world and my life, but....I fear what He has for me, not a reverent fear, but a scared fear. Why is it so hard to focus on what he has preserved me from? Why am I having a hard time finding good in things that He has allowed in the past?

I need Him. I need my God. I need to know Him. I want to feel more of those moments of joy. Not just when a newborn baby is born, or when a couple gets married, or when someone graduates. I want to feel joy in the little things too. I want to, with my mouth, thank God for the feel of warm clothes when they come out of the dryer and for the opportunities given when driving my child to and from school and for smells of fresh bread or a pot of spaghetti sauce.

May I feel the joy that only God can give....that he wants me to receive.....daily!