Magical lanterns!

Our friends had a party this weekend and we took a walk to a nearby field where they pulled these marvelous things out!

Hooray!

They were so beautiful and bright floating up into the darkness.


The bright warm light really thrills me. I have a photo for my next vision board with a festival in Thailand that I want to attend someday. There are thousands of lights floating up into the darkness. It reminds me of the wish candles floating at night down the Ganges river when I traveled in India. Gorgeous.


Light as a wish in darkness must be universal.


Thailand during the Yi Peng festival








Our biodegradable lanterns rose up one at a time and slowly turned into far away stars.

Warm walk

It was such a nice day, this warm weather is so confusing.
We heard the chickadees singing their spring song from the birdfeeder.
No winter coats!
Georgia collected some sap from a pine tree and Lily tried to protect her from the bounding Cookie, who was thrilled to be out with all of us.

The girls climbed trees which is so much easier when you're not wearing mittens and snowpants.






















Another bell on the golfcourse to warn other golfers that you are about to send a ball their way.




Lily found a friend.

Georgia being tender with the moss she found under the grove of pines.



















You could hear the drip drip of melting snow and the roots of the big trees held water like tidepools.



















Georgia's jumping in!

Bingo Night!!

Fundraiser at the girl's school. It was like a festive silly party! And Georgia won! She got to yell BINGO and pick out a prize. She picked bowling passes.

She had put some of the pink mineral fairy makeup near her eye where it wouldn't come off. People all thought she had been crying so everyone was very tender with her.

Tracks in the snow

I went for a walk this morning after a dusting of snow fell last night.
It was amazing to see all the tracks! So much activity in the dark night that I hadn't imagined.

Mice, bunnies, raccoon, skunk, squirrel?







































The damp mud had sweet little white footed mice tracks along with Cookie's big paw print on the right. She kept running through the delicate snow tracks trying to figure out what I was doing taking photos of the ground.

Ice skating lessons!

Started last weekend. Lily was not thrilled as you see by her squinty glare.


Rob turned out to still be a good skater even though he hadn't done it for 29 years.







Here are my skateless booted feet. I don't know how to skate and that makes me sad. This week I'm going to try but I don't want to injure myself (my herniated disk has quieted down so nicely) but I hate to miss out. There is a free skate while the girls have their lesson and everyone looks to be having such fun.





I'm forcing the girls to learn (Georgia is game even though she fell about 45 times the first class, she only fell about 5 times this week.) because I want them to learn how to do physical sporty things now when they don't have so far to fall.

Advice from the elderly

in a New York Times article.
Here's a link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/health/elderly-experts-share-life-advice-in-cornell-project.html?_r=1

and here's a part that struck me:

"ON REGRETS “Always be honest” was the elders’ advice to avoid late-in-life remorse. Take advantage of opportunities and embrace new challenges. And travel more when you’re young rather than wait until the children are grown or you are retired.

As Dr. Pillemer summarized the elders’ view, “Travel is so rewarding that it should take precedence over other things younger people spend money on.” Create a bucket list now and start whittling it down.

ON HAPPINESS Almost to a person, the elders viewed happiness as a choice, not the result of how life treats you.

A 75-year-old man said, “You are not responsible for all the things that happen to you, but you are completely in control of your attitude and your reactions to them.” An 84-year-old said, “Adopt a policy of being joyful.”

I especially like the part about travel. I am gathering supplies for a new vision board and I am really excited to do more traveling. The girls are old enough to have fun and see the world! I just got a credit card that will accrue miles for travel. Here's to paying it off every month and gathering miles!

Sparkle makes a move

for the watermelon in Grandma's trunk.