Slurping Life

Tickets, Please ~ Wordless Wednesday

 

Don't be in the dark...join the photo fun of Wordless Wednesday.

Clearly My Best Shot Monday

Moments of peace and quiet which allow coherent, clear thoughts are few and far between in my house.  Yeah, thought you would identify with that.  In the hopes of maintaining my sanity, Saturdays often find me downtown...alone...browsing antique shops, thrift stores and daydreaming in a cozy little coffee house tucked inside a tiny corner building filled with vintage delights and art...slowly sipping an iced white chocolate latte, taking deliberate breaths, inhaling the scent of a different place.  The word nirvana comes to mind. 

I become completely me again.  No longer a wife, a mom of four sons...but me.  I would never change my life, never eliminate any role I play, and sometimes guilt arises during these solo excursions.  But still it is so good to just be me.  To have time to once again see life through the eyes of a woman...not a woman who is a wife, a mother...but simply a woman.  Clearly, a woman needs time for herself...

Please, share your Best Shot Monday...whatever the inspiration.

If this is your first time visiting BSM, welcome, and join in by simply commenting with a link to your favorite photo of the week.  I'll be hosting again next Monday while Tracey is out there somewhere.

Dancing with Ladybugs ~ Sharing Beauty

Sometimes we simply need to stop focusing on everything negative and look through the gloom of darkness to see the beauty.  There is far more good in life than bad, and anyone can choose to smile.  Yes, anyone.  My boys have taught me even though you may be beaten, broken and struggling...there is always a reason to smile.  Sometimes you just have to look someplace besides yourself.

Kat is blogging to do just that...bring the good stuff to light and show you places to look...through her new blog, Dancing with Ladybugs. 

You don't have to look farther than the evening news to see a lot of "ugly" in this world, and it's easy to get bogged down in the storms of everyday life, personal struggles, professional challenges, parenting dilemmas, local and world-wide events. But if you look with the right perspective, you'll also find a lot of good in this world. Stories of love, of hope, of promise, of adversity overcome, of living life as it was intended to be lived... with laughter, promise and love. This blog is about those stories, about dancing in the rain instead of merely trying to survive in the storm.  ~~Kat

Take a moment to visit Kat, read and be sure to comment and let her know you were there. 

Beautiful things happen when we focus on the good in life and encourage others to do the same.  This is how we change ourselves.  This is how we change the world.

Sunday's Sharing Beauty

Confession of a Woman Who May Have Seemingly Taken Credit

Sometimes I love a photo that was forgotten for a little while.  When I find it, I edit it, post it and then you post lovely comments about it.  Thank you.  Sometimes that photo is one I did not take.  Alas, yes, credit must be given where credit is due.  But I am so taking credit for the cropping and editing...me, all me.

The photo in question was taken by Chuck, my husband, last month (with a HP point and shoot) when he took the boys to the NASCAR all-star race...or it's called something like that.  Me, I don't do NASCAR.  I was not there. Can you believe it?  I chose to stay home...all alone...for a weekend...at home...all alone...no boys...no husband...just me...except for Ursula, our female dog...all alone...me.  And I am quite content living their weekend through the photos Chuck and the boys snapped.  Yep, it was a bee-u-tee-full weekend for me...all alone.

If you're alone this weekend...or even it you're not...check out my Friday Photo Thrills and Deals or my giveaway, both at what i think.  It's a new place, but there is lots of good stuff waiting in the wings.  I hope you visit, bookmark and drop by often.  Remember to check the top left sidebar here at Slurping Life for links to current promos and giveaways.

And finally, I will be hosting Tracey's Best Shot Monday for the next two weeks.  Let's not let Tracey down...she is seriously concerned about not posting to Mother May I for two weeks.  I think she's afraid we could somehow forget her.  How utterly ridiculous is that?

Peace.Love.Smiles.

What I Want Is

What I want is to hug my superhero every night of my life for as long as is humanly possible...

Every night at bedtime for longer than I can remember Wil has said to me, "Mom, I love you so so so so so so much.  More than I can say."  Then somewhere along the way when we would say our good-nights I
began asking, "How much do you love me?" just to be certain I would hear him say "Mom, I love you so so so so so so much.  More than I can say".

Last night when I asked "How much do you love me?" Wil replied:

"I can't say how much I love you, cause it would mean I don't love you more than that."

Think about it for a minute...

...and then remember, this is my child who we were told would have no measurable intelligence and would never speak...because in his first year of life he was abused beyond what any human could survive.  And IF through miraculous intervention a human survived such abuse...as Wil did...he would be a shell of a person....

I hugged Wil, melting completely into his being...and then I tucked my little superhero snuggly into bed with a gentle kiss upon his dimpled chin.

What I want?  What more could I possibly want?

   

Theme Thursday...what i want.

~~~

Kid Friendly Movies Giveaway.

Sundown at NASCAR ~ Wordless Wednesday

See and join the photography fun of Wordless Wednesday.

Win your choice of kid friendly movies.

Leaf of Light

Even in those dark, rocky, tangled moments of life, there is always light...hope.  Sometimes you have to change your perspective to see it.  Often, you have to get down on your knees.

click photo to enlarge

Enjoy an abundance of perspective through the photography of Best Shot Monday.

Summer Shower

In some ways boys are so easy.  Simply tell them,  "Put on your swim trunks" ...give them a bar of soap and a water hose...

Happy Summer!
what i think and finally did

That Particular Thing

"Anyone can dabble, but once you've made that commitment, your blood has that particular thing in it, and it's very hard for people to stop you."  ~ Bill Cosby

This passion I have for photography far surpasses my technical ability.  I have much to learn, but with that particular thing in my blood...I will.  Looking through a camera viewfinder, I feel it.  Every photo I take is felt...actually flowing through my body imprinting itself and its emotions.  It becomes a part of me.

Sharing my thoughts to impress upon you how passionately honored I am to be guest blogger at Shutter Sisters today.  And how utterly giddy I'd be if you would pop over and share a comment, a photo link with everyone. 

Passion and photos live when shared.

~~~~~~~~

I intended editing my backlash of photos to update my flickr and my blog with an array of improved images by the time the guest post was published.  But you know, other passions...the growing ones with dirty hands and big appetites...grab my heart (and time), too.

Meet Mr. Arnold Lobel, My BSM

Meet Mr. Arnold Lobel, our pet toad, named after one of the boys' well-loved book series from younger days, Frog and Toad.  Isn't he just the ugliest cutest little thing?

In the childhood days of my sundress-cowboy-boots-tomboy ways, I had no idea it was training for being the mom of four sons who are beyond all boy.  I happily have and do spend my days along side the boys chasing critters that hop, run, jump, slither and fly without one single screech of "oh gross!".  However, I do shutter a bit at those long, dirty fingernails...the boy's, not the toad's.

This morning as I sipped tea and prepared this post, I was reminded of how blessed our family is to have come through many fragile medical years and surgeries (a few more to go).  An email reminded me how easily a person can wrap one's self up in her own small life...take for granted carefree moments of boys running outside, capturing the icky little critters of boyhood, while another is enduring one more big surgery.

Hoping my Best Shot Monday will inspire you to take a couple of minutes from your life and say a prayer, think positive thoughts and leave a caring comment for the family of a special little boy.

Sharing the Beauty of Fatherhood

Reserving today's Sharing Beauty post for the 'bestest' dad.

A lap-full...a heart-full...

*Scan of 1999 35mm photo, converted...Wil age 1, Lee age 4, Mac age 2
Happy Dad's Day!
We love you,
Wil, Lee, Mac...and Andy (not pictured)

Wild Thang

...you make my heart sang, you make everythang...groovy.

So, the boys are having fun this summer.  The temperatures are over 100 degrees F every single day, and the boys are in the neighborhood pool half the day and on the slip-n-slide the other.  Really, it is too hot to be outside without the aid of full body water.

Me, I'm working on a guest blogger post on a blog I want to inhabit.  And on a collaborative blog project with some amazing women.  Oh yeah.

Also, there is a slim chance that my review and giveaway blog may materialize.  Uh huh, it may.

Then there is the thought that perhaps one night, I will sleep.  As a woman who recently revealed her advanced age to the internet...you know these late, late nights just might have to come to an end soon.

The wild thang title and photo are in honor of Stacy.  I missed Theme Thursday, and I do not like that.

Now I feel a nap coming...like that's going to happen.  I would pay good money for a twenty minute snooze.  Wouldn't you?

Biking ~ Wordless Wednesday

It's about riding with purpose.

Join the weekly photo fun of Wordless Wednesday.

Fifty, A Good Fit

Fifty fits my body just fine.  Happy birthday, me.

Yep, that's a photo of me which was taken on my first birthday.

Entry for Shutter Sisters A Good Fit photo contest. 

And Best Shot Monday.

Warrants A Second Sunday Post

It is after 11:00PM in my little world.  Sometimes it does not pay to stay away from the land of blogs for a day...one may miss something one really does not want to miss.

Me, I'm smiling.  Thanks, Tracey.

UV Protection Required

"I need a tan." declares Mac.

"Why?" I let down my guard and ask.  With Mac, why is never, ever a question with a simple answer.  Asperger's Syndrome is fun that way.  It seems Mac watched a SpongeBob episode where the thing was SpongeBob needed a tan to fit in with the beach crowd.  SpongeBob covered himself with caramel colored ice cream...if I understand correctly.

However...Mac had another plan.

"I'm going to my room to lay out underneath the light bulbs in just my underwear." announces Mac.

"Mac, you will not tan from the light bulbs in your room.  You can't do that." I begin to explain.

"It's ok, Mom.  My window blinds are closed." he says.

"I'm not worried about someone seeing you." (well, maybe a little...we do have backyard neighbors).  "The light bulbs will not tan you." I try to explain.

"I'm going to my room to lay out." he replies and heads upstairs.

Five minutes later Mac comes downstairs...wearing underwear only...and says,  "Mom, I have a magnifying glass in my room.  I found it in the drawer of my nightstand.  I didn't know I had it.  But, mom, if I hold the magnifying glass over a spot on my skin while the ceiling light shines through it onto my skin will it tan that spot of skin?" he asks in complete seriousness.

"No, Mac, it will not tan you." I reply.

"Well, I'm going back to my room to lay out in just my underwear and tan."

I opt not to re-explain the tanning process...UV rays, the skin's reaction, skin cancer, etc...because we would only continue to converse in the same circle always returning to "I'm going to my room to lay out in just my underwear and tan".  I simply shut my mouth, visualize the image and laugh.

These types of conversations happen multiple times per day...per boy...do you begin to understand why I am mentally askew?  Or maybe you have to be here.  I don't know.

I'll let you know if he tans.

HP Photo Printer Giveaway

The HP photo printer giveaway is open through 12AM Wednesday, June 11. 

No straining or sweating required.

In Her Time

"Mom, how do I look?  Will he think I'm beautiful?  I love him so much."

Her maid of honor buttons the delicate buttons along her back...mom adjusts her veil and kisses her cheek. 

"Oh darling, he will see only you."

"Mom, I am so happy.  Do you think he is as happy as I am?"

*A wedding gown from the 1940's.  Click to enlarge and see the skirt's embroidery work.

Frequently on weekends I visit antique shops along the oft neglected streets of our city.  The shop caretakers generously allow me to meander and snap photos.  It's a bit of heaven...really.  I wander along with no husband, no kids and...I look, touch and snap photos to my heart's content.  Sometimes I find myself someplace else, completely...

"Sweetie, the music has begun.  You should make your way into the vestibule and prepare to walk down the aisle..."

My offering for Love Thursday and Theme Thursday...time.

~~~~~

Win a HP photo printer.

What Is Green, Free and Prints Photos

So what is green, free and prints photos?

The new HP Deskjet D2545 printer - the company’s first printer made almost entirely (83% of the unit’s total plastic weight) from recycled plastic material. Hang on, the free part is coming.  The printer is ENERGY STAR® qualified, features a one-touch print-cancel button to prevent the printing of unwanted pages, and comes in packaging that is 100 percent recyclable.  The HP 60 ink cartridges are also made from newly molded recycled plastics from used HP cartridges collected through HP Planet Partners recycling program and other sources, such as water bottles.

The HP Deskjet D2545 Printer was launched in conjunction with the new HP Eco Solutions Program - a company-wide effort created to help customers identify environmental initiatives, products, solutions and services designed with the environment in mind. HP also introduced the new HP Eco Highlights label that will help customers identify environmental attributes of a specific product, tool or service.

I love my HP printers and point and shoot digital cameras.  The quality has always been excellent...and I am not easy to please...even withstanding use by my less-than-gentle tween boys. Adding to the goodness is HP's commitment to reducing the company's environmental impact from operations to products and services  Yeah, it's a good thing.

The HP Deskjet D2545 photo printer is compact, affordable, and easy to use.  It would be a good choice for family use, including older children.

• Print fast, at up to 26 pages per minute black; up to 20 pages per minute color
• Get laser-quality black text and vivid-color graphics and photos with HP Vivera inks
• Print borderless on HP photo papers in sizes from 4 x 6" up to panorama
• Print more: three times more black pages and double the color pages when you use our high-capacity cartridges¹
• Save ink and paper combine multiple Web pages with our HP Smart Web² software
• Cancel printing if necessary via the print-cancel button
• Set up in a snap with the easy software and one-button operation
• Reduce your impact on the environment with this ENERGY STAR® qualified printer

The giveaway has ended.

One more good thing...a giveaway.  HP is giving one of my lucky readers a HP Deskjet D2545 photo printer. To be eligible for the random draw, leave a comment on this post along with a link to your favorite green photo either on your blog, Snapfish, flickr or another photo hosting site.  Your options are wide open with this one...the color green, environmentally friendly things, your kid wearing green...simply show me the green.  And make certain I have an email address to contact you should you win.  Enter by 12AM Wednesday, June 11.  The winner will be announced later that date.

If you are not lucky enough to be the winner, check out the printer to purchase.  Think affordable.  Really.  And green.

Between Places

Feet. They are just feet. Only feet. A photo of feet. Inhale. Exhale. Slow down.

   

My heart flutters with anticipation and a sense of loss in a nanosecond. I hover in a place somewhere between urgency to see the men they will become and longing for the babies time has erased.

Days find me chortling over the antics of the boys and hoping to slow each movement, each word, each smile. Nights lead me into their rooms where feet larger than mine peek from beneath the covers and faces suspended between cherub and man snore into pillows. My heart is full of emotion. My soul is hugging every moment.

I love having them all to myself. Blissful memories entwined with anguished moments parade through my thoughts...never to be reclaimed, but to be remembered and cherished. Grabbing onto these moments is an obsession lately. I cannot remember everything. I want to remember everything. Now and always.

Feet. They are just feet. Only feet. A photo of feet. Inhale. Exhale. Slow down.

Please, everything, slow down.

Does anyone else feel this obsession to grab every moment and hug it?

Best Shot Monday.  The woman brings out my emotions with her words and photography.

*Enter the HP photo printer giveaway.

A Boy Was Here

Share your photography at 5 Minutes for Mom...Wordless Wednesday.

Main Street USA

I walk along Main Street USA...feel my husband's breath upon my cheek...hear the laughter of my children...because of those who give their lives defending my freedom.

Memorial Day and every day, I remember this.

   

Whatever you are enjoying this Best Shot Monday...remember.

The Daily Click

Go out of town for a couple of days to your niece's high school graduation and look what happens.  Naturally, I am squealing like a teenage girl who would absolutely love it if you popped over and squealed with me.

I love me some Shutter Sisters.  The photography each shares hugs my soul.

Show Me A Sign ~ Love Thursday

So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time.
~ The Eagles

Have you received an unexpected love note?  Please share and further brighten my day.

Happy Love Thursday.

Future Mosh Pit Dancer

   

Join the photography fun at Wordless Wednesday.

As Though I Had Wings

Because she asked...

I feel my boots trying to leave the ground, I feel my heart pumping hard. I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable, beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.  ~ Mary Oliver

Is there a quote that you feel?  I would love to hear it.  And if you have a photo that whispers that quote to you, be sure to share it with sisters.

Wicked Wasabi

Photography is not all about the rules.  Sometimes you shoot a photo because you just freaking love the colors of the sign...and it is hand-painted...and dozens of people are elbowing past you to get inside the little joint...and you have no kids or husband with you for the entire weekend.  But the fun doesn't stop when you get home because you find yourself shouting WICKED WASABI for two days.

People, on the count of three shout WICKED WASABI with me.  Come on, you know you want to.  One...two...three...

Now go find yourself some more fun and enjoy with wild abandon...or maybe with wild wasabi.

So in comparison to Tracey's Best Shot Monday mine is shallow...but honestly, you are reading words from a woman who has not had a sitter in almost ten years...really.  My weekend was a blessing...a much needed time to remember that Melody still exists and that grown-up strangers actually enjoy talking with me.  That I actually like being with me.

Are you having fun yet? 

Honeysuckle Angels

The vine...damn the vine.  It creeps back into my life, slowly, lusciously growing over the fence into my yard...into my life...into my memory.  Honeysuckle. 

Long ago...a little girl sits huddled, cradled deep inside a cold, wet ditch clutching her infant sister.  Safe.  My job is to keep her safe.  Crying.  The memory is too strong.  Why?  Why does mama stay with daddy?  The honeysuckle smells so sweet.  Angels must smell like this.  Is it honeysuckle or angels hovering over me?  God, please let it be angels...

Last evening...we sit on the steps of the deck, the honeysuckle vine creeps over the fence into our back yard...

"Mom" says Lee.

"What, sweetie?"

"Will it always be this hard?"

"Will what always be this hard?"

"My life" he responds.

"Probably."

"Mom, I'm not sure I can do this."

"I'm sure that you can."

"But I'm not sure that I want to" he says while walking away.

Deep within me a voice whispers "neither am I"...and the scent of honeysuckle blossoms takes me back to my childhood...as my son walks away from his.

A strong breeze continues to blow the scent of honeysuckle blossoms across my face...or is it the aroma of angels?  God, please let it be angels.

Living in a FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) family is like being a real-life crash dummy.  The entire family is belted into a car without a steering wheel.  Then we're sent zinging down the FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) lane, on an expressway without lines or signs, hurtling over the speed limit and out of control, denting fenders on either side, sometimes crashing over the medium, hitting other cars, or smashing into a concrete wall.  We stumble out of the accident, but before we can pull ourselves together we are belted into the car again and sent off on yet another scary trip, driven by an unseen, sinister force.  ~Bonnie Buxton, author, Damaged Angels

Teen girls...women of child-bearing age...if you are having sex without birth control, you are planning a pregnancy.  If you are having sex without birth control while consuming alcoholic beverages...you are planning a pregnancy which will result in a child with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. 

Bottom line...there is no safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy.  We'll talk more about his later.

This is important.  I can tell you first-hand. My three sons by the gift of adoption live with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.  Permanent brain damage for life.  There is not a more devastating birth defect.  It is a preventable birth defect.

Questions about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?  Please ask.

Crunches and Drinks and Sits and Thinks

Decisions.  Life calls for a multitude of them every day...every hour.  Shy away from firmly making decisions and you miss, well, you miss life. 

A chance to sing...sing.  A chance to dance...dance.  A chance to love, hug, smile, reach out a hand...do it.  Regretting the did not do is far more disheartening than any rejection that may come from the doing.  The essence of life is doing.

The world is open to all of our dreams.  Our dreams hinge upon our decision...to do.

While sometimes I just sits and thinks, and sometimes I crunches and drinks and sits and thinks, I have decided to do.  Enough of my stagnancy of indecision and moping...there are glorious things to do.

So, what decision should you make today? 

Do not sits and thinks too long...decide...and...do.

Keeping it real...not a planned Best Shot Monday...the Hot Wheels monster truck and vitamin bottle in the background...parts of life.  You cannot separate the parts of your life.  Don't even try.

 

More Fun Than Ants In Your Pants

My boys have a knack for finding fun most every moment of the day...often at my expense or frustration.  This time I was not harmed.  By the way, imagine gut-aching boy laughter with the last photo.

Gather a stash of water balloons...

Fill the balloons with water and stockpile them in a bucket...

Stuff a water balloon down your brother's pants then whack it with your hand until it bursts...

Repeat, repeat, repeat...among three brothers.

There's more fun at Stacy's Theme Thursday.

Are you having any fun at your place?