Posts from the ‘Personal’ Category

Happy Heart Day!

We celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early, this weekend with Alex and Victory! They are quite the pair! I am so grateful for our little family.

Happy Heart Day!  I hope you have a great day celebrating with the ones you love.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.” — Helen Keller

Ten Year Blogiversary!

Today is the ten-year Blogiversary of the blog!  I can’t hardly believe it! It is extremely difficult to believe that ten years, a full decade, has already passed by so quickly!  The time moves so quickly, these days, and I often wonder where the time goes? Many things have changed, but some things remain the same, fortunately.  I am grateful for this little space here.

If it were not for our beloved Biscuit, I am not sure I would have ever started blogging and I know that I would not have started my long-term photography project, for which Biscuit and Victory are my inspiration.  Biscuit was such a blessing and gift to us.  Biscuit permanently changed our lives in so many positive ways and he sent us our precious little rescue sheltie, Victory, who we adore and love, shown below!  We have savored our time together with Victory during the pandemic. And, coincidentally, Victory is the same age (we suspect as she is a rescue dog) as the blog!

Thank you for reading this blog for however long or short you have been visiting!  I truly enjoy creating content for the blog to share with all of you, and I hope that you continue to enjoy visiting and reading the blog!

Thank you so very much!

Snapshot: Fall 2021

This post is a little late, as we are already fully into the new year. However, I have been fervently working to catch up on editing our family photos along with making family year books via Blurb to document and archive our family year, by year. However, somehow, I always seem to be catching up on my photo editing, a never ending process.

During this past fall, we picked apples; took a trip to the pumpkin patch; took Alex to horse riding lessons and she is currently riding on her own now, which has been so wonderful to watch her progress; celebrated our thirteenth year of marriage (along with celebrating seventeen years of being together); celebrated Victory’s tenth birthday; spent time with my parents who came to visit; celebrated Halloween with our two little peacocks; and Alex met Santa outside! (We do miss our regular Santa visits with the girls due to COVID.) Overall, we had a fun fall together! Below are a few images from this past fall!

Here is Alex riding Edge!

One Little Word: 2022

I hope you had a nice Holiday. We visited with family, we had some down time with our girls, and we got some sleep and rest, which was so nice. And, I cannot believe our little girl is turning three-and-a-half-years-old this week! She is growing in every way and she loves learning and she is curious about everything, which I hope never goes away!

It is a new year, which means there has been much talk about fresh beginnings. For me, I keep things simple and I select a word, an intention, for the year.

I have reflected on my word for this year: present.  Last year I chose grace; in 2020 the word bliss; in 2019 the word embrace; in 2018 the word peace; in 2017 I chose relax; in 2016 I chose present; in 2015 I chose flow; in 2014 I chose trust; and in 2013 I chose the word create.  The idea of picking an intention has worked well over the past few years. 

I have nothing against resolutions (or goals, or plans, or to-do lists), but for me, I have found the most impactful way to embrace a new year is to pick a word — just one word, intention — to keep in mind.

As 2021 came to an end, I know that things were really hectic and busy in 2021, for a number of reasons. I could feel the tiredness and exhaustion throughout my entire body. I realized, that there were times that I was not present in the moment, and I want to work on this this year — to truly embrace the moment. “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.” —Buddha

For me, it is an easy reminder to take whatever small steps I can to create clarity and feel better. For anyone similarly overwhelmed by resolutions, I recommend the practice of a New Year’s Word. Plus, since it is so simple, and you can change it at any time.

Happy New Year!

Happy Pawlidays!

“All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” — Charles M. Schulz

Happy Pawlidays! I wanted to thank you so very much for checking in over the past year — I am very grateful. I know it has been another strange year with a few more normalcies in place.

Below is the front of our Pawliday card (the back of our card containing text is not pictured), along with our matching envelopes using little photo seals of our beautiful girls, Alex and Victory! Unfortunately, custom stamps are no longer permitted by the Post Office. (You can view our previous Pawliday cards here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).  Sending our Pawliday card is one of my favorite parts of the Holiday season!   This is my way of sharing our Pawliday card with you.  Thank you for reading this blog for however long or short you have been reading.  I sincerely enjoy creating content for the blog to share with you.

I will be taking a break from the blog to enjoy some down time with our little family, and I plan to be back to the blog sometime early next year.  Meanwhile, if you are in a blog-reading mood, you are warmly invited to visit the archives — the links are shown below.  Warmest wishes to you for a safe and Happy Holidays!

Dog Related posts

Dog Rescue posts

‘Dog-Centric’ Artists Interviews

For Artists posts

Photography posts

Personal posts

Victory Related posts

Wherever You Are, Be There Totally

It is a busy time of year for most people, and I have been trying to work on being more present and totally all in the moment, so that I do not miss anything. Our minds tend to vacillate between the past and the future, and we consequently miss these important, ordinary, fleeting moments. What I love about animals is how present they always are, regardless of their circumstances. These words really resonated with me by Lisa Congdon, shown below.

Given the fast pace and hectic schedules of our lives, we have grown used to living with anxiety, stress, and general unhappiness, as if all of those things are a necessary condition of life. Our tendency to ruminate over the past or trip on the future can leave us exhausted and drained. Sometimes just being in our own skin can feel uncomfortable. When we pay attention we realize that we spend a lot of time avoiding and distracting ourselves from uncomfortable feelings — like not knowing what’s going to happen next, or whether someone is going to text us back, or feeling lonely or disconnected. But the antidote to anxiety and distraction is a conscious awareness and a commitment to staying ‘in the now.’ When we focus on our feelings and whatever is happening in the present moment, instead of distracting ourselves from them, we begin to eventually feel a sense of ease and calm. We can practice this habit intentionally through meditation, which strengthens our ability to be present in the rest of our days. And we can also practice it at any moment in the day when we feel ourselves tensing up with annoying thoughts or worry.

Holiday Traditions

What are your holiday traditions? Alex is getting older and she is getting more into the holiday spirit, each year! This year we are doing the following:

-Each evening after dinner, we do the advent calendar with both of our girls; and Alex never lets me forget, with her great memory and attention to detail! We found the chocolate (human) and dog advent calendars at Trader Joe’s, and they are a hit with the girls, including Victory!

-We are making Christmas eggnog sugar cookies, and they are simply the best! Alex loves to creatively decorate them; and then we all consume them! We especially like these sugar cookies, and Alex always loves to eat her cookies with eggnog!

-We love looking at Christmas lights. We have enjoyed Enchant and the Symphony of Lights! We also like to drive through neighborhoods and look at residential lights and decorations with our girls.

-We love watching Christmas themed shows with Alex, which are always a hit! We especially love A Charlie Brown Christmas.

-We love reading Christmas stories together, which is always fun!

-We love listening to Christmas music as well!

-I always get the girls matching Hanna Andersson pjs for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, which Alex enjoys, and Victory fortunately tolerates wearing them!

-We make a photo Holiday card each year!

-I also get the girls an ornament each year; I also get a few photo ornaments made from the year; and we also pick up ornaments from the places we visited, creating a Christmas memory tree!

-We decorate our Christmas tree together, and Alex loves to put on decorations! I especially love and cherish her hand made Christmas ornaments!

-I get Alex a Christmas dress each year!

-We usually go and see Santa with the girls, but we skipped last year and we are skipping this year, again, due to COVID. Alex has not asked for any specific gifts from Santa, this year, just that she hopes Santa wraps her gifts in orange wrapping paper, her favorite color! She is curious, though, about what Santa is going to bring her, which she is looking forward to with great anticipation!

-We will also likely leave a note and cookies for Santa this year, for the first time!

-We love spending time together, and Christmas morning is always so much fun! I am sure that our traditions will expand as Alex gets older, adopting some of her ideas, which she has many!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Here are a few quotes that I love about this time of year, shown below. Wishing you a great Thanksgiving!

“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.” —Randy Pausch

“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” —Lionel Hampton

“Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.” —Rumi

“Be present in all things and thankful for all.” —Maya Angelou

“I am happy because I’m grateful. I choose to be grateful. That gratitude allows me to be happy.” —Will Arnett

“Be thankful for everything that happens in your life; it’s all an experience.” —Roy T. Bennett

“For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile.” —Elie Wiesel

“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” —Johannes A. Gaertner

“Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.” —Henry Van Dyke

“Give thanks for a little, and you will find a lot.” —Hausa Proverb

“Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have.” —Catherine Pulsifer

“There are only two ways to live your live. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other as is though everything is a miracle.” —Albert Einstein

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” —Marcel Proust

Snapshot: Summer 2021

This summer snapshot blog post is a few months late due to the summer and fall seasons being so hectic. However, I finally finished editing our family photographs from this summer, a feat! (I am still roughly six weeks behind on editing our family photographs from this fall, a never ending process!)

This summer we did a lot of swimming, which Alex truly loves. She now likes to dive down for rings and be more independent! This summer we also acquired a new Big Joe hippo and new a Big Joe alligator to add to our growing menagerie! Alex also loved getting ice cream from the ice cream truck at the pool!

Additionally, Alex also continued her horse riding lessons; and by the end of this summer, she has graduated to a bigger horse, named Storm, and Arabian horse, shown at the end of this post! Alex is currently learning how to use the reins to control/direct the horse on her own, and she is making good progress; her teacher believes she is doing great for her age. And, Alex is the most calm little person, while being very present with the horse while riding. It is magical to witness.

This summer was also notable as we celebrated Alex’s third birthday, in July, which is so difficult to believe, as the time is literally flying by. She is a bright, beautiful little girl! We celebrated Alex’s birthday together as a family with a unicorn themed birthday! On her birthday, we took Alex to the National Aquarium, which she affectionately refers to as the “fish house.” Alex had a ball; and we took her out for pizza at one of our favorite places in Harbor East, near the Aquarium, for lunch; and we also took Alex out to dinner on her birthday, along with Victory in toe! In the evening, we all celebrated together at home with a unicorn cake and cupcakes with both of our girls!

Further, we celebrated the Fourth of July with some small fireworks and sparklers with the girls, along with some friends.

During the summer, my parents also came to visit a few times since COVID-19 hit, and Alex greatly enjoyed her time with them!

Additionally, in August, we also took a vacation to Rehoboth Beach, which photographs can be viewed here, as they are not included in this blog post.

Anyway, we feel very grateful, and we hope that you are enjoying your fall. I cannot believe Thanksgiving is next week, already!

Here is a short video of Alex riding Storm!