9th Birthday

Your 9th birthday started off bright and early.

With deep-fried donuts and coffee for your parents, Scott & Jill.

You happily woke up and jumped out of bed to a kitchen table full of wrapped packages and cards from friends far away.

The requisite bi-yearly measurements were taken and recorded on your door jamb.

Birthday songs were sung.

Presents and sweet cards were opened.

You left for school looking a little bit older.

You came home from school to find your new bike that your dad bought you.

And a super cool bike helmet to keep you safe.

I picked up Gigi from the airport and she helped us ring out your birthday in the evening.

Playing with fire.

The requisite Hecht family kahlua kake, per your special request.

We have a nine year old.  How did that happen?

hello, goodbye

This blog has been a place I visit at least once a week to record my life, our life.  It has been a place to jot down the miscellany that I don't want to forget and help me to remember the fabric of our days for the last five years.  It's never been easy for me to do this.  I have had to force myself to edit photos and reach for words that are always just beyond my grasp. I have grappled with technology all along the way.  Slow internet speed, lack of photo editing tools and figuring the ins and outs of blog formatting have all proved challenging.

I'm approaching my 500th blog post.  This blog was a place I started coming to record silly happenings in our lives.  It then became a place to share what I was interested in at the very moment I was interested in it (thrifting, beach combing, cooking and books).  I developed a love of capturing nature and my life through the lens of a camera.  I began to see the world differently and my place in it.

After the sale of my business, this blog helped me transition from being around hundreds of people a week to being with my husband and son, a flock of chickens and my thoughts.  It sounds silly to say that this blog saved me but, in a way, it did.  I tethered myself to this web address and tried to look at the beauty in my life and focus on it, with my words or with the lens of my camera.

And you know what?  It worked.  This silly little blog helped me see all that my life was and it helped me to make better choices, seek out new adventures and document my little boy as he navigated his way from his little farm preschool to public school.  It has helped me to view my life with reverence and appreciation for all that I have.

The blogging world is really open and is a sort of community in and of itself.  I have found so much inspiration and formed bonds with people I have never even met and deepened bonds with friends I might have otherwise lost contact with.  I log on every morning and read blogs about motherhood, cooking and art.  I grab the positive and start my day off inspired.

And now, I'm ready to take this little blog and tuck it away.  It has served me well all these years and I'm more than ready to release my self-imposed assignment of sharing in this space.

Hello, goodbye.

nuggets :: spring break

nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week, as inspired by dig

Our small community has been buzzing with activity due to the arrival of the tall ships into the Bodega Bay harbor, the 200th anniversary of Fort Ross and the impending 39th Annual Fisherman's Festival.  We did a little t-shirt folding at last week's book club and this year's t-shirt artwork is designed by local artist, Kai Samuels-Davis.  We attended a Vodka & Caviar fundraiser where I actually dressed up in something other than jeans and then totally forgot to take any pictures of the lovely evening.  It was a grand time.

We received a rather mysterious package from Amazon.com via Larry the UPS driver.  There was no gift card enclosed.  Inside the box was a set of two pink flamingos.  Awesome.

It turned out to be a thank you gift from our good friends, David & Manuella, but it also turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving.  Flo (as we quickly named her) packed her bags and said goodbye to her twin, hopped in the back of the car and went on a road trip with us to Southern California.  She had so many adventures.

The Christiansen Clan welcomed us with open arms and we quickly settled in to catching up, being real silly, swimming, lounging, cooking, sipping adult beverages and watching our boys play together.

To say that Grady loved their pool would be an absolute understatement.  I think the above pictures pretty much say it all.

As we settled in to our requisite chairs on back patio and got to the business of catching up,  I was reminded how much I love this family.  My friend is also like a sister to me and we shared stories and caught up on the good (and bad) stuff that life is made of.

There is something very magical about visiting with friends who you have known for 20+ years.  There is history, sure, but there is a comfort built in that is other-worldly and hard to put into words.  I'm home when walk through my best friends' front door.  My kid picks up where he left off with her boys.

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day with loads of food and sweets.  My friend calmly prepped food to feed 26 people and showed me how to hostess, minus the hostess stress.  She is an inspiration.

Flo got a little beat up along the way and, ultimately, lost her legs and retained a bit of water from floating in the pool all evening.  She's such a trouper.

I quickly captured a blurry shot of Alex, Kacy's first born, as she was on her way out the door on a hot date.  These kids are such a love to me.

Grady swam, skinned his knees and played Legos.  We cheered Harry on at his t-ball game and watched him hit three straight home runs!

The trip recharged us and as we drove the long eight hours home, I felt so satisfied.  It was like I was so thirsty and parched and didn't even know it.  I drank from the best friend well and was rejuvenated, my thirst quenched.  

My soul was lighter, my son was happily exhausted.  

this moment

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

this moment

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

this moment

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

nuggets :: tall ships, clean beaches & us

nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week, as inspired by dig

It's 10 o'clock in the evening on Wednesday and I have yet to post my mid-week nuggets.  It took me most of the day to find a place with high speed internet and the ability to download all of these images, use the collage feature and shrink the size(s) using Picnik.  I get so frustrated with our limited internet access and my own very limited technology know how.  I'm also low on inspiration and words, so I'll let the pictures tell most of the story of our last week.

We helped clean up North Salmon Creek Beach on behalf of the Surfrider Foundation's sponsored beach clean up over the weekend.  I was gifted a heart-shaped rock and we spotted wild, purple irises growing along the bluffs.

I've been a multi-media whore lately.  I can't get enough of watching DVD's (Napolean Dynamite, a fabulous documentary on Formula One driver, Ayrton Senna and Dolphin Tale), listening to podcasts and books on CD and I've been reading book after book (magazines & cookbooks, too!).  It's like I can't get enough lately.   Oh, and I can't forget Facebook, Pinterest and my blog reading habit.  Even though we cancelled our cable, media is ever-present in our home.  I'm not delusional and I'm owning up to it.  I'm kind of insatiable right now and must get out in the garden soon to slow myself down and disconnect from my electronic devices.  Reconnect.  Must. Go. Outside.

G's favorite iPod selection

In between all the reading, listening & DVD watching, I witnessed the guys bond over chess, March Madness, a new indoor soccer league and math homework.  It's been a good week for the father and son duo.

Spanish Doubloon & The Hawaiian Chieftan

The Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftan are here to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Russians arriving in Bodega Bay.  You can read more about it here.

This is a big deal for Bodega Bay.  The local businesses and residents are feeling the excitement, too.  I will be writing more about the events leading up to our 39th annual Fisherman's Festival later this month.  The Tall Ships arriving just kicked it off!

This graffiti art was begging for its photo to be taken.  The boy?  Not so much.  These walls decorate the local surf shop in downtown Sebastopol.

We had a frozen yogurt date with the Rangel girls and what a nice after-school treat that was.  We received a master sheet for a new secret language and I'm more than a little perplexed at drafting my first correspondence using same.  I'll give it my best shot.  We also cruised the aisles of the local bookstore and made lists of books we all needed, of course.  It was a brief visit, but lit up my week like a beacon.  All three of our kids together, for any length of time, lifts my spirits and I leave lighter and smiling.

Of course, we had to do the requisite jumping shots at the beach.  I love how he plays along for his dear old mom.

Like I just said...he plays along.  I can't believe he took that green camouflage skull cap off.  He has been living in that thing as of late, but I think I prefer it to this pirate get-up.  It's just not his style and he's all about his own style.

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is a poem about the beloved hat that was recently penned by the boy:

FUZZY HAT

I'm wearing a fuzzy hat, 

to keep my head warm.

I'm wearing a fuzzy hat,

green as dead grass.

I'm wearing a fuzzy hat, 

to keep my head warm.

GSH, age 8 and 11/12ths

I'm low on words tonight, but really full when it comes to what's making me happy lately.  Reaffirmed friendships, interesting books, new recipes and experiences, summer plans and a busy month ahead of us full of road trips, art shows, birthday parties, musical performances and a visit from my mom.

I'm going to take it one day at a time and try to stay in the moment and soak up all the goodness that is coming our way.

Today marks the anniversary of my first date with Steve 14 years ago.  I'm so glad he made the trip down to Long Beach to attend the Grand Prix and start a game of checkers that we have yet to finish.  How random was that date?  Just random enough to start all of this.  I love you, SL.

Happy, happy.

Weekend :: Birds

Our weekend in birds went a little something like this:

• Soft clucking & scratching = our flock of five hens surverying their free-range surroundings
• Hurried feet skittering across the gravel drive = visiting quail in a hurry to go here and there
• Nesting mamas have returned to the eucalyptus trees = the egrets are back.  Oh, my!
• Straw stealing birds invade the chicken run = nuthatches hard at work
• Little splashes of yellow dot the barbed wire just outside our kitchen window = finches taking a fiver
• Sunset chorus of gobbling = turkeys saying goodnight as they nest in the trees in the llama pasture next to our home
• Majestic posturing on a southern fence post = Bald Eagle siting on neighboring lamb ranch

Peep Latte taken with Hipstamatic app

• Yellow sugary add-on = caffeine + high fructose corn syrup for an afternoon buzz