New Year's Eve

Tomorrow is fresh
with no mistakes
in it.
                
                         Lucy Maud
                        Montgomery

Everyday is a Good Day

Why fit in when you were born to
                                            STANDOUT?
                                Dr. Seuss



Happy Birthday, Baby.
We love you, MORE.
        

         

Merry Christmas

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness."
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my
weakness, so that the power of  Christ may
rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then,
"I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
For "when I am weak, then I am strong."
                                       2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Merry Christmas.

Keep it bright.

Jingle. Jingle.  Jingle.

Let is shine.

Pumpkin Cottage for the Holidays

Where thou art,
that is home.

                  Emily Dickinson

This lovely poinsettia is brightening the garden
here at Pumpkin Cottage.  It came for the
University of California, 
Riverside's Botanic Garden plant sales.

It's a native, similiar to the the poinsettias of Mexico. 
She likes our hot arid summers and cool winter evenings. 

Saying Good Night at the Queen Mary

We are all fixing what is broken.
It is the task of a lifetime. 
                         Abraham Verghese

Like most mother's working outside the home,
I feel tremendous guilt about the time I spend
away from my children.

The flip side is we spend nearly all our free time together
and are exposed to so many adventures.
Making memories for a lifetime.

Did you ever play the game Concentration?

Con-cent-ration 
Con-cent-ration
Now begins
Keep the rhythm
Such as animals (could be cars, states
dessert)

Clapping and snapping
Around the circle of players
Taking turns, in this case, saying
an animal

Ele-phant
ze-bra
Cooow
p i g
all in rhythm

Through Love

The only thing that counts is faith 
expressing itself through love.
                                           Galatians 5:6 


A few weeks ago, the Get-Along spent a night 
with Oma and Opa on the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Isn't she a beauty? 

This morning Mr. Lee and I were counting our blessings.
Among our blessings are the relationship between our 
children and his parents.  

There is nothing more precious to us then the love and
time our children spend with their grandparents.
A love so pure and strong.

Live your God Sized Dream

As a gift to my future. 
I signed up for Ali Edwards One Little Word 
year long class. 


My word is PURPOSE..
Every day I get off the freeway
near California Baptist University
and their trademark phrase listed
on their very bright signage:
Live your Purpose 
saturates my heart and mind.

Every single evening. 
It's not like I ever get
a green light and roll
through the intersection.
Oh no, I have to stop and for
a few minutes reflect.
Piercing words.
Filled with accusation.  

I know I am not living my purpose.
It's a good blessed life, though.
I am authentic, I tell myself. 


God has a tremendous sense of humor. 

All kinds of messages are sent to me:
The the book and blog God-sized Dream.
It's a clear message. 
God has nagged me for a lifetime.  Oh yes, my
refusal has made my life more difficult then
to simply humble myself.  

Big Dreams

The future belongs to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams.

                                              Eleanor Roosevelt

What to do on my milestone birthday?
Craft, eat and play with these guys.

There's only a few things I ever
wanted to be: a teacher and an actress.
Being a mother has allowed
for all the desires of my heart.

Milestone Birthday Crafting

Experience is not what happens to you;
it's what you do with what happens to you.
                                   -Aldous Hexley
                            
Chrisy and I have shared a lifetime of memories.
Our lives have often run parallel.

Along the way, we have shared it all
including this year's milestone birthday
only five days apart.

I drew and stitched shared happy memories.
This is Amy Powers' grid design ready for your
own happy memories.

Available with other designs on Amazon.
Christmas
Crafty
Wedding
Baby
Home

Counting Christmas Blessings

Living with creatives. 

Remembering Mericia

Happy Birthday, Mericia.
Oh, to have been blessed by grace.

My own understanding wasn't broad
enough to accept the witnessing of grace.
Grace: what we receive but don't deserve.

My oldest sister was one month shy of her 45th
birthday when she passed away.  It has been
over twenty years, still I recall the blue
of her soulful eyes, the depth of her faith, and
the strength of her will.

Our family: Mother and Prima Texeira. Mericia (in bandana), Dulce.
Joe, me and my other brother, Ilidio.  Rare occasion when all the
siblings were together. 

Mericia, in the middle in blue. 

What a beauty.


My witness of her silent suffering,
built strength and resolve in my heart.
I knew if confronted with my own pain and suffering
I would want to stand as a testament as she did.

Missing you today.
May you continue to rest in peace my
beloved.  

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Nicholas Joshua.
Nicholas because my oldest sister,
Mericia was born on St. Nicholas Day.
She was very sick when Nicholas was born.
Joshua because it means Jesus in Hebrew.

Nicholas was fragile,  born  a month early
at 5 lbs 2 oz, he was a tiny peanut. 
The pediatrician said he may not make it
through his first night. 
I thought go f*** yourself doc.


Twenty-four candles.
He was born to serve.
Proudly serving in the U.S. Army.

We have been estranged for nearly 10 years.
An ugly divorce and an ex-Mr. Wonderful.
I know, there are murderers out there lucky
enough to be visited by their children.

I am sad to say I may not recognize
my own child on the street.
It's a hard thing to be a mother.

He is in my daily thoughts and prayers.

Be blessed my darling.
Happy Birthday.

Thansgiving : Dia de Ação de Graças

12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another,
God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.

                                                       1 John 4:12

It's simple isn't it, to see God we must love
one another.

People thought we were twins but we are 23 months apart. 
I'm about 6 here and Uncle Joe is 8ishh.  
He is a very handsome
fella, wouldn't you agree?  
He is introverted and I am extroverted.
He's a reader and over thinker. 
He has a hard time accepting joy.
Feeling like he doesn't deserve it.
Me, I see joy in everything
whether I deserve it or not I'm
accepting it. 
I'm a bouncer, bouncing for this
to that (jobs, marriages, not necessarily a good thing), 
seeing the bright side,  
smiling and laughing between tears.
We are night and day.  
My mother would say, "You have five fingers 
on one hand and not one is the same." 
Her five children were like that.
 
We've beat on each other, made 
mud pies to toss at mean cousins, 
and are thick as thieves today.  
I am thankful for having shared my 
entire existence.

Holiness of the Mundane

Girl crawled into our bed at the crack of dawn.
How does such a tiny person displace her father?
One word...diagonal.

Mr. Lee surprised me with warm chestnuts
(castanhas-in Portuguese) in bed, no less.

Castanhas, always remind me of my father.
He would peal chestnuts with his pocket knife
and offer them to me until I could eat no more.

I can close my eyes and be right there with him.
Toasty comforting thoughts.

That's my oldest niece, Christine celebrating her 2nd
birthday, my parents' kitchen table
where we would eat chestnuts,
celebrate. 

This or That Inpiration

Isaiah 55:11  King James Version (KJV)

¹¹ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:
 it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish
 that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
                                                  King James Version (KJV)

This jewel of a verse continues to return to me.
What ever kindness or word of God you share
will return to you.  In my experience the good
returns threefold.

Go spread cheer and witness to others by
your actions.


Inspiration:

Mine:

DIY Renovating a Cottage Kitchen

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Pumpkin Cottage is filled with gratitude for all those who
have, are, or will serve.  Happy Veteran's Day. 


Mr. Lee removed this cabinet and pieced together the plate rack.
He still has enough left to make something else. 

It was there and then it was gone.
Light shines in our tiny kitchen now.

Notice the wall space to the right of the cabinet.
Built into the space is a beautiful plate rack.

It's painted red inside and has cup hooks.

Next, install white subway tiles with black grout for the backsplash.

Fall Festivities: Pumpkin Heaven

Creating mends the heart, soothes the the soul
and releases anxiety.  Get to creating. 

Asking for Inspiration in the Holiday Season

Here he was, seventysomething, and still whining, 
though God had woven like a gold thread through 
every chapter of every book of Holy writ: Rejoice! 
Know that I am with you and for you and will never
leave you; take courage that I will fight for you and 
be your shield and buckler and provide for you 
when you are old; I will supply your every need, 
I will give you victory over death, 
I have prepared a place for you in heaven...
                                    Father Tim
                                    Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good
                                    The New Mitford Novel
                                                             Jan Karon

 
This is how it always happens.
I ask and the Lord answers.
This season is my most
favorite and the most difficult.

 
Highs and lows any way the wind blows.
                              Doris Day


My mother's birthday, Halloween,
Dia de los Muertos,
All Saint's Day, All Soul's
Day, the anniversary of the passing of my sister,
the anniversary of my mother's passing, Thanksgiving,
and my late sister's birthday, my birthday, Christmas,
Mr. Lee's birthday, New Year's Day,
Uncle Joe's birthday (my brother)
and Epiphany. 

It's exhausting and exhilarating.
Wings and roots.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery
The event.

Our children have been raised
with the reality of life and death.
It's not scary or macabre.
They understand we are
celebrating life
and those who have passed
live on in our hearts and memories.