Friendship

"Never shall I forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours."

- Ludwig van Beethoven

Long before I was a military wife, I grew up moving every few years.  As I got older, I was able to hold on to some relationships better through distance and time.  I have been beyond blessed in my life with true sister friends.  Women that challenge me, love me, and I would give the world for them.  I have grown up knowing I would have to say adieu to friends, it is never easy, but I know that we will always be friends and will see each other again.  It might not be for daily coffee/wine 'playdates', ( Because lets face it when we get together for playdates, it is for us more than them!)  but we will enjoy each others company from a far until we meet again.  You know who you ladies are and I am blessed because of you all.

~Leah Garland

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~Elisabeth Foley

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.  ~Author Unknown

A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad.  ~Arnold H. Glasgow
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
~William Shakespeare

A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.  ~Donna Roberts

~Catherine Anne

Weekend Adventures

It has become an Easter tradition for the boys to wear Lederhosen on Easter.  Yes, I know, it is not going to fly much longer with the oldest but I hold on to what I can with him these days.  When he was born our neighbors gave him a pair.  He was able to wear them the next year at Easter and so it began.  Last year he finally outgrew that pair that Junah now wears, and E got a new pair that will last for years.  With Easter Weekend being so very glorious what better time to get the boys some Easter pictures at the castle up the street from where E was born and first lived.  I was fighting with the harsh light all day, so not my best shot ever, BUT it pretty much captures the adventure I live called Motherhood.
~Leah Garland  

My weekend  charm seems to always be you ~

Your laughter, your bright smile, your hundred questions of why and  the silly things you do.

Your nose nuzzles and songs. Your cuddles and stories. Your sweet face as you sleep.

Your witty and your wisdom. Your innocent prayers and your love.  Your childhood. Your adventure.

~On this day adventure was found,  running wild with the grass between your toes, wind in your hair and laughter upon your face.

Yes my lovies, my daily charm is you ........
~Catherine Anne

Blue and Green~

Colors of the rainbow~

Finishing the week with blue and green.

Blue glass birds will always remind me of my Aunt Holly.  I know that this is not the last you will hear of her from me.  She is the one who taught me to walk when I was young, I took my first steps with her.  To this day, she has taught me to walk down a different path.  She has always been someone I look up to and admire.  She inspired me in so many ways on my journey of motherhood and finding me.  I love her more than words and can't thank God enough for the love, light, laughter and beauty she has brought to my life.  

I Rove Ew Horry

~Leah Garland

Blue sky, Green grass, Light cotton tee, Garden dirt, Church shoes, Cloth diaper, Laughter and you! 

You brighten all my days.

 The green in this photograph symbolizes growth, health, abundance, balance and harmony.

This  refreshing color is a symbol of spring and renewal of life.

The blue symbolizes peace, tranquility and stability.

It also stands for loyalty and trust.

 ~ Catherine Anne

Exploring Yellow

Colors of the Rainbow

 You are my Sunshine. My beautiful Sunshine.

When I think of yellow I think of happiness, clarity, cheerfulness, wild flowers in the spring and Sunshine.

~Catherine Anne

How I missed these yellow fields every spring when stateside!  The sight of these rapeseed fields signals so much in my heart.  Not only the promise that spring is here, but that the most wonderfully powerful day of my life is near.  When I went into the hospital in labor with my first born they were just starting to sprout, that ride home from the hospital, with my sweet babe, was full of the fields in there full yellow glory.  It makes my soul smile to see them and remember that wonderful time, six years ago this week my journey as a mother began. ~Leah Garland

Exploring Orange~

Colors of the Rainbow

In this photograph I captured the snare drum that hangs on our wall. It is not just a drum, it is an object filled with memories. Memories that date back three generations. This is a drum used by my father-in-law, later by my husband and now by our son. When I look at this drum I can still see our Little Man sitting in the floor around the age of two, creating his first rhythm. The color orange also has many meanings. The few I see here in this photograph are energy, wisdom, thoughtful, controlled. and creativity. ~Catherine Anne

There is something about that certain time of day, the time which the sun casts its warm orange glow on all that it touches.  Not only does it warm my skin, but it energizes my soul.  It encourages me to start my day off with happiness, and in the evening, to revel on the days events and to re-center myself for what its warm blaze will bring in it's morning light.  It reminds me that each day I wake with the certainty of the unknown memories that are bound to occur in it's revered light. ~ Leah Garland

Exploring RED~

This week we are exploring the colors of the rainbow.
Starting with red.

 This photograph was captured about a month ago, while my husband and I celebrated our twelve year wedding anniversary. Red can symbolize many charms and emotions.  In this moment only a few cross my mind.  Courage, sacrifice, life, passion, energy, security and  love...................... Happy Anniversary, Dear~ 

~Leah Garland

It took me a while to stop looking at every challenge life gave as the means to an end.  I find peace, strength, inspiration, and wisdom in the lessons I now learn.  What I used to think was a wall, I now see as a challenge to make a door. 

"Every wall is a door"~Ralph Waldo Emerson                                       

Weekend Adventures

Weekends are filled with countless adventures. Extravagant and simple.

I have found that the simple adventures are the most extravagant to my heart. This weekends charm for me was in the moment of footsie. My daughter and I sitting in the garden row, playing footsie in the dirt.

One day my love, you will outgrow my lap, but you will never outgrown my heart.

You see my heart will continue to grow.

~Catherine Anne

~Leah Garland

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

The Season of Spring

~Catherine Anne

My days are filled with spring chickens in the arms of spring chickens. Springtime is the land awakening.  The March winds were the morning yawn.  ~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard

~Leah Garland
"Every child is a different kind of little flower, and all together they make this world a

beautiful garden."

You Say Potato....

~Leah Garland

“It is easy to halve the potato where there is love.” -Irish Proverb

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~Catherine Anne

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.”  Hebrews 11:1

  ‘Faith Like Potatoes’ came from  a famous American lecturer  who  used to tell his students that they needed faith like potatoes.  He meant that their faith needed to have flesh and needed substance.  Growing Potatoes, we have faith that potatoes are  beneath the dirt growing, unseen. ~Angus Buchan

Corners of Our Home

I could never measure the happiness I get from the simplicity in the corners of my home. Memories hide in each crevice and object. ~Leah Garland

In the evening hours, my home is calm. The lights are dim and all is quiet. This is the time of day my thoughts are filled of memories from the corners of my home.

Dirty shoes sitting there waiting...

Waiting for the day to come. 

Waiting to be  slipped on by an energetic little boy.

Waiting to be taken out for adventures in climbing trees.

 As I enjoy the corners of our home, I am reminded of all the life running through it. In this corner I am reminded of the little boy sleeping in the other room and how I miss him already.  

~Catherine Anne

Breakfast

 What a day it is going to be, while sharing our bedtime dreams over fluffy pancakes.

Good morning Sunrise~ Catherine Anne

"And Big Night, I think by the end the brothers find that balance, when they touch each other on the shoulder over breakfast and it's understood that what should never have driven them apart almost drove them apart. I think that's a true moment."
Tony Shalhoub
~Leah Garland

Netherlands and Motherhood

Sometimes I feel as if  there are not enough days in the weekend.  The days of a weekend  are filled with new adventures. They are different, not the same.  We make of them what we choose. It may be exploring the Netherlands or time spent with a dear friend.

I was fortunate enough to be able to take a girls weekend trip to the Netherlands. I officially want to be a Dutch Girl, ride on the back of my cute little dutch mans bike, legs crossed and poised, living under the windmills, tulips, sheep and mini horses. The city is so charming and old. I adored it. ~ Leah Garland

The weekend charm for me was spending time with a dear friend. In this photograph her daughters have the security in the knowledge of her presence and the love from her heart. As the babe enjoys the warmth in her mothers arms and the  food from her breasts. The sight of a mother, mothering her children. This is one of the most beautiful moments in life.............. ~ Catherine Anne

Sunrise, Sunset....

          “The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”

John Muir quote
Every morning when I bask in the new days light, I think of all my family and loved ones on the other side of the world, turning off their lights, turning down their covers, and sleeping under the light of the moon I myself just said good morning too. ~Leah Garland

                                                                                                        ~Catheirne Anne

Fenceline

                          

            ~ Leah Garland

"Build a little fence of trust today; Fill the space with loving deeds and therein stay. Look not through the sheltering bars upon tomorrow; God will help thee bear what comes of joy and sorrow"

 

                                                       ~Catherine Anne

Our Pets are Our Family~

I like pigs.  Dogs look up to us.  Cats look down on us.  Pigs treat us as equals.  ~Winston Churchill
~Photograph by Catherine Anne

~Thank you to my dear friend Amanda for sharing her adorable photograph with us~  

An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language. 

 ~Martin Buber

  

 Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

~George Eliot

Caught in the Act

~ Catherine Anne

Stolen Sweets are Best.      -Colley Cibber

~Leah Garland

"Into the mouth of a bad dog often falls a good bone" - J Clarke 1639