A Simple Story About Doing Love Instead Of Wishing Love

A Simple Story About Doing Love Instead Of Wishing Love

For My Mother On Her 70th Birthday

30 Day Photo Challenge: Someone You Miss

As I end this 30 Day Photo Challenge, I feel like I need to post a picture of someone that is most on my mind these days. Someone I MISS. My friend, Jen, said it perfectly when she said "This is going to be a year of FIRSTS for the family"....and this picture says it all. It will be the FIRST family holiday where both sides of our family gather and Ed won't be with us. I will miss so many things on that day: the care he puts into making his famous Horseradish Beet sauce that we put on our turkey. I'll miss how he and Zofia would tell a story together. But, mostly I'll miss him smiling at me across the table as if he is saying "Good Job, Ashley! Everything looks beautiful!" We love you Ed Fordonski!

Death is nothing at all....

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other,

that we still are

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way

which you you always used

Put no difference in your tone,

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh, as we always laughed

at the jokes we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word

that it always was.

Let it be spoken without affect,

without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same that it ever was.

There is absolutely unbroken continuity

Why should I be out of mind

because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you,

for an interval,

somewhere very near,

just around the corner.
All is well.
~Henry Scott Holland

30 Day Photo Challenge: Yesterday

Yesterday was one of those days where I just needed a break. Between the  the computer, the phone, the TV, the hectic pace, frantic energy and NOISE of my life...I had to put a STOP to it.  So I came home, took lots of deep breaths and just went outside.  I laid on the ground, looking up at the blue sky through the trees and soon Charlotte joined me.  We found these beautiful acorns and started taking pictures.  It was so nice to just sit and take notice of our surroundings.  But then we had to rush to Lacrosse and the feeling quickly vanished, going straight back into the fast pace frenzy of our lives.  By the end of the day, it was so nice to come home to the dinner table and Pete's wonderful, Italian Chicken Gnocchi Vegetable Soup. Pete's soups are the definition of "Cozy" to me!

"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.  Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth".  ~Mahatma Gandhi

30 Day Photo Challenge: Something You Made

 For years, I carried around two labels from The Jones Soda Co. I fell in LOVE with the pictures and promised myself I would frame them to put on my wall. These particular ones are so nostalgic and it gives you the best feeling when you look at them. JSC is SO cool because all of their labels are from actual photos sent in from fans. I FINALLY framed the labels and they look AWESOME on my wall. 

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.” — Henry David Thoreau

30 Day Photo Challenge: Something You Collect

 I collect glass bottles of all kinds. When I was a little girl, my mom would take me along while she went "antiquing" and she'd find these beautiful, old apothecary bottles. I love glass bottles because they have a history. Many were made between the early 1800's - 1950's. Back when Pete and I were living in our FIRST home, my mom came over to help me decorate. To my surprise, she brought her bottle collection and thought it would look perfect on my green shelves. It now sits on top of my cabinets in my kitchen and I swear...nothing warms up a room like an old bottle lit up from the sun shining through a window. I have added to my collection over the years and every now and then, I look up to see these gorgeous colors and it makes me smile!

30 Day Photo Challenge: From A Distance

This is a picture of Charlotte when she was 2 1/2 years old. It was after an ice storm and the first time she had ever seen ice or snow. We are out next to our GORGEOUS Cherry Blossom tree (in our old house) and you can see the swing Pete made out of an old Coke crate.

"From a distance we are instruments marching in a common band. Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace. They're the songs of every man. God is watching us. God is watching us. God is watching us from a distance". ~ Julie Gold (original writer of "From A Distance")