1/07/13-2/17/13 Mexico Beach, Florida

I hope I am always able to truly see the beautiful moments in day to day life...

the sunset...

the water...

steam rising off the gulf during a cold snap

the moon rising...

special treasures found with special people...

Every single day, the beauty is there if we look for it.

Sometimes we have to be very intentional to find the good in the midst of what seems like all bad.

ice on the palm trees...

Sometimes it finds us.

light shining through my window

bonfire on the beach with friends...

But it is there, we only have to open our eyes and our hearts to see...

the road less traveled...

Two roads diverged in a wood,

And I-

I took the road less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost

1/10/14 Stump Hole, Cape San Blas, Florida

This was our first time back on the beach since Ashlyn's surgery in December.

She loves to walk the shoreline and search for treasures just as much as I do.  No way that I was going to go without her...

A bonus, in my opinion, was the thick fog.  I think it is absolutely beautiful...

Call me weird, but I even like the way it feels.  The dampness and the ever so tiny drops of mist that swirl around and cling to everything...

Dan was home on days off, so he and the biggest boys planted themselves at the beginning of the beach with their fishing poles...

...and the girls, Tristan, and I set off to follow the water's edge to see if we could get all the way to the lighthouse this time.

The beach had changed since our last visit and there was a big creek slicing through the sand and spilling itself into the Gulf of Mexico...

We waded across the dark brown water and kept walking...

...until once again, we came to a dead end.  A big snarl of tangled tree roots had the path blocked, just like last time, and we were forced to stop short of the lighthouse.

We poked around for a while, marveling at the different trees and shapes...

...this one looked like Kokopelli...

...and this one-such skinny little roots for such a big tall tree...

...some kind of sea plant trying to grow out of a conch shell...

No lighthouse, no fish, no problem :).  We didn't mind...the best part was just being there together.

12/24/13 Wewahitchka, Florida

Christmas Eve...

In years past, our family has always spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house. 

The house was always decked out with fun little Christmas surprises sprinkled around to delight the kids (and adults).

It would be my family, my sister's family, my brother's family, and of course my parents. 

The cousins would laugh and play and the adults would talk and talk...

Momma would cook for days...making so many different things, just because :).  Hors d'oeuvres, soups, meats, breads, desserts...

This year was painfully different.

The only decorations were the two tiny trees that the kids and I brought in because we couldn't bear the thought of them having nothing sparkly to look at.  I honestly don't think they noticed (understandably), but it made us feel better knowing that they had something.

For dinner, we picked up Chinese food on our way over.  I don't remember if it was good or not...

It was just me, my kids, and my parents this year. 

We gathered around my mom's bed to open the gifts we brought with us.  She smiled as we showed her everything.  I miss that smile...

Momma was tired, she fell asleep and we left to go back home.  One of the towns that is between her house and ours is Wewahitchka...or Wewa, as it is called by everyone around here.  When we were passing through Wewa, we spotted the lake and pulled over to "breathe" for a while before going the rest of the way home.  It was getting close to sunset and the light on the water, the live oak trees, the spanish moss...was just the beautiful breath we were needing.  

We lingered under the ancient trees until the earth felt like it was once again beneath our feet.

The kids took a whirl on the playground equipment.  It was good to see them smiling :).

Then we went home.

It's the little things, ya'll.  All those years...I thought things would always be the way they had always been and in a blink -it was simply gone.  She was gone.

***I know that I am skipping quite a few days as I am writing these...  There is a reason for that.  Those days were filled with details that I am not going to share, probably ever.  They are things that honestly, I would rather just forget...  I feel like the parts that I am sharing give a good idea of our past several months.  That's my goal...a simple remembrance of where we've walked.  ...just thought I should say something about that...