Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

 

 

 

 

 

New Land, Same Love

The final rays of daylight were slipping quickly away when my parents and I headed out into their pasture on the last night of our visit to their new place.  We left behind the kids just tucked in their beds, a few dishes not yet done, and the open suit-cases awaiting all our scattered belongings in order to fit in something I couldn't leave without: these pictures.  Weeks before the image of my pretty little mother standing in open field had popped into my mind.  That idea quickly evolved into a collage of pictures of my parents on their beautiful new plot of land that they are busy building up into a paradise.  They're clearing fields, building garden beds, amassing clippings and chicken droppings for compost, and heading out with boots and shovels each morning to irrigate.  My parents posed obligingly--which in my dad's case is an enormous testimony of his love for me.  We only had a few short dusk-lit minutes, but they reflect years of love that have blessed my life, and the promise of many fruitful years to come.

 

Just in case you need clarification, yes, this is my MOM.  Here's hoping I got her youthful genes.

 

 

 

 

Again yes, she's my mother.  The same one my dad married in 1976.

 

 

Coming Full Circle

Makena and I have been planning this photo shoot for her family for months, and she was willing to go through with it even though her third baby is due in just a few more weeks.  It was so fun to have them join us on my parents new property.  I don't remember the day I met Makena, or when we first became friends.  As far back into childhood as I can remember I spent more time with her than without her.  And as we approached adulthood there were times when what held us together wasn't necessarily the things we had in common, or even the time we spent together, but simply the bond of belonging to each other--like sisters.  And like sisters we've become more alike the older we have become.  Distance and time apart have increased without changing our friendship in any way; it didn't have a beginning and it can't have and end.  And it's nice to have someone who particularly likes the vintage of my humor. Someone who never feels the awkwardness of a silence--even a silence that stretches for a month or so.  Someone who I can talk to when I have nothing at all to say.  When I go home the visit is never complete until I have chance to see this sister.  And once a year our kids play together.  They're friends before they've even met.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Visit

I'm so glad I was able to get in a little mini shoot with my newest niece on her blessing day!  Her mom and dad have a way of leaving the people and places in their lives better than they found them.  Kylie made this dress, the little bracelet, and even devised "stick-on-earrings" for this little angel!