JustMeAgain

Happy day

Happy day, originally uploaded by Maria Hammon.

Oh, what a good day indeed.

A day with the excuse to be grateful for all the blessings, the moments of beauty and inspiration, for all the love. Let's take today's reminder and keep it in our hearts in order to be thankful every day, every hour and every second.

Happy Thanksgiving my friends! I hope that wherever you are today, you are spending the day doing what steers your soul, spending time with people you love, and eating some awesome food. Tons of love to you all.

And may I invite you to something REALLY amazing next December 12, 2009?  Join in the project:  Help-Protrait.com

Looking back

Sometimes it is fun to just look back, briefly, at life how it was and how it is.  For me, it helps put things in perspective and to try to keep focus on what really matters in my heart of hearts. Perhaps that is why I've always loved to journal, to scrapbook, and for the past five years, to blog, too. 

Just for fun, I looked back at posts I had uploaded in this blog somewhere mid November of each year, since 2005.  These are the ones I found.  I realize that in so many ways, I am the same person, but in many others I am not.  Life changes, circumstances change, but some things are unchangeable. For me, the things that rank highest -at all levels- are my faith, my family and friends, and that never ending search for attaining dreams. 

November 17, 2005 -A post about my daughter's photography during one of her school field trips in which parents were not allowed to attend.  I was very impressed by the quality of those pictures!  She's always been talented.  Since the day she was born.  I am pretty sure she was holding her head up looking for a camera or a canvas. She had work to do.

November 17, 2006 - A post about scrapbooking evolution. 

November 21, 2007 - Just a quick little post about being thankful. I kinda still like that pumpkin picture! 

November 21, 2008  -A little post remembering words of wisdom from my dad.  I love sharing bits and pieces of the wonderful memories I have from my dad.

November 17, 2009 -A quick little entry about dreams and where they go.  More than ever, I'm still wondering!  :D

The last five years have been blog-happy.  So, thank YOU my blog friends.  Many of you have become such dear and trusted friends after all this time ~and despite the huge distance that attempts to separates us, but doesn't really.  I could not imagine my life without you.

Where did I do all my talking about life, growing up and inspiration before there was a blog in my life?  Perhaps inside some of the pages of the many albums/journals/three ring binders that I've collected through my life (yeah, I've lost count.)  Want a visual?  You'll have to promise not to laugh too hard and maybe I'll share some photos of my 60-70 something albums.  Don't worry, just a picture of all of them together.  Going through the pages would certainly take months, ha ha.

 

Tia Lupita

 
I love being an aunt! 

It is such a wonderful opportunity to love other little people in your family as if they were your own children, only with the added benefit of not really having to worry about the college tuition. Or having to wake up all night when they are babies.  As an auntie, you pretty much get the icing on the cake. And can melt away with all the little giggles and hugs and awesome little things they do. 

I just finished looking at more pictures that my sister sent me of my little niece in Mexico (I cannot wait until my next trip there so I can see her in person and take a gazillion pictures of her and all my other incredibly cute nieces and nephew.) 

I also just had a wonderful Sunday with baby Jayden.  Oh yeah, and his parents, too.  Jayden kinda takes center space when he is around and it is easy to forget the rest of the world.  But who could blame me?  He is a sweet as a sugar pie wrapped up in whip cream and topped off with the best and most wonderful chocolate syrup ever known to man, or woman.  Seriously.

Being an aunt (or Tia Lupita, like my nieces in Mexico call me) is, in addition to being a mom, the best thing ever.

And talking about Sunday, in the morning I attended one awesome church sermon followed by an equally fantastic Bible class.  I feel so lucky to have such an incredible church to go to.  So grateful for that.  Lately I have been so inspired to get back into Bible reading. It's been addicting, again.  I remember a couple of years back I had been reading it every day, but then I let life and busy get in the way.  Fast forward to a few months ago when I posted a list about all the things I want to do with my life,; and that little nagging feeling of running out of time because there is still SO MUCH I want to do with my life and I simply keep getting older!  A wise friend reminded me then that it is really not about how much we can accomplish in life, but about HOW MUCH LOVE we put into the things that we choose to do.  She asked me if I was really investing my time into things that matter.  I took that to heart. And since then, I have been re-assessing my priorities, my commitments and looking carefully at how I choose to spend my time.  This Sunday's sermon was so on target for me.  Our pastor said, "first we make our commitments, and then our commitments make us...every day we are exchanging our lives for the commitments we choose."  I literally repeated that quote in my head a few times after I heard it. He was saying, it's simple, all we have to do is choose wisely. But there is such great responsibility attached to those two words.  Certainly not always easy to apply the test of value to all we do, but nothing that is easy is ever worth doing. Stuff doesn't really last forever (not matter how much we want our stuff to last.)  Values matter, and never depreciate.  And they truly determine who we are at all times. Those are the things to strive for. To accept the challengee of waking up spiritually EVERY day and do what is valuable to our spirit.

So grateful for wise friends who remind us of important things. And for Pastors and insightful teachers.

Oh, and about that list, I think I've taken out a lot of really silly, unnecessary, things.  I have added a few important ones ~including a Missionary trip to Africa in the next few years. This one particularly has been in my heart for some time, but I never really gave it a serious thought. It's about time I do!

So, how was your Sunday? 

P.S. In case you were wondering, snowboarding and ski jumping are certainly NOT in that list of mine.  At least for me, they do not look like a fun thing to do.  They look more like death waiting to happen. But the photos in this post were editing work created by my daughter (I personally think they rocks.)  The photo and editing bug has caught up with her. What can I say? It's in her genes.

.gratefully

.gratefully, originally uploaded by Maria Hammon.

I recently heard a pastor say, "it's not about what you do on Sundays, it's about what you do every day." His words made me think of Thanksgiving holiday because it is also not about what you are grateful for in November, it's about what you are grateful for every day of the year.

Gratefully speaking, (pun totally intended) there is so much to be thankful for. Every day. Every hour and every minute of our existence.

And what am I thankful for at this time?  So much, really.  I might need follow up posts forever and ever,  but let's check out a few of the things that are filling my little heart with appreciation and wholehearted thankfulness:

~So thankful for God's amazing grace and compassion for all of His children and his never-ending fountain of unconditional love as well as his pouring of support and guidance in life.  Thankful for His daily presence in my live.

~Family and friends. Always so grateful for them.  And so very thankful for the newest tiny members in our families in 2009: Jayden, my nephew, and baby Karol, my niece. 

~Thankful for technology and the magic it helps create.

~So incredibly grateful to be my daughter's mother. Not a moment ever passes in which I am not consciously grateful for that child full of wonder, imagination, creativity and PURE genius.  I never could have possibly asked for a child like her. I am so insanely lucky to be her mom. 

~Grateful every day for the opportunity to be God's instrument. Thankful for the opportunities and experiences He shares with me.  How could I not be grateful when I see evidence of His work every day of my life?

~So thankful for California weather. 

~Grateful for sweet surprises coming all the way from England, and beautiful art pieces created by dear friends; pieces that get to become a new resident in our home.

~Grateful for beautiful music and candid photography shot by my ever so creative daughter.

~So grateful for the amazing words that come out of my daughter's mind every time she writes a new story, or a little personal statement of her own truth. I love seeing her determination and ability to express exactly what is in her heart of hearts.

~ So very grateful for big projects coming together into beautiful works of art.

~Grateful for God's Word that is there to guide us. Grateful for pastors, teachers, fellow believes and the non-believes, because we all have something to learn from each other in this path of life. 

~Thankful for all the million little things; the beautiful things, the feel of the crispy chilled breeze in these late November mornings, the late nights creating art or scrapbooking in the closet, the silent moments and even the noisy ones! 

~Thankful for persimums being back!  And Starbucks Christmas decorations along with some of my favorite holiday treats (mint chocolate brownie anyone?)

Where do dreams go?

Where do dreams go?, originally uploaded by Maria Hammon.

Where do dreams go when you get too busy to remember them? Do they rest peacefully behind far away clouds, waiting to be re-discovered one day? Or do they hide from you in the horizon? Feeling, perhaps, a bit lonely and left behind?

Hold tight to your dreams, don't scare them away with responsibilities and the haste of every day. Keep them alive. Every day. Every hour.

Happy Tuesday everyone.