~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty}

I have been talking about eShakti for a while now and I hope I do not bore you all to death. Here is another dress I ordered and plan on wearing to the wedding we are attending next month. It fits so perfectly and is a nice light-weight material, perfect for summer! (Or, if you live in the South, for most of the year!)

It is slightly wrinkled, even after smoothing things out. Does anyone have any suggestions for helping to keep the dress from wrinkling when I sit?

{happy}

We had a ton of rain last week, a total of 4.69 inches fell in just over 48 hours. This was Friday evening, after the rain stopped for a bit. As you can see, we are the cool parents. Well, it was actually Joshua’s idea to let the kids run around in the puddles. They loved it!

{funny}

I hope Benedict forever has funny smiles and great squeals!

I think he is trying to lead the marching band through the water puddle.

{real}

Yes, real(ly) pretty, real(ly) happy, real(ly) funny and real(ly) real.

I am back to joining up with Leila over at Like Mother, Like Daughter for {pretty, happy, funny, real} this week.

Yesterday was the feast day of St. Maria Goretti and we made cupcakes* to celebrate. I will tell you that we did take more pictures and I did have many more edited and “saved” when I discovered that they were not actually saving. Turns out we need more space added to our ran out of space on our hard drive**. Sad. So here you go with, {funny, real}.

{funny}

My Margaret is ever the ham.

 

 

 

{real}

Yes, Margaret likes milk and cupcakes. Gotta have every last drop and morsel!  She’s showing off her real(ly) classy table manners.

 

 

 

 

*for the record, because I know you all want to know, the cupcakes were white (made with coconut milk!) and had red frosting, representing purity and martyrdom.

**my editor and the person in charge of making sure all my computer speak is correct, made me change, er fix,  that sentence.

 

 

{pretty}

Iced Coffee, recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Lady. It is great. I made it with decaf, so I won’t have the shakes later today. I do love coffee though, I really really love coffee. I packed my coffee pot parts in different boxes and did not find all of them until Saturday. I still cannot find the grinder, so I picked up pre-ground at the store.

{happy}

A happy Bencky-Becnk. Can you see his teeth? He has three of them now. One of his favorite things to do these days is cruise around and take a bite out of his parents’ toes. Do you see his little curls? His hair is has curls like Karol and Caecilia had/have.

{funny}

Here is Karol asking for coffee. Do you see those eyes, begging, pleading, dying for coffee? Of course I told him no, well to his own cup, he was able to take a sip of mine.

{real}

The haze in these pictures is not fog, but smoke.

 

South Georgia is in a drought. Last month, less than an inch of rain fell, just .67 of an inch in an area with a normal rain fall of around 2.32 inches. This month we are at .58 of an inch and  halfway through the month that normally sees around 4.49 inches.

Because of the drought, we are seeing wild fires around here. Last night the winds shifted, so we are getting smoke from some of the fires burning southeast of us. (You can see the map here) I could smell it when I woke up this morning, even with the windows closed.

The top picture in the {real } section is the view from our front yard and those are cucumbers.
The other two pictures are views from our back patio. Those are pecan trees. Click on any picture in the post to enlarge it.

For more {pretty, happy, funny, real} visit Like Mother, Like Daughter.

 

{pretty}

This statue of Our Lady was bought by a dear friend while visiting Portugal. He later entered a monastery and we were given the statue, a gift from a godfather to his godson. This fall, the godson will be traveling to Italy to see his godfather be ordained to the Holy Priesthood.

The people behind our lady are my grandparents, my mother’s parents. They are no longer with us, but they left a lasting impact on my life. We named our first daughter, Margaret, after my grandmother. (I am still working on getting Norbert on the boys name list. ;))

{happy}

The beginnings of fresh baked bread. I have been making no knead bread for a while, but this week I switched back to simple Italian bread and like the change of pace. This bread will go with our chicken soup dinner tonight. (That was simmering away on the stove  on the other side of the kitchen.)

{funny}

Caecilia loves to have a minion to call her own. Benedict is more than happy to play that role. Here she is eating her breakfast, with Benedict begging for some scraps. She was telling him, “No, Bencky-Benk, no eaaaa.” He thought it was hilarious!

{real}

Yep, this is how it is after meals in our house, Benedict actually gets more food in his mouth than on the floor, but the floor still gets pretty messy.

 

For more {pretty, happy, funny, real} head over to Like Mother, Like Daughter.

On Friday, we celebrated Easter (yes it is still Easter!) by going to the Gulf of Mexico. I could live on the beach, I love the beach!

{pretty}

Such a pretty view, not only of my beautiful children, but also of the beautiful Gulf of Mexico at St. George Island State Park in Florida. This park is 3.5 hours from our house, but worth the drive; the water was perfect, the park was set up nicely and the beach was not too crowded.

{happy}

Eight months ago we made our first trip to the Ocean. The kids were pretty hesitant about the whole thing.  This time? They ran into the water without concern, playing and splashing for close to four hours.

{funny}

On previous trips to the Ocean, this one was either snug in my belly or not mobile. Now, he is mobile and exploring everything. He found some seaweed to snack on and really had a good time with it, that and the sand, he really liked to put sand in his mouth.

{real}

Thursday morning we had a tornado warning. The storm was hitting the south side of the county, so I was not too worried, but as a precaution, I stuck the kids in our shelter, aka the hallway. (Picture taken with my phone.)

*for more {pretty,happy,funny,real} check out Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty}

Pretty Margaret is showing off the picture she colored today of Jesus washing the feet of one of His disciples.

{happy}

Was ist das?
Home made marshmallows! I made them yesterday and plan on cutting and dipping them in chocolate for Easter.

{funny}

I mentioned last week that I go through a lot of flour around here. This is my  baking cabinet auxiliary and flower was buy one get one at one local grocery store and a dollar off at another, so I stocked up. I have 10 bags there.

{real}

Ah, the toy area. We tend to clean up two or three times a day, this is what it looks like before I, usually, call for a five minute blitz.