Mornings Like These

each pond with it's blazing lilies is a prayer heard and answered lavishly, every morning, 

whether or not you have ever dared to be happy, whether or not you have ever dared to pray.

~ (snippet from) Mary Oliver's Morning Poem

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I know this truth of Nature. At the lake, standing seaside or on the back porch of home.  Heard. Known.   Lavishly loved.  Everyone, we all are, whether or not a prayer has dared to be uttered.  What if everyone knew?  What if everyone knew they are heard, known, loved. We can know through nature.  Juicy blackberry.  Misty morning lake.  Loon call across the water.  Stellar Jay squawk.  Foamy sea touching your sandy toes.  Leaf falling from the maple.  Whispering wind.  

Do you hear it?  

Y o u  A r e  L o v e d . . .

. . .

"Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after." 
~Anne Morrow Lindbergh


So many good and pleasing and stimulating conversations over the lovely coffee bean (which apparently is actually a seed, who knew?!)

hawaiian :: snapshots

just after Ocean went inside because she was nervous a lizard would fall from the awning, a lizard did fall from the awning landing on her fork.
Let us all keep a safe distance.

hawaiian :: snapshots

living right along the sea wall we walk and see colorful fish, sea turtles and dolphins spinning in the air.

hawaiian :: snapshots

a surprising torrential downpour delayed our walk to town, gave a chance for some reading, watching and wrapping in a sweater.
[view from the stairwell where we are staying this week!]
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got my minnesota on with a game of solitaire with my favorite cards ever (Hudson Bay blanket & antlers?!), thank you 99 cent target section.
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an evening stroll and out to dinner as a family exploring our new stomping grounds and watching the sunset.
 [view from the coffee shop porch we plan to frequent & will be living across the street from!]
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hello hawaii!

good bye West Coast . . .



hello Hawaii!

as a family we have ventured westward  on an adventure! I'll be sharing snapshots now and again, but if you'd like to follow along more regularly you can find me on Instagram as wilburandfern.

first things first...



we went to the sea.

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost..." ~Eleanor Roosevelt 

here we go!

. . .

"To give thanks in solitude is enough.  Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. 
Your prayer knows much more about it than you do." ~Victor Hugo

necessity & creativity

"Necessity is the mother of all invention." ~ Albert Einstein

Indeed this became true the other day when the day was turned on its side with one girl waking up coughing, sneezing, stuffy head (she couldn't rest medicine).  I was scheduled to be the parent volunteer in her nature study class and needed to get the other two girls down to class anyway...without enough time to find a sub, the second born opted to rest at home while we took off for the day.  This was the first time she was going to do this alone and proved how terrible she was actually feeling.  Eric works close (really close) so if she needed anything she had him as well as a slew of loving neighbors, but nothing can really take the place of a parent home nurturing you when you feel sick.  Off we went to spend the day in the woods.  I always bring my knitting with me, even for out in the woods, you never know when you might get a stitch or two here or there.  When we arrived at class serendipitously the group had been double booked with a parent volunteer so I was free to scoot back home and care for my girl.

Happily I can back into the house leaving all my things in the car and before I knew it Eric was driving away to pick up the nature goers and run errands in town...my knitting with him (to my dismay).  What's a knitter to do in this case?  Riddle through the stash of yarn, browse Ravelry and cast on a new project...that's what.  I cast on and quickly discovered my lack of stitch markers.

Enter the mother of invention: fold washi-tape on itself, hold punch and with scissors cut around making your own DIY stitch markers. They are flexible, cheap, perfect in a pinch (not to mention how cute & delightful they are!).  I'm falling quickly and deeply in love with my new washi-tape stitch markers.

If you'd like to find your own washi-tape...Target is easy, Etsy is chalk-full of suppliers or take a trip to Japantown!

on documenting moments : : recording life

This year I've been participating in a self portrait e-course.  It's been 39 weeks, thus far, of turning the camera on self.  A friend pointed out recently that I'm motivated by challenge and though my knee jerk reaction was disagreement to that, she's right, I am. Who knew (probably all my friends)?  At the beginning of this e-course I challenged myself do take each weekly prompt and create seven self portraits.  Yes, I challenged myself to take a photo-a-day of myself for one whole year, that along side my already challenge of a photo-a-day with a few words of life.  In my mind I challenged myself to use my nikon instead of my phone for this project (what I was also doing for my original 365 project) but then...get ready for a series of unfortunate first world events...my nikon stopped working, so I started shooting with our old camera which I quickly discovered has white balance issues (think that reflected blue salty sea water really infused itself and everything was looking mighty smurfy), then every photo needed editing, however, the editing became an issue when the ipad (that's where I did any and all photo work) was stepped on...I stopped using the nikon and eventually I took it out of my bag altogether and stopped carrying it around with me.  The self portrait project continued, but the 365 project fell to the wayside.  I was committed to use the regular camera...I had challenged myself to do so...but it simply wasn't happening and eventually it was so overwhelming to try and catch up I just stopped trying. Fail.

Have you heard of Photojojo's time capsules? They are the best. The Best! Each month I receive two emails with photos and thankfully words reminding me of what exactly one year ago was.  The good the bad and the ugly (but mostly beautiful, even when it was challenging).  I realized next year my inbox will not receive a time capsule about life, what I was thinking, feeling, seeing...reminding me of all the change, growth, consistency, rhythms in our days.

This week's prompt for the self portrait class is Dare...perfect for that challenge driven side of me and just the boost I needed after having been thinking of releasing the idealism of using my big camera.  I have a perfectly good iphone 5 with a great camera built right in.  I have the ability to use this tool and challenge myself to see, capture, savor, treasure and keep the moments that are making up our life. I will not get the same depth, quality, feel that I get with a DSLR, it will be a different depth, quality and feel, not better or worse, I am daring myself to start shooting again everyday with what I have (and am so very thankful for!)

It's as if the universe has been funneling down cues this needed to happen, so I'm taking those hints and acting.  For example, my first born arranged a fairly last minute 'friends get together and go to the beach' yesterday.  Friends came and we spent a few hours down playing in and by the water, went to one of said friends home for some quick hot tub action, dropped friends off to meet their parents, had a tiny photo adventure en route home.  The day was sweet and good and full of friendship.

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 ""... sometimes i catch myself hoping they aren't forgotten about up here in the woods ..."



.  .  .  .  .  .

One year ago, these were some of my words along with this photo of my firstborn.  I can see now I don't need to worry about my kids being forgotten.  This last year has grown some seriously sweet friendships that were not there or with the same depth, friends near and far &  I'm excited to see what will blossom in this year to come (and have it all documented for our reminiscing pleasure!)

. . .

"The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always...The feeling they produce is not transferable...From them comes silence and awe...they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time." ~Steinbeck

something so small growing and becoming something so big and with such powerful impact.  often we hear 'one can only do so much' but i beg to differ:

one can only do so much!

k n i t

on the needles now: The Kit Camisole!

my knitting gauge is so off, what the patterns calls for size US 3 needles i'm down to US 0's, uffda!  my sweet friend Taunia gifted me two skeins of Quince & Co Tern, their lovely wool silk blend, in Kelp.  The perfect fiber to work with in making a tank top it seems.  I've decided to modify it a smidgen, as I seem to do, so mine with have a slit on either side of the hips for added flow.



don't mind me, I'll just be here knitting on these size 0's all weekend, in the woods on our couch, at the beach  & in the coffee shop!

Happy Weekend!