I Will Catch You

If you're lost you can look and you will find me. Time after time. If you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting. Time after time.
 ~ Cyndi Lauper

The End of Summer and during Autumn I get really
wrapped up with leaves. They fascinate me. All of their different shapes and
textures. Their veins and of course their beautiful colors.
 I am particularly fascinated with
the ones that fall and get stuck on other leaves.

Nature Collage

Stop a moment, cease your work, and look around you.
~Thomas Carlyle
 

A Closer Look

Nature will bear the closest inspection.
She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf,
and take an insect view of its plain.

~Henry David Thoreau

The Eye is the Window

                The eye is the window of the human body through

which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world.
~Leonardo Da Vinci

 

Print Available - HERE 

A Bench for Friday

"We do not sing because we are happy;
we are happy because we sing."

~William James

For those of you who love benches - visit RuneE at:
http://visualnorway.blogspot.com/

Green Heron on the Pond

I am seeking. I am striving, 
I am in it with all my heart.
~Vincent van Gogh

Red Faced - Muscovy Duck

A Muscovy Duck at the pond.

Life is not always what one wants it to be, but to make the
best of it, as it is, is the only way of being happy.~Jennie Jerome Churchill

A Little Bird with a Big Song

Sweet little birds with a beautiful song.

Use what talents you possess;
the woods would be very silent
if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
~Henry Van Dyke

This Singing Carolina Wren is Available 
HERE 

Red Spotted Purple Butterfly

I have found that sitting in a place where you've never sat before can be inspiring.
~Dodie Smith

Queen Anne's Lace

We are made kind by being kind. 
~Eric Hoffer

If we are to enjoy life, now is the time, not tomorrow or next year...
Today should always be our most wonderful day.
~Thomas Dreier

Hummingbird Moth

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to
recognize how good things really are.
~ Marianne Williamson

The Day is Finally Here!

Today is the day my family and I have been waiting for….praying for.

My mom gets to come home today. This is after being in the hospital and a rehabilitation center since March 23. She is still not 100% but definitely much better.

In the beginning it seemed that for every step forward, there were two steps backward.

On Easter Sunday, April 12, my Father, my Siblings and I gathered together at UVA for a conference with the doctors. They had never found the cause of her problems and informed us that there was nothing else they could do for her. That she would be considered a hospice patient. They talked about inserting a feeding tube that would prolong her life. The decision was my Dad's but the feeling was that this wasn’t the way to go, as it would only prolong her life and that her quality of life would not be great.

But my Dad ALWAYS had Hope! He told us “we have to give her every opportunity to get better”. So the feeding tube was inserted. Within a few days she was transferred to a Nursing/Rehab Center that was located near my Dad.

Before that, my siblings and I had been taking turns staying with her at UVA, which was about a 3 hour distance for each of us.

We would take 2-3 days at a time.

Now that she was moved, my Dad was able to visit her daily and lots of times twice a day.

My brother was also able to visit almost daily as he lives near as well.

During her stay a the Nursing/Rehab Center she was in and out of the hospital many times.

One hospital stay was as long as 5 days.

But after that last stay, she really seemed to start to get better.

She started eating by mouth, not just through the feeding tube. She was walking with a walker

and her spirits seemed to rise daily.

And today, August 7, 136 days later, she comes home to

live in the home she has lived in since 1970, the home I grew up in,

and the home she had not spent the night in since March 23.

She is going to LOVE sleeping in her own bed tonight!

We are so thankful that she is still with us and that my Dad never gave up Hope!

Thank you all for your concern and prayers!

>

Cedar Waxwing

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.~ Ruth Ann Schabacker