one hundred years

Today is the anniversary of Juliette Gordon Low's founding of the Girl Scouts of America. To commemorate that special day, Girl Scouts all across the country gathered yesterday at the same time to stand in a promise circle and recite the girl scout promise & law and to sing. Imagine what a wonderful world we would live in if we would all adhere to the Girl Scout Law:

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

father and daughter

Seeing a new dad and his daughter enjoying each other is something very special and heartwarming to see.

rehearsal

It is magical and beautiful when it all comes together and sounds great at the first rehearsal of chorus and orchestra combined. I am definitely looking forward to our concert next week!

doodle

Sophie's unfinished work for the doodle for google contest with a hypothetical trip to Pompeii (prior to earthquake and volcano eruption). After having been to the exhibit at the MOS and concluding that with the Dr. Who Pompeii episode, it has been on her mind lately and she also wants to learn Latin now. I just love it that she is so interested in the same things I was hooked on at that age.

silly

extremely silly, in a fun way,  would be a very good description for what is going on here a lot, especially when we are playing games like Bananagrams. My odd sense of humor rubbed off onto the girls*, who I like to call project two & three, while I like them to call me Lord Mama, Robot - first generation. I am trying to make them believe that they are robots of the second generation and that I wind them up every night. They are not going for it though - go figure ;)

2012

2012 so far has not been a great year for many, many people I know and if the Mayans had it right, this is our last year. I don't believe the world is ending this year, even if it feels like my own little world has ended in a way. But imagine for a moment it is the last year, it can be for any of us, right? There is no guarantee for life. If this would be your last year, what would you do? Are there things that you are always pushing into the future, even though you really want to do them? We are always waiting for things to be right and for the right moment to come. The truth is, that might never be the case and if we make it to one day be old and wise and looking back, what will be the most important things? Which moments will stand out? Let's make 2012 the year to look at our dreams and examine our priorities, who is with me?

I took this photo New Year's Eve right after midnight. It took a lot of sparklers and many photos until we got it right and we had a blast. 

ranunculus asiaticus

These are really filled buttercups - as difficult as that is to believe - and they bring beauty and color to our soul, which is yearning for spring and sunshine and waiting for nature to reawaken. I am ecstatic every time* I see them at Trader Joe's and have to bring some home.


* Well yes, when you are reading this you might imagine my house overflowing with vases of ranunculus since shopping at Trader Joe's happens rather frequently. So no, I don't buy them every time really, usually just once or twice, hyperbole just puts such a needed emphasis into the sentence ;)

Snow

Wow, snow - almost forgot what it looked like (no, not really), but it was a surprise none the less to start March with so much fluff. With a new month upon us in this still relatively new year, it occurred to me that there are new beginnings all the time. The first year of this blog has really changed my outlook and made me more positive in my thoughts and evaluations. Then my life has been changing so much that it took all my energy to stay afloat, but I want to embrace my new beginnings and reading my own words on the side of this blog, it became obvious to me that I - again - need to go out of my way to document those little moments of the beauty of being. I can remind myself that life is beautiful and that it is wonderful to be alive, even if we are dealt a really lousy hand when we were already down. Life is not fair, but there is beauty all around those bad bits!