My Joy

Day Eight


My Odette

For Christmas we got Pearl a Swan Lake DVD that features scenes from the ballet and a little lesson on how to do some of the steps, all geared towards little girls. She loves it and watches it regularly admiring the ballerinas grace and balance and exclaiming, "How amazing!" or "Isn't that beautiful!" throughout. She has been asking, maybe even begging to be in ballet for months now but they were really expensive, at bad times or just seem to be stuffy. Finally I found a ballet class for her that we can actually afford and that worked out time wise and today was her first class.
The minute she stepped into the dance hall, surrounded by mirrors and the tinkly piano tunes playing, her arms extended out, her toes pointed and there was a little hop to her steps. She was graceful, she was poised, and she was just bursting with delight. I had to stop myself from nudging the mom next to me and exclaiming,"Isn't she beautiful!"

My Joy
Day Seven

Oops, skipped a day. I am realizing it's not always easy to have one picture that captures what brought joy to my day. For instance, it would've been silly to take my picture while talking to a dear friend on the phone but it was one of two phone conversations that were highlights of yesterday.
Today I enjoyed a morning teaching my children, an afternoon sitting in the backyard of a good friend talking and watching the kids play and this evening I enjoyed a 40 minute run followed by soaking in the jacuzzi with my family. All good things but no pictures to show. I can always fall back on a picture of my kids. They make me nuts but they ALWAYS bring joy to my day.

My Joy
Day Six


Living so close to something so beautiful. Our county has plenty of trails, lakes and mountains to escape to. This place (Lake Hodges) is about 10 minutes from our house. It's beautiful and as soon as I am over this nasty cold the kids and I will be going for a little hike.

My Joy
Day Five


Tea parties!

My Joy
Day Four


This shouldn't be hard already! I've been battling illness, shuttling kids, trying to stay cool ( 90 degress today!) and just feeling a little grumpy. So, right now my joy is having two children peacefully sleeping in their bed, and a hardworking, good man home and headed to bed where I will soon join him. Thank God for new days and new mercies. Goodnight.

My Joy
Day Three


Ever since Johnny discovered photobooth on our Mac, I never know what I am going to find when I open it up. I like this one.

My Joy
Day Two


Puzzle master Pearl.
She just recently started enjoying puzzles and likes to do them all by herself. I love how her tongue sticks out as she concentrates on finding where each piece fits and how she dances around on the puzzle when she's completed it. Note the leotard she is wearing. She pretty much lives in them as she is obsessed with ballet but more on that in another post.