Smile, Baby!

Just like I said I would, on Monday after Father's Day, I took some time to learn how to use my new camera. I sat beside one of our raised flower beds and actually read through the entire manual, checking out each and every feature. It paid off.

I should have guessed that this single task would explode into lots of photo editing, reorganizing two years worth of photos files, and loading images on two digital picture frames. . . including one presented to my parents last Christmas and delivered to me for the inputting of the +400 family archive photos. To say all of this was a chore is right. To say that it was time well spent . . . absolutely!

Today, as always, I kissed my wife and daughter goodbye to a chorus of songbirds behind the house. Sherri chauffeured Isabel to daycare, then drove to her office to proudly display her new digital picture frame full of beautiful images of our daughter, relatives, and friends. I bet everyone at her office marvels at the scrolling images of my two loving ladies whenever they are lucky enough to sit and visit for a moment.

If I haven't mentioned, I love my two ladies.

Maybe that's why I take time each day to do something outside in the garden. I know Sherri appreciates all the landscaping I (that is, we) have done.


For her 6-month birthday, we took Isabel on a nature walk through our flower gardens to introduce her to new textures and vibrant colors. We can already see her concentrating on differences of each new flower she sees and feels.

As to the songbirds, we have a pair of house wrens who have chosen to spent the early summer in an ornamental birdhouse hanging from the deck. As I'm sitting on the deck typing, I can always here the pair singing back and forth, and wait for one of them to announce that they have caught another insect.



There's lots of feeding to be done for the 4-6 fledglings nesting comfortably in their twig-lined, grass and pine-needle bed. I understand their rush. It seems like only yesterday that Isabel was born. Has it really been six months? While she will have months of bottle-time remaining, she has already started on the rice cereal, and Sherri is stocking the cupboard with plenty of Gerber 1st Foods. Mmm, peas!?!

As I start the next in a long list of projects I've planned for my time off from teaching (that is, during the day while the girls are out and about) I smile whenever I think about my beautiful and loving wife, our precious daughter, and the welcoming home they come home to each afternoon. As I close this post, the last of the morning mist has already burned away, setting the stage for another wonderful summer day. I hope you will take a moment to slow down, stop, and simply gaze upon your world with a sharpened focus for a moment. You're bound to find a picture of beauty that will bring a smile. As always, cherish that moment.