Day 70: Pincushion Flowers

One of my favorite flowers is scabiosa, known as the pincushion flower. When all the petals fall, the seed pod looks like a pincushion with little pins stuck into it in all directions. I can grow them a little up here in the mountains, but they thrive in the warmer coastal climates.

With my current schedule, I can't always be taking photos every day. I knew this fact when I started the 365 blog and told myself I would POST a photo a day, not necessarily TAKE a photo a day. :)

Day 69: Retreat, Continued

Our Ash Wednesday Retreat at the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia included a set time for meditative prayer, and I settled in this corner of the courtyard, basically the same place I took the photo for the previous day. I sat on a blanket under this tree and near these flowers.

Such a lovely place to pray and be silent with God....

Day 68: Ash Wednesday Retreat

This was my view from a bench in the retreat courtyard of the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in Oceanside, the largest of the California missions. My dear friend Carmen and I attended an Ash Wednesday Retreat at the mission that focused on silence--God's silence and our silence. We were given time to wander the grounds, find a place, and spend time in silence with God. We finished the day with Mass which included the Imposition of Ashes.

Such a lovely day, and such a wonderful way to spend Ash Wednesday.

Day 67: Grading Never Ends....

Although we're off this week for spring break with Elizabeth, we still had Class Day on Thursday which meant that I still had grading to do...all day long on Tuesday.

Day 66: Elizabeth's Business

Elizabeth has been making jewelry for quite a while. A while ago she started making jewelry from shrinky-dinks. So here are some of her shrunken treasures: flower charms for bracelets, heart charms, cherry earrings, hooped earrings, etc. She colors the much larger plastic sheets with colored pencils or Sharpie pens, then bakes them in the toaster oven which causes them to shrink to a third of their size but become nine times as thick.

Her Facebook page is here: Elizabeth's Fashion Jewelry

Day 65: Dessert!!!!

Keith made me a late birthday dessert--completely from "scratch"--my favorite: Boston Cream Pie! Yummy!!!!

Day 64: Experiments in Art

Keith has been experimenting with glass fusing, sprinkling ground glass powder the consistency of fine sand called "frit" onto clear glass and then baking in a small kiln to create different glass effects for a stained glass project he is working on. The glass piece is one onto which he has already fused a couple of colors of frit.

Day 63: Family Party

After our family birthday party at Chili's, celebrating three family birthdays (mine, my brother's, and his daughter's), I noted these concert photos on the wall of the waiting area. This Chili's is next to the Sports Arena where many of the city's concerts take place, including the U2 concert that Elizabeth and I attended a few years ago...yes, it's BONO!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!

Day 62: School Stuffola

Our white board after our lesson on Church History on the Counter-Reformation....

Day 61: Now 45

Self-portrait on my 45th birthday at my kitchen table, where I do most of my computer work....

Day 60: Deserted Treehouse

The boys haven't used the treehouse in over a year. I miss seeing them up there, playing and goofing around. They're growing up so fast....