Icing on Top

I love this picture!  Just look at her!  She has a pleasant yet intense look on her face as she concentrates to perfectly swirl the icing on top of her red velvet cupcakes.  It's the icing on top that made these cupcakes go off the charts with robust flavor!  I love spending quality time with my sweet, growing daughter.  In the spand of life it is just a small portion in time that I have her with me.  She is open to trying new things & is always up for a challenge.  While icing those cupcakes I was reminded that the journey is not about perfection but about learning!  Don't loose out on the joy of the moment by focusing on perfection but rather embrace the process of learning.  Some things we will be outstanding at while other things we will quickly find is not for us.  The icing on top, what makes our adventure robust with flavor is the "Joy" of trying!  As for my sweet girl- she just might want to consider a profession as a pastry chef one day!  What an outstanding job!

The Window

I just realized...I learned to love the windows being open!  When we lived on the North Shore of Hawaii it wasn't really an option.  For those of you who know island life you know this all too well.  The year we moved just happened to be a year of low trade winds & to top it off I became pregnant with Koa!  A pregnant women with no breeze equals well, I'm sure their is a few choice words that others would use but I'll just say crabby!  

At that time I'm not sure I realized I liked the windows being open.  It was often so hot I opted for cold meals in order to not turn the oven on.  If you haven't figured it out there was no air conditioning!  There was the morning rooster that I had experienced only thru TV.  Didn't take long for the reality that they do crow before dawn to set in.  I learned to be an early riser.  Then there were the school children walking to & from school with my house setting right on the path & the bell only diagonal distance away.  I learned how soothing this sound could be when Emmy started school.  I would stop to think, "She must be eating lunch now".  Our house strategically placed in front of the beach park hummed an ocean sound of waters calmly crashing the shore.  This became the background lullaby to much needed naps during pregnancy! 

Windows open aren't all about sound you know.  There is an unbelievable aroma that at certain times drifts thru your window screens.  I remember the sweet scent of the most amazing flowers combined together.  We were blessed to have huge plumeria trees often picked from by locals to make fresh leis (a few of my visitors had the honor of these handmade with Aloha from my dear friend Melody)  And what brings a smile to face is the many BBQ's in the front yard  - what a heavenly sent of Hawaiian, Filipino, & Japanese, Chinese, Polynesian, & American  food combined!  Made me quickly leave the inside to indulge!

Today the scent is manure - Jonathan has put seed out for grass in our new back yard.  Quite a different mental picture huh?  Well life is like that.  It brings us different experiences & seasons.  I enjoyed the season of island life.  I left there to a place that quite frankly I don't have memories of the windows open.  Guess that's because they were closed all the time (didn't even have a screen door on the oversized sliding door that I could open when it was cool enough)  That season in my life felt suffocatingly stuffy!  I learned a lot, experienced growth I never could have conjured up in my mind , & then moved sadly on.  Sadly? yes - even in the stuffiness.  I grew to love the people God had planted in my life to help me thru the process.  Today I  do smell manure but it represents something sweet to me...I once again have open windows!  I feel & smell the beauty of life around me & it's absolutely  heavenly!  What stands out the most is the chime my husband placed on the front porch.  As I write I hear it & it takes me back to a special place.  Jonathan's Mamaw & Papaw have chimes on their back porch.  Their back porch is nothing fancy but it's filled with the greatest warmth you could ever imagine.  It is a perfect place...a perfect place for papaw's coke float, for morning coffee in mamaw's robe that we all snatch when we stay over, a perfect place to once again hear the stories of old that papaw retells in detail often resulting in the outdoors, a perfect place for mamaw to spread her smile & shed a tear of her love for you...a perfect place!  I must say having your windows open is much better than closed!  Yet each of us must go thru seasons where the window is shut!  How you choose to embrace each of those seasons will develop who you are today.  Let the stuffy seasons teach you how to be patient & persevere then when the time is right open those windows.  Enjoy the breeze, the smells, & the sounds!

A new sound is around me the sound of little spanish speaking children, the sound of sometimes gun shots, the sound of a city in need.  I am reminded today that in this season I must readily be available to spread the love of Christ outside My Window!  

The Beginning of a Journey

For those of you who know me well you understand that I am not the media savy person that my wonderful other half is, so with that in mind I courageously try to embark on the world of blogging!  Subject to delete at any frustration! 
So hear I am "The Journey of Discovery"


The definition of Discover:  to find unexpectedly or in the course of a search


Life is a creative journey that God has set before us.  Sometimes I find myself searching to learn everything I can about life.  It's a discovery of the smallest things such as how to accomplish a bakery stlye ever so sensitive high peak meringue topping for my lemon pies!  It's a discovery of what seems at times the much more challenging issues such as how to raise your children.   Sometimes the journey of discovery is fun & exciting like last week when we discovered a bear on the trail in the Sequoia Park.  Sometimes it is painful resulting in a  challenge bigger than I bargained for.  I love the moments I stumble upon the unexpected delights that come with the pleasures of life.  I credit those moments to living a life connected to Christ.  They are moments that I have not intended discovering anything yet I end up marveling at God, the creator of heaven & earth. 


This blog is intended to share my journey & thru the journey maybe you too will discover somethiing new!  Learn from each others mistakes & rejoice in each others findings!  We never stop learning...what's something you discovered today?