Coming Home

Photo by Erin Dietrich

I'm addicted. I'm admitting it. The Pioneer Woman's blog is hard to resist. Ree Drummond is the Pioneer Woman. She's a modern day Martha Stewart, but oh-so much cooler. She is a Jack-of-all-trades... posting everything from cooking tips, reader recipes, photography lessons & assignments, to the daily happenings in her busy life. She and her husband live on a ranch with their four kids (who she lovingly refers to as her "punks") and it seems there is never a dull moment. You could read one section of her blog and be entertained for hours. Me, I've become absolutely addicted to the photography crash courses and her weekly photo assignments. She invites her readers to submit photos (she gives them a theme) and then she posts the ones that speak the loudest to her. They are fun and always make me laugh or smile as I troll through the pictures. This week's assignment was coming home, which obviously can mean a lot of different things for many different people. She's honoring those who have served our country, and their families and friends who have supported them along the way. I bet that this series of photos will certainly move you, as they have me. They are inspirational at the very least. Amazing.

  click pic to learn more about Ree...

moments in life

A good family friend of mine, Wistar Murray, is the creator of this blog. I just finished reading her most recent post, on the power of bird poop. I highly recommend it.

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do one thing today that will make a stranger laugh

i dare you

catching up

Driving home today I started thinking about good friends in my life that I adore, but who I haven't talked to in awhile. We've emailed, texted, and left voice mail after voice mail...but never seem to actually connect with the other.  It's a new world filled with technology that helps us stay better connected than ever (ichat anyone?) yet enables us to screen calls and voice mails -- replacing them with the impersonal text responses and to the point emails.

Whatever happened to those days where we picked up the phone, even for a minute, to say hi? Or wrote a long, ink smudged letter to catch up with an old friend. For some reason, chit-chat looks better sketched in ink, than it does on the face a phone or computer screen.

It's not to say technology isn't incredible -- it certainly has a place in my heart. It's just to say that sometimes it's nice to hear a friend's voice, or open a mailbox to a handwritten, postmarked note.

My hope for the world is that we all start taking more time to reconnect, really connect, with the friends and family that matter to us. Today is the most important day we have, or will ever have. It's best not to let it pass you, or your cherished relationships, by.

Cheese!

There are people in life that you look up to. Patricia Lyons is one of mine. She is a self-taught, bad ass photographer. She has three kids, an addicting energy and quick wit. Oh -- and she has an incredible blog that will inspire your every day. Her wedding slide shows have the capacity to make you cry, her editorial photos will capture you, and her daily anecdotes about life and kids will make you smile. She is, in a word, awesome...

She just sent me this picture of her dog eating one of her peonies this weekend...hilarious. It was snapped with her iphone... and I have a feeling it was this picture that inspired her latest blog post. So check out her blog, but don't say I didn't warn you.. I have no doubt you'll be immediately addicted!

Hey YOU