Tag: bees

Winter’s Bee

On By AngeliaIn Beautiful Life54 Comments

Winter’s Bee knows no rest.

Her instinct is to work.

Does she feel the cold piercing wind?

A breath upon her back.

Do her wings quiver at its touch?

Does she understand season’s end?

She must.

Why else would she continue to build?

To Bee?

It’s what she does.

She knows no other focus.

Winter is coming.

Work must be done.

Before, it is too late. For her….and for us.

Did you know that without a bee’s pollination human life could cease to exist?

It’s true.

But does she know that?

She gets no thanks from us.

We swat. We swerve. We avoid the BEE at all costs.

But truly? She doesn’t want to bother us.

She yearns to complete her purpose.

Saving lives.

Because really? The Bee is our unstung hero. Heh.

I think we could learn a lot from this fascinating creature.

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. – Ashley Smith

Wecloming the Day

On By AngeliaIn Beautiful Life, Days and Nights18 Comments

It’s been a rough weekend – moving. Need I say more? It’s not just the back-breaking labor of it (heh, labor – Labor Day – get it?). But the fact that I must accept help from others. Help cleaning. Help packing. Help loading heavy items and moving them from one place to another. Load and unload of those items. Most of which that have no place to go. Do I feel like I deserve that kind of support? That kind of assistance? A giving of service, out of love, out of family. Well….

No , I don’t want to burden anyone else, I feel like I should do it all MYself. But as Jason’s niece says (at four), “That’s ridiculous!” So, I shelf my pride, and I shrug off the chips of independence on my shoulders, and I accept. I accept the generosity. I accept the gratitude. I am humbly and eternally grateful in having this help voluntary, from the outpouring of kind hearts. Jason tells me, of course, my family is helping you. They love you. You are our family and will be my wife.

So, I let his step-dad fix the broken things. His mom clean the dirty things. His brother move the heavy things. I bow my head in thanks for family. A family chosen from loving another. How beautiful.

And today, I welcome the end. The final cleaning. The four-week countdown to the wedding and final preparations. Where do I find the peace and serenity God gives me?

My moonflowers.

One of the baby yard plants had a bloom last night. I felt as proud as the mama plant because I saved the little orphan by flagging it from the mower.

Here she is in all her little glory. Wow – to grow through grass and untreated soil – to just keep growing until the reward of opening her petals to the moon. And maybe that is how I feel too. Going and going and going towards that reward. That day blooming in the future; our marriage, our one home. The seemingly overwhelming details still to handle will finally be complete – and resplendent beyond imagination.

As I turned to go inside, after proudly photographing my little moonflower-that-could. I see a small bee on the mother ship. It’s not the ginormous Okie bee, but it is a busy bee. Something I will be today (and many others). All the wonderful hobbies I love – reading blogs, writing posts, and taking pictures. All on the back-burner as this wedding closes in. So bear with me, as I work my bee bum off and try to get everything done, plus work full time. I will BEE around, just very busy.

Have a bee-u-tiful day!

Sighting Home

On By AngeliaIn Beautiful Life, In my heart forever & ever29 Comments

**photos by Angelia

One-hundred and seventy-eight miles Northeast of my residence, lies a small Oklahoma town. Outside of town is an even smaller slice of country life; a blip on the map. Therein lies my home of childhood, at least most of childhood. It is different now. The trees are taller, the windows more obscure behind the smoky glaze of age.

Knickknacks have come and gone, although some still stand their place of posturing on the shelf. The carpet replaced; from laminate, to shag, to wood. Bathroom faucets spray from an unfiltered spout in a rough sideways fountain. The kitchen window no longer overlooks an in-ground pool. The pool long filled in. The back-yard tree canopies the view, casting over the window, a green filtering sunlight shade of leaves.

The small shrub plants a foot tall are now tree size.

The country made Bees love them.

Such beauty at work.

In harmony.

In peace.

Maybe they see you, and wonder your purpose as well.

A happy cottage beckons it’s promise of playful cheer.

Spring flowers long past their bloom bake in the sun, awaiting the turn of season.

Three hours of driving to sight home. Three hours to revel in the brisk nature, city sidewalks just don’t encapsulate. Sentiment, and wonder alive through the lens.

Joie de vivre cradled in a ripened era.

I, literally, could not put my camera away.

Home, not just from the dusty gravel road, but from the 55mm lens of grown-up aspect.

Midweek Morsels

On By AngeliaIn In the lives of children, Life is what you make it.42 Comments

Snippets of the past weekend ending with today.

Saturday night, Jason comes in from the back yard says,
“Hey, come look at this animal and tell me what it is.”

Yes, he is asking me – the animal expert – because I’m from Oklahoma? HA.
Of course, I knew what it was before I saw it. What other animal would be in the back yard in the city? Wait, don’t answer that, some things I don’t want to know. Well, let’s just say I’m not fond of rats. When I lived in Richardson we saw rats running along the electricity lines at the back of the back yard..eek! But I digress.


No this was a giant rat with a tail.

I was walking up to the tree stump to get a better look.
When Jason panics, “DON’T GET CLOSE! It might attack you.”
What? I respond, “Uh, no it won’t. It will play POSSUM. It’s a possum, get it?”
This whole thing cracked me up. He has never seen a possum? Really? That is so cute! Animals fascinate me. I thought it was cool Jason had a new pet. An outside one. Who lives on the stump and apparently plots attacks. This not a regular possum, oh no, this is a rebel! It won’t play dead. Rawr!

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Molly lost another tooth! Her third!


She was so excited. Her other two bottom teeth are coming in pretty fast. We took her picture and she had to show THREE fingers for her three lost teeth.

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Jason’s niece was baptized on Sunday. They live and go to Church only 30 minutes away, which enabled us to attend. She wasn’t like some of the other kids I have seen baptized. She really knew what she was doing and why. Her stance, testimony, and calm surrender was her statement. This young girl has a beautiful heart and soul. I felt very lucky to be part of her special day.

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I only had to manage one child with Sydney. Easy right? With my future step daughters, I am having to learn what it’s like to juggle two. For example, this is what I discovered on Sunday afternoon.

If one is playing Wii boxing…..

She is scary good by the way.

and the other wants to watch Barney songs…

I can play it on my laptop. Phew!

It really amazes me the technology that we have today. I know most people shy away from it with their kids, but I was raised by a Computer Scientist and Jason is one too. We love it.

See how that works.

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In the backyard, I found out we are most definitely in a new season – SPRING.


The bees loved the pink blooms. They were flying all around landing on different buds. It was much harder to capture than I thought it would be. I guess I need more camera training. Either way, it was beautiful.

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Saturday night was a night I will chalk up as one of my sickest times EVER. Right at 10pm, I was struck with stomach cramps so bad I could hardly move. Eventually I got to the bathroom and emptied the contents of my stomach and other insides, out of every opening crevice possible, off and on for about SIX hours. I was never so tired of a bathroom floor in my life.

Thankfully, I was fine the next morning. I have eaten since, just not a whole lot. It definitely made me lose my appetite. I was absolutely certain it was the shredded chicken on the nachos at Taco Cabana (food poisoning!) right up until, Sydney got the EXACT same thing, last night about 9pm. Hers has lasted about 17 hours (poor thing), but I think it’s on the way out. I have been giving her electrolytes and will try some soup next.

I find it odd the sight of my own kid puking doesn’t gross me out. I guess that goes to show how much we love them. She waited all night to puke in the kitchen sink next to where I was getting myself a cup of morning joe. Nice!

Get well Syd, get well. I sure hope that nasty stuff is done for!

Happy Hump Day everyone!!