A New Beginning

Life has taken an unexpected turn for our family.  
From now on, stories shared here will be of the joys and adventures that Daniel, Santiago and I will be experiencing.

Dad is taking a different road and we wish him the best in his new life while the kids and I continue our path.  

Sometimes, life swirls you around unexpectedly and it takes a while to catch up with it.
But, when true courage is found and faith in Divine guidance is felt deep inside your heart, suddenly this new path is not so scary anymore.  
Hope and curiosity start to guide you forward and when we start to take those new steps in unknown territory, we discover hidden treasures along the way.  

In the summer, both kids got to experience the gift of letting go.  
Daniel raised a few butterflies from caterpillars.  
Amazing process for him to experience, and then we released them in the garden and watched them fly away and drink from the flowers nearby.  

Lately, my favorite quote is "Without change, there would be no butterflies"   I find this to be so true!

Santiago found a hurt gold finch in our yard and took good care of it for a few weeks.
When his wing was healed and  he was strong enough to fly, we had to talk a lot about what our next step was.  

In his heart, he was hoping to keep him forever in his cage.
We talked about  how important it was for him to go out and be able to fly in the sky again.  
It was not easy for Santiago, but he finally did it, he set him free with a sad face.  I'm so proud of him!!

 We still think of him sometimes, but when we look out and see goldfinches flying around, we  feel happy to know that "goldie" is free and heathy.

In the fall, we were busy collecting the fruit of our labor.  

Even though we had a late start in the season, we were able to harvest lots of fruits and vegetables from our garden and orchard.  

The two apple trees were filled with apples and the kids and I made applesauce, apple pies, apple crisps and of course, sometimes we just shined them and ate them just like that!!
They were delicious!

Plus, there was plenty to share with friends.

The corn was amazing...many different colors and varieties.  
We had plenty of homegrown Jack o lanterns for Halloween.

The kids had their own plot in the vegetable garden for them to plant whatever they wanted and they both wanted
was...... pumpkins!!  All kinds of shapes and sizes.  I have to say, for next year, our garden spot needs to get bigger, the pumpkin plants pretty much took over.

The little pumpkins decorated our front porch beautifully!

Advent time rolled around rather quickly for us.
Before we knew it, the spiral was up, and as usual, we enjoyed lighting it, feeling the healing energy of those candles and the comforting melody of our favorite christmas songs.



Our hearts are filled with joy when we are able to slow down, sing together and look into each others eyes in the darkness of those days.  We know in our hearts that we are so blessed to have each other and the presence of angels all around us is palpable.  We feel held and loved.

We had a chance to go to Florida for the holidays.  The kids  spent time with their dad, grandparents, aunts and cousins and from what I hear, they had a wonderful time.

I had a lovely christmas with my sister and my niece and nephews and a few times, the kids and I had our outings at the beach which were amazing!!

We dug big holes in the sand, deep enough to hide in them and the canals that Felipe and Santiago made were quite elaborate...the water was just right...not too cold, not too hot and we were able to swim in it in the middle of December.  Yes!!

Daniel and I had the best time building fairy houses and he loves to be buried in the warm sand.

Being at the beach with the kids is so soothing for me....the sounds of the waves, so relaxing and I feel more connected to them and to the healing powers of nature.  
It was a true blessing to be able to go there!