Longing for Elyria of Yesteryear

This past weekend I had the opportunity to hang out with a client and her family after their family shoot at an ice cream shop in downtown Chagrin Falls.  While walking to the ice cream shop from their van I window shopped and people watched on an Indian Summer-esque November evening.

American Flags were flying, people were laughing & catching up with friends on the street, patrons were darting in and out of shops, families were bicycling and I have to admit, it made me sort of sad.  I couldn’t put my finger on why such a scene would make me sad, so I just shrugged it off.  Thinking I was just seeing all the families and here I was with a client and hers.  I was ready, after a long day of errands & work, to go home and enjoy mine.

While in the ice cream...

Read more

Learning about life from dead leaves

I love Autumn.
I love the crispness in the air. I love the abundance of apple cider. I love all the colors.

But it takes a child, who is growing into a beautiful young woman to make me truly step back and see the joy in this season. To see the beauty in a bunch of dead leaves that are destined for the compost pile.

Instead of worrying about dirt, bugs, or anything else…she just was enjoying the breeze and tossing some leaves around in the warm autumn sun.

Thank you Ariel, thank you for helping me to slow down yesterday and just appreciate all those scattered leaves with you.

...

Read more

His Name is Logan

This past weekend I got a call from my surrogate Mother in Law, Gail. I knew something was wrong when I didn’t the get the cheerful and usual “Hi There!” When I answered the phone. She asked if I had seen the news, and since I was wrapping up a jewelry party at the time, I replied no. Thinking that maybe that something had happened, but not ever imagining the next words coming out of her mouth would be “Turn on Channel 8, the Logan that they are talking about it our Logan, Sherri and Jason’s Logan.”

I frantically began searching for the remote that had been moved in a...

Read more

The Cell Phone Debate

Two years ago, when our older daughter was twelve and a half we decided to get her a pay as you go cell phone.  She had various activities that took her all over the place and so it seemed the logical choice. After realizing that it was costing us about $30 a month to have her call us & tell us she was ready to be picked up or that things were running late we decided to put her on the family plan.  

I admit, I was leary at first to put a contract with her cell phone number.  What if it didn’t work out? What if she messed up? Do I want to be committed to our cell phone company for an extra two years? Thankfully for us the answers were great, she hasn’t, and we love our cell phone provider.  We did, however, decide to add family texting to our plan as she...

Read more