Thursday, July 9, 2009

In pursuit of happiness












All I have to do to find joy and happiness is follow the lead of my boys. I made calzones for lunch while they hung out with their daddy. We went on a short walk in the rain today. We missed park day due to storms. The sun came out later. We went to the lake. We saw fish bones, played in the sand, played water fetch with the dog, found duck feathers, and loved seeing a mama duck and her brood. We visited with neighbors while they lit all their sparklers at once. We went to the lake later with a neighbor friend to look for more duck feathers. We saw the sun set. We saw the mama duck and her baby ducks again, too. Not once did I try to clean Camden's face. He is all little boy and loves being dirty, feeling the grass under his feet, and sand between his toes. Happiness is everywhere, even with poison ivy. Last week Cliff and I went on a hike with the boys and friends. Cliff and I both got poison ivy. We're grateful for Jewel weed soap. Mine is almost gone (see the inside of my arm in photo) and never got too terrible. Cliff's rash is almost gone too. He usually has to go to the V.A. to get a steroid shot.

Now back to my happy life. Hope our happiness is contagious.

Love to all!!!

~Heather
xoxox

4 comments:

Jessica said...

Hiya Heather! I was just wondering what your philosophy is of "dog training"? For me, it's more important to have the dog trust us & such than to learn robotic commands... I'm reading a book called "Bones Would Rain From the Sky" by Suzanne Clothier & it makes a lot of sense... it's a slow read for me though...

Heather's Moving Castle said...

I agree with the trust thing with animals too. We use some set commands, but I use a lot of intuition with her. She is very perceptive. She reads body language and other signals well (as most dogs do). Thanks for the book idea. :O)

stholl said...

Interesting remedy for poison ivy, jewel weed soap? What a great invention. Years ago,Dale made RJ a wrap of actual jewel weed crushed up with a food processor. It worked like a charm...his foot was covered in poison ivy so he soaked his foot in the jewel weed wrap. The next day wore sneakers to play basketball. Once Alicia got p.i. so badly that her face was unidentifiable. Steroids had to be used. Glad to hear of your adventures in the wild. The boys sound positively geared up for fun! Great pics too.

Heather's Moving Castle said...

Burt's Bees Poison Ivy Soap is really good, but I found a soap on ebay that doesn't dry my skin out as much. Can't remember the shop name though. The secret is to leave the soap on to air dry and don't wash it off.

I bet people have been using jewel weed for years!!! I'd love to own a plant. :O)