About the Domain

All five of the children have been struck down with the flu ... at the same time.

It could certainly be worse. It could be the stomach flu ~ trust me on this one; that is much worse! And perhaps by having it all at once we'll get it out of the house in a shorter time frame ... perhaps? And we're blessed with lots of reading material and plenty of yarn, embroidery floss and leather to see us through.

I want very much to write a chatty post, but since I can't seem to pull my thoughts together for that I thought I'd show a few things from around the domain.



I found this stunning pair of candle holders ($8 for the pair) at an after Christmas sale in late January. I love them; to me they seem simple yet elegant. The candles I have on them are magnolia scented. The sweetest scent surrounds me every time I walk by the piano.



Here's a view of the whole piano. The photos are JR's folks and grandparents on (or around) their wedding day. JR's younger brother had prints made and framed for everyone last Christmas.

Those are our hymnals on the corner. They are all the same, just different colors; the children chose the colors. :o) And they do usually sit right there or on the piano bench. We use them regularly, so it's nice to have them handy.

Oh, and the piano does have a music stand. We just took it off so it wouldn't block the nativity scene at Christmas, and I didn't put it back up yet. I kind of like the clean look of it off.



Downstairs, I seem to have a lot of black accents. I saw some pictures of framed monograms. I thought that was a cute idea, so I put our "D" in a new black frame my sil sent us at Christmas.

Here's the whole mantel. I like to keep it pretty casual since it's in the family/school room.

We had a lovely Valentine's Day. We passed out our "Be Mine-s" and "I Love You-s" over cups of tea and hot chocolate poured out of Bridget's teapot. We ate big, fat, warm apple-cinnamon rolls with our tea. Valentine perfection, don't you think? ;o)

And as my final tidbit, I want to share our evening of eclipse watching. We were very much hindered by cloud coverage, but we had a perfect evening nonetheless.


Brian settling in for some serious photography. He made his own camera tripod out of some items we had in the garage. Love that boy *sigh* young man!

Josh and Jon looking for trouble the moon! ;o)

Brittany in about five layers of clothing - lol - and her headband fresh off her needles.

Bridget styling in my crazy hat and unseen purple fluffy slippers.

We eventually got everyone settled in a chair , wrapped up in blankets and sipping cocoa. *I* got the rocking chair ~ mother's privilege ~ and so was blessed with a couple of hours of cuddling with one or another of the wee ones. Daddy was right below us fixing something in the sunroom located under the deck. He teased the little ones by coming up his ladder every so often and sliding his coffee cup under the railing for a re-fill. They thought that was very funny for some reason.

Even though we didn't get a very good look at the eclipse, it was enough. God's creation is breathtaking ... as is God, Himself! We gazed at the drama of thick clouds rolling through the sky while waiting for the moon to peek out. We shared stories (some from your blogs!) ;o), laughed, talked about God, and delighted in each other's company. Not bad for a cloudy night!