Holding the little ones

Holding onto little ones, whether they want it or not.

First my youngest granddaughter being held by her mom, Michell and my son Russ, while unhappy Kate was teething. 

One of my favorite photos of my family when Russ had just been born, with his older brother Marty on my lap, and their father, Doug behind me.

Michelle holding her niece, Aby, and her daughter, Audrey...an armful of cousins!

My grandson William being held by Marty, all grown up!

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week! - though a bit late to the show!

Sports and grands and critters

 

As a high school junior, my youngest granddaughter was a member of the State Championship girls Lacrosse team in Columbus OH. 

She also played hockey.

She and her 2 older sisters (not in photo) also had started out with gymnastics very young. Here Kate is kneeling to left of the trophy with pink hairbow.

My son Russ is their father. Here he is in a yearbook photo from the 1980s...see the curly haired guy in front row center? Russ is behind him leaning toward him to the right.

My three Florida grands were more interested in video games than sports...and loved visiting Disney etc. theme parks. They know more about technology than I could imagine!

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week!!

And Alan Burnett our host says:

It's a team game, one where we all pull together, one where we share our favourite old photographs with fellow enthusiasts. That's Sepia Saturday - and that is also our theme for this week.  as this is Sepia Saturday, however, it is not like most other games. There are no rules. You can therefore either follow our theme image or completely ignore it. It's up to you. All we ask is that you share an old photograph on or around Saturday the 20th September 2025 and add a link to the list.

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For Saturday's Critters - sorry, I haven't been out much, nor interacted with any animals! Old internet photos here!

Maddie at Joe's Cutting Crew. (My photo!)

West Indian Manatees

Autumnal Equinox is Monday Sept. 22, 2025

Brothers

 

Three year old Marty didn't know what to think of the tiny brother Russ who his mom (me) brought home from the hospital just a few weeks ago.

A few years later found a wintertime visit of these same brothers and mom to Disneyworld.

The shot on the left shows Russ as an active 6 year old upside down on a palm trunk. On the right the brothers discuss what the Hillsborough River below might have as adventures for them. We were camping in Hillsborough State Park in the spring, and the bull alligators calls kept us awake half the night. We had been assured our camper van in the campground was safely far away from the river banks where their interests lay.

A few years later, Marty was on leave from the Navy, and there was a new half-brother, Tai, with a different father.

Here I'm on the left, and Russ, once a tiny baby, or an upside down acrobat, then was a college student at Georgia Tech,  Brother Tai and mom visited cousin Zach in Houston TX (on r.) Cousin Lisa and Aunt Mary aren't in this picture but were a big part of the visit (as well as grandparents Rogers.)

Then Marty got married, with Russ on far right, and Tai on far left.

And in the course of events, I had grandchildren!

Here oldest grandson in plaid (brother from another mother) hugs his little sister while their brother also checks out dad who's shooting the same photo.

One of my favorite photos of my three sons, when Russ (on l.) got married, with now grown up Tai (in middle) and Marty (on r.) Sorry, couldn't find the copy that didn't have lots of reflections on it.

There are now three granddaughters to add to my family! But this is about brothers...so let's have sisters sometime soon!

Sharing with Sepia Saturday. 

Posing for a photo

I've got lots of relatives (and friends) who've stopped for a moment to be captured in a photo.  So which one will I share this week with the Sepia Saturday folks?

My grandchildren...back in 2017. Yes, that's only 3 years ago, and yet so much has changed. Michael, Cayenne and William. They are my son, Marty's children, all grown up now.

And also in 2017, these bathing beauties are also my grandchildren (3 of them) and their cousin. From left, Audrey, their cousin Aby, Caroline and Kate, my son Russ' children and his wife's sister's daughter.

Summertime, posted by Clementine on Facebook!

Today's quote:

To Begin With, the Sweet Grass

by Mary Oliver

1.
Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat of the sweet grass?
Will the owl bite off its own wings?
Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or forget to sing?
Will the rivers run upstream?

Behold, I say–behold
the reliability and the finery and the teachings of this gritty earth gift.

2.
Eat bread and understand comfort.
Drink water, and understand delight.
Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds
who are drinking the sweetness, who are thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.
Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

And someone’s face, whom you love, will be as a star
both intimate and ultimate,
and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.
And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:
oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two
beautiful bodies of your lungs.

3.
The witchery of living
is my whole conversation
with you my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.

Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.

It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of the single heart.
It’s praising.
It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life—just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another.

4.
Someday I am going to ask my friend Paulus,
the dancer, the potter,
to make me a begging bowl
which I believe
my soul needs.

And if I come to you,
to the door of your comfortable house
with unwashed clothes and unclean fingernails,
will you put something into it?

I would like to take this chance.
I would like to give you this chance.

5.
We do one thing or another; we stay the same or we change.
Congratulations if you have changed.

6.
Let me ask you this.
Do you also think that beauty exists for some fabulous reason?

And if you have not been enchanted by this adventure—your life—
what would do for you?

7.
What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.
Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.
That was many years ago.
Since then I have gone out from my confinements, though with difficulty

I mean the ones that are thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment somehow or another).

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.

Last day in Brandon FL

Saying goodbye to my grands, Will and Cayenne.  She's going back to college, he's continuing work in Temple Terrace. My other grandson, Michael, is busy working or playing computer games.

My favorite Florida sky view!

Neighbors got into decorating!

Another neighbor also decorated their yard.

We joined a bunch of other folks parking near a movie theatre.

We had already purchased our tickets...to Star Wars! I noted that the previews didn't include Little Women...what's going on? Many mothers and sisters of all the SW guys might have wanted to go to it, (like me.) I liked the movie, but came home pretty confused. Will have to watch it again sometime to straighten out who is on who's side.

I love this little Roman guy!

Here comes my son, Marty after parking the car!

We could smell the delightful popcorn, and walked right by it, saving our money!

Budding...care for the delicate beauties around us

Post-Beltane thoughts - Wonderful ritual the other afternoon (Sunday) for Beltane. Women sharing their younger self stories...then singing...then dancing.  I left a bit early, and missed doing a Maypole dance.  They are so colorful and fun, but my energy went down after our meditation on our younger girl selves.

I got in touch with my 12 year old budding self. It brought back the old feelings related to criticism, pain (emotional and physical from no medical care) and lack of support for the delicate flower that was me...and it left me in tears.  I had a hard childhood, and many of the other women did too.  We all had one thing in common, that we survived, and thrive today.

And I was given a flower crown, though I missed making one for myself.  I am thankful for the thoughtful gift from one of our leaders of the ritual.

My thoughts are still dealing with how a budding beautiful child needs to be given nourishment...and I think today of my wonderful grandchildren.  And I also remember the sweet boys that grew into the men that are my sons.

Marty

Marty

Me and Russ

Me and Russ

Tai

Tai

Russ

Quote for today:

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

JESUS

Twas the night before

Not only all the presents to prepare for an extended family, but a dinner at a family member's home nearby, with lots of people to take presents for that occasion!

Fortunately this year, this household is going to grandma's for Christmas dinner.  So today's cooking was just a batch of gingerbread cookies (for Santa of course.)  That was after my 10-year old granddaughter made waffles for breakfast!

The house where tonight's party was held!

Our hostess

Our host holding his youngest son while oldest looks on

A right Jolly old Elf

She trimmed the carrots for the reindeer

And arranged them in an "R" on the front porch

While the littlest peeled the paper off the candy cane

Which promptly melted in the hot cocoa that had been prepared by sister number 2

Yes there are the gingerbread men for Santa as well.

Hair and teeth brushed and ready for...

A shared reading of the Night Before Christmas...then to bed for the kids, and you know the other little mice tiptoed around late into the night, aka parental Santa impersonators.