This is a test!

The past few weeks I've had all kinds of problems with my blog -- pictures wouldn't upload, things would lock up, and other frustrations kept me from being able to post anything.  So I'm going to try to upload a few pictures to see if the issues have resolved themselves.  I have been participating in a 365 photo prompt challenge, so here are a few of the prompts and my photos for them.

Doorway:

Hands:

Sunset

 Peaceful

And here's some other favorite photos that I've taken in the past few days:

 The view from my daughter's 17th story apartment window on Michigan Avenue in Chicago -- sunrise last Saturday morning.

 This guy was quietly perched in our lilac tree when I got home yesterday.  I wouldn't have noticed him at all except that the chickadees were chirping like crazy!

Looks like Blogger is working again.  Happy Day!

Happy 2013!

 

First of all, I have been absent from "Blogland" for several weeks, mostly because life got really busy and because I was trying to evaluate whether blogging is still a good use of my time and energy.  I really considered calling it quits, but when I logged back on and started reading blog posts from my contacts, it made me want to keep it up.  It is a good creative discipline and a creative connection as well.

This tree represents my current word for 2013:  Breathe.  I say current because I usually fall off the word bandwagon after the first six weeks, and then when I revisit it in December I wonder what in the world I was thinking by choosing the particular word that I did.  But today I know that taking time to breathe (physically, spiritually and emotionally) is important for me. 

I always forget to breathe during Christmas.  There are so many things to do, to think about and to accomplish that I find myself running out of the essential resources necessary to keep going.

It was, however, a wonderful Christmas season filled with music, family, worship and fun.  Here's one version of our family Christmas photo:  Each of us chose a pose that represented what had transpired for us over the past year. 

Another time-consuming but very rewarding project I did during December is pictured below.  It was a commission for a friend's daughter with her confirmation verse.  I realize it's not the best picture, and they were going to matte it in purple,which will look much better.  But I loved the way it came together AND in time for Christmas (just barely).

 

That's a bit of a catch up for now.  Happy New Year to all my friends in "Blogland"!