Sunday photos: Rain

Easterners, are you sick of all the rain yet? Just remember last year, when we went 4 months without a drop.

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Here in Chicago I (Xan) actually couldn’t ask for a better rain schedule– it’s been a reliable 1-2 inches per week since mid April. I’ve barely had to water at all. Now if we could just get some warmth…

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Down here is South Texas we are seeing more rain than we have in years. Some areas to the west and South of San Antonio really got dumped on again Thursday and Friday…. all of it has managed to miss my yard (Sincerely, Emily.)

On May 24th & 25th we managed to get over 10″ – that is a lot of water….

Nope, not going to get out of the neighborhood that way.

We were unable to get out of our neighborhood for a while. we didn’t “need” to get anywhere, so that was fine.

No way out here either!

Things are dry here in our yard, so I have been back to watering. Storms keep popping up all around us, they just dissipate over our house (it seems) then build back up and continue on… I am glad someone is getting the rain in our area.

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Are some of you doing rain dances to bring the rain in or send it away?

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Sunday Photos: Grateful

Everyday there is something to be thankful for. Take a deep breath and just look around you.

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American Thanksgiving has come and gone, but I (Sincerely, Emily) do not think that is the only time that we need to pause and reflect on what we are thankful for. Everyday I look around me and can list many things I am thankful for. This is especially helpful when I am just plain having a bad day. I have been wishing for rain for many days, many weeks, many months. I know the saying, “be careful what you wish for” and I have to be really careful about wishing for rain in Texas because usually when it rains, it pours Texas-Style to the tune of 8″ + at a time. When it does rain “Texas-style” it comes down hard and fast giving the ground no opportunity to soak it up. What does that all mean? It means, that I live in Texas and we live in drought, with occasional flooding.

A few weeks ago my wish came true. We were blessed with rain. Three inches according to my rain gauge over a period of 24+ hours. For the most part it came down nice and slow, allowing the ground to accept it and start soaking it up. What a dream come true. The rain barrels are overflowing and the plants and trees are smiling. I am grateful.

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Two weeks ago my former junior coaching student and friend Dee had her second child, and is potting training the first. She’s not getting much sleep. My virtual friend Jo is in the throes of early tweendom. I just spent the afternoon with my grown children (24 and 27). As I told Jo and Dee,  new parenting and toddlerhood and the dread tweens is like childbirth– there’s an amazing person at the end of all the pain.

What are you thankful for today?

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