A cool tag!

My friend Leigh tagged me with this really cool tag

the other day. Thanks, Leigh!

The rules: "With as much creativity as you can muster, show your heart in:

a picture, a poem, a song (or piece of music), a phrase (or quote),

an item of clothing, a place, and (just for fun) a Disney princess.

If you want to join in, tag six more blogs!"

A Picture:

This might be my favorite picture in the whole world.

This was taken at our last family photo session, and

as you can see, it is unedited. It's not a good picture

in the sense that no one is looking at the camera,

and Noah is not even with the rest of us, but it is so

true to our daily life! We are all laughing, and Noah is

swimming away.

"I fwimmin, Mama! I fwimmin!'

Cause, ya know, we're at the beach!

This is the real us-unstaged and in the moment.

A Poem

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

E.E. Cummins

Note-the lower case 'i's are not mine-that is how they are in every version of

this poem that I found, so I left them that way. And I put the poem to the

left side because I thought that made it easier to read.

A Song

Go There With You

I know you've heard me say these words before

But every time I say I love you the words mean something more

I spoke them as a promise right from the start

I said death would be the only thing that could tear us apart

And now that you are standing on the edge of the unknown

I love you means I'll be with you wherever you must go

CHORUS

I will take a heart whose nature is to beat for me alone

And fill it up with you - make all your joy and pain my own

No matter how deep a valley you go through

I will go there with you

And I will give myself to love the way Love gave itself for me

And climb with you to mountaintops or swim a raging sea

To the place where one heart is made from two

I will go there with you

I see it in your tears - you wonder where you are

The wind is growing colder and the sky is growing dark

Though it's something neither of us understands

We can walk through this together if we hold each other's hand

I said for better or worse I'd be with you

So no matter where you're going I will go there too

CHORUS

I will take a heart whose nature is to beat for me alone

And fill it up with you - make all your joy and pain my own

No matter how deep a valley you go through I will go there with you

BRIDGE

I know sometimes I let you down

But I won't let you go - we'll always be together

Steven Curtis Chapman

To listen, click here. It's on youtube, but there is no video,

only audio.

I love this song.

This song was sung at our wedding, after we said our vows, as we lit

our unity candle. It was just the singer and his guitar, very simple and

very beautiful. I can seriously think of several more songs that are

very meaningful to me, but this is the one that always comes to mind

first anytime I think about a song that's special to me. It might be

tied, however, with the Hymn 'It Is Well' and then a close second is

'Find Your Wings' by Mark Harris.

A Phrase or Quote:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.

It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes.

Charles Swindoll

I believe this quote wholeheartedly. I think I'm going to cross stitch it on a pillow.

Well...I might, if I could cross stitch.

An Item Of Clothing:

The only items of clothing that are important to me are

my wedding dress and the clothes my kids wore home

from the hospital. I didn't have my wedding dress heirloomed

and it hangs ruined in my closet. The beads have all turned black.

It looks like some goth nightmare. I am hoping that it can be repaired.

And I am horrified that I don't seem to have Sydney's coming home

outfit anymore! It must have gotten mixed in with some clothes that

I gave away. I haven't told Sydney yet-she takes these things VERY

personally and she's going to be very upset with me!!

I, for one, am upset enough for the both us. But

what can I do now?

A Place:

Memaw's house. She practically raised me. I stayed there every

weekend of my life, and at 16 I officially moved in with her.

Her house will always feel like home to me.

She is the reason I know Christ.

Our home is also special to me. Paul built most of it with

his blood, sweat, and tears, and there was plenty of all three!

I love knowing that he built it for our family.

For us.

A Disney Princess?

Ok, I guess I would have to say Cinderella. I didn't come from

the ideal home, although it certainly wasn't along

Cinderella's standards of bad, and there was lots of good too.

Then I met my Prince Charming and we are currently living

our 'Happy Ever After.' And realizing that that doesn't mean

always mean happy. It means living and loving and laughing and

getting through the rough patches together. For always.

Wow. That ended up being sort of deep, didn't it?!

I hope it wasn't too long-thanks for hanging in there with

me. It was really kinda a fun post to do.

Now I have to tag 6 people, so here are the lucky folks:

Kimber at A Day in the Life of a Girl Named Kimber

Julie at Foursons

Kelli at Random Thoughts of a Supermom

Erica at Scottsville

Konnie at The Dooley's

and

Tammy at The Cloud Family

I could actually tag all of you, because I would love to

read all these things about you! If I didn't tag you and

you want to play along anyway, please do so!!

TTFN,