Beauty all around us...

The other night was opening day of dove season and the beginning of my husbands favorite time of year. We have been going dove hunting together since we were dating and have never missed an opening weekend.  It is definitely a different experience now that we are taking 3 kids with us but I wouldn't miss it for anything.  It is a big part of the marking of time passing for me... 

Amanda's Pointing Arrow aka M-Dog, Hollywood, Dingo and Mandy

 This year I couldn't help but be a bit nostalgic about the passing of time.  Mandy is my first baby, my puppy baby and we picked her out before we were even married.  The funniest thing is that she is called flash for good reason.  While she is supposed to be a hunting dog she has always been a big time runner and would put miles on before my hubby was even ready to start walking. 

 This year she didn't run very far and even spent some of the time sitting in the truck.  I have always known that her life expectancy is 11-15 years and that she is 13 but this hunting trip made me really start to think about how life without my "m-dogg" will be so different and so sad.

 This was also the second year of our "awesome dove spot" being less than stellar.  This required us to change location for hunting.  It was different but still the same.  I couldn't help but think about how that related to my personal life in that we are moving at the end of the month.  

I will still be living with the same people, having the same job and doing the same things but all from a new address.  I know that it isn't that big of a deal but I am leaving my nice little house to move to a bigger "project filled" house.  I am leaving the house were I brought my babies home from the hospital to the house where I will watch them graduate from high school.  

This year also marked the first year of all my kiddos being in Sunday School.  It was definitely different to be teaching a Sunday School class vs. participating in a mommy and me bible study.  This year was also the first time in a long time that I worked on art projects just for my personal enjoyment (and had one selected for show).   

All this passing of time and these changes are making me think about how quickly life goes by and how important it is to slow down and enjoy the little things in life.  Like the laughter of our children, the joy in our students when the enjoy something, the beauty of where we live and the time we can spend doing things we love! 

Hope the rambling wasn't too much and the prairie pictures were worth it!   Have a great day!