change

It has been awhile. A long while.  And yet I see there are still devoted friends checking in vain for posts.  My apologies and my gratitude.  Much has happened in the past four months.  Much good.  Much I want to share with you all. 

I write many a post in my head and occasionally start a draft, but the truth is I sit down in front of the glowing monitor, I read other inspired blogs and then I am too tired to write, edit, upload, and publish a lengthy and thoughtful essay. I want to keep writing, photographing and sharing, though. And I will. But it is going to be a different genre of sorts.

Inspired by Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project fame, I have decided to try to keep a one sentence a day journal.  That's right, just one sentence. Or two.  But a goal with a boundary.  However, I am not wholly satisfied with limiting myself to words, so I would like to add a photo each day.  One photo + One(-ish) sentence to summarize and record the day. 

The new blog is called Small Beauties.  I took the title from a children's book of the same name in which a young Irish girl, Darcy, is constantly getting in trouble at home because she lingers over seemingly insignificant details in her day.  When the family is forced to come to America during the Potato Famine, their hearts are warmed and memories brought to life as little Darcy Heart O'hara begins to reveal the small treasures she collected from their everyday lives back in Ireland.  In the hem of her dress she has such little bits as a bead from her grandmother's rosary, a piece of stone from the family hearth, a moss covered pebble, dried petals of the flowers that had surrounded them in their homeland and even a magpie feather.  These small beauties are enough to stir the memories of the sights, smells, and comforts of home even in a farwaway place. 

Though I will maintain this Soul of the Home space for occasions of longer essays, I hope to keep steadfast to my new space so that we-my family- can look back and remember the essence and textures of our ordinary days.  Please join me, if you wish, at Small Beauties.