Tag: florida

Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

God led us to this oasis (August Photo Challenge: Day 1)

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

It’s AUGUST. I don’t know how something like that could have happened. Funny, the chatter today about Fall being just around the corner. It sure doesn’t feel that way here. The crickets’ dusk song hasn’t slowed; one chirp blends into the next with scarcely any time at all elapsed in between. The humid air is thick and unforgiving, holding up so much water it’s a wonder the clouds don’t come crashing down around our feet. My toenails are brightly painted orange – neon, not autumnal; more like sherbet than like maple leaves. The inside of the car is scorching, and the seats burn our summer legs as we climb in.

This is not the crunchy and dry California summer. This is not the verdant green, sweatshirt-clad Midwest summer. But this is our summer. Our summer, and we are peaceful. God led us to this oasis, this palm-tree laden land where our table is filled with food, where the pool is clean and refreshing and ours to enjoy, where the row of windows in the living room look out over roads and into the sky, and not into other windows.

Sometimes, it’s hard to see that this is an oasis. Our families are thousands of miles away. I do not have friends here to laugh with, friends to share a summer afternoon with. I get lost trying to find simple places like the post office. The street signs are all unfamiliar. It is hard, sometimes. Hard to be so far away from what used to be home.

But mostly, somehow, I am peaceful.

God saw what was going on with Israel. God understood. (Exodus 2:25 MSG)

Self portrait - leather couch, sheepskin, sitting on floor - Photo a Day - August Photo Challenge

Image: Day One (Self Portrait) of the August Photo Challenge.

Life in Photos

Guacamole, anyone?

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

I keep looking at this avocado we bought at the Farmer’s Market yesterday. I can’t help it. It’s the biggest avocado I’ve ever seen in my life! Maybe this is old hat to Floridians, but in all my trips to good ol’ Denios in California, I’ve never encountered an avocado of such Biblical proportions. I felt a little like Caleb and Joshua, coming back from Canaan with those ginormous grapes.

I can already taste it with a little bit of tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, lime & sea salt. YUM.

Gina and Aveline with Florida avocado

Florida avocado size compared to hand

Life in Photos

“Pick an orange, children!”

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

More than a decade ago, during an extended-family vacation to Florida, we stopped at an orange grove on the way to the ocean. Rather than gathering around an orange tree for a photo opp like my Michigan Grandma wanted, we cousins were running every which way. In an effort to round us up, she kept repeating, “Pick an orange, children! Pick an orange!” It was chaotic at the time, and honestly not very funny at all.  But once parts of the family had moved to places like California and Florida, where orange groves aren’t exactly exotic, the “Pick an orange” situation grew comical and became a family joke.

So, here’s Uncle Chet in Grandma’s yard in Michigan, saying, “Pick an apple, Aveline! Pick an apple! No oranges here. Just apples.” I was laughing so hard.

Here’s to carrying on legendary family jokes to the next generation.

Great Uncle Chet holding Aveline, letting her pick a young apple off a tree in Caspian Michigan

Young apple on an apple tree in Michigan

My Dad (Grandpa "Bumpa" Jim) and his brother Chet with Aveline, holding a small Michigan apple Aveline had just picked off the tree

Guest Blog

Flying Back Through the Skies — Thank you Guest Bloggers!

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Tomorrow Aveline and I travel back through the skies to sunny, soggy Florida. I’ll probably cry taking Aveline away from her adoring grandparents and uncles.  She and I have soaked up every moment of this beautiful trip, and it’ll be far too long until we see them again.

(But Josiah, I can’t wait to run into your arms. Wait… running?! Who am I kidding? I’ll be the one limping along, all wrinkled and spat up upon, diaper bag pulling my shoulder to the ground.)

Instagram of Gina and baby Aveline wearing a sunhat - on Oaxacaborn blog

Anyway, I want to give a HUGE thank you to the wonderful women who guest blogged while I was busy watching Aveline’s Grandpops teach her to crawl. ;-) I’d love if you’d check out their blogs and add them to your blogreaders!

Life in Photos, Little Style

Aveline’s First Swim (30 Day June Photo Challenge – Days 19 & 20 – Summertime & Water)

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

It’s easy to complain about the weather. Yes, even in Florida, I am ashamed to say that I complain.

It’s too hot.

It’s too humid.

Granted, the humidity is pretty suffocating (83% humidity at 9 am; forecasted high of 98° with heat index of 105°), but when you think about it?  It’s actually kind of extremely ridiculous to complain. I mean, we’re living in a destination city. People pay money to come here. They pay money to experience what I take for granted.

So what would it look like if I stopped comparing Florida to California and started treating Florida as if I was on vacation here? Well, it would probably look a little bit like this:

Baby Aveline sitting on a chaise lounge near the pool

Baby Aveline in pink calico dress and white eyelet lace sunhat

No diving sign next to pool

Florida palm trees, clouds and rooftops

Baby Aveline's first swim in the pool

Beautiful, isn’t it?

This weekend was Aveline’s first time swimming.It was so beautiful to watch as the uncertain look on her face faded away and was replaced with a contented smile.

As she happily splashed, I thought, Lord, let me jump in to Florida. Wash away my uncertainty and let me trust your arms to hold me up so I will not sink. 

Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

30 Day June Photo Challenge – Day 8 – Sunset

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

30 Day June Photo Challenge - Day 8 - Sunset - Florida palm trees and sun flare

I missed yesterday’s photo (high angle shot). I lovingly blame a growth-spurting Aveline, who went on a sleep strike and ate hourly for fifteen hours. So you can imagine I’m quite glad to see tonight’s photo, a setting sun. It means bedtime is right around the corner. For how napless my bebe is, she lays her little head down obediently every single night and falls right asleep.

And every single night, I marvel at how incredibly blessed I am and how rich our life is. Like right now, for instance. Aveline is sitting on my lap, holding on to a wash cloth in one hand and beating on the desk with her other hand. She says, “Ahhh. Hahhh. Ahhh. Gahh. Eeeehaa.” while looking over at Josiah, who is sitting next to me clicking away at his computer. I think she’s singing along with Cary Brothers, who is softly crooning, “There is something about you baby so right / I wouldn’t be here without you baby tonight / If ever our love was concealed / No one can say that we didn’t feel a million things / And a perfect dream of life.”

Josiah gets up, walks into the kitchen and switches the light on. I hear the clink of dishes as he unloads the dishwasher. Aveline drops the washcloth to the floor and sticks her tiny foot up on the desk between my hands, still babbling away in her precious little voice.

“You’re the secret I keep, I just wanna be the one, I just wanna sing this song with you.”

[Click photo to view a larger version.]

Life in Photos

30 Day Photo Challenge – Day 4 – Clouds

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 4 - Clouds - Central Florida palm tree against the sky - Taken with a polarizing lens filter

This was an interesting frame to capture, because the Florida afternoon sunlight is ridiculously bright today. I couldn’t see anything on my digital screen, and facing into the sun meant I couldn’t see anything through the viewfinder, either. I took a series of blind shots — some using a polarizing lens filter and some without. I ended up selecting this one, shot with the polarizing filter, which I really love. It has an almost film-like feel to it, don’t you think? Ah, the days of analog. I think I’d like to start shooting with film again.

[As always, click photo to view a larger version.]