Blog Tagging...5 Things I Can't Live Without

My Bible...this one's a pretty Preppy-ish one indeed...

My Passport...have passport, will totally-travel! To Paris last spring...

Gardening... in all the ways that I possibly can...here, our kitchen garden

Dobermans...loyal, devoted and truly sweet companions...

Girlfriends...true treasures and the only "sisters" I'll ever have...

Thank you to LC from Walking in High Cotton, http://www.lcinnc.blogspot.com/ for tagging me with the 5 Things You Can't Live Without...

It has been a lot of fun to see what-all people are posting up to include within this...

Since many bloggers have done the very practical daily items they can't live without like cell phones, handbags, water bottles, computers, lipsticks and such, I decided to frame my response posting towards the theory that if these particular five things were taken away from my experience with the living of life, that as a result, I'd seriously fail-to-thrive. (Aside from the obvious food, water, shelter, clothing, family etc of course...that goes without saying eh?)

Without further ado, here are my 5 things I simply now can't live without from the photos above:

My Bible. This one is an amazingly-Preppy pink, green and fun floral leather NIV I found in our church's bookstore a couple of years ago. It cheerily sits on my bedside table and I don't underline or take notes in it like my other Bibles so it remains a very "fresh read" for whenever I just want to pick it up and peruse through it....Psalms, Proverbs and the Old Testament prophets are some of my favorite books to just read leisurely. So far, I've read through the Bible three times and have been in numerous Bible Studies and ever n' always, there's something directly life-applicable for me within its wisdom. My spirituality is completely central to my life.

My Passport. I have been a traveling-gal since the minute my parents let me begin to leave home to go to sleepovers, to vacation with my girlfriends' families, to go to camp, to head off to college over a thousand miles away and to travel internationally. So far, I've now traipsed around over 30 countries and have gone through 4 passports. Last year James and I had a blast going to Paris, Toronto and out to Hawaii for two weeks. Every other year I head down to Australia to visit family n' friends for a month. One of my favorite places to visit has been Austria where I'm dyin' to take James and have managed to get myself there three times so far. I can't imagine not being able to travel but when I'm too old or feeble for it anymore, at least there'll be many many great travel-memories and photos to enjoy from those times-past.

My Gardening. This is another very-central-to-who-I-am thing I don't think I could live without. James jokes that even if I was living in a mud hut with a dirt floor, there'd be some kind of green thing growing, flower blooming even if it was dandelions...this is very true. Flowers and things-green really nourish my soul. Even before I had my own house and yard, gardens n' kitchen gardens I would be dragging houseplants all around with me from my childhood room to a few in college dorm rooms. Once married and in my first home, boy howdy, did this penchant for plants really begin to bloom! Interspersed within my bevvy of traditional houseplants are the orchids I cultivate, the bulbs I pack into pots to bloom off-season, the herbs I enjoy adding scent on sunny windowsills and various flowering small plants. Outside currently it's a big ole' 5-acre area out here on this island that I enjoy keeping fairly woodsy as well as have a small rose garden bed, a three-raised bed mid-sized kitchen garden with vegetables/herbs/cutting flowers and then assorted flower pots n' planters scattered around on porches and by the brick fire pit marshside sitting area as well. My dream-house is actually an English Conservatory "house" attached or detached to whatever final cottage James and I retire in ;)

My Doberman. It has been such a joy and truly an honor to be the "mother" of our late beloved Duchess and now for our current sweet fella' Kanon. Dobermans are such wonderful dogs who are loyal and incredibly family-oriented all the while independent in a good way, super observant, of elegant stature and just plain ole' fun! I never dreamed of having a doberman as a pet until James surprised me with Duchess many years ago...literally surprised me and I haven't looked back since. I may still at some point in my life also bring into our family an English Springer Spaniel, Boykin Spaniel or King Charles Spaniel, the kind of dog I'd like to have as well but for now, I simply can't imagine my life ever not including a Doberman within it.

My Girlfriends. Being the only-girl of my generation...yes, in my life it's been brothers and boy cousins and also...having the closest female blood-relative now to me being my 10 year old niece Amelia, gosh do I really cherish my girlfriend "sisters" and sister-in-laws. It's so great having females of my age, or thereabouts, whom I can laugh with, cry with, joke with, shop with, ski with, sit out on the beach with and alla' that good stuff. When my mother passed away seven years ago, so many of my girlfriends literally moved-mountains to be with me on her funeral day. Two even flew down from Wisconsin in time to make the funeral here in Beaufort, drove down to Bonaventure in Savannah for the burial then stayed over until late into night at our house back out here on the island even though they had an early flight out of the Savannah Airport the next morning and one had her infant daughter with her as well...now those are sisters indeed! I treasure my girlfriends from near, from far, from childhood now on into my mid-adulthood, from family, from friendship, from career, from church, from blogging and so on and so forth and heck, from just ole, "gosh, she seems neat...I'd like to get to know her better". You guys, er gals, are the BEST!

And so, those are my 5 Things I Can't Live Without for your perusal...

Please feel free to reply post with your own listing if you wish...