Perfection in the small things

I've been checking email today because at the last minute I listed a bunch of stuff at Craigslist - some for sale and some for free. Have met some interesting people and enjoyed thinking of some of our pieces of furniture going to new homes where they will be loved.

At one time we had 12 kids and 10 were still at home. Now we have 12 and 4 are at home, with two back and forth between home and college. It just makes sense to have less stuff to worry about.

It feels good. And it felt good to give away our well-loved leather couches on which we snuggled together for hundreds of movies - to two grad students who could hardly believe their good fortune. We are dropping the separate TV/family room and will watch movies in the living room from now on.

I love Craigslist! And consider it part of my Proverbs 31 resources.

Anyway, checking my email and Rachel sent me this - I relaxed just looking at it:

Beauty in every grain:
For the first time remarkable photographs reveal hidden charms of ordinary SAND

7th July 2011

Viewed at a magnification of over 250 times real life, tiny grains of sand are shown to be delicate, colourful structures as unique as snowflakes.

When seen well beyond the limits of human eyesight, the miniature particles are exposed as fragments of crystals, spiral fragments of shells and crumbs of volcanic rock.

Professor Gary Greenberg who has a PhD in biomedical research from University College London said: 'It is incredible to think when you are walking on the beach you are standing on these tiny treasures.

'Every time I look through my microscope I am fascinated by the complexity and individuality created by a combination of nature and the repeated tumbling of the surf on a beach.'

Prof Greenberg, who searches through thousands of tiny rocks with acupuncture needles to find and arrange the most perfect specimens, then uses a painstaking technique to create his images.

He has spent five years searching the globe for remarkable sand grains like these to photograph.

He said: 'Extreme close up photography normally gives a very shallow depth of field so I had to develop a new process to make the pictures that I wanted.

Read more - and see more pictures - at the Daily Mail

Things went well today. The truck is packed with the first load thanks to our sons, son-in-law and gradsons. Boxes courtesy Maddy and Sophia.

I will send off Jesse and Daniel to summer camp tomorrow morning, drop Justin at Tae Kwon Do camp, go to Leesburg to pick up the key at 8:30, then meet Tripp, the truck, my son Josh and his five employees (whom we hired for the day) to start the first unpacking.

Tonight will be the last night here. There's still a lot of work to be done - but I am feeling like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.