Life In A Glance

The last few weeks have been very busy, traveling, holding meetings, traveling, finishing school, traveling, and  - well, you get the picture!  I haven’t taken a lot of time to keep my blog updated, so I am going to try to catch up all at once with a lot of pictures from the last two or three weeks.

On the road – traveling through Atlanta {groan}.  The traffic is always dreadful.

Food and fellowship with friends – one of the great perks of being on the road!  :)

Field trip to the Air & Space Museum in Hampton, VA.  What cute little astronauts!

Munchkins just acting crazy for the camera!  Typical…

Peacock at the petting zoo in VA.  I am amazed at how gorgeous this bird is!

Having fun at the playground.

Boys will be boys.  And I love them for it!

Day-old baby goats in Ohio.  There were triplets, and they were adorable!

And, speaking of adorable… My baby brother entertaining us with puppets. LOL

Joint birthday party for the girls at Grandpa & Grandma’s house.

The girls sporting their new fashion scarves.  Ooh la la!

My baby girl is nine!?!

More crazy munchkin pictures! Love these guys!

Beautiful, fragrant yellow roses growing at a church in Macon, GA.

So, that’s life in a glance from my perspective.  Lots of wonderful adventures and memories, and I am so happy to be able to share them with all of you!

Spring Offerings

I love the advent of spring with all of its beautiful flowers and gradually warmer weather.  After the drab and barren winter landscapes, the buds, and bright blooms bring fresh life and hope. 

The Bradford Pear trees are glorious to look at, but dreadful to smell.  The kids have decided that they smell like  old fish.  Ewwww!   I am rather inclined to agree!

You can tell Abigail didn’t really care for the fragrance of the Bradford pear blossoms!  It cracks me up to see her picking flowers and holding stuffed animals while toting her sling-shot around in her hammer-holster!  She can be quite dangerous!  :)

Daniel, not to be outdone by his sister, wanted to pick some flowers for Mama, too.  The problem is, he isn’t quite tall enough!  He first tried to climb  the tree.  That didn’t last long.  Then he tried jumping and reaching for the lower branches, all to no avail.  I had pity on him and pulled a branch down to where he could reach it, but the stems were too tough for him to break, so he moved on to greener pastures.  Dandelions…

His little self-satisfied smirk makes me laugh!  He was quite pleased.  Looking closely at the flowers that were given to me, I was amazed at the ethereal beauty of these common blooms.  What a lovely gift from God!  Purity and simplicity all around us, available for our enjoyment!

Take time to smell the dandelions!  I’d hold off on sniffing the Bradford Pears, though!  :)

Home-Grown Decorations

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was pleasantly surprised by some spider lilies that were growing in our back yard this summer.  Yay for good surprises!   I had another good surprise this fall when we returned from nearly six weeks of meetings.  There was a giant bush taking over the back yard close to the fence, and I had trimmed it back this summer.  It had sharp, pointed leaves, and I had to be careful about getting too close, but I shaped it a little and had fun playing gardener.
When we came back in the fall, though, it was covered in bright sprays of red berries – it was some type of holly bush!  I was thrilled with how beautiful it was, and decided to bring some of the boughs in to decorate the house!  There’s nothing like growing your own decorations, right?

The best part was that they last forever – I guess because it is they are a type of evergreen. So a little water in my jar kept things bright and cheery in my kitchen!  I have a new favorite centerpiece!  I also put a few little sprigs in a jar on the window above my kitchen sink – makes me smile while washing the dishes, and that really is a feat.  :)

A Pleasant Surprise

Anyone who has ever bought a major purchase (think house or vehicle) has been surprised at one time or another.  My first car had some serious surprises.  We are talking no AC, bad vacuum system, among other things.  Our first house had some surprises, too.  Nasty mold hidden behind paneling, due to leaks (of course, they said there were no leaks), non-functioning appliances – you get the picture.  This house we recently purchased was relatively free of these unpleasant surprises (we saw them all before we bought it – well, except for the termites).

The other day, I was in the back yard, plotting and planning my landscaping makeover (this will definitely be a long-term project) when a flash of color caught my eye.  Over by our dilapidated fence, some beautiful flowers had bloomed beneath the Crape Myrtle.  It was such a pleasant surprise that I had to take a few pictures.  I am not exactly sure what kind of flowers these are, but I think I will let them stay in my little garden plot.

Aren’t these lovely?  I love nice surprises like this!