A Project: From One Spring to Another

Spring 2010: 
We purchase bricks for a backyard patio.

Summer/Autumn 2010: 
Lots of work.  Lots.  On Ron's part.  (Especially the part where he removes a blue million tree roots.)

(Click on photo for a closer view of the work in progress.)

Autumn 2010: 
New patio complete!  We decide to take the winter to mull over ideas for patio furniture and landscaping.

Winter 2011: 
Do I want wicker furniture?  That's what we have on the screen porch, so the porch furniture could be used if we need extra seating.  But do I want white?  Does white have a colonial Williamsburg-y feel?  How about Adirondacks?  They are rustic and comfortable  But they will take a lot of room.  Wooden benches are pretty, and fit with the look I want.  But they are way over my budget.  Hmmm... 

And about that landscaping?  HELP!  That is not my strong suit! 

Spring 2011:
Still undecided, I wander through Target's garden department one afternoon (I know my friends and family are shocked to think of me in Target ~grin~), and these wrought iron chairs catch my eye.  I have not even considered wrought iron.  Hmmm...  I love black.  The chairs are stackable, which means that they can be stored easily.  I can (kind of) visualize iron chairs in a Williamsburg garden.  And the price is way under my budget.

I ask one of my trusted design consultants who happens to be with me (Kati), and after we set up a mock seating arrangement right there in the garden center, and after we call in another design-and-budget consultant (Ron) to meet us at Target after he has finished at his day job, we go home with new patio furniture. 

Win-win situation! 

Spring 2011 (continued):

About that landscaping?  I am still crying "HELP!"

But we are so excited about sharing some Happy-To-Be-Together Times on this backyard patio! 

* * * * *

Linking up for the last week
of  Kellie's Spring Fling party over at The Blessed Nest...
celebrating all things spring!

 

Thank you, Kellie, for hosting this springtime celebration!

April Showers

If you have new boots that were 75% off at Target,
and you got an umbrella in your First-Day-of-Spring Basket...

...then you can get pretty excited about
April Showers !



* * * * *

Linking up again
with Kellie's Spring Fling party over at The Blessed Nest...
celebrating all things spring!



Food Fit For a Queen

For some reason, I was at a loss for what to cook for dinner tonight.  At the last minute, I decided to make fried potatoes (something I have done exactly twice in my life)...and suddenly I was a twelve-year-old girl in my childhood home! 

When I was a girl, my mom would sometimes make fried potatoes for weeknight suppers.  They smelled so good as they were cooking...but when they made it to my plate, I turned up my nose if they were too brown.  "They're burned," I would complain.  "I don't want to eat them." 

Unfazed, my mom would always tell me, "Queen Elizabeth's favorite food is fried potatoes."  And I would have to eat them.  For the queen's sake, I suppose. 

So tonight, we dined on royal fare.  And I remembered my mom's kitchen and the queen. 

Ten Mondays

Today Kati counted the Mondays that she has left in her high school career.  Ten. 

All year, I have been keenly aware of the "lasts."  Her last first day.  Her last math lesson.  The last new composer she'll study.  Her last Christmas vacation.  (You get the picture.) 

This is the girl who began homeschool at age four.  Her older sister and brother were 17 and 15, and Kati begged to "do school" too, so we eased into her school years a bit on the early side.  It seemed like graduation was such a long ways off, and I was glad about that. 

But somehow we are at the end of her senior year and, even though I'm still not ready, graduation is just over the horizon. 

And now there are just ten Mondays. 

A Weekend Breakfast

Even the avowed "I do not like oatmeal" people in my house (ummm...that would be me) are eating this oatmeal.  I can put it together in five minutes...and then have a whole thirty minutes of "coffee time" with Ron before the girls arise.

BAKED OATMEAL  Preheat oven to 350°.  Mix the following ingredients...  1 1/2 cups oats 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 1 egg 1/4 cup cooking oil  ...and then pour into a buttered 9 x 13 baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.

It's that easy!

This morning, I stirred in some dried cranberries and topped it with a handful of pecans before baking.

I plan to try it with other fruits too...blueberries? peaches? apples?

Yum!

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Update on April 19...
linking to Tri-Moms who are featuring
"Cheap and Quick Recipes" today. 

Changing Clothes

Around here, there is a sign of spring that is almost as sure as the warming breezes and the blooming forsythia: the biannual Clothing Day. The day that we sort through all the boxes to evaluate each little girl's wardrobe for the coming season.  (This includes my youngest daughter Bekah, 9, as well as my granddaughters Maddie, 6, and Alaine, 6 months, whose out-of-season clothing is stored here at my house).

It is a day of trying on and modeling and oohing-and-aahing and lots of twirling and posing and pink here and pink there and many, many piles.

Today was Clothing Day.  And here is just a bit of that posing.

One of the highlights of this particular Clothing Day was the hot pink gingham dress-shirt.  You may recall this post when I shared how Bekah rescued her size 2T dress from the quilting scrap pile by insisting that said dress could be worn as a shirt.  Yes she did.  So today each one of the little girls tried it on.  Hysterical! 



The general consensus is that it "fits" Maddie the best this year.  So far, the dress has been worn as a toddler dress by both girls, and two years as a shirt for Bekah.  Now it's Maddie's turn for the shirt.  I wonder just how long this dress-shirt will last?!  Will Alaine get a turn to wear it someday too?

Tonight, the changes have been made. 

Some old favorites have been passed down.  Some new wardrobe additions have been put in the closet.  Some pieces were discarded, and some were carefully folded and put back into storage to wait for another season.  And the twirling, posing girls are all tucked into their beds for the night.   

So much change. 

The seasons change.  The clothing changes.  My family changes.  The world changes. 

And someday, the heavens and the earth will change.  In fact, "they all shall wax old as doth a garment."  Like the bathing suit that we pulled out of a box today, the one that had lost its elastic.  Like the sweet baby dress that had yellowed. 

"As a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed."

Like the clothes that are no longer needed...

But He is constant.  He will not change. 

"They shall perish; but thou remainest...Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." 

***  Hebrews 1: 10-12

* * * * *

Linking up again
with Kellie's Spring Fling party over at The Blessed Nest...
celebrating all things spring!



Melting

Me to Ron: Sarah sent a few more pictures of Peter today. They will just melt your heart!

Ron to me: It's already melted.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It's simply amazing how quickly these little ones can find a home in your heart!

A Thought For the Homeward Bound

“It is God to whom and with whom we travel, and while He is the end of our journey, He is also at every stopping place.”

~ Elizabeth Elliot

A Burst of Springtime

sunny daffodils

shared by a friend

in an old blue Ball jar

 on the kitchen table

Happy Springtime!



I'm linking up with Kellie's Spring Fling party over at The Blessed Nest...
celebrating all things spring!



Me? Ready For Spring?

This diehard fan of winter is officially ready for SPRING.

The cold temperatures didn't make it so.  Neither did the wind, nor the snow.

The stretch of indoor days and indoor activities didn't make it so.

I'm not tired of sweaters or soup or hot tea or the cozy wood stove. 

So what has made my heart yearn for daffodils and sunshine and gentle breezes?

The Flu. 

I will remember this winter as the winter of The Flu.  The ache-from-head-to-toe-coughing-chills-and-fever-miserable sort of flu.  The hard-to-shake-it sort of flu.  The kind of illness that reminds you just how frail we humans are...and how very dependent we are on Him "in Whom we live and move and have our being."  And the kind of illness that makes "thinking about home" center more on the Heavenly home and not the earthly one. 

I suppose that makes even The Flu a good thing. 

   ~  * ~  *  ~  *  ~ 

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 

Colossians 3:2