A Life Update

I'll try to post this as quickly as I can. These pictures are already getting stale. (I even looked and found an unposted-post about a zoo trip from April that I forgot about--perhaps I'll post it--post-dated of course--post-haste.) In any case, for those of you who rarely see us, barely hear from us, and nearly forgot what we look like--I'll throw you a "bone." And I'll even try to comment. But I'll keep it short. At least that's what I'll aim for.

Above: Pictures of Enoch and his birthday cake. It's hard to read because it's in Latin, but it's Exodus 12:14. Go look it up. I know you're curious what it says.
Below: The kids enjoying and sharing all the candy from the birthday celebration.

Below: Brendan gesturing and expressing how excited he is that his birthday will be here before we know it!



One thing leads to another: Enoch made Cyrus the cat a great climbing tree/scratching post, and he needed carpet with which to cover over it. I was ready for a change (and tired of my ugly carpet), so I told him, "Let's rip up the purple carpet in the hallway and on the stairs." Here's the before and after shots:

And here's the happy cat, who loves being so high off the ground, out of the little ones' reach. The purple carpet still doesn't go well with my interior (especially that orange wall, you're probably surmising.) But my interior is a work in process. (That sounds like a cheezy greeting card, doesn't it?)




And finally, I was going to do a separate post on our garden, but I figured if I get around to doing it, fine, but meanwhile, here's the herbs that are growing splendidly out front: thyme, basil, basil, basil, basil, mint, parsley, parsley. That sounds like poetry, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, and rosemary in a pot, nine days old.



S'all for now. I don't have anything about Enoch's trip to Italy and Greece. He returned safely and we survived and even did a good job keeping the housework up while he was gone. So we re-adjust again to the new summer schedule, and keep ourselves busy until fall.

An Above Average Day

Today was one of those days in which I would have liked to have a camera to document all the above average moments so I could just document an above average day. Nothing particularly special or overly noteworthy happened. My house is still messy in the places where I tend to have difficulty keeping from getting cluttered. Every laundry basket is overflowing with clean clothes to be folded. We had hot dogs and potato salad for dinner. And here I sit, after putting the kids in bed, knowing there's much to do, but I haven't posted on my blog in so long. So I wish I had taken photos to document the things like Rosalind in the back yard wearing day-old French braids and dirty face and shoes picking and eating any raspberry that showed any kind of pink color. And I wish I had taken the camera to the alleyway and snapped a couple of shots of my growing boys playing basketball or riding their scooters home from summer learning clubs while I carried Rosalind's push toy (and the baby) because she grew tired of it after half of a block. I wish I had snapped a picture of Brendan in the baby swing outside near the garden; he's almost too big for it, and he'll be a year old in less than two months. And of my husband, my hero, who is letting his curly locks grow a little, and hasn't shaved in a good while. He is working extra hard to prepare for the new school year even though it's still June, and came home and cut the grass, helped plant the lima beans, carrots, and radishes, and manned the grill for dinner as well. (Sigh) He's the real reason that today was above average. Without his support and diligence and positive attitude, I know I'd turn into a cynical, whiny, bigger-mess-than-I-sometimes-am. Ultimately, I know above all else that it is not my husband, but my Heavenly Father who strengthens me, sustains me, and gives me every good and perfect gift in my life. And I am thankful that He has given me this man as my mate. In a week, he'll be getting on an airplane and traveling for 9 days, and I'm not looking forward to his absence. I know I have come to rely on him so much that it will be difficult to manage without him. So while we're making preparations for his travels and getting as many i's dotted and t's crossed before he leaves, I'll try to remember to get the camera out. One of these days.

Two Words: Summer Haircuts!

With exceptions...

The 200th episode

As I sat down to write this, I noticed that on my records it shows that this is my 200th blog entry. That's nothing to serious bloggers, but it seems like a big number to me! Unfortunately, I have nothing big and special planned to celebrate my 200th episode, only tidbits of life to share and get everyone caught up.

But I'm taking suggestions for ideas of ways to celebrate on my blog for the next big milestone (the 250th? the 225th? the 201st?). First, what milestone should I celebrate? And second, what kind of contest or giveaway should I offer as a prize for a lucky winner? (I'm not kidding about that, by the way.) So send me your suggestions in the comment section. You can even comment anonymously if you wish.

Now, about the catching up of life. Imagine you're looking at a bed sheet hung on a wall and you hear the humming and clicking sounds of a slide projector:

Here's a photo of our unfortunate Easter eggs that were inadvertently frozen after they were hard-boiled. FYI: Defrosted hard-boiled eggs are a little bit funky. And as a side note: so far the fridge is still working. So far.

Here's the colorful result of my bright idea to tie dye a couple of white washcloths with the leftover egg dye, even though it's washable and didn't last:



Here's Brendan in cute bunny ears:



Here's Tristan in cute bunny ears:



Here's Rosalind in cute bunny ears:



Here's Julien in cute bunny ears (notice the absence of two living goldfish.):



Here's me in cute bunny ears:



Here's Enoch longingly awaiting his newest favorite domestic victory, homemade yogurt in a crock pot in cute bunny ears:



Here's a shout out to all you Lincoln Log lovers of the world (I love Lincoln Logs!):




Here's a cute picture of Brendan with anti-gravitational hair and a cute smile. Not only is he sitting up now, but he crawls, pulls himself up to standing position, and recites poetry:



Here's a couple of my favorite photos from Tristan's kindergarten trip to the Philadelphia Zoo:





Here's a photo of Julien looking smart at the special project fair where he did a presentation on the T-Rex. He did a fine job. Let's just say that next time I plan to be more involved in the process, but it's not easy since he's not an only child:



Here's a photo of our newest family member, Cyrus the orange cat. He was previously owned by a family that had to move and leave him behind, and he fits right in. Let's just say that Cyrus is doing a spectacular job earning his keep by destroying the mouse (and housefly) population:



Here's Cyrus longing to catch himself a night creature, and cursing the fact that he's an indoor cat with claws.



Here's Enoch with plaster all over his face, waiting for it to dry:



Here's Enoch looking at himself. I'm reminded of that little scene in Hamlet when the guy digging the grave has that great line. Sorry to all my AP English classmates that I can't recall the quote from memory. Someone look it up for me, please!



Here's Enoch looking a little plastered:



Here's a cross-section view of the purple cake with lemon filling that I made for Tristan's birthday:



Here's the cake being assembled:



Here's the cake being frosted:




Here's the cake in it's finished state, looking like a pop star guitar:



Here's the happy boy with his rockin' Birthday cake:



Here's a photo of a very happy, growing baby and a very tired momma who despite her hard efforts has a long way to go to getting her home organized and de-cluttered, as you can see in the background of many of these photos. (I can't imagine what keeps her from accomplishing such a task?)



And here's...



Ah, the unfortunate Easter eggs again. Has it really been that long since I caught you all up?

Although it feels like I've accomplished much in getting caught up on life, unfortunately, life just keeps going while I'm trying to get caught up and it never seems to slow down! I even took a nap today; we all did. We all needed one. Now were' off to get the laundry on the line, get more things planted in the garden, make homemade pizza...

Home-Grown Goodness

Yesterday's post was a word-snapshot of Spring. But Spring marks the beginning of the new growing season, and for the first time, we are planting early and late! Last fall, we attempted to grow raspberries in the upper portion of our yard. Eight of the nine mail-order plants died, and so we planted spinach in the fall in the raspberry patch to make good use of the open dirt. Since we had such a mild winter and didn't harvest the spinach, it came back this spring like gangbusters, and we have been enjoying fresh spinach from our garden. We also planted new raspberry replacements, and seven of the new nine are thriving.

In our big raised bed, we planted more spinach and lettuce, as well as peas (which we've never grown before). We're looking forward to growing tomatoes, lima beans, carrots, and beets later on, and maybe even some peppers or potatoes in containers. We're also planning on maxing out the front bed with herbs like basil, rosemary, thyme, and oregano--and any additional herbs we can find that will grow. So here's some photos of planting day. Our township delivered a load of mulch right onto the garden--for free! We didn't know what we'd be getting, but as you can see, it's good, dark leaf mulch that will make our garden very happy. And a happy garden is a domestic victory.

Above: Brendan growing like a weed!
Below: Who is that cutie pie playing pee-a-boo?

Why--Rosalind, of course!



Peek-a-boo!
Soccer anyone?

Mayday! Mayday!

As I started to read Proverbs 31 today, my children stopped me and told me that today is the first day of May. I didn't believe them at first. Then I checked my wrist watch. Can you believe it? April is GONE. (Sigh.) Back to chapter one again!

When we were little kids, my brother and I used to pick flowers from our yard and leave them on the front door step of our dear, sweet, old neighbor lady, Mrs. Bird. We would ring her door bell, then run and hide and watch her find the flowers. Who knows? They may have even been HER flowers. But we did it on May Day, May first. I don't know how that tradition started, or if anyone else out there in the world is familiar with that tradition, but we loved it. I'm going to see if I can do something like that for another dear sweet old neighbor today.

Right now the pink and white dogwood trees and yellow goldenrod bushes are in bloom, as well as azaleas and the remaining late-blooming tulips. We've also noticed the spring grass weeds coloring the world with patches of yellow dandelions, blue forget-me-nots, purple violets, and tiny white weeds that look like a variety of baby's breath. The magnolia trees have dropped their blooms and this year's crop of summer leaves are popping out everywhere. The car is covered with yellow pollen and tiny flowers from the neighbor's maple trees.

I don't know what the world looks like outside your window, but I hope you can pause and take a closer look at it today, and thank the God of all creation for His beauty and His glory. Life might be swirling and racing at warp speed, or you might even feel like you're about to crash and burn. But I'm just going to pause and praise the Lord today for such a beautiful May day.