Gardening junk

Boys in dirt (What?  You don’t do your Spring planting in your sock feet?)

Kids starting seeds

Girls in dirt 

Boys helping with the yard work 

Cat being lazy.  

Okay, so the cat is always lazy…    It is still nice to see Spring back again!

…When I should probably be doing something else. 

I’ve been reading: 

The Elements Of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White — This was a little gem of a book that I found at our local library’s most recent sale.  Although it was written and first published in 1959, the lessons that it contained are still applicable to good writing even in our computer age.  Who knows?  Perhaps even MY writing and blogging can be improved under their influence.

Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead — While this book claims to be the first book in The Pendragon Cycle, I have yet to see anything remotely related to that.  What Taliesin did offer was an entertaining story about the fall of Atlantis and its impact on one Atlantian (sp?) family.

Creative Cash: How to Profit from Your Special Artistry, Creativity, Hand Skills, and Related Know-how by Barbara Brabec — I’m still in the process of reading this one.  Barbara Brabec has managed to cover, at least in part, just about everything you could possibly need to start thinking about and researching in order to start your home business from your initial dreams and goals for yourself to local, state and national regulations, from selling from your home and in local shows to wholesaling, writing patterns and even writing and publishing.  I can hardly imagine that there would be much left that Mrs. Brabec hasn’t managed to cover and I still have a couple of chapters left to read!

The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum — What can I possibly have to say about this one?  This is typical fast-paced Robert Ludlum writing with all of the twists and turns that implies. 

Since Buddy loves to be carried around, but did NOT like the padded side rails on his sling, I made him a new sling.  This probably would have been an easier task if I had bought a pattern, but I decided that I was too cheap frugal to spend the money on one and just winged it.  The new sling turned out surprisingly well in spite of my lack of sewing skills and in spite of stitching one part wrong and having to rip out and resew several rows of stitching.  Buddy loves to ride in it and that, after all, was my main objective.   While I had the sewing machine and pattern cutting table out, I also sewed Buddy some new pants and worked on cutting out some toy patterns to sew later.  If all goes well today, I will get a couple of new blouses cut out and ready to sew for Pookie and myself.

The children and I picked up a book on gardening and have begun planning one of our own.  We even bought seeds.  Since I do NOT have a “green thumb”, I should probably be able to entertain you for months with all of the plants I manage to kill. :p  If you are someone who DOES have a “green thumb”, I would appreciate any advice you care to share. 

It seems odd that there was snow a week and a half ago, a warm and sunny Spring weather over the weekend and are now experiencing some flooding.  Weird.  Here are a couple of photos Ditto and Pookie took of our rare Texas snow.

Rabbit Tracks 

Snow-covered Flowers 

Eaglewood has been working hard to maintain his hero status around here (as if he wouldn’t anyway!).  Over the weekend he installed five smoke detectors, a new bathroom faucet and put in our new dishwasher.  He also helped me rearrange our bedroom so that we could eliminate a small bureau and make the room feel more open.  I spent most of Saturday running from store to store to get stuff.  Why is it that whenever you are just certain you have everything you need to complete a project you find out that you are actually missing one small item?  The children spent most of Saturday being entertained by our favorite air conditioner repairman, “Mr. Joe”.   We may have to officially adopt him some day.

Puddleglum will be seven years old tomorrow.  Where has the time gone?  It seems like just yesterday that he was a not-so-tiny newborn (a 12lb 13oz baby can NOT be called “tiny”)…   Happy Birthday to a special guy who makes us all smile EVERY day!

Little Brother Getting Into Mischief

It was a dark and breezy night.  Pookie was alone in her bedroom and Eaglewood and Ditto were discussing differing philosophies within the Church while the rest of the children and I gathered ourselves in the livingroom never suspecting that something was was about to happen to completely disrupt our quiet and homey lives.  Suddenly, Pookie ran into the room calling out “did I just hear…?  Yes! I did!” and flung open the front door to reveal…

The front porch, actually.  But ON the front porch was sitting…

Peanut!

Yep.  Our cat came back.  He didn’t even have the decency to apologize for all of the worry he caused.  He just proceeded to demand his dinner as though nothing had ever happened and then resume his position as our favorite orange rug.

In other words, life is changing quite rapidly.  For those who may not know, “the Beast” was our very large, very old, full-sized van.  It needs more repairs than we can justify spending money on for a van that old.  We are purchasing an older minivan from Eaglewood’s brother and his family, however, and are not without transportation.

Our cat, Peanut (a.k.a. Nutter Butter), whom we usually refer to as the orange rug has been missing for a couple of weeks now.  We think that the coyotes may have gotten him.  They have been particularly active and desperate lately.  I’m missing the little guy.

M.Z. (whom I shall henceforth be referring to as Buddy since that is what everyone else is calling him) is cutting teeth.  He has been chewing on everything and everyone he can get his hands on and drooling. 

Did I mention that it’s snowing again?  Well it is!  This time it is really coming down.  It is beautiful but quickly becoming rather treacherous for all of the poor Texas drivers around here who haven’t seen much of this stuff.

So Ditto, Pookie and I grabbed the camera, bundled up, and ran outside to take photos!  

While admiring the snow, we managed to spot a bunny, a pair of ducks (who unfortunately didn’t photograph very well in the snow and high winds) and a coyote who seemed to think we might be after him/her!  Notice the buds on the bushes and the green grass under the snow-covered bench?  Until today, we had been having some very Spring-like weather! 

I find myself thinking about Samuel’s too short life every year about this time. 

This year, at least, I’m not just dwelling on how much I miss my son, but also realizing that I really enjoy talking to people like my sis-in-law, K.  Why?  Because she’s the kind of soul who will call things as she sees them BECAUSE she loves you.  Those people are so refreshing.  

The day we lost Samuel, K and I spent  some time alone in my hospital room talking not about the “why would a loving G-d let things happen to good people like us” (she has M.S.), but rather the “why shouldn’t  G-d let things like this happen to us”.  Let’s face it, when you get right down to it, no one is really good.  G-d is good.  We cannot see the big picture that He is creating with our lives.  Only He can see and know everything.  You get the idea.  K was probably the only person I could have actually had that conversation with at a time like that.  After all, she was struggling with the loss of sight, the loss of feeling in her hands, and the loss of mobility.  She was grieving, too.

Now it’s been almost two years now since we lost our Samuel and I’ve had a LOT of time to think about the whole “why not” question a good deal more.  Do you want to know what I have come up with since then?

Nothing.

The truth of the matter is that I belong to G-d and He can do whatever he likes my life.  K would say it better, though.

Life is hectic.  The weather is… interesting today.  Eaglewood is traveling.  I’ll report back soon!