I can’t help myself. Spring is…well, springing up all around me and I just can’t stop taking pictures! Oh how I wish I had this lens so I could take macro to that next level. But, I digress.
I’m popping in momentarily to this blog in order to drop off some seasonal pictures that I don’t want lost and to list my utter gratitude for new beginnings and all the hope that it carries.
{blessings 603 ~ 608}
- spring meals full of fresh berries and long awaited greens
- fresh eggs for the perfect (my first) souffle
- leisurely breakfasts with daddy
- rays of morning light basking my children in beauty
- the first strawberry shortcake of the year
- fresh salads for dinner ~ a meal in itself!
Oh, my yard! Did I mention my yard? I have gardens! Beautiful, glorious, blooming gardens. I have hydrangeas ~ big, full mature, white snow ball hydrangeas ~ just started to bud at the front of my house. I have the first signs of Lilacs growing up the side of my house. I have spring blooming dogwood, cherry, and apple trees in the backyard. There is a beautiful glowing salmon pink bush full of apple rose-like flowers. I have no idea the name but am basking in it’s beauty all the same. There is promise of lilies and black eyed susans and purple cone flowers and clematis to come in the summer. There will be a plethora of daisies for my little Delilah to pick at her hearts content. And the bulbs…did I mention those? You really must take a look. All gorgeous from the first crocus to the daffodils and then the tulips. Even the weeds are at the height of their beauty! Have you ever seen such wonderful speckled lavender spots on the viola? And it’s dandelion season! Can’t even tell you how happy that makes me! Cheers…to my garden!
{blessings 609 ~ 626}
- green shoots promising the first spring flowers
- the first purple crocus rising up from the dead
- the sunny face of daffodils waving in the March breeze
- spring rains puddling in perfect drops on flowers
- walking to church and picking posies
- using collected antique jars to display children’s posies as art
- ground warming to dig in dirt
- worm play with littles
- hearing the first robin and chickadees chirping in the trees
- the biggest blooms of the magnificent magnolia tree
- little girls getting lost in it’s branches
- cherry blossoms against the blue sky
- the sunlight piercing tulips velvety petals
- newly bare feet trolloping among the flowers
- speckled violas against garden-dirty blue jeans
- recycled {free} seed starters
- newly bought, hope-inspired, garden seeds
- first shoots and the miracle of germination
And it’s almost Easter. There is no cheerier holiday than this. Practicing Lent and sacrifice in the last bits of dead winter only to celebrate with the Resurrection of Christ’s return just as all is coming again to life…words can’t describe. All around me are signs pointing to Him and my need of Him. Plants that look dead, never to return…we almost give up when at the very last possible moment buds spring forth. A beautiful picture of our black dead souls, foul with sin, are not left for dead but clothed in a new righteousness of a new beginning. Life is breathed back into us and Christ’s light cloaks the filth. We appear more glorious than the rarest flower before the King. And all we can mutter is, “Praise Him!” with heads hung in humbleness.
Because of the move and gathering our bearings here, we didn’t get to celebrate the fullness of Lent. But we do have a humble tree adorning our table hung with signs of life. The girls love it as do I. It is the bane of Adam’s existence as he gets daily tangled in it’s branches. But to me it is the perfect small touch that I can add to this beautiful new home.
{blessings 627 ~ 634}
- the King has come!!!
- broken branches that lend to traditions
- Easter pastels
- Beatrix Potter and her little lovely books
- playing easter egg hunting
- egg baskets
- offering myself for church busy bags
- Johnny Cash’s When the Man Comes Around
And then this amazing thing happened the other day. My kids came running inside yelling, “Mom, mom…there’s a baby cow outside!!!!” What? A cow? So I went to see for myself. There sitting on the other side of our fence was a baby girl cow only an hour old. And we got to watch her arise and take her very first wobbly steps. Can I just say my breath was taken away? ‘Thank you, Lord,’ I whispered. Right here in our own backyard the miracle of life.
{blessings 635 ~ 639}
- the miracle of new birth
- first wobbly baby steps
- squeals of kid delight
- capturing first steps on film
- long baby cow eyelashes…oh how long, and how beautiful!
THANK YOU, OH HAPPY SPRING!!!!!!
{blessings 639 ~ 646}
- light in the evenings
- playing outside from breakfast till bed
- new neighborhood friends
- bare feet covered in mud
- trampolines
- swinging high in the sky
- brave girls buried alive
- tree climbing
simply necessary 