blessings...

After a week of rain, it was pretty sweet to wake up to a clear sky and sunshine this morning! Not that I mind the rain. It's refreshing, and makes things green, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing! So the grass is very green, the dandelions are racing out onto the lawns, and now we have some blue skies. (Nice color combination :) Plus, it is Sunday, so we had time to relax together and Kirby and I just came home from a little stroll in the evening sun. Enjoying our big dreams and the little plans we have for along the way. It's a treat to be able to just talk together! From day to day, almost all of our practical discussions seem to be emails. This seems a bit strange to me since we are married and live together. And maybe it really is strange; who knows? I think this is just how it happens because Kirby often works in the evenings, marking papers or going to meetings. Between that, and soccer for three children, etcetera, we don't actually have a ton of...

Believe it or not- these, too, can be a blessing. Here's how I felt it this weekend... We went to Waterton with our children (and the dog- of course). This was yesterday. Naturally, I brought a small variety of fleece, rain jacket, windbreaker, down vest-type protection against the almost inevitable wind one expects to find in this beautiful place- especially at this uncertain season of the year! Imagine my delighted surprise when we found ourselves visited by these insects. It was a little peace offering from the usually gusty weather. I took it as such, and soaked up the warm sunshine. Ahh. I should add that the rest of the day out was pretty perfect; it wasn't just the mosquitoes that made my day! We'd brought bikes, and my family really enjoyed riding there... I enjoyed one of my favorite pictures- my crazy children on a playground... I had that lovely strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone so freshly made that it was a little chewy in one of the folds. :) We roasted s...

Not only do we walk together, blown all over town on the creek path, we chat and do other things together. For example, today she came in and helped me hang some pictures that had waited too long to make it up on to the walls. And we looked at wedding pictures, and we share little things, like hand-me-downs and beauty products and tips! (Keep watching, I am learning! ;) She is very crafty, and gives me nifty little things she's been making. We shop and exchange recipes, and so on. It's nice to have friends who care, support, and are interested in me and my life. We all have people whose kindness and company we can easily get used to and take for granted... But a real and trustworthy friend is too good a gift to enjoy without a thankful heart, if we stop and think about it for a moment! And I am going to say it- I am grateful for the fierce wind, if only because it keeps this awesome little town from becoming overpopulated, and it blows the bugs away.

When our children were little, they were early risers. That is putting it mildly, actually. Imagine our delight, hearing their little bellows from the crib, or voices at our bedside after an adventurous night of being up with the little dears. And they still wake up early most mornings, relatively speaking... Except Jack, who is growing so fast that he is often happy to sleep as long as he can. I, myself, have a great appreciation for the little luxury of waking up slowly. Naturally, I am regularly obliged to deny myself this small pleasure, which is fine. However, I sometimes get up and become 'functional' for all practical purposes, while remaining rather sleepy. Between 6 and 830 am, all I normally manage to meander through on a typical school morning is prayers, scriptures, and various culinary activities performed in a very random-abstract fashion. That's it. And don't misunderstand me; when I say culinary activities, I am referring to the early morning type- putti...

Yes, I'm afraid I am still raving about the glories of 'spring time, the only ring-a-ding time'... :) I remember a sad book, I think some kind of WWI chronicle? (is that right Dad?)... called 'And No Birds Sang'. It's a simple little thing, easy to not even notice. But when I heard that book title it hit me pretty hard; that says a lot. I seldom hear birdsong during the winter. I suppose they are all wiser than the rest of us and get as far away as they can from the cold. Or maybe the wind just blows them away in the November gales? This morning, though, I felt my heart light when they were singing outside. It seems so say 'Be happy!' I notice I'm sounding like Snow White or Cinderella in a Disney film, so I'll move on... The frogs are next on my list of happy spring sounds! First, I am amazed at how loud they are, being small enough to sit on a penny. The other night Emma and Kirby were out riding bikes, and stopped by the big frog pond, in the...

I had the pleasure this morning of opening my sleepy eyes to sunshine in a beautiful blue sky... So I feel pretty rich today. And I am thankful for the emotional anti-gravity drug- hope! I can take it as often as I choose... I can bravely face anything hard or scary, as long as I can maintain hope that it will get better somehow, sometime. I came into my life with a pretty hefty dose of this, and it has only been pretty recently that I've realized how renewable a resource I have here! I am also grateful for our dog. He is sweet, easygoing, and really funny sometimes. Like when his favorite ball is on the scene! Plus he's easy to look at- tall, blonde, big brown eyes... Hee hee. (As Katie says,  "Who's a good boy?" Jasper is.  :)

Today I am happy enough just because the sun is so warm that I went out with no jacket, or even a sweater, and I was warm!!! Can I even say how delightful this was? (Probably not :) Then, I got even happier because I made some headway in my house, which had been a while coming. I hadn't really 'recovered our home from spring break. I think I am the only one concerned about this, and everyone else helps out and thinks it's all just peachy. But I felt unsettled and, honestly, a bit incompetent when I didn't have a handle on keeping house like I like it. So now I'm satisfied that the ball is rolling here...  And to top it all off, I am grateful today for the family garden we planted last night! It was so enjoyable because the sun was warm, the evening breeze was gentle, and the birds made it all sound pretty idyllic! (Even the crazy woodpecker, who just kept making us laugh :) We are almost done eating the last of our dill-pickled carrots and beans from last year...

Naturally, I am grateful for my amazing mother. It has only been in the past few years that I've realized how exceptional she is and always has been. Her to-do list for a day looks a bit like mine does for a week; the difference being that she actually gets through hers! We have a pretty tidy, fairly clean house- but finding a safety pin can require a little sleuthing. (Case in point- yesterday morning getting ready for church- what fun:) Mostly because I don't always remember just where I keep the baby food jar containing safety pins. In my mom's house, these things are not adventures. This is one reason that she finds time for so many worthwhile things. But she is very understanding with me. I think her sense of humor helps. She wrote the book on how to laugh at life's little surprises and quirks. However, I am inspired by far more than her ability to locate a safety pin in her immaculate house, and her ready laughter... I am grateful and eternally blessed by her lovi...

Yesterday Kirby got results for a masters course/paper that had just about done him in... He had felt so frustrated with doing it, and hopeless about success with it that he had actually considered 'writing it off'. (I know- very punny :) Of course when he talked to me in despair, I simply reminded him that he had often felt less than 'up for' the task, and assured him that he would pull through and do well this time- as he always does. He wasn't sure how I 'knew' that this was what he would do, but it worked. My prediction came true! ;) He has earned an A+! Of course. When I told Mary and Emma, they were so excited and proud of him, they set right to work; Mary baked and decorated him a beautiful cake, and Emma pulled out papercraft stuff and made him an awesome card! "A son is a son 'till he marries a wife; a daughter's a daughter for the rest of her life!" Old, but possibly containing a grain of truth..?..! Our little daughters are so ...

Tomorrow is our 15th wedding anniversary! I am so grateful for my good husband. When we were in Salt Lake he bought me a beautiful gift I have been wishing for since I first saw it over a year ago... It's a smaller copy of the Christus statue that I saw on Temple Square. I'd actually forgotten about buying it, but he remembered how much I loved it, and that I wanted one for our home. That's what he's like. So thoughtful, and his gifts come from the heart. We started out young and naiive; I remember thinking to myself, 'People say that over the years we will love each other more and more, but I don't see how we could ever be more in love than now...'  Now I know. How could we not love each other more; living together, sharing a family and home, loving and forgiving and helping each other....? Of course we do. I am happy to say that we are enduring the tough parts and enjoying the beautiful parts of our marriage, and our relationship means more and more to m...

Right before Easter, a friend of mine lost a close friend, and a week later- her husband. When I talked with her about her courage and strength in facing all this, she said to me, " When it happens to you, you'll have the same strength, because you have the same foundation." There's nothing like faith. We took our children to Salt Lake City for Easter. It was a great time; inspirational and so interesting. We loved all the religious history and the lovely Christian art. Especially the Christus statue. Awe-inspiring! The friendliness of so many people we met was heart-warming, and there was green grass and flowers everywhere... :) It makes me so happy to be with my family, and it was a special treat to have a vacation like that together. We stayed a few blocks from Temple Square, and walked almost everywhere we went. And it's ok that it took us until now to 'afford' such a trip- our children are old enough now that they'll never forget it! I also had ...