:. spring ahead .:

It'll be spring soon, and to help you get a jump on the season get yourself on over to Tandem Brick for one of these bright beauties. (Yes, that is, indeed, a ruffle.) C'mon, you know you want one!

:. meant for the garden .:

Mmmmm, just look at this beautiful springtime bouquet Benny sent me for our anniversary. My house has smelled so wonderful all week! If you're lucky enough to have a scratch n' sniff monitor, go ahead: get close and inhale!!*

It is gorgeousness such as this, and what it does for the spirit, that proves we were originally meant for the garden. I can only imagine what Eden must have been like. Imagine God walking with you in the cool of the day, chatting about whatever is on your mind! (If you've never read Milton's Paradise Lost, may I suggest you go read it right now?)

And speaking of our anniversary, just look what my wonderful kids cooked up for us:

Besides a DELICIOUS dinner, which Emily literally cooked up for us, they bent their heads together and honored us with this beautiful family tree. The very talented Chris Saldanha did the artwork, with input from all. It's amazing, isn't it? (Any wonkishness in the picture is due to my photoshopping attempts to remove the flash. Crappy photographer, crappy editor. What can I say?) It looks stunning on my mantel, and every time I walk into the living room, it is a reminder of God's tremendous hand of blessing on my little family. It's perfect.

You know what else is perfect? The fact that Miss Eisley, on the very night we celebrated 35 years, decided then and there to crawl for the first time. Very thoughtful of the little lady!

*Editor's note: There is no such thing as a scratch n' sniff monitor. Don't you wish, though?

:. it's been awhile .:

Holy guacamole, where did January go??!? [Good riddance, I say!] There are now only 44 days until spring!! My heart sings right along with Barney Fife:

"Welcome, sweet springtime, we greet thee in song!!"

So many things going on in my head. Think I'll just give them to you in bullet points:

◘ Wondering what the heck is going on in Egypt. So I went straight to my Egyptian friend and asked her: "What the heck is going on in Egypt?" Her response: "I dunno know." Thanks, Sylvia, for the insight.

◘ Pretty much loving sewing right now. And grommets. And rivets. I don't feel like a sewing project is complete until I've used a hammer.

◘ Realizing if I lived to be 120, I wouldn't come close to trying all the craft ideas I've seen/bookmarked/heard about.

◘ For the record: I.HEART.HEATED.SEATS.

◘ Saw two flickers at my bird feeder the other day. My stars, are they ever cool!

◘ Was just reminded of this powerful truth: "If God be for us, then who can be against us?" Yowza, my soul needed to hear that!

◘ Looking forward to celebrating our 35th anniversary tonight with my wonderful family. (I'm sure I'll post more on that later.)

◘ So proud of my Gav for all his hard, hard work in kindergarten. His mommy showed me some of his schoolwork from November, and compared it to papers he did in December. Oh, my, how far he's come in such a short time. What a champion!

◘ Benny started physical therapy. Hopefully it will help his balance and motor issues. Now if he could just be offered a nice early retirement package . . .

◘ I recently took some new designs over to Tandem Brick. (see picture above.) Run on over and take a peek! I'm loving the look of image transfers.

◘ Miss Eisley is almost mobile!! She's been working very, very hard at that crawling thing, and mommy reports that she has A.L.M.O.S.T. got it! Way to go, baby girl!

◘ I recently acquired a beautiful aviary cage for my little Mozart. I've always wanted to give him more space to FLY!! I also decided to get him a "friend", in the hopes that I would have little baby canaries fluttering about. But alas! they are not getting along. Dang. I might try again in 44 days. (Spring . . . when a young bird's fancy turns to . . . oh, never mind.)

◘ I realized I rarely listen to an entire CD. More like: skip, skip, track 3, skip, skip, skip, tracks 7 and 8, skip, track 10 . . . you get the idea. Guess I should just use iTunes.

and . . . that's all I've got.

*addendum:

◘ Liam and I saw A FOX the other day! He was just loping across the street, right in front of my car. (I think he was loping anyway.) We were pretty excited! I stopped the car and we watched him lope back into the trees and lope around. Lope, lope, lope. You'd think I lived in the Great North Woods instead of right smack in the middle of the city.

and now . . . that's really all I've got.