Five Senses Friday

• sight

• pink: sugar cookies, lemonade and potted mums on Toodles' birthday tea table


• a clean house: a surprise from Tibby, her beau ~ Mr.Matt, and the four youngest!


• a beautiful young mourning dove in a shrub in our front garden; it's wings were almost golden coloured
  

• smell

• cinnamon bread: it was supposed to be pancake batter but it turned itself into a ball of dough, so i kneaded it, patted it out, and baked it on my pizza stone


• rain
  

• sound

• the song of a young mourning dove in our front garden


• Bach


• hail
  

• taste

• sloppy joes: Toodles' choice for her birthday supper


• birthday cake at a friend's party


• grilled chicken bowtie pasta with bacon, garlic, roma tomatoes and asiago cream sauce
  

• touch

• my husband: holding my hand at the movies on our date


• cooler temperatures

read more at abby try again

Happy Birthday, Toodles!

I hope you had a good day.  I am so glad that you were born seven years ago today, and I am thrilled that I get to be your mama.  You truly are my spring baby.  You are butterflies and flowers and fairies.  I like it that you still don't mind being my "little girl."  So, enjoy your Polly Pocket and your paints; tomorrow we will read one of the Flower Fairy stories together.

I love you!

Nature Notes

After last week's rain (thank You!) and this week's sun spring has most certainly sprung here in Central Texas.

In the yard:

• 
  
  The red-tipped photinia are ablaze
  
  


• 
  
  The lantana, crape myrtles, lavender, and plum tree are covered with bright green new growth
  
  


• 
  
  The shrub roses are full and green, too, and even display a few pale pink flowers
  
  


• 
  
  The peach tree has buds
  
  


• 
  
  We have some tiny white wildflowers which I think may be redroot
  
  

 

In the windowsill:

• 
  
  A “shamrock” which is actually Wood Sorrel
  
  

 

At the feeders:

• 
  
  Mostly finches and sparrows
  
  

 

Along the roadside:

• 
  
  Bluebonnets
  
  


• 
  
  Evening Primroses
  
  

Five Senses Friday

This idea originated here. 

The idea is to record sensory highlights of the week.  I thought that I would give it a go. 

Sight:

• 
  
  Bluebonnets
  
  


• 
  
  Funky art/decor in the garden/ patio of a downtown coffee shop/bar with Frap & friends on her birthday
  
  


• 
  
  Kids herding dogs through the house and back into the yard after the gate was left open ~ twice, three, four times (apparently, they have actually figured out how to open the gate themselves) five, six times! [apparently, there was a loose board in the fence ~ now repaired.]
  
  

 

Smell:

• 
  
  Books
  
  


• 
  
  Huckleberry tea
  
  


• 
  
  Chuy’s food when I pick up Frap from work
  
  

 

Sound:

• 
  
  A houseful of teenagers
  
  


• 
  
  Sgt. Elf teaching herself to play the guitar
  
  


• 
  
  My kids in the car singing along with Dean Martin on “That’s Amore”
  
  

 

Taste:

• 
  
  The latte my husband makes especially for me on Sunday after worship
  
  


• 
  
  Chocolate raspberry cheesecake which my daughter made for her birthday
  
  


• 
  
  Vegan pita pizza
  
  

 

Touch:

• 
  
  The nuzzle of the dogs in the morning when I go out to feed them
  
  


• 
  
  Washing dishes
  
  


• 
  
  Cold, crisp air in the rink while ice-skating with Lulapalooza
  
  

Bluebonnets

photo from Stock.XCHNG

Learn more about bluebonnets (and Texas history) here.

good wildflower info & photo sites:
here & here

Erin Go Bragh

May you have warm words on a cold evening,

A full moon on a dark night,

And the road downhill all the way to your door.

 

• Read the story of Saint Patrick here.


• More at History.com here.


• Irish quotes, blessings, proverbs, and toasts can be found here.


• Check out a collection of Irish recipes here.
  

 Sláinte !

Happy Birthday, Frap!

Happy Birthday

                to my second born

 

Happy Birthday

                to the infant who put herself on a 3-hour feeding/sleeping schedule

 

Happy Birthday

                 to the nine-month-old who got chicken pox

 

Happy Birthday

                to the poor little toddler with food-allergy-induced-eczema who couldn’t sleep for more than twenty minutes at a time

 

Happy Birthday

                to the 17-month-old who used words like “actually” and who climbed to the top of the great big slide at the beach park all by herself

 

Happy Birthday

                to the two-year-old who was obsessed with pockets and who would put herself in time out if she wanted to throw a fit

 

Happy Birthday

                to the four-year-old reader and math wiz who yelled out the answers to her big sisters' problems

 

Happy Birthday

                to the little girl who couldn’t stop after making herself cry for a game of pretend with her sisters

 

Happy Birthday

                to the child who just could not come home from a 15-minute visit to McDonald’s or the park or the library without a phone number or an e-mail address of a new best friend

 

Happy Birthday

                to the adolescent I watched become a leader among her peers

 

Happy Birthday

                to the hard-working teenager who paid her own way on several mission trips and to the generous teen who paid the way of others

 

Happy Birthday

                to a young woman with hopes and goals and plans to travel to Greece, to do more mission work, to love the Lord with all her heart, mind, soul, and strength, to live her life exuberantly

 

Happy Birthday, Abi

May all your dreams come true!

Happy Birthday Izzybella!

I loveth thee!

I cannot imagine what my life would be like without you in it.
You consistently amaze me. 
You are clever and beautiful and talented beyond belief. (You most certainly did not get that from me.) 
I love being your mama, and watching you define and refine who you are.

dreamer of dreams

singer of songs

a camera lens your contemplation

artist

poet

philosopher

You totally rock.

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224

May you live all the days of your life.
- Jonathan Swift

Nature Notes

The other day Lulapalooza and I were walking when he noticed a bird and pointed it out to me, asking what it was.  It was not sure, so later we looked it up.  It was a House Finch.  A couple of years ago we were treated to a lovely serenade out on our back patio by his cousin the Purple Finch.

The Plum Tree in our backyard is covered in snowy white blossoms; it is always the first thing to bloom each year.
(not actually a photo of our tree, but it looks just like this)

Around the neighbourhood we have also noticed that the Texas Redbud as well as the Texas Mountain Laurel and the Carolina Jessamine are all in bloom.