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.