Dreaming of April

I love March. I also love April. We got married in April so it always seems a special kind of month because of that. We will be married 34 years this year. It never seems that long when I think of how much life is packed into those 34 years. More on that later.

We finally sat out in the back yesterday with a pencil and paper and drew out garden plans. We both decided we are completely-without-a-doubt-certifiably-nuts! I have always had the  goal of having a garden from one end to the other of the field  and have lots and lots of things planted. We might make it halfway this year. What are we going to do about water? No clue, because we are still in dreaming stage and I do have the seeds though.

 

I had to go in for a eye exam last week. I could read every chart. I have better than 20/20 vision now. Isn't that amazing! The doctor doing the exam, was doing his job and had not read through my chart. Here I am acting like it is Christmas because I can read and see and even down to the very smallest letters. Finally, he  thumbed back through my chart then he understood why, not that I was some crazy woman.
 I had noticed with my current glasses I keep looking over the tops of the lens because I see better now without them. I do feel like the bionic woman about half the time.

 

Last night we were sitting outside on the patio. Nik and Ems came over and came out to say hi and it was dark as we had watched the sun set and then sat though the twilight and we were watching that velvety blackness that comes after the twilight. The lights were on in the house and as I turned my head Em could see my new lens. She said it looks like I have a diamond in my eye. She said, it reflects like a cat eye. Isn't that cool? Well, once I got over the creepy part. I think it is now. I just wish I could see in the dark like a cat.

 

I am so thankful today. Life is filled with such good things. I hope you have a wonderful day. We got two flower beds cleaned. I even planted my back flowerbed with a whole box of zinnia seeds. I hope they all grow. I would love to have all of those happy flowers growing back there.

Now though, thoughts of gardening must wait, I have chicks to feed and change their cage. Hens to feed and mountains of laundry and floors to mop and vacuum and then maybe a tiny bit of sewing if I can manage.
Rachel had her babies on Friday night. They are in NICU. Olivia was a little over 2 pounds and Riley was 1 pound 14 ounces. Mommy and babies are doing well. Such tiny little girls. Each one such a miracle. They have to grow now. They are 30 weeks. They posted pictures yesterday of Mommy and Daddy holding them.

Have a lovely day.

~Kim~

I walk forward
  one step at a time,
       fully trusting
            the light God sheds
                         is absolutely sufficient.

---Stormie O'Martian---Just Enough Light For The Step I Am On.

A Post For Kim

I have this wonderful friend, who lives in a place, closely related to the North Pole. It is snowing where she lives, and it is snowing now. In March, after spring has started. We had to go out to the foothills yesterday, and never in my life have I seen these hills be so brown. It is March, and a drive out into the foothills is normally beautiful green with wildflowers.

The only trees that you see are in peoples yards. That is how it looks here this spring. This is normally how it looks in August.

There was even a brave soul water skiing. That little boat out there. So Kim, if you need a visit, come to California. No snow, I promise.

Have a lovely day,
~Kim~

Odds and Ends

You know, I am beginning to think maybe they did give me a brain transplant when they updated my eye.
After bumbling around for what seemed years, my brain finally works. It really is nice to be able to think.
Yesterday, I got out my sewing machine and I really meant to work on my quilts. Yes, quilts, I can ever seem to do anything one at a time, I need to do lots of things all at once. I decided as I had opened the windows and doors, it was time to get the porches cleaned and ready to enjoy. Then as I looked at my pillows I thought my pillows needed a bit of sprucing up.

This is my formula for cheap pillows.
1. Have your husband buy the biggest drop cloth, so you will have material for now and eternity, that Lowes or Home Depot makes.
2. Buy small bottles of paint.
3. Get masking tape and a stencil brush.

Then have fun.

I put on my music and made a smoothie.  I kept thinking I might like to make some with green paint. I always make my own pillow forms. I take a some quilt batting. Sew it together like a pillow in the shape I want, then stuff it. So for a little bit of money I can always make pillows that fit my moods.

I was going to make a bigger cushion for the seat of this chair but Em's showed up with flowers. So I spent the remainder of the day watching her arrange flowers.

She showed up with these.

To make these.

Lots of flowers for the wedding she is going to be into on Saturday.  I just sit and watch like a hawk. I would love to know how to do this and I watch her little secrets that she has learned. My kitchen smelled heavenly with all of those flowers. I am so glad she knows how to do this. When you are planning a wedding, flowers are so expensive. This saved us so much money last year. She now does it for wedding presents for the brides. I think that is a very handy gift don't you?

I love these and I think I need to plant one of these in my yard.

I hope you have a grand Thursday, Sasha is ready for a walk.

~Kim~

"It is your mission, a tested and tried one to walk out on the stage of this world and reveal to all the earth and heaven that the music is not in the conditions, nor in the things, not in external but the music of life is in your own soul."
---Author Unknown---




 

Lovely Spring Day

I have always had some amazing springs, babies being born, life being full of surprises at every turn, but I have to say that this spring is by far the most magical. As I walked this morning all around me was the scent of orange blossoms. The trees were full of birds, just dripping out of the trees. They were taking baths in the water I was giving to the berries. The dew sparkles like diamonds and all of the colors of the rainbows are reflected back at me.

The Lilacs are beginning to open. I just love being outside this time of year. One of the things I am so thankful for is loosing my sight. I read this and it says what I am trying to say. " Gratitude springs from acceptance of the gifts and the conditions and the circumstances God gives."  As I journeyed through a world that was growing darker and smaller, I was aware always of the sounds that I noticed. Now to be able to see and hear makes me so thankful for the gift I have been given.  Now, the vibrancy, and beauty and the contrasts of colors are so intense. For that I am so thankful.

 

  There are tiny blueberries on the blueberry bushes. I really didn't think they would set because they bloomed so early but I was so happy to see the tiny little berries.

One of the things that makes me so happy is to see this graft. Do you see the little bandage on the limb?
That is where Ron grafted this crab apple onto another apple tree. Every time I look at it I just smile.

 

Isn't that cool to see the green leaves with the purple ones of the graft? It just amazes me.

Every thing is so bright and pretty now. I finished a first counted cross stitch. It is small and I loved every minute of stitching it. To stitch again seems so magical.

 

This is a pattern from Pineberry Lane. There are two in the set, called Deephaven Marking Samplers. It is taken  from Susan Orne Jewett's novel called Deephaven  written in 1877 The story really captured my heart, and I knew I had to make the little samplers.

The trees are filled with the light green lace that I love so much in the early spring. I was watching the leaves shimmer in the golden light and I loved watching how the smallest breeze made the new edges of the leaves reflect light.

 

Every where I turn are gifts and beauty I never noticed. My favorite thing right now is going out and seeing my new chicks and cleaning the cage and picking the baby chicks one by one to put in a box as I pick them up I feel their little bodies relax into my hand. Then as I put them back to watch them run around and flap their tiny wings in the clean cage and eat and drink and then settle down under the warm light for a nap.
How I wish, that when God does something in my life, like taking me from one place to put me in another, I would be happy and would relax in His hands instead of fighting and kicking.

I hope your Wednesday is lovely. I have more plans than I have daylight, it is such a nice place I find myself, and not one I expected at all. I do love being surprised by life.

~Kim~

The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting-
   Sat at the window and sewed.
She cried, "Look! who's that Handsome man?"
    They answered, " Mr. Toad."

---The Song of Mr. Toad---Kenneth Grahame