A Lovely Spring Morning

 

We had rain yesterday, so this morning it smells heavenly outside. Washed and clean. The dust has been washed from the air and now you can smell the faint perfume of flowers with the smell of wet grass and damp earth. It is cold too, like a normal April. My mistake I think for these last few years is in the assumption, that there is such a thing as normal weather. I need to accept that, weather will always be weather and it is unpredictable so enjoy right now, every day.

 

Due to the lack of a snow pack and the issues at hand in California, I won't be putting in a giant garden this year. I am though, going to put in a few (???) tomato plants and pepper plants. In the yard. Just a tiny little thing like a normal person. I won't be planting sunflowers or pumpkins. How do I have a gardening blog without a garden, who knows but that is how it will be.

 

 “It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
Anne Shirley---L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.


It is spring, and when I was 12 years old I discovered Anne of Green Gables. When I was a little girl, my Dad owned grocery stores. In that first store, he had a young woman he hired as a checker. Mrs. Berry.
We loved her and she even taught my sister to tie her shoes. She and my Mom were good friend. She had her children and stopped working. When I turned 12 and was in junior high, we got to visit the library at school on Friday afternoon. It was the best library in the whole world. It was filled with the whole set of Nancy Drew, and Little Women and My Friend Flicka and of course, all of the Black Stallion and Little House Books. I would ride home on the school bus, with my arms full of treasure.

The librarian  of course was Mrs. Berry. My Mom had gone on to heaven just the year earlier. My life was in a series of one crises after another. New Step Mother, 3 step brothers, we lived on my on grandparents property, so there was war going on between my grandparents and my Dad and my step family. The one place that was an escape was inside of books. Mrs. Berry, though, because this is and was a small town, knew of what was going on, and very quietly she started getting books for me and putting them every Friday on the corner of her desk. I look back now, and see how God put people like her in my life to quietly guide me and save me from a life of destruction, I might have chosen if not for her and introducing me to  Anne.

My life I think is made up of  people who were sent at the right time, and they were gifts to me sent from God at the perfect time. Mrs. Berry was one of those gifts. I always like to think, but those tiny things that no one would notice, what she quietly did, became a blessing that today continues to bless my life.


   " God begins with men in “the day of small things”(Charles Spurgeon)

 

I think of blogging like that. Who knew that something like meeting people from all over the world would change my life. I think of it as a small gift that happens every single day. Thank you so much for sharing your lives with me and letting me share mine with you.


So thank you so much for gracing me with the simple gifts that you bring into my life. I have been given such a gift once again. I am so blessed.


~Kim~

 

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Family Photos

I hope you had a lovely day yesterday, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The weather was perfect and the food was wonderful and the company was fun. Lots of laughter. We did a adult egg hunt.
Ron hid them so good that the hunters had to work to find them.

In March when Kessie came, everyone was so sweet to humor me about a new family picture. Rachel came over and took our pictures. Here are a few.

Our anniversary will be this week, 35 awesome years. I never knew dressed in that white dress, scared out of my mind, that God had such great plans for our lives. Seeing this picture, I am in awe of the blessings of God. I know for a fact, I wasn't smart enough to look down through the years and see what God would do.
When we were going through our marriage counseling at the church we were going to be married in, the sweet Pastor said, " If I didn't feel God's leading to marry you, I wouldn't, I don't give this marriage five years, you both have too many problems." It just goes to show you God can do the impossible.  

 

Our son, William wanted to recreate this family photo. So we tried.  It makes me laugh to compare both photos. See the baby in Ron's lap, that is Peter, in the next photo look at Peter.

They make me laugh.

This is our oldest son Ben and Megan and their wonderful and amazing family,

Our daughter that lives in Arizona,  Kessie and Ryan and their lovely family. Every Sunday

I thank God for technology.

Then of course, the last of the shameful brag post that I have going on here.

We will have one more baby added to the family in November. Our daughter Kessie, told me last week that she was expecting her fifth. That means, she will have to come out here again for another family picture. Next spring. I am so thankful for all of the people that God has continued to bless us with.
I also want to thank Rachel Wolf Photography, for coming out here and taking pictures and for bringing her sweet and beautiful twin girls. They just turned a year old. It was so sweet to see the front yard full of kids.

Okay will stop here. I just wanted to share. I still am shocked as anyone that this could be my life.
Have a lovely day,
~Kim~

" I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words
Bother me."
---Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne, 1926

Happy Easter

My favorite picture for Easter. I always love the idea of the women walking early in the morning to prepare the body for burial. As they walk, they are each thinking to themselves, " How will we roll away the stone?" I imagine that their hearts are heavy and the tears they have cried have left them spent and exhausted. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

I love to think that after Jesus cries, " It is finished" His body is handled by only those who love Him. When the women get to that tomb, I think of them standing there unable to move, spell bound, and you know how when you see things you can't explain, your mind just goes blank. I think that is what they must have done. 

The passage reads this way, "
And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.…"

 

" …He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you." And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.…"

But the gospel of Mark adds a special gift to Peter, " Mark 16:7
But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'" I always love that part," and Peter". Jesus, has just gone through the agony of dying on a cross, all of the worlds sins, past, present and future placed upon his body, broken  and yet, He still takes time to say, " And Peter."

 The story never grows old for me. To me it is full of joy, because I know how great are the sins I commit every day and how many I have committed since the beginning of me, and I am thankful that if not for the shed blood of Jesus shed for me, I would have no hope.

Still when I get to heaven there are going to be a few things I will ask about that day. "And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.…"

Not only did just Jesus come back from the dead, so did apparently others who were walking around. I would love to know all about that.

 

  I wish you a wonderful day, I always love this day, more than any other day in the year.
I hope you have a lovely day, filled with joy,
~Kim~

"…When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher).…"
---John 20:15---

April Morning

I hope that your April is off to a wonderful start. Spring is all around and there is just something about April that is different from March. I always think of April as dressed in blue and purple and all of the colors of royalty.

As this is Easter week, I have been working on a little stitchery. I always like to keep my mind on the Passion week of Christ. I always like to keep my mind on what His birth, life and death and Resurrection means to me.

Pattern by Jenny Hoffman. Country Rustic Primitives

 I worked on my Guinea rug, and I dyed wool but I wasn't happy with my colors for my background, so I am waiting now for the background I like better. I do enjoy hooking guineas.

As I was hooking these rugs, I sure wish that I had a whole flock of guineas running around the pasture. That and peacocks. I would like those too. Maybe some California quail. It just goes on and on. Too bad about the foxes that come here.

 We have worked on the swimming pool off and on all week. It still has a plug so it is going to take a bit more things to try to get the plug unplugged. Ron hasn't given up yet and called the repair man. I think he will get it fixed tomorrow. Such first world problems.

 

It is so white now. I can't wait until it is filled again.

I hope you have a lovely day today.

~Kim~

 

"Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful universe of God nothing seems to me
more surprising than the planting of a seed
in the blank earth and the result thereof."

---Celia Thaxter, ( One of my favorite gardeners)