My beautiful summer morning

I am so thankful for:

14. My clothes line in my backyard where I hang the laundry in the warm sunshine.

15. Clean sheets ,outdoor fresh, ready to be put on our bed.



16. Anticipation of the scent of clean sheets when I crawl into bed tonight.

17. Sunlight shining in through our bedroom window.

18. The sheer white curtains that came with this old house when we bought it... they add such a soft pretty touch to our room.

18. Our queen size mattress, soft yellow sheets and pretty bed set from "Quilts etc.". 19. Stacks of clean folded laundry ready to be tucked into closets and drawers.

Now that I am ALL DONE, my goal for next week is to go through our closets and organize all the clothes. I especially need to do my closet as I haven't gone through it since I lost 20lbs. and I am noticing that a lot of things I was planning on wearing this summer are WAY too big! Yeah!

So I went to the Salvation Army and Value Village and picked up a bunch of really nice, really low priced summer clothes that I am so thrilled with and now I need to figure out what to put away and what to get rid of.

(I am still praying for another baby so I won't get rid of all my bigger clothes just yet!)



ALSO:...



I love getting pictures of the boys playing in the dandelions and pictures OF the dandelions. Here are a few of my favorites:

So Blessed

I mentioned that I would try to remember to let you know how the lettuce was doing that the boys and I planted a couple weeks ago. Well, here it is! We have been enjoying it for the past 2 or 3 days on our sandwiches. It feels so good to be eating greens that I know are not covered in "junk"! Today I am thankful for:

10. Fresh greens grown so nicely as a result of all the mixed rain and sun we've been having.
11. 0.99 hats from the "Sally Ann" shading the heads of my two oldest, Jayden and Marcus.
12. A special moment with Allan(age 2) captured by Jayden(age 6)... He loves the camera.
13. Allan's blond head of hair bent over his own imaginary game. Thankful for times when he can entertain himself for once. He's definitely getting better about that! Yeah!
A wonderful day... full of many, many blessings.

Psalm 103:1 "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name."

Continuing Thanks

7. All 3 of them sitting in a row at the library looking in books... a quiet moment together.

8. Sitting on the sofa with my six year old as he reads "Go dogs, Go!" to his four year old brother.

9. A strong breeze cooling my face on my walk this evening... a welcome freshness after a hot day.

Giving Thanks Always

Like I said a couple of posts ago, I've been thinking a lot about gratitude and feeling like I need to start a "1000 gift list". I read about this first at http://holyexperience.blogspot.com/ . I have been following Ann Voskamp's blog for the past 6 months and have really felt the need to take up her challenge of starting a gift list of all the things I am thankful for.


So here I go... tentatively stepping out into cultivating a heart of gratitude. Sewing seeds of humble thanks into the soil of my heart in the hopes of producing soul-knowledge of a wealth of abundant blessing so great that my well spring will overflow with thankfulness to my Lord for all He has done for me.


Noticing, acknowledging and thanking Him for the large and small beautiful (and maybe not so beautiful) moments in my life, as gifts that he has lovingly bestowed upon me, can only mean a life of abundant joy... the sort of life that Jesus wants me to have. Not because all is perfect but because He is perfect and has a perfect plan for my life. And He is in control.


I need to do this... "singing and making melody in my heart to the Lord; GIVING THANKS ALWAYS unto God and the Father in the name of out Lord Jesus Christ;" Ephesians 5:19b-20.

1. His eyes searching for me at the pool and lighting up when met with mine. Yes, I'm his mommy and he knows it.



2. A morning cuddle with my 6 yr. old son. Almost too big to sit on my lap... but not quite.



3. The intoxicating scent of lilac blossoms brought to me in little fists this morning... "These are for you mom!"
   
   
4. Mercies new every morning. (Psalm 90:14 and 108:4)



5. Dots on his nose... some may see it as sUn damage but I see it as sOn perfection.

6.The unexpected beauty of seeing things from a different angle.

Even a dandelion gone to seed is something to be admired.

"Thank you, Lord."

There's Just No Resisting...

I can't seem to resist taking pictures of my garden at this time of year. Everything is so fresh and new.
Just look at this "bachelor button" bud! Gorgeous! The detail is amazing! Or how about this pink "Columbine"? Did you ever see anything so feminine and pretty?
This iris was a very unexpected surprise as I just divided and transplanted it over from my sisters garden in the fall. I thought it wouldn't bloom the first year!
And I can't remember the name of this beauty blooming on a couple of trees around my yard.
Did I mention I love spring?!!! I hope I am not boring you with all these flowers.
Just to keep things interesting... Here's a picture of my goofy little Marcus. I guess he was expecting the flash!

Spring Beauty

Beauty in my backyard on this Victoria Day weekend... the last weekend of my 28th year.

Carragana blossoms,

Crab apple blossoms,
Lilac Blossoms,
Strawberry blossoms,

Tomorrow is my birthday.

Quietly thinking on gratitude and having a heart of continual thankfullness... my thoughts to be "posted" on this in the near future ...

In Evening's Light

A quiet moment in early evening's light after hot afternoon of dropping seeds into soil for their very first
and very own veggie garden and cool soapy water of Saturday night bath.

Special moments like this make it all worthwhile.

Spring Planting

I had a delicious craving for bright colors so....

A trip to the garden centre down the road the other day.
The boys were thrilled to be able to pick out their own lettuce. Here they are by the freshly planted planters. They look so sad and wilted (the plants not the boys!).
The lady told me that lettuce and portulaca would go good together because they both love sun... we'll see. Hopefully they will thrive and we can have fresh salad greens this summer. I will try to remember to post pictures of the progress of this planter. The boys had so much fun putting in the dirt and planting that it would be a disappointment if it all died.

Beauty in my Backyard

Some shots from my Garden today.
The weather is finally starting to warm up... Yeah!
Collecting sweetness from heavenly smelling grape hyacinth.
It took me a bit to get this shot but ...so well worth it.

The "Spring Rain Collection" from the Breck's Bulbs Catolog. This is their third year and the cold weather has not been good to them. They were way more tall and beautiful last year.
The red in this beauty is real... it almost looks like a painters "oops", doesn't it?

Absolute perfection. though.

Nature unfurles itself in the spring sunshine.

Who can say "there is no God."? The beauty of nature speaks of Him continually!

Tulips are my very favorite flower in my garden. I want to say of all but I have not beheld every flower on earth and probably never will. So for now it is the simply, beautiful tulip.

Enjoy...

Laundry Day

Couldn't resist taking a picture of my "whites" blowing in the fresh spring breeze early this morning. Hanging it out... taking it in... folding it, and putting it away (all crisp and outdoor smelling) is one of my favorite home keeping delights.

I was feeling so good this morning about my beautiful laundry on the line that I decided to clean my laundry room from top to bottom as well. I love my laundry room. Carpenter Husband did such a good job on it. It is SO important to me to have a beautiful laundry room because I enjoy doing laundry so much.

Mother's Day

A beautiful Mother's Day. Hubby surprised me with a dozen yellow roses and my sons came home from church with a single coral carnation for me. Today I wanted to make the most of my new camera and so I decided to try some still life shots. So here they are, resting upon my beautiful thrift shop plates with my white bud vase, also a thrifted find, in the back ground. I am so thrilled with how this picture turned out!

Blue Eyed Boy

My precious middle child, Marcus, when he was just one year old.

He's 4 now... where has time gone?!

I love this picture because it so accentuates the blueness of his eyes. All my boys have such blue eyes. Aren't they beautiful?

I enjoy "doctoring" my pictures on my computer... this is the first time I have tried this and love how it turned out. The picture was originally in color so I left the eyes as is and shaded all the rest into black and white. So cool... don't you think?

Psalm 16:6 says:

"The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good heritage."

Thank you, Lord, for my beautiful blue eyed boys.

Discovering

Took the boys down to the pond across the road this afternoon.

How I wish I had my camera!!! It broke and I feel lost without it. There were so many great opportunities for some awesome shots.

The boys had so much fun watching the Canada Geese. We saw a male and female with 13 goslings!!! Wow... it was so beautiful to behold nature like that.

We found a nest made up of dead grass and the remains of a goose egg. ...Did I mention that I wish I had had my camera?!

My biggest regret was that I did not go to the pond with the boys sooner this year in order to see the geese sitting on the eggs. Last year we went in March/April and we managed to get quite close to a female sitting on her eggs before the male "hissed" us away.

The picture I have posted is from that time.

Who needs a science class when you can have moments like this? The perfect way to homeschool...don't you think?

Updated:

After I got my camera we went back to see the family again and this is one of the shots I took... there were 20 goslings in this group! 3 adults, though, so it must have been two families together.

Pretty cool, eh?