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Monthly Archives: March 2011
A few welcome sights from the past week…
Ladybugs in the yard and garden. We are so glad to see you!
First blossoms and fruits. A beautiful preview of the hoped-for-fruits of our labor.
Sprouts!
pumpkins and mesclun salad mix
carrots and cucumbers
corn
And something else that promised lots of summer joy- a swingset. Thank you so much Poppy and Nani!
It is a swing, glider, slide, mini-trampoline combo and Daddy spend a good part of the weekend putting it together (with the help of his sidekick of course).
And this swing-lovin girl of mine was all over it.
the face of pure swinging bliss
Another welcome sight that we will soon see is the faces of my sister Kristen and her babies Wesley and Riley Mae. We spend countless hours talking on the phone each week and always wish that we could just be hanging out together. A few times a year, our wish comes true! I seriously can’t wait.
Oh, and a shout out to my sweet nephew Wesley- big guy turns five today! Happy birthday Wes-man, can’t wait to see you in just a few days!
Also, thanks to the birthday wishes for Asher and well wishes for the broken toe. It is feeling much better as of today. Still sore, but I have already ditched the crutches and the velcro shoe. Flip-flops seem to be doing the trick just fine now.
Today my first baby turns four.
My heart swells when I look at him, this growing boy who has his daddy’s deep brown eyes, a special camaraderie with his sister and so much of his mama’s heart within. At four years old, he has many likes and dislikes, but most importantly, he knows how to be a genuine friend and tries his best every day to be a “good and brave knight”. He amazes me with his growing intelligence. He loves the color orange. He owns at least four foam swords and two foam shields and his favorite book for nighttime reading is All About Castles and Knights.
He still loves Curious George.
He refuses to get his hair cut.
He loves to paint.
He is a spring baby and the season of his birth fits his personality perfectly (and how appropriate is it that his birthday falls on the first day of spring?).
He is a gardener. A lover of sunshine and rain.
Ever growing, blooming, surprising.
Always providing for our family in his own unique ways, nourishing us with his spirit and presence.
Our sweet Asher, what an amazing boy you have become! We are so blessed by you.
We love you to the moon and back.
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We celebrated with a party in the park this past Saturday. Even though it was windy, it was still sunny and a great afternoon spent with friends.
rainbow cake requested by the birthday boy- my crowning achievement of cakes thus far
still doesn’t love having his picture taken
The celebration was simple and everything he wanted. My heart was bursting as I watched my boy celebrate and play with his friends, just as he imagined.
The only thing that would have made it better was the presence of our missing family members, especially cousin Wesley (who will be turning 5 in about a week!) Since the boys have had joint birthday celebrations in the past, Asher has fond memories of sharing this special time with his Cousin and was talking about him all day. When someone asked him, “How old are you turning?” , his reply was, “I am turning four and Wesley is turning five!” Local friends were left wondering, who in the world is Wesley? We are missing you Wes bud!
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And on a completely unrelated note, I ended the weekend with a bang.
Literally.
Sunday afternoon, as I was skirting around Asher to walk into the kitchen, I slammed my foot into the wall.
And broke my littlest toe.
We ended up going over to the ER to get an x-ray in the evening and after the break was confirmed, I was outfitted with a “funny shoe” and “sticks” (Asher speak for my new little black brace/shoe and crutches).
On the way home Dash and I joked that this is the true pinnacle of my clumsiness.
Seriously.
Hoping my tiny piggy heals fast, cause the funny shoe and sticks totally cramp my stay-at-home mama style.
That’s pretty much been every day this past week.
Gorgeous.
The backyard grass is slowly turning from crunchy gold to soft green and every inch of our little garden plot is at it’s limit (maybe even a little over) with seeds of promise.
Spring has definitely sprung.
peach blossoms
And here is the official list of garden plants for the spring:
mandarin tree on the porch
Shallots, garlic, onions, spinach, chard, arugula, mesclun mix, 12 assorted tomatoes (lots of heirloom varieties), 5 assorted peppers (red, orange, green bell, jalapeno, habanero), 3 belstar broccoli, 2 eggplant, green beans, sugar snap peas, radishes, pumpkins, cucumbers, yellow summer squash, cantaloupe, corn, carrots, 3 blueberry bushes, 2 strawberries, assorted cutting herbs, cutting flowers including sunflowers, zinnia, calendula, lavender, echinacea and ranunculus and 3 different patio citrus trees (meyer lemon, mexican lime, mandarin orange). Whew! I’d love to do some okra too, maybe we will be able to find a starter later on because I didn’t start any of our own seeds this spring. Everything that wasn’t a nursery purchased transplant was directly sown into the garden. We are seeing a few little green sprouts so far and it is definitely exciting. After all the work we did amending and tilling the soil this past month, I am hoping for great summer bounty.
Actually, we even had our first “harvest” today. A single little strawberry, ripe for the picking.
Asher was so excited, the strawberries were his choice and the one plant out there that he insists on watering faithfully. He picked it, brought it in and after a quick rinse ate the little berry with big pride.
Speaking of this strawberry growing character reminds me (as if I could forget)…
he has a birthday coming up. In two days to be exact, my baby will turn four. Four! We are celebrating tomorrow and I when asked him what he wanted to do for his party, he said he wanted a rainbow cake, a craft project with his friends and all of his favorite things. “You got it baby”, I told him.
So we’ve planned a party at his favorite park, with a picture frame craft project, pirates booty and gourmet jelly beans for snack, and every flavor of Izzy soda to drink.
And of course, we will have rainbow cake.
I actually spent all day today party baking and I have to say, this cake will be my crowning achievement of baking projects so far (probably even over this one).
The rainbow cake. Homemade white buttercream icing is already whipped up and waiting to cover that bad boy tomorrow before party time. I didn’t realize quite how tall this little beauty would stack up to be, so I had also baked 24 rainbow cupcakes.
Hope everyone tomorrow is really hungry for cake.
The only big thing we did indoors this week was a painting extravaganza. I was pre-painting all of the frames to be decorated tomorrow in order to avoid acrylic paint mess out at the park. Asher was the one who carefully selected each color this week while we were party-craft shopping and I love, love, love his choices.
I think I am just slightly drunk on this new spring palette of color, but I am loving this “rainbow” theme he has going in his little mind for this year’s birthday.
Miss Amelia and her personal masterpieces of the day (to keep her busy while I painted party frames).
And of course she went straight to the bath after that project.
So anyhow, I think we are all ready to party tomorrow!
Stay tuned Monday (Asher’s real birthday) for some party pics and most likely a sappy post about how I can’t believe four years have passed since my first baby was placed in my new mama arms.
Seriously. Can hardly believe it.
Happy Weekend!
~B
Posted in adventures in cooking, adventures in crafting, adventures in gardening, birthday cakes, crafting with kids, days of spring, my babies, spring garden
Tags: amelia, asher, crafts with kids, fruit tree blossoms, painted frames, rainbow cake, strawberries
The time is finally here.
I am giddy with plans and poor husband has already lovingly done his duty of tilling my garden.
Our list is long and exciting- I can’t wait to chronicle it all as we plant and grow. We are trying some new stuff this year- strawberries, blueberries and corn!
So far we have garlic, shallots, onions, peas, spinach, chard, arugula and mesclun mix tucked in and cookin. And our herb garden is all in containers this spring to make room in the plot for everything else we have on the list, so they are all planted and taking off too. Just making sure we are in the clear of one last frost before we plant everything else.
onions in their new soft bed
herbs in their pots, new transplants hanging out till it’s safe to move permanently to their new home in the plot
We also did a bit of landscaping out front (which again was super exciting for me, not so much for Hubs). After a long Saturday full of tearing up sod, tilling and planting new shrubs, trees and flowers, the yard is looking great! Those zinnia and marigold (calendula) seeds up there are all tucked into their new little bed right in front of the porch now.
still have to edge the beds, bradford pear was the decision for out front
I decided on a Bradford Pear because I am a sucker for the flowering trees. In the new bed behind the tree we put in a few Dwarf Buford Hollies and some Mexican Heather so far. I am going to love the color of those little red berries in the fall/winter.
And speaking of color and flowering- our fruit trees out back are killing me right now! They are still so skinny and new, but heavy with gorgeous blooms…
white pear blossoms on the left, pink peach blossoms on the right
double impatients in the baskets on the front porch, so lovely
And of course, spring means that no matter where we are, dandelions will be blooming. And no matter what we are doing, the kids will want to pluck them all.
sweet little flower girl- don’t you want to smooch those tiny lips
This year feels a little strange, all of this blooming and warmth and beauty as Lent is just beginning, and this will be the first year Asher’s birthday doesn’t fall on our around Good Friday. Regardless, we are thanking God for the beauties of spring around us and we are also looking inward with repentance and spring cleaning the soul. Mardi Gras dinner was a winner and filled us up good before the fasting of Ash Wednesday. We had to improv on our homemade king cake a bit (it’s really just a yellow bundt cake) because we were planning on picking one up from the store, but of course waited too long and they were all gone.
jambalaya, french bread and “king cake”
I’m pretty sure this beautiful weather is here to stay, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we had just one last cold snap. I still remember the spring that Asher was born, we planned his first big outing for Easter Mass when he was three days old and woke up to snow. We had no winter clothes for the kid so we freaked out a little bit (brand new parents- sometimes I look back and laugh at us then) piled him up under at least five blankets and headed out.
I’m determined to blog about the garden progress more this spring too. In this hobby of trial and error, a journal of some sort is a must!
At least I’m off to a good start this spring.
Posted in adventures in cooking, adventures in gardening, days of spring, lent, living the liturgical year, my babies, spring garden, we are catholic
Tags: amelia, asher, flowers, fruit trees, king cake, landscaping, lent, mardi gras, my babies, planting, spring garden
Seven-year-old Will.
This little guy and his story have weighed heavy on my heart since the day I learned the news.
His parents and doctor thought he had developed a sinus infection due to allergies, but one evening when he complained about his vision, they thought it would be best to go over to the urgent care clinic. On the way they made a quick decision to stop into their optometrist as they passed the office. They discovered that Will had inflamed optic nerves and directed them to go ahead to Dell Children’s Hospital ER. What they thought was a simple trip to the ER to be on the safe side, quickly turned into a nightmare…
Will was ultimately diagnosed with a medullablastoma brain tumor. He is only seven years old and his little life has suddenly been turned upside down by that ugly little word that starts with “c”…
His mama, Sara Lucas now, (although she will always be Ms. Johnson in memories of middle school days) was my 8th grade language arts teacher and remains to this day, one of the few special teachers that I remember really making a difference in my education. She put up with our junior high antics so well and her classroom was where I really started learning how to love the art of writing.
Will, his mama Sara, dad Tom and sister Darcy really need some prayers and love to get them through the journey they have just embarked upon.
Will you join me in lifting them up?
A few of my fellow classmates have set up a website for Will where you can find links to his Caring Bridge page (which the family keeps updated almost daily), links to community members and businesses that are offering their support, as well as a link to donate financially directly to Tom and Sara (the medical bills they are now facing are piling up quickly). I’ll also be posting this link on my sidebar for easy access. Please add Will to your prayer lists and pass the link to his page far and wide. It’s amazing how a community will rally to support one of their own. And also amazing how the internet has the power to stretch the reaches of “community” far and wide.
Giving Good Will
Thank you dear friends!
xo, B
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by mamabrit
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