Could it be?

Maybe…

Just maybe…

Is it possible?

That finally…

FINALLY…

After a very long winter…

That SPRING has arrived?

I think my hellebores, daffodils, crocuses, and forsythia are doing a great job of welcoming the season of spring and heralding its arrival!

The bees think it’s spring.

That dumb bee just wouldn’t sit still or right side up for a picture. But it liked my heather.

I bet you’re wondering what that is. Me too. Never seen one before. There are about 3 of them on my something something pinewood something tree in the front yard. Only 3. And they’re itty-bitty little red things. I hope that doesn’t meant that tree is only going to have 3 leaves this year.

Okay, so those are the photos of the day for Saturday & Sunday.

Here’s Friday:

And here’s Thursday:

Pictures of my two young authors! 

I Corinthians 15:20

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."
That is our comfort today as we mourn the loss of Ed's Aunt Joanne who passed away this morning from pancreatic cancer. The girls have taken it quite hard, especially Becca. She remembers Aunt Joanne reading her "Berenstain Bears" books, giving her ice cream, and letting her swim in the unheated hot tub in the back yard. When we watched the wonderful video online that Ed's cousins made, Becca finally realized that Aunt Joanne was Grandma's sister. She said, "She must be happy now that they're together, then!" After watching Aunt Joanne's video, the girls requested to watch the video another cousin made when their Grandma passed away in Dec. of 2007. So, it's been a sad evening here. Which is why that verse from Corinthians is so wonderful. Christ has been raised, therefore so will all our loved ones in Christ who have gone before us. Praise the Lord.
God is good. All the time.

Random Life Stuff

1. Spring has us bringing out the Easter decorations, even though, so far, we haven't had any spring-like weather. Well, that's not true. It has been raining. And it usually rains here in the spring. The part that has been so non-spring-like has been the cold. It's been so cold. But, I don't care. I put out my egg wreath anyway! Besides, Ed told me the Christmas wreath was looking "tired." Whatever.

2. Bethany. She can make silliness out of anything. Though I must admit it didn't take much to make silliness with this giant stuff frog that belongs to some friends.

3. If this isn't incredible talent...

 

4. The family that exercises together, stays together.

5. Cute farmer girl, all dressed up for Farm Day at StoryHour:

6. The amazing Bible Study I am working through with my Coffee Break group:

If you ever have the chance to complete this study, take it. It's awesome and meaningful.

Our weekend

It's Monday morning and there's lots to do today, but I wanted to quick post about our weekend before I get caught up in what is to come this week.
On Friday evening we had the pleasure of attending the high school musical and it was so wonderful! They did one of my favorite musicals ("Fiddler on the Roof") and I LOVED it! The girls all LOVED it! Even Becca stayed awake through the entire thing and loved it. Elise had a sitter and actually enjoyed that, even though she was pretty apprehensive since all her sisters were going to be leaving the house.
On Saturday I was able to go scrapbook with my friend Beth all day and we had loads of fun! I did 13 pages between 8:30 and 5:30 and we stopped for lunch for quite a while, even! I also did some Photoshop digital scrapbook experimenting, but so far...I'm not good enough at all of that to do anything with it. Spending a day with a friend now & then is very good for the soul.
Sunday brought another nice day - the sun was out and it was a bit warmish, though the wind was cool. We figured we better take advantage of the weather, though, so after lunch at my parents we changed clothes and headed out for a family bike ride. We rode to the White's to say hello and see the rats and then also went to the library for a few minutes before riding home again. Elise & Becca both ride in the bike trailer, but Becca is really too big for it. The thing is, she's not strong enough on her bike to actually ride her bike with the family. I'm hoping that after she has more practice this spring that maybe she'll be able to do that and won't have to ride in the trailer anymore.
Anyway, this is a busy week for us here, but hopefully I'll get around to posting the photos of the day for the past few days soon. But more than likely it'll all of a sudden be Saturday again and there will be a whole slew of pics for you to see by then!

Freaking Out

Okay.

I'm a little bit freaking out.

Or maybe a lot.

Yeah, it's a lot of freaking out inside my head.

I found something today and while it may not be "the first", it was "officially" the first. Why I'm freaking out, I don't know, exactly. My brother, who is older, has found a few. My brother, who is younger, has found a few. I have friends, older and younger, who have found a few, and some friends who have found more than a few. Maybe I thought it wasn't going to happen to me. Maybe I thought I was impervious to that part of the process. Maybe I've been too worried about the process lately and thus, this sprung up!

And it literally sprung up. That's why I noticed it. That springy, wiry, standing-up GRAY HAIR on the top of my head like I am Daisy-Head Mayzie or something. Know what I did? I pulled it out.

Then I took a picture of it.

It's actually kind of white.

I'm going to Rite-Aid. Gotta buy some hair color.

And in case you're interested, here's yesterday's photo of the day:

My guess? These two are partly to blame.

Questions and Answers

Question: Is it possible for four sisters, ages 10 1/2 down to 2 1/2, to play together nicely and willingly?

Answer: YES! We love it!

Question: Who is holding this fabulous piece of art?

 

Answer: Sarah, of course! And that is just the "practice paper!"

Question: Did you know that if you say, "Oh shoot! I forgot to take my photo of the day!", Bethany will gladly pose for you, even in her pj's and with wet hair?

Answer: She will.

Question: What do you do with a two-year-old who is having a complete fit because her best friend in the whole wide world (Becca) is off on a playdate?

Answer: Make playdough!

Question: What is my very favorite Easter candy?

Answer: Cadbury's Mini-Eggs, of course! The best in the whole world. They're Sarah's favorite, too. My cousin Kent introduced me to them many years ago and I still must have them every year in the spring!

Question: Who is this cutie?

Answer: the youngest son of one of my oldest friends. Oldest being that she has been my friend for the longest period of time, not that she is old. Just thought I better clarify that.

Question: Which of your oldest friends would that be?

Answer: That would be Janet. We had the privilege of going out for coffee  together last night, though neither of us actually drank coffee. We're too old to have caffeine that late at night, unfortunately!

Question: What about that piece of kitchen decor you blogged about?

Answer: It's done! Today I found just the right utensils at the thrift store, glued them on, added the title, and hung it back up! It's a magnetic board where I can put up my meal plan and recipes for the week so the sheets of paper don't just hang out on the counter, getting in my way all week long. My first try at this was not so pretty, but I am happy with the final product!

Question: Are these your photos of the day for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday?
Answer: What do you think?

A week in pictures

So I'm "re-doing" the girls bathroom. I was inspired by an artist who came to speak to my Bible Study group this past Christmas. Her name is Rosie Harris and she paints and does a "Gallery of Faith" talk with her paintings. It's all of Christ and he's depicted as if he were living today, here in our county. It's an incredible journey to take with her and if you ever have the opportunity, do it. Anyway, one of her paintings is called "The Jacket" and it's a painting of a girl wearing a jacket and listed in her jacket are all the things she IS because of who she is in Christ. "I am Beloved", "I am Forgiven", etc. That painting truly spoke to me and I knew right then that those were the messages I wanted my daughters to have as they began entering into the age of adolescence and worry about their self-worth, etc. More than anything I want to beat into their heads and hearts the fact that their self-worth comes from who they are in Christ and they are worthy because they are a daughter of the King! So I got an 8x10 print of "The Jacket" and am "re-doing" the girls' bathroom around that print. Once I have the bathroom painted, I'll post pictures of the whole thing, including the painting, but for now...here's just a little taste of what it's going to be like...

That counts as the picture of the day for 3/8.

3/9 was kind of a strange day. I had tons to do, but we were at home all day. Consequently, Elise & Becca didn't get dressed until about 1:00 in the afternoon.

We didn't brush their hair, either.

3/10 we baked cookies!

 

3/11 I found the coolest doll house furniture at the thrift store!

I actually owned a table and chairs set just like the blue ones there. I still have the table and one chair that didn't break. I was so excited to find these! The stove is actually cast iron and the little plastic radio and TV entertainment center thing is just the coolest.

3/11 was also the day that I burned my thumb. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Turns out that the "burnt to a crisp" part of the burn was the black plastic stuck to my thumb. Once I got it cleaned up, it didn't look very bad, so this picture is not impressive at all.

Sorry to disappoint...

3/12 I bought some beautiful daffodils to bring spring into my home! They were uber-cheap, so I was even more thrilled! Less than six bucks for this whole bunch!

The lighting's kind of weird because the morning sun is coming in through the living room, but I like it anyway.

3/13 I drove to Mount Vernon to bring Sarah to a slumber party and then went on down to Stanwood to visit my friend Beth who broke her wrist and had surgery.

She's finally healing and having a little less pain and the swelling has gone down considerably. She had a metal plate and a half a dozen screws put in to put her wrist back together. There's no telling how long it will take before she actually has full use of her arm back. She's one of my oldest friends - we've been laughing together since August of 1996!

Have a great weekend and don't forget to take a picture!

Warning: Rats

Mosey & Cheesecake, the two control rats from Sarah's classroom, now belong to our friends and neighbors, the White's. The girls love to go over to the White's to visit the rats. Ed takes them.

I stay home.

That's right. I proudly admit that I am not fond of the rats. I'm not afraid of them. I just...well, no offense to the many rat-lovers that I know and love...I just don't like them. They're kind of....ewww. I *know* all about them being one of God's small creatures, bright & beautiful, wise & wonderful, and that the Lord God made them all (you should be humming the song about now). I figure, if God loves them, and I don't hurt them, that's good enough for the rats.

Anyhoo...these pictures of the recent visit to the rats needed to be posted. Ed took these on his camera.

Like I said before, ewww!

I hope somebody made those girls take a shower.

Ed's always telling me how smart rats are. I wonder if they figured out how to get down from the bathroom counter...

Less wordy

Here's my blog entry with me trying to be less wordy.

Those are March 3 photos of the day.

This is March 4. Ed's dad arrived late Wednesday afternoon and in the evening handed out belated Christmas gifts to the girls. Thanks, grandpa!

On March 5, Becca woke up with a bit of a black eye. We don't know why.

On March 5, we all went to the Pioneer Museum in town. FUN!

Today was BEAUTIFUL! We headed to Million Smiles Park. Too bad there weren't a million smiles on my girls' faces. I took about 30 pictures to get this one good one.

Then they had a little fun in the creek and on the bridge. Then it was off to Semi-ah-moo and Birch Bay.

This guy is a dork.

But he found a cool stick!

You're going to toss it?

Whoa! This guy is a stud!

The girls smiled a bit more cooperatively on this log out at Semi-ah-moo, though!

Those two are self-explanatory.

Web album link coming soon...

Happy Birthday today to my sister-in-law Jacqueline! We hope you have a great day and that you're feeling well! We love you and miss you lots.