One Year

Tears of joy filled my eyes,

The day I learned of your life.

Your tiny form within me hidden,

Bringing peace to my heart of strife.

Wonder, beauty, and hope,

Your life still a mystery as you grew.

You crowded out my pain of loss,

As God mended and made my heart new.

For nine months God knit you,

And formed your every part.

While you were fearfully and wonderfully made,

You found the forever spot in my heart.

And then you came - What a happy day!

My anticipation fulfilled with your birth.

So wrinkled and small - perfection.

Ecstasy. Exhaustion. Fascination. Mirth.

A year has passed in the blink of an eye.

The endless night and tired day

Silently gave way to smiles, cuddles,

Rolling, crawling, and now walking away.

Out of my arms toward a life of your own,

Amazement laced with sorrow - bittersweet.

Yet I acknowledge that God has a plan,

And pray that in Him you'll one day be complete.

My heart is yours forever,

Whatever you do, wherever you go.

You are a blessing and my reward.

Dearest Andrew, I love you so!

How About a Flower Boost

Yesterday morning we took a field trip to a lady's house whose whole yard is a lovely garden.  She's got all kinds of flowers and plants.  She wrote a book and we've read it and consulted it for our own garden.  She's very nice.

Hmmm, she told me the name but I can't remember.  Darn. {Mom says celocia}

Bromeliad.

She even gave us cuttings for this but because it doesn't have a common name, only a Latin one, we can't remember what it's called.  Hopefully we can get the cuttings to root because this was our favorite. {Okay, she wrote Mom an email and said it's turnera alata}

Chinese Hat plant; totally cool!!

Uhhh...dunno.

Once again, dunno, but the flying bee is the best!

Purple Clematis

I really enjoy taking pictures of flowers. They are so much more cooperative than humans.

Mini Post Monday

• This week's edition is going to focus on the mini side of things.  Cause I'm tired and I had a week that was too busy to even jot down tiny details.
• Andrew turns one this week.  I think I'm going to cry.

• I have been two weeks without the TV and you know, I don't miss it that much.  I have missed it a couple times, though.  One was an afternoon when I'd had a particularly miserable morning.  I wanted nothing more than to lay on the couch and lose myself in a meaningless show when the kids went down for nap.   The other was two evenings that Jerry and I were both tired and we just wanted to relax with a show while Andrew nursed then go for an early bedtime ourselves.  I don't think I'll keep a "no TV" stance past my original deadline, but I'll certainly watch much, much less.
• Jerry is just two papers away from finishing his master's degree.  Can we get a collective WOO-HOO here?
• We survived another round of LDA (allergy treatment).  I quit fighting the kids about eating the nasty food during our three day shot-time diet.  I have just accepted that Ethan doesn't eat for the second two of those three days.  He won't die, but he did lose a bit of weight...I have a full post about this somewhere.

• I am making these and these for Christmas this year for my friends.  Don't those look yummy?

Camping

It's rough with super little ones.  It'll be nice when all the kids are old enough to really enjoy it.  We went to Lake Louisa State Park.  It was okay.  Kinda dull...but we had fun anyway.  We went hiking.

Del used the mei tai also.  It was comfortable.  I wore her on my front for a little while, too. 

I just thought this was a really cute picture of Sarah.

Speaking of Sarah, she was the only one who could catch a fish!!  Teeny little bluegill.

This is Lake Hammond.  One of the annoying things about the place was the extremely limited access to the lakes.  The dock we were on here was the only place you could fish from on the entire lake.

Grasshoppers abound.

Butterflies abound also.

Anna making spit at me.

Rachel having fun at the lake beach and Ella contemplating life at the campsite.

That's the beach at Lake Louisa...only you couldn't swim.

Grama and Anna bonding

Ella getting tickled by her dad and grandpa.

The biggest, weirdest ant I've ever seen.  It was about an inch long.  {Added to say: Mom did some research and it turns out it's not an ant at all, it's a wasp called a velvet ant or cow killer wasp...nice.  Good thing we didn't step on it; apparently the sting is quite painful}

Water lilies are some of my favorite flowers.

Mini Post Monday

• I just love having a rosemary bush in my yard.  Fresh rosemary does wonders for any recipe.  Okay, so brownies might not taste good with rosemary added, but you know what I mean!
• Have I mentioned here before that allergies are stupid? 
• Why is it that babies are so much cuter when they're sleeping?

• We have been having lots of rain this fall, and sadly I have stepped on more than a few snails, unintentionally.  Emotionally, I am a little pained, but I'll recover.  However, the snails do not have as rosy of a prognosis.
• It will be a sad day for me when Ethan figures out that the word "finger" isn't pronounced "thinger."
• Behold!  Captain America lives!

• I ordered a case of pesto today...from amazon.com.  You really can get anything from that place!  Just in case you're wondering why I ordered food from amazon, it is the only pesto I have found with no allergens in it (no cheese, no soybean oil) and the only store near me that carried it decided to discontinue it.  But now I should be set for a long, long while!
• I ask you, "Don't I have the cutest kids ever???"

Who Broke the Window?

If you guessed Lily, you are correct.  She smashed it with a toy golf club.

How does one little girl get to be so troublesome???  Look how cute she is too?  It's amazing.

Pardon the delay...

I do have a Mini Post Monday started, but it may not go up until tomorrow.  Jerry and the boys have an LDA allergy treatment today so we are in that super horrible 3 day shot-time diet, and of course Ethan is refusing to eat and throwing up from lack of food.  Aaron is doing much better this time, though.  Jerry is doing well, too.  And since I haven't fixed any lamb, I'm doing better, too.  :)  To top it off, Andrew has a fever of 103 and I'd be shocked if his eardrum didn't burst last night.  I'm on hold with my pediatrician right now trying to get him an appointment.  So, when my life settles down just a bit, I'll get the regularly scheduled Monday post out!  Until then, pray for me...