The fabulous TopChelseaGirl has nominated me for an award – how sweet is she? You should check out her blog, if you haven’t yet. You won’t be sorry. This is my second little bloggy award (I’m as shocked as you are) and the rules for this one are similar to the last one. To accept this award, I must tell you seven (more) things you may not know about me, so here they are:

I won’t eat any kind of melon
I’m wildly allergic to Erythromycin
I’m a bit horrified that stone washed jeans and neon high-tops are back in fashion
My parents are two of my best friends
I wear my sunglasses more often as a hair accessory than as eye protection
I’ve never particularly liked Elvis or the Beatles (I’m sorry, but it’s true)
I have a birthmark shaped like South America

I’m nominating everyone on my blogroll…and all the blogs I follow. If you have a minute…go check one (or all) of them out.

Three

Three years have passed since our wedding day.

Three years filled to overflowing with love and friendship and faith and hope and laughter and dreams and surprise and joy and of course, the arrival of our adorable little William….
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Three years ago today, I thought life couldn't possibly get any better. I was so very wrong...
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Our wedding day wasn't the end of anything.
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It was just the beginning... of EVERYTHING.
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Happy Anniversary Dan. You are my world! I love you more each day. Three beautiful, amazing years are behind us. The future holds promise of many, many more happy years to come.
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Lately...

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time in our yard, playing in the dirt and enjoying our little chunk of the world…
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Lately I’ve been savoring every moment spent with my precious little boy. He is in turns a tiny tornado and a cuddly teddy bear. He amazes me daily…

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Lately I’ve been spending quality time with my awesome hubby, and reminding him how much he means to me (which is A LOT) ….

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Lately I’ve been totally overcome with a sense of happiness, of peace, of grateful wonder.

Life is so good.

Fern? Or Enemy?

They have invaded my flower beds.

They are driving me crazy.

They are ferns…

Ferns (maybe the "bracken" variety?) which showed up last year unannounced and uninvited. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have the time to deal with them at the time (Will had no regular schedule till he was well over a year old and last year’s yard-work was often limited to a quick grass cutting). So left unattended, they multiplied…and then like bunnies – multiplied some more.

“But ferns are so lovely.” you might say.

Sadly, you would be wrong. (note that this is only my opinion - many folks do love the fern)

If you love ferns or wish you had some in your yard; I wish you’d been at our place earlier this evening. I would have merrily given you as many as you would have been willing to take.

I know that I should appreciate all of God’s creation….and I do. But some of it, I appreciate LESS when it is poking up between my Hostas.

I’d honestly forgotten about the ferns, until I was weeding over the weekend and came across some dried fronds from last year. Once the dried out bits were cleared, the little bulb-y thing that sits atop the soil was revealed. I yanked on that one, and quickly found that the root system was fairly massive. Yuck. When I had pulled up quite a bit of that first one’s roots…I soon discovered it was connected to the next one etc. It’s like they have their own evil-fern subway system.

I gave up for that day. I needed to regroup and figure out a better plan of attack.

Tonight I returned with a shovel and a wheel barrow. I dug out as many as I could. With each bulb-y thing (no idea what the technical term is) lumps of soil and long tendrils of root came with it. I pulled and yanked on those till I couldn’t find any more. My wheel barrow was over half full when I finished.

I might have missed a few, but I can be patient. I can be vigilant. I will overcome!

I’ll go back tomorrow night to see if I can find any survivors. Mark my words - they won’t survive for long if I have anything to say about it.

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama to share one moment.... via a single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember…”

Making Our Mark

We've lived in our sweet little house for almost three years. In that time, we've made numerous changes/improvements to the interior; but for the most part, we've left the yard as it was when we moved in. We were lucky that it had all been professionally landscaped by the previous owner.

We did put up a flag pole (with an American flag), and added this mailbox two years ago.... and that was it.

Until recently. Now we've pulled out some shrubs that weren't thriving, and started planting some new perennials. Last night I planted two Peonies (in a corner flower bed as far from the house as we can get - I love the flowers, but hate the ants).

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I've also planted twenty gladiola bulbs just inside the fence line in our back yard. I've got some Holly Hocks that I'm planning to plant intermittently with the glads, but the package says not to do those till early summer. I think it will look lovely when they all bloom around the perimeter of our back yard.

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Tonight I'm going to hang the birdhouse that my Dad made for me. It's similar (though not identical) to the photo below:

These are all such small things, but when you put them all together.... it means (for us) that the outside of our home will soon be just as cozy and inviting and US, as the inside is. It's really exciting to finally feel we've made our mark.

Every Day is a "Special Occasion"

In the early 70’s my Mom’s sister was in a traffic accident that claimed the life of her husband. This happened before I was born (in fact before my folks had even met), but my Mom has told me one particular story about this time that I’ll always remember.

As my Aunt was enduring her own painful recovery from injuries sustained in the same accident that took her husband’s life; she talked of some of her regrets. One of them that always stood out to my Mother was that the newly weds had never once used their wedding china. It had been carefully packed away. They had planned to wait for just the right special occasion to unveil those lovely dishes. I’m sure they were excited, as those in love tend to be, about the special occasion that would someday be worthy.

But tragedy struck before that special occasion came.

My Aunt lamented after the death of her husband that every day with him had been an occasion worthy of fancy dishes and celebration. She wished that she’d realized no honored guest existed who could have been more deserving than her spouse.

This really made an impact on my Mom. When my parents got married, she vowed that they would use their wedding china daily… and they did.
By the time their first anniversary rolled around, a few of the pieces had broken, but they had memories of meatloaf and biscuits and gravy and silly conversations over every day meals.

By the time I was entering grade school, most of the dinner plates and cups were gone. But we all could recall the glistening turkey served on that big platter...and I still had my Malt o Meal in a china bowl each morning for breakfast.

By the time I was a teenager, the original collection was down to one cup, a creamer and a sugar bowl with no lid. Those three lone pieces were finally retired, but lovingly displayed for all to see.
When it came time for Dan and I to pick out our own wedding china a few years ago, I asked my Mom if she regretted it… Did she ever wish she’s saved those dishes for formal meals with company?

She just laughed, and said “Absolutely Not”. Her family had enjoyed them, literally to pieces. That china was long gone, but the memories of meals served on, and stories told over them would never fade. She had witnessed her sister’s grief, and learned a valuable lesson. Every day with those you love is a special occasion. Every moment that we are blessed to have our family and friends surround us is a day worthy of the grandest of celebrations.

My own wedding anniversary is swiftly approaching (I’ll tell you more about that next week); and thinking about it brought this story to mind. Our china does spend more time in our display cabinet than on our table, but sometimes we do get it out and use it “just because”.

I think this is going to be one of those days. I’m going to pull out some of our wedding dishes and use them tonight….just because it’s Tuesday….just because I love my husband more than ever…just because my family deserves to know how very special they are – any (and every) day of the week.

Note: The china photos above are from Bing! Images…but they are the right patterns for this story… at least mostly. I don’t know what pattern my Aunt & Uncle had. However, my folks had the Johnson Brothers Friendly Village pattern. Dan suggested we choose the Johnson Brothers English Castles set since I’d enjoyed my parents’ china so much (and because he knows how much I love pink). Ours is similar to theirs without being too “matchy”.

Now, I just have to figure out what we’re going to have for dinner tonight, and I’m set!