Pictures!

I am so blessed to be married to a man who not only tolerates my crazy whims, but who is actually (most often) genuinely pleased with their outcomes! One day last December, Darren returned home from work and found that I had not only rearranged the furniture in our master bedroom, but I had also set up and decorated a Christmas tree in there! We loved it so much that after Christmas, we kept some elements of the furniture layout (I really loved having the rocking chair in our room). Lately, though, it just hasn't been working for me, so it was so much fun yesterday morning to change things around once again. Here's how that bay window in our bedroom looks now:

I really love our new arrangement and it has opened up so much more floor space in our room! (So much room, in fact, that there is plenty of space for the kids to play!)

And, a few words (and pictures, of course!) about our garden. Darren was kind enough to remind me that, contrary to what I may have said before, our garden still isn't quite finished yet. We still need to finish the center walking path (probably with crushed pecan shells), add some straw as a mulch, and, in a couple of weeks, finish planting the vegetables that it's still just a little bit too early for now. At any rate, we've all had a grand time planning, preparing, and planting our garden!

And here is our almost-finished "work in progress". This just makes me so happy! I keep sneaking out back to peek at it throughout the day!

So far, we've got kohlrabi, spinach, lettuce, chard, and sunflowers:

We've also got onions, red and green cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots:

We also planted a small strawberry patch and an herb garden, including parsley, sage, oregano, marjoram, chives, thyme, and tarragon. Next we'll add peppers, tomatoes, okra, eggplant, cucumbers, and snow peas.

This is just so much fun for all of us! I love that so many of our conversations lately have revolved around which vegetables we love, which ones we want to plant, how we might like to prepare said vegetables once they're mature...even Dylan and Caitlyn have strong opinions on the matter! We're new at this, but I am so thrilled with the opportunity our garden has given us to work together towards a real and substantial reward. I pray that our efforts will be abundantly blessed!

Cleaning

There's something about having Darren home to myself for a whole week that renders me completely useless and unproductive. We spent much of the past few days outside, playing with our kids and working on our yard and garden (yay!). We sat around a lot, laughing and talking and just hanging out. But laundry, for instance? I was caught up before we left for Albuquerque last weekend, but have only done the bare essentials since then (socks and underwear ranking right up there, second only to clean scrubs that I needed for work.) Darren returned to work yesterday, but, having worked Sunday night, I was still pretty much good for nothing. In fact, my kids and I took a three hour long nap yesterday afternoon and Darren was shocked--shocked!--to find all of us still sleeping when he got home from work last night.

But today. Today is an altogether different story! Despite an initially bad start to my morning (I am so not used to this time change yet), I am rejuvenated and, thanks in large part to Jennifer, motivated to get this house back into order. What began this morning as a simple housekeeping chore--stripping my bedsheets to be freshly laundered--resulted in a complete reconfiguration of my master bedroom. (No small task when accomplished alone!) My kids were so excited. They had great fun crawling on and around all the furniture as I vacuumed baseboards and washed walls and fixtures. I am so, so happy with the end result! I'd post a picture, but Darren hasn't seen it yet and I don't want to ruin the surprise. And surprised he'll be! Dylan keeps telling me how much he loves it, exclaiming over how much more room there seems to be and saying happily that he "can't wait" to sleep in here tonight. (Wait a second now...whose room is this again?!) :)

After lunch, Dylan and I got started on his room. He is just so irresistibly cute! When I told him this morning that we were going to be doing some spring cleaning, worried that he might resist the idea, he caught me completely off guard by responding cheerfully and with great enthusiasm. "Oh, good!" he said. "I've heard about spring cleaning before on Winnie the Pooh! This is going to be a fun chore!".

And, true to his word, he has been such a tremendous help! I brought a large cardboard box in from the garage and explained to him that we needed to sort through his toys to eliminate the ones that are broken, missing pieces, or that he no longer plays with. With little encouragement from me, he got right to it. "This one is scary," he said, tossing a soft plastic finger puppet into the box. "We don't really need this anymore," he explained as he tossed a football into the box. "Broken,"...toss. "Too silly,"...toss. And then, as he picked up a tiny, squishy, green rubber frog, "Oh, no, this is a choking hazard!"....toss! I am so proud of him! I only wish it was as easy for me to let go of "things". I'm working on it!

Meghan's asleep now and I'm eager to get back to work! With such eager and willing assistants this is much more fun than I thought it would be!

Spring

Darren has been home on vacation for this entire week, so I myself have been enjoying a rather lovely vacation of sorts, too. Yesterday, for example, I was afforded a small pleasure of pure indulgence: I went shopping all by myself! My first stop was Target, where I intended to buy the laundry detergent and coffee I had forgotten on our grocery shopping excursion the previous day, but where I also ended up finding the most adorable shoes for Caitlyn, Meghan, and myself, and a really cute diaper bag marked down half price on one of the clearance shelves in the baby department. From Target I headed to the mall in search of a gift for my Nana (whose birthday celebration I attended last night with the girls while Darren stayed home with a getting-over-the-flu-and-still-not-quite-well Dylan). I parked at JC Penney because it was closest to the shop I had in mind, and while I was passing through I thought I'd look for some new jeans. When I found some nice ones on sale for nearly half price, I felt quite justified in buying two! (And I did find a very lovely stained glass cross for my Nana.)

Today was absolutely gorgeous, clear and bright with an afternoon high of 78 degrees! We all headed outside to play for a while and work in our garden this morning and it was pure bliss. While winter may be unleashing a final freezing fury across much of the rest of the country, here in sunny New Mexico we are seeing the first hints of a very splendid spring!

When we relandscaped our front yard two summers ago, I wanted to include trees which would display beautiful fall foliage as well as pretty spring blossoms, so we decided on two young Bradford Pears. They were the perfect choice, and they are looking so pretty right now with their delicate white flowers and emerging green leaves.

I am also quite enamored with the plum tree we planted in our backyard last fall. It is one that Darren found on sale for less than five dollars and at the time, it didn't look like much. But now it is covered in the most deliciously scented flowers! Caitlyn and I stood for quite a while earlier today, admiring the beauty of the blossoms and inhaling their sweet fragrance.

And I know I'm not the only one who loves rosemary! Ours is especially lovely right now with it's little purple flowers and inviting aroma. I was particularly happy to see the first of the Vinca flowers we planted beneath our rose bushes in our front bed. It looked so bare last year that we thought they'd make a nice ground cover. The vines have already filled in quite a bit and they will look so beautiful when they're all in bloom. Even Darren's cacti are in beautiful bloom! I've written before about the stunning display of his desert garden, but I'm still astounded by the brilliance of their blooms. Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.

Of course, no post would be complete without some pictures of my precious children. They all had so much fun playing outside today that I just had to get some pictures of them, too! It didn't take long for Caitlyn to find the bubble blow I had tucked away in our bag of outdoor lawn games. Meghan had a blast in her swing, watching Cait blow bubbles and laughing at Dylan, who was busy enjoying his position as reigning King of the Backyard.

And, although it doesn't look very exciting at the moment, here is one of my favorite things about today: this plot of yard which Darren dug up in preparation for the vegetable garden we're planning!
Oh, and one more thing I just have to share! We were all so thrilled this morning when Darren excitedly announced a discovery he made while examining the flower bed just off our back porch: When my mom moved into her new house a little over a year ago, we adopted her five pet turtles and they made themselves right at home in our backyard. Somehow, though, I never even considered the possibility that they might reproduce! The adults have been hibernating all winter long, so we were positively stunned to find this adorable baby this morning. He is so cute! And so tiny! Here he is in Dylan's small hand: We considered trying to keep him inside in a terrarium of sorts, but ultimately decided to keep him outside. He's obviously doing well for himself, so for now we'll leave him be. I can't wait to see if any brothers or sisters make an appearance in the coming weeks!

Wiggly Weekend

Can you guess what could possibly make these kids so excited?

I'll give you a few hints:

They sing.

And dance.

And Wiggle...


Hoop-Dee-Doo! It's the Wiggles! From the time Dylan was two years old, this friendly foursome from the land down under has been singing and dancing their way into our hearts and so, when my sister-in-law informed me that they would be performing live in Albuquerque, I wasted no time in reserving our tickets for what was sure to be a wonderfully wiggly party. They did not disappoint! By the time they drove onto the stage in their Big Red Car, I myself was in a frenzied state of ebullience!

The show was amazing. We shook our hips with Wags the dog:

We quack-quack-quacked and cock-a-doodle-dooed:

We enjoyed every minute of the fun filled performance and then took our place in line at the souvenir stand. (By waiting until after the show, we avoided a very lengthy wait!) And then, with their concert t-shirts and and light up Big Red Car stick in hand, the evening, regrettably, came to a close. But the opportunity for Dylan and Caitlyn to see their beloved Wiggles (live! In person!) was well worth every dollar spent. Because the memories we made and the joy we shared are actually, I think...priceless.

Good Start to a Great Weekend

A cool breeze stirred my bedroom curtains late yesterday afternoon as I raised all the windows to the air outside. "Oh, mom," Dylan said happily, "leave the windows open! That feels so refreshing!"

He was absolutely right. Having been closed up tight all winter long, my poor little house has been positively gasping for a breath of fresh air! Our spirits were lifted immensely by the infusion of bright sunshine and sweetly scented almost-spring air.

After baths last night, Darren and I gathered the children around us, and, as a family, prayed the Stations of the Cross. Dylan helped me make our own Stations last week by cutting out the pictures from his Who Am I? workbook, mounting them on purple card stock, laminating them, and then hanging them along the walls of our hallway.

This is something new that we decided to try for the first time this Lent and I am so glad we did. We used the prayers from a Stations of the Cross for children that I found at Domestic-Church.com, and while I won't lie and say that my children were perfect angels for the entire duration, they were remarkably observant and Dylan did a great job of announcing each Station as we made our way along the hall. I am so proud of how well he did!

We'll be leaving in just a little while for our long awaited trip to Albuquerque! We are all so very excited. Darren and I got all the suitcases packed and the van loaded last night after the kids were asleep (Dylan's bag has actually been packed since January!). So as soon as everyone is up and dressed, we'll be hitting the road! I can't wait! Hopefully I'll have lots of fun pictures and stories to share when we return on Monday. Until then, I hope you all have a great weekend!

Love

It's often the littlest considerations that give my morning such a wonderfully right start. Just a little while ago, for instance, Darren turned to me at the coffee pot and said those magical words I just so love to hear: "Would you like to go get in the shower before I have to leave for work?"

Oh, YES, yes I would, thank you very much!

What a luxury it is for me to be able to spend a few extra minutes in a nice hot shower, without little people coming in and out of the bathroom, and not worrying about what sort of trouble little Meghan (or her big brother and sister!) might be getting into!

Thank you, Darren. I love all the little ways you love me!