Herbs

I don't know when I started growing herbs.  I think my brother gave me a book about herbs for Christmas one year, long long ago.  Maybe I started growing them while I still had a vegetable garden.  At any rate I grow herbs.  I have one side of the yard that gets mostly sun so that is where I planted herbs when I moved into this house (yes, I actually dug up nice green grass to make the beds for the herbs...what was I thinking?).

I like having the herbs to cook with, it is nice to run outside with the scissors and snip whatever I need when I need it.  You can't beat cooking with fresh herbs or vegetables when you can get them.  But I also grow herbs for their scent.  I love to touch them and then smell the fragrance of the herb.  They are so soothing and so peaceful!  Basil, mint, oregano, rosemary...each is distinctive in their fragrance and each so delightful.

Last winter was brutal.  The chives and rosemary survived, the large lavender bush did not.  The parsley didn't make it.  I had mint planted in a nice size pot last year.  I kept it well covered, and even though it was on the north side of the house it managed to survive.  It didn't look like much when I uncovered it, but I trimmed it back and gave it plenty of water and once the freeze danger was over put the pot at the edge of the deck to get lots of light.  Now it is back to being a nice size plant.  Tonight as I watered it I touched the leaves and enjoyed the minty smell.  Mmmmm, how relaxing.  Just one of life's small, simple things!

Easter Blessings

A beautiful worship service on Easter morning!

Jaydon finds an egg!

Cameron is old enough to really be in on the hunting action this year!

The boys share a moment to work on a little project.

Thoughts on Easter Eve

On this Easter Eve, I've been thinking about the fact that Easter really is the holiest day of the year.  It is the pinnacle of the Christian Year, this is the day we celebrate Christ's resurrection and the gift of forgiveness and eternal life.  There just isn't anything more joyous or holy than Easter.

But I think we sometimes gloss over the resurrection story.  We get hung up on new outfits and planning Easter egg hunts or going to the lake or the ranch or fixing food for a special meal or whatever, etc etc.  Just like with Christmas we forget the meaning of the celebration.  And this year Easter is so late that it almost feels like we should have already celebrated this a while back.

So, my prayer is that people all over the world will see Easter in a new light, in the right light of putting the celebration of the resurrection first. 

Prepare our hearts, Lord, to worship you as our risen Saviour.  Amen

Good Friday

Here's what we did today:

1.  We went to the Wildseed Farm and had a picnic lunch
2.  We went to LBJ State Park and explored some old buildings
3.  We came home
4.  We went to the Good Friday service at church

Jaydon sat still long enough for me to get this shot!  He was zooming through the Farm!

The wind was blowing like a hurricane but it didn't stop us from going out in the Meadow!

We were excited to drive up and see the red poppies blooming.  Last year they didn't have any and these are one of our favorites.

I spent many pleasant afternoons in a porch swing at my great aunt's house.  Jaydon and I shared a swing this afternoon at the Living History Farm at the LBJ State Park.

Jaydon had fun on the covered wagon.  I couldn't help but think that the people that rode/drove these across the United States were very hardy folks.  I don't think any of us could travel even a few miles in one of these.



This is the Sauer-Beckman Farm, an actual farm on the LBJ State Park property that is now a living history exhibit.  Reluctantly, Jaydon agreed to explore it.  But then he didn't want to leave!  He got to see some cows up close and step into the working kitchen where a docent was cooking on the wood fired stove.  They had a garden with a headless scarecrow that fascinated Jaydon (it had a hat but he was sure it was headless).  It was like stepping back into time as I opened the screen door to go into the house!



Old things, beloved things

This is a picture of something that is now long gone, my grandfather's barn.  I think I made this picture in the summer of 1993 using a primitive, so to speak, 35mm film camera. I scanned this picture from the negative so that is the difference in quality.

Lately I've been enjoying following a blog that I found several weeks ago.  It is http://misspreservation.com/ and is about historic preservation in Mississippi.  I love reading the articles and looking at the pictures.  I've always loved old buildings and homes, especially the ones in Mississippi!  The sad part is that now many of the buildings that were relatively new when I was growing up are considered old and needing preservation!

Gammy House

Ok, here is another small, simple thing to add to the list...Gammy's house.  I don't know what it is about my house that makes Jaydon and Cameron love it.  I remember when Jaydon was probably about Cameron's age that his mommy called me one Saturday afternoon and asked if he could come over since he had been asking all day to go to Gammy's house.  He has always been in and out of my house and lived with me for quite a while when younger so this was not an odd request.  I remember when they arrived that I looked out the front door and saw Jaydon just standing there looking at my house with a loving, awestruck look!  I could tell that he was at peace since he was where he wanted to be, at his Gammy's house.

Cameron comes through the door when he visits and with encouragement, gives me a hug and then he gets busy playing.  He has a good time just hanging out.

Today Jaydon was lounging on my sofa and I asked him what his favorite place to go to was, expecting him to reply the Wildseed Farm or the Botanical Garden as he usually does.  Very thoughtfully, he answered, "Gammy House."

I couldn't figure it out for a while.  After all my house is nothing big or great and it is usually in some state of disarray. I can't think of anything that would attract children to this house.  And I certainly haven't done anything to attract them here.  But then  I remembered my Grandmother's house, especially my maternal grandmother's, and how I loved to be there.  When our car pulled into the driveway of that little country home I was totally at the center of God's universe and there was peace in my heart.  It was my Mamaw and Papaw's house and that's all there was to it.  I just hope that Jaydon and Cameron will someday have the memories that I have of those visits to my grandparent's house.  (Just for the record, my paternal grandparents were special too and I treasure my visits to their little house just outside the wonderful world of Ole Miss)

Just another small, simple thing...your Gammy's house!

Happy Birthday to....

...James!

Birthday Party Time

Today we celebrated Cameron and James' April birthdays!  It was a great party, with just family to celebrate. 

Cameron had on his "Birthday Boy" shirt!

James held Cam while everyone sang "Happy Birthday"

Blow out that candle Cameron!

Hey everyone, I'm the birthday boy!

There was a pile of presents to open!

What a fun time!  More pictures to come soon. 

Spring, wildflowers, and another day of amaryllis blooms

This has been the strangest spring, or what we call spring here.  It is NOT a true spring but it suffices for a season.  I can't bring myself to do a post on things I like about spring because it just isn't spring.  Wildflowers are scarce, the weather has been pleasant but way to warm, and I'm not itching to plant anything because it hasn't rained in months.

In regard to wildflowers, I worked in a little town north of here today and as I drove home on I-10 I lamented how few wildflowers there are this year.  But I reminded myself that when we do have rain (preferably in the fall) that we will have wildflowers again.  But why...because the seeds will be there in the ground waiting for the rain.  Yes, I told myself they are there and the flowers will bloom again.  I think seeds are amazing.  They can lie there, through brutal winters and hot dry summers but just the right amount of rain at the right time and they sprout, bloom, and re-seed themselves.  There is a lesson there!

And finally, today's picture of the amaryllis with two blooms open.

The Amaryllis

Christmas before last one of my co-workers gave each of us an amaryllis bulb.  We had fun starting them in the office and watching them sprout, bud and bloom.  We each had a different color.  After they faded I think most went in the trash, but I brought mine home and put it in a pot outside.  It made a nice plant during the summer and during the fall I thought about digging it up and letting rest but I just let it rest where it was, in the pot!  I covered up everything during the brutal freeze we had in early February, but, alas, when I uncovered everything a lot of plants were just gone.  The amaryllis was mush, so I cut it off and threw the top away.  It sprouted out again so I thought it would just make another nice, green plant that would grow in this pot during the summer.  Imagine my surprise when, on March 24th I just happened to notice this:

Oh my, that is a bloom.  A bloom?  Oh my!

This was how it looked on April 1st!

April 4th

April 5th

April 6th

April 6th-one open bloom, one half open and two buds so there is more to come!

 And, there are now two more sprouts in this pot, so next year I'm hoping to have more amaryllis.  One of life's simple things...watching a bud grow and bloom!

Cascarone fun!

Last Saturday morning we went to the Starving Artist Show.  One of the vendors gave Jaydon a cascarone.  We explained the necessary action but he was a little hesitant to try it out.  So he volunteered for his mom to demonstrate on him!  I don't think he will have any problems with the next cascarone!

We got all the confetti out before he got home!