Persistent Faith

       I find nature's ability to keep on keeping on despite setbacks rather amazing. For example, weeds are incredibly persistent. I recently re-mulched the landscaped area in my front yard and already, there are weeds pushing their way through. We mow down the grass and it comes back, we weed our gardens and turn around to see that they need it again. Usually, we look at this as a negative thing, but I was thinking about it the other day and realized that that is exactly how I want my faith to be, persistent.
      The enemy of our souls wants to destroy our faith, and he's pretty good at knowing our buttons. There are many different things that weed whack our faith, perhaps, it's fear or doubt, exhaustion, skepticism, anger, laziness, you name it, if it will weaken our faith, he will try it. But The One who calls our names, who desires to know our hearts, and gives us grace daily, wants to grow in us a persistent faith. Faith that gets back up when it's knocked down. Faith that says no to fear and pushes through when things seem foggy and disorienting. Faith that keeps seeking hope when all seems lost. Faith that won't give up. This is what I want. And so, I continue on the journey of growing in grace. 
     And now, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the wind is dancing, and the birds and crickets are making happy sounds.  Oh, and this weekend is the 7 year anniversary of when My Love asked me to be his wife. I'm sure glad he did.

My intrepid adventurer. 

Sweet violets

Planting rhubarb. 

Keeping an eye on the water spigot while Mama waters the plants. Puddle time!

Blooms!

Engaged and happy about it. 2011

Happy Friday my friends. May your faith be persistent!

Crawfish and Flowers

    Last night, we had the chance to go to a crawfish boil. We had never been and it was a lot of fun...and tasty. It was at the fire station and Buirlen enjoyed making the rounds and exploring.

He thought this was fun...Luke mentioned that he probably thought it was a steering wheel. I think he was right because I caught him pressing the middle and making a honking noise at one point. 

I have been enjoying puttering in my flower garden lately.  When we moved here, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a whole row of peonie bushes. However, they weren't in a great location and with the upcoming siding project, were in the path of destruction, so I moved them and they seem to be doing just fine in their new location. I also moved the irises I had put in last spring. The past few years I've had sunflowers and zinnias in this spot, and I plan to continue with that but it is now home to my peonies and irises as well, plus a few different annuals. I do love flowers.

This guy is a good little gardener...Digging is fun. 

Helping mama plant impatients around the tree. 

There were loads of violets up around the house, so they got moved to be with the impatients. I keep wanting to go out and look at my flowers. 

My brother Jordan came over to hang out this past Friday and he helped me open up and clean out the porch for the season.

The hammock is back and open for business. 

We decided to play a game of scrabble when we were all done. It was warm and a nice rain was coming down...Pure loveliness. 

And as far as the latest installment in the Siding Saga goes, the steel and insulation is here and now it's just waiting for the time to get started. 

Luke brought the big truck home with everything on it as couple weeks ago. Buirlen thought this was  great. 

And lastly, my baby is growing up so fast. These two pictures of Buirlen waiting for Daddy to come home are just about 1 year apart. Life is good. 

May 2017

May 2018

May your week be grand!

"Flowers are the music of the ground. From earth's lips, spoken without sound." ~Edwin Curran

Residing the House Part 2: Window Edition

    This summer's project is residing our house. Though I love it's quirky charm and the fact that we've made it our home, our house does not have a logical layout. Luke thinks that over the years it was added on to here and there and the end results are kind of odd. For example, our living room is rather small and on the outside wall there were these glass doors....Not sure why a door was needed there since the front door is just a few feet away. Anyway, these doors left us with limited places to put furniture, so, since we've moved in they have been blocked by a couch. Plus, they were old and quite drafty and simply needed to go, and it needed to be done before the siding goes up. So, this past weekend out went the doors and in went a new window.

The old glass door. 

 The door from inside.

Buirlen was quite interested in all the action and tools. Tools, are SO FUN!

Nothing like a giant, gaping hole in the side of your house. 

This air compressor makes lots of noise and that makes it extra cool. 

Don't worry Mom, this will be fixed before you know it. 

Framing up the new wall. 

And just like that we have a new window. 

Another quirky aspect of our house is that there was a random door of the laundry room. It didn't make sense as to it's location and we never used it. So it came off as well. 

Inside once the window was in. 

....And all sheet rocked over. 

Last summer a family from church moved away and didn't want to take this 3 wheeled bike with them, so it ended up at our place. Buirlen and I took for a spin and thought it was rather fun. 

So there you have it. 

Enjoy this beautiful Tuesday. 

"Home is the nicest word there is." ~Laura Ingalls Wilder