Thursday, August 9, 2018

7 Years and Forever

    This week, My Love and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. I was thinking about it, when we got married, I was 22 and these 7 years have kinda flown by. In comparison, 7 years before we got married I was 15 and those years seemed to be much slower. Funny how that works. Regardless of how fast or slow time may move, I am so thankful that I get to do life with Luke. He's a wonderful husband and daddy, provider and friend.


As per usual, we celebrated our anniversary at the Itasca Family Bluegrass Festival. It was fun and Buirlen had a blast. He was quite the brave adventurer and tromped far and wide enjoying music, swings, tractors, and the great unknown...and he got nice and dirty. 








These two...They are already such good friends and it makes me so happy. 


My garden just keeps a growing and recently we've started eating things from it. Such fun. The other night we had collards, broccoli, green beans, and a beat fresh from the garden and I've already got a few packages of broccoli in the freezer. Yay!


I think that if flowers were emotions personified, zinnias would be joy. 


He discovered a perfect little hideout under the beans. He thought it was a pretty neat little place to hang out. 



Fresh produce!

The sunflowers just keep going.

Hmmm....Have you been in the bean patch by chance?

Summer fun 




Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Grandma Style

     I have been told on more than one occasion that I have a grandmaish style. Meaning that often the patterns and items I am drawn too are supposedly something a grandma would pick out. This has been brought up this summer as I am redoing my kitchen cabinets. I decided to line my freshly painted cabinets and drawers with some lovely contact paper that I found. The bright pops of color against the white just make me happy and I figured it would keep things from scuffing up as fast. When my brother stopped by the other day he commented on the grandma-ishness of the pattern. Then someone else pointed out to me that contact paper in and of itself is a rather grandmay thing. And I'm ok with this, in fact I've decided to just fully embrace it.

     Last weekend I came home from the store with a roll of that grippy mat stuff because Buirlen's booster seat kept sliding around on the chair and I thought it might solve the problem(it did). As I was getting a piece cut out and put under the seat Luke commented that that is also something that grandma's are known to have. And I decided then and there that, you know what, grandmas know what's up. They've been running their household's a lot longer than me and seem to have discovered secrets like "contact paper and grippy mats are useful things," so I'm just going to tap into that wisdom and rock my grandma style.
   Speaking of Grandma's, my Grandma and Grandpa Shearer just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. They are awesome and  I am so very blessed to have their wonderful example in my life.

Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Frances 65 years ago. 

This week my sunflowers finally passed me up, at least this one did. Non of them have bloomed yet, but I'm sure looking forward to when they do!


Yesterday, my friend Emily, her kids, Buirlen, and I drove south a few hours to meet up with my dear friend Katy and her kids for a quick visit. We visited a lovely public garden that gave me serious joy and garden inspiration. So many colors and types of flowers that I had never seen before....The few pictures I got do not do it justice! 

(Photo credits on these 2 go to Katy)


Buirlen and Brody. Cute little buddies!

A storm just rolled in and the rain sounds lovely as it comes down with rolls of thunder. May your evening be delightful and filled with the peace of The One who designed each and every flower, created marriages that last 65 plus years, and brings the rain. Good night!

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope." ~Lady Bird Johnson

"Love is not an affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained." ~C.S. Lewis


Thursday, July 26, 2018

July Just Flew By

     Summer is such a lovely time of the year, and a busy time, and a fun time....It's just good! The name of the game this summer has been "paint all the things"(And I'm so close to being finished!), which I seemed to do last summer as well(do I own a million chairs because that's how it felt), so much to paint. Anyway, it is fun to keep making this home more and more unique to us and put down some good home roots.
     My garden is becoming quite the jungle in the most lovely way possible. The beans are above my head and the sunflowers are just about there, it is just crazy how fast they grow!

Welcome to my garden


The sunflower jungle a couple weeks ago....



...And yesterday. Growing like crazy.


Checking out the beans, tomatoes, and prairie corner(The last two summers I've let one small corner of my garden grow wildflowers, once it gets blooming it's beautiful)




Speaking of things growing like crazy, this little boy has been doing just that. He loves tools and his shoes, likes to boogie to a good beat and play with his cousins. 

Broccoli 

Peas

Cosmos






Why yes...He did take this picture himself.

Luke keeps trucking along with the trenching and lower half of the insulation. He is just about around the house and then he will put the top half of insulation up and then then the siding...Whoo hooo. I"m dreaming of turning our backyard into a lovely and welcoming play and hang out area in the future when it's no longer a construction zone. 




The Lovely Keren Ruth and I took a mini road trip today to visit Martha(Keren and Luke's sister) and her family. We had a lovely day


So there you have it, beautiful, summery goodness!

"We might think that we are nurturing our garden, but of course it is our garden that is really nurturing us." ~Jenny Uglow