naked, not so naked... & smug!

 Naked pots... scandalous!!

Naked Window Box...

Naked Window ledge that I am trying to convince hubby would look less naked with its very own window box.

Not so naked windows, yippee!  It only took 2.5 years to finally get shutters for the house.

And look at the precious accessories, a window is truly dressed with the proper accessories, snicker.

Even the carriage house got some shutters and bling, slowly but surely, that's how we do things around here.

Not so naked cherry trees, if I end up with 1,000 cherry trees on our land it will NOT be enough, nope, more... I have an addiction and I embrace it wholeheartedly.  Do you blame me?!

And then there is our not so naked pasture... covered in wildflowers, aka weeds, but don't tell Ty because he picks these and brings them to me as giftage.

And this is my youngest son, Ty.  He is neither naked or not so naked.

He is smug.

'Cause he announced to me the other day that he was going to go outside and pick a 4leaf clover.

Being the supportive, builder of dreams, wind beneath his wings kinda of mom that I am... I said, 

"All righty then, have fun with that impossible task!"

And it took him less that 5 minutes to return with this....

To which he then asked for an apology, which I delivered.

And then he asked, "does God make 5leaf clovers?"

Not having learned my lesson before, my mommy skills still wavering, I said, "well, I've never seen one."

That booger returned moments later with this doozy.

I was SURE he was bluffing... I shook this poor clover for all it was worth thinking Ty had rigged it.

Nope.

I apologized yet again.

then YOU must be boring....

So, have you ever heard the words..."I'm bored!", come out of your child's mouth?

It sends Ty right up the wall when I finish this sentence for him....

"If your bored... that must mean you're boring!"

Thankfully, he rarely makes that statement.  Success!

Ty just simply needs to be reminded to go create something.

His favorite place to go 'fiddle' is on his desk in his bedroom.

He asked to have a huge ART board, so I found this pinboard and he filled it up in 2.1 seconds!

His creativity does not translate into neatness in any shape or form, snicker.

But, it makes me smile that in between pictures of spongebob and space martians invading earth.... one can find important messages like CTR.... choose the right.

And drawings of blackholes and Yoda are quite comfortable sharing space with a coloring page of

the Savior in Gethsemane.
Reality and imagination beautifully coexisting :)

Praise and Petition

I have been str.uuuuuuugg.l.ing lately.  I seem to have these phases, ups and downs. Can anyone relate? :]

I remember vividly a wonderful talk given at a Ward Relief Society Meeting while we were in Dental School.  It was entitled... 'Patterning our Lives after the Pattern of Prayer'.  We know and have been taught that we are to first express our gratitiude and praise to our Heavenly Father for the blessings and trials in our lives, the later being a toughy sometimes.  And then it is perfectly OK to then petition for help, needs, strength, health, etc! And the beautiful closure of prayer, In the name of our Savior, Amen.

So, remembering this talk... I am DAILY ever so praising........ heavily petitioning.... and maybe tiptoeing into pleading..... but in the end KNOWING that My Savior will cover the rest.

Because this is very much my journal, I will make the following notes so I can look back and nod, remember when, possibly giggle at myself, and most importantly and truthfully... so that my posterity will be clear that I am not perfect... but I have, and hope to always have.... a never ending tug of what is really important.

Points of Petition in my life right now:

1.  Homeschooling is tough, I mean one of the toughest things I have ever done.  I love it, I truly do.  I wanted it to be challenging for me and the kids, got that wish in LOADS!!!  Still know that it is the right choice for our family, sometimes those right choices can sure be a kick in the pants though.

2.  I thought Shawn and I would NEVER have a harder combination of callings than the two we had in Dental School.... him as YM President and me in Primary Presidency.  Small ward, struggling ward, tons of need, tons of time serving, nearly no down time.... and graduate school and 2 babes in addition, whew.

NEVER SAY NEVER, never, never... getting that word out of my system. Throughout my life I have edited words out of my vocabulary.  The words 'hate' and 'lucky' were early-on put on my vocabulary chopping block.  Today, I formally place the word 'never' on the do not use list... it just does not hold validity for me, bye, bye.
  
3.  I know how to edit.  I do.  This is a challenge for most gals... me?  Nope?!  I am often called on to be the anchor of the family.  The one that says, nope, nadda, not gonna happen, to all the many activities, sports, and frills that can pull us all in different directions.  But the task I face at the moment... what happens when the list of to-dos are so very important, meaning if they are not done then others will hurt or go lacking?  This is my struggle.

4.  This is for all the young moms out there.  You know those moments when you dream of the day that your kids are old enough to leave at home alone?  That glorious day you can run out on a moments notice because you don't have to find a babysitter?

I'm finding there is a flip side to the phase I am in right now with the ages of my kids.  I do have 2 teenagers now.  I do have every confidence that they are safe and responsible when left at home alone.  The toughy.... I find I am leaving them, a lot, like I physically feel the weight of the knowledge that I have so little time left with them before missions and college.   And yet my responsibilities require me to pull out of my driveway and leave them behind.  Now combine that with homeschooling and I feel a real tug on me right now.  So ironic that when kids are little, we want them to grow up.... when they are growing up... we want every moment to slow down.   The need to be present for each moment... at least for me... is becoming monumental.  The intense desire I had to be with my children as they were little has in no way, shape, or form, lessens as they have gotten older... yet I'm not sure if the validity of me not wanting to leave my 'older' children carries as much weight as the desire for a mom to not leave her 'little' ones? 

And so there it is.  In black and white.  Not that my kids ever had the illusion that I was a supermom, never earned my cape :), but at least they will know that every choice I made and make... do and don't do... stay or go... these 3 young people are always the first and last thing I base any thing on.  This motherhood thing is tremendous, truly!

Beautiful Views

Several weeks ago, Shawn went on a plane ride with a friend of his.

They had been trying to get their schedules together for quite some time so they could fly over our land and get some photos.  Those views would be more breathtaking were it not winter, but it still is fun to see our surroundings from these photos.

The above photo is the TN River that lies next to the farm land directly behind our property.

Below is the Flint River that feeds into the TN River.  Our kids love to go play in the Flint River, such a great retreat.

This is from the rear angle of our farm.

Shawn is over the Flint river taking this photo and facing Green Mountain.

See our beautiful Homestead?

My bro, Barry, calls our farm a 'bowling alley, there sure is some truth to that, snicker.

It actually is an 'L' with my folks living on a bit of acreage to the side of our long strip of land.

Side view of the house and carriage house.

Between the farm fencing and that little glimpse of the blue barn at the back of the property, will be a pond... one day, someday, maybe, hopefully, not holding my breath though :)

The only thing NOT dormant is cedars and a few loblolly pines... one day we hope to have some landscaping too... big dreams!!

The day of Shawn's flyover, me and the kids were actually outside behind the blue barn burning brush... he said we looked like ants, but Shawn and I were able to chat on cellphones while he circled us.

They continued on to the TVA dam.

A favorite fishing spot of my dad's.

So glad Shawn finally got the chance to fly... me?!... NO desire to fly, not my idea of fun.

When we were in the AirForce, I really worried that he was going to bail on dentistry and wanna hang with the pilots.  Thankfully he stayed on course with his career and going up once in a while gives him the thrills he seeks.  Thanks, Ross!