delayed gratification

In the fall, I love browsing Tulip catalogs and choosing the next Springs bulbs

Last fall, I was in a pale pink mood.

I am always drawn to white blooms but pale pinks sneak in on occasion.

This tulip is called Angelique.

It is such a delicate pink.  

I rarely am drawn to a multiple bloom tulip but the ruffles and color spoke to me.

These are my forever favorites String of Pearls.

They have very long stems, perfect for cutting and bringing inside.  They bloom very early, even beating most daffodils.

These are called Spring Green.

I love how the outside petals have the stripes of green.

Can't remember the name of these shorties... they are seriously only 6-7" tall, so little and cute.

I plant tulip bulbs each year at the entrance of our farm.  I hope to have quite a mass accumulated there in the next few years.

Savannah is my very practical child.  She is perplexed by my love of tulips in that I plant them and have to wait so long for the reward.  And even once they bloom, the 'show' is shortlived.

Funny thing is, those are the very reasons I enjoy them so...
never given the chance to tire of them, the excitement of the wait.

Love!

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Feel free to read the prior post to get up to date on the Wizard of Oz shed saga.

This is the before,

 and this is the after.

Yay!

 Cutey shed nestled back in the trees.

 The next steps will include:

weathered gray stain to look more like the old barn,

stacked stone 'skirting' to cover the skids and leveling blocks underneath,

a lean-to for dry storage of our split wood,

& I want to make the white metal door more rustic but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Nursin' a bad case of guilty conscience

Are you comfy?  Get comfy!  This is a novel and a 1/2...

To start the saga, in a weak moment several weeks ago... seems I mentioned to hubby that I would refrain from buying trees this spring because our focus would be on several structures that we need to get/build.

I must have been delusional from the long winter.

Last Thursday found me at my favorite greenery in my former hometown.

I was actually innocently there, truly... I was very early for a 10am meeting, and needed to kill time.

I had Shawn's truck because I was going to pick up a few adirondak chairs after said meeting.

Honestly, I truly was innocently browsing... but then I was maliciously sidelined.

I actually left the greenery empty handed.

Will of steel, yep that's me.

After leaving my meeting, I went to get the chairs like previously planned.

But there weren't any.  I called the vendor and he said he would give me a great price on a large number of said chairs and would even deliver them to our home at a discount for the chairs and delivery for free.

Yippee!

Until the reality of an empty truck bed became just too sad of a reality for me. Too, too sad.

Documented fact that an overflowing truck bed is much happier than an empty one.

Just count all these happies!

I was rendered helpless when faced with walking away without these 3 White Redbuds.

OH my.

Have you seen these?

Redbuds, as the name indicates, are usually covered in vivid red/fushia blooms.

Since I am a white f.a.n.a.t.i.c, and since I have never seen these at a local nursery, only seen them online for MUCH more than I paid for these ... SOLD!

I'm going to move, using the word 'I' very loosely here, the tiny cherry tree currently next to coop fence and tripod the white redbuds there, ahhhhh, perfection.

The other goodness in the truck was quinces.

I actually can't plant too many areas right now.  We need massive landscaping that is out of our do-it-yourself league in the form of dirt distribution, irrigation issues, etc.  So we wait for those areas until better financial times.  But under the cherry tree in our circular drive I feel safe to plant.

I picture some Snow White Hawthorns mixed with these quinces and much more yumminess.

Well, to my sweetheart's credit... he did not flip at my recent purchases.  Did not even bring up the promise I made about no spring trees.  It was like he knew I would be weak, kinda sad, huh?!  But never my husband fear... the weekend had a way of coming back to bite me... HARD!

#1Case in point:

We bought this cutey shed to place by our largest fire ring.  We needed good storage in this location and found a great deal on this premade ditty.

It was delivered on Friday, by the cutest Mennonite couple.  Adorable they were.

So adorable I found out later I may, just may... have been a tiny bit, tad, itsy wittle, distracted.

As the gentleman maneuvered this beast of a shed back and forth at my suggestion... tilting it as I suggested, pivoting just as I asked it to be... his patience was most generous and forgiving.

Finally I gave the thumbs up and he went about leveling and officially unloading it.

Meanwhile, his adorable wife and I just chatted it up.  I found out that her cutey husband was one of 14 children, he being the 14th... precious!  They are newlyweds of only 10months... precious!

I mean, the whole experience was just enjoyable.  Perhaps too enjoyable.

All the while I was making this dear man move the shed a little to the left.... a little to the right..... now back an eeensy bit back to the left.... nope, to the right.

I LOST MY MIND AND NEVER LOOKED AT THE SHED PLACEMENT FRONT TO BACK!!

I seriously never walked around to the bloomin' side and made sure that it was back far enough.

In fact, they left the farm, cruising on to their next delivery, before Shawn and I drove to the house and took a glance back to the shed and realized....

The bloomin' shed is smack dab dumped in the middle of the field.

Whimper.

It is the 'Wizard of Oz' shed.  Looks like it fell out of the sky and landed in the middle of our front pasture.

See the line of trees to the back of the shed.  It is supposed to be nestled up against those trees... like it has always been there.  I have visions of staining it a weathered gray color and vines up the side... quaint little shed in the woods.  NOT shed plopped in the middle of no man's land.

So we called cutey patootey couple to tell them of our mistake.  Dear sweet 14th child of amazing parents wanted to ring our necks, of course he was cordial, afterall we took ALL the blame... but he was so exhausted after the placement, only to be told we needed it moved.  So, in the end they will come out as soon as they can to fix OUR mistake and it will cost us for the error, grumble.

Now on to case in point #2:

Remember my joy at finally getting our new shutters?

Aren't they just beautiful?

Well, upon closer inspection... there is a paint flaw.

So the installer came and took all my pretties away.

I have naked windows again.

The little dangling hooks are so very sad, wouldn't you say?

The shutters are now at the warehouse being repainted.

And I won't even mention an episode involving Shawn, his truck in reverse, and a 4 wheeler in the driveway minding its own business... when.... caaaapow!

Happy to say:

We had a beautiful Easter eve with family and friends, a birthday boy named Noah, party, Easter egg hunt, all day outside in gorgeous weather.

And Easter Sunday took my breath away.

To gather and listen to the Prophet and Apostles share their love and knowledge of the Savior was amazing.

So here I am on Monday....missing my shutters, can't stop looking at the enormous (it is growing by the second) shed in the middle of our pasture, wondering what I will have to do to get hubby to dig in 3 trees that I promised him I wouldn't buy... but beyond blessed :)!

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!