Hello... Good-Bye

The best days begin like this:

Coffee and think- time on the porch.

Being a huge fan of gardens and secret places, I love this door. Follow me through the hedges...

To my favorite warm- weather morning spot.

A hidden place where I drink coffee and listen to the birds and contemplate my day.

Especially incredible in May when the breeze is still cool and the hydrangeas are in full bloom.

I love these big showy bushes... my favorite of all flowers!

Good-bye to you, May, with your sweet cool temperatures, last chiminea nights before summer, happy-sad endings, transitions, and graduations.

Hello to you, June, when the mercury rises and stings along with the sunburns and bug bites, but I welcome the easing of schedules and sleeping a bit later and watching my high school senior enjoying lake trips, fishing, morning football work-outs, and earning money at his part-time job... making some of life's sweetest memories.

I look forward to two short cadet visits and the return of middle son after summer school ends. Maybe a vacation will appear magically in the midst of all these plans. If not, I will continue to be renewed by coffee, birds, and my secret garden.

Rain, Rain Go Away

We are floating away here in Arkansas. Lots of rain, tornados, and flooding have marked the past three weeks. The Arkansas River has spilled over its boundaries to cover parts of the River Trail where I enjoy riding my bike and walking my dogs. It is definitely a record rainfall spring. Many are comparing it to the fateful 1927 when one third of the state was flooded.

I have previously introduced my many-greats Grandmother Worthington. She came from England in the 1800's to be married. People say she looks like me. It's the eyes.

This was painted upon her arrival in New York.

In the 1927 flood, someone dropped Grandmother Worthington, and this crack resulted.

Back to our present flooding. Thank you, Mr. State Farm Man for smashing your ladder against our gutter during the worst rainy season in 80 years.

Right in the middle of Davis dressing for his Jr/Sr Prom, the sump pump shorted out, and I thought the house was on fire. I pushed him out the door half-dressed with no pictures, but someone else took this one.

It is cold, dark, and full of water down this rabbit hole. But, down the hole is the only way to fix our water problem.



Even grown men marveled at their bravery for tackling this project, for going where few men have gone before... except... can I admit that once, when Jeff was out- of- town and the pump became clogged...

I paid my two youngest $5.oo each (in the day when $5.00 got me quite a lot with them!) to wade in freezing water up to their arm pits... in the pitch dark... over to the pump to start it again. Bless them! (You know by now, that is Southern for "glad that wasn't me!").

My Heroes

(Jeff is under there somewhere. I had to dangle upside- down to blindly take this picture.)

Seriously, would you wade through this water?

Mission Accomplished!

Wedding Anniversary is For the Birds

I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?

Vintage 80's "Malia of Honolulu" Sundress... Glad Life is More than This!

Life is Also More than These 80's- Era- Awesome Loafers

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet their heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they?

Part of My Bird Nest Collection

And which of you being anxious can add a single cubit to life's span?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?

Spring Hydrangeas... So Beautiful... Here Today and Gone Tomorrow

Do not be anxious then, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "what shall we drink?" or "With what shall we clothe ourselves?" For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day had trouble enough of its own. ---Matthew 6: 25-34

On May 1, 1982, I clung tightly within my heart to the beautiful Matthew passage. There were so many unknowns when this twenty-two year old sorority girl walked the aisle. I committed my life to another person and traded all the security I had ever known for a big city and finding a job. I worried about how we would pay for my husband's graduate school, our apartment, food, and clothing.

But, trading the unknowns for the Known is how we survived.

Newly- Married Me with Our First Dog at Our First House

One apartment, seven houses, three cities, countless rabbits, two birds, four dogs, three children, and twenty-nine years later... I am still alive... still not naked... ate dinner last night... and, even though it is raining outside, I have a roof which keeps me dry (Well, mostly, it is an 88- year- old house.).

Our Porch Which is Currently Leaking

All my thankfulness is given to Christ. I could have never made it until today by myself. I can not think of my anniversary without recalling Matthew 6 because, not matter how much I try, I can not get past it...

nor should I want to.