Around Our Yard

After touring other people's gardens I thought I would take a few pictures from our own backyard.

These hollyhocks are my daughters favorites.  I had some hollyhocks growing by our greenhouse when she was younger but there was only one pink in the whole bunch.  She carefully collected the seeds and planted them in another spot in the yard where they are now thriving.  I do love the color on them.

These pictures were taken earlier in the summer.  These are the snow peas just beginning to bloom.

This was also the first daylily to bloom.

This vine was just one little stem two years ago.  It is beginning to fill in nicely.

Our favorite place to relax on a hot summer day.

Some little violas bravely growing where no plant has grown before :)  Another one of my daughters favorites.

"Why try to explain miracles to your kids

when you can just have them plant a garden." 

~Robert Brault~

Garden Tour - Part 2

Here are a few more pictures taken from our garden tour.

"I sit in my garden, gazing upon a beauty that cannot gaze upon itself. 

And I find sufficient purpose for my day."

~Robert Brault~  

Garden Tour - Part 1

I was foruntate this year to be able to go on the local Garden Tour.  Various people in the area open their yards for us to go in and enjoy.  Here's a few pictures that we took from the tour.

"Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity." 

~Lindley Karstens, noproblemgarden.com~

A Wind Storm

First of all, I apologize that some of these pictures are dark.  My good camera went to Berlin with my daughter so it was back to the oldie for awhile.

We had quite a wind storm come through and it took down part of what we thought was a healthy tree and because of where it split we ended up having to take out the whole tree.

The really frustrating part of the whole thing was that we have about four other trees that need to come down but not one of them suffered during the storm.

Of course, once we started taking the tree down we knew why it had gone down.  Although it looked healthy on the outside it wasn't so healthy on the inside.

 It was a good lesson on the importance of taking care of our inner self - no matter how good we seem to look on the outside.

Storms of Life

In my last blog I asked for prayer as I my dad had complications with his angiogram.  Well, it was a little more than a complication.  His heart actually stopped.  Thankfully, they were able to get it going again and after getting him stablized he had by-pass surgery.  Although it has been slow he has been improving and it's amazing to see him doing so much better.  What an answer to prayer.

As well, within this time frame my daughter celebrated her 18th birthday, got accepted into the college of her choice (an 8 1/2 hour drive from home), graduated from high school and went on a mission trip to Berlin.  We are now in the depths of collecting and packing things as we prepare for her to leave for college.  I don't think I've fully come to grips with the fact that she will be leaving in only a few short weeks.  After homeschooling for the past 14 years I have to admit I think I will be at a bit of loss for awhile.

“Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm”

Heart Surgery & Prayers

I will be away for awhile.  My dad is having double by-pass surgery tomorrow and I will be heading up to be with my mom.  Not sure when I will be back.  Please keep him in your prayers as there were complications with his angiogram today and although he is currently stable he is not well.

Archie Birthday Card

This is the cute little card I made for my hubby for his birthday

which was so quick and easy to do.

I printed the Archie band picture and then decided to use the music note sheet as the background.

I used the red cardstock because red is one of our favorite colors.

I trimmed the top edge and added some gold accent.

Inside I put a personalized verse based on the song "Wild Thing".

He got a chuckle out of it,

and it went well with his theme party :)

I will be joining Cindy at "My Romatic Home" for Show and Tell Friday