Summer

This is where my true followers come out.  You know, my 2-3 family members/friends who care more about how I'm doing in my life than 'what' I'm doing!  I have no camera and the iPhone is dead.  Here goes...little girl finished her 1st year of public schooling.  I cried very briefly and sailed on through the last day.  It helped that I was at the school doing odds and ends for PTA the last 2 weeks.  Even still, it seems unreal how fast day 1 and day 180 met each other.  What a year it was- a good one but an intense one.  No matter how many times I say it was better than my wildest hopes and prayers...and we had an amazing teacher who loved, prayed for, laughed with, cried with, constantly encouraged and pushed and cheered...it doesn't change the fact that it was tiring at the end of the day, week, month, year.  I'm a little overwhelmed right now - just thinkin' of ... how many years will we be on a school schedule now?  I liked it but I didn't like it.  I'm conflicted, folks!  For this and obvious reasons, I pray:  Dear Lord, I earnestly ask that summer move at a snail's pace.  That would give me time to get level about things.  As if to make the transition complete, our girl lost her first tooth on her first day of summer break.  And oh!  Did I mention little big boy is about to have a bday?  Tomorrow is his prek party and soon after, we're inviting 4 little boys and having us a good time bouncing and eating pizza.  Small = good.  He deserves such a happy day.  He has been a champ about going with me to my pt job and to volunteer at school this year.  It is most certainly his turn!  I'm teaching his VBS class this year to even the score.  He may get more of momma than he wants but here I come, buddy!  I caught a turtle yesterday and he was mesmerized.  I've been watching him with one of our baby kittens (yes, we have more) and my fave visual is seeing him pedal on his bike with the cutest kitten under his right arm.  He gave in ("ohhh, okayyyy") and let his sister choose the "one" we plan to keep.  It wasn't the one he favored, but he was a sport about it.  As much as I've sneezed in my life over cats, one would surmise my husband is trying to torture me the last couple months.  I've bottle-fed kittens more times lately than I ever planned to.

Alas, my flowers grew beautifully this spring.  I have no pictures to show, but I wish I did.  Currently I have ballerina roses (probably 50-75 blooms) out back and gorgeous knockout roses (5 bushes) as well.  They are such vivid (a new word I'm teaching little guy) colors:  a bright fuschia, and a pink that's nearly a sedative.  That's to say it's a nice, smooth, calming color.  I'm partial to the ballerina roses - the bush looks like an heirloom and kind of like it was growing wild here for a hundred years.  It's not quite as neat as my knockouts and I like the reminder that true beauty is often a mess.  My irises - I bragged on them last post - are gone now.  I was happy for their timing as they welcomed mom and dad during their stay recently.  They were covered with more blooms than any year before.  I thought of gran each time a new bloom opened and enjoyed talking with dad about gran's irises in her yard on Hickory Nut Hill.  I'm a southerner to the bone when it comes to greeting company, family, traditions, and flowers.  While mom and dad were here, dad picked some irises from the other side of the farm for mom and me.  They were bi-colored mauve and burgundy.  We put them in a vase on the table and oohed and aahed over them.  It's the simple things that can sometimes mean the most.  Again- no photos.  My camera broke and between paying private school prek tuition and ordering some new stuff for the kids' playset etc, the camera is gonna have to wait.  Funny how I've enjoyed the break from being behind the lens.  Sometimes talking about and taking pics of life flat out wears me out.

I'm anticipating the arrival of my moon flower (my FAVORITE, I know I've mentioned it!) and my day lilies.  For the first time in about 9 years, I don't have hanging baskets smothering my porch.  I have a citronella plant by the side door and it's become my new favorite repellant.  Go get one if you're not a bug spray lover, fam.  It works.  The smell is pungent- which is why it works!  Forget those candles and sprays...buy a plant to do the trick.  As for the front porch though...I guess I'll deck it out w/ flowers for my guests coming this weekend, but I foresee pots not hanging baskets.  The kids can easily help water those, and I like to put the kids to work when I can.  Nothing else is blooming out front at all, except for the small efforts on my tulip tree.  I am so glad my mother-in-law has greenhouses.  She's almost sold out, but she will have enough left to fill a couple of pots for my front porch steps.  Speaking of, I better go plant my sunflower seeds, or I should probably wait on the kiddos to wake from their naps.  A shower maybe...yeah.  Or maybe not.  We may work in the bees tonight.  I need to buy some scent-free soaps.  Little big boy is up now (he does not like to be called little) so this laptop is getting shut off.  The phone is dead and has been since yesterday.  I'll be honest...I hope to steer clear of most all distractions this summer in hopes that we'll be refreshed in August.

Maaaaay

When I verbally say the month we're finally in, I can't help but say it as I exhale...because this past winter turned into spring then back into winter 2-3 times before spring finally STUCK here.  But now it's Maaaaay and in the south, that means, no freakish turning of the temps now.  (Right?!)  Also, praise God, we got through the spring season with only 1 or 2 major storms.  Equally noteworthy is the fact that I slept through both of them, and woke up in the wee hours to find texts from friends checking on me because  a) they know that, historically, I freak in storms and b) the threats were for my specific little community.  It meant a lot to me that friends checked on me!  It means they love me!  hehe  

After those April showers came my flowers...first my tulips and now my irises!  I can smell them from my side porch and the scent lifts my mood instantly.  You can't tell in the picture but the bloom is huge.  It's bigger than my hand.  I think it's a mutant.  haha No really, it did mutate.  I had planted purple irises and white irises side by side.  They mixed and now they're not only a very pale lavender color, but they're also bigger.  They make me so happy!  The added perk to their blooming now is the fact that I have company coming to visit tomorrow and they will be welcomed by them too.  Yay for Southern hospitality in the way of a God-sent flower.

Maaaaaay