view from my kitchen window

this year winter wasn't as fierce or as white as last year, but this was the prettiest snow out my window in january. we are still waiting patiently for spring to actually get here. it has been so rainy and cold... but the garden is ready!

life's too short not to arrange your books in rainbow order

finally a chance to relax/breathe.. here in tennessee celebrating easter again with my brother and his family.

and a chance to post pictures that i took in january of the "new" house!

but i don't know why they post in opposite order from how i chose them.



















the new ikea dining table which opens to 11 feet...




this is the view from the front door as you walk in looking left. i want it to eventually look like a dining room, not a school room (and in fact the globes are now in the family room to brighten up the dark fireplace wall) but my kids and their friends LOVE to use the chalkboard, and i love my kids and their friends and in probably 8 years they won't have an interest anymore, so the chalkboard is in here for now. this room will (Lord willing) get its makeover "lite" this summer, with batten board siding and new paint/curtains, but leaving the cheap (ikea) light fixtures for now.











these are the same bookshelves we had in florida, but we painted them. this is without a doubt my favorite room in the house, but keeping the dogs off the furniture is a problem.



i came up with a brilliant idea of where to put my cake plates-- both pretty and useful. as different vignettes on the shelves. now i can add to my collection without guilt (book or cake plate collection, you decide).

what karis has been up to...

before she leaves for AFRICA on thursday.
she was asked to make a 40th anniversary cake for some people in our church.

here's how it turned out:



nice, huh?

my favorites!

one of my very favorite things about being back north is the spring bulb flowers (they don't grow easily or well in florida).






these top them all.




If one daffodil is worth a thousand pleasures, then one is
too few.
- William Wordsworth

guest photographer...........olivia

every year, hundreds of thousands of these birds stop mid-migration at a nearby wildlife refuge just north of lititz, where robin works.












so when we heard they were here, we decided to drive up and have a look for ourselves. not thinking it would be much to look at.








suddenly, as we were driving (not really sure where to go) we saw cars pulled over to the side of the road just in time to see this...........................

it's amazing, really, when you think that one bird leads the pack.

we got closer, and boy did they make the noise when a blue heron tried to close in. they squawked so much, he decided to land on an abandoned part of the lake.
talk about your cliques!

from the last snow....

robin is saying here, "this is starting to not be fun anymore." he got two days off from work, though!



mom, here's a picture of our snow "plow" just for you....



anyone wish they were the mailman?

color of the day

orange

artist in residence

haley's co-op class is painting.
she doesn't particularly enjoy it.
but a cup of tea, a pumpkin chocolate chip bar and some afternoon sun is delightful anyway.
and i love seeing the end result of a long labor of love (or at least requirement :)
i love you, talented haley.
i really do want one framed to hang.
just in case you're thinking of christmas yet.....

enjoying seasons

(the view from our pumpkin trip to the amish farm)

catching up

between caring for a newborn, pulling the last 2 kids out of public school back to homeschool, 2 birthdays, 6 visits from company, teaching sunday school, robin coaching soccer and taking in-laws to doctor appointments, i've neglected updating our scrapbook blog. i'll get to it soon, sometime in the next 3 days, before i leave for the mops convention in nashville on thursday, i'll post a bunch of stuff i don't want to forget about. meanwhile, 3 couples and their families are coming for dinner tonight, i'm taking karis to work for one of the last times (she'll be getting her own car this week, Lord willing) and trying to catch up with the wash (it's clean, just not all folded...). enjoy these taken and edited by olivia herself.

facing the sun

before and after--food

before--berries from roots


after--thanks heidi


next time i'll have to double the recipe. with nick and karis gone to quebec on a missions trip, we had just enough for dessert for all of us (plus a friend of olivia's) and to take two pieces across the street to robin's parents.

lancaster county

some of our favorite scenes locally.....



lest you think it too idyllic.....see that gargantuan building in the back? it's QVC's warehouse :)

new life

i love working outside.
we have great soil here.
3 days is all it took to bring new life to long neglected flower beds and landscaping.
all a reminder of the long awaited promise of new life in Christ.
He makes all things new.
indeed.

prom 2009

karis and t.j. carr
(his mom was maid of honor in our wedding)
(the prom was held at the hotel/resort where i worked to put myself through college)


the computer is working so slow, so a collage is going to have to do for now.
they went with kara hammill and austin vanblargen
they are all in our youth group at church
karis and kara are school friends too

spring

a favorite poem for one of my favorite flowers

"Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

living lovely with family: special treats, random surprises and seasonal activities

what a slacker--forgetting to post this week's lovely fair on time. good thing heidi at mt. hope has a gracious, forgiving heart.

some of our family's special treats/random surprises/seasonal activities have been

family football games on sunday afternoons



slip 'n slide


girl's book club 2006

when the kids turn 11/12, we take them on a special weekend trip (with the olders we used this from focus on the family, with nick and livvy we used passport to purity from family life)
here are some scenes from livvy's trip last year:







3 years ago, a friend surprised us with a week at a condo in daytona beach.
(*my* how they change in just 3 short years)




and some favorite seasonal activities (easter with n.c. cousins-soon to be tn cousins- is a tradition, but all those pictures are back home in fl) pumpkin patch, beach at grandma's, colonial trade days (in tallahassee, now defunct) and of course march madness, which deserves a post itself next week