Egg-ceedingly beautiful...

Look at these gorgeous fresh eggs!

I don't keep chickens. I keep something better.

I keep friends who keep chickens!

Thank you Paul and Virginia. :) (I'd keep you even without the eggs!)

Cactus flowers...

I don't mean to whine, but I have had better days.

You know those days when you get up with the best intentions of finishing your to-do list, and then inexplicably your day takes a tumble, and it is just all downhill from there? Yeah.

Then on my way back up the hill (figuratively as well as literally), I saw the first cactus flower blooming. Now 99% of the year, I really dislike cactus. But come Spring, they are such a gorgeous reminder that beauty can be found among the thorns.

And that was just the reminder I needed that really, I have had worse days. :)

White cotton tees...

photo credit... amazon

I love plain white t-shirts. I seem to buy about half a dozen of them every year...I have to, because they are stain magnets. Why...WHY can't they stay white? Why do they attract stains that are impossible to remove?

Anybody have a favorite stain remedy they care to share. Nothing I've tried has worked on plain white cotton t-shirts.

True love...

Awhile back a blog friend commented on something I said here about my husband. I believe I said I adore my husband, and she commented that she was happy to hear that, because she wasn't always sure that she believed in true love any more. That blog friend is in her late twenties. I have to say that when I was in my late twenties, I had been married for ten years, and I wasn't sure I believed in true love anymore either by then.

When I was seventeen, I decided that I hated dating. It made me feel completely disrespected and disheartened. I kept seeing very unattractive attributes in young men. One lied about me to my friends. One believed those lies. One threatened me with a gun.

I started praying about it, and asking for a particular kind of person to come into my life. I didn't have marriage in mind at that time, I just didn't want to keep having unpleasant dating experiences. Within a month or so, I met Carey.

What made me fall for him?

...On our first date, I had to drop by my sister's house to borrow some baking utensils so I could bake my roommate a birthday cake. On our second date, he approached my door with a hand behind his back, and when I answered the door he brought it out and handed me a spatula with a ribbon tied around the handle. I thought it was the most romantic gift I'd ever been given. :)

...We'd been dating about a week when he came over to change a flat on my car before work.

...About a week after that, my mother was going into the hospital for surgery. I was telling him that my sisters and I all had conflicts and couldn't drive her to the hospital which was an hour away. He volunteered! When they got to the hospital, he helped my mother out of the truck, and he carried her suitcase into the hospital and made sure she got checked in before he left. At which point the nurse said to my mother, "You have a very nice son." My mother said, "He's not my son, he's my daughter's new boyfriend." The nurse said, "I think he's a keeper." (She was right!)

...One time we were driving down the street, and he saw one of his co-worker's car parked at a bar. He said, "I don't understand why he's there, when he has a wife and little children at home."

...Once he was watching Bugs Bunny cartoons, and he laughed at it over and over, and I found it so enchanting that I remember thinking that I could listen to that laugh for the rest of my life. (I have been!)

We were married within a year.

Now, I have to say that that's when things got difficult. Living with someone else is the hardest thing I have ever undertaken. He came from a very traditional family where his father was THE boss. I came from a family where my father was sorely outnumbered by females, and my mom was the one in command. Can you say culture clash?

What I have noticed is that marriage is cyclical. When everything has been going smoothly for awhile, you will hit a pothole that knocks the whole thing out of alignment, and it takes a great deal of patience and work and time to make it run smoothly again. The potholes come along about every four or five years for us...and they aren't necessarily big events...maybe just a lack of effort or communication.

I am not one of those people who claims to be married to her best friend. I think that we need best friends so we have someone to complain to about our spouses. (And for that matter, I would never say that either of my children are my best friend either. I wouldn't want to saddle them with that responsibility. They need best friends of their own to complain to about ME!)

Neither do I believe in 'soul mates' or that there is only one love for each person. I'm not even sure that love is the most important thing in a relationship. I'm pretty sure that respect and honor and caring and humor has gotten us a lot further than love alone would have. But love is the reward.

And today we've been sharing that reward for 34 years.

Bluebonnet dollies...

With wildflowers along each roadway lately, they are the topic of much conversation. One of my friends at work and I were reminiscing about past springtimes, and she asked me if I had made bluebonnet dolls as a child. I had to admit that I had never seen one. Yesterday, she pulled off of the road on her way to work to gather a primrose and a bluebonnet so she could show me.

Forgive the poor lighting in the photos, it is such a gray rainy day today, but I had to share these lovelies before the season ends. They are made just by pulling the stem off of an evening primrose and turning it upside down, and then pulling one 'bonnet' with its tiny bit of stem off of a bluebonnet, and inserting the stem into the primrose.

Don't they make lovely little colonial ladies in their hoop skirts and bonnets?

Another springtime 'tale'...

Lovely days. The windows are open. That won't last too much longer before we have to turn on the air conditioning, but I'm holding out as long as possible. The humidity is rising along with the temperature.

This is the prettiest Spring we've had for several years. Of course wildflowers aren't the only things that are coming back out after their winter's sleep.

Saturday, as we were leaving the house to meet our friends for dinner, I headed out to the car before Carey. One of the dogs rushed up to greet me, and then immediately got distracted by something around the corner of the house. I instantly heard the tell 'tale' sound of a rattle snake. Luckily said dog was not much interested in playing with it, and I called Carey outside. He is my snake handler. :) When we were newlyweds, he moved me to the rattlesnake capital of Texas, where he would catch and sell them, and occasionally made hat bands and belts from the hides. He doesn't fool with that anymore, thank heavens. But he hasn't lost his touch, and he made quick work of Saturday's interloper. We weren't even late for our date.

Jared deals with water moccasins at his place, since his cabin sits at the edge of the big tank (pond). Last year his dog was bitten by one, and felt pretty bad for a couple of days. But dogs usually recover pretty fast...at least ours always have.

So with these lovely neighbors slithering about, I gladly stay inside as much as possible with my crafts and computer.

Out for a drive...

photo credit: www.poporestaurant.com

Yesterday we went out for dinner with friends to celebrate our wedding anniversaries (theirs and ours) which are coming up soon. We went to one of my favorite restaurants which is about an hour-and-a-half drive. But what a beautiful drive!

We had sunshine, and beautiful scenery, and fabulous company and conversation!

The meal was outstanding as it always is at Popo's in Welfare, Texas. It is truly an historic landmark, and never disappoints. It was so fun to introduce our friends to it.

Friday...

New green grasses and wild blossoms in every color of the rainbow soften the landscape and perfume the air we breathe.

Giving thanks for the beauty God sends into our lives...and giving thanks too for the not-so-beautiful things in life...for they give us the perspective to really appreciate the good stuff.

Seven random thoughts on the seventh...

1. Love talking to friends on the telepone...hate recorded telemarketing.

2. Love to be behind the camera...hate to be in front of the camera.

3. Love cooking...hate cleaning up.

4. Love listening...hate noise.

5. Love chocolate by the pound...hate pounds by the chocolate.

6. Love open windows...hate bugs in the house.

7. Love being in bed...hate going to bed.

Goodnight!

Nesting...

This little birdie told me to clean up my nest!

Today I filled two giant black garbage bags, and a box, along with a plastic grocery bag or two with...well, I'm not sure what...just trash I guess.

Then I filled a huge old suitcase (don't worry, not the cute vintage kind) with clothing donations, and another couple of boxes of just cluttery stuff.

I took the trash to my office dumpster (this is the main reason I love my job...access to a huge dumpster...not really, but it is a great perk!) Then I drove down the block a bit and dropped off the donations at Goodwill.

Ahhh...progress.

And yet...looking around...the house looks exactly the same!

Happy Easter...