Bluebonnet Time (every Texas spring)

In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm a native Texan... and we Texans have a little crush on our state. Especially lovely are the things we think make Texas wonderful: like bluebonnets, which happen to be the state flower.



This year's bluebonnets were THICK, y'all. Maybe it was the drought last year? That's what we were guessing. I wondered if we would ever see green again after being in the worst drought in Texas history last summer.



Anyway, whatever the reason, we were delighted to get out and enjoy them... and to do a little science and research lesson about our bold, blue floral friends with Lucas Miller's book: Bluebonnet Time



I love a good Texan picturebook... especially one with cute illustrations and lots of fun facts in the margins. This one came with MUSIC, too!



There's a CD that has fun bluebonnet hunting (and photo-taking adventure) music for your drive!



The book is an Evan Wilder science journal - and it includes everything you might want to learn about bluebonnets. Fancy that!



The author of Bluebonnet Time is also a singer-songwriter that goes by the nickname "the Singing Zoologist". In fact, you can listen to his bluebonnet theme song in the little movie above.



Bluebonnets are awesome - who wouldn't want to learn more about them? If you are a Texas educator, a Texas parent, or just a bluebonnet lover, I'd say this book would be a perfect fit for your library.



As good as the book was, though, the flowers are what took the cake on our bluebonnet photo field-trip this year. I thought we might lose a three year old in the deeper spots.



The rain has been awesome this spring... and things are lovely here. Now that these pretty blue flowers are gone, there are fields of yellow in their place.



I'm still remembering the blue. See you next spring, bluebonnets!







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disclosure: I was provided a free copy of this book to review, but the opinions are my own.

I is for Insect

I took this photo in Asheville, NC. We saw some of the prettiest scenes there. It really is a lovely place. I can't wait to go on our next road trip to DC and PA. We love to take road trips and see the country. It will be even more fun in a shiny, new Chevy (thank-you to GM Texas for the awesome donation of a lease vehicle).

The Homeschool Post has resurrected their A B See Meme (an alphabetical photo meme) and a lot of us are enjoying playing again. Each week they put FIVE of the best alphabet pictures on their blog each week to showcase them and once a month, someone wins a prize. There is a Flickr Group set up just for the meme - so you don't even technically have to be a blogger to join... you just have to have an alphabetical themed photo and a flickr account!



Way cool.

The meme is posted on Fridays each week and you don't necessarily have to start on the letter A or go in any particular order or at any particular speed... and you can skip weeks or not - up to you entirely.

Here are the links to the past few 'A B See' posts I have done here:
A is for antique.
B is for bugging big-sis.
C is for computer.
D is for digger.
E is for eat... and Elmers.
F is for fried rice.
G is for goofy girl.
H is for Heather.

Tip: Use the dictionary to get ideas if you are stumped on a letter. No excuses! Get clicking!

You have until Friday morning (early) to load your picture on the Flickr group and be considered for the top five that will be displayed next week. One top photo will move on to win a prize once a month!

To Spray or Not to Spray - A Bugged Out Dilemma

Yesterday, the bugs in my house got terminated. Not long afterwards, I lost a battle with a tiny pink Benadryl. I’m not sure how long it has been since I’ve had to take it – being pregnant and nursing has prevented me from it for almost two years… but after the bug man sprayed in my house, I got the most horrendous allergy attack I’ve had in ages. It was almost like the bugs were paying me back. It was crazy. I couldn’t stop sneezing. They say you can’t smell the chemicals, but my nose sure knew something was up.

“We had to spray,” I told myself. But now, I’m not so sure I would have done it again, if I had the chance for a do-over.

We certainly have enough pests around here. A gigantic black widow with a huge egg sack lived on our porch overhang. The bug man kindly pointed her out while he was soliciting. There were fire ants inside the house, too. I’d even seen a scorpion on the driveway under our porch light a few days back. My son wanted to kill it, but it was cowering in fear – flattening itself into the cracks where two slabs of concrete come together - and I just couldn’t hurt the little fella. We captured him in a glass jar (very carefully), tossed him on the street and turned him loose. [I haven’t seen him since… but that doesn’t mean much since scorpions are masters at staying hidden.]

I’m a softie when it comes to killing things (even evil bugs that can kill or hurt you). I had a hard time letting the bug man kill the monstrous ‘Queen of Death’ black widow on my porch. He convinced me that while ONE black widow that you can SEE is not bad, a gazillion tiny babies in every crevice of my porch and yard (and even inside my house since they were close and small enough to get in) would NOT be wise. Still, killing her had to be done far from view. He took her, dangling politely on a thin thread of webbing, down to the curb before he squashed her and the egg sack she had worked so hard on. I screamed a few times when the wind blew her towards him, that brave soul.

I owed him one. So I bought his service. It was, after all, "below half price" - kind of cheap at 60-something dollars. I figured it was past due since we haven’t paid a bug dude in the entire 3 years we have lived here.

I asked him if I should leave while he was working, but he told me it wasn’t necessary. He dusted my attic, sprayed the exterior of the house down, and left granules on the grass around my trees. Walking through my house, he sprayed ‘troubled’ areas, too. When my husband came home he said he could smell it. Being home all day, I never did – but my nose went on strike and I zonked out soon after dinner in an antihistamine high. Thankfully the baby went to sleep with me and didn’t wake up until the wee hours of the night to nurse, well after the stupor had worn off.

The moral of the story? Now you know how to sell a woman a pesticide treatment service if you decide to go door-to-door for your local bug guy: just kindly point out the deadly spider on her porch and offer to kill it for her. Voila! Instant hero.

The other moral? Now you know how to get a night-owl blogger to bed before 9pm: drug her. [I highly suggest you make sure you have her permission first, however.]



I’ll be glad that we don’t have any more fire-ants inside, but I have to admit that I’m worried about our birds eating tainted crickets. We spent the better part of the hours after the bug man’s visit running around on the porch making noise to keep the birds away; since they were flocking to the fleeing bugs like it was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

You live and learn. Between my sinuses and the pretty birds in our yard we feed and have come to love, I doubt I’ll be signing up for bug spraying again any time soon. Just don’t let the spiders know! [Particularly the black widows!]

Smelling the Roses and Other Small Adventures

I know that I don't blog as regularly as I used to - before we had the baby. Sometimes life (and dark chocolate) call your name and you have to answer that call. Lately that's what's been happening here at the 'beehive'. We've been "smelling the flowers"... quite literally.

I have this amazing pink rosebush. The gnats are after it - and the flowers aren't perfect - but the smell is enough to intoxicate me. It sets the world right. Just one sniff.



Blogging is hard to do when your non-sleeping baby (13 year old big brother calls him the "undead" because he sometimes stays up until past 11pm and refuses to go to sleep) is learning to WALK (he's so proud of himself).

That means said baby is MOBILE. And said 'Pacman' baby eats every microscopic (and not so microscopic) thing he sees. I caught him shoving a plastic coke bottle cap down his throat the other day - thankfully. That could have turned ugly. Praise the Lord that he hasn't eaten anything seriously hazardous to his health so far. He's got some real busy guardian angels, that one.



When he started walking he did this leg hike thing. He would crawl across the room with one leg up. It was so cute. I wish I had gotten a video of it. We were thinking the stage would last longer than it did - and POOF, he's a biped all of the sudden.



When we aren't busy chasing the baby, we have been spending quite a lot of time outside. The weather is wonderful in Texas in spring. Once the heat of summer gets here, we'll spend more time indoors. But right now, we've been tending our little above bed gardens and enjoying the flocks of birds that come to our feeders.

Do you know the name of the yellow and black bird up there? I'd venture to guess that it is a "yellow-headed blackbird"... but I'm really not certain. We have red-wing blackbirds, but this is a first for the handsome dude in the photo.

Another wonderful thing we have discovered outdoors are ladybug eggs... and this pretty pastel fellow:



We love bugs.



We love trees, too.

So we planted ANOTHER one. This one is a mulberry tree that Nana and Pawpaw grew for us from a mulberry that fell off of their tree. It sprung up in their yard where their old mulberry tree was that Nana cut down. It grew so fast and so big that it broke her fence and made her neighbor mad... so she cut it down. We were all really sad because it was the biggest and prettiest tree she had... but we're really happy to have this tiny piece of it to grow in our own yard.



And what's neat? We planted it on ARBOR DAY.

That makes me sound really organized, doesn't it? Planting a tree on a tree-planting holiday? I did do it on purpose, but I am not usually that punctual. Nor planned. Even though I desperately try.

We're behind with school this year because of losing our groove so miserably after having the baby last March. Yes, it took us almost a year to find our groove. Isn't that crazy? So our 2009-2010 school year that started in JULY of 2009 is ending in SEPTEMBER of 2010. That's YEAR-ROUND+ school for you. By necessity, not choice.



You do what you gotta do.

Lately we've been catching up with all the assignments we missed while taking time to play outdoors and do co-op with friends. OK, we also took a day off last week to go grocery shopping.

I wait until we have nothing to eat before going grocery shopping. Because I hate to shop. I called my husband from the store to ask if he needed anything and he almost fainted (even though we had been foodless for days and eating strange canned foods and cereal). "YOU went grocery shopping?" He said in an incredulous voice. He knew I was desperate.



So not only are we well fed now (the above photo was taco soup), but we have lots of school messes to clean up.



Which means the school lists are getting checked off. And that makes mama happy.



And so does my clean refrigerator. Which means that MY list is getting checked off as well.

My 13 year old doesn't get happy about school lists getting checked off or grocery shopping. He doesn't even like Taco Soup (he's my spice wimp). He does, however, love his cat.



Which has nothing to do with this post.

The end.

Counting on Monday...

Monday... "straight out of the camera". Mondays are the day we clean and put things in order for our week... the day we catch up on late library books that will cost a small fortune in fees... the day when we struggle to fit ourselves back in to the box of 'routine'.

I find great benefit in counting my blessings - instead of beating myself up for still being in my pajamas at lunch time.

I choose to praise. 

I'm thankful for:


25. Sleeping sighs upstairs through baby monitor.

26. Quiet house with piles of library books on every surface. Minds being filled with cultures far away and long ago.



27. The brightest green on furry tips of Cypress branches... fluffing themselves on the breeze.

28. Being able to praise God for the same things over and over - and not worry that he ever tires of it.

29. Crunch of chips in the kitchen, sister spreading cheese on chicken nachos.

30. Glittering gems on mother necklace - three colors, three faces, three hearts beating love.



31. Sounds of singing, humming, busy hands cleaning happily in the kitchen.

32. Delicious books.

33. Exploding rose bush, afire in hot pink.

34. Tiny shoots whispering of hidden harvests to come.

35. Overloaded refrigerator, reminding me to make this week's menu and take out meat to thaw.

36. Heart connections - finding little slices of yourself in someone else.

37. Knowing when my husband will walk in the door... the same time every day. Mr. Dependable.

38. Steaming shower leaving pink skin warm.



39. Shiny green visitors.

40. Bloopers in the bluebonnets - fields of blue and trying to 'herd cats'... getting everyone to look at the camera at just the right time, with just the right smile... (all the more reason to take more pictures).



I hope you are finding joy in your imperfect days. Happy Monday.




Join me at Ann Voskamp's Gratitude Community and count your blessings on your own blog each 'Multitude Monday'. Discover how she 'unwraps beauty' in the commonplace on her blog, "A Holy Experience".

The Loveliness of Spring

The last gust of winter came through this weekend. Jack Frost whispered goodbye. It seems like a dream that we had snow here (in Texas) just a few short weeks ago. In August of last year I couldn't imagine wishing for warm weather again. I never thought I would want to let go of the winter once it got here. Never have I been so anxious for sweaters as I was in the dry summer of 2009.

And then the seasons change and a new day dawns: winter becomes spring. My longing for cold becomes a desire for warmth and color.

The wise Creator gives us exactly what we need; just enough and never too much.

The loveliness of spring returns like a speckled blue secret at first, hidden under the breast of a robin.



Almost overnight the stark branches shoot forth leaves like dripping sunlight. The trees whisper of summer before our winter clothes have been tucked away.

It makes me want to count my blessings again...

Where was I? Oh, yes. Number 13. It's been too long. If I ever want to get to 1,000 - I had better get back to my weekly praise.

I'm thankful for:

13. Snow on cactus. Real snowmen that won't fit in your freezer. Memories of snowflakes on the baby's hair. Playing outside until our fingers burned from cold.

14. Golden sunshine and breezes from the north that make this place feel like heaven on earth.

15. The promise of green to come.

16. The tweeting birds. They're "twitterpated".



17. A thousand wishes yet to hope for while we still yet live. Knowing that anything is possible with Christ.

18. God's soft geometry - the puff of a dandelion.

19. The promise of seeds, carried on the wind... and life again.



20. Blue skies that reach into the heavens.

21. Easter

22. Fuzzy, buzzy, busy bees - dusted with yellow pollen - ignoring me as I stand inches from them with my camera.



23. The wonder in the eyes of a child... discovering the world anew.

24. Poetry to read:

BARTER ~ by Sara Teasdale

Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.

Join me at Ann Voskamp's Gratitude Community and count your blessings on your own blog each 'Multitude Monday'. Discover how she 'unwraps beauty' in the commonplace on her blog, "A Holy Experience".





Quick Links:
A Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart (Post 1)

Credits: Last photo taken by my daughter, Morgan.

Winner Slideshow

I sent out the winner emails last night after our weekend project of drawing and assigning prizes for the winners of the Homeschool Blog Awards. I wanted to share with you all the pictures we took - and graphics we made of the winner blogs. They aren't pictures of the blogs, but rather photos of my kids' stuffed animals that they 'assigned' to 'be' each winner in the drawing. It was kind of like a proxy drawing, I guess. Each blogger had an animal 'representative' standing in for them.

So cute to see the kids take ownership of the project and make it a fun and educational thing.



Aren't they cute?

Here the 'contestants' are, all lined up and nervous as they make their way to the front of the line...



The ones that didn't fit right in the slideshow are here:





I hope you'll stop over at the Homeschool Post and check out the actual links to these great bloggers' digs. All of the winners are now listed in the Post sidebar for your browsing pleasure!