Spring cleaning the yard!

My yard is a huge challenge for me! No, it isn't huge but it seems to get out of control rather often. If it isn't the flower bed in the front with more weeds than flowers it is the back yard with more weeds than grass. Anna and I worked out there several hours this morning. Working with my stacks of pine straw and cutting the grass, sweeping off the porch and cleaning Anna's outside toys. We worked so hard that we earned a picnic out there. Anna loves to be outside and being able to do all of this was wonderful for her. We even soaked up some sun after our picnic. I love hanging out with Anna. She makes everything so much more fun.

Hope you all can have a great friday! Enjoy some time in the great out doors with someone that makes you smile!

Spring cleaning the blog!

Y'all tell me what you think about my new look! I am loving it but I think I like Anna's even better!

New Beginnings!

I have spent the past 4 days soaking up some of the sunshine and airing my house out. I love when it is time to open the windows and let all of that fresh air flow through the house. I feel like life is getting a fresh start. I see the buds on the trees where the leaves are going to pop open any day and the green of the flowers that are breaking through the ground. All signs of Spring, my favorite season until Summer comes and the Fall and Winter lol. There are good things about each season. I love them all but Spring really is like a new beginning and what is not to love about that!

My new beginning comes this year and I am taking advantage of it. For a few years I have been in a funk and unable to release myself from it. I finally opened my heart and mind (which was the hardest of the two) around the fact that I am lovable! I am forgiven! I am an amazing person! Sounds kinda cocky or something when I read it but it is SO true. My God sent his son just for ME and well all of you too lol. But in my world He sent him for ME! He died on that cross for ME! As my preacher said this morning there is nothing I can face that he won't have my back. If I bang my head into the wall trying to figure things out, that is my fault cause he is always with ME! He WANTS to help ME! He WANTS to show ME what path to take! He WANTS ME to be happy! Jesus is MY friend and I praise God for making that possible! Have you had your new beginning?

My world is opening in bloom all around me and I am cherishing every moment! Knowing that God loved ME enough to provide beauty and a new beginning for the earth to show me exactly what he is talking about. God didn't make mistakes, He didn't do things and just wait to see what would happen. He knew that every year the winter would kill off most things and then in the Spring it would all come back even more beautiful than the year before. Just like the earth He wipes away our sin and brings us back even more beautiful than before. He continues to do that for us EVERY day! You ask him to forgive you for your sin (and yes we do continue to sin) and he forgets it. He is the only one that will truly forgive and forget!

Thank you Lord for giving me a fresh start! Thank you for helping me through my hard times! Thank you for forgiving me of my sins! Thank you for providing joy and peace and love in my world! Thank you for never giving up on me even when I gave up on myself and you!

Spring is in the air!

What a beautiful day today has been. My poor hubby had to work this morning. I had to wash Anna's sheets cause we had an accident last night. By we I mean HER! Just wanted to clarify that I didn't have an accident lol. We got those all cleaned and hung on the line. Anna ran around for a while with the sand gnats chewing on us. 10:30 we headed down to the park to meet Brooks and Jackson for a play date. We have missed them terribly. They had to go out of town because their Great Grandfather passed away. Brooks got a hair cut for the first time ever yesterday and it is still long and super curly but it is cute. The kids had a blast and Anna cried when it was time to go. She was totally devastated. This afternoon after her nap Chris and I took her back to the park for a little while. We came home and made some yummy, pretty healthy pizzas.

For those of you from my generation before X-Box and WII there was Atari. You remember? A few years ago, the year I was pregnant with Anna I bought Chris an Atari Flashback. We really haven't played it a lot because, well you know we were busy with other things like diapers and tantrums or whatever else related to Anna. We cracked it out this weekend to let Anna play a little because we don't have the new high tech games. We have thoroughly enjoyed playing it. Anna isn't so good at it cause the joy sticks are stiff and hard to use but she enjoys pretending and trying.

In other news, our dog isn't doing very well at all. He has taken a definite turn for the worse so we are going to take him back to the vet soon and see what they can do. It is so hard watching him deteriorate so much, so quickly. That is all I have to say about that!

Anna is playing with her Daddy right now and can I just say there is nothing sweeter than her laughter.

Oh I almost forgot I wanted to put this on here so I can look back in years to come and remember. On Valentine's Day (yes, I have selfishly been keeping it to myself) we ran to the grocery store and the check out girl gave Anna a pack of cookies in celebration. I explained to her that she received such a generous gift because she is so special. She looks at me and says "Mommy's special too!" And then she gave me the sweetest grin ever. Isn't she just a doll!

Biology 101

I didn't realize for some moronic reason what a great place the flower bed would be for a science lesson. Yesterday afternoon as promised we went out to finish weeding the bed. While we were out there we ran across a worm. It scared me cause I am one of those girlie girls that does like creepy crawly things or bugs in general lol. So when it came out with some weeds I gasped and scared Anna. Being the great Mom that I am I bring Anna back over to see the worm and I even touched it and tried to get her to touch it. It was a great moment of science for my daughter even though I was about to jump out of my skin lol. I taught her about how the worms live in dirt and are even a sign of good healthy dirt. They make sure that the plants grow and thrive just by crawling through it and eating it. It brought back memories of 9th grade Biology when we had to dissect the worm. Do you remember doing that? If you went to far down you would see nothing but dirt! OOOOO GROSS!!!

So then after 15 minutes of studying the worm we went on and started pulling more weeds. Being careful not to touch the worm or disturb any more. A few minutes into our work I pulled on a paticularly large bunch of weeds and when my hand was coming back towards me full of weeds a frog jumped out of them. Thank God I have a good bladder cause that might have caused me to wet myself! Remember I don't like creepy crawly things. I managed to not scare Anna. I kept my gasp in even though I really wanted to let it out. Then we had a lesson on frogs. I don't really know that much about frogs so this lesson wasn't going to be so long. We covered that frogs like to eat bugs so they are always welcome in our yard. We discussed the sound they make and how they hop. She is really good at making a frog sound, she does it in her throat and sounds so cute. Maybe I will get a video of it for you guys soon. Anywho, this little froggie had a hurt arm and we discussed that. She almost cried when I told her it was hurt. I pointed out that he was ok that we learn to live with things over time. She seemed to take that in stride and then she wanted to make him hop lol.

We were pretty much done weeding at this point because she wouldn't let me get to close to the frog which was the only place left to weed. Luckily there is just one little part that needs to be completed. The bed looks SO good. I have even impressed myself with how good it looks. I don't think we will be getting out there again until next week because it is getting cold. That is ok though because by then I can go back and get some of the ones that pop out during the weekend. Did I mention that the weeds LOVE this flower bed.

I think I will use the rest of my Home Depot card when spring comes to put some pretty colorful flowers out there this year. I need some prettiness in my life. I know what you are thinking I have Anna how could I need more prettiness. Well the truth is that Anna is beautiful and wonderful and she deserves to see prettiness all around her and so do I!