already, not yet

we have been plowing through spring. it is flying by and we have been keeping it pretty simple around here. adam has been up to his eyeballs in work and tradgedy lately in the trauma icu. sometimes he comes home telling stories of families in carwrecks and victims of violence and i just cry. his hours are long (14 or so many days) and days off far-between, so we try to encourage and refresh when we are together.

it seems like the majority of our friends are in some sort of transition or another...with a new baby, or moving, or overseas adopting a sweet little one! i have been praying for God to give me opportunities to serve these friends, even while our time to hang out is less these days. the result: lots of playdates lately, while the mommies get some necessities done. we are pretty much done with school.  we just have a few more math lessons to do and of course daily reading.  i'm not sure that we will take the whole summer off, but it will definitely be a more relaxed schedule.

 

g wanted to "act surprised" together

don't tell them their popsicles are full of carrots!

oh, yes, miles has been potty training.  he is doing great with pee, but prefers a diaper for #2.  baby steps.

miles and his bud malachi on trash day 

it is a joy to grow flowers around here this time of year.  thankful for our sunny patches of earth and the joy the we all have when we see something new blooming.  there are many lessons to be learned from the simple work of growing things.  that reminds me i need to go read my wendell berry book...

the birds planted us some sunflowers!  none of the ones we planted on purpose survived, so we are extra thankful for this one.

graham watches out the window for creatures in the flower bed and as soon as the door opens, he runs out with his huge feet and tromps through trying to catch lizards.  this boy is focused. 

this weekend, we went to the house of adam's boss for a low-country boil.  i forgot my camera of course, but it was tons of fun.  these er guys live on the river and paddle board to each other's houses.  what a strange world (i should add, that while we were gone, a police chase from another neighborhood ended on our street and it was shut down...out-of-the-ordinary, but sometimes it  really does feel like our feet are in multiple worlds). it was cold, but so refreshing to play in the river.  graham sat in a kayak tied to the tree and rowed contentedly for a good hour, while marit bravely curled up on the end of adam's paddle board and chatted his ear off while they paddled all over.

our anniversary came and went!  hurray for 9 years.  thank you Jesus for my husband and for how we have grown, even in difficulties this year.  we did make it out for dinner, and it was delicious.  thanks to my sweet mother-in-law for babysitting on her birthday to make it happen.  below, we are heading out for a friend's surprise birthday dinner a few weeks ago.  too bad the only photo we took was in our school room...

remember the hawks that mated in our tree? their nest is right behind our yard and the kids have loved watching them come to feed the chicks, or to see the mocking birds chase them away.  we borrowed a telescope and could see the babes from our upstairs window.  so cute.  we tried to get a picture, but it's blurry.  then, the other day adam struck up a conversation (he does this with all kinds of people) with a photographer at one of our favorite nature spots.  adam told him about "our" hawks and the mr casey the photographer was so excited, he offered to pay us to photograph them.  ha!  of coure we refused payment, but he did come spend a couple hours taking pictures and promises to send them once they are done being edited.  the kids just loved looking through his amazing camera into the nest.  so cool!

these are sweet days...documenting them makes me thankful.  we pray for God to enable us to faithfully and joyfully do our ordinary tasks, that by His grace, they would be worship.