Feb 28

February 28.  Isaac and Jan and Oceanna are staying at an orchard in California. The views are spectacular, and the fruit is everywhere.  Especially fitting on this anniversary date, I'm so glad they are in such a beautiful place. 

Feb 28

Feb 28th

Five Years

Today I am thinking about Judson and Isaac and Laura and Kathy and 

Lori and Emma  and all the family across the miles. 

Repost

Even if I knew the world was going to pieces tomorrow,

I would still plant my apple tree.

Martin Luther King, Jr

Saturday Forsythia

I found these branches in the cooler at class the other night. Made me so happy to find them. Over the last few years, I've been trying to get a row of them started out behind the fence. It's been a slow process because we have to carry water back there. I want to go out today and see if they are showing any signs of life.

Years ago, I bought a branch of forsythia at a florist and paid $4 for it. A bargain for a little bit of spring. Clayton had come up to see the boys and noticed it. The next week, out of the blue, I received a cardboard tube in the mail--a whole bundle of forsythia branches from Kentucky!

Even if I knew the world was going to pieces tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree. Martin Luther King

" . . . Everything is in divine order. As surely as the stars move on their course, your loved one left at his appointed time. Already he is engulfed in a greater good, privy now to a higher order of life. . . He is fine, resting comfortably, able now to make sense of so many things."
Answered Prayers--Love Letters from the Divine by Julia Cameron

Birthday

PJ asked for a birthday picture since I will be 50 on Friday. This is a picture of me on my 6th birthday, in grandma and granddaddy's kitchen. The cake was from Blackhawk Bakery, of course. I remember that dress. The top was purple velvet and I loved it. There's the old stove where grandma would warm our clothes in the mornings. The hot water heater was there in the corner. And you can see a little bit of one of her kitchen chairs. They were red and you could rock in them--very fun to sit in when you are 6. (Actually they would probably be fun to sit in when you're 50, too.) Mike's high chair is right behind me. He would have been less than a year old. Grandma always had plants in the windows. That doesn't look like an african violet, tho. Ivy wallpaper. I don't remember the picture that's hanging on the wall--it looks like a kitchen towel, maybe? Anyway, thanks for asking for the picture, sis. I even found one of grandma's letters while I was looking for this. It was fun to remember.

 Life Changes

Just a few minutes after I posted this fun little birthday musing, I received a call from Todd with the bad news that Clayton had died earlier that day. My 50th was a very sad birthday as we went down to mourn with Judson and Isaac and the family. . .