Homesteadin'

After spending eleven days with her dad, Isabella was very eager to get home to her crops. This farmstead comes to a screeching halt without her diligent overseeing. One of her favorite evening past times is assisting Lovie and Granddaddy in the gardens. At precisely this time last year, we excitedly collected caterpillars and put them in jars to document their phenomenal metamorphosis. No one was more excited than I, when we woke up one morning and watched them unfold their wet little velvet wings. It amazes me every single time.

This year we're leaving them in their natural habitat, but Isabella was quick to point out each specimen :)

She made my soul grin real big when she came out of her room sporting her ''work boots'' She clunked downstairs as fast as she could, snatched a popsicle (girls got her priorities, after all) and went outside to supervise the watering. She struck a few poses for me.

She's a ham.

I heard tell it's a hereditary trait, but I'm not a ham at all. Only on days that end in 'Y'

Melons! I biologically researched the soil, constructed the trellis, and planted the melons myself.

Really, I did.

Okay, fine. Sike.

But I did sit on the porch and offer moral support while my mom cursed her way through the building of the trellis skeleton. That's got to count for something. And I did read an article in the bathroom about the chemistry of soil.

On second thought, maybe you didn't want to know that.

Help me! I'm an over-sharer.

Happy Birthday sweet gal 'O mine.

This is Isabella last year on her third birthday. Notice the chubby toddler cheeks?

Boom.

This was taken Monday evening on her fourth birthday. I wept a little when I compared the two photos...how is that she can look so much more grown up in just one short year?!

Currently she is very much into the movie Cars, anything crafty, twinkle-toes shoes, going to the movies, working in the garden, hosting Olivia tea parties, playing her drum set and reading. She writes her name, reads small words, counts everything and enjoys sitting and studying her books.

She is so much fun right now. She has developed her own personality and is as quick as a whip. She is extremely independent (can't imagine where she got that from) I love this kid, girl after my own heart. She is my child through and through, from the tips of that red-head personality to the bottom of that stubborn spirit.

Sometimes I'll be watching that gangly body just pummeling through the yard...then she falls, nothing but a tangle of bony arms and legs, I'll hold my breath waiting for the tears, but nope! She jumps right up and keeps on pummeling, grinning and yelling ''I'm okay!'' That is my girl.

The part where I ramble on about stuff.

Change, something that used to be a four letter word in my little book of life, has now become the very soil that my soul takes root in. I used to balk at anything unfamiliar, solidly planting my feet in the ground and resisting any type of movement, no matter how simple the notion. My mind was made up, and if it was different…if it was change, then by golly, it was the enemy. I faithfully adhered to this set of principles until recently, when I was jolted into the realization that for the first time in my short-ish life, I think I might know exactly who I am, and I wouldn’t be that person, were it not for enduring a scary little bit of change.

Now, I’m not naïve, I know not all change is good change. There are indeed some horrible types of change, but I was even resisting the good change, so scared of the unfamiliar that I allowed it to hinder my growth. I think it’s easy to slip into this mindset, at least it’s easy for me. Losing sight of the big picture, and holding on tight to what is instead daring to consider what could be.

But I am so grateful for change, for the ability to realize that maybe if you don’t like your current situation, or who you have become as a result of it…it doesn’t have to be permanent…you can change.

It was fear of change that had kept me in its steel grip of misery for years. Until one day when I realized, I just plain ole didn’t like who I was. I was bitter, full of self-pity, weak in mind and in spirit. Always ready to place blame and feel sorry for myself and the situation I was in, but never doing tiddly-winks about it. Gosh I thought, this is ugly…I’m ugly. My first instinct was to wallow even more, because after all, that was what I was good at…but then I realized if I was ever going to like myself again, I had to break that cycle. I had to change. It took little sprouts of other types of change, dotted throughout my life, to season me and strengthen me for a task that I never would have been able to endure a year ago. I dwelled upon those, mustering up any type of strength I could from them. Then I rolled up my sleeves…because if there is anything I know about change, it is that it’s seldom ever clean.

Today I feel as though a slow and sometimes painful transformation has taken place, and through change, that horrid ‘’was’’ that I hated so much, has been shaped into an ‘’am’’ that I feel pretty darned confident about, leading me to believe that suffering and humbling, cleansed by brief respites of joy, must truly be life’s most effective character shapers.

Through all of this change that has taken place for me the past year, through all of these life lessons that I won’t soon forget, I have been formed into a better version of myself. A happier version, a more confident version, a savvy girl…someone I like and someone I would want to be friends with.

Whenever I feel that old bitter hand of fear trying to grope at my spirit again…I shoo it away, give it the finger and I move on.

Putting all her eggs in one basket :)

Is it just me, or has this year has been a complete whirlwind? It's still hard for me to believe that Easter, school finals and Mother's day have already whizzed by.

Before I go and make a boor of myself bragging about my delectable little morsel...I'm going to go ahead and be an even bigger boor and preclude all of this by saying...I MADE THE DEAN'S LIST!!! Yeah! not bad for a returning freshmen after 6 years, Eh? Eh?

I'm feeling a little smug. Just a little.

Ahem. Anyways, on to boorish business.

This year I kept the same routine, we dyed eggs on the evening of Easter Eve. Isabella just loves herself an Easter egg. She cracked about all of them before she even finished dying, I didn't realize this...so, when I was making her basket later on? Well, I kept getting a whiff of sulfur. Poor Jasper took the blame and was exiled to the living room until I noticed bits of magenta colored shell falling on the floor.

I just love the dyed hands...every year I always get tickled because it reminds me of when I was younger and all of the children would show up for Sunday school Easter morning with black and blue Easter hands.

Early morning Easter loot! It's never too early for a Godiva chocolate bunny :) I'll never forget Isabella's first chocolate bunny. She was terrified of it. Cried for an hour. I reaped the benefits of her fear though. That was a delicious chocolate bunny.

Sweet little dyed hands. Usually so busy that they photograph blurry...but I managed to catch them for just a few moments.

In all that you do, do it with gusto, I say!

I been a'thinkin'...

...and it's been way too long since the last time I blogged :) This is going to change in the near future as I continue to suffer from severe cases of I-miss-school-itis.

Two red-heads on a friday night...

We are super wild in this house! When Friday night rolls around...we let it all hang out and make play-dough :)
I used a simple recipe. Oh, and I burnt it, which is why it looks kinda clumpy...but it was still playable. I colored it with a packet of Koolaid so it smelled like cherries Mmm...

My little one will entertain herself for about an hour whenever we make this. She loves it best when it is still warm out of the pan, and so do I, it feels so soothing on your hands! She mostly enjoys pouring in the ingredients during the mixing process, and it's a simple enough recipe that I don't have to worry about anything getting messed up. All in all, the perfect toddler activity!

Recipe:
1 C. Flour
1 C. Water
1/2 C. Salt
2 TBS. Cream of tartar
1 TBS. Oil
Koolaid packet or food coloring for color.

Aren't these adorable? They're ladybugs! She made a ladybug family..."Mommy and Bella"

Scenes

I always like catching little scenes of home on my favorite blogs...I enjoy looking at the background to see what their spaces looks like. I decided to snap a few shots of my "space" here at my parent's house.

I avoided the piles of dirty laundry on the floor and the fruit loops and sippie cup that I just found in my bedsheets...You're welcome.

Top of my dresser...I love baubles. Can ya tell?

Where I always drop my book bag...I finally got one of my vintage wooden wine boxes and put it beside my nightstand so that I can just pile my textbooks in it. I rather like the effect.

Shelf I hung over my TV...I kind of just piled stuff on here to fill up blank space.

The pot of ivy I hung in front of my window...I'm a firm believer in having live plants in the house, it just adds a little somethin' somethin'.

So there ya have it. A few spaces in my new humble abode.