Fun Fridays...my favorite things

Poetry.

Here's one of my favorites...


When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns.
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow,
You might succeed with another blow.


Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to the faint and faltering man.
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down
How close he was to the golden crown.


Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

I needed to re-read over these words myself today! I hope they find their way to someone else who needs some encouragement today...

Just wanted to share Kelton's birth announcement with all of you!

Baby and Mommy continue to do well.

He has filled our hearts with so much joy, in such a short period of time.

I Love You Keltie!

Tuesday TRUEism

Complaining is like a rocking chair.


photo credit

At first it feels comfortable and you

feel like you're accomplishing something,

but you don't end up getting anywhere.

Have you also ever noticed that people who

tend to complain

attract more situations to complain about...

food for thought.

It's Pickin' Time

Cade, Gracyn and I headed out early

this morning for a new adventure.

After meeting up with friends at our church,

we hit the road south toward the hill country!

Our destination... Marble Falls,

to visit the

Sweet Berry Farm's Strawberry fields.

The drive down was peaceful.

Beautiful flowers in bloom everywhere you looked and

Lightening McQueen playing in the background :)

Upon arrival we were promptly outfitted with our baskets

and headed to an open field.

The strawberries were overflowing to put it mildly!!!

The sweet scent of fresh fruit filled the air and

the butterflies were abundant among the fields.

Cade struck out on his own and our friend, Miss Julie made sure

he stayed out of the mud!

She overheard Cade saying to himself ,

"I am REALLY GOOD at picking strawberries"

apparently we have no self-esteem issues!

The strawberries themselves were gorgeous!

Plump,

perfectly Ripe,

and Ready for Picking...

While I was helping Gracyn with her basket,

Cade was determined to pick his entire row clean!

I think he picked every strawberry for a quarter mile...

Check out the basket on this guy,

AND

that satisfied smile!

This is an active farm, with horses, goats, and donkeys!

Gracyn liked the horses the best of all,

she even fed them some of her strawberries...shhhh don't tell anyone!


Some of our little LaDiEs

{ L-to-R: Landry, Gracyn, Hannah, Bethany, & Bella}


After laboring in the strawberry fields we treated ourselves to some of the farm's homemade ice cream.

Cade chose vanilla {no big surprise there}, but Gracyn tried their Berry, Berry Ice Cream which was out of this world delicious.

It's a combination of strawberry and blackberry ice cream.

It was seriously the best fresh fruit ice cream I have ever eaten,

and apparently the best Gracyn has ever eaten too b/c I had to pry her grubby fingers away from the plastic cup for the 2 meager bites I did ingest!

Here she is in all her ice cream glory with strawberry pulp on her tooth!

Hilarious

While we were walking back I asked Cade if he'd
had a good time and he replied,

"THAT WAS A BLAST, MOM"

Check out the weights of my two pickers...

Yes sir-eee, that's no joke.

Gracie picked 4 lbs

&

Cade single handedly picked 6 POUNDS of strawberries!!!

Our immediate future includes:

- strawberry pie for dessert tonight

- strawberry preserves

- smoothies for breakfast tomorrow

I plan on sharing the recipe and photos of our luscious strawberry pie!

I guess if kids are going to pick something,

I'd much rather it be strawberries :)

Conversations with a 5 year old

On our way to school this morning...

Cade: Mommy, look at that red race car!

Me: {seeing the red corvette zoom past us}

Wow, it's really pretty and so fast I barely saw it!

Cade: Speed up to 70 Mom so we can look at it some more.

Me: I can't go that fast Cade, the speed limit is only

60 and besides my car isn't a race car.

Cade: Yes it is Mom, your car goes to 120 miles so we

ARE

a race car!

In the realm of 5 year olds even a Tahoe can qualify as a race car!

Happy Friday,

we'll enjoy driving our race car around

all weekend.

Way Back Wednesday...gone to the DOGS!!!

I was cleaning out some photo folders the other day and came across these

pictures of Samson right after he joined our family

in February of 2006!

He was only 8 weeks old.

His original name was Misty Mountain Echo, named because he looked just like his father, but we renamed him Samson because of his beautiful black silky hair!

I'll never forget how nervous he was when we drove him home from

Hendersonville North Carolina. I had him wrapped up in a blanket but

he still shook all the way home from being so nervous & scared.

And come to think of it, now even 3 years later he still is not fond of car rides.

But he IS fond of...

- napping next to me on the couch

- napping on the couch any other time he can get away with it

- catching bubbles that Cade and Gracie blow

- chasing his squeeky ball

- treats

- hiding from people who come to our house

- marking his territory

- and licking everyone, especially Gracie because she's short :)

But we still love you Sam-skee-gee!!!

The Beautiful Blogger Award

WOW, I received my first blog award!

Thank you Jennifer,

how very thoughtful of you.

Here's how this award works:

1 - Thank and link to the person that gave you the award

2 - Pass this award on to 15 bloggers you've recently discovered

and whom you think are fantastic

{ ummm...i don't think I know 15 bloggers, but I'll do my best}

3 - Contact said blogs and let them know they've won

4 - State seven things about yourself

Spreading the LoVe to these Beauties...

Melissa @ Trcka Talk

Rebecca @ Our Online Tome

Amanda @ Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Kelly @ Kelly's Korner

Aunt Ruthie @ Sugar Pie Farmhouse

Ashley @ Patterson Pages

Ginny @ 5 Texans

Melissa @ 320 Sycamore

Darby @ Fly Through Our Window
Susie @ Bienvenue

and

Edie @ Life in Grace

You ladies bring beauty into my life

and

inspire me.

SeVeN ThInGs AbOuT Me

1. I was a perm-a-holic as an elementary student.

I would beg my Mom to perm my hair and then cry and throw a

ca-nip-shion fit

because I couldn't breathe all the way through the actual "perming" process.

The strange thing was when the lovely poodle perm would wear off,

I'd beg for another...and my Mom would DO IT.

God bless her.

2. I am a Southern Girl to the core.

I love God.

I love my family.

I love my state.

I tear up at Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA"

I love living in the heart of Texas.

I love Sonic.

I use words like CA-NIP-TION on a regular basis.

And I stop at every 5th Dairy Queen on road trips.

3. I have lots of little freckles and I love them.

They are part of who I am and when I was little my Granny Tot

told me they were angel kisses.

That when I slept at night the angels would come down from heaven,

just to kiss my face because I was so precious.

She told me that story with such conviction that I accepted

it as absolute truth till I was in 5th grade.

And now, I tell Cade and Gracyn the same story.

4. I was on drill team in high school. We were called the Toy Tigers, ha!

5. I actually enjoy cleaning my house. GASP...I could seriously vacuum

everyday if i could find the time.

I find that when my house is a mess, so is my mind!

6. My greatest joys in life are with my children.

They make me smile more, laugh more, question more, worry less,

and try more things I wouldn't normally do....and I really cherish that.

7. I have a new love in my life.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I am committed to some how finding the time

to devote to honing my skills in this area.

And well, let's be honest...if you've seen my photographs, I'm gonna need

A LOT of time.

There is just something about certain photographs that are able to capture

a moment that would have otherwise been lost forever that intrigues me.

Maybe one day I will be proud of my own.

Thanks again for the award Jennifer, I am humbled.