March madness!

Spring has made me hyper-active and uber-domestic! I've gotten a lot done lately.

I put a desk together. If I had known how hard it was going to be, I don't think I would have done it. But for $25 at Goodwill, it was a great deal! But seriously, never again.


The handsome desk deserved cool decor. Candle holders + touch LED lights.


Then I felt it appropriate to re-cover the chair I was going to put with it. Huzzah!


I saw a blog that inspired me to try to make a new wall decoration on the cheap. Doilies, $4 at an estate sale. Window, $10 at Habitat for Humanity.


And of course the great outdoors! I love watching how plants change day to day in the spring.



I'm even trying some strawberries... we'll see how that goes.


Hooray spring! What have you gotten done?

New Green

It's amazing how quickly things can change. This has been driven home recently by three separate families at my work being stricken with sudden loss.

But at the same time, things can change quickly for the good. I swear that last week at this time the branches were still bare, but now blooms and leaves are poking their way through to face the last weeks of winter and usher us into spring.

Nature can be cruel, but we can take hope in that its always being reborn.







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Also, Ms. Annaleise tagged me for a 4X4 survey!

1. Four places I go

*Lake Hefner
*Will Rogers Gardens
*Target
*OC

2. Four favorite smells

*Coffee in the morning
*Moonlight Path by Bath and Body Works
*Wisteria
*Soil

3. Four favorite movies/TV shows

*30 Rock
*House
*Big Bang Theory
*Pawn Stars

4. Four Recommendations

*Get out in the sun! It makes everything better.
*Floss daily.
*Give blood!
*Find a job you love. You spend most of your life there, after all.

Growing up

And how I long to see the picture finished,
Painted as a perfect portrait
Void of all the mysteries of my life.
-Audra Lynn, "Cross"

But sometimes it's good to see how we grow, step by step. There's beauty in and of itself to be found there.

Love is gonna break through

I love daffodils. To me they are the first sign of resilient spring life after the winter.

From lifeless, brittle Oklahoma grass pokes through small green stalks...

That bloom to reveal what has been growing beneath the surface all winter.

It hits me like lightning
That love must keep fighting
And somehow, every time
Love is gonna break through.
-Chris Rice

Spring

"See, I make all things new!"
Jesus the Christ, Revelation 21:5

That's quite a promise. Only Jesus has the authority to make that kind of promise.

It's fulfilled in more than flowers, you know. Life comes in seasons, and yes, there are winters... but there is also always the promise of spring. New life born only out of the darkness and death of winter. All things new!

Similar spring thoughts three years ago...

Inch by inch, row by row

If you can't tell, one of my favorite hobbies is taking pictures of flowers and trees. Going camping gave me a good chance to do some of that, although not a whole lot was in bloom.

Two peas in a pod... or two buds on a stem... whatever. :)

This one's my favorite.

Also, two nights ago OKC had a humongous storm. I've never slept in a war-zone, but I imagine it was as close as I could get to that experience without being there. I woke up about 3am to the loudest thunder I've heard and lightning so bright it lit up my room like daylight. And it went on until 5am!

I woke up and as I was leaving for work the next morning, I realized that a tree had fallen in my back yard! I don't know if it was hit by lightning or fell from the wind, but either way it came a little too close for comfort to my neighbor's car.

Tiiiiiimbeeeeer!

Is this a rotten tree or is this the site of a lightning strike? Horticulturists, please help me!

This split makes me think it was lightning. Poor little redbud!

This may just look like dirt, but it represents my afternoon of hard work! Since the sun actually made an appearance today, I left work an hour early and got busy making a flower bed. This strip was full of weeds as tall as shrubs and a couple of years worth of dead leaves. But now it's ready to be made something nice and beautiful. :) What should I plant? What's the hardest thing to kill? It's on the east side of the house and gets more shade than sun. ~Gonna make this garden grow... all is takes is a rake and hoe...~ :)

Girly Stuff

I wrote the title of this post then realized that people might not initially realize it's a divergence from my recent series on gender justice. :) But it is! Oh I'll be back with more to say on that soon, but I thought I'd take a little break before I lose my entire readership. But this is a different kind of girly stuff, as in pictures of flowers and how I decorated my bedroom.

I love spring, in case I haven't mentioned it here. Each couple of weeks brings some new blooming plant, and it's such a renewable joy in my life. Here are the mystery plants that were beginning to grow in my front yard when I moved in:


My next door neighbors who apparently don't live there (I've never seen anyone actually at the house) have a beautiful backyard, wildly growing garden. There are several big rosebushes blooming right now. I felt at liberty to take pictures because it hangs into my back yard:




And for vanity's sake--
Also, I'm pretty sure my mother would be the only one who cares to see this, but here are pictures of my bedroom since I have semi decorated it.





I think it's pretty! The color scheme is tan/beige/cream and lavender. I even "made" my curtains myself!

Alright, I'll try to get back to the hermeneutics stuff soon. I hope my mom enjoyed this. :)

Wednesday Thanksgiving

I failed in my attempts to be weekly thankful on my blog, but this week I'm especially thankful. I'm thankful for spring and flowers and that particular shade of green that the trees take on, and I'm thankful for good friends. I'm thankful for new opportunities and hard decisions of the good variety, and I am thankful that there is a new baby in my life. :) My wonderfully amazing college roommate Angie and her sweet husband Brian had their first baby last week! Welcome to the world, baby Silas!

Spring Springing

I love spring. :)