Full Heart

When you buy your house in the dead of winter, spring becomes one long gift.

New sunsets every evening, that I can see ... right from my deck.

Sunshine slowly settling down behind dark blue peaks, oranges and highlights and birds above. 

One long continuous gift. 

Everyday I spot something new - a flower or a bit of moss or a new tree blooming. 

Our yard really isn't that big but Heavenly Father gifted me with lots of trees. 

 He knows what makes my heart tick. 

When you love nature, when you delight in God made beauty, 

life really is a never ending present. 

The trees all have their leaves, each time a breeze blows they laugh 

Branches raised high in worship, 

back and forth,

back and forth.

We are planning out our garden - it will be small but enough. 

It isn't planted yet but that's okay. 

Small steps - raised beds made out of scrap wood, a fence to plan.

We will have to buy veggies that are already sprouted this year just because we are so behind. 

A couple of days ago it hailed so much though that if we would have planted, we would have lost.

I guess we aren't behind - we're fortunate. 

I found this lovely plum and blue flower in the front yard. I imagined the person that planted the bulb ... if you plants bulbs ... you are a person that nourishes hope. I thought about that person, here in this house ...with all of it's 1980's fixtures ... and wondered if they were happy. They must have been.

The lilacs bloomed (are they lilacs?) Whatever they are, their scent is as soft as their color. 

My little fish have found a new home - the sound of their little wooden fins clacking against each other is one of my favorite summer sounds. 

Peace, even for a moment - the little wooden fish bring me peace.

"Greatness is not where we stand, but in what direction we are moving.

Me must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it -

but sail we must and not drift

nor lie at anchor."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Little Koala Bear has made his bit of dirt patch. Since  he was about one years old I have watched him warm day after warm day, sitting in a bit of dirt, taking the grains into his hand and slowly watching them sift through his fingers

. He does it over and over again, his eyes studying the falling dirt. He inspires me. I wonder what he sees that I don't see? I wonder what his hands feel that maybe mine can't? This part of his autism ... an everlasting gift. Joy in the ordinary.

I guess ... dirt is pretty special. 

We are also getting things ready for Trinity's little dollhouse family - they like to be outdoors don't you know ... with the warm air and everything. A bit of felt and a picket fence and they are set for soaking up the sun. 

This photo is a little out of place - but this is the hail that fell. Remember the gorgeous purple flower? It had one lovely day of life, one gorgeous day to stand proud and wave her colors and be admired.

Then she was gone. 

During this day-long cold snap I tried painting again.

It was my first landscape painting - I have MUCH to learn about values, but for just a bit...while the cold air was wrapping itself around our house, I was in a warm grassy meadow, my hand propped on a rustic fence post, watching the daisies dance.

...and just like that, the chilliness is gone today, and the kids are outside playing. 

The sun is in their hair, the grass tickling their feet. 

They are laughing and imagining.

They teach me. I watch them and I learn. 

Light of heart, real emotions, relaxed, enjoying their hands and their feet and their voices.

I learn. 

Through my camera I see my little blessings and I have such deep gratitude that a lump forms in my throat and I feel overwhelmed with what I have. 

Children, such an everlasting gift when you love them for exactly who they are. 

"Don't you see that children are God's best gift?

The fruit of the womb is generous legacy?

Like a warriors fistful of arrows

Are the children of a vigorous youth!

Oh, how blessed are you parents with your quivers full of children."

- Pslam 127:3-5 The Message

I'm grateful for the trees, for the purple flowers, for the bird song.

I'm grateful for the deck and my view of the sunset.

I'm grateful for late gardens and balls of ice that fall from the sky,

I'm grateful for a new home.

I'm grateful for colors on canvas,

for creativity.

But out of all those things - I am most grateful for my littles. 

A "quiver" isn't one specific size. It holds how many you need, how many you are given.

A quiver is the heart - and if that heart is full of them ... there is no greater blessing than to love another with all of you, the best you can. Vigorously. 

Have a lovely weekend friends,

Alyssa Spring