REAL Texas Hill Country Flowers

So our little measly wildflowers, in our yard, are nothing compared to these. We took mom and went on the Willow City Loop yesterday. About 13 miles north of Fredericksburg, there is this small (barely) two lane road winding through several Texas ranches. Wild flowers every where. Since we went in the middle of the day, we didn't see any wildlife...except a snake going across the road. That is when I stopped getting out of the car and taking photos- lol. Our only little glitch along the way, was when we stopped at an HEB in Fredericksburg, for a potty stop. When mom and I came back out, I saw that one tire on the car was low and had a metal screw in it. Ron had to change that tire.

Wild Flowers

 Last fall we went to a place called "Wildseed Farm", near Fredericksburg. Ron bought a 100 pound bag of wild flower seeds. (We won't mention how expensive that was- lol) But...even though we didn't expect much to come of those...especially since the deer seem to eat everything...we have some wild flowers POPPING up around the house. There are still plenty of weeds and thistles too, but it is fun to see little specks of color here and there. Some of them are Blue Bonnets. Others are yellow, orange, white, and red. We also have some Four OClocks coming up again. Some Petunias have come back and some Sun Flowers are coming back. Ron spent all day yesterday weeding the large flower bed in the front, being careful to leave what looked like flowers and only pull weeds. Then he also spread mulch throughout. One of our neighbors has lots of Spanish Lavender plants. We need to get some of those- one of the few things that deer won't eat. For the past couple of weeks everything here has been covered with YELLOW oak pollen. Since we got rain here on Thursday night, that helped to wash some of that away. It was so bad, that things looked like yellow tempra paint had been dumped on everything. Here are some photos that I took tonight...including a few of  "Ron's Cat" :)

My SnapDragons have come back after being completely pruned off by the deer.

Four OClocks coming back from last year.

These were my Valentines gift.

We think these are all Sun Flowers.

Even some of the Petunias that I thought were dead, have come back.

Look really, really close, tiny specks of color.

Lots of these, that are probably a "blooming weed" :)

Ron's (spoiled) Cat :)

Any day now, I expect the deer to come and prune everything off, but for now things are BLOOMING.

Simms Easter 2015

I had to grab Annie's Easter photos from her blog. I love her description on the kids. She said, "Savannah wore her pretty Easter dress and the boys put on whatever tie they could find. She is our rose among thorns. :)

A Season for Everything

It's that time again here...the hummingbirds are back, I have a few flowers in pots (just waiting for the deer to prune them off), and the Spring grass and trees are blooming. We have a few random wild flowers popping up. I have one flower bed, where we are trying to decide if the small green plants are weeds or flowers. Ron thinks they are sun flowers and I think they are weeds :) (We did have some sun flowers there last year that went to seed. I decided that if the deer eat them soon, they are flowers...if not, they are weeds).

Flowers or Weeds???

As for me...well I am in a strange season of life. For thirty-some years we went in high gear to keep up with 5 kids and all of their activities. Then for a few more years, I spent almost every day at The Silver Hanger. Yah know...one of those run-your-own-business-things, that consumes you 24/7 :) Since moving here, I have had to adjust to a much slower pace. Ron seems fine with that, in fact he worked super hard all those years and deserves a break. Up until the past couple of years, I never took anytime for myself to exercise and stay fit. That is one of the new things that is happening. Actually, I realized that part of my adjustment was overcoming a feeling of being selfish when spending some time on myself. I have been telling Ron that my 2.5 mile walks are my AA- Attitude Adjustment :)  I have had several little "hints" over the past few months that NOW is my time to get myself physically and spiritually fit. I changed my diet and started walking again. Ron and I are reading Isaiah together and I am reading the New Testament. Another adjustment for me is not having a very fixed schedule. I seem to bounce around from one thing to the next, with whatever seems to percolate to the top of the priority list. Sometimes it's mom's stuff, sometimes Ron's stuff, sometimes other stuff, and sometimes my stuff. (And of course housekeeping sifted in everywhere.) I have learned how to shop on the Internet and let UPS use their gas to deliver. I have learned how to grocery shop once a week and make less trips to town. Don't get me wrong, I can still claim that "Life is Good"...just different than what I was used to.  Just a new season... and probably the calm before the storm. (A storm is coming, we just don't know exactly when and what kind it will be.)
But for now...it's Spring time in Texas :) 

Some GREEN

Happy St. Patricks Day.

 A dab of green inside the house. 

But my real accomplishment for today was a dab of green outside the house. Weeds...that is :)

I didn't get a huge amount done, but I stayed out there long enough to get my gloves wet, my shoes muddy, and get ant bites on my ankles ;) 

The reason I didn't get more done today, was because mom and I spent all morning, trying to go to an appointment for a CT scan. Only to arrive there and find out that the insurance had not given an authorization for the procedure. They have only had since the end of January to get that done. It's complicated! And there were many other assorted problems, including them having the wrong phone number for mom. (They claimed that they left messages telling us to reschedule the appointment. Those weren't on mom's phone, but I guess, on someone else's phone).

Now we are trying to get that authorized and rescheduled for this week, so we can keep the appointment for next week with the cancer doctor. (He needs to see the results of the CT scan)

Last week she had a brain MRI done and an appointment with the radiation doctor. The three previous spots were gone, but there was a new, small spot. We decided to just "watch" that and come back for another MRI in May. 

We have ladies from a company called "Home In Stead" coming in 4 days a week to help here at home. Even though mom is moving about better than when she was in the care center- it is nice to have help with her laundry, her bedroom/bathroom, some of her food prep, bathing, getting dressed and exercise. She has a new lift chair and an all electric bed. I also ordered a second wheel chair, that has not arrived yet. That way we can have a chair inside the house and also one that stays in the car. (Right now the wheels on the one chair have to be cleaned before coming back into the house- especially on the carpet in her bedroom.) Mom has mostly been using her walker when we have gone to appointments- the only "hazard" with that is when she sits down in a regular chair and then can't get back up ;) I think she is glad to be back home, though. I know that the food is better here- lol.

Eli is FOUR

Sunday evening, we had a little birthday party for Eli. Nothing very exciting, but at least a few balloons and cake and presents. He was sooo funny...when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, he said, "strawberry with icing and sprinkles." I though, okay, I can do that. Not exactly the flavor I was expecting. Then for Saturday and Sunday, he kept talking about "strawberry cake" for his birthday. As it turned out he was disappointed in the pink cake. I guess he only wanted a "pretend" strawberry cake and not the "real" thing. Go figure! :)

I thought I did pretty good on this strawberry cake, with icing, and sprinkles, and monsters.

But I guess not...

He got away with having a cup of yogurt for dinner and ice cream for dessert- hehe