This too shall pass....

Ok. I give in. I am sufficiently humbled. Yesterday afternoon, as I was pulling into the driveway, I noticed that all of our crocus blooms were poking through the snow. They were so cute, that I had to go take some pictures of them to remind me that "this too, shall pass". I should be grateful for the snow, because this summer when I need water for my yard, for swimming, or for drinking, I will be happy about all of the snow we were given. I will try to see the beauty in the moment.


Seeing these little flowers not only surviving the snow, but thriving in it, makes me realize that even the littlest things can survive adversity. It brought to mind a scripture, so I thought I would post it:

D&C 58:3-4

3: Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

4: For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.

These little flowers are always the first to bloom every year. They come up during the coldest of times, and suffer the remnants of winter. Yet, even then, they carry with them the hope of the future, and the promise that things will get better. I need to be better at hanging on through the difficult times, and believe that something better will come. The Lord has a plan for us all, keep growing!

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where the flowers is?

One day last week, Doug and I took a walk around the yard to try to make some decisions about what to do with it. We want to plant a garden, and change some of the flower beds. Suddenly, we realized that there were flowers coming up everywhere.

I have had Spring fever so bad this year, so finding flowers already was a reason to get excited. As we are in a "new to us" house this year, it is fun to find out what is growing in our yard. Some things we want to remove, and in other places we want to leave it alone. I have a feeling it will take us a year to find everything in the yard so we know what to do with it all.

This is something that baffles me. We have a large piece of our yard that is grass. Randomly planted in the grass are different types of flowers. Here we have crocus blooms, with some sort of tulip (my best guess) growing in the grass. I am betting that the tulips are yellow, but I suppose they could also be daffodils. Guess we will have to wait and see. There are also some California poppies in the grass that bloom later on that are the same shade of yellow.

The thing that really perplexes me is this: How on earth do you mow around them? The previous owner told us how angry he was that the guy across the street that was helping him mow the lawn, just mowed over the flowers. Exactly how are you supposed to miss them? First of all, I am a big believer that if someone is doing you a favor because you can't do something yourself, don't get angry at the way they do it. Second, If you are going to complain about something like that, don't plant them randomly in the middle of the lawn! Speaking for myself, I am NOT going out there with a pair of scissors to cut the grass in between the flowers, and I don't think they make mowers that small......

This picture is another puzzling thing. We finally got an answer to why there are two types of grass here. The previous owner was proud to tell us that he was experimenting with "drought resistant grass". The yellow grass is the drought resistant, can you tell? Through much effort, we have discovered that it truly is drought resistant. No matter how much you water it, it always stays a yellowish-brown color. During the summer, it is slightly more green, but early in September, no matter how much water you give it, it will turn this color and stay that way, making any attempt to green it up completely futile. I am guessing it will be May before it shows any sign of green.

See this? I have been working on removing all the debris that I didn't clean up last fall. We made the foolish decision to wait until now to clean it up, owing to the fact that we were so busy remodeling. I pulled, and trimmed, and raked up all the dead leaves, twigs, and flower stems. I was hoping that Doug would want to use his leaf catcher on his yard tractor to help me clean them up. No such luck, it still has a snowplow blade on it. I had this brilliant idea to use Miriam's yellow saucer sled to help me carry it all to the compost pile. See all that stuff? I have figured out how to carry it all in one trip. Place as much of it on the sled as you can. Don't worry, I promise I can get it all in one trip.

Next, run around on it pretending to be a trash compactor. Making the appropriate noises here is helpful. Be sure to stomp to your heart's content. Feel free to add music to make the process seem more like dancing, as your neighbors peek out the window to see what you are doing. (It makes you seem a bit less cukoo, but only slightly.) Add more debris to the pile, and continue your best impression of Lucy stomping grapes as you run around in really small circles. Try not to fall over because you are now dizzy. Dang. Should have taken some Dramamine. Eventually, you will know you are successful when the neighbor now comes out to laugh at you. You can then attempt to save your dignity by showing them that you have successfully smashed it all down to a controllable size so you only have to make one trip.

I call it the "carrying in the groceries" concept. No matter how ridiculous you look, carry as many overfilled bags as you can, all at once. Never mind that your finger feels like it is going to fall off any second, or that one of the bags is tearing down the side. Hold it a bit closer to you and kick the door shut. Then hobble to the front door and try to open it with one finger. Try again. Finally give up, and put down the gallon of milk that is stretching your finger to the point that you wonder if you could pole vault with it someday, and open the door. Pick up the groceries, walk through the door and kick it shut. Good thing you learned how to kick at a young age, right? Drop all of the groceries on the counter, (or floor because the counter is just too high for this load) and sigh. Remind yourself about how clever you are for getting all of the groceries into the house in one trip, and pat yourself on the back. Don't forget to make an appointment with the doctor to check on that finger that wouldn't let go of the bag. This is the modern woman's way of doing things. Forget how crazy you might look, you should never make more than one trip. EVER.

Aaahhhhh. Valentine's Day.

For Valentine's Day, Doug sent me roses. Sometimes I get roses, sometimes chocolates, sometimes both. Sometimes I can't predict what he will end up surprising me with . This year, Doug knew that he wouldn't be home most of the day, so he sent them to me on Friday. He planned on having them arrive after he had left with his scouts, but they came while he was still home. He handed them to me, and explained that he was going to choose red (because I love red roses), but saw these and thought they were perfect. A rainbow in a vase.

These are my roses the first day. Different phases of blooming, but all beautiful.

Here are some of my favorites on Saturday. All starting to bloom. I love to see the petals gradually open. Roses go through such a change as they open up. So pretty to watch.

I took tons of pictures of them, but I love this one. You can see the velvety texture of the petals. They smell so good, and my whole house smells like roses.

Here they are, all open and beautiful. The yellow have been the last to open, but they are finally on their way. I have truly loved my rainbow in a vase. Thanks, sweetie!