Happy Birthday Christina Marie

I have the most amazing sister in the world. Today is her birthday. She is three years my junior. She is my only sibling, and therefore most treasured and beloved. One of the most amazing things about us is that we were not always the best of friends growing up, and that is putting it mildly. When we grew up and healing and God flowed through our lives, the bond that grew has been indescribable. I think loosing my mom at 33 and 30 for her, has also increased our dependency on each other. We have always lived our married lives in separate states. But distance plays no role in diminishing our connection with each other. I was recently reading Brins blog about her sister that evoked such sentiment from me. I thought it fitting to pay tribute to my sister today on her birthday. When my sister and I do get to visit ALL OTHER LIFE STOPS around us, and the focus becomes intense and deep. We both prepare for each others visits like no other. My family always jokes about the deep level of cleaning I go into when Aunt Chris comes. The best part is all the finishing touches. There must be special meals, wonderful flowers, we share our favorite music, (like this Christmas it was Il Divo). We have many a cup of tea, with special treats and all the trimmings, the best tea pots, the best teacups. The bedroom gets five star hotel attentions. Nothing is too good for my sister. We never stop visiting from the time she gets here to the moment she leaves with tears, and laughter, and much joy and camaraderie. No other woman can, and ever will touch my heart as deep as she does. We share our passions, and hobbies, Knitting mania our heritage and past, but most of all our love for God. We inspire and encourage, lift up and support each other through all life’s journeys. Maybe our distance makes us cling a little harder, share a little deeper, and treasure each moment of life together more fully.
Happy Birthday Christina Marie!

I am so excited for you to be stepping into this fresh new part of your destiny and dreams, for new beginnings, and promises being fulfilled this year. I believe as you step your foot on Montana soil, all God’s promises, all God’s purposes, all God’s blessings will start to manifest as you step out in this new path and adventure in Him! The very step of your foot to start this journey will be releasing and carrying with it, all , all , all that God has placed in your heart for a future and purpose that only He the Master Gardener has designed for you and your husband to fulfill, in a special place, and at a specific time.

Your forever loving sister,
Cindy

A place of amazing comfort and rest

This is the forest road I use to take strolls down every week in my childhood. A place I would like more often to go, a place from a long time ago, a place of amazing comfort and rest. I really had a forest in my backyard as a child in New England. These pictures were taken about 6 years ago when we went back for a visit to my home town.
My childhood home

In Stoughton, Massachussetts

I really do relate to green. Maybe that is why I love to garden and try to plant as many green things as possible in my Eastern WA desert garden. My husband on the other hand is completely out of his comfort zone in a forested landscape. He is a native Eastern WA. When he gets around trees he feels all claustrophobic. I just feel such a great sense of peace and rest covered in green.

Where do you feel the most comforted and restful?

More about babies :>)

My two baby girls :) Jenna 18 & Megan 23 soon to be the mother of our grandchild
We just found out yesterday that we are going to be the grandparents of a baby girl, named Eden Elizabeth. My daughter Megan is five months preganant (the blond on the right) and we were waiting to find out the babies sex before we started to purchase anything. Well I'd say we got a good start!

A quick tour around my brand new baby garden

Thought I'd show you all what I have been up to.
My new tree, Red October Glory

Lavender Twist Redbud tree I bought on a whim

Baby vegetable garden

New wine grapes, one by each post

North side yard border

Backyard shade garden

Still looks like a bunch of dirt I am sure to most, but it will be fun to compare this fall how much everything has grown in.

Away in a garden....

Sorry I have been away from blog land so long. I have been playing in the dirt for the last two weeks. When I come in at night I am so tired I crash. I am just like a little kid honestly. Love the dirt. I have gotten a vegetable garden planted, lettuce, arrugla, rosemary, fennel, radishes, onions, oregano and strawberries. I have tomatoes and peppers waiting for the cold weather to settle. I have been planting trees. I bought the October Glory and then fell in love with another tree I had no room for. An expensive redbud called a Lavender Twist. I have been rearranging perennials, and roses. Good time to move things around in this cool weather. The first year I had moved so many things from my previous garden I just plunked stuff in the ground to get started. I am desperately trying to decide on five more rose bushes, hence been on the garden forums. I am so excited about planting four Riesling grape plants. I have a friend, who is a wine maker, and he will be giving us lessons on wine making. Dan has decided he wants to take this on. What a fun adventure. This area is so fabulous for growing grapes. I also planted a Seedless Concord, just for the heavenly smell in the fall mmmmmmmmm and a red seedless grape Red Flame for eating. We also need to get a fence in and a shed. There is a lot of activity going on in the back yard, both human and wild life. I am trying to get a picture of a young male pheasant who shows up once a day, but I can’t seem to get a close up. His plumage and coloring are so amazing this time of the year. I want to use the colors in a painting for my great room.

This is the closest I have been able to get with my zoom. There are actually three males strutting around crowing every evening. It has been great fun to watch. Or rather to hear, they are quite shy about exposing themselves, but they crow so we know they are there.

If you look very closely you can see a stake or two where I plan on planting the roses. I have iris about to bloom too. And under the bench is where the pheasant popped up when I took his picture.

Sissinghurst

I have been checking out some lovely garden blogs, and wanted to share some of my pictures from England. Just now my husband left a comment on my blog and he happens to be sitting in a London airport thinking about our trip to the lovely gardens of England, how cool is that!

A picture of the wonderful man that took me on my dream trip to England and Paris for our 25th Wedding Anniversary

View from the tower

My two favorite ladies of the day!
This is the picture I am trying to paint Over view of the White Garden
I have just recently found seeds for the white poppies! Can't wait to try them this year.

Nancy's Garden

After my last post, I just had to share more of these pictures. These pictures were taken a few years ago at a friend’s home in the canyon. We met as neighbors, we had just built our first homes and we were new mommies together. She was my first garden buddy. As you can see, she is a woman with a big vision and can pull it off. This is the view from her back door. She is a Montana gal that decided she needed a meadow.
Enjoy!

Seasons of my soul...Spring is here!

I have so much filtering through my spirit right now; I have not been able to post on any one thing. There is so much God is allowing me to observe and is down loading into my heart and life. I just don’t know where to begin…spring often makes me feel this way too. It seems like winter finally gets over and than bam. Everything starts to leaf out, so much to take in, flowers start blooming in succession, one group of plants after another. I can barely take note and enjoy and contemplate the display, it keeps rushing past me. And on top of that there are so many garden chores to keep up on. The thing is, I love garden chores. I think one of my favorite things to do on the planet is weeding and pruning. I just love cleaning up the soil, preparing it for new plants and seeds. I love shaping up my new trees and bushes to give them a great support structure on which to grow and produce for many years to come. Good bones that will help make them healthy and strong. Well it feels like spring time in my soul right now too. My Master Gardener is so busy cleaning up the soil of my heart, getting it ready to produce and grow so much more. He is structuring my soul for better character to be able to show off His fruit, flowers, and the fragrance that will accompany all that. I feel the Master’s touch and His gentle loving ways grooming my soul. Father thank you for how big and how great you are. Let me walk through this season with grace and joy. Let me be completely moldable and structured by your hands. Help me to enjoy each and every moment and to trust that I won’t miss anything that you need me to really grasp and grab a hold of.
Help me to flow with your "Unforced Rhythms of Grace” Your ways, your pace, your succsesion of life.

The Last Birthday Party for the Last Child

My daughter kept hinting for two weeks, "What should we do for my party mom?" What do you want to do? I would say. It became pretty clear to me she wanted a big 18th birthday party bash. I have only myself to blame, because from day one with all three of my kids I have always made their birthdays a big deal. Jenna is our youngest and the last child left at home. So I decided to make one last big splash and give her a party to remember. "And by the way mom, it has to be different and not like anyone else’s." The pressure was on, and I had only one week to pull it off. Somehow, I came up with a combination of several themes, Survivor/Progressive Dinner/Scavenger Hunt. We called it The Destination Dinner Party.

So here was the jest of it. We all met at the mall, divided the kids into three teams. Each team was assigned a photographer. For their first clue they had to take pictures of their team, Dancing the Waltz with Strangers, or a group photo with a Victoria Secret mannequin. Then they got the clue to the first part of the meal at my older daughter's house. Salad and Brochette with Barbie and Ken Their next photo op was To Kiss The Pooch. From there they went to a gazebo overlooking our city and learned a self defense move from my husband. After that photo op they got a map to our house where we served spaghetti and meatballs. They had to take pic's of Sharing a Noodle or Meatball. Then it was on to Double for Dessert. They had to play tennis and take some pic's of them serving or hitting the ball. The last stop was at our church for dessert. We showed each teams pictures and they were judged for creativity and fun. Team 3 won. We actually wore the kids out and they had no energy left to dance.

The party was a big hit. Thought I would share some of the photos. They had a really good time and took some amazing shots. Sunday morning my husband saw this comic in the newspaper, and we thought it hit the nail right on the head. hee hee he

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3