Fifteen...

Today my honey bunches of oats and I celebrate 15 years of wedded bliss!

Fifteen years ago, I couldn't even begin to think of where we would be in fifteen years.   I never dreamed we would have five children, Jamie would be a bean counter, and I would be a stay at home, homeschooling mom.  Boy, how the times have changed. 

I was a complete and utter bundle of nerves this time fifteen years ago.  I was 23 and had always lived at home with my parents.  I was finishing up my college education and about to embark on an entirely new life.  I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted nothing more than to marry this man of my dreams, but I had a lump the size of Texas planted firmly in my throat.  It was new and I was scared.

Oh how true the saying, "Hind sight is 20/20" really is.  I had no need to be a scaredy cat.  God made this man for me and He would work it out.  That certainly has been my story for the last fifteen years and I am sticking to it!  

Happy Anniversary Jamie!  I sure love you ole boy! You make my heart smile anew everyday!

Much love,

In The Garden

Guest post written and typed by Cooper Hill

 A lot of things go in to planting a garden.  First you have to disk it twice to tear up all the grass and weeds. Then, you have to bottom plow it to turn over the soil and to get the good soil on top.  Next, you have to disk it again to make neat straight rows. It is now time to spray the garden to kill all the weeds and make sure they do not come back. Finally, you have to do the most fun and most pain in the rear end job! Planting it!

 Planting the garden is fun because it is hard work. It is a pain in the rear because you have to sit on the back of a solid steel planter and make sure the seeds stay where they will plant evenly.  You do not want any skips.  A skip is when there is not a seed where you want a seed.  To keep it from skipping you have to rake the seeds with your hand so the seeds will plant evenly.  Oh yeah, you do not want to get your finger caught doing this.  The planter looks like a small disk with seed buckets and a dirt packing wheel.  The dirt packing wheel packs dirt to bury the seeds.  It is important to bury the seeds in order keep them from washing away.

 It sounds like a lot of work and it is. You might want to keep this in mind before you try to do this yourself.  I am a country boy, so I like doing it.


I hope you enjoyed Cooper's take on planting the garden.  We are going to leave you with a few pictures of the garden and the farm.  The corn is not something that we planted as part of our garden.  It is just pretty and I wanted to include it.

Happy planting,

Cooper Hill

So Much To Do...

...so little time to do it all.

Instead of wishing all of my time away, I'd actually like an extra hour or two or twenty in a day! It has been Key-razy around the Hill homestead.  It always is this time of year. I just forget from one year to the next how nuts it can get. It is so easy to get discouraged this time of year.  I sometimes feel like I am doing lots of things partially and not giving any one thing the time that it deserves.  Take laundry for instance.  I am just barely hanging on people.  I am washing what needs to be washed for the moment and hoping no one has to go commando in their clean ball uniform.  You think I jest..

I have lots and lots to share in this blog post.  So, buckle your seat belt or hang on one.

Our science project for homeschool is in full swing now.  The boys have planted our garden and it is growing quickly.  Cooper is working on a blog post about the "getting ready" process. Look for it soon.

Sweet baby Amelia is walking now.  How can that be, right?? Okay, not full on walking but she took about seven steps on her own last night. (Correction:  As I am working on this, she just walked from the living room into the kitchen to greet my mom!) She is so very sweet and curious.  She is standing beside me right now carrying on the most adorable conversation. I might not know what she is saying but she thinks it is a very serious topic judging by the look on her face. I love to hear her say yes (ess), dance and outside (side, side). She had tubes in here ears a couple of weeks ago, immediately followed by a fever virus that completely wiped her out.  She is on the mend now and is back to her old self. 

Mother's day is on the horizon, this Sunday in fact.  I know that it is a Hallmark holiday, but it is a tough one for me.  I know that I am not alone in that.  It is that way for many women for many different reasons.  It is tough for those who long to be mothers, those who only have babies in heaven, and those who have children to celebrate with but have children to miss on that day also. Sometimes I wish that it would just go away.  There would be a great deal less hurt for so many if it did.  Then I think about how much my children love to pamper me that day and I am just torn.  I honestly don't miss Eli any more that day than every other one.  I just think more about him being on earth and being a part of his brothers and sister's scheming for the day.  They will all descend on me while I am "sleeping" and his spot will be empty...As it is with any other family activity.  On another note entirely, someone asked me last week how many children I had now, and without even thinking about it I answered four.  I was then left with an intense feeling of having cheated Eli.  He makes five.  I could have gone back and explained, but then it would have been just awkward and uncomfortable for the others involved.  Will the awkwardness ever end this side of  Heaven?  Will I ever not care that I make others uncomfortable when I include Eli?

A dear sweet Baby Loss Mama friend has launched an online magazine.  The name of the magazine is Still Standing.  I am so excited about this amazing resource.  I believe in its mission and the need for something like this.  Honestly, two years ago, I did not think I would be where I am today.  I thought that I would never see a day without tears, intense grief, and achy arms. This magazine offers the kind of hope that women and men alike need in the face of the unthinkable. You can visit Still Standing HERE.  I hope you can take time to hop on over and check it out.

I Pray all of my lady friends have a gentle and blessed Mother's Day! 

Sending much love your way,

The Garden

I am so excited, for all of my homeschooling peeps out there, to tell about our Garden project this year.  I have been wanting a garden for a while now.  We tried to plant one in our back yard last year and well...it didn't quite work out.  We fed and watered and babied it but it never produced anything.  So, this year I decided to get my daddy involved.  He told me he would help if I made it a project for the kiddos.  I quickly jumped on that.  What an excellent way to end our school year and extend it also.  The garden will grow long past our last official day of school.  It will keep our minds from going to mush with a few weeks officially off. I can not wait to share our project with you guys. 

Here are a few of my ideas for integrating the garden into school curriculum.
1.) The boys are going to keep and illustration journal all along the way. 
2.) The boys have already helped to prepare the ground for planting.
3.) We have all planted tomato, pepper, and herb plants. There is much more planting to be done.
4.) We are going to create an Excel worksheet to document our expenses and earnings.
5.)The boys and I will be blogging about our incredible project.
6.)We plan of selling the fruits of our labors by possibly setting up a produce stand and taking advanced orders as well.
7.)Weed eradication skills will be perfected.
The list just keeps on growing as I type.  The possibilities are limitless.

We are all a little excited about digging in and growing a garden.

I took the boys down to the farm Saturday to help Papa spray and disk a little and I took some pictures while the boys were hard at work.  We also planted the first few things in our garden. 

Here are some pictures from Saturday.

Entering the gate to our garden

Disking the soil getting ready to plant

Coop getting a little driver's ed lesson!

The disk attached to the tractor

Papa and the boys



 Jamie and I lived down at the farm for almost four years before moving to town. I love the farm with a few exceptions.  The snakes are bigger, the mosquitoes are bigger, and the dad-blasted dirt road just about did me in. The serenity of the farm is just amazing and on a clear night the heavens are the most amazing sight. We had a garden way back when.  Of course, the boys were just babies and have no recollection of it.  The boys absolutely love the farm.  They look forward to going to help Papa on Saturdays. Not to mention they are learning to drive, shoot, and Lord knows what else, that might cause my heart to palpitate uncontrollably.  This garden will be a wonderful learning experience for us all.  Of that I am sure!

Much love,

Patience is not my virtue...

...but He is the Potter and I am the clay.  He is still molding me and making me!


Today is Tax Day eve around my house!  Yipee, Yay, Yo!!!

I am not a very patient person when I am tired of something and I.AM.TIRED of Tax season this year.  I had to pray and ask God to forgive me for my attitude these last few days because quite frankly, it has been rotten. I have been on edge with everyone, especially my kiddos.  I am so ready to have my husband back and the father to my children back, my help meet back!  I didn't sign up to be a single parent of four, even if it is for a couple of months a year.  Yep, those were my rotten thoughts yesterday. God was quick to remind me that there are many others out there that didn't sign up to be single parents either and they have to do it year round.  Alright Lord, I get your point! Things can always be worse and I am sufficiently humbled to that fact!

We are going to start spring break around here Wednesday.  The kiddos are excited and bummed that we didn't start today! Spring break plans consist of re-doing our flower beds, working on our vegetable garden that my dad is helping me with, and just spending some time together as a family! I am excited and so thankful that we will get almost an entire week together.  I plan on taking lots of pictures of my little family at work and play this week!  I'll post some later, with a blog post on our homeschool venture of a vegetable garden.  I am thinking of making the entire project part of our school day and even getting my boys to do a couple of guest posts about our experience and the entire process!

I am going to leave you today with a huge prayer request.  I have a BLM friend who needs so many prayers.  My friend Melissa C. lost a son to Potter's in November.  Then she lost her husband unexpectedly in January.  Now my sweet friend is in the fight of her life against an ugly disease eating away at her body.  She has stomach and live cancer that is only treatable through a transplant, not just a liver transplant but several organs in her stomach area would need to be transplanted. If the transplant does not work or for some reason her body will not allow the doctors to perform the transplant, she has been given up to six months by her doctors.  Now, I know that the God we serve is also the Great Physician and He determines her time here on earth, not doctors.  He can rid her body of this ugly disease and make her whole again. I pray that He does!  My friend has two very small daughters that need their mommy right now and she is very sick.  Her situation humbles me to my knees. Please join me in praying for her and asking, no begging God for a miracle! My friend is young and these things just aren't supposed to happen to young people, especially all three at once. We know that our plans are not His plans and while that is sometimes so hard to fathom, my friend is living it.  Please lift her up without ceasing. My heart is heavy for her.

Much Love,

Just beautiful!

Jamie's grandmother went home to be with the Lord this past week. She was truly a beautiful woman, inside and out! The very first time I met her she made me a part of her family.  She was a true southern belle and she never met a stanger. I have to say, I'm a little jealous that she is now holding my sweet Eli.  I am so happy for her that she has met Jesus and been reunited with those gone on before her. Grandma's mother died giving birth to her in 1932 and never got to hold her baby girl.  I can only imagine that amazing reunion in Heaven.  Imagine a mother putting her arms around a daughter that she carried but never kissed. I am sure there were lots of hugs and kisses exchanged when they first met each other. Heaven is so very sweet tonight and every night for that matter.

Much love,

Firsts

Today is the first day of spring.
It is absolutely gorgeous outside today.  It is 80 degrees with sunshine and a little breeze.  I am not an outdoor-sey kind of person, but today, I want to be outside. The grass is greening up...Trees are beginning to bloom.  All of nature seems to be coming alive after a long winter's nap. I got out yesterday and pruned all of the dead foliage off of the Oleander, Hydrangeas, Roses, and Crepe Myrtles. I am excited to watch them "spring" to new life.

Spring is a time of renewal, which is why I guess, it is very fitting that my sweet, precious, little Amelia Claire is one year old today.  She was born on the first day of spring.  Her birthday will always be after a long cold winter.

I remember this day last year.  I remember the first time she filled my arms. It was such a beautiful fulfilling feeling after a long cold winter. Little Miss Amelia is one of the sweetest babies. She is so even tempered.  She rarely cries and is quick to give a kiss or hug.  She has the cutest, toothie little smile. She loves to eat and has not yet met a food the didn't like. The little stinker can crawl faster than most people can run.  She is pulling up and cruising around but just will not turn loose yet.  I think it is more of a confidence thing at this point.  I'm not rushing her because I know that walking will eventually turn into running. I think you know where I'm going with this.  This sweet little girl is just a blessing.  I have loved every single minute with her this last year and look forward to a lifetime more.
I'll leave you with a few pictures of sweet Amelia's first year.



Happy Birthday Amelia Claire!

Much love,