What I've Learned

I've decided that since so many other bloggers post a weekly blog about what they've learned that week (to read them, visit Musings of A Housewife), I will start doing the same thing. Tuesday is a quiet day for me, so without further ado, here are the things I have learned this week.

1. Grad school is a fantastic way to snap the mind out of the daily grind. However, I do not recommend taking a grad school course on a one-week fast track plan, particularly when that course involves the reading and study of, and testing on, the whole Old Testament. I learned a TON in that class, and loved every bit of it. But I about killed myself and alienated my husband and kids in the process.

2. I learned that tulips are my new favorite flower. After the monotony of winter in the mid-south, those brilliant blooms are food for the soul. There's nothing like rich color to lift the spirit! Here's one of the pics I took on Saturday that didn't make it into my Toolips blog.


3. Every mom can read the seriousness of a situation by the sound of her child's cry. There's the hungry cry. There's the tired cry. There's the whiny cry. There's the scared cry. There's the angry cry. There's the hurt cry. Then there's the REALLY HURT cry. I'd never heard that one before today. Today I learned that my daughter can issue a cry that makes every hair on my body stand up, and propels my feet into jet action. Geesh, I didn't know I could still run that fast! Snapper took a fall at the park today. The fall itself wasn't bad, but how she landed was. By the time I got to her, picked her up and carried her to the picnic table to look at her ankle, it had already swelled up. We were at the doctor's office 15 minutes later and the poor little ankle was bulging out of the shoe. It looked like it had grape jelly under the skin. A quick xray and exam determined that it is not broken (praise the Lord!), but it is badly sprained. The tricky part will be keeping my very active 6-year-old off her feet for the next week.

4. I was reminded (not really new learning...) that age 2 1/2, while challenging, is also delightful. I love Pepper's emerging ability to communicate and express himself...in words! My little Pepper was so concerned for Snapper when she fell. While I was examining her ankle, he kept trying to kiss it. At the doctor's office, he hollered down the hallway, "Huwwy up, doctuh, my sit-ter (sister) gots a twisted!" When the doctor was examining the ankle, Snapper was softly crying. Pepper slapped the doctor's hand and said, "No, doctuh! Don't hurt my sit-ter!" The doctor explained that he wasn't trying to hurt Snapper, just trying to figure out what was wrong. Then Pepper said, "You go get my sit-ter a bandaid wight now!" The doctor obviously enjoyed Pepper's concern, and complimented him on how much he loves and cares for his "sit-ter." So stinkin' cute!

What did you learn this week? Leave me a comment and share one thing.

Snapper's "Toolips"

Ah, Spring makes me happy! Even though the sky was spitting little drops on Saturday morning, we met up with our friends Larry and Erin and drove down to Hot Springs, AR. Garvan Woodland Gardens, a spectacular botanical garden, planted 90,000 tulips this year and they peaked last weekend! We had a blast with our friends, and soaked up the amazing patchwork of color at the gardens. Here are my favorite pictures from the day.

Forsythia Diaries, Chapter 2

The second and final chapter. I missed most of the mid-range progress of our bush while we were in North Carolina. And then I accidentally deleted last week's pictures of the bush. Sigh. Oh well! Here is the fully bloomed-out forsythia bush! Spring is just about here. Isn't it beautiful?



Since I'm celebrating spring, I had to add a couple of other pictures, too. This gorgeous flowering tree is a Bradford Pear. It is in the front yard of the neighbor across the street and 3 houses down. I love that tree! The daffodils are around my mailbox. We'll be going to a daffodil field this weekend, as well as to a botanical garden. So anticipate lots of springy pictures next week!

The Forsythia Diaries, Chapter 1

Winter in Arkansas is my least favorite season. Yes, even the heat and humidity of summer are better than this! While many of the trees here turn beautiful colors in the fall and lose all their leaves by mid-November, there is an abundance of pin oaks, which retain many of their brown leaves all winter. When I look outside, I see a brown and gray world, punctuated by dead pin oak leaves clinging to branches. The pin oak leaves are like the exclamation points of a dreary winter. I've always struggled with a degree of seasonal depression as it is, so the bland Arkansas winters seem especially long to me.

This is why I have developed an eagle eye for early signs that spring is on its way. Typically, we start seeing tiny green leaves on some deciduous shrubs in mid-February. Bradford pear trees and ornamental plum trees bloom toward the end of February and early March. A few daffodils have ventured out now, but the bulk of them, along with the tulips, will bloom mid-March. My favorite tree, the dogwood, will grace our neighborhood with white and pink bracts (blossoms) toward the end of March, and silkworms will weave their nests in trees all over town. Wisteria arrives in early April, followed by an explosion of spring by the middle of April. While all of these are great, there is one special harbinger of spring that I anxiously watch for every year. We didn't have them in California, so here's a little botany for you Californians!

Our neighbor around the corner has a mid-sized forsythia bush in his front yard. It is an ugly bush most of the time. Yet this neighbor told me he keeps it solely for the 6 weeks of glorious blooms it puts forth at the end of February. This bush is like a patch of warm sunshine in the midst of the gray. This will be the 4th winter I have watched and enjoyed this neighbor's bush. This year, Snapper is watching it with me. I have decided I will photo document its eruption, and share a bit of spring with you! We drive by and inspect our bush every day, sometimes twice. This morning we were delighted to discover the first tiny blossom! Here are two pictures. Keep watching for more! I hope you'll enjoy the arrival of spring right along with us.