Bird Watching

There's a sweet little mama bird who decided to make a nest in the wreath on our front porch.  After sharing photos of the eggs, we believe she is a House Finch.  It's typical behavior for them to make a nest in a location like the one we have.  In fact, when I did a Google search it showed numerous photos on front door wreaths.  

After stalking mama bird for several days and trying to get a photo of her, I finally gave up using my cell phone and used my DSLR camera with the zoom lens.  Anytime she would spot me, even if I was far away, she would immediately fly up high in a nearby tree.  

This is the best photo I could get.

Look at how well she blends in to the surroundings.  It would take me a moment to locate her.  Mark was helping me. 

One more of her with her head turned facing us.

I was at the end of my driveway for this one, but as soon as she saw me she flew away.

Here are her five eggs.  Please excuse my dirty front door.  I would have cleaned it, if I had known a bird was going to nest there and that I'd be photographing it so much.

I've been taking photos of the eggs almost each day and I can tell she rotates them.  I didn't know that until I studied this little bird nest.  My sister-in-law confirmed that you have to do that for proper development.  I can also tell by the shadow of the bird in the window that she changes the direction she sits on the nest.  Usually she faces one direction, but that occasionally changes.  

March Randomness

March randomness consists of: Spring, sushi, selfies, early mornings, and my boys.

I planted daffodil bulbs a couple of years ago.  This year only two bloomed.  I'm not sure if it's a lack of rain or if I didn't plant them the right depth.  Maybe they need a year or two more to get established.  Despite the lack of blooms, I'm still proud of my two pretty flowers.  Their blooms mean the change of seasons.  Winter is over and Spring has begun!

Bees are another sign of Spring.  Here they are doing their thing in the grape hyacinths in my yard.

I like sushi but Mark doesn't.  After a busy week at school I treated myself this weekend to sushi from Whole Foods.  Will shared it with me and really liked it.

Selfies with my favorites 

Early in the mornings when I get home from workout I take a moment to drink a cup of coffee and think about the day.  Sometimes I read the Bible in the dim kitchen light and other times I just sit and pray.  The morning I took this, Ben woke up when he heard me get home and he wanted to snuggle with me while I drank my coffee.  You can see his bear and pillow and the corner of his blanket in the photo.

I won't lie.  The early mornings really kick my butt.  Sometimes in the afternoon it's all I can do to get dinner cooked before I crash.  In this photo I sat down for just a minute after school and I didn't think I was going to be able to get up. 

Of course, you know I can't blog without photos of...

 my Will  

my Ben 

We have a sweet family friend who is an amazing seamstress.  She made the boys pajamas pants.  They couldn't wait to wear them and they wear them every time they are clean. 

Ben has the most animated expressions.  I love all of the silly faces he makes. 

Will's hair is too cute in this photo.  I bought the boys bathtub playdoh at Lush.  It's really soap but it last a long time and they really like it. 

Saturday we had a laid back family day. We got to hang out at Watters Creek and enjoy being outside in the beautiful weather.  I got to sneak in a trip to Charming Charlie while the boys walked around outside.  Even though they are just 4 and 7 they already refuse to go into "girl stores".  Lol!  Typical males. 

 I LOVE moments like this.  Will is reading, Ben is listening and there's a random bag of popcorn on the bed.  This is pretty much representative of our life.  My boys aren't perfect, they fuss and fight like any siblings do, but they are really good friends.  Their bond is special and it makes my heart happy.

 

Look how big Ben is!  Go Ben!  He can climb the playset wall like a champ. 

This is our friend Ashley.  She's a teacher at our school and she goes to our church.  Mark and I decided that we need to adopt her as Will and Ben's older sister.  They love playing with her and she keeps them entertained. 

Here's my teacher BFF, Kacie, and Will.  They were ready for Opening Day in their Rangers t-shirts.

Let's Go Rangers!!!

Final photos of March.

Will getting ready to eat a baked potato for supper. 

Ben made a "sandwich" with cheese and crackers for supper.   

Hello, October!

Hello, October!

It's beginning to feel like Fall.  The weather is slightly (just slightly) cooler.

I've pulled out my boots.

I've put the mums and pumpkins on the front porch.

Isn't it neat how God makes the most wonderful color palettes in nature?  The berries on this American Beautyberry shrub in our yard are the perfect compliment to the oranges and browns in the Fall. 

I finally put out a few more decorations for Halloween.

We've been up to other fun things this month. More posts to follow soon.  

Berry Good

Blackberry cobbler is my very favorite dessert.  The blackberry cobbler recipe I use calls for 8 cups of blackberries!  Since blackberries aren't cheap, the only way I'm able to make the cobbler is if I pick the berries myself.  Each year in early June the blackberries are ripe for picking.  One afternoon, Mark, his dad Jerry and I picked as many as we could.  It was very productive other than stepping in an ant pile and a few scratches from the berry bush thorns. 

 

These blackberry bushes are at my in-law's house. 

 

I followed this recipe for the blackberry pie bars.  They were good, but nothing will ever top blackberry cobbler in my book. 

 

Email me if you are interested in the recipe I use for blackberry cobbler.  It's probably 10 years old from a Southern Living magazine.  Blackberry cobbler perfection!



Snow, Small Town, Etc.

Snow is such a big deal for Texans.

We had snow earlier this week.  It wasn't as much as we got on Christmas, but it was still enough to get excited about.  Will had a hard time concentrating on walking into school.  He wanted to stop and play along the way.  I don't blame him.  I wanted to play in it, too.

The cold weather is the perfect reason to wear my favorite, cozy infinity scarf.  It was made by my talented SIL.  I sure wish I had a crafty talent.  Maybe I'll take up embroidery.

Life in a small town is great.  

You see things like "onion sets and taters are here" written on the lighted marquee sign outside of  the local hardware store.  Let me give you city folks a lesson in country grammar, taters are potatoes.  Onion sets are tiny onion bulbs you set out in your garden in the winter and early spring.  (I had to ask my father-in-law just to be sure I described it right.)

Another neat thing about small town life is our local newspaper.  A friend was cleaning out her house and found some old newspapers she'd saved from her daughter's years in high school.  One of the papers happened to have our engagement announcement in it.  She cut it out and laminated it for us.  I thought that was so sweet.  I can't believe that this was almost 11 years ago! 

We don't have a dog, but my in-laws do.  Coco is such a good dog.  Will says that we will get a dog when we move to the land, and we'll name our dog Lad. 

Speaking of good dogs...

Will's had this puppy towel for a long time.  Even though he's getting pretty big we still use it.  I'll be sad when he's too big for it.

Ben LOVES pajamas!

  He's all about wearing his pajamas and he would wear them 24-7 if we'd let him.  He's moved on from his superhero-costume-phase to the pajama-24-7-phase.

My little digital natives.  Isn't life different for our kids than for us when we were their age?

I'm so tired on weeknights that the last thing I want to do after work is prepare a big meal for dinner.  Thank goodness my family likes to eat breakfast for dinner aka brupper.  It's so easy.

I took some frozen blueberries and mixed them with a little water, sugar and corn starch and brought it to a boil.  Once it cooled it was yummy on top of the waffles.

This was yummy too! 

My SIL gave me lots of my favorite tea for Christmas.  

Tea in my favorite Anthro mug is always a good idea.

My good friend, Kacie, let me borrow her beloved copy of Wuthering Heights. I started reading it on Christmas break, but sprained my ankle and didn't get around to it.  I've gotten back into it now.  I love a classic.  Today I had a doctor's appointment (routine visit for my allergies) and I had about 20 minutes to spare.  I ended up at Starbucks and had a lovely moment of peace and quiet that I usually don't get during the day.  It was so nice to drink my white chocolate mocha and read.

I joined the Barefoot Book Club ;)

My first recipe to make was the Raspberry Crumble Bars.  Mark and I loved them.  The almonds on top added just the right texture and crunch.  Ina really knows what she's doing...well, that's obvious!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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