A poem for Ashlyn's b-day ( bit late)

I'm not really a poet...but this is a good try. :) I don't know what's up with this highlighting color...can't get it to leave!

Our Precious gift from Heaven arrived one frosty cold, wintry day, God knew what we needed, and sent her via special delivery. While holding her in my arms, I knew little what a blessing she'd be. All I knew was that my little, helpless girl needed me. She's growing up so quickly, and I wish that time would stand still.. even for just a moment...but I know it never will. The sleepless nights with colic is but a fading memory...it's grand that we tend to remember the good in everything. I've been watching her little ways, and how she relishes all her days. She rises each morning with a smile on her face, and eagerly puts things back in its place.Though I could easily work much faster, there is nothing like a happy little "helper". Most days she can't wait to play outside, to run with her kite and zip down the big slide. I watch her hair fly behind her, hear squeals of delight. I pray that I won't take these moments for granted ... that I will always be thankful for my precious gift from Heaven.

When our gift grows into a young lady, will she remember we once played house and fixed tea? Will she think of the books that we read together, and recite them from memory? Will she enjoy our shopping trips, an afternoon painting nails and styling hair….or will she roll her eyes and say she wished I wasn’t there! If my daughter initiates discussions at midnight, will I have the patience to listen….and have Wisdom to know the answers? One day- if God blesses my daughter with a young man to marry, her father and I will need to inform him, “Our daughter was a special gift from above, and we have loved her from the very start….you have our approval ONLY if you cherish her with all your heart.” They say you gain a son in marriage. Yes, that may be true, but there’s nothing so dear to a parent’s heart, than the love of one’s 'little' girl. I pray we won’t take life's moments for granted,
but always be thankful for our precious gift(s) from Heaven.

Weeds, weeds, weeds!

These are photos of our back yard. If we don't constantly work at keeping the weeds out of the bricks, they totally take over! This is not how our back yard was intended to look like. Do you know how hard it is dealing with these weeds? I have sprayed them with weed killer....only for it to rain that very night. Then, I've pulled them up by hand and sprayed again. Sometimes I get so frustrated at these weeds that I ignore them and let them take over (they come back every 3 weeks or so). Other times I get so angry at them, I begin stomping up and down, yelling, "I'm so mad at you little weeds!" Of course neither method works well. :)
What works best is the time consuming, sweaty, back breaking job of pulling up weeds that are in between the brick. All 100 yards of it!
I was thinking about how one can learn so much from the outdoors. We all have weeds that grow up in our lives, don't we?! We detest them, we try and hide them, but they're there. We ignore them at first and pretend they don't exist, thinking they might just go away on their own--but they don't. They only get bigger and more ugly. We get upset at them, and do our share of ranting and raving about how much we can't stand them--but they are still there. It takes awhile for us to realize that one must take action with those weeds...God sprays them with His special weed killer (conviction/forgiveness), and then equips us to get rid of those weeds in our lives. We must take action. Our weedy life is not what God intended for us! So, we then pull on our working gloves and get to work! We carefully pull up the first 20 weeds of bad attitudes and bitterness, but soon get tired and wish someone else could do the rest of the job for us. This is painful! We spend all evening yanking up weeds of disbelief, self-sufficiency,anger,selfishness, self-absorbency, then sit back to take a break. We wipe our brow and reach for a drink of water. Ahhh--there's nothing like cool, refreshing water to quench our thirst! We need the cool, refreshing water of God's Word and His Spirit to complete such a weedy job.....although dealing with the weeds is never-ending. They come back so quickly, we can't take too long of a break drinking water, or get comfortable in our yard, thinking the weeds are gone for good. Weeds are a never ending job, and are a blessing in disguise. They force us to be dependant on God (we can't pull the weeds without His supplying us with the tools; He is the One ultimately doing the weeding).

Remember this photo. One can learn so much from a weed. It seems so small...but stop to look how big it really is!!!

My Goodness! I love this blog! Blogger is so fun and user-friendly! :) :)
Whenever I have more time to figure out the extra settings, I will! I'm excited that I'm able to share pictures from Flickr on this site. How exciting! I will be slowly adding more photos as I have time. :) :) :) Come back often, as I am unable to send emails of all my updates (unless that's something else I need to learn on this new site too :) ). The following post explains why I chose the title "June flowers" for this new blog. :-)
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Today Ashlyn picked some flowers (weeds) for me and her Daddy. I enjoyed watching her enthusiasm, as she flit from flower to flower. The little bundles were clasped tightly in her hands as she excitedly chattered how she would give Daddy the flowers when he came home. We went on with our daily routine, forgetting to place the flowers in water. Later in the evening when Daddy was on his way home, Ashlyn tearfully brought me her wilted flowers. "The flowers died, Mommy! I don't have any flowers to give Daddy!!" I tried to comfort her little-girl heart, "It's okay...we can pick some more flowers!" [thank God for weeds], but she was very teary-eyed and continued to exclaim over her dead flowers. Her tenderness touched me, and caused me to start thinking....how can I tell her that she is Mommy's flower...that in life she will experience wonderful sunshine and all that she needs to grow into the beautiful person God wants her to be...but that life also brings rejection,difficulties, and heartache. There will be times my little flower will nearly be crushed by the cares of this big world. How does one tell their child this? Then, it hit me. The world is certainly larger than a flower, but God is even bigger than the world--He's the Creator! If God's the Creator, surely He knows His plans for His creation. This is what I will tell my own little flowers.