Sun-drenched and beautiful. These stargazer lilies are my favorite flower all together. This is the flower that was abundant at my Great Aunt Mary's funeral. Of course, they were fake but I brought home four of them and made a wreath with them. This wreath is hung by my front door so I see it every time I go out my door. My Aunt Mary was truly a great woman. She is my Granny's oldest sister. Shortly after my granny was born, their mother became very ill. They are not really sure what she died from but it is believed that she had cancer (this was the conclusion of Aunt Mary years later after caring for her mother-in-law in the last stages of cancer.) Now my granny really has no real recollections of her mother. She died when my granny was about two years old. My Aunt Mary was essentially my granny's mother. Aunt Mary was twelve years older than my granny. Aunt Mary was a very special lady to me because in my mind I don't know that my granny would have survived had Aunt Mary not taken on that role, seeing as how their mother was in and out of the hospital and not well during the time that she had with my granny. I loved every moment that I spent with my Aunt Mary and have wonderful memories of her telling stories about antics of my granny. I also loved to hear her tell the story of when she left the family to marry Uncle Lee, another great person in my life. Both of these people are sorely missed by all of the family but they are well remembered.

Wow, I had no idea that was in me. Not at all what I had planned to post about but obviously it needed saying. Maybe next time I'll write about how my granny tried to chop off my Great Aunt Vivian's nose. Got ya wondering now, don't I?

Dazzling Daisies

Tahoka Daisy?


Gerbera Daisy


Not a lot to say today. Have a wonderful Friday.

Feeding the Deer

Click the pictures to enlarge them and see more detail. Some of them are not the greatest but they are priceless. I made them smaller since I had so many to share.









This was such a cool thing for my little guy to do. It was so interesting to watch Asa as well as the doe checking each other out. They were both curious of one another. First we spotted the doe down below, C. asked if it was okay if he took Asa down to help feed the doe. The doe was aware of something different with the routine. Asa followed C. and helped get food from the shed and bring it back to the feeding trough. It was so interesting watching the deer pace around C. and Asa, checking out Asa and making sure that everything was still going to be okay. Then after placing the food in the trough C. stepped back with Asa in his arms and they watched a few minutes then headed back up the hill side.

I hope experiences like this helps to encourage a thoughtfulness in my sons' lives when it comes to nature. I will admit I am not exactly the perfect role model but I am slowly changing our life style to help benefit the nature that surrounds us. We are trying to eat more natural foods, I am using reusable shopping bags - this is new because I became aware of how many plastic bags we were getting at the grocery store. Since my husband is now bagging the groceries I have learned they are not supposed to put more than five items in a bag. Now I know this is a basis guideline. I decided that we need to be less wasteful in this department of our lives and it gives us a small discount on our grocery bill for using the reusable bags (at least at Kroger and it doesn't have to be a Kroger bag.) Anyhow, I am also changing our diet to contain less processed foods. I have contemplated the whole organic issue and have actually found some lists of produce to consider always buying organic, those to consider buying organic if it is economical to add it into the grocery bill, and those that you don't really have to worry about as much i.e. the produce that you don't eat the whole thing such as bananas where you through away the peel. Also I was informed that just because it is not labeled organic doesn't necessarily mean that isn't organic. Some of the farmers interviewed in the article I read said they are not labeled organic because they don't want to have to bow to the governmental controls, so do your research and find out if the supplier is one of those that doesn't want to have the government controlling their business. Another area I am working on is the bottled water. I am trying to get passed this. I will admit I am bad and buy bottled water but it is the cheap store brand. I also use disposable diapers but am considering cloth diapers for any future children so who knows there. Okay so I said all this to simply state that I am trying to instill a love of nature in my boys. I want them to appreciate the beauty of this earth that God gave to us to enjoy. I truly hope they see the work of God in His creation as much as I do. Have a Blessed Thursday.