hope.

 

 Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

 And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

 I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson

first football game

Saturday, Carter played in his first flag football game.  All of the players on the team are between 4 and 6 years old and this was everyone's first game.  Needless to say, my expectations were relatively low.   

Carter getting ready for the snap.

But as soon as the game started, I was impressed and amazed by all of the players on the field.  After only three practices, these boys looked like little football players. 

Carter, on the far left, just threw the ball, you can only see the receiver's arms and hands about to catch the pass on the far right.

In the picture above, Carter had just thrown a pass which the receiver caught and ran in for the extra point.  Wow.  It was the only pass thrown by either team in the entire game. 

Carter, on defense, giving the qb that look that says, "I'm coming after you."

This is my favorite play of the game and I was lucky enough to get it on video. I heard the coach yelling "Texas Toast," which I recognized as the name of one of their special plays. Then, I saw him run up, touch Carter's shoulder, and talk to him. I figured that was a pretty good sign that it was time to start recording. Carter is the running back on this play, not the quarterback. Check out the fluidity of the hand off and Carter's moves on the field. Good stuff.

Words cannot express how proud we are of Carter.  We're all looking forward to next week's game.

happy birthday, dad

Saturday, my entire family got together to celebrate my dad's 75th birthday. 

Dad, in the middle, surrounded by his family.  His sister, Sylvia is standing next to him. 

Even though by dad doesn't typically enjoy these kinds of things, I could tell he was having lots of fun. 

I really wanted to put 75 candles on the cake but couldn't get anyone to buy into my plan.  Mindy made the amazing fruit cookie beside Dad's chocolate cake. 

We made Dad wear the silly hat whenever he was doing anything birthday-ish.  He didn't seem to mind, which is one of the ways I could tell he was having fun. 

It was so nice to have the whole family together.  I think it's safe to say that everyone had a great evening. 

My dad was born in what is now the Emily Morgan Hotel, which overlooks the Alamo.  75 years ago, it wasn't a hotel, it was called the Medical Arts Building, and there was a hospital on the top floor.  My dad says that he can remember going to his doctor's office and looking out the window at the Alamo.  This is one of my favorite things about downtown San Antonio. 

For my dad's birthday, I made him a giant card with a drawing of the Emily Morgan.  When he saw it I asked him if he recognized what I had tried to draw.  He replied, "Of course I recognize it.  It's the Medical Arts Building.  I was born there."   

The first thing my dad would do when someone arrived at the party was direct them to the living room to take a look at the card I'd made.  I think he kind of liked it. 

spring has sprung

 We've been savoring each and every moment of warm spring evenings in our backyard. 

 Ray, Grace, and Carter worked together to catch this super fast lizard.  Grace would want me to point out that the lizard is just sitting on her thumb, she's not holding onto it. 

We spotted the first finch on our feeder earlier this week.

And my garden is really coming along.  The picture above was taken a month ago.  Below, you can see how big my plants are getting. 

Our strawberries are blooming.  The yellow spot in the middle of the flower will become a strawberry.

My very first broccoli. 

I wound up planting seven tomato plants.  All of which are starting to bloom.  Hopefully, we'll wind up with a bumper crop. 

Our rose bushes are blooming too.  They have more buds than we can count. 

Grace can hula hoop like a circus performer.  She can keep the hoop spinning forever.  Meanwhile, I'm a terrible hooper, I just can't make the hoop stay up. 

But tonight, Grace taught me a few tricks and helped me hoop until I got the hang of it. 

You can tell by the look on my face that I'm really concentrating to keep things going, but I'm doing it!

Finally, one of my favorite signs of spring.

yay!

Our second guinea is finally here.  He needed a little help getting out of its egg, but seems to be doing just fine.  Our number one guinea is thrilled to have a friend.   

Next up, five brown Chinese geese.  I can already hear peeping...

one is the lonliest number

 Last night our first guinea of the season popped out of its egg.  She was a bit of an early hatcher, so she had to spend the night by herself.  This morning I found her snuggled up between the egg thermometer and the thermal neck wrap Grace and I placed in her box to keep her cozy. 

Her friend is working hard to hatch.  We can hear him cheeping away inside his egg. 

I hope he hatches soon.  

happy birthday, grace

Grace loved her peacock cake

Today was Grace's 8th birthday.  We celebrated with our traditional dinner at Frank & Angie's followed by a birthday cake. 

Grace decided this year the wanted a peacock cake, so I let her look at a few on Pinterest. 

Grace's cake choice

Of course she picked an amazing and elaborate wedding cake.  I explained to her that cake making was very technical and a cake like the one she was looking at was most likely made by a team of professionals and cost hundreds of dollars. 

Her response was sweet and simple, "Mom, I know that if you try, your cake will be amazing.  Just give it your best."

There was nothing I could say to argue with that logic, so I put the pink peacock cake completely out of my mind and went for broke with a design I knew was more realistic for a cake rookie like me. 

My wise and wonderful daughter absolutely loved her cake.  On our way to the restaurant tonight we were talking about the cake and she said, "I told you you'd do a great job, Mom.  And you did."

spring break highlights

We were crafty.

Our finished frames.

We started seedlings in eggshells.  When you get ready to plant the plants, you just plant the whole eggshell.  Minerals from the decomposing shell nourish the plant as it grows. 

We had a wonderful dinner at Trattoria Lisina in Driftwood.   

We explored our woods.

Grace found a tiny frog.

Carter had is first flag football practice.

Go Carter, Go!

We celebrated Grace's 8th birthday by having a few friends for a slumber party.

Grace had an amazing party experience with her friends.  We saw The Lorax at the Alamo Drafthouse, where we ate pizza and popcorn, then came home for cake and "sleep." 

waverly - the little duck that stole our hearts

She hatched just 16 days ago.  The only bird to hatch that day. We'd brought two duck eggs home from the farm, but somehow I'd dropped one of them a week before they were due to hatch.  Our lonely duck, she lived with chickens the first few days of her life.   

I knew she was special from the moment she hatched, so I gave her one of the names on my reserve list - the names I keep on hand for truly beautiful creatures.  Waverly.  But, I also knew I had four extraordinary geese on the way and, if I'm being completely honest here, I figured Waverly was just a temporary infatuation while I waited for the Sebastopols to arrive.  

But, as the days passed, we could tell there was something different about Waverly.

She had a calm, serene nature. 

She spent hours on the couch with Grace.  Perfectly content. 

It's almost like she didn't know she was a duck. 

Instead of being carried around, she followed Grace. 

She never got tired of posing for pictures. 

And, even though she desperately wanted to chew this daisy to bits, she let us take a picture of her with it before she demolished it. 

She was even relaxed around the other birds.  Check her out in the swim picture above.  Mellow yellow (and black).

Cold chillin' at the water dish. 

 

But, there comes a day in every bird's life when we know it's time to take them back to the farm.  You can see just how big Waverly had gotten, and with the three geese, well the birds were outgrowing their habitat.  So, we packed them up and headed for the Taylor farm. 

Waverly nestled down in Grace's lap for the ride.      

At the farm, Melissa prepared a special enclosure for the birds in the show chicken barn - the best bird digs the farm has to offer. 

Taking our birds back to the farm is part of the natural order of things.  The eggs come from the farm, they belong to the farm, and of course we know that the birds will live their lives on the farm. 

In fact, we love being able to watch all of our hatchlings grow into beautiful birds with amazing, free-range lives. 

Here Grace is delivering the afternoon feed.  We hatched every bird in the picture.  Kate, Spence, Ryan, Bruce, bantys, chickens, you can even see Elizabeth Taylor at the bottom and our one and only peacock in the middle of the picture. 

All of our birds are happy at the farm and we feel lucky to be a small part of the operation.  But, every once in a while, it makes our hearts ache to leave one of hatchlings.  Today was one of those days.  We really miss Waverly. 

To put the abstract feeling of loss into very specific terms, we haven't felt like this since we dropped Kate and Spence off at the farm. 

While we were heading down the very long driveway that leads to the road that takes us back to Austin, we stopped.  Grace had spotted an egg in a hayfield and wanted to take it back to Melissa.  So I let her get out, fetch the egg, and run it back to the house. 

While we were waiting for Grace to return, I had my hand on the gearshift.  I wanted to back the car up, get the box we'd brought Waverly in, retrieve her from the show barn and take her home.  When Grace got back in the car, we actually discussed the idea. 

We knew that Melissa would understand, she'd already given us permission to take her back home for a few more weeks.  But, we knew that Waverly would desperately miss her geese, and even though we truly wanted to spend more time with Waverly, we knew that she was better off at the farm.  It was her time to go, and keeping her with us would only be selfish on our part. 

So, I kept the car in drive, and pointed myself towards Austin. 

And here I am, sitting on the couch, telling you the story of the day Waverly left us.  Hopefully, it will serve as a reminder to us all to always keep our possibilities open.  After all, you may think you are a goose person, but you never know when you just might fall in love with a little duck.   

Goodbye, Waverly.

We miss you but will see you soon.