Don't Celebrate the Flying Rodent

This is going to be completely random, but I can't get off my mind how much I HATE hummingbirds!  We have delicious smelling yellow honeysuckle in our yard and a beautiful orange hibiscus vine blooming outside my bedroom window and they've both been hopelessly ruined by my peripheral glimpse of a flying rodent that causes birders and peace-lovers alike to swoon zealously.

Rodent, you say?  Surely she's sleep-deprived and confused.  She couldn't possibly be comparing this tiniest symbol of peace and love to a disease-carrying four-legged creeper!  Oh, but I am!  Their lithe, compact bodies, pointed faces, and quick jittery motions give me the heebie-jeebies.  There's never a warning before one pops out in front of you.  One minute you're hanging out in the backyard minding your own business and the next you're standing on top of the picnic table wondering what on earth just caused a panic in you (you're not sure, at first, because the blasted little birds are undoubtedly already gone and hiding in wait to scare the bejeebers out of you again as soon as you quit looking).

Oddly enough, these are the thoughts that have been on my mind the past two weeks.  Then, a few days ago I bought some new notecards and was "greeted" with this egregious note from the designer:

Legends say that hummingbirds float free of time, carrying our hopes for love, joy and celebration.  Hummingbirds open our eyes to the wonder of the world and inspire us to open our hearts to loved ones and friends.  Like a hummingbird, we aspire to hover and savor each moment as it passes, embrace all that life has to offer and to celebrate the joy of everyday.  The hummingbird's delicate grace reminds us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning and that laughter is life's sweetest creation.  

Um, no.  Sorry, but I'm not buying it.  If you, one my good friends or loved ones, tried to bequeath me a hummingbird-esque gift, I'd honestly question what on earth I had done to offend you.  The Google-search alone for an appropriate picture to include in this post has left me feeling like I need a shower.

And, yet,while I dream for fall to come quickly (sending off the hibiscus and honeysuckle and thus my little winged friends), I'm left with this significant understanding:

I do things differently. 

The world through my eyes is uniquely me.  A passage of scripture or line in a book studied and pondered in my mind always comes across differently than the person next to me.  My passions aren't like everybody else's, and my goals are distinctly my own.  Maybe I don't want the things every Mom/Woman/Wife on my block wants, but that's what makes me me.  And I happen to be pretty happy with the person that makes me.

The world will keep on telling me that a hummingbird in a hibiscus tree is lovely.  You won't be seeing me hang a sugar-water feeder anytime soon.  However, if this is a subject we can agree to disagree, there's hope that some other off-the-wall thought in my mind will spark your curiosity...

Honestly, my skin was crawling 

reading this hummingbird trivia

My Little Ones Are Here

Welcome the two precious reasons I haven't been "Wandering" lately.  They were born 5 weeks early, but remarkably healthy.  Now we just wait for them to gain the energy to leave the NICU and come home and join our family.

Happy July!

I haven't been much in the mood for writing lately, but I recently came across a stack of pictures I'd clipped out of magazines and thought it was finally time to do something with them.  I'll be posting random ones here this month to help inspire me and hopefully you'll enjoy them, too!

Someday I'm going to have garden flowers like these-maybe not in Utah, they don't seem too practical (i.e. water-wise), but someday. The corn growing in the background reminds me of home and when I was growing up my grandma had a birdhouse just like that one. I love the little shed flying the flag, too!  Happy Independence Day everyone!

Family Birthday

I'm supposed to be writing a letter to my father-in-law today.  He turned 75 on Saturday and as part of the celebration, everyone was asked to write him a little message that could be compiled in a book and given to him later in the year.  Truth be told, I was supposed to write the letter every single day for the past 3 months and now that I'm one day past the deadline, I'm having complete writer's block.  Naturally...

On Saturday all of my husband's nearby family gathered at their dad's house to help with the "yardwork."  That term being completely an understatement.  With a hodge-podge combination of chainsaws, hedge trimmers, hacksaws, chippers, brooms, rusty files, and when all else failed, pure strength of muscle, they attacked the forest of russian olive trees overtaking the backyard ravine and made a clearing in the front yard that turned up an actual sidewalk along with a set of newspaper route inserts stuffed in the overgrowth in 1993.  The project wasn't the brainchild of a considerate child or two, but the humble gift request from a father who has been lovingly cultivating a jungle to rival the Amazon for as many years as any of them can remember.  The second understatement would be to say there was much rejoicing...

The entire event was a sight to see.  My father-in-law raised an incredible family.  They know how to work together and enjoy each other's company.  Even on a blistering hot day with thorns puncturing thick-soled shoes and more scratches than if they'd survived a chicken fight, they were happy and joking and making the work seem easy.  The teenage grandkids were just equally as intense in fulfilling grandpa's birthday wish and the littlest ones were in heaven with the evolving backyard obstacles.

I try to never take for granted that I've been welcomed into such a focused and devoted family.  Of course there's drama and of course I have moments when I envy the families who live far away, but sometime in the past 75 years a man figured out the secret to being and raising people of good moral character and value and he deserves more recognition for that than he'll ever want to take.

Oh, that I could just use this as my letter....

It's Here!

Where should this pregnant mama start dream about going?