Almost.

I sit writing and there is snow falling on the daffodils outside my window.  Thick damp flakes of winter's last stand blow around a blooming forsythia. 




"Really?" I ask the sky.  There is no response, only clouds which loom heavy.  Last week it was 70 degrees and I cleared winter debris from my garden while the baby and I delighted in the sunshine and a wind that actually blew warm on our light-starved faces.  Do you ever stop and wonder what Winter must think of us-so impatient in a modern world of instant gratification?


As a little girl, we waited out the last weeks of winter for our small town Dairy Queen to reopen with the advent of spring. Ice cream tasted better then. It tasted like six months of waiting combined with drips of sweet vanilla cream and the wonder of daylight savings. Sometimes there is a great joy that follows the waiting. There is a reward in patience. The gift of God's perfect timing.

I see it in the snow today. It falls from the sky and I can feel His voice all around me: "Almost, Dear One," He says.

"Almost."

I have fallen in love with a cottage.

                                            


And it's accompanying wildflower meadow, sighhhhh.

It's not the house I posted a few weeks back. 

This cottage is smaller. 

It's dated. 

On paper it is all wrong. 

So why can't I get this cottage out of my head?  I feel like a 15 year-old girl who has fallen in love with a guy from the wrong side of the tracks.  And this is not the type of real estate market that is forgiving of mistakes.  Buy a house now and you had better be willing to hold onto it for a long time. 

Truth be told, it is a house I first saw when we were still living in the New Old House.  It was on the market, we went to see it, I loved it but knew the time was not right.  Nevertheless, I sent pictures and texts to my E-bff, Miss Layla, and she kept responding "Buy it!  Buy it!!  BUY IT!!!"  I have since sent her pictures of other house listings and she always responds, "No.  The cottage." 

I have been mentally renovating and decorating this cottage for the past ten months.  I could tell you what color I would paint the beadboard ceiling on the front porch and just where I would add an additional window and french doors to the interior.  The trouble is-the house is all wrong on paper, but perfect in my mind:

  • It is only 1200 square feet (eep!) and we are a growing family (but it would cost less to renovate, decorate, furnish and keep up)
  • it is only 2 bedrooms and one doesn't even have a closet (but it sits on 2 acres with room for an addition and I dislike clutter anyway)

    (this is not the cottage, but look how clever!)
  • it is on a main road-probably the biggest draw back to me personally (but as previously mentioned it comes with a wildflower meadow-surely wildflower meadow trumps main road?? )

  • It has a dated 1980s kitchen (but its spacious and I see what it could be and what I see is beautiful and I'm already baking Christmas cookies there in my old beautiful cottage kitchen with Wynn on a step stool helping me pipe icing onto gingerbread men and we lick the bowl clean because that is the kind of life we live in this cottage- a lick the bowl clean kind of life)


So there you have it, my confession to you.

I have fallen in love with the wrong kind of house. 

It has me by the heart strings and won't let go.

Wynn's 1st Birthday Party {The Animal Parade}

We had a birthday open house for Wynn's 1st birthday on Saturday.   Here is our handsome party animal.



We ended up with more of a traditional party than an open house because most of our friends came at the very start and stayed the whole time-we took that as a such a great compliment and we all had a *wonderful* time. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to celebrate with us!

To all of my blog friends, welcome to the animal parade!  I stumbled on these party decorations a few months back while shopping with a friend in Williams Somoma.  Who knew Williams Sonoma did kids' birthday parties!?  I found everything on major clearance too-I couldn't pass it up!


 
I made the paper chain out of colored paper from Kinkos (58 cents).  Matching blue, white and yellow balloons from a local party shop.
 


                                                                        Carousel table topper
 


I kept the food super simple-we had cupcakes, coffee and old fashioned lemonade-complete with paper soda fountain straws from Bake it Pretty (thanks to Emily at Jones Design Company for the recommendation!)  Also wagon wheels for the babies ;)


Cupcake toppers from Tomkatstudio on Etsy. 



They say "Wynn", "1", and "Happy First Birthday"


Simple but fun table flags made from scrapbook paper remnants.  I made Wynn's birthday hat out of the same green herringbone paper and added a pom to the top.  He kept his hat on the whole time, which was so cute.


Party bags.  My amazing friend tracey made each of the babies a canvas carry bag with their individual names hand stamped on them.  Everyone also got a traditional box of animal crackers to go with the animal parade theme.


The party boy at the end of the party.  Still wearing his birthday hat. 

Happy Birthday baby boy, we will love you forever.

My Living Dream: 1 Year Later


Tomorrow my sweet baby boy will turn one year old.

He is my living dream. 

Has it really only been 1 year?  Hasn't it been a lifetime? I cannot remember life without him.  Wasn't he always a part of me?   Yes.  I know that he was.

In honor of the anniversary of sweet Wynn's birth, I thought I would repost the letter I wrote to him just after he was born, detailing our wait for his arrival and God's faithfulness.  I have so much more to say about his first year, but for now a birthday cake needs to come out of the oven and I have last minute birthday party decorations to hang.  Stay tuned for birthday pictures, coming soon.  Until then . . . my words and thoughts from one year ago.

Dear Wynn,


I carried you in my heart for many years before I carried you inside my body, and now, in my arms.

While you were in my heart, sweet boy, I talked to Jesus often. I prayed that he would send you down from heaven so that you could be my darling babe. And so that I could be your mommy. How I craved you with my whole heart.


The Lord chose to not send you right away. I believe the angels were having too much fun with you in heaven. They weren't ready to give you up. I bet they cuddled you close and smelled your sweet warm skin and played with your fine hair. Did you rest in His holy arms? Were you there when my prayers reached His throne? How I wish you could talk while that memory is fresh and share heaven with me here and now.

While I waited and yearned for God to send you to daddy and me, God sent a different gift in the form of a lesson. The lesson of patience. And obedience. Mommy learned to wait on God and pray for His will, not my own. I wasn't always a good student. Sometimes I would pray to God for His will and cry tears wishing for my own. I bought things for you-clothes and once a cloth diaper. Daddy wasn't sure this was a good idea. "What if you never made your appearance?" He was afraid it would be even harder for mommy to have sweet baby things in the room that was waiting for you, here, in the New Old House.

Then one April morning, when it was cool and rainy and otherwise nondescript, God answered my prayer. For the second time in my life, I felt the presence of God speak inaudibly to me, telling me most clearly that I would give birth to a baby that coming March. Just like that, simple as His truth and complex as the holy spirit whispering to me as I stood in the bathroom on cold tile floor, ready to climb into the shower. Bare in more ways than one; unworthy me, present before a perfect Lord. There he revealed the gift of you. I stopped fretting and wondering when you would come. He told me. I believed. And therefore I knew.

Months past and summer came, hot and sunny. I waited on the Lord to fulfill His promise. I walked by faith, not by sight. I believed but I couldn't quite see you. You were always just a step ahead of me. Still, I waited on the Lord for big things. I believed the Lord for you, my son.

The first weekend in July, daddy went out of town. When he came home, he brought me a birdhouse in the shape of a chapel. That same day, I brought home a pregnancy test. It was probably the 50th pregnancy test that I took, watching for the first indication that you had begun your journey to us. I took that test and I knew the answer before the two lines slowly appeared like a glimpse into the future. I knew the test had to be positive that month if you were in fact to be born in March, as God had promised. Sure enough, the message of the Lord was suddenly tangible before me. And I rejoiced.


I walked downstairs and met daddy in the living room and turned on our wedding song, Fields of Gold. I held daddy close and we danced. I was trembling. No moment can ever replace that moment for me, that feeling of being bathed in a warm light of God's awesome blessing, when, toward the end of our song, I stood on my tippy toes and whispered in daddy's ear:


"I am pregnant."


I will never forget the look on daddy's face, as he was lit from within with the promise of you. I remember I was wearing a green sundress and that daddy picked me up and kissed me and twirled me around the living room. I remember I felt beautiful. I remember I felt beautiful because of you. Oh how we celebrated the joy of the Lord that evening! We basked in the blessing of you. Mommy will never forget.

Several days later daddy put the birdhouse in the backyard. It sat empty all winter long, and you grew bigger and stronger inside me. Several days before you were born, I looked out the kitchen window and found that a family of birds had made their nest in our birdhouse. Soon now baby birds will be born. And now you too are here.

I will carry you outside this spring and show you the nest and listen to the sweet chirps of new life. I will tell you about the Lord as I know Him this side of heaven. I will teach you how too see the little things and thereby recognize His voice. It is the least I can do for you, my tiny miracle, my living reminder of the one true living God. The finest example of the endless bounds of His love.



All my love my darling boy,
Mommy

The most beautiful people . . .


I read this page this morning and nodded my head in a resounding, "yes, yes, yes."  Through His refinement, God makes us beautiful.  He will settle for nothing less than astounding beauty.  Aren't you grateful? 



Aren't you one of the beautiful people? 

It was his vision from the beginning. . . BEAUTY . . . that wonder-filled beautiful garden called Eden.  

"Beautiful people do not just happen."

No, they are created.

They are created by His hand.