Honeysuckle Time

It's honeysuckle time at G's house. 

Honeysuckle and the wild, pink roadside roses that once grew on the banks of the road that used to be dirt beside of G's house always brought the anticipation that summer would be along any day. 
The dirt road and the roadside roses are gone, but the old, red one beside the back screen door is still there. And it's more magnificent than ever this year. 

This year...of all years...needed the rose's extra brilliance and beauty.

This spring...of all springs..wanted the honeysuckle to bloom sweet and mellow.

Maybe next year the children can come and drink the honeyed sweetness from the little yellow vials fresh from the vine. Maybe next year spring can come unhindered and unsullied. But still we are thankful for the beauty, even if it must be appreciated in solitude.

A breeze blew softly, slightly rippling the water as it carried the heady scents of late Carolina springtime through the air. Honeysuckle. Jasmine. Ripe, pungent river mud. 

Ah, the world felt right.

Caitlin Rush


Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.  (Psalm 127:3)

All of Them

My prayer is that these I love will grow as Jesus grew:

 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

(Luke 2:52)

Spring Blessings

I love this girl...G's only one of her kind...and a great companion.

I love this place...since the first day, it's always felt like home. 

                 Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.  (Psalm 127:3)

The Haves and Have Nots!

Some people G knows are responsible and work hard making money and putting it away in savings:

Others of us are better at spending our money on pancakes and bacon

...and at this rate, we will soon have to go to the responsible one to beg for $$!

And one of us was sick and missed the whole thing :(

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.  (Psalm 127:3)

Blue The Cat

How many fake chickens do you see in these two containers?
If you said 3, that would be incorrect. There are actually 4.
One in the basket to the right.
A calico one behind Blue. A yellow beak sticking up at Blue's tail.
And Blue. She is not a chicken either. She's a cat pretending to be a chicken.

Blue was here as a baby and went to live with people down the street. They gave her back and she came home to live. We gave her a new name....Blue.
One day, so we believe, Blue got into someone's truck that was parked in the yard and rode away...by mistake.
Blue was gone and we were sad.
Another day, 6 weeks later, Granddaddy was in the yard when Blue came home!
She was skinny and funny colored...was almost starved...and went straight for the food bowl on the Old Kitchen porch.
When she was full, she came to the back porch of G's house, and stayed there for weeks, barely leaving at all, as if she was sooo glad to be home and now was afraid to leave.
She's recovered from her trauma and happy now, but the porch is still her favorite place to be, even on top of the old well with the fake chickens.

"Hi, I'm Blue. Wanna' be friends?"

"Oh well, guess not. Sorry I bothered you."

"Even cats grow lonely and anxious." [M. Cooley]

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.  (Psalm 127:3)

Road Trip Spring, 2019--Act 1

Family road trips, these days when we are 11 in number, require carefully choreographed planning and a minimum of two vehicles. But plan we did, and Road Trip Spring, 2019 finally happened. We are like moths to a flame, and found ourselves headed--once again--to the upper Shenandoah Valley. 
Natural Bridge, here we came!

Our first Big Adventure involved the Virginia Safari Park--http://www.virginiasafaripark.com/
If you've never been....you gotta' go.

"who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth  and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?"

(Job 35:11)

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.  (Psalm 127:3)