Decorate Your Soul

This song has been running through my head today. I am not the one hurting, yet, I am.

…

Good to Me

I cry out,
For your hand of mercy to heal me,
I am weak,
I need your love to free me,
Oh Lord,
My rock,
My strength in weakness,
Come rescue me,
Oh Lord,
I cry out,
For your hand of mercy to heal me,
I am weak,
I need your love to free me,
Oh Lord my rock,
My strength in weakness,
Come rescue me,
Oh Lord,

You are my hope,
Your promise never fails me,
And my desire,
Is to follow you forever,

Lord you are good Lord you are good Lord you are good to me,
Lord you are good Lord you are good Lord you are good to me,

I cry out,
For your hand of mercy to heal me,
I am weak,
I need your love to free me,
Oh Lord,
My rock,
My strength in weakness,
Come rescue me oh Lord,

You are my hope,
Your promise never fails me,
And my desire,
Is to follow you forever,

Lord you are good Lord you are good Lord you are good to me,
Lord you are good Lord you are good Lord you are good to me,
Lord you are good Lord you are good Lord you are good to me,
Lord you are good Lord you are good Lord you are good to me,
Lord you are good Lord you are good Lord you are good to me,
Lord you are good Lord you are good Lord you are good to me,

…

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

(Psalm 61:1-4)

We were intending to go pick some strawberries near the coast on Tuesday- but apparently (although I did not know since I didn’t check any information prior to going- so much for fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants planning), the strawberry fields are not open for picking to the public until the beginning of April. So… we visited these beauties nearby instead.

.

All sorts of wonderful COLOR sprayed across the landscape in front of us.

The girls each got a booklet to search for themed stamps at certain flagposts which made the adventure even more fun for them…

Since my files are taking a day and a half to load, I’m skipping the individual images and going straight to the one that makes me smile- my little brother (who isn’t so little anymore!) was wonderful and patient as ever as he spent part of  his Spring Break down here visiting. He’s such a trooper and so willing to help out- I hope we didn’t do him in for future kids of his own- our kids still need cousins!!

I was on the phone with a girlfriend the other day when I told her I was chasing the light. I kind of giggled and knew what a nerd I was (no big surprise for the majority of my readers here that know me), but the fact is, right before sunset every night, I can often be found looking outside wishing I was taking pictures.

So. On Thursday, I dragged the girls out to a fieldy type location at sunset that I had spied by a nearby freeway. I had even convinved my good friend Sarah to bring her camera & kiddos with us…By the way, this also goes down as another one of my "great ideas"- let’s drag five kids out to the middle of a dirty, dusty,  weedy field and go for a hike to take pictures in weeds. I’m not exaggerating on the description of where we went- but it all worked out fine (minus the hill, I kind of didn’t think that one out with my baby strapped to my back and my camera strapped to my front) because the field we happened upon was heavily laden with a very friendly bug: Ladybugs! They kind of saved the day, actually.

Probably my favorite of the day:

Okay one more of my Ashleigh with her buddy Lilly.

I’ll leave you one from Sarah’s camera:

Good times, good times.

You may not know, but we have a rock garden that makes up our front yard. They are fairly common in the region we live- it was not our first choice for a yard when moving down here to San Diego, but it beats having ten feet of space to call a yard, so we compromised.

The girls manage pretty well to play around the rocks, sometimes they become part of the fun- they use them as play money to buy pretend mochas (guess where we visit too often?), or pretend they are filling up their buckets with ice cream, or just today, line them up and count.

Actually, Ashleigh is our liner-upper. I am loving her as an almost three-year-old. She is becoming more and more independent, but still maintains her need for mommy and daddy assistance. In the past three months, we have noticed her speaking more clearly and simply makes my heart swoon everytime she says "Okay, Mammy" in her sweet, very soft voice (yes, Mammy).

Clearly, Ash becomes very focused on tasks – my most independent child yet (Lolo might be too young to debate this, though).And my goodness, isn’t she just beautiful. 

But once again, I might be a little biased here.

Happy St. Patty’s Day to ya!

Two years ago:

Yesterday:

Even though she’s barely fitting…