A Brighter Day..

I just wanted to write a quick little note (I know..I’m not exactly ‘known’ for quick  notes). :O)  But I really am feeling much better and so appreciate your well wishes and prayers. I was hobbling around by yesterday evening, ate something that was probably not best for a recovering stomach..taco salad..and decided to stick to jello for a day or two. Ha!

Today, it was just so wonderful to wake up to a stomach that was on the mend..and amazingly..the first signs of spring! I have to say that one of the best things about living just north of Houston is that we get sub-tropical weather patterns here. It makes the summers miserable..but winters are just plain delightful..and very short lived.  (Of course, a cold front is coming…but I'm in 'denial' Tee-hee!)

Christian was chasing honeybees out of the house yesterday! Can you believe it? They were coming in through the ‘doggy-flap’, Percy’s entrance to the house. He killed three before we decided to simply close off the door.  Of course, the leaf cutter ants woke up from dormancy too. If any one has any clue as to what to do about the pesks who are literally eating up my fruit trees and deciduous bushes faster than I can spray them with bug spray, I’d like to hear it. I sprayed every single bush, flowering tree, and anything else remotely green because they had ‘swarmed’ several. I counted 20-30 large ants PER LEAF. 

I had gone out just to get a closer shot with better background contrast on my tulip tree which is beginning to bud in the balmy weather. (Yes, it’s balmy! That’s all there is to it.  Delightful!) The tulips are opening and soon the whole tree will look so funny…all sticks..and huge pink tulips. They would make a great ‘oriental’ style tablescape I think.

Anyhow, I discovered that the ants had already, in only two days of warm weather, eaten most of one of my two Camilla bushes, a rose bush, two ornamental bushes, and were working on some more. I ran back inside, and grabbed the spray. Creepy..they were falling off my Camilla bush in huge clumps. I’m sorry they’re hungry, but they need to go out in the forest where there are plenty of green things to eat. But our bushes are more tasty I guess. Note to self: Go out every morning and work on the bushes. They really need some TLC…water, fertilizer, trimming and cleaning up from all the fall leaves buried in their limbs.

On another bright note, Jacob is in semi-finals at the Dallas speech and debate with his former debate partner’s sister. They are having a great time, and he’s been calling with exuberant updates…or getting called by his sister..who promptly posts his and Sarah’s accomplishments on facebook to their mutual friends. How I wish I could be there! And Rebekah is cooking cookies…and seemed a lot more cheerful after her visit with Laurie. Laurie’s cookies were absolutely divine…I’ll have to share the recipe with you later.

An even brighter note was that Dear Hubby was able to remove, by HIMSELF, all the dented parts of my poor little Dodge Neon. The car repair people fixed the back bumper beautifully (paid for by the people who rear ended my son in my car) and also did a quick estimate of the front of the car which was damaged when DD rear ended someone else a week later. $2200.00! Yipes! Well, we are way too frugal to take that sitting down and since we don’t have full coverage..well..we HAVE to be! Rebekah wants to pay for the repairs..but obviously it can’t be done the usual way.

Tim removed the fender, bumper, and hood in only an hour and was able to beat out the front grill so that a replacement hood will be able to latch. We priced the replacement parts online at Car Parts, an online wholesale car part shop for a total of $477.00! Yes!!  On Monday, we plan to call some body shop places locally and see what they will charge to paint the pieces silver. The parts are already primed..so hopefully, it won’t be too much. Sure beats the original price tag for the repair.

Rebekah and I also dropped by CNS Treasure Chest, my favorite antique shop yesterday and got ‘matching’ tea cups from Germany which almost match our antique cocoa pot from Prussia..a family heirloom from Tim’s grandmother.  We went shopping yesterday at 5:00pm because she was dying to buy some special custard cups to make some chocolate dessert recipe she had looked up and she wanted a real tea cup to have tea with. I told her..”Fine…as long as you do the driving..” I was still feeling pretty worn out from my bout with the flu.

It’s such a bright day, that even our recalcitrant gold fish, first introduced to our pond over four years ago, are making their annual appearance at the surface of our pond. They don’t like too much heat…or cold..so we only see them at dusk in the summer normally, but with the weather warming up, we had over 50 4” goldfish swarming to eat the newly hatched bugs.

So..things are definitely looking up and I didn’t want anyone worrying about me. :o) The Lord is always taking good care of us. I do hope you have a lovely Sunday. I’ll be at church tomorrow helping with setup—that’s how good I feel. We will have a wonderful time worshiping the Lord..because to us..that’s the best part about Sunday.   Makes me think of my favorite country song, What I Love About Sunday by Craig Morgan. I can't think of a better way to describe our Sundays at home...  I'm linking this sweet song up with Natasha's Sunday Song Linky party. She's been out of the country and then got home to Australia where's there's been an awful lot of flooding. This is her first linky party after getting home. She has such a lovely blog!

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers…and sweet comments. Looking forward to lots of visiting on Monday...and a special post about a great giveaway. Be sure to check on Jan. 31st, back here for my OWOH giveaway post. If you didn't get a hand-quilted tote bag during my last giveaway, perhaps you will this time. :o)