photo friday: what's growing at my house

I'm so not a green thumb. I've never been able to keep a house plant alive, and whatever grew outside just sort of did it's own thing aside from Ben occasionally pruning. I appreciate plants, I love flowers and am especially fond of flowering trees. I used to have a dark pink dogwood outside of my bedroom window in college and ever since I've wanted one of my own. For now I just envy the one in full bloom across the street.

When we bought our house (5 weeks ago!) one of the first things I noticed was that there seemed to be a lot of plants and a lot of different kinds. I had no idea what would bloom when spring arrived. Now that spring is here, I'm still not sure what is growing out there aside from the obvious pansies and wisteria.

There were also red tulips lining the front path that bloomed with the early spring fake-out, but froze and died fairly quickly. 

Thankful on a Thursday

I don't really have anything especially profound or entertaining to say this morning. Just a simple list of what I'm thankful for.

101. the anticipation of being on the receiving end this mother's day and how excited Ben is over what he and Malakai are cooking up in secret.

102. quality time with good friends.

103. grace.

104. coming home to a clean house, especially the kitchen.

105. Kai's clingyness. I can't be irritated that he wants me to hold him or just be around him, even if it means not getting anything else done.

106. what I learn in the quiet.

107. flowering trees out my window, especially pink dogwood.

108. internet friends.

109. possibilities.

110. moments of rest + relaxation.

What are you thankful for this week?

"mom hair"- a vlog

Check out my very first vlog and be sure to commiserate with me in the comments!

P.S. Don't forget to vote for Malakai's photo in the Parents Magazine Cover Contest DAILY until May 9th.

Vote for Malakai!

Just got an email that Malakai's photo is in the running this week for the cover contest over at Parent's Magazine. If you have a second, vote for him here!

And if you have 2 seconds, leave me a comment to let me know you voted :)

EDIT: you can vote once a day until 5/9!

sitting for a minute

We surely had a busy weekend as I referenced in Friday's post. My siblings actually came over and helped Ben do some yard work. I'm so thankful for them picking up all the tree debris that was in the flower beds. We have an enormous maple tree in the front yard that had dropped a ton of seeds (you know the ones that spin down like helicopter propellers) before we even moved here. It was so bad that there were actually little saplings shooting up all over the yard! I wish I had a before and after picture, but they made the yard look so much better. We also happen to have an equally gigantic maple tree in the back that had dropped leaves everywhere that never got cleaned up while the house sat for sale from September until March. Sadly the once lovely lawn now has a ton of dead patches from the leaves. I'm not sure we'll get a chance to remedy this until next spring.

Meanwhile, I got some unpacking done while my sister-in-law played with Malakai. I'm going to try to finish a couple rooms today and clean up the kitchen. I'll be watching Henry at our house today for the first time, hopefully that goes well!

Now that's it's Monday and we didn't get a chance to go grocery shopping I'm eating a rather healthy breakfast of oatmeal (chocolate chip cookies).