Take a Hike!

Spring is such a great time for getting outdoors and enjoying the sunshine, the warm breezes, the beauty of nature. So you should really get out and see what's out there.

No matter where you live, there is surely a park or botanical garden or natural area you could go. If you have your own wild backyard or woods, that's even better.

Some wildflowers

I live in a very rural area and there are lots of places I can go to hike or just enjoy wildflowers and wildlife. I also own property that is partially "wild." So I have plenty of room to roam. But I live near some great place to explore nature too. Like Holliday Lake State Park and the Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest.

I love to walk in the woods this time of year. There are flowers blooming everywhere. One of my favorites is the Pink Lady's Slipper. It's unusual shape is very interesting and it always causes me to wonder. It's also just plain cool. You have to be really quick to see them in bloom because they don't last long. If the Mountain Laurel is blooming, the Lady's Slippers probably are too. The Mountain Laurel is more abundant and usually more visible.

Pink Lady's Slippers

These are some I found a couple years ago at Holliday Lake State Park. It is truly my favorite hiking place. It has miles of trails and a lake (of course) and camping and a beach. Just about everything you want in a park. And I'm lucky enough to go there almost every day.

Me on a good day at the park

Here I am on a really great day at the park! I'm so happy to out on the trails and not stuck in an office somewhere. It's not the best as far as "hair days" go, but it was a really great day on the trail!

I hope you will find a good trail near you and GO FOR A HIKE!! Today if possible.

Making Not Buying Experiences

Easter is a very special time. It's a time we reflect and rejoice in our Savior, Jesus Christ. I believe if you celebrate Easter, you shouldn't be offended by this.

It has always been our tradition to color eggs at Easter. I love to do that. It's so much fun with small children. I know there are many kinds of dye kits out there, but we've never used anything other than the very simplest kind. They have been about $.97 as long as I can remember.

Last year, we got a chance to color eggs with Little D. He was so amazed that we let him play with the eggs. He calls them "baby eggs." And he was able to play with the colored water and get his hands dirty. Well, maybe not dirty, but colored.

Daughter S and Little D colored eggs again this morning. I missed the excitement, but I know he really had fun. Both his hands were a nice shade of sage green.

The point is: you don't have to buy expensive things or pay a lot of money to create fun memories. We've used the same Easter baskets for years and the eggs and dye kits are very inexpensive. But we were able to create great memories over the years with our kids and now with our grandkids.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Easter Weekend Started It All

Over the weekend, I attended a baby shower for my youngest daughter. My sisters and some of our aunts gave a lovely shower with lots a good friends, great food, and wonderful fellowship. Daughter P received some very useful and fun items for the baby boy due in just a few weeks. It really got me thinking about when I was pregnant with her.

It was Easter weekend and Son J and Daughter S and I went to spend the weekend with my parents. The Hubs was out to sea for a short while and in those days I was fearless. I thought nothing of traveling with two toddlers. What could happen? I was Super Mom! Besides the baby wasn't due for another 2 months.

Easter 1993

Here we are in my parent's yard on Easter Sunday. This was back in the day when maternity dresses were made to hide the pregnancy. Weren't we cute? Do you love the forsythia bushes? They are always spectacular.

So there I was with two little bitties 3 hours away from my doctor and the Hub (my choice labor coach) out in the Atlantic Ocean playing who-knows-what kind of games. And after church and the Easter egg hunt was over and I had eaten my weight in ham, my sisters and I were sitting around and I said, "Hey that was a contraction!" Talk about freaking people out. But I didn't have another one that day and I thought it was all good. Then on Monday on the drive home (yes with two little bitties), I had two more. Then the next day, several more.

On Wednesday, I went to the doctor and found out I was having even more. They gave me some meds to slow things down and told me to take it easy and go to the hospital if they became 15 minutes apart. The Hubs came home on schedule and I though I was home free. It was just stress, everything would be fine now.

A few days later I found myself back at the hospital in pretty serious labor. Sure enough that baby wanted out! They hooked me up to an IV and started pumping me up with all kinds of stuff. Stuff to slow the contractions, stuff to make my uterus relax, stuff to make the baby's lungs develop faster and who knows what else. Then they put me in an ambulance and sent me to Portsmouth Naval Hospital. They have a NICU there just in case they couldn't stop my labor, the baby would be in good hands.

When they wheeled me in to the labor/delivery room, I had no idea I wouldn't see the light of day for two weeks. Yep, I spent the next 14 days in the hospital flat on my back not even allowed to walk the few feet to the bathroom. When I was finally allowed to go home, it was with very strict orders on what I couldn't do. Like GET UP! So bed rest at home for another 6 weeks.

Oh yeah, remember the two toddlers that I had already birthed? They were attended to by a dear friend when they weren't with my parents. I had such good friend! (then and now) Friends took me to every doctor appointment (over 1 hour away), brought us meals three times a week, helped with the kids, cleaned my house, did our laundry, you name it!

So after all that, Daughter P was born on June 1, 1993. She weighed all of 6 pounds 14 1/4 ounces. She was very healthy and for the most part happy.

Daughter P

She was such a good baby. Of course, she had a brother and a sister to play with her, bring her stuff, pick up what she dropped, push her in the swing, laugh at her, tickle her. Anyway thinking about her baby coming soon has me thinking about her. We can't wait to meet him!