FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR

I love this photo. Sometimes a day is just so beautiful you don't need an instagram filter to spruce it up. We've been having quite a few of those days lately, and our moods have reflected it.

It's been fairly quiet the past few weeks. Ez went to Honduras for a few days to do some work on an orphanage we support, but all did not go as planned. He started feeling sick on the flight there, and, long story short, nearly three weeks later he's still in the process of recovering from a bad case of pneumonia. Thankfully he's doing much better... I was pretty worried for awhile.

On the plus side, it has forced us to slow our pace a little bit, and that has been good for all of us.

As for progress, we did manage to plant a little tree recently -- a Butterflies Magnolia, which will hopefully produce glorious yellow blooms early next spring. I've decided to embrace all the colors in our outdoor landscaping, just because. (Nearly anything will look better than that patchy grass...)

Meanwhile, my vegetable garden is taking off, and Johnnie has been carrying around a tiny watering can (from my childhood, found in my parents' attic) and being such a helpful gardening sidekick. Last year around this time a tornado felled a giant pine in our backyard and shredded most of my vegetable plants, but since tornadoes are rare here, I'm maintaining optimism about this year. I don't want to wish the summer away, but I am already looking forward to some fresh tomato and avocado sandwiches...

Until then, I wish you your equivalent of many leisurely walks down the lane to see the horses with the people you love. (Or sandwiches... your choice.)