Spring has Sprung!

All winter long the earth was bare;

The crumbling leaves were brown and red.

It seemed that flowers everywhere

Had lost their petals and were dead.

Then, God, you whispered, "Time to rise!"

And every field and every glen

Heard your sweet call from out the skies

And stirred and woke and lived again.

Thank you , God.

Amen ~ Ben Aronin

When I was little, my sisters were Baptized together. Some family friends had been chosen as God parents. I had been Baptized as an infant and had my own wonderful God parents, but I remember being insanely jealous that day, because the girls got Bibles. My God parents had not yet given me one. My mother must have realized it, because later that day she brought me an old children's Bible. It had been hers and in the front it said " Presented to Brenda Lee Barton by Mother on August 1952". My first Bible! It made absolutely no difference to me that it had belong to some else first. It was a King James version, adapted for children and full of pretty illustrations. The best part, in my opinion, it had prayers in the back. There was a prayer for everyday of the week and others for special occasions. I loved the prayers and every day and night for many years I would open to the back and recite some of them. The poem above is one of the prayers from that bible...which, by the way, I still cherish. I guess it's almost time to pass it on....

Isabel insisted on using her parasol in these pictures. She got it in Epcot....at China... the fall before we got Claire. Claire wants her own and so the children think that is a good excuse to head back to Disney World!

Claire is so proud when she stands by herself!

My handsome boys....they got hair cuts yesterday, so these are the last pictures taken with the long locks. I'm sad, but....they do look more like boys now.....shaggy boys, surfer boys, but....boys.

As you can see, I finally got a new camera. These were taken Palm Sunday. The new camera is still a "point and shot" but it has a lot of bells and whistles that the other didn't. It is taking me some time to figure it all out. So far, so good! We've had a few days of spring break here, so I'm trying to get in some hobby time and learn a few things about it.