Honey, Honey...

 ...aww Sugar Sugar...

Who remembers that song? It was The Archies, and I know I'm dating myself but I don't care, because someone precious has a birthday today, and when I think of our youngest grandgirl 'Sugar' I almost always start singing this song.  Just the first line though-ha! I write letters to my grands on their birthdays every year and today is the littlest ones big day. 

Dear Sugar, 

Today you are two. 

You have the biggest smile and the happiest heart. You light up every room you sashay into, and like to make sure you never miss a moment. You want to be right in the middle of whatever is happening, and the world feels more joyful with you in it.

You love people, your morning yogurt, your stuffies, watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas all year round, and climbing on, under, and over anything and everything. You're curious about the world around you, love your books and all dogs, but especially your own, and you know there's adventure to be had everywhere you look.

I love how much you love your big brother, how you watch him and learn from him, and how proud you seem just to be near him.

I love when we FaceTime and you insist on holding the phone yourself, like you’re in charge of the whole conversation. You are, by the way. Seeing your smile on that little screen is one of the best parts of my day.

Most of all, I love you...your laughter, your energy, your sweetness, and your big, beautiful spirit. You are so loved, more than you can possibly understand right now. But one day, when you read this, I hope you feel it wrapped around you still. 

Watching you grow is one of my greatest joys, and I’m so grateful to be your Nana. I love you deep and wide sweet Sugar. 

xoxo,

Nana

"But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him." 

Jeremiah 17:7

Springing

Spring has sprung which means it's time to check in on the winter bucket list, and add some new to-do's for spring. Out with the old and all that jazz. 

Let's review. My winter bucket list looked like this-

1. Spend a day crafting each month. Nope. Nada. Zilch. Did not happen. Not enough hours in the day, too much going on, not inspired to pull out my crafting bits and bobs when there are already lots of extra bits and bobs out right now. 

2. Try a new soup recipe. I give myself an A+ on this one because the recipe I tried was so good and definitely a keeper. Everyone, kids and adults alike, loved this Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup-

3. Organize the laundry room cabinets. Didn't even try. There were a lot of things happening here this winter that were not on my list so something had to give. A whole house clean will be happening soon, so this chore can be a part of that.

4. Hike a new to us trail. We didn't hike any new trails, but did revisit one of our favorites that we hadn't been to in a while, and we enjoyed that a lot. 

.5. Read a classic. Done. I read one in January (The Good Earth), one in February (Wuthering Heights) and I'm wrapping up my March classic now (Pride and Prejudice). I've enjoyed these books so much, and am in awe of the language. I plan to read a classic each month this year and so far I'm on track. 

6. Clean out the kitchen drawers. Giving myself a B- on this one. I got to some, but not all of the drawers but since it's a relatively quick chore I'll finish it up in the next couple of weeks. 

7. Celebrate Sugar's first birthday. Of course this happened and we had the best day celebrating our little sweetheart. I wrote a whole post about it here (My Tuesday Version of Hello Monday). And I always write my grands a blog letter on their big day and this is hers-Sugar Sugar

8. Buy something pink. Yes. I bought a pink sweater to wear to Sugar's sweetheart themed party. It was a little on the warm side that day (it was supposed to be cool and cloudy, not warm and sunny), but I wore it anyway because it was on point with the party theme. 

This is the sweater, but this is not Sugar. I don't have a single picture from her birthday where I'm in the sweater, but I promise you I was. All the pics I have with me in them were taken before I changed. Whatever, here is the sweater and this is Little Miss. Pink everything is her favorite so she is a fan of my sweater too. 

9. Choose Valentine treats for the grands. This one also happened. We were in charge of the grands the weekend of Valentine's Day as my daughter and son-in-law went to an out of town wedding. I bought some fun little things for them to have including magnifying glasses, sunglasses, little boxes of conversation hearts...that sort of thing. 

10. Write a love letter. Hmmm. This was a nice idea but I never sat down and made the time to do it. Love is in the air in the springtime too though, right? I think I'll add this one back in to my spring list. 

11. Stay on track reading the Bible through the year. Check. Hubs and I started the Bible Recap reading program Jan 1st, and so far so good. There have been one or two misses which meant reading double duty a couple of days, but we don't let ourselves miss more than that. We're on track and it's been really good. 

12. Bake the Southern Living cake of the month in Jan-Feb-March. I baked both the January and February cakes and have plans to make the March recipe this weekend-a Lemon Meringue cake. It looks to be a little more involved than the January/February recipes but I'm committed. Plus I have a houseful and somebody's gotta eat what I bake besides me. 

In summary I completed 7.5/12 so just over 60%, which would be a failing grade if this were a test. 

Except it's not, so I'm not mad about it. The first three months of the year have been uncharacteristically busy with many other to-do's that needed doing, and I wanted to roll with it. Here's to spring daydreams, fresh starts, and a brand new list-

Happy Spring! 

Sugar Sugar...

Someone especially sweet is celebrating a birthday today...

Dear Sugar, 

Today you are ONE. Time seems to move faster with every passing year and while I know that's something 'old' people say, it feels so true. 

Also, Pawpaw and I are not really old, it's just that sometimes five grandchildren can fool us into thinking we are. 

You, my precious girl, have been pure sweetness from day one. You have what I call a whole body smile. When you smile, which is almost all the time, your whole face lights up (mine too!) and your whole body seems to feel the joy. You can make any day better and brighter, which is a gift I hope you never lose. 

You've been walking for a few weeks now, which has opened up a whole new world to explore. You dearly love your big brother and want whatever he has. He makes you laugh and loves you to bits too, and is so patient with you (most of the time).

You have your momma's big blue eyes and love seeing Daddy walk through the door. You like being outside, getting in to brother's toys, bath time, books, noodles, and music. You're also a climber which keeps everyone on their toes. 

You are the beautiful caboose on our cousin train and we all adore you. We can't remember what it was like not to know you and we're so glad you're ours. 

Happy birthday sweet Sugar. You are so very easy to love, and I pray you always smile as big and as freely as you have in this first year of your life. Know your Nana loves you deep and wide xo

"But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him." 

Jeremiah 17:7

Many Big And Little Bits of Life

I feel like I'm overdue for a post filled with all the little bits of life that have been happening here. Some actually not so little, but maybe not big enough to warrant their own post. Or maybe they do, but time won't allow it just now and I want to catch up so here we are. 

Strap in for some quick and random topic changes and pictures that don't want to center on the page. 

Fall. My favorite season and this has been one of the prettiest we've had in a long, long, time. The color has been spectacular and as it happens we've been putting miles on the car traveling here, there, and back again through tunnels of gold and along southern back roads painted red-yellow-orange. Autumn reminds me the world is full of wonder and it is God who orders change in the seasons and in our lives. 

I read a really really good book. It's labeled YA but if you read the reviews you'll see adults are the readers who truly get it. I recommend-

Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

I'd given hubs tickets to see Jim Messina in the nearby small big city for his birthday back in September, and last week was the concert date. A bit inconvenient timing wise as I had to see the orthopedist at 1 PM and the concert wasn't until 7:30. Then hubs looked at his calendar and realized he had a haircut booked for 9:45 so what all this nonsense meant was two trips to town in the same day. 

Bother. Town is an hour away which meant there and back and there and back and we'd also just come home from driving the coast of California and knew we had another road trip that next weekend so whew!

Anyway, we loved the show. For any kids reading here today, Jim Messina was once upon a time part of the duo Loggins and Messina (yes, Kenny of Top Gun music fame). You older 'kids' probably know he was also part of Buffalo Springfield and a founding member of Poco. He kicked off the show with House at Pooh Corner and what adult doesn't feel a twinge of nostalgia when they hear that tune? 

The next weekend we trekked through a lot of autumn splendor to spend a couple of days with our daughter2, her hubs, her in-laws, and sweet baby J who still needs a blog name. The weather was perfect and we spent a lot of time relaxing on their back porch, wandering around a local Octoberfest celebration, and then on Sunday celebrating with their church family at little man's dedication. 

It was such a nice service and he wore his daddy's baptismal gown and loved almost every minute. The pastor invited all the kids in the service to come up front and watch and then the congregation sang Jesus Loves Me while baby boy checked out his new friends. 

He is an absolute sweetheart. 

College football. Our team is back and we are loving it. The Tennessee Vols are undefeated and it's feeling a bit like 1998. Little guy was sporting his checkerboard overalls because they're raising him right. 

We watched the Bama game at daughter2's house and when the Vols won in the last two seconds everyone forgot there was a baby sleeping upstairs. What a game! Our hometown team (who we also love and root for) is also undefeated and suddenly college football is fun again. 

We drove home on Monday and then were supposed to go to our own college homecoming that next weekend. You may recall Daughter1 was due with her baby #3 the first week of November, except God had other plans and here she is, two weeks early and perfectly perfect-

My heart can hardly take it. 

Truly. My heart is so full, and while life right now feels a wee bit crazy I am so grateful for every sweet, loud, anxious, joyful, big and small moment and mile traveled that has brought us to the now.