Clearly Scene

After much encouragement from friends and especially Ben, I've started a little hobby business making cards with some of the photographs I've taken at Bellingrath Gardens and other places. I've set up a blog to display the available designs.

The name of the business is Clearly Scene which is taken from one of my favorite scriptures, Romans 1:20:

“For since the beginning of the world God’s invisible qualities...have been clearly seen,being understood from what has been made..."

When I was in college I took a course called "Drawing from Nature" in which we walked around campus and drew studies of different plants and animals and learned about what we drew. It was a great course which mostly taught me to observe the beauty of everyday things around me. And one of the greatest lessons I learned in that course, which was not on the syllabus, was that creation is screaming "There is a creator!".

As I walked around campus one day, I picked up a petal that had fallen to the ground and looked at it very carefully - the beauty of it, the intricate detail and pattern in one simple petal. I thought to myself "How can anyone say this happened by accident?". Several people have asked me if being a biology major in college didn't conflict with my Christian faith. But I never found that to be true. . . the things I studied in biology and chemistry only testified to me of our Great God who is so concerned with even the smallest details in His creation.

My Little Piccasso

One of Maggie's favorite pasttimes is fingerpainting. She'll point to the closet where I keep the paints and say "Mommy! Pent!" It's been fun to watch the natural progression of a toddler's paintings. This week she made quite the leap in her technique.

First she painted this. . .

Note all the dots.

Then she painted this. . .

She went from just using her fingers to make little dots and lines to getting her whole hand in there and mixing it all together! She had so much fun. . . I wish I had the camera handy to capture the expression on her face.

Coughs and Carousels

Well, Maggie had her first trip to an ER yesterday . . . she got sick and had trouble breathing and they gave her some oxygen and albuterol treatments. . . hopefully she'll be fine in a couple of days.

On Friday (that seems like an eternity ago!) we took Maggie to the Mall to enjoy some carousel money she had recieved as an Easter gift. She had so much fun! She's ridden on this carousel two or three other times so she is finally getting comfortable enough with it to enjoy sitting on the moving horse. Click here to see a short video clip of her ride.

Easter

This was Maggie's first "real" Easter and we had a lot of fun. The week before Easter we got to attend a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt at the Gardens. Maggie's friend, "Whoa" came along and we all had a really great time.

On the Saturday before Easter we made "Resurrection Rolls" - Maggie helped me dip marshmellows in butter and cinnamon and sugar and wrap them up in crescent rolls to bake. They puff up and become hollow (the empty tomb). Maggie had a lot of fun helping me - and the rolls were VERY tasty. . . but I think the symbolism was lost on her. ;-) But I'm looking forward to making that a tradition.

Easter Sunday she had an Easter basket. . . she got some headbands, a stuffed Boz (her favorite TV show) and a Bullfrogs and Butterflies CD (anyone else remember that or is it just me?).

Sunday after her nap we had an Easter Egg hunt with our neighbors and we all had a really good time!

The Furminator

After weeks of constant hairballs, we finally broke down and bought a Furmintor - touted to be the best brush for reducing shedding AND hairballs in cats. Because I'm thrifty I bought it on Ebay for about half the retail price. It arrived today and the package was sitting on the kitchen table. Ben said to me "Let's try this on YOUR hair!". Oh, I died laughing.

After putting Maggie to bed, we closed the cat up in the bathroom to test out the brush (better to contain flying fur!) We were all quite pleased - Ben, Me AND Alley! I managed to get a little video if you want to see for yourself. If you turn up the volume you can hear Alley's purr of satisfaction.

This resulting pile of fur is the result of about 10 minutes of brushing.

Let the Good Times Roll!

Here on the Gulf Coast, Mardi Gras is a pretty big deal - especially where we live! You may not realize this, but our town is the home of Mardi Gras - we had it even before New Orleans and the locals here take great pride in that. When my neighbor learned that we would not be attending any parades here, she brought over a bunch of beads for Maggie! We've had fun playing dressup today. . . .

Maggie's First Prayer!

Tonight we were reading a book called "Thank You God". We were looking at a page that talked about the food we can thank God for and Maggie spied a cup, which she assumed must contain MILK! So she folded her hands and said "Thank you Milk. Amen."

Ok, so it sounded more like "dah dou mauk. aen." but I knew what she meant.

I was SO PROUD! :0)