THE HILL COUNTRY BOMBER

This is my hubby, shooting wildflower seed bombs off our balcony, using the handy-dandy sling shot that Santa brought him.

Sshhhh! Don't spoil his fun by reminding him that wildflower seeds need to go out in the fall. He scattered some seed by hand back then as well, but then the Halloween flood came and washed most of it down the hill. Fingers crossed that something, somewhere, managed to take root! I would give anything to have a repeat of The Great Poppy Year.

This one taken at Natural Gardener, not in my yard. Loved the way the poppies POPPED against a background of blue.

GRAPEY GRATITUDE

One big reason I fell in love with this property, as soon as I set eyes on it, was all the clumps of native Texas Mountain Laurel it had scattered across it. I remembered that plant from my college days at the University of Texas in Austin, and the way it infused the campus with the fragrance of grape bubblegum whenever it bloomed. They are extremely slow growers, and if I had planted them from scratch, it would have taken years and years and years for them to reach this size!

Some years are better than others. One year you get a pretty good show. The next they all get nipped in the bud by a late freeze.

But, never...

ever...

ever...

have I seen blooms as prolific as these!

A MIND OF HER OWN

My daughter has always had a mind of her own. We figured that out by the time she was two. My mom would come for a visit and freak out over me letting her go out to dinner in mismatched clothes with unkempt hair. "What will people think?" I told her "Mom, you just gotta learn to pick your battles. Save your energy for the important ones. Who cares what people think? We can force her to wear that cute outfit and fix her hair with the matching bow, and have an absolutely miserable dinner with a whiney, irritable child. Or we can just let it go, and have a fun dinner with a happy child. What's it to be?" The good news is that, by focusing our energy on the really important things, and letting her have her own way on the little things, I guess she never felt the need to rebel, 'cause her teen years were a breeze!

So, when she told me they had decided to host their own baby shower, since she was the only one of her friends who wasn't working full-time and/or didn't already have little kids at home, and since she really didn't want a traditional girly shower with goofy games, my first thought was "Oh my gosh! What would my mother think?" But, it only took a minute or two for me to come around to "Why the hell not?"

They ended up opting for an all day party where their friends could come and go at will, stopping in between birthday parties and ball games or whatever, to just hang out and have fun, and where Lex could show off all her pregnancy-projects, such as her very first herb and veggie garden!

Yes, she hauled all those cinder blocks and shoveled all that dirt herself!

We also got to see a few additions to the nursery, including the Best Baby Quilt ever, handmade by Nate's mom Holly...

which will go perfectly with these.

We even got to see some amazing baby-belly-henna-art!

The best part though was just getting to hang and have fun with family...

meet some of Lex's and Nate's wonderful friends and neighbors...

and, best of all, reconnect with childhood besties from her art gang in Plano...

and her elementary days in Indonesia.

All in all, one of the best baby showers ever.

My mom used to pray that I would end up with a daughter who was just as hard-headed as me. Thank heaven her prayers were answered!