Spring

God is so creative! I'm always in awe of His creative genius! About the time we get tired of one season, He surprises us with a new one. When we simply cannot stand the death and desolate winter months, life springs out of nowhere and flowers appear. Plants produce color and food that nourish the body and the soul. It makes my heart soar to think of what the Lord does for us each spring. On top of the world around us springing forth life, three of my friends gave birth to absolutely beautiful babies in three days time. Two of them have the same birthday and gave birth to babies on the same day. It was a delightful surprise! So, before I go any further - congrats to Leslie, Brandi, and Rachel! Riggins, Jacob, and Caitlyn are precious and amazing and a beautiful example of God's grace! Enjoy your new blessings as your family grows by two feet! :)

Do you remember the post where we went to the farmers market and then bought several fruit plants? We planted them in the backyard and I have been faithfully watering them daily. This weekend, we discovered something new. I won't bore you with words - I'd rather show you pictures!

Our geranium is growing and still blooming! Given my lack of a green thumb (it's really more black than anything else) this is really quite impressive!

Here is our blueberry bush. It's looking more like a bush every day. The internet says when it's fully grown it'll be 8x10 feet! I hope there's enough room in this corner of the yard.

This is the most important (and exciting) part of the blueberry bush. If you look closely you can see that there are little bulging blueberries. They're more green than blue right now, but that's not the point. We have blueberries!!

And this? This is a raspberry. It's actually turning pink and looking like it should. I'm just praying the birds will leave it alone so we can eat it.

Look - more raspberries are growing! It'll be a great summer in the Hammond Home!

Our grapevine started as a twig with three pink blooms. It was around 8 inches tall. It has already outgrown the first trellis and will soon outgrow the one we bought on Saturday!

I'd never seen a grapevine in person. The leaves are huge! The best part is that they appear out of nowhere and grow to this size within a day or two. We have loved watching the grapevine grow!

This is, by far, my favorite part of the entire grapevine. It literally reaches out and grabs onto the trellis. Within an hour of us putting this trellis up, the grapevine had already wrapped itself around several times. We are continually amazed at the Lord's creativity! And do you see that little red stick with the green spikey things coming off of it?

Those, my friend, are teeny tiny grapes. We're still placing bets on what color they'll be when they're ripe.

In keeping with our spring theme, here are the Hammonds on date night after getting caught in a surprise spring thunderstorm! Isn't my husband a handsome hunk? We had a fantastic night at Olive Garden...

And these gorgeous tulips? These were waiting for me when I came home from work on Saturday. My table looks like the very definition of spring! My heart smiles every time I see my sweet spring surprise. (Thanks sweetheart!)