At last brother has a big boy bed. Technically we have owned the bed since October but painting outside in the cold garage just was not super appealing to me so when we finally hit the 50′s with sunshine this last week (it is just a memory now…surely spring will come sometime…maybe) it was out to paint! I found the bed at an antique store buried under some other items. I had been searching high and low for the bed that I had concocted in my head and at last I had found it! It appeared to be really old or maybe it had an intensely hard life. I just know that it needed some loving! After cleaning it up and applying many a coat of paint it is finally together and in his room and his bed is officially up off the floor! We have one ecstatic little boy in this house!!!

“An invalid lady procured once the cocoon of a very beautiful butterfly with unusually magnificent wings, hoping to have the pleasure of seeing it emerge from its cocoon in her sick-chamber. She watched it eagerly as spring drew on, and finally was delighted to see the butterfly beginning to emerge. But it seemed to have great difficulty. It pushed and strained, and struggled, and seemed to make so little headway, that she concluded it must need some help, and with a pair of delicate scissors she finally clipped the tight cord that seemed to bind in the opening of the cocoon. Immediately that cocoon opened wide, and the butterfly escaped without any further struggle. She congratulated herself on the success of her experiment, but found in a moment that something was the matter with the butterfly. It was all out of the cocoon it is true, but its great wings were lifeless and colorless, and dragged after it as a useless burden. For a few days it lived a miserable sickly life, and then died, without having once lifted its powerless wings. The lady was sorely disappointed and could not understand it. But when she related the circumstance to a naturalist, he told her that it had all been her own fault. That it required just that pushing and struggling to send the life fluid into the veins of the wings, and that her mistaken kindness in shortening the struggle, had left the wings lifeless and colorless.”
“The Christian Secret of a Happy Life”
(If you are interested in reading the book, it is really and incredible book that makes you dig down deep and think, you can find used copies but make sure that you do not get a newer abridged version because you will really miss out.)
By: Hannah W. Smith
1875

I feel like this is where I stand…with scissors in hand. Will I cut the cocoon open because it is easier, faster and it is what the world accepts as timely and good? Or will I lay the scissors aside being patient and allowing the butterfly to struggle and fight that its wings might fly full of color in its own unique time?

Some friends and I had the honor of hosting a shower this weekend for a Mama to be. My friend who often says that she is not crafty came with these little happy pom poms to hang and place around the table. I had seen them before but decidedly classified them in my head as way to hard and time consuming to make, after watching her put them together though I have declassified them and decided that they are doable. They just seem to make you so happy. They are still hanging up at our house and show no sign of coming down any time soon because they just make you smile!

Thank you for the dollar section and thank you most of all for carrying 4 orange construction cones for a dollar in that section! We have played with these bright orange cones all day. The orange cones have been acquainted with all of our trucks, they have made obstacle courses and they have been set up as road blocks all around the house! It was hard to tell them goodnight but rest assured that we will be up and playing with them first thing in the morning!
Sincerely,
One Thankful Mama and One Happy Boy