DRE-E-E-E-EAM, dream dream dre-eam

When you grow up, you assume your life is the normal life of all the other kids in the world.  When you get older, you realize just how non-normal your growing up actually was, well, compared to all the other non-normal lives you learn about as time goes on.  Confused yet?

All that to say, I grew up thinking everyone dreams in color.  I do.  Of course I’m not the weird one, am I?  Thanks to the internet, I have discovered that more than 80% of people dream in color.  Not so weird after all, thankyouverymuch.  Yet another fact caused me to pause and consider my abnormalness once again…. 95-99% of people forget their dreams. What?  Almost every night I have vivid dreams and can tell the tales of them the next day.  My children take great pleasure in asking me what I dreamt last night and then rolling on the floor holding their sides due to laughter induced dream tales.  Some dreams have stuck with me for years… for 24 years, in one case… like it was yesterday.  Some are so real that I write them down to ponder later.

While we were away at Christmas I had this great dream (that my children loved) about my husband wanting to redo the greenhouse (that we don’t have) on the back of the house (that we don’t live in).  He was all inspired and wanted to show me his plans, but he insisted the best view was from the neighbor’s back driveway.  The only glitch was that he was naked and I wasn’t walking outside with him.  I’m the modest one in the family, for goodness sakes alive, even in my dreams.  So he talked me into driving over to the neighbor’s back driveway in our station wagon with tasteful “wood” paneling on the sides.  He drove me over there and proceeded to do a 13 point turn in the little driveway until the car was facing our greenhouse (sideways on the driveway.)  But the inevitable happened and he backed up too far and we went down into the ditch and got stuck.  I told him I would climb out the window and go call AAA but he yelled, “You cannot call Triple A, I’m naked!”  And that was the end.  I did not find deep meaning in that dream.  I pray we never own that house or car!  But it WAS funny!

Sixteen years ago, after watching Father of the Bride 2, my husband decided we should move from Spruce Grove, Alberta to Phoenix, Arizona to be near my parents.  I whole heartily agreed.  We put the house on the market and prayed for a quick sale, it was winter after all. Then I had a dream about a lady coming to buy our house. I awoke quite relieved and explained in detail what she looked like to my husband. For ten long months, our house sat on the market and many people came to see it.  Every time I opened the front door, if it wasn’t the lady in my dream, I was disappointed.  Phoenix was calling my name, after all.  Finally one day she came.  I recognized her.  And she did buy our house.  Truly, I think God gave me the picture of her as a sign of hope that there was someone coming.  It gave me a measure of assurance.

Do you remember your dreams?

Holy Buried Sock, Batman!

My sweet husband helped some friends move and they graciously sent him a gift card for Lowe’s…. AND HE GAVE IT TO ME!   Better even still…. for FLOWERS!  Whooooo HOooooo.  I have the sweetest husband.  (Side note: Rick is leaving for 5 days for Flight Safety next week, not by his choice, but still, it’s the busiest week of the kids’ lives with someone needing to be driven somewhere every single day… multiple times….. HENCE the kind flower gesture. Sort of a peace offering.)

I spent 60% of the money on lasting flowers and 40% on winter flowers… we live in Arizona, in case you are confused about winter flowers…. they are most likely YOUR summer flowers(marigolds, lobelia, sweet William, pansies, allysum, petunias, etc.)   I’ve been impatiently waiting for cooler temperatures… which still aren’t arriving.  It is about 85* F and it’s NOON, for goodness sake…. three days before NOVEMBER.  Alas, I could wait no longer with the gift card burning a hole in my pocket.

So the photo above is a round flower spot that has been empty dirt all summer. So I was visualizing a colorful array of blooms, and then I threw in some height with the purple grass and found my bird feeder and assigned bird-food-duty to my youngest son.  BUT, before all that happened, I was turning the soil in all my dirt patches around the yard and in this particular spot I dug up four socks.  Perfectly good socks.  Socks that all belonged to my youngest son, bird-food-boy.  Socks that he took off to jump on the trampoline.  Socks that our dog found neglected in the backyard… and so the DOG put them away.  If only my children were trained so well.  But no.

The backyard is clean and tidy for the first time since April.  It’s wonderful to look out the kitchen window and see color again.  Blessed relief.  Here’s a few more peaks:

Below is fondly called the ketchup and mustard flower bed.

These don’t show up that great, but it is a pale pink hibiscus with trailing yellow vines hanging out of the bigger pot.  The small pot is dark purple pansies and royal blue lobelia, my all time favorite flower.

And last but not least, the Sweet William on the patio table.  We can finally eat outside again!  Yippeeee!  I love winter.