Five Years

We planted this silver maple 6 years ago as a bare-root tree from the Arbor Day Foundation - along with 12 fruit trees that never made it. We wanted to get a tree in the ground to hopefully provide some shade once the woods behind us were cut down for phase 5 of our neighborhood. The picture on the left was taken the following spring, April 2004. The picture on the right was taken 2 weeks ago. About the only thing that hasn't changed is the woods are still there. I guess there is one positive side to the downturn in the housing market, we still have our wonderful trees and late afternoon shade, instead of neighbors sharing our fence. I cannot get over how much that little stick of a tree has grown in the five years between pictures - much like our family.

Back in 2004, William was a little spud about to turn 1, and Evie was super-precocious at almost 3. Matt had more hair, and I had a lot less grey - not that you'd know because it's always colored. Sarah was just a hope I had for the future someday, and Jason? I never pictured Jason in my thoughts of what our family would be like. Having four children just never occurred to me.



Makes me wonder, what on earth will the next five years bring? I have my own ideas, but Heaven has a way of taking your ideas and twisting them up a bit - or completely spinning you around and sending you off in another direction. Either way, I'm sure there will be lots to blog about - good, bad, amusing, and irritating - and gallons of coffee consumed to get through all those busy days. ah, coffee!