Ash Wednesday

Usually the dust and ashes of Ash Wednesday are a sober reminder of the end of our bodily lives, a physical sign of the ephemeral quality of so many things that we set our hearts on. The ashes provoke a meditation on the end of all earthly things and the supremacy of the spirit.
On Lucy, they brought other thoughts. Not being so far from her beginning, the ashes served a hope and a promise. (She told me all of this with her eyes.) If out of mere ash and dust something as incredible as a human person can come to be, what can we not hope for from Our Maker? Ps. 139 esp vs 14. There is power in beginnings so small, glory in a Creator so mighty and good. Amen. Hurray for this Lenten Spring to open us more completely to His Goodness.

Lucy, the Philosopher

Morning Calisthenics

It is hard to wake up for this, but good health is no accident.

Follow me everyone! Reach for the sky! Got to loosen up those joints.

...and One and Two and.....
Don't forget to lift those legs!

Bicycle in the air.

Aunt Maddie begins her Fabulous Dallas Career

Keep a sharp look-out, Sweetheart! Aunt Maddie will teach you everything you need to know about fashion.

Time with Memere

We had a long weekend with Memere. Lucy and Grandma were fast friends. Here they are enjoying some QT while Mom and Dad have some Time
out. : >

"I love this lady!"

Three generations!

Hat Head

The Art of Diapering 1.1

Um, trickier than I thought.



Okay, It's like this.


I think I got this.

Lucy Meets the World

Little Lucy Claire Austin came singing into this world on January 24th at 7:17 in the evening. One burning moment before it was just Mike and I, hand-in-hand dancing through life as best we knew how; the next, we had become a family, a little nucleus of new life, the shapers of a tiny child's whole world. The little life-changer weighed a mere 6lbs and 14oz and to this day, 2 weeks later, is still aspiring to that towering height of physical mass. Such a wee little thing has turned us into parents and changes our lives forever. We are thrilled.