Thank you dear friends for your thoughts, concerns, and prayers.  We are definitely improving, but still are taking medicines to help us win over the bronchitis we've been fighting for the past (Mom - 3, Me-2)  weeks.  Now on to more pleasant things!      We definitely are seeing signs of spring!  Warmer weather, much more greenery - trees,  grass, shrubs ... lots more colorful flowers, and today I walked out onto my front porch and looked up to see the birds nest that had been atop of our pipe going up to the roof has a whole family of baby birds in it! (I'm sorry that I couldn't take a better picture of the family for you to see them really well.)  

During National Poetry Month  (APRIL), there were many things that happened that I wanted to blog about, but just didn't have time.  My birthday was on April 14th, & while it wasn't a "BIG" birthday, my family really went BIG with the gifts! This was the first birthday that Mom was with us, and so I'm sure that was part of her "BIG" gifts.  From Mom came two BIG gifts.  One of the gifts is a brand new refrigerator with French-doors, with a large freezer under the fridge. (This has helped since there are five adults living in our home!)  :-)  A second gift from Mom was just planted in the past two weeks (since I've been sick). Our neighbor had to wait for some decent weather to plant it, and she did a beautiful job! It is seen in the next photo. It will one day be a flaming  red bush!  The BIG gift from my husband was planned and then ordered  last month; then for the past 3 days we

 have been watching the progress of the gift being built around the front porch. So ... here is a collage with the "before" & "after" pictures. It really changes the way our home looks!  Our new friend/helper/ house cleaner hadn't been to our home since we had been sick ... and actually drove past us!  Our blue goose had to move to the other side of the porch, but she at least helps folks to find our home ... how many people have a blue goose, after all?  Hope-fully we'll have a better picture of the whole front of the house with the porch addition once we have planted flowers & set other items like chairs on the porch.

Did anyone else have some nasty thunderstorms, heavy rain, hail, and flash flooding last night? The last picture is what I viewed from inside my house. As I looked out the front door, I saw a new look ... plus hail!  

 In closing, I've put a quote that I put as my FB cover ... after having read that same quote as part of my devotional meditations one day.  It is a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.   

 I John 4:18-19  "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  We love him, because he first loved us."  Blessings to you all of my friends!