Every night in the Spring I open my window to let in the cool air. But mostly I open it because in the morning the birds sing their little hearts out and wake me up. It makes me feel like a Disney princess being woken up by animals singing. My home is surrounded by trees and so there are hundreds of birds, mostly robins. It is so cool to me that they sing when it’s dark, before the sun is even up.
They just know it’s coming.
What is also amazing to me, is that the birds come back before spring is here. The snow is still on the ground, there are no leaves on the trees, it is windy, bleak and miserable, but they keep building their nests and singing.
They just know it’s coming.
Such faith. And yet maybe it’s those cute little bird songs that wake up those trees and bring spring here.
When I moved to Littlebrook (the name of my home) about 7 years ago, I was a single Mamma with 4 children (of 8) still at home. I was going through a difficult divorce and life was feeling very bleak and miserable. I was coming from the city and had naively bought my fixer upper home in the summer not realizing I was on the Malad Summit where we have very harsh winters. I was so excited! I was going to be Annie Oakley and tame the wild. I’ll never forget the lady I bought the house from looking me up and down in her muddy cowboy boots, Levis and braids and me in my flip flops and ignorance. I remember being a little scared about the smile on her face and not understanding it. I do now. We moved in at the end of October. The first night here I found the wood stove was broken, the electricity was out, and we had no water. My home slowly became the money pit and my happy dreams of farmer and the dell were almost gone.
But……
I will never forget bundling in blankets with my kids and going outside on the old porch swing and talking about all of the dreams we would do here at Littlebrook. We were laughing, singing, and I would tell scary stories to make them cuddle more. And even though it was so hard, dark and bleak….
We just knew it was coming.
We knew that with faith and music and a lot of hard work that happier days and dreams would come true. And you know what? They did!
So fast forward 6 years later. 2 more babies flew the nest. I met and married Bobby. (He truly is my sunshine and happy but I’ll go more into that another time) and we started building one of those little dreams we talked about on that chili fall evening on the porch. We were turning our old barn into a beautiful wedding venue. As we were working, we found a nest full of baby blue robin eggs in the rafters. We had to save the babies! So while hammering, sawing, and then painting we worked around this small nest of eggs and mamma robin worked around us. We saw them hatch, grow and eventually fly away all while painting white everywhere but their tiny nest. I think they might have gotten a little white. And that is why we decided to name our venue The White Robin!
So as we open our storybook venue here at Littlebrook, I can’t help but look back. This little barn turned white with windows has seen a lot! We have had family parties, family dances, family karaoke, 3 wedding receptions of our own, and lots of love from our children, friends and neighbors helping us make it The White Robin.
Looking back on those days where I felt like a mamma bird huddled together in blankets with my babies waiting for the sun to come out, those were some of the happiest days of all. As we open The White Robin and hope people will come, I’m grateful for those little white robins that remind me to keep singing and having faith even when it’s dark and cold.
I just know you’re coming.
And you’re going to love it!
Literally the most gorgeous venue!! I love your story and the birds!! So happy you got pictures of them 🙂