It started as a little quiver, a passing thought that somehow nose dived into an idea, then exploded on the runway into all kind of notions. 

I don’t mean for them to, but some ideas just keep growing. A simple idea takes on the persona of a cute, tiny green yard lizard, which promptly blows up into a huge heap of ideas that look like an angry T-Rex on a Jurassic Park rampage.  

It’s happened before.

Happened again. 

I was just going to make a few plain bluebird houses to go with the standard design half dozen already out on trees.

Then there was the little lizard idea to make a birdhouse like the church where Janet I got married.

That’s when Jurassic Park started. The little green lizard metamorphosed into big, cumbersome dinosaurs.

Before I knew it, I’d sketched twelve different birdhouse ideas! Soon I was adding cutouts, individualized painting, and attaching unique perches.

It ended up being the one for Janet, plus eleven more, one for each of our eleven kids and their respective family units. 

Janet’s was the first bluebird house idea, a church similar to our wedding site.  

And then, in birth order, Jeff’s was a Colorado cabin with a bear on the outside that Charity always seems to spot.  (And this was the first birdhouse to officially house a bluebird nest this Spring.)

Blake and Ashley’s was a boat, part of his fishing passion, which she and the three grands enjoy from time to time.

Allison and Jon met in college working at a summer Christian camp, and still go back annually with their three children for family week, so theirs has the camp logo and a cross is on it.

Jared and Veronica’s is a travel trailer because he works for a motorhome company as a technician, and they like to travel.

Todd and Kolby were next, a shotgun shell for all the hunting he does.  Even our granddaughter, who is a little shy of 4, has “helped” gut a deer, and the most recent grandchild, ten months old, is named “Gage”.

Hannah Liz and Dennis just built a new house, one with a bright blue door that both of their sons regularly fly through.  She has a personal training business, so her business name and a dumbbell for a perch is part of the mix.

Clark and Hannah Ruth both graduated college from Texas A&M, so Gig ‘Em Aggies!

For Shawnna and Kyle, I made a “Skule Howse” because she is a teacher, and both of their boys will soon be full time in Kindergarten and Pre-K.

Shelby sells real estate, so her birdhouse has a “For Sale” sign on it, but I need to add a tooth, dentures or something for Zach who is graduating from dental school next week.    

Katie loves to create recipes and cook, therefore, hers is a chef with a spoon perch. And lastly the caboose, Jessica, who is crazy about cows!

So, after making things complicated and spending way too much time, all the birdhouses are now hanging on posts in the backyard flower bed.

I was glad to finish! Even swore I’d never, ever let a little green lizard idea turn into a massive T-Rex rampage again.

Lately though, the green lizard has been whispering ideas about turning into a T-Rex attack by adding 23 more birdhouses. That way, everyone in our immediate family would have their own individual birdhouse representation.

Naw. Nope. Not happening.

The little green lizard ideas just have to stop!