Wednesday, December 12, 2012

In The Grey

In the dim, grey dawn there is a sense that I am not quite awake, but certainly not quite dead.  In the grey she stands there.  "Mama? Mama? Will you help me?"  She whispers as if not to break the spell.  I nod and dream about her as she stands beside me, waiting.  "Mama?!"  she whispers again.  I peel my eyes open and peer at her through the grey.  "Oh Lord! When did she get so beautiful?"  In the grey my hands twist through her hair, forcing obedience from the honey colored mass.  "Thank you, Mama."  she whispers as she walks away. In the grey, the spell is broken, and I spring to life again.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Oh, To Be Eight Again!


On November 23rd, Jonah turned 8 years old.  
As a birthday traditon, we have doughnuts for breakfast on a birthday morning.  I decided to surprise Jonah  for his birthday and instead of having birthday dinner, we had birthday breakfast.  So, this is what his doughnuts looked like in the morning when he stumbled down the stairs rubbing sleep from his eyes:


After Doughnuts, he opened his presents.




And then he ran off to play with his cousins.  We spent the rest of the day sitting around doing not much of anything until Sebastian came home from work.  Then we went roller skating and out to dinner at Red Robin (YUM!).  


When the waiter brought Jonah his birthday sundae,the baby was ecstatic- until he realized it wasn't for him.  As his face fell, and his eyes clouded over, I couldn't help but laugh at him.  Loudly.  I had to promise him some  "cream" when we got home.  He was so excited to get his cream that he plopped right down on the floor to eat it.

Happy Birthday.
I sure do love you!















Sunday, November 25, 2012

Bold On A Sunday Morning

I stalled yesterday, and I didn't go shopping.  Partly because I hate shopping, partly because I hate menu planning, and partly because the baby was asleep for the better part of my shopping hours.  Darn naps.
Anyway, that meant I had to get up early today to go shopping before church.  So I did.

I have a favorite checker.  She shares my daughter's name, she always chats up my kids, and she is always smiling.  Why wouldn't she be my favorite?  As I was loading my groceries onto the conveyor belt, Elizabeth was telling the gentleman in front of me that she got up at 3 am, but that was OK because she would be off work at 10 am.  I piped in, "Well, then you'll be off in time to go to church!  Service starts at 11."

She finished up with the other order and I moved forward, and Elizabeth asked me where I go to church.  I pointed in the general direction of our church and told her the name.  I said if she was interested, then we would be the large family on the right near the back.

As she rang up my order she told me, "I'm not religious or anything, but I'm not against religion.  My mom was forced to go to church when she was a kid, so she never went as an adult.  I mean, I went to Sunday school and stuff when I was little, but that was pretty much it.  My dad and my step mom are Buddhist.  So I guess that just means that they try to be good people, and do good to others."

I asked her, "How do they know if they are good enough?  How do they know that when they get to the end of their lives, the good will outweigh the bad?" She paused for a nano second and looked at me.  "I don't have to know." I said  "As a Christian, I just have to believe  that Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins. There is no accounting for me, because all of the bad is already paid for."

"Yeah, I don't know." Elizabeth replied.  "I guess it's just about doing good for others when you can.  But, you know, when I hear the religious Christmas music, I just...there is no way to describe the way it makes me feel."

"Because your heart is missing something." That was all I said.  She finished my order, we said goodbye, and I re-extended the offer to come visit our church.

Lord, I pray that You would take the little tiny seed of longing in Elizabeth's heart.  That You would cup it in Your hands and cause it to grow.   That You would nurture and feed it, and set it to blossom for the whole world to see.  Amen.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Homecoming 2012

I'm not positive how it came about, especially since our rule about dating is that you have to be 16.
BUT, when you are a 15 year old Junior, and have shown yourself to be trustworthy (AND, your mom is driving you), then sometimes it is OK to bend the rules a little.  His dad and I figured that if we made him wait until he was 16, then he would miss out on all the fun stuff- but we did make it clear that this was the exception to the rule.  So, Jesse got to go to the homecoming dance:



 Jesse and Emily.
She is a freshman or sophomore, and their family goes to our church.
 Her brother, Jared, has been one of Jesse's friends for a few years.



The four of them went out to dinner and then the dance.



And he was one happy, tired boy.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

This Boy

This boy turned 13.
He is a runner- thus the "XC" on his cake, and the cool running shirt on his body.


 But, if you look closely at each of the pictures, you will see that his favorite gift is in his hand.

Happy Birthday, Caleb.
I love you with all my heart.
Mom

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Not Much, You?


Left over dilly beans (getting quite spicy now), green tomato pickles, peaches, plum jam, strawberry jam, a big space for applesauce, and a small batch of apple sauce, canning supplies, winter clothes, and more canning supplies.
More plum and strawberry jam, blueberries, zucchini, some pork, and underneath it all, some water that we keep in the freezer for 2 reasons: 1) we use it in our coolers so that when it melts it doesn't make a mess, and 2) because if the power goes out, it keeps the freezer colder for a significantly longer time.

So, what have you been up to?

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Plum Jam And Jerusalem

Look, I hate plum jam. I only joined the WI to make my mother happy. I do, I hate plum jam, I'm crap at cakes, I can't make sponge. In fact, seeing as it is very unlikely that George Clooney would ever come to Skipton to do a talk on what it was like to be in ER, I see very little reason for me to actually stay in the WI. Except suddenly- suddenly, I want to raise money in memory of a man I loved. And to do that, I'm prepared to take me clothes off for a WI calendar, and if you can't give us ten minutes of your time, Madam Chairman, well then, frankly, guys, I'm going to do it with out council approval, because there are some things that are more important than council approval. A-a-and if it means that we get closer to killing off this shitty, cheating, sly, conniving, bloody disease that cancer is- Oh God, I tell you- I'd run around Skipton Market naked smeared in plum jam, wearing nothing but a knitted tea cozy and singing "Jerusalem".




There is so much to love about that paragraph. I do like plum jam. I love it. I just made a batch, and I want to make more. I ate a bowl of it for lunch. I did.

So, to the first person who tells me what movie that paragraph is from, what the name of the actor/actress saying it, and the year the movie was released will be given a jar of my FABULOUS plum jam. If you want to smear it on your naked body and go through the market singing Jerusalem, that is completely up to you. Leave your comment on the blog (not facebook if you followed the link).

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Salmon River

Meet our new gal. Her name is Clementine. She joins our flotilla as boat number 4. 4. 4 years ago we didn't have any boats....

We decided that since Clementine had a name, we should name this one, too. We like either Maude or Mildred. We are not settled on one yet.
But, both girls behaved very well on our week long river trip this year.
And, So did all of these guys.

Unfortunately, the new camera battery that I bought, did not behave, so these are all the pictures you get this year. What a dissapointment.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Jesse


Jesse (Hebrew): gift

Happy 15th birthday, Son.
You are a gift to us.
Love, Mom

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Cousin Camp Day 4

After VBS and swimming in the creek today, we came home and painted picture frames.


And tried to drive our car in our brother's paint.

After crafts was dinner time.  This was my brainy idea, and it worked really well.

The kids loved eating the soup straight from the can.

Or, from the bowl that their cousin warmed gently in the microwave.


And we had a surprise visitor.  Which was OK, once her kid established that she was not there to pick him up yet.

And, we all survived another day.

Cousin Camp Day 3

Frozen grapes on a stick, of course.   They were cold, they were sweet, and they were refreshing.

AND THEY WERE ON STICKS.

Craft was watercolor painting.  This is an idea that I got from Pink and Green Mama

It uses Elmer's glue (or any white glue) with black paint to form the outlines.
Pink and Green Mama calls it Black Glue and Water Color Resist.
I am NOT an artist, so I printed some clip art out onto watercolor paper.  Then in the interest of time, I just did the black glue part while the kids were at VBS, so they would be dry and they could just get to work on the painting part.

This little guy only got to watch, but we kept him supplied with pretzels,and he seemed happy about that.
.

We capped our day off with a movie on the porch.  I know you can't see it, but there IS, in fact, a movie playing on that sheet.



Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Cousin Camp Day 2


All this week the kids are going to VBS.  It starts at 10 and goes to 1- AND THEY FEED THEM LUNCH!
Dear Lord,  Bless the person who thought up VBS.  Amen.
 

After VBS we went and played at the splash park for about 2 hours.









Then we came home and made camp journals.  It took a while to walk them all through the steps (showing them on the littlest guy's journal), but they all really liked the outcome.


They laid them out in the sun to dry while they played until dinner.




After dinner, desert, and a little play time I read them a funny story called The King of Cats, and then it was tent time.  At this point they have all been asleep for about an hour and a half, and it is about time for me to drop, too.
The good news is that I don't have to have it all planned out, I just have to be a step ahead of them!