At the Forest Yesterday

Oh I’ve been gone way too long…
The red and gold leaves with holes dotted the path
It was growing grass three inches high
The red and white colors held high at first
Turned into a walking stick
When the cover of trees let just one drop or two reach us
The forest was alive with mushrooms
Red ones
Gold ones
Speckled ones
Wavy brain shaped ones we would never have noticed
Except the shaft of sunlight that gave it brilliance
Tiny white ones at the base of the tall dark, wet tree
Brown cupped ones protected by
The jagged stump in which it nestled
Stomped ones peeking out from under little feet
A kaleidoscope of mushrooms

I was happy smelling the wet wonderful forest called
Pipestem

A Bear and His Boy

This kid seems attached. I've never had one that was attached like him. He loves this bear.



If he sees it he gets all excited and its almost impossible to get it away from him without either distracting him or he accidently lets go. He's got on an iron grip on the bear, usually holding it with one hand while playing with other toys with the other.



Yesterday at the breakfast table he dropped it here and spent a long time reaching and crying for it. I've never seen any of my kids attached as much as he is.

Pink & Frogs

On Monday Morning at Mom-Maw's we went shopping. Against my better judgement I bought fabric Goldie wanted and made this:



Well, it ended up being a fun project and I worked hard till nearly the last minute on friday to do it times three:



It's got matching purses in the color of the two inches on the bottom, but I've yet to make those. Soon...coming soon!

VBS

Last week was good, bad, wonderful, tiring, and lots of fun.

We left the house a couple of hours after church on Sunday and headed over to Mom-Maw’s. The reason? Vacation Bible School.



Goldie Age 4
Josiah Age 2
Stuart Age 8 months

All of them were in the same class with their cousins, Megan and Laken. With their parents and Aunt Rosa hands and minds were kept VERY busy.

I’ve never spent an entire week at Bible School.
This is what it was like for the 0-4 age group.

First we arrived at 6:30 each evening.
Then we split into classes. Our class went into the basement of the church and there we would proceed to have a lesson while the children sat around the table and colored.

After the lesson was given and attendance taken we went to the Fellowship Hall where we ate Subway Sandwiches, Fruit, Cheesecake Squares (Goldie fell in love with these) and cookies (Josiah was hooked on those.) Stuart sat in a high chair and destroyed whatever food we laid in front of him.



Then we’d go back to class and make crafts. The lion is one such craft, as was the homemade play dough bread Goldie is working on. They made T-shirts, Bible covers, and more. Just before 8:30 we’d clean up and go practice a song about Running for Jesus.





On Friday everyone met and they did a musical/theatrical presentation of the things the young people had learned during the week. Goldie and Josiah had fun running on stage trying to remember the words to the song. Rosa had her hands full with those two while I was in the back holding a sleeping and sick Stuart.

We came home Saturday in time for the 24th of July Ward Picnic celebrating the Mormon Pioneers hiking across the plains. I was so tired from being up nights with Stuart that I didn’t make it through the whole thing. But it was a fun week spent with family. We love you!

Hair

July 15th was hair cutting day at Mom-Maw's. Mike had wanted to cut his shaggy mane - as he calls it for weeks.

The white hair came off the face and head.

Mike was shaved once again.

Then it was Goldie and Josiah's turn.

I'm not sure what this expression is, but wouldn't you give your dad this look while your Mom had big clippers coming your way?

He did great and the cutting ended. This final picture was too beautiful not to post. It's Rosalee's hair. That's Mike's sister. I told her that it was so colorful that I had to photograph it.

Hope you have all had a good week last week. This week we are taking it easy, letting Stuart sleep after Vacation Bible School. I'll write more about that in my next post.

Publicity...Wow!

Magic Dust Number 5

I just wanted to take a quick minute sandwiched between this morning’s school Storytelling performance and tonight’s Relief Society (church) hike and say Whew!



When I was a Junior in High School I had to get a three on a particular essay in order to graduate. Mrs. Crapo (my Sophomore English Teacher) told me the only way I would get a five(the highest possible score) was to make sure my writing had magic dust sprinkled on it. Here is a picture of the magic dust I sprinkled on the paper and the medal I got for my five.

Many years later, today in fact, I told this story along with a few others at writing camp! I was somewhat worried about it until I read Granny Sue’s blog and realized that I do have a little bit of a writer inside of me and I am continuing to foster it. I thought of my presentation in those terms – that I, as a writer, had something to offer the students as writers, and it went fabulously well! I was soo thrilled.

…And it was my first paid gig! It was totally Awesome!

Chicken Noodle Soup in July

What a stinky week! I mean that literally. We got home on Tuesday from Utah. Mike called in sick on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I had the sickness. I think the kids still have it too, so we didn't take them to church today. I went alone, to give a talk and then I came home to make something out of this:



Yesterday I cooked the chicken in the crockpot and saved the broth.



Here is what I made with it today. The batch I made earlier in the week helped Mike out a bunch. So this batch had better help the rest of us.



Mike's been a trooper, staying with the kids today and helping me to clean up all the mess. Thankfully this is just a spilled bowl of chicken tonic rather than the other nasty messes we've been cleaning up all week. Hopefully, we will not have to deal with it much longer. I've got a three hour storytelling workshop/performance on Tuesday! I've got be healthy.

Marcia's Beginnings

Monday July 6, 2009 I saw the following:



A little less than 69 years ago this lady that is standing sideways



walked through this door



of this house carrying her first baby. It was a girl and she grew up



to look like this and play



outside on sunny days like this! Isn't it glorious? The girl's name was Marcia. I sometimes call her Mom.