It's been a bit since I've had the time or inclination to post. I feel like I'm juggling about 25 things at once and I'm just waiting for something to happen where one thing doesn't work and the rest will come crashing down around me. Overwhelmed? Most definitely. I'm going with just a few pictures from when the kids were here....and we were at the cabin....and it was much cooler than it is now.
Homemade ice cream is a "thing" in our family. We decided to make a batch during the cabin time and just about everyone got in on the act.
And the results.
I found these chocolate-dipped cones when I was grocery shopping for the trip and thought they might be fun for the kids. Interestingly enough, the grown-ups enjoyed them just as much.
Sorry, James. You can't touch Grandma Honey's camera.
You know what else homemade ice cream is good for? Going on top of Dutch oven cobbler, which is what happened the next evening. You can see the Dutch oven there with the wood coals on top of it. This one happened to be dark chocolate-raspberry, which went really well with the vanilla ice cream. I'm planning on making ice cream again on the 4th, but I think I'm going to stir Oreos into the vanilla base.
Ollie decided to dig himself into a little nest under the willows.
And you might remember this picture of Roger that I posted last week. Can you see how dirty he is? And how did he get this way?
Just shoot me now...seriously. Just shoot me and bury me somewhere cool.
Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of wedding stuff going on. The announcements went out early in the week.
This week there was also time spent at the florist looking at flower colors, because my daughter has been very concerned that her bouquet not be orange, and we needed to change the color of ribbon the bouquet stems are wrapped in from cream to gold. I have tracked down someone to look at stringing lights in the yard. I have talked to someone about canvas prints to hang on the pasture fence. I have borrowed some greenery to wrap along the top of the gate in the back yard. I have also been trying to get a hold of someone to rent speakers from, because my daughter wants to do some dancing. I am in the process of locating babysitters for my grandchildren while we are in the temple for the ceremony. I have supervised some house tweaks like refinishing the outside doors so they look better and changing out a couple of toilet seats and handles. I have spread iron for the umpteenth time on my pale plants. I despair over my pale plants. I have deadheaded the roses and peonies and put fertilizer on the pots. And I have altered one of the bridesmaid's dresses.
Did I mention that my daughter, my husband, and Bryce are in Alaska fishing this week? To be fair, it was on the schedule before the engagement, but......yeah.
I took a tour around the orchard. We have plums.
And the summer apples are getting there. No Golden Delicious this year, though.
But will you look at this?? Do you know what these are???? WE HAVE PEACHES!!!! The horses didn't get them all.
I took an evening and finished last week's Project Life App pages.
I expanded them to include 4 pages rather than the usual 2.
I just couldn't winnow down the pictures any further.
Miss them, but they'll all be back for the wedding. It will be the first time in several years that all 6 of my kids and their families will be in the same place at the same time.
I started on some cards to send out to my church girls...just some "enjoy the summer" cards done with the contents of a recent Simon Says Stamp card kit. This is a lift of one of the examples on the sheet included in the kit.
From the kids and grandkids....In the middle of all the family activity going on here and at the cabin, poor Marc was stuck taking some board exams for school...
...in Pennsylvania.
I'm not sure why, but I have the incredible urge to start singing, "Somebody oooooooopen up a window....." (And if you don't get that reference, you haven't seen the movie "1776"....and you really should.)
I got this photo of Isaac. That's one cool kid.
Levi is grinning and cooing, if you can believe it. I got the cutest video of him.
James found somewhere to cool off.
And here he is modeling the ties in wedding colors his mama is making for all the little boys to wear.
Caroline is riding without training wheels!
And before she left for Alaska, a practice run for the wedding hair. T-minus 2 weeks and counting. I. Am. Stressed.
Anybody remember that old movie? I guess I'm really dating myself here. It's an oldie, but a goodie. Total good, clean pre-PC Disney. Kurt Russell as a child star.....but I digress. Photo-heavy posts coming up over the next few days. I did warn you about that, didn't I?
We packed a picnic lunch and took a wander while the kids were here, and we were at the cabin. Because I'm not a great photographer, it's hard for me to capture just what I want to convey about the beautiful surroundings in which we found ourselves. This is actually one of my favorite hikes near the cabin. We brought the girls camp gals up here for their cereal hike last summer. It worked just as well for a picnic lunch. The day was cool and a little breezy and overcast. I looked out across this meadow and there were flowers, trees, the sky. It just made me happy.
You saw the picture yesterday of Gwen's bouquet of wildflowers. Here's another view.
And a different perspective of Caroline's. I liked that the flowers were in focus and her face was blurred out a little. Just a different look.
My husband is a bit of a Pied Piper when it comes to being in the woods with the grandkids. He managed to keep everyone on the trail pretty much, with only one casualty. Roger's feet got ahead of the rest of him on a downhill part and he turfed it.
The littlest of the littles got to ride.
We walked a little ways and then had lunch, which the grandkids thought was pretty exciting.
Emmett wandered around after Ollie for a bit. He, James and Caroline were all over Ollie-dog during the week and my very patient and long-suffering pooch was as good as gold.
Eric thought he might take a little snooze after lunch. He was mistaken.
When we started back down the trail, we had to take a little detour to look at a stream. And then some of us had to "fro rocks!"
...into this water.
Speaking of water, there are several spots in the trail that have water in them during warm weather. I think it just runs down from springs on the hillside.
Some of us do not own uber-mega mountain man boots that keep our feet dry no matter what we step in. Some of us don't climb mountains in far off places chasing critters, so we only have city girl-turned country wife hiking boots that work pretty well.
Roger just had tennis shoes, so my husband would heft him over the wet spots. This picture cracked me up because there's Roger getting his ride, while pointing out the water to my husband.
Last picture of this adventure was a group shot of almost all the kiddos.
The backdrop is the root end of an up-ended tree that has been featured in family reunion pictures as well as girl's camp shots. (Family reunion shot from a couple of years ago.) It does the job.
I've been trying to get pictures off my phone and my big camera from last week's adventures with the kids and grandkids here. It's no small feat, since I took quite a few. Before I get into the various aspects of the adventure, I thought I would pick out some where the picture just really captured the personality of the person. Again, it amazes me how many pictures I can take, and how few really nail all the aspects I'd like, but occasionally it all comes together.
Emmett.
Emmett sad because his daddy went bear hunting in the rhino and didn't take him along.
Gwen and the bouquet of wildflowers she picked. She added to it after I took this picture and then gave it to her Aunt Alison "to share with her family..."
Caroline with her bouquet. :)
James.
Edward. If you knew how many times I'd seen that exact expression on his daddy's face....
Frederick, because this is his default expression these days. :)
Roger, and you'd better believe there's a story behind this one. I'm not sure it comes across how really dirty he is.
And lastly, my boys being, well.....boys. They thought it would be cute to fake like they were going to moon me as I took this picture of them off the deck. Love them....even when they've reverted to Jr. High stuff. Remind me someday to do a post about the Rule of 13.
The family all arrived on Saturday evening. We got up Sunday morning and went to church, because that's what we do. And it was no mean feat to get everyone ready and at church by 9:00 sacrament meeting. As soon as my husband and I were done with services at the care center, we loaded everything you saw in yesterday's post, along with various suitcases, into 4 separate trucks (children of Israel, remember?) and headed for the cabin, where we proceeded to unload everything.
Because the menfolk were going bear hunting for the next few evenings, we decided that Family Home Evening would happen that night rather than the usual Monday night.
We had a short lesson about choices and consequences, where we learned that if you pick a choice, you automatically pick its consequence.
Then came the favorite part of the lesson....treats.
Family Home Evening is almost always ended with a treat of some kind.
And when you're in the woods and having a campfire anyway, why would you NOT have s'mores, I'd like to know.
Was it wrong of me not to let Evan know that he went around for a good share of the evening with evidence of toasted marshmallows on his face?
Last week I had 5 of my 6 children in residence. It was crazy, fun, sometimes crazy fun, and it was strategically planned.
When the kids come to visit, especially if there's a cabin trip involved, it requires nothing less than planning akin to moving the Children of Israel through the wilderness, or a general planning an invasion...take your pick. Meals and grocery trips have to be meticulously plotted out.
Mostly because when we're at the cabin, the closest grocery store...if you can call it that....is 45 minutes away. So, there's the regular grocery store trip.
And the trip to Costco.
And usually some baking as well.
All so my posterity doesn't starve to death during their visit here. I'm thinking there were a few of those hot dog buns and a couple of the bananas left, though. I guess my planning wasn't quite as meticulous as I thought.
Perhaps you remember that back in May before the end of the school year, I accompanied the across-town middle school choirs for their end of the year concert. Totally mixed feelings about this adventure. Since my children's voice teacher closed her in-home studio and went full time at the college, and I didn't feel that I could commit that much time in such a structured way, my opportunities to play have been few and far between. I have been sad about that, but there really didn't seem to be much I could do about it. Of course my mother's solution is that I "ought to sit down and practice for an hour a day." Somehow that doesn't happen too often unless I have something to practice for. There have been a few musical numbers at church to accompany, and now that I help with the care center service every Sunday, I do some playing there, but nothing overly challenging. So while I was contemplating the loss of my technical abilities, I got a phone call from one of the music directors at the across-town middle school, desperately looking for an accompanist for their upcoming concert. Not that I think there are a huge number of school music directors that read my blog, but here are a few points that helped cause my dilemma.
Point #1--Question--When is the concert? I have learned to ask this one right off, before I commit to anything, because sometimes I'm surprised by the answer...like this time. Answer--In 5 days. You see my dilemma here?? I want to help. I firmly believe in musical education of all kinds. I want to promote music in schools. I can often do a really good job of it....if I'm given enough time to prepare, and usually 5 days is not enough time. So I start to waver.
Point #2---"Oh," she says, (and by the way, she's a very nice person), "the music is REALLY easy. If I can play it, anyone can play it." And she's desperate, I can tell, and I'm slowly being sucked down the rabbit hole. So I get the music.....all 9 numbers, and what do you think I find? It's not that easy. Of course it is for her....she's been plunking through it all semester to rehearse her kids. I've never seen it before and I'm supposed to rehearse in class with the choirs in 2 days. Look at that piece of music in the picture. See all the 16th notes? Uh-huh.
Point #3--Never, ever take your accompanist for granted. I am compulsive enough to want to do a good job performing, so I will come to rehearsal prepared. That means that by the time I hit the first day of in-class rehearsal, I've put in about 10 hours of practice time just to begin getting the muscle memory into my hands...remember, I'm old and haven't done this regularly in a while. Now isn't the time to hand me another piece of music to sight read when the concert is tomorrow. Which is exactly what happened with the other director involved in the concert. And then after rehearsals he starts making noises about wanting to make this a permanent deal. Wow.......so not going to happen. I will be conveniently busy for the foreseeable future.
Now, after all this, the very nice little lady teacher dropped by with this great thank you note. Always, always a good idea. It helps tremendously to feel appreciated for the effort put in to going down that rabbit hole.
And will be appropriately displayed along with your grandchildren's refrigerator art, a reminder to one and all that gratitude goes quite a ways in engendering good will the next time one calls desperate to have you practice many hours in a short period of time.
My husband and I took a day up at the cabin last Monday between rounds of company, so I could do a little bit of cleaning before the second wave arrived.
We couldn't get away until evening, so we arrived just in time to catch this view.
As is our custom, we took a bit of a wander around to see how things were. I've told you the river is high. In all honesty, we've never seen it this high. We've had more snow than usual during the winter. Add that to regular spring run-off, and things are pretty amazing. Usually I wander out to the middle of the bridge there and take pictures of one of my favorite views...
....these trees that sit along the edge of the stream. I just didn't feel comfortable doing that with the water gushing up in between the slats...
...like this. Nope, not comfortable at all....especially when my husband likes to stand on the bridge and bounce it up and down. Just for fun.
So around here this week, we had a couple of days up near 100° and as promised, I cried like a baby. It wasn't pretty. Fortunately, the temperatures are on a downward trend. For the next few days we should be living closer to more normal upper-70's/low 80's land. Tender mercies.
We are making progress in the flower-planting department. That would be the royal "we" as I am doing the planting of the flower pots, but my husband and Evan are the "we" that are making the garden happen, thankfully.
Everywhere you look there are various shades of pale pink...none of which are the exact shade of the preferred "blush pink" wedding color, but we do what we can.
The hostas are basking in their preferred "mostly shade" area. It's probably hard to gauge the size of the leaves on these things, but some of them are as big as dinner plates. It's a holy cow thing. Most people who come to the door feel obligated to say something.
My white PEE-uh-nees are blooming and I had to bring some into my space. For whatever reason, this plant isn't nearly the size of the red one, but I'll take what I can get.
My daughter and her future husband and Bryce were here last weekend. Since my husband and I have found a new-to-us place to get sushi, we headed there for dinner one night. I am not a fan of raw fish at all, but there are a couple of rolls that have cooked things in them that I really enjoy. Of course my husband, who served his church mission in Japan, feels obligated to tell us that you'd never, ever see any of those trendy rolls in Japan....that we weren't eating real sushi. That's OK with me, Hon. You just sit over there and eat your slimy raw fish. I'm totally ok with fake sushi.
We also went to the falls close to the house. We've missed peak season for flow over the falls, but it's still a pretty impressive sight.
Here's a look at the second page for last week's Project Life. I won't be a broken record and say, yet again, how much this works for me, OK? I just won't....but it does...and I'm singing the "family history, I am doing it" song in my head right now.
I made 3 cards using this design. It's my take on Shari Carroll's card that she did for Memorial Day and posted on the Simon Says Stamp blog. Of course, hers is more finished and cooler, but I'm OK with how mine turned out.
From the kids and grandkids this week, Evan's family was over one evening. It was on one of the really hot days and the sprinkler was going in the pasture. Edward and Frederick decided it would be great fun to get completely soaked to the skin.
Evan sent me this picture of "Harry Potter Roger." The really hilarious part was that he said Roger's spell is "Adios muchachos!"
Eric sent some picture of his kids enjoying some peas from their garden.
Emmett likes them quite a bit.
Collin sent this picture of James telling us it was his "popemobile."
This week's picture of cute little Levi.
And Isaac playing in a big storage container of water on their little deck. My DIL says, "because I'm too chicken to go to the pool with a newborn..." I don't blame her a bit and Isaac looks perfectly happy playing in a big storage container.
As I mentioned, my daughter and her fiancée were here last weekend. They got their engagement photos taken and the photographer posted a couple on social media (photo credit BreAnne Weston Photography)
This one is actually kind of interesting. They started taking pictures near a fence and this horse just wandered over to see what was going on, then cooperatively posed. And it was the same color as my daughter's hair. Later today, we are expecting Eric and Collin's families to arrive for a week's visit. It will be crazy, and it will be fun. Expect to be inundated with cute grandchildren photos after they leave....just giving you fair warning.
Again, I will say that the posts in the Stuff I Know series are directed at my children and grandchildren. If others enjoy them, that's great, but I'm not trying to dictate anyone's life but theirs. These are my opinions, not anyone else's...although you might have similar opinions yourself....or not. Up to you. Take them for what they're worth.
This is going to be an addendum to Stuff I Know #4, Kindness Matters, as well as #15, Kinder Than Necessary. I'm not quite sure why my thoughts recently seem to revolve around this topic quite so much. Maybe because it's been an interesting week. I've had several experiences over the last little while that have been difficult and, in my mind, hurtful...kind of one on top of the other, sort of stacked up, pressing down in addition to trying to get things lined up for a wedding, and church commitments, and family coming to visit. It's added up to some stress. It's life, and I realize that. Everyone has easy times and everyone has stressful times. Things don't always work out the way you think they might.
Life isn't fair. People aren't always kind. Sometimes they are lazy, rude, inconsiderate or thoughtless. Some might feel they are entitled to say hurtful things by virtue of the fact that they're related to you, and this is especially hard when it involves people close to you, who should love you unconditionally, and it's even harder when you feel like you've been doing a good job in whatever you've just been slapped at about...when you are informed that whatever good you think you have done, it isn't enough. This leads me to the point of today's post....Stuff I Know #16--Always take the high road. Totally not easy to do, but almost always the right choice.
I'll let you in on a secret. I'm terrible in confrontational situations, whether they are face-to-face, or in any other format. I don't think well on my feet and I tend to get emotional when I'm attacked or my feelings are hurt by someone else's actions. Give me time to ponder, and my rapier wit can turn the tables. You know how it is...someone gets in your face and an hour later you think of the perfect come-back, the line that would put them totally in their place as you turn on your heel and righteously stalk off into the setting sun. That's why blogging works so well for me. I can take hours to think of just the way I want to express something. It also gives me time to think extensively about just how best to deal with my feelings, and the answer for me almost always is....take the high road.
Now maybe that's just my non-confrontational side coming through. Maybe I just prefer to tuck it all away and ignore it until the next time it happens...as it surely will. But in my experience, slapping back at someone rarely accomplishes what you want it to. Mostly, it just deepens the conflict and solves nothing. I'm not saying there isn't a place for constructive discussion...as my husband will surely attest. He's a huge fan of "discussion," especially as it gives him and his olympic debating skills an opportunity to get you to see his point of view, but angry exchanges don't usually achieve much in the way of bridge building.
Am I perfect at this? Of course not. Sometimes I have to cherish my hurt or my exasperation just like anyone else. Stress is hard for everyone. Welcome to real life. Sometimes finding your Big Girl pants is really hard. Sometimes I can't find the high road with a flashlight, a GPS and a neon sign. We all have things go wrong, we all feel like we've been wronged on occasion, and that brings me to one of my favorite quotes that I have been repeating over and over and over and over like a mantra recently.
"It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life’s story will develop."--Dieter F. Uchtdorf
