Sunday Tradition:

Mike's Grandma Hamlin always lived in the Spring Valley area, but she recently moved to a small apartment in Rochester.  So, each Sunday after church, we stop by and visit Beth's Great Grandma.  While we were there today, I snapped a few pictures with my phone. She is always happy to see "her little sweetheart". 

We picked on her a little bit today.  Every time we come, we bring her a chocolate chip cookie.  We usually put it on her walker and wait for her to notice it and act surprised.  Today, Mike told her that we brought her a cookie, but she had to find it.  It took awhile, but she found it eventually.  Do you see her cookie?  :-)

Rule #1:  When you go to see Grandma, always bring chocolate:

She will act surprised and tell you it is too much.  But by the next time you visit, it will have been devoured. 

Grandma noticed I was walking around the room pointing a strange black box at her, and she looked at me curiously.  Mike explained that I was taking pictures of her with my telephone, and the expression on her face was a classic:

(Notice the chocolate in her hand)

Usually when we visit, Mike and I just sit back and relax because we know who she really wants to visit with:

Grandma and her Sweetheart (nearly the same height) saying their goodbyes:

We love you Grandma!  ♥

A budding photographer

A few months ago, we decided to give our old Kodak digital camera to Beth.  She has always had an interest in photography, and we didn't have any need for our first digital camera anymore, so we thought it would thrill her to call it her own.  And it has... Early on we had to make a "rule" about candid photos...  She is not to take pictures of people without their permission.  Of course, there are exceptions--like this moment she captured one night while I was making supper: 

We were browsing through her pictures today, and some of them are definitely keepers.  :-)

But, as the general rule applies, most of Beth's pictures are of the one subject that can't argue with her--Gretchen.  The poor dog gets chased around the house on a regular basis to be photographed.  (I'm sure she's looking forward to spring so Beth can get outdoors and photograph something else.) 

Here, she's taking a minute to smell the flowers:

  This one, she even smiled for the camera:  

 (Beth snapped this picture just as Gretchen sneezed.  We laughed so hard when we found it today!)  Looks like Gretchen was having a rough day in this one:  

She also managed to capture a video of the last seconds of Team Culver's surprise win to go to the final four:

 The complete chaos in this video almost makes it more priceless as you can hear her get totally swept away in the excitement of the win and completely forget she was filming...   Then, last night after Bible study, she grabbed this video of Matt improvising a song about peanut butter at her request: 

 This crazy guy has more musical talent in his little finger than most of us can hope for in lifetime...  Anyway, I can see that some of Beth's pictures are going to be pretty special, and I'm kind of excited that she shares my interest in photography.  It will be interesting to see how she develops her skills over the summer--when she has something more interesting to photograph than Gretchen.  :-) 

Belated Celebration

 Today, winter decided to return--it was very cold and blustery.  Let's hope this will be winter's final blast!  What better way to spend the day than with warm food and family? We finally got to take my folks out to lunch as a belated anniversary/birthday celebration.   (Better late than never is turning into a consistent theme in my life lately...  Well, that's a whole 'nother post.) We took them to their favorite restaurant in Mantorville: 

Beth brought Kirsten along to celebrate with us.  She was so excited when she realized that the Hubbell House was constructed in 1854, the same year Kirsten Larson came to America.

I took a picture of Beth Marie with my folks.  My Mom doesn't usually appreciate having her picture taken, but she cooperated for a picture today.  (Isn't my Mom beautiful by the way?  She has the most stunning blue eyes...)  I'm so glad to have gotten this picture.  This will be a treasure to Elizabeth for a long time:

Of course, a special dinner wouldn't be complete for Pa without just a little bread pudding:

 Mmm...good to the last bite: 

Beth in front of the painted mural in the room where we ate:



 We took the opportunity to visit the Chocolate Shop across the street: 

A kid in a candy store...

On the way home, we stopped in to check out Leashes and Leads on the outskirts of Rochester:

 

We had fun looking around, and Beth made a new friend.  This is Jake:

He was an amazingly good dog.  So calm and kind.

Beth loves horses and western wear.

She begs us for riding lessons, and I suppose we'll have to look into that one of these days.

It was a great time with Mom and Dad, and a great day to enjoy the beautiful family that God has blessed me with!

Technology is humbling

So, I've been in the process of learning my new phone.  Over the last couple weeks, I've learned that my smart phone can make me look really foolish.  I don't even want to know how many things I've accidentally "liked" in my Facebook newsfeed just from scrolling on the touch screen. I don't feel that old.  But then again, when I was in college, I don't ever remember feeling intimidated by electronic gadgets.  I always kinda felt like I knew intuitively how to operate them.  I didn't need to sit down to read the manual or take a week to figure out how to edit an event in my calendar... I have to sheepishly admit that before this week, I never knew it was possible to send a text message to someone's landline.  I learned that unexpectedly this week when I did it by mistake.  And of course, if there was one person in my contact list who I would have preferred to maintain some dignity with, it would be that person.   So, I got a call one morning this week from this lady that I host a Homeschool Mom's meeting with each month telling me that there was a very strange message on their landline that appeared to be from me.  Well, it wouldn't be beyond me to send "strange" text messages.  Some of the text messages that my husband and I exchange would appear very strange indeed if sent to the wrong person.  So, immediately, I get all hot inside and think--"What on earth did I send to Eileen??"  I think I incriminated myself more as I squirmed to figure out what my mistake was.  Thankfully, Eileen seemed pleasantly amused.  Eventually, I figured out that it was a legitimate message that I intended to send to her cell phone.  But the crazy thing was that, apparently, my mobile provider inserts an evil laugh anywhere there is a smiley face in the text message.   (Yeah, my cell provider is a little demented, but they're cheap...)  

So, if you ever get a text-to-landline message from me with an evil laugh at the end, it's no mistake.  :-) <insert evil laugh here> This makes me think back to about 3 years ago, I suppose, when I very first started using facebook.  My nieces and nephews had been using it a lot, and I mostly just got a Facebook to keep in touch with them, and a few odd friends and family. I wish I had written down all of the crazy ways that I utterly humiliated myself figuring out facebook...  Like once when I took one of those friend quizzes, and I didn't know you could skip a question if you didn't want to answer it...and I found out later that they posted the answers you gave on the person's wall!   I remember Mike was pretty skeptical when I first got a facebook.  He would check my profile to make sure I wasn't posting too much stuff on there because he thought it was "undignified" for a homeschool married lady to hang out on facebook all day.  Not wanting to embarrass my husband, I tried to be careful.  But even my dignified hubby couldn't help but lurk on my facebook, and he eventually got one of his own.  I guess I'm always the one who has to get the embarrassing bugs out of the process first so he can come along and try new things with dignity. Come to think of it, he got a blog shortly after I did, and I'm betting he'll have a smart phone before long, too.  But I'm pretty sure he won't make as many ridiculous mistakes as I have.  

In His presence is fullness of joy

Wow, another week has passed since I've blogged--or even looked at my blog, I think... Time is going by so crazy fast around here. Days have been coming and going and my time and my heart have been full. I think I'm going to have to get the hang of scheduling my blogs because it seems like I only ever have time to blog on the weekends, and then I'll put out a cluster of posts and not look at my page again until another week has passed us by.  But I'll have to get caught up before I do that because if I'm already a week behind, and then I schedule my blogs for the following week, it's going to be old news by the time it gets posted.  I'll get the hang of this eventually. I've still been plugging my way through "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.  Not to sound like a broken record, but if you haven't gotten your copy yet, go for it.  It really is full of life-changing truth.  So much so, that I find myself working my way through it slowly.  I hear so many people saying they couldn't put it down and they devoured it in a day...and I think that's great.  Somehow, where I am in my life right now, my heart isn't ready to embrace gratitude every day.  It really has been a journey for me.  It's something that I want.  But I also find myself very much wanting control...and I can't have it.   In Ann's book, she says:  "Why do I lunge for control instead of joy?"  I've read that sentence so many times.  Isn't that what we do?  With fists clenched tight and knuckles white, we hold on...as if our feeble attempts at holding on made a difference somehow...  Why is that our natural reaction?  When we claim to believe in a good God who is always in control, why do we instinctively try to force our will instead of looking for Him in our circumstances?   So, this is a life lesson that I desperately want to learn.  Some days are better than others as I continue to try to be thankful in the little things. Yesterday was a hard day.  It seemed to drag on forever.  After a couple restless nights this week, I was beat, and by the time our Bible study rolled around I felt completely spent.  Usually, it only takes a short time before I'm so caught up in company that I forget I'm tired, but that wasn't the case last night.  I was one of those nights when I was thankful to have people in my home, and glad they were having a good time, but I really did want to tuck away alone, and that feeling didn't go away.  I found myself thinking, "I will be so thankful when I can cuddle up next to my hubby in our warm bed."  This morning, when I was getting ready for the day, I thought back to last night and I was so disappointed.  I realized that by the time we finally got to bed last night, it was nearly 1am, and I guess I just crashed.  I had forgotten to be thankful...and I was so disappointed that I had forgotten to take the time to thank the Lord for the much needed rest that I had looked forward to all day yesterday. So, this is good to see that at least my heart is really wanting to see God's goodness and be thankful. It's so important to be thankful.  I'm convinced that when it comes to gratitude, there really is no middle ground.  If you're not thankful, you will eventually become unthankful, and then bitter, and if you go too far down that road, I really think you will grow blind to the many good things that God gives. Well, I'll leave you with another quote from the book:  "If I am rejecting the joy that is hidden somewhere deep in this moment--am I not ultimately rejecting God? . . .  In His presence is fullness of joy."  

It's awful quiet around here today...

 Beth Marie spent most of the day Saturday with very little voice... ...and most of the day Sunday watching videos in our bedroom with a fever... Today she's feeling a little better--unless she tries to talk.  If she talks, she coughs this terrible croupy cough.  So, she's hanging around in her sweats, waiting for her voice to recover...  

This is a little girl who usually has a lot to say...so it seems pretty strange not to hear her voice chattering around the house. But I'm sure she's savin' up...and she'll be making up for lost time very soon....

Forbidden books...

Do you have any forbidden books on your bookshelf?

We've had one for quite some time.

For the last 3 years, everytime somebody picked up this book...

...my husband got very nervous.

Because for the last . . . three . . . years . . .

He's been drying leaves in this book.

I wish I would have gotten a "before picture" of the leaves neatly arranged in the pages with post-it notes marking their location.

It's been one of those "out of sight out of mind" projects that seemed to fall into the black hole of good intentions around here.  I have a whole basket of those in my sewing closet.  (And that is just what was left after I purged several of bins from the closet a year or so ago...)

Anyway, the other night, Elizabeth dared to take this book off the shelf to look up the meaning of a name...

After a bit of a scafuffle, we decided that maybe it was time to laminate Daddy's leaf collection. 

So, Beth decorated a box:

And Mike started laminating leaves:

 A couple hours later, I had them all cut out, and it definitely felt like fall in the school room.  :-)   We might be a little confused on our seasons around here, but Daddy's long awaited leaf collection is now complete! And Strong's Concordance is no longer the "forbidden book" on the bookshelf . . .