Electrum

A good friend from the chapel asked me to make her a tree skirt -

photos here.

In planning a quilt, I generally overestimate the fabric a bit

because I don't want to run short and have to try to find more of the same.

But between working with Really Large Pieces on the tree skirt

and maybe - just maybe - my math skills failing me,

we REALLY overbought on the fabric.

So I did this.

The flimsy...

The blocks finish at five inches, so it's about 40" x 40".

Not big enough to snuggle under, but maybe pretty on the table,

or to hang on the wall.

... and the finished product.

I backed it with the metallics...

Not too complex (whew!),

and I'm happy with how it came out :D

Grasshopper Days

Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, April 9, 2018

Outside my window...  yesterday

Hearing...  birds singing when I wake up in the morning :D

Praying...  

How can a young man keep his way pure?

By living according to your word...

I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119

Thankful...  all is well.  (Don't infer anything awful from the prayer ;D)

Kerry has lots of work.

Everyone is healthy.

Wyatt is working.

Tate just started his last quarter of college.

Gunnar had a great spring break - orchestra tour.

Creating...  sewing a LOT lately - will post pics soon.

Going...  just back from PT.  Fell on the ice in January and hurt my knee, but have an amazing physical therapist.  He can figure out exactly what's messed up and what to do to fix it, all in manageable steps (for a non-athlete like me!)  So thankful :D

Looking forward to...  painting being finished.

These are old photos, but look at the closet... no doors.

And the door frame... no trim.

Same around the window... no trim.

First we hired a friend to install closet doors and trim,

so the house was like this for awhile...

Yes.  That was as convenient as you're imagining.

He did a GREAT job :D

But he doesn't paint.

And even the rooms that HAD trim, had trim that had never been painted.

So now we have a painter coming and going.

And we need to move EVERYTHING again, to give him access not only to the closet doors, but to all the closet, door, and window trim (not too difficult)

but all the FLOOR trim... around every upstairs room.

It's all good, but it will be better when it's done.

Niko knows how to relax no matter what is going on.

 In the kitchen... finishing the last of the Easter ham tonight.

In the learning rooms... Gunnar has finished his official homeschool studies for the year, but has some reading to do/discuss with me... woo-hoo!  And some homework from high school, of course.

Around the house... I'm leaving the Easter things out for awhile because we need SOMETHING to looks springy.  My friend Ben texted me,

"It literally feels like January 74th,"

and he's right.

Noticing that... there IS hope.

Lilac buds

The Mother Load... has gone all sideways with the work being done on the house.

I've found time to play a little though.

Made this coaster (now apparently known as a "mug rug")

out of scraps from a long-ago project.

Something fun to share...

Lukas the Spider.

Click it.  You'll be glad you did.

A quote for the day...

The aim of hospitality is to forge relationships strong enough to bear the weight of truth.

- Dustin Willis and Brandon Clements

from this encouraging article on hospitality, here.

A peek into my world...

Grasshopper Days

I know it's spring,
but we're not feeling it yet!

Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, April 2, 2018

Outside my window...  yesterday, EASTER SUNDAY,

we had snow. No April foolin'. 

Hearing... the dryer tumbling and my stomach growling.

Almost lunch time.

Pondering... mom and I were talking yesterday about my dad's heart surgery last August.  It really knocked him for a loop, and I'm sure his recovery seemed painfully slow to him, but really... by Thanksgiving he was feeling pretty great, and now - eight months later - he's FABULOUS.  Amazing.

Praying...  that Gunnar has a wonderful time on his orchestra trip.  He called yesterday, from Disneyland. (Not that he was gloating or anything...)  Had a question.  Talked for about 30 seconds.  I think he was in line for a ride.

Thankful...  Kerry has had a TON of work for quite awhile. Yay :D  Tate finished another quarter with straight A's and has just one more quarter until graduation.  Wyatt is enjoying his work.  And everyone remains healthy - hallelujah.

Creating...  just finished a project for a friend.  She requested a reversible Christmas tree skirt in gold and silver.  I wanted to help, but was leery of trying to sew something like gold lame... NO.  She chose (and paid for) all the fabrics (cottons!) and I put it together...

The gold side...

the silver side.

It's hard to really see the fabrics in the photos of the whole skirt (it was HUGE!),

so here's a closer look... 

Going...  have already been to P.T. this morning and to get groceries, and hoping to stay home the rest of the day :D  So much to do...

Apparently our area hasn't got the memo that it's supposed to be spring...

Reading...  am re-reading The Book That Made Your World to discuss with Gunnar.

I think every American Christian should read it.

And stop apologizing for Christianity changing cultures.

Looking forward to...  Gunnar comes home Wednesday night (late!) and can't wait to hear about his big adventures.

In the kitchen...  glorious leftovers.  I think I cooked the best ham ever this year.  In the crock pot.  I want to do another one.  Oh yes.

In the learning rooms...  Gunnar still has some books to read and discuss, but I am really close to the finish line of homeschooling.  Unreal.

Around the house...  you'd be shocked (or maybe not) if you saw how much chocolate I bought for yesterday, and then to see the little quart-size ziplock bag that all the leftovers fit into.  Yes, we are a family of chocolate lovers.

Something to remember for later...  the extended family came here for Easter, which means a noisy (happy) chaos.  I planned to make deviled eggs, but after mixing up the yolks discovered the mayo was rancid.  Ick.  Threw those in the trash.  It poured.  It hailed.  It snowed.

And Naomi leaned over the ONE candle I had lit, and set her hair on fire.

So, you know, Happy Easter!

The Mother Load...  after making my friend the tree skirt, there was a LOT of fabric leftover, much of it more to her liking than mine, so I'm plotting something else to surprise her with.

A favorite quote for today...  sometimes I read Sean Dietrich's blog.

Today he wrote...

Mama is a woman who says things like,

"Don't talk about yourself too much,

it's like passing gas in an elevator;

people will smile,

but they don't mean it."

Words to live by.

One of my favorite things...  Cadbury mini-eggs.

A peek into my world...

guess what I've been doing lately?

It Was a Much Better Day... and Weekend

If you're keeping better track of things than I am, let me reassure you that we had a lovely visit with Burke and Mary last weekend.  All the household systems functioned as intended, our simple dinner was properly cooked, no emergency repairs were needed, and everyone seemed to enjoy each other :D

Hallelujah and Amen.

I'm shamelessly pilfering Tate's facebook page for photos of the afternoon walk.

Tomorrow is Easter, and I have a houseful of family coming - Kerry's family last week, my family this week.  But we're minus Gunnar...

Beginning of the school year - he looks so much younger!

Gunnar owes me big for getting up at 2am (to make sure he was up) and driving him to the high school, to meet his orchestra group.  They all took off for SoCal this morning.  If they're following their itinerary, about now Gunnar is all suited up in his fancy-pants and they're heading out for an Italian dinner before hearing the L.A. Philharmonic later tonight.

100% swanky.

It's weird that he's gone over Easter, but we're glad for him to get this chance.  And he earned it.  When they proposed the trip (with a $1700+ price tag), they "offered" the students a monthly line-up of fund-raisers.  I get that they're trying to make the trip possible for ALL orchestra students (a good thing) but fund-raisers...  UGH.  I told Gunnar that we would NOT be doing them (with the exception of the chocolate bars, because everyone loves chocolate.  And they're only a buck.)  We would not be hawking overpriced miscellany to our friends and relatives, month after month, BUT any money he earned by working, we would match.  He did a lot of pet care, mowing, gutter-cleaning, etc. and he made it :D

Hope he enjoys every minute of it!

It Was Not My Best Day

In December, Kerry's dad and his wife came to visit.

It was not my best day.  (Not their fault!)

Our oven was being kind of fluky.  Sometimes it would take FOREVER to get hot.  Well, the morning of That Day the oven did get hot.  And when the oven gets hot, you bake.  We had various Christmas events coming, so I got busy...

I think I baked seventeen loaves of bread (small), a ginger "bread" for dessert, and then mixed up fifteen pounds of meatballs, figuring most would go into the freezer and the last batch that went in the oven would be for dinner.

Meanwhile, Burke and Mary arrived earlier than expected (I guess I didn't really need a shower), the plumbing backed up (emergency!), and about the time I slid the last tray of meatballs into the oven, it completely gave up the ghost.

So while the emergency plumber dropped by and sorted out the drains, I was dancing around him in the kitchen, preparing a curried bulgur side dish, and discovering that the meatballs were... raw.  Dinner was about an hour late (thank heaven meatballs can be cooked on the stove top!), Burke and Mary were gracious about the whole thing, and Kerry was just about dying of embarrassment.  Because, you know, Mr. Successful Architect's home is going to pieces around us.

It was not his best day. (Not his fault!)

These things happen.

In shocking news, I didn't get any photos of that visit.  You'll have to use your imagination.

Then, just to add to the fun, Burke and Mary went on to Kerry's brother and SIL's to stay and visit with them and his brother's sons. SIL apparently came down with something horrible that involved much vomiting in the night. Early the next morning they (and grandsons) scattered, like cockroaches when the light comes on.

It was not her best day.  (Not her fault!)

We're all giving it another try this weekend.  Burke and Mary arrive in a few hours for dinner, and we're all hoping things go just a bit more smoothly this time around.

Wish me luck.

And On The Third Day of Spring...

We attended Gunnar's orchestra concert,

and emerged to find this...

yep.

It's snow.

The End of an Era

When we were homeschooling all three boys full time, that was

a lot of time with Mom.

As far as their education goes, it was basically

all mom, all the time.

And as awesome as I naturally am (HA!),

that was not a great long-term strategy with young men.

So I started looking for something - I wasn't even sure what.

Somewhere they'd be around other young men, with good role models.

The funny thing is, I'd heard of Civil Air Patrol before, but had gotten the (wrong) impression that it was something Air Force bases offered to Air Force kids. When I learned that it was open to civilians AND that we had a squadron right in our hometown, well... all the boys got interested. Gunnar was too young to join initially (have to be 12), so Wyatt and Tate had a head-start on him and he got to learn the ropes second hand.

When the boys played soccer one of the things I loved was that it was seasonal.  We'd have a really busy 8-10 weeks, and then it was done.  Not so with CAP.  Squadron meetings and activities go year-round.  With waaaay more opportunity than any one person can take advantage of, the boys had to pick and choose which activities to participate in.  Wyatt really loved the flying.  Besides the O-flights, he won a scholarship to Desert Eagle - a two week flight school, where he got to fly solo.  He and Tate both trained and participated in several SAR activities (including actual searches).  Tate and Gunnar both volunteered as "victims" for many CERT classes, and eventually took and passed CERT classes themselves.  And Gunnar competed for two (three?) years on the squadron's CyberPatriot team.

But with activities continuing in a perpetual cycle, there's no natural "endpoint" to CAP involvement, and we didn't want the boys to just fizzle out.  Gunnar's goal was to earn the Billy Mitchell Award.  This is A Big Deal in the CAP world.  I wish I could remember what percentage of cadets get this far, but it's relatively small.  And make no mistake, the cadets earn these promotions - they don't just get them for showing up week after week.  Though this award did not require a drill test, it did require a comprehensive leadership exam, a comprehensive aerospace exam, a PT test, completion of Basic Encampment, and a review board interview.

And here's Gunnar's big moment, at the annual squadron "Dining Out",

receiving his award from a high muckety-muck from "Wing".

And with that... I think we're done with CAP.

A great organization - lots of opportunities and generally a great bunch of people.

And now we're moving on.

Sometimes You Just Need To Get Away

The literal side of me is having trouble with saying "need" there,

but I'm going to roll with it.

Heading up into the mountains

Kerry and I have our anniversary in May, which is a great month to get married.

(I suppose any month is a good month to get married ;D)

But not such a good month for a getaway.

Fresh snow below the pass!

Here in the PNW, after months of rain and darkness, the weather is finally warming up, the days are getting long, and everything seems to be bursting into bloom and growing like it's on steroids. It's a pretty good time to be here!

Waterfall :D

But oh the long, dark winters...

A lot of that vivid red are wild blueberry bushes.

Bad weather usually sets in around October, and that's when I like to get away.

And now that the boys are as old as they are, we can just... go.

It's pretty amazing, really :D

So we did.

Near Leavenworth - aaahhhhh

Washington is basically rectangular, and divided by the Cascade Mountains.

We live on the wet side, near the ocean. Nice and green. LOTS of rain. 

I'm intrigued by the foot bridge...

But the other side is much drier and brighter.

... but I won't be crossing it!

Better fall colors, too.

I love love love this house and its location

Just what I tell myself I need, before the long dark season.

And we have a place we like to go in Winthrop.

Kind of rustic,

The River Run Inn

really quiet,

and what a view to welcome us!

Right on the Methow River,

and did I mention the aspens?

I love those trees :D

We brought books and projects,

and pretty much holed up at the Inn,

venturing out each day to do a bit of hiking

and exploring.

Tawlks Foster Suspension Bridge

The Methow Valley has a huge network of trails,

perfect for hiking,

horses,

mountain biking,

and x-country skiing in the winter.

Loup Loup Pass Ski Area

I always feel like I'm storing up the brightness

Larch trees!

and the vivid colors

to carry me through the winter ahead.

Happy late anniversary to us :D

I love the sound of the water :D 

The most direct route from our hometown to Winthrop crosses a pass

that closes for several months each winter.

We got through just in time -

it closed a few days after we crossed back to the rainy side.