Disasters of the kitchen variety

Not too long into our marriage, we discovered that pancakes were a source of marital discord.  We each have very definite opinions about how they should be cooked which is a problem but I also had rather intense reactions when things did not go right with them (sticking to the pan, falling apart when turning etc.). It has made for many rough starts to the day throughout the years.

One day I got mad enough to just fling the offending pancake across the room.  Unfortunately it went into the window sill where my glass swans sat.  One of the swans got hit and ended up in the sink, in pieces.  This, of course, caused more angst and it was just a lovely morning all around.

The picture above is a morning when the whisk attachment for the mixer decided to have a minor break in one of the wires.  Eggs whites went all over the place in the time it took me to figure out what in the world was going on. Amazingly enough I was able to just laugh this one off.  Maybe I'm finally growing up!

Grandmas and Quilts

I have always admired my Grandmothers.  One I always thought of as very cultured and educated.  She always looked very classy and proper.  I admired that but couldn't imagine quite being able to pull that off.  My other grandmother was more what I thought the classic grandmother should be. Her standard outfits were the polyester pants and blouses that pretty much every older woman I knew back then wore.  Her hair was what I thought the standard grandma style should be and she had wonderful wrinkles and age spots that I thought were just plain cool.  She also painted, crocheted and quilted.  This was what I wanted to be when I grew up!

Unfortunately polyester pant suits went way out of style, my hair is still mostly brown and I'd look silly with a short grandma perm.  There is hope for the wrinkles and age spots though.  I tried painting and came to the conclusion that I have absolutely no artistic talent so that's out.  I can crochet but who needs more crocheted toilet paper covers anyway? But, I love quilting! I love the way the fabric come together to make a beautiful quilt top and most of all I love hand quilting.  I love that it takes a long time and is repetitious. I love that I feel close to my grandmother when I'm sewing those tiny stitches.

So, in my jeans and button up shirts and with my mostly straight, mostly brown hair, I make quilts for my children and grandchildren.  Then, unlike my grandmother, I take pictures and post them on Instagram, Facebook and all those other things she didn't even dream about.  Now if I could just find me some polyester...

Music and other forms of noise

We found two of these in the basement of my mother in law's house.  She used to be a teacher so I'm sure she's had her share of enjoying the lovely sounds a room full of 4th graders can produce with this simple thing.  I, on the other hand have especially enjoyed the lovely sounds a two year old grandson can produce.

Before I started the violin, the recorder was my first instrument.  My experience with the recorder came from my mother's Baroque Recorder group.  They were really good and had wonderful recorders made out of wood in the various sizes--soprano, alto, tenor and the really large bass.  They even had period costumes to wear when they performed.  The resulting experience was completely different than a bunch of 4th graders or an enthusiastic 2 year old!

God is in the details

Breakfast view from the kitchen table. This house may have a lot of deficiencies (single bathroom, drafty, crowded with stuff) but the view from the front windows is amazing! It makes up for a lot.

To me, beautiful sunrises like this one are a way that I know we have a God and that he loves us.  There are plenty of big, really important things that He does too, but this is something that seems to be just to make us happy because it's so beautiful.

Coexistence, sort of

You'd think deer and dogs wouldn't like to be around each other but from the deer's point of view at least, they're fine with it.  The deer in front here seemed to want to play with Duke, kept coming over trying to get his attention.  Duke, however was not so fine with his territory being invaded.  

I love having wildlife right in the backyard.  We get to see them wandering around every day.  We'll see how I feel about it when they're eating all my garden vegetables next summer though...

South Dakota, the unboring part

We lived in South Dakota for 8 years.  When we moved there my mom said she cried all the way across the state (to the south eastern, boring side) since we were moving there from beautiful western Oregon.  I think the farmland grew on her a bit over the years but it was still pretty flat and boring.

The other side of South Dakota isn't bad though.  We went camping in the Black Hills where this lovely picture of my sister and me was taken.  The thing I remember most about that trip is the really, really cold Lake (Pactola if I remember right). It was the kind of cold that caused intense pain when you jumped into the lake.  However, that didn't stop us from swimming.  Once the first shock wore off, it  wasn't all that bad.  The best part about the Black Hills area for westerners like my parents was the actual hills, a reminder of home after months on end of nothing but flat prairie.

Center of my world

This would be my parents when they were as old as some of my middle children right now. They were a rather good looking couple back then and they still are, in a more distinguished, mature way.  As far as the baby in the picture goes, I've been told I kept them up at night, scratching my mattress with my fingernails, that my mom got strep throat shortly after I was born and that's about it.

My earliest memories were a few years later when I loved my stuffed animals, the zoo and my tricycle, got chicken pox (didn't love that) and thought the world revolved around me.  Looking at this picture reminds me that there was a whole lot of other stuff going on while I was growing up that I was pretty much oblivious to.  My parents did have lives beyond me as did the rest of the world.  It's good for a while in life to think that everything is about you though.  That's what being a toddler is all about.  And a teenager or course.