li'l birders

Gwennie noticed Mrs. Cardinal sitting on a limb and tried to draw her brothers' attention to one of our favorite commonly-seen birds. We're fortunate that we have a pair in our back yard, most days.

pacman

Casper found a rock in our garden and instantly drew an association with something else. This is what he explained to me:

floral engineering

Everyone loves snapdragons

temple trip

Even though Jennifer was at a meeting for a job she's been working on, the children and I drove to the Houston temple to help with an Elders Quorum trip. We'd promised parents that we'd provide babysitting, but the group was small enough that we mainly walked around the grounds. The children found squirrels, a rabbit, mockingbirds and cardinals and a great blue heron, some anoles and funnel web spiders. We really enjoyed our time together, and could feel the particular spirit of the temple as we walked around. Before we returned home, we got to go to a favorite bookstore and cafe for lunch. It was a really great morning.

Daddy: Casper, what did you think about our visit to the temple?
Casper: I had to find clues -- lots of clues. There was a big window that was a window of mystery. It was big and round and had lots of colors. And all those lights were all so awesome, and two waterfall fountains, and the whole temple was so tall it looked like it was moving away from its place, and it was part of my mystery.

Robot Potty

Ever since an incident in Houston when an automatic toilet flushed while he was sitting on it, Casper has had a mortal terror of what he calls the "robot potty." Any time we're out and he needs to go to the bathroom, he balks until he can be convinced that the toilet he's sitting on isn't going to attack. We've had to beg and to physically pull him into stalls to show him that he isn't in danger. Poor kid.

Linee's choice

Sometimes one of the children asks me to take a picture. Sometimes they ask in response to a significant situation; other times, I think they just want some attention. Or it could be, as in this case, that they find a really remarkable bush.

Flower Children

King Casper

When Jen bought a salad with this paper band around the packaging, Casper immediately took it and has been wearing it as a crown for the past few weeks. It really conveys an air of majesty, wouldn't you say?

Maybe because it was shower time, or because the children had been listening to primary songs immediately beforehand, but when Casper saw one of our kitties as he walked into the bathroom, he started chanting "Pudge the Baptist, Pudge the Baptist."

Mama: "Casper, why did you throw tinker toys at your brother and sister?"
Casper: "Because they were tormenting me!"

cuz party

Saturday, the children were invited to cousin Sophia's birthday party, and they had a fabulous (terrific! spectaklee-ar!) time at what seems to have been an intricately planned and flawlessly executed party. (I only say "seems" because we parents weren't invited, and got to go out on an afternoon date to the temple, our favorite spice store, and an Indian restaurant. Thanks, Heather and BJ.)

Grannie's garden

We spent some time working with Grannie on her garden, to return the favor. We set up her raised beds, planted her twelve or fifteen tomato plants, and wore ourselves out running around the yard (respectively) . Actually, the children were a great help in getting the garden together -- they are going to be great workers.

bonkers

A trip to visit Grannie means a trip to Going Bonkers. Of course, as it was Spring Break, the building was packed with sweaty little bodies. The children had a great time with their cousins, Casper and Phoebe completely wore themselves out, and Gwennie won a jackpot in the ball-drop arcade game.

Linus and Daddy

Linus loves spending time with his Daddy, whether it's working with tools, reading books, or planning for projects (especially when they involve tools). One of his recent moves is to suddenly appear behind one of his parents (generally while we're working at a computer) and start giving a back massage. They're actually really good -- he's got some serious hand strength for a five year old.

The White House

The yard is looking much nicer these days, given the landscaping and gardening we've been able to do with Grannie's help. Our pear tree is in bloom, and the front flower garden (visible just behind Gwennie) has a handsome new brick border and mulch cover.

pressroom

While we were busy with yardwork on Saturday, I took the opportunity to clean and rearrange all the type in my pressroom. (When I say "clean," what I really mean is, "remove the dust and detritus from the interiors of the cases," and when I say "detritus," what I mean is, "a mess of lizard eggs and skeletons.") I was able to reposition three of the single cabinets, shifting two into the shed, and moved the painted double cabinet into its permanent position on the ledge at the near end of the room. Now, I just need to shift my imposing table, move the press nearer to the door, and I should be able to fit the oak double cabinet into the room itself. Then I'll have access to the bookshelves in my study once again.

The interior of the shed, now improved with three times more type

Ideas of progress

Gwendolyn has always been goal- and achievement-oriented; she gains satisfaction from meeting expectations which have been set for her. Which isn't to say that she isn't involved in the process, but that she seems to be motivated by a combination of her own decisions and the encouragement of her parents and other authority figures.

Some months ago, I was inspired by a discussion of the new Duty to God booklet (targeted at the young men in the church) to produce a similar program for Gwennie. I had been feeling that Gwennie could use some additional motivation in various elements of her life (specifically in her interactions with her family, but also in her spiritual, academic, and creative pursuits), and this struck me as a good way to give her the greatest involvement in making goals and seeing them through.

The booklet contains four general sections, each divided into three elements. These contain five goals each, and culminate in a prompt for Gwennie to set her own goal and complete it. For example, in the "Home Leadership" section, there's a page on "Peacemaking." She's chosen this as one of her first goals: "On ten occasions, walk away from a situation instead of responding in anger." If I can figure out how to post pdfs, I'll put the design of the complete booklet up on the Giant Turnip.

At any rate, here's an example of this feature of her personality in action: while eating dinner, I made an offhand comment about how disappointed I was that Gwennie hadn't lost her tooth today, as she'd predicted before church. She said something like, "What about this?" and plucked the tooth right out of her head (to much applause). That's the kind of motivation we like to see!

yardening

We spent our entire Saturday working on the yard, and particularly putting in our garden. We'd experimented last year with raised beds, and with Grannie's help, we took the attempt to the next level. We now have a small herb garden, a number of tomato and bean plants, a bed for cucumbers and melons, and a box for each of the children. We're all extremely excited to see how the seedlings flourish.

floral portrait

one decade

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary. In one sense, it's almost impossible to believe that it's been such a long time -- but when I think of everything that's transpired, it doesn't seem like it could fit. Three kids, a couple of degrees, various jobs, several moves. Sickness, health, all that. Here's to a few more of these.

The block print portrait I cut for our wedding announcement

Linus, creature tamer

Linus has become adept at drawing animals, including these two crocodiles which his teacher told me he produced during his primary class. He becomes quite absorbed in researching the habits of beasts of various ferocious kinds, as you may be able to see from the following report he wrote about perhaps his favorite animal (the bear):

paper dress-up

My apologies about the quality of the scan, but I wanted to share this card produced by Gwendolyn as a surprise gift for her Mama. As you can plainly see, this design presents a paper doll with an assortment of dress-up clothes, ranging from fancy shoes and jewelry to accouterments like pets and hair (wigs?). The bikini-clad figure, which I assume is meant to represent Jennifer, can be seen in the middle of the page.

workshop redux

Because the other children were disappointed that they hadn't joined Linus at Lowe's for our building workshop last Saturday, we took Auntie Tiffany to Home Depot so that all three of the children could build -- guess what? -- a racecar. These were a little more pinecar-derby style than Linus's (they didn't have a self-propelling mechanism), so the staff at the Depot had put up a track which the children monopolized for seven or eight races. I'm pretty sure that Casper's car won every one.

(That's Casper's car in the top track.)

weekend hosts

We were all excited to have Auntie Tiffany with us for the weekend. The kids kept her busy, which is part of the reason that we largely have only action shots of her.

crack that egg!

li'l builder

I was a little confused when Casper asked for some "seaweed" at dinnertime tonight, but since I was steaming spinach, it seemed reasonable. When he turned down the spinach, it took me a while to realize that what he really wanted was a kiwi.

Seeing a picture of mashed potatoes in a cookbook, Casper announced, "It's cream cheese and mozzarella! My favorite! Delicious!"

(see Saturday for details on this expedition)

a fine day for a ride

slopstacle course

Gwendolyn drove her brothers inside for an hour this afternoon so that she could create a special obstacle course in the back yard. The obstacles -- which were all based on steeplechase jumps -- were a little difficult for Casper, but Gwennie ran the route with him. Linus threw himself into the race, but had to crawl under some of the taller obstructions. Gwennie took the course at such speed that she couldn't be captured by film.