season's first swim

grateful sunday

This week I am thankful for:

• Plume's safe return! She showed up at our back door about 9.30 this evening, hungry and covered in burrs, but healthy and happy to be home. I wept with joy and gratitude. I'm so thankful for her safe return and for the protection she had while she was away from our home. I know Pudge will show up any day now. I believe in miracles.
  
• The fun week the kids and I had in Dallas last week with my family. I love my family. [Coming soon: pictures of me on roller-skates!]
  
• Gwendolyn's piano recital yesterday. She's worked so hard lately and though nervous, she did a beautiful job. I'm thankful for her wonderful teacher, Ms Emilee, who helps her be excited about music and lessons. I'm thankful for Todd's musical talent and the time he takes to work with Gwendolyn, which helps her be excited about practicing.
  
• The bounty of our garden. "Bounty" might be stretching things a bit, but we've enjoyed cucumbers, tomatoes and various herbs (and beans from Granny's garden) with zucchini on the way!
  
• Todd's day off tomorrow. He's been working 15 hour days the past couple of weeks, so we haven't seen much of him. How grateful I am that we will have him around all day tomorrow. Just being home with my family is my favorite thing in the world. Seriously.
  

second recital

Gwennie had her second piano recital today. She was nervous, but did a beautiful job.

Pudge pleas

On Monday when Todd was leaving for work and the rest of us were still in Dallas, all three cats got out. We often let them out to romp around the backyard while we are out there with them, but with Todd working such long hours this week, we decided they would just have to suffer indoors. He was able to get one cat, Spats, back inside, but the other two eluded him. He expected to find them tired and hungry and waiting at the back door when he returned home that night, but didn't. Nor did he find them on Tuesday morning. That's when we started getting worried. The kids and I returned from Dallas a day early and have been doing everything we can to get our kitties home -- daily visits to the animal shelter, lost pet ads in the newspaper and on Craig's list, postering the neighborhood with fliers, calling for them constantly and of course, prayer and fasting. It's been 5 days and still nothing. Please pray for our sweet kitties.

Please note that we aren't totally irresponsible pet owners -- they are vaccinated and do have collars with tags, but they know how to get these "safety collars" off. I learned that the animal shelter with microchip your pet for only $10. Guess who has a date with the microchip gun next week, Spats?

work for hire

Grandad built this rack to store firewood and offered to pay Gwendolyn $25 if she would paint it with a coat of wood sealant. She gladly accepted (this kid loves saving and counting her money -- if you ask her what she plans to be when she grows up, she replies, "A philanthropist"). Though she didn't quite finish before we left town, she worked hard and was thrilled with the $18 she earned.

workshop

Even though it frequently entails going into the Library at eight and staying until ten or eleven, the week of the Workshop is probably the best work week of the year. How can you beat teaching historical methods of typesetting, typecasting, papermaking, inkmaking, and other skills required in the creation of books in the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries? (We completed the setting and printing of two impressive pamphlets over the course of the five-day Workshop.) Not only do I get to meet interesting scholars, librarians, and students from around the country, but I also welcomed two friends and colleagues back to the Library as returning faculty. By Friday, I'm always exhausted and sorry that it's over.

Nine bean rows will I have there

The kids loved helping Granny in her garden (especially Gwendolyn). We picked 3 pounds of green beans today (!!!) and enjoyed them with our dinner. We're also enjoying cucumbers and tomatoes. Yum. I love my mom's garden. She works so hard on it each year and it is always so plentiful. Some of my fondest childhood memories are associated with our gardens. I hope to one day learn enough and have enough practice to be able to have a thumb half as green as my mother's.

Note Linus' contribution (someone has to document the work, right?)

run sprinkler boy run

The boys got a little hot and sweaty while helping Granny in her garden, so Granny helped to cool them off.

With Todd busy preparing for next week's workshop, I took the kids up to Dallas so we could play with grandparents and aunties and cousins and uncle BJ this week. We're all looking forward to it!

Pirates Anonymous

Play ahoy! The kids built this fabulous pirate ship in a corner of the playroom this afternoon. My favorite parts (besides the tinker-toy rainbow colored mast) are the broken globe and the weather wheel. Beware!

Gwennie Triumphant

Yesterday, Gwennie finished the first Harry Potter. The one she's been working her way through for the past couple of months. She's done very well and is oh, so proud of herself (as she should be!). This process has made her a much better and more confident reader, but we're going to take a little break from Harry for a while and read something with fewer pages.

grateful sunday

This week I am thankful for:

• The nine plus years we had with our sweet (and often not-so-sweet) Mason. I really miss him. It's been nice to reminisce and tell the children stories about his kitten-hood. He used to love to eat fruit and run around the tub while I was in the bath and play with his stuffed hedgehog. I'm thankful for the knowledge that he'll be with us again someday, but cured of all that ailed him.
  
• A wonderful Ward Conference. I heard some things today that I needed to hear. Every conference, I feel a gentle push to do a little better and I'm grateful.
  
• The cool weather and rain we've had this weekend. When it's mid-May in Texas and you have a couple of days when you don't have to water the lawn and can throw open the windows instead of turn on the a/c, that's a really good thing.
  

in memoriam

We received Mason as a wedding present from Todd's siblings, just two weeks after our marriage.

He was a tiny, playful ball of fluff. As a kitten, he was so affectionate and loving. He missed us when we were gone during the day, he played hide and seek with Todd, he let us put a leash and harness on him and take him for walks. He slept in our arms. We absolutely adored him.

As we were looking through old photos tonight, we realized that there was a time in our lives when we hardly took a picture that Mason wasn't in.

Nine years later, he is a different beast. All the moves and children and other pets broke him in some essential way. He was not happy, but there were still things that he enjoyed which I will miss. Every morning he would wait patiently while Todd showered because he loved to lick the water off the door when Todd finished. If I was sitting cross-legged, he would come sit on my lap and let me or the children stroke him. This was absolutely his most affectionate time.

He loved my feet and would attack them, sometimes chasing me through the house just to get a good bite at my ankle.

Tonight, there is a part of me that is absolutely and completely heartbroken and overcome with guilt. There is another part of me which realizes that he wasn't healthy and certainly wasn't happy, and that now he is at peace. I'm thankful for that.

I'm also thankful that our vet made a housecall so we didn't have to put Mason through the trauma of a car ride and the strange smells of a new place (he would have freaked out and been very aggressive). I'm thankful that the children were all in their beds so that I could be there during the process. I'm thankful that I was able to hold him in my arms and comfort him as he slipped away.

leftovers

The 7+ pounds of dewberries that we picked on Saturday night.

Homemade dewberry ice cream.

Dewberry Grunt (a stove-top cobbler with a biscuit topping)

We still have a good six pounds of berries that we are eating our way through, though we do have some big plans for making dewberry jam one night this week. Maybe dewberry scones for breakfast on Saturday?

grateful Mama's day

I'm afraid that I sometimes take motherhood for granted and I don't want to. I hope that I don't sound superficial when I say that I am so thankful to have been given the opportunity to be a mother. I am so thankful for the three amazing children that I have been blessed with. I am thankful for the things they teach me every single day and for the many, many ways I have grown since becoming a mother. I'm also very thankful that I get to take this journey with Todd. He and the kids took good care of me today. I'm a happy mama.

dewberrying

Tonight we went over to the home of some friends for some berry picking. They live out in the country and there is a large deer reserve behind her home where dewberries grow wild. We donned our boots and gloves (to protect ourselves from thorns), strapped old milk cartons to our belts (to use as berry-collecting pails) and picked for a good hour and a half. The kids were troopers -- Gwendolyn was all about picking more berries than her brothers, Linus was all about eating the berries that he picked, and Casper was all about giving everyone a running commentary about the whole process. We had a ball and ended up with a little over 7 pounds (Todd picked over half of our total by himself). We plan to go back in a couple of weeks when the wild (muscat?) grapes are ripe. Yum.

crap.

We are potty-training Casper. For the most part, it is going well and he is very proud of himself. I'm proud of him, too, but we've had a few debacles in the past week that I would like to note for posterity's sake.

Last Wednesday afternoon I had a meeting and Todd came home early to stay with the kids. Casper was calling from his crib, ready to get up from his nap. When Todd went to fetch Casper, he found that Casper had pooped in his pull-up and then taken it off, which meant that Casper and every square foot of the crib (and its contents) was covered in poop. Not fun.

The very next night we were at gymnastics and once again Casper pooped in his pull-up. This time it leaked out of his pull-up and shorts and onto the gym floor. And then I stepped in it. After a messy clean up of the gym and my shoes, we went to the van for a messy clean up of Casper. Not fun.

Two days after that, on Saturday, we had driven 45 minutes to the state park. During the drive, Casper pooped in his pull-up. I took him into the museum bathroom to clean him up and found that the poop had leaked out of the pull-up and all over his shorts and shirt. We washed the shorts as best we could while my sister drove over to the gift shop and bought an over-priced replacement shirt. Not fun.

Thankfully, we've had five straight days with no poop incidents.

FIVE!

Today we got to celebrate our sweet Linus. I'm so in love with him. He's passionate, loving, gentle, intelligent, kind, and damn cute. I'm so glad he's a part of our family.



After stake conference, we had an afternoon filled with opening and playing with presents. Favorites include a big tub of legos, a kid's digital camera, a gently-used cd player (from Gwendolyn), new clothes, a soccer ball, new rain boots, books, and dress-up stuff. He's in heaven. We made his requested birthday dinner: homemade pigs in blankets, steamed artichokes, salad, and, of course, picnic cake!

how ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm

This morning we drove to a nearby state park with a living history farm where we rode the horses,

invented a new way to play hoops,

fed the chickens homemade cornbread,

and washed some laundry.

It was a great day.

magnolia

Yesterday Granny, Auntie Heather and our cousins came to town to help celebrate Linus's birthday this upcoming Sunday. Hooray for 5-year-olds, family, and magnolia blossoms!

li'l gymnasts

Tonight was the last of the gymnastics classes for this semester (and we're going to take the Summer off). The kids love their gymnastics classes and I know they are going to miss it. Mama, however, is ready for a little break. I enjoy watching them learn new skills and make new friends, but I do not enjoy the twice-a-week drive across town in rush hour traffic, the frantic dinners at 4.45, or the challenge of keeping a 2 1/2 year old happy and entertained during the two hours of lessons. We'll see you in the Fall, gymnastics!

how does your garden grow?

We met our dear homeschooling friends at the Horticultural Gardens this morning for lunch and some playing/walking. It was a great time with great company, as usual.