Happy Mother's Day...
to me!

Rudy gave me a corsage.

It wad hidden in our refrigerator so well that I never saw it.

In fact, he had quite a time digging it out.

I always take a picture with my children on Mother's Day but we often forget until

evening when everyone has changed out of their church clothes.

This time we took the picture at church so everyone would

still be dressed up. 

It was a beautiful day for our traditional picnic in the park.

We got lunch from a taqueria, ate in the shade,

and played in the sun.

My kids gave me a beautiful succulent bowl.

I'm enjoying it on my table but it needs to move out into

the sunshine soon.

Rudy made my life easier on potluck Sundays with a

casserole-size Crock-pot.

I was thinking this week about how God's gives you the 

children you need.

Sometimes you get one just like yourself; you cringe at times but

also can empathize with their joys and struggles.

Sometimes they are quirky and you enjoy their personality while

trying to temper it with a dose of reality.

Sometimes they are "difficult" in case you get too cocky

and think you have parenting figured out.

But God always gives us Grace as we raise our tribe

and that's what we need to share with our children
 and fully extend to other parents.

Happy Birthday!

(The "baby" is 11)

She celebrated with purple, pizza and presents.

They are all her favorites.

She's the baby of the family and that's hard to digest when

she's as tall as me.

She hugged me good-night and she had to bend 

down to put her head on my shoulder.

My first thoughts as I woke on Sunday were

of her birth-mom.

Does she remember this special day?

Does she wonder about her daughter?

Does she have anyone to show her the True Way

to freedom from generations of dysfunction?

**********************************

A funny conversation that we had on the way home from school:

T:  There are police men lurking around our school.

Me:  Lurking?  Police men don't lurk.

T:  Well, these ones hang around in their cars across the road.

Sometimes they even come over during recess and play basketball with us.

Me:  They are watching the traffic because people speed past the

school and it's just fine that they play basketball with the kids.

It's a good thing.

They are not lurking! 

Back in Business!

On a whim I plugged my phone into my computer.

Voila!  My pictures suddenly uploaded.
Many, many pictures.

Months of pictures.

Where to begin?

It's too complicated to pick up from last fall
so I'll just start from where we are this month.
(I seem to be doing that a lot lately!)
**********************

We celebrated Rudy's birthday
and he even took a day off that week for a little R&R.
The two of us spent the morning browsing 
antique and vintage shops and had lunch
together in a quiet little bistro

It was fun but his work managed to follow him around.

********************

I think we can safely say that the drought is done.
We have spent the past few months hoping we don't wash away.
There are lakes where we have never before seen standing water.
We rejoice with every snowfall in the mountains because we know that's
what replenishes our aquifers.
As long as the dams and spillways hold, it's all good.

 {photo credit: Bethany}

{photo credit: Bethany}

Due to days and days of rain, there hasn't been too much
fog this winter.  After a few dry and sunny days, it manages to
periodically creep back in.

*************************
Our kitchen remains in creative chaos.
Little by little the south wall is taking shape.

He was trying to see if it would suck up his hair.

Cooking in our kitchen is an adventure. Things are either on a cart

or on a rack behind the table.  Sometimes the stove and cabinets are pushed

toward the middle of the room.  Nothing is handy.

In the meantime, our living room is the local lumber yard.

The wood is acclimating to the temperature and humidity of the 

house before it's made into cabinet boxes.

*************************

Green beans were on sale so we canned 25 lbs.

We snap them in the evening, put them in jars with water,

and then I pressure can them the following day.

We are forced to bond over green beans.

*********************************
This is as close as we get to politics.

I found out that the term "rake" in baseball vernacular
means to hit hard, to hit all over the park.
Back in the day, when the boys played Little League,
I would get so frustrated when the coach told Wesley to bunt
because I knew full well he could hit it hard.
Rudy explained that it was a tactical maneuver by the coach 
but it still annoyed me.
I am all for "raking" the ball!

********************************
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast."

With that I leave you...hopefully, not for very long this time around.