Tuesday, April 30, 2013

For Jube

Jube, you wanted to see tulips.  They do not have flowers, yet.  This is just to show you that they are truly growing and when there are flowers; I will post pictures of them.
   



These are planted right in front of the boys cabin where you lived when you were here last year. The neighbor boys like to play at our house and sometimes I have to remind them NOT to step on the flowers. They listen pretty well to me. I am glad, aren't you? 

Next are a bunch of pictures from last Sunday when LaMars were here for a picnic.  You will see Abram and Abbey pictures too. Look closely, you might even see Grandpa, Marmee, Aunty Frank, Benny and other people you know. 



                                Benny has his mouth full of yummy S'mores.







Jube, these next couple of pictures are just for fun.  Abram climbed up the side of the house using the rocks for the ladder and put the chimney cap on for Grandpa. I don't know why it was off. 


Uncle Lance took the fire truck to Northwoods school to show and tell the children all about fire safety. He really enjoys being a fireman.



I think this picture is blurry! Sorry. 
Ok, one more big picture full of pictures.  You will find lots of people you know. We had a nice picnic. Grandpa did the roasting and we all did the eating and visiting.


Have a good day, Jube. We miss you. Be good.
                                                                          Love you, Marmee

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Another Happy List

    ~ Chorus. We are almost ready to give programs. It has been soul lifting and life enriching to be able to sing again with a choral group. I could go on about this, explaining how much I have enjoyed this. Words fail. Elv says he trusts that when he gets to heaven and there is all that singing, as they say, God will certainly give him a voice and the enjoyment for it. In other words, he believes me for my sake that I enjoy singing, but something is going to have to change for him, by heaven time.
    ~ We are good, as well.  Programs will be given on the 3rd and 5th of May. If you are interested and want to hear us, let me know. Like you could comment here.
    ~ Spring came, suddenly.
    ~ Yard cleanup.
    ~ Sunday evening cookouts with church friends. Got rained out.
    ~ Yes, we had rain.
    ~ All those tulips we planted last fall are coming up, beautifully.  I had to show the little neighbor boys who come and go here just what a tulip is and ask them to please not step on them. Since, I have been working on myself to believe and live like I know that little boys are much more important than pretty tulips. But it's hard, you know? Especially, when they could just as well play in the park across the street as to be using our old stone house for "T" (base) in their tag games.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Current Happy Things


    ~ Tea and scrap booking parties with friends.
    ~ New kittens scrabbling all over Susan's living room. 
    ~ Pretty dishes.
    ~ Fresh flowers. Roses, daisies, lilies, and carnations. Oh, and tulips.
    ~ The innocence of girlhood. You can see what I mean in the Emilee collage.
    ~ Friends.
    ~ Most of all SPRING is finally here!  







Monday, April 22, 2013

Can't Think of an Appropriate Title

   Because I have no good titles for this weekend. We had intentions of having a long quiet weekend at the cabin for our 30th anniversary. That was back in October. Now it is April. So finally!  
   We drove up in a snow storm. The roads deteriorated steadily so that by the time we turned on to Cty 3 we were driving in six inch deep tracks. We met two other pickups so that we were glad that our vehicle was a FWD Jeep. 
   At the end of Joshua Rd it was obvious that to get to the cabin, a mile away, we had to go on foot or not at all. So we did. On foot. We repacked two small bundles for overnight and promised ourselves that we could get the rest after the plows came through in the morning.
   Darkness had fallen and the snow was deepening quickly. If you settle in for a long walk in the dark through the snowy wilderness and get into the spirit of the thing; you can really enjoy it. Which we did.  We didn't hurry...we had all night.  We had good flashlights, and the lovely snowfall, and the wind on our backs. Sometime we'd fall through the crust that was below the newest snow and have to stop and pull out again. That became rather wearisome. But when two people who enjoy doing things together, cheer each other on knowing that at the end of the mile there is a warm, dry, clean place to land, they make a party out of any trial. So we did.   
    No plows came to open Joshua Rd all weekend. So we found out about snow shoes.  We discovered the difference.  It is the difference between being king of the hill or impossibly stranded. We were not stranded in the least.  In fact, on snowshoes we explored places in the wilderness along swamps and rivers that we can hardly get to in summer. It was just amazing.   
   While it was still storming on Friday, Elv went out on snowshoes and pulled our food and luggage in on a sled. It was two hours of hard work that he didn't enjoy so much. I wished afterward I had gone with him, just to make it another together adventure. 
     


Digging our firewood out of the snowbank.

Elv read The Case For Faith all weekend.



Where it is warm and dry.



I loved snowshoes. 

The roof dumped and obliterated our view!


Out for an "explore" and a water haul.



Not Big Bird, just Hers and His tracks.

You start to get the feeling that maybe you're just walking over a few inches of snow and you wonder if you really need them. 


One true sign of spring. Pussy Willows

New vantage point.




The spring below the cabin is flooding. Another sign of spring.


Our mode of transportation left at the end for whoever needs to go in next.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Sunday Afternoon At Home

    Our good Sunday afternoon actually started at church. We had about 23 people  at church yesterday. (The spring breakup vacationers and travelers and migrant workers will start trickling home this week. They are in for a rude arrival with winter still hanging around here.) So our carry-in was cozy and eventually the after dinner visiting was a one group conversation. Current events, the Aurora Borealis that was supposed to be so apparent but we cannot see because of said winter cloudiness, Mount St. Helen, why fossilized trees always seem to be still standing up, and other things of that nature.
      At home we gathered in the living room around the fireside with the usual collection of electronics and table games. The current winter storm system closed in around the old stone house outside. In the kitchen, Amy and Abbey, made pudding to cool for a trifle and later stirred up waffles for supper. Benny slept for two hours and then came down to check in with anyone looking at his phone or playing a game otherwise. He finally spied a dog puzzle that we had set aside for give away and asked to piece it. In the course of the after noon a few people took an hour off for a nap in a quieter place somewhere.
     I decided to take pictures of everything. Which I did after cleaning the lens of my phone camera. Now I know why I have been getting grainy pictures. Very sad. Then Clark got his camera out, too, which promptly trumps any kind of photo I can muster, but oh well, I try.
 
Trifle made of a dud cake and home made pudding. 

Drying Roses

The geranium think it is spring and are getting ready to bloom and are happy. 

While outside we have a snow storm every few days, like yesterday.

This is what we do on Sunday inside by the fire.

The baby around here is taking notice.

Thomas the Tank Engine on Wance's phone.

The tomatoes think it is spring, too. 

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