Cousins In a Canoe

I have been noticing that if I want to have a proper memory book to print of this blogging; I must include more pictures of people in action in our real life.  I freely admit I am over doing this but it was such a lot of fun.

 What they're doing here is brainstorming how to get their picture taken together. They usually try to do this whenever they happen to get together. Part of the criteria is to be original and creative. It makes for good memories, as well. 

     
 

Summer Bouquets

 It is the time of the year for wild flower bouquets.  We gather them on our walks in pastures, ditches, or along woods trails. 
    Yesterday, driving along, and Lisl shouted "Stop, this is what I came home from Thailand for."  I had to turn the car around.  Fields of daisies, and bird's foot trefoil, and some of those fuzzy orangey flowers.  They brought arm loads back to the car, and then she picked ticks off her lap on our way home.  
    Flowers are fleeting beauty at best, but ever so delightful and savored.  We throw out last weeks bouquets and gather up new ones any chance we get.

    For the purpose, we have vases of all sizes and shapes: from tiny crystal bud vases to fish bowl sized heavy weights wherein the arm loads of daises beautify our table. 
   
   

 Such an improvement is our newly painted, white kitchen.  Much better for picture taking and a cheerful atmosphere while doing dishes. The latest and greatest in kitchen decor is maybe not even practical but we love it anyway. 

More Summer Collages

 Typical morning at the cabin whenever the house is full.  Elv cooking over the cookstove. Children bouncing off the walls. People having read time or journal time or "quiet" time. Breakfast coming right up.

 How do we all fit? We don't. So Amy, Brad, and Lance each find a place to put up a tent for themselves. We enjoyed seeing their lit domes after dark across the creek until lights out.

Bath time at the cabin by the cook stove. 

What is it like to be the big 3 and have a party thrown in your honor complete with a balloon caterpiller, many gifts including a butterfly tea set, and a caterpiller cake. She enjoyed it, but I think all of us grownup folks did more. Memories.

Summertime Scribblings

     The longest days of summer are here. Warm sun, thick, green canopy of the amazing leaves, and bare feet on mowed lawn. Flowers bloom in place of piles of snow.  Perhaps flowers bloom because of piles of snow. Now there's a thought.

     We have had a few "rainy" days here: relationship issues among our own loved ones, a brother in prison, and to top it all off Lyme Disease for me. As much as I would like to disdain to give any notice to these things and try to pretend they are not my problem, the truth is, I have to actually DO something constructive about them. 

    More praying is a great response to troubles. I need more of it. 
    Antibiotics. Two rounds. 
    Kindness.  Kindness is seriously under rated too often. Every human deserves kindness, because we are all sinners and goof-offs no matter how you look at us.  We blow it.  We have huge gaping needs. We hurt... so we wound others.
    I propose to all the folks in my world that we work on our kindness skills with each other better than we have been, lately.  Kindness overlooks faults. Being blind is sometimes wise. Love covering a multitude of sins is straight out of The Word.  Kindness binds up wounds. Caring about how the other person is hurting and giving that more thought than for my own supposed wounds.
    We are truly in need of being more genteel. Nothing speaks kindness better than nice manners.  
   And while we fuss and struggle; God makes the flowers bloom anyway, just as if we deserve them.  I pray He can make flowers bloom instead of our fusses, too, someday. Grace and peace in place of struggle in our hearts. 
    Finally, when times are hard, flowers are even more beautiful. God is trying to show us that He is still in control. We can trust Him.  Any God that can make loveliness where dirty snowbanks have been can make us lovely in our hearts where hardness had been. 
       
    

                                                 Chickens on the Lattin homestead.

Blue Bells

                                                                 

Blue Flags (Wild Iris) and Buttercups

Pinky, redish, beautiful, non-ordinary flower. 

Yellow Flowers :)

      

Wild Roses Grow Everywhere Just Now

Lupines

Next up, are a few collages of our time in Minnesota over the weekend. Stay tuned if you're interested.

Flowers For A Wedding

    The wedding flowers came to our door on Thursday, two days before the wedding. The bride and groom to be were here, for a wonder, at the moment, as well as his parents. Elv was home, too. To have everyone here was not prearranged by us, but perfect timing by God, I guess. 
   Two huge boxes of white roses and baby's breath.  Opening them was an event in itself.  Layers of white roses in bundles lay there. 200 hundred white roses in carefully arranged in one big box is awe inspiring. Everyone wondered what should be done with them until being handed over to Jenny on Friday to make them into table bouquets and hand bouquets for the bride and her maids, and for boutonnière. 

Jenny and her friends made these boxes and flowers into lovely table bouquets. 

 Francis and Josh built the flower boxes last winter during one of his visits.    

                                                                 And bride's bouquets.

June Wedding

The Wedding was beautiful. The groom handsome, the bride dazzling. 

More pictures and details later.