Mothers the world over know what that face means.
July 30, 2006
July 26, 2006
Kid Artist
Margie’s quite the little artist these days. In fact, she has a new alter ego–Kid Artist. When Kid Artist comes around we know that the consumption rate of scratch paper, crayons and watercolors will increase dramatically. We’re thinking of buying a Crayola factory in order to keep up with her.
Kid Artist has some other amazing qualities, one of them the ability to care for herself completely although she’s only four years old. Just last week KA’s parents went to Switzerland, but she didn’t need anyone to take care of her while they were gone. She got meals for herself, washed her own clothes and apparently drove herself into town for groceries as well. I imagine one of these days we’ll be forking over large sums of money to watch a superhero movie about this Kid Artist.
To the right is KA’s latest artwork, a crayon of an ant colony going about their business. When she’d finished drawing, she handed me a crayon and asked me to write "No stepping on the ants!" at the top of the page (apparently, KA’s amazing independence doesn’t yet extend to the literary world, but I chose not to point that out). Apart from her art, KA is quite the budding entomologist and has been known to carry a beetle or two to church with her o’Sundays. If you come to visit us, be sure not to step on any of the ants in our driveway–she takes it as a personal offense.
On an entirely unrelated note, I finished another scrapbook page yesterday. This one took about half the time of the first, so perhaps I’m getting the hang of this.
July 24, 2006
Digital Scrappin’
Thanks to my good friends Julie and Fannie (get a blog, Jules) I finally have a digital scrapbook layout that I’m not ashamed to post on my blog. And that’s all I’m saying about it because I used every last brain cell to put this thing together.
Hopefully brain cells regenerate.
July 21, 2006
Tree Fort Fortress
The tree house has actually been finished for awhile now; I just keep forgetting to mention it. And it’s not so much a tree house as it is . . . well, my goodness, I think our church could hold services up there. It’s quite high up (to the tune of 15 feet), but my husband, ever thorough, took care to work in plenty of safety features. For instance, the idea of a wooden or rope ladder didn’t sit well with me . . . so James made stairs complete with railings for the kids to climb. To keep Junior and other youngsters from sneaking to the top, he rigged a spring-loaded gate with an automatic latch at the bottom of the stairs. We can even padlock the gate if necessary (always handy when your next-door neighbor is a lawyer). Last week I snapped a picture of the three cartoons standing on the stairs (notice the gate behind Baba). 
One of these days I’ll drag the camera to the top and snap some pictures to post here. James found a small plastic table at the thrift store for a couple bucks, and he’s brought our kiddie lawn chairs up to keep it company. My old hammock hangs between two of the supporting trees–that’s where Baba likes to read during rest time these days. There’s even an old-fashioned wooden swing hanging from one of the supporting beams.
Can you imagine the hours of fun to be had in that place?
July 19, 2006
Phoebe Babies
Remember that phoebe bird that was keeping me up o’mornings? She’s multiplying . . .
Lucky Me
This is what I’ve been listening to all morning (be sure to turn up the volume nice and high):
Video Hosting – Upload Video – Video Sharing
Yeah, I’m thankful for the rain, but it sure would be nice if they could go outside.
July 18, 2006
For Those of You Who Wondered . . .
The next few weeks are going to be cartoon-like crazy around here. Baba and Margie started swimming lessons yesterday–every day for two weeks–and we’ve got three boys from our church riding into lessons with us and then hanging out with us afterwards until their mom gets off work in the late afternoons. That means I’ve double my child-to-adult ratio overnight, so you understand why I fell asleep on the couch last night at 8:30. Baba’s thrilled to have playmates of his age and sex (the two younger boys are on either side of him, age-wise), and Cousin Bird is also coming up for swimming lessons every day and staying a bit to play with Margie. So far things are going OK.
The week after swimming lessons, we pack up and head down to Kentucky for my brother’s wedding. I heard from our seamstress last night, and Margie’s dress should be ready by the end of the week. I won’t be able to post pictures of that until after the wedding because I don’t want to ruin any of the surprise for my brother, who hasn’t seen and isn’t supposed to see the bride’s dress (Margie’s dress is a miniature copy of the bride’s). My sister spent the day here yesterday helping me put the finishing touches on the family cookbook, so, Drina and Andrea, you’ll actually be getting a copy for your weddings. Most of the rest of the family has had to wait for a year or two after the wedding before I get my act together.
Junior’s telling me that he’s hungry, but it’s sounding more like "honky". I guess technically he is that too.
The other night I had a fun encounter with nature. I was out on the kayak and as I rounded the bend just upstream from our dock I found a mother river otter and her two pups swimming near me. They seemed unconcerned by my presence; in fact, the pups were downright curious and surrounded my boat, snorting and flipping fish into the air. I paddled near them for five minutes or so before heading back upstream. I just love those kayaks!
Time to pack up the troops and head to the pool. Wish me luck!
July 13, 2006
“Truck . . . WOW!”
Junior’s got a new favorite book and two new favorite words:
Christmas In July
Yesterday a long-awaited package from Switzerland arrived on our front steps. There to the right you see what it contained. Isn’t that beautiful? I collect nativities, and when I saw these at a shop in Interlaken, I fell in love. James and I took a train to neighboring Brienz the next morning to see the place where these figures were carved and to drop quite a bit of money for gifts and souvenirs. The company that makes these lovely hand-carvings is called Huggler. They make several different styles of nativities in different sizes, but when I saw this one I immediately knew it was the one I wanted to take home with me (if you look on their website, mine is from the Weihnacht line). My favorite part of this set is that Mary is actually holding the baby rather than viewing him in the relative detachment of the manger. I’ve had three newborns of my own, which causes me to suspect the newly-arrived Christ spent little time in the hay. Joseph’s protective hand on Mary’s back, and her upward glance which seems to seek reassurance for her scary new role give these figures the feeling of a real family that you don’t often see in the much-sterotyped world of nativities (and besides all this, Mary’s got hips that make her look as if she might actually have been able to squeeze several pounds of human deity into the world).
As the years go by we plan to add to this collection, and I can think of no better way to remember our first trip to Europe.
