Musical

Drama Camp begins! This year high schoolers are doing thier first musical. They had to committ to 2 weeks of practice instead of one. I think these kids are amazing. This is their first day together working on it and look how good they are. All campers come with lines and music learned. Mrs. H. is a retired public school teacher who teaches the high schoolers every year. The other grades are doing regular plays. There are usually about 80 kids and 8-10 plays each year. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. McL and family who have organized this for 10-15 years for our homeschool community.

Peonies

Peonie photography by W. who is 9. Postcards from God

(and lovely, quick blog posts when my week is crazy!)



I-Phone Eagle

Husband used his I-Phone to take this picture of "our" eagle flying straight up toward the sun. I cropped it in the second image. Today's Postcard from God.

Thirty One-derful Years

Yesterday was our 31st anniversary! Here's a trip to 1981. My attendants were (L to R) Karen S.F. Joyce M.O., Barb M.G., Mary A.P. and little sister/flower girl Lissa G.M.

Husband's attendants from L. to R.-David D., Brothers Alan, Glenn and Brian

Sunday/Monday

 W. played the prelude at church for the first time.

 We went and visited the maternity ward to meet great niece Noel Joy. Isn't she BEAUTIFUL?

We all held her and Cousin Lyndsay dropped by too!

In the evening we went to our G. friends' violin recital. L. and M. have been friends with H. and N. their whole lives. They played beautifully.

 On Monday M. amd W. had an introductory tennis lesson with our home school group. After class, W. went home with friends for the afternoon, and M. and I went to her first book club at G's house.

Eagle Update

Husband and the girls went to town for lunch last week and bought some garden seeds and plants. Then they stopped at the river land to check on how well the water is drying up. He got all of it planted except about 7 acres. They saw multiple fowl. They watched the eagle pair some more. As they were leaving, they looked back at the nest and saw the eagle chicks! There are two big, dark chicks. (Bottom picture.) All pix by L.

Ceramic Painting

Recently, I read on a blog about a paint you can use on ceramics. I had to grab some and try it. We bought a few plain white pieces on a clearance rack at Wal-Mart for under $3 each. The paint was from Michael's Crafts, but can also be found on-line. The girls all tried one themselves, and then we had the fun of helping small cousins make gifts for their mothers for Mother's Day. I missed pictures of Gus and Ivy, but got one of Miss O.

Above: L. made the blue bowl, M. the yellow and pink, W. the rainbow one. The cup pictures are two views of Miss O's cup. The paint is called Vitrea. Follow paint bottle instructions. Paint can be cleaned up with water when wet. Buy finished ceramic pieces at your store that are oven safe. Bake pieces according to paint directions, placing them into the oven before heating it, cooking them the directed time, and turning off the heat and cracking the door of the oven and leaving the pieces in it until cool. Hand wash for longevity.

Choir

Here is a short video of M and L's choir doing a fun selection from their end of the year concert. Friend Nancy directs.

End of School-History and Music

.M. and L. took a course on Medieval Ages last semester from longtime teacher and author Mrs. D. On the last day of classes, her students gave a presentation by reading her original poems about each person or event they covered, and then placing the cards on a timeline. It was a great way for them to remember and use the information they learned.

The choirs gave their concert the week before. Here is W.'s group with Mrs. I. directing.

Cathedral

Last week we attended two events at the local Cathedral. The Cathedral, built in 1919, has been recently restored and is one of the jewels of our town. You can sit in the sanctuary and soak up beauty the whole time you are there, and then there is still more to see.

I did the wedding flowers for our homeschool friend's daughter Christina. It was a lovely, happy wedding. She had her 8 sisters as bridesmaids and flower/ring girls and her two brothers were ushers.

We all had fun at the reception. The kids from our homeschool group tore up the dance floor. Don't ever believe the misconception that homeschooled kids are not socialized! Those kids hit the floor the first chance they could and danced the night away with olders dancing with youngers, babies grabbed up and twirled, everyone included in the fun. Anyone sitting down was enticed and coerced into joining in. Lots of these kids dance together twice a month at ballroom dancing, and we have also done English Country Dancing as a group several times, so they are pretty proficient and comfortable together.

We parents had fun dancing some, but our biggest joy was watching the kids together. (Below: My buddies Sandy(E.), Ana, Susan, Nancy, Caitilin. Between we 6 we have 38 kids.)

Friday night we were back at Cathedral again for an organ recital. Two of our friends, C., a senior this year, and M., thirteen and an 8th grader, gave beautiful performances.

We all took a tour of the organ balcony afterwards with them and their teacher Mrs. K.

Peonies, Thrifting and 1000

My best boyfriend brought me this peony this week. Our peonies got hit by the frost last month, so I'm not sure how many we will have. This is the first one. We also have a few yellow and purple iris by our bedroom porch. This is the first year they have bloomed after I divided and re-planted them. They are iris from the original owners and might be considered vintage. They were around the old trees and chickenhouse and had become spindly with their overdeveloped tubers. It is nice to see them flourishing. The orange poppies near them (again, vintage from original owners) are also blooming. We always look forward to their burst of swaying color.

My little peony resides in this lovely, small, cut glass crystal vase that I picked up on a rummage for a dollar or less. I love to find pretty vintage vases to use or give with flowers. This one is a favorite for its size and beauty. (It also pleases me that it was thrifted.) Teacups also make great flower pots or vases for gifts. This gives me a reasonable excuse to always be on the lookout for them!

We have been rummaging the last week or so whenever possible. I usually give the kids a dollar to rummage with and invite them to enjoy spending it. It is fun to see how they each learn to barter (or not) and make their dollar last. Usually, if we find a good book(s) or clothes, I will spring for them so it does not come out of their dollar. I try to direct their spending, but not forbid anything they want to buy with their dollar. I also like to point out to them that they do not have to spend it, they can keep it. For some this is a novel idea!

This post title alludes to 1000. I noticed my last post was number 1000! I find that amazing. I enjoy reading blogs and "follow" several. Many are written as a business as well as an outlet for creativity. Pursuing "hits" and "views" is the goal of many blogs. I have to admit that I love to look at the stats. It always amazes (and delights) me that I get 80-100 views a day on my blog, and that there are people from all over the US (Lethbridge, CA is one today) and in foreign countries as diverse and remote as Zaventem, Belgium and Nis, Serbia. (The two foreign "hits" on my board today.) If you are intereted in seeing these, you can go to the left column on the blog, scroll clear to the bottom and click on the map. That page should show you another larger map and current statistics for the blog. I find it interesting.

I started this blog in Feb. 2009 because Friend Nancy urged me to put my art and craft projects on one. I have found it to be a fun and creative outlet. I love to take photographs and have a bit of background in publishing layout from high school and college, although Blogger is kind of hard to manipulate and limits layout. (I was yearbook editor, co-editor of high school paper, all-state journalist, and took a publishing course in college.) My husband has always loved that his mother keeps a daily diary, and I have in the past saved personal letters and e-mails to keep details of our family life. This blog feeds that need too. But most of all, I love blogging for the chance to see Branson, MO on the blog views, or to get a call from my Dad (or Mom) out of the blue saying, " I just LOVE reading your blog!"

Bloggers love feedback and I am no exception. Although I do not "pursue" followers or comments, I do get a lurch of excitement whenever there is a new one of either. I want to invite you to leave a comment (one time or otherwise) if you read this blog. (Please!) It can be kind of a celebration of 1000 posts.

It is easy to do. Look at the bottom of this post (or any other of mine) and find the underlined small print that says "comments." It may say 0 or 1 or some other number before it. Click on it and a comment box will come up. (Titled "Post a Comment") Type into that box and push "publish." You may get a couple of more hoops to jump through, such as  "Comment as" (choose "anonymous" if you wish, in the drop down, but type your name into the comment box if you want me to know it was you.) Sometimes you have to type a couple of gobbledy-gook words into a text box after that to prove you are a real person and not spam. Type these as you see them, using capitals and spaces as they do, then click enter.  Just  follow instructions and it is pretty simple. Do not worry that it will sign you up for something you do not want by leaving a comment. It will not. If that is too hard, and you know me, you can just send me an e-mail comment (or Facebook message) and I will post it for you. I LOVE comments! You can also click on the "comments" to read other people's comments on a post.

If you want to follow this blog or have new posts sent to your e-mail, I just added a few new "gadgets" to the left sidebar of the blog where you can sign up for these things. There is also a spot to see the top posts people are reading (by numbers or "hits".) Check out the sidebar if you are not familiar with them. Click on a few things. You might try the search box and type in "corn" for a listing of posts with corn in them, (Dad) or "family" or"recipes" or whatever interests you. Or look in the "Labels" list and click on one to find all the posts on "photography" or "Postcards from God" or whatever looks interesting. After finding your label of choice and clicking it, read and scroll down to the bottom and click on "Older Post" and read on to the bottom again then click "Older Post" again until you get to the end of those labelled postings or get bored.  Use the "home" choice at the bottom to return to the first page of the blog.

Thanks for reading my blog . It is fun for me.