Stuck in Frump, Striving for Fab

When I was a girl in Washington State, our family always made it a point to celebrate May Day.

We'd make cute little paper cones out of paper plates and doilies, with a handle by which to hang it on a door knob, and then we'd fill it with a bouquet of flowers and march off to our neighbor's homes to spread some cheer. Sometimes we'd even talk my mom into driving us all the way to Grandma's house to make sure she got one, too.

One neighbor lady Mrs. Pike absolutely loved this tradition, and that we chose to include her. She didn't have any grandchildren of her own, and when we 'adopted' her, she didn't protest.

While we didn't go the whole nine yards with a May pole, we four kids formed our own parade over to her house where we would knock on her door and then run to hide while she found the 'surprise' left for her.

The first couple of years, that worked just fine, but one year she caught us in the act, and made us all go back up her driveway until we were out of sight and then 're-enact' it so she could get a picture.

We, who probably had mud on our shoes from taking the 'shortcut' through the culvert ditch between our properties, on our covert but too-giggly-to-be-secretive mission, had really brightened her day.

Mrs. Pike has been gone a long time now, but I still look back on those memories with great fondness.

While I've always loved that tradition, somewhere during my college and early married years I kind of got away from it.

Then, when we moved here 12 years ago, we met a wonderful old couple in our church. Glen & Betty.

They had a large family and plenty of kids, grands, great-grands and now even a great-great grand of their own, but still had us over from time to time and were the sort of folks to 'adopt' all the additional grandchildren they could. Of course we were happy to oblige.

Glenn knew this May Day tradition well. In keeping with his own childhood tradition, he'd apparently made sure his Betty had flowers every May 1st.

When she died, he began leaving little May Day surprises on the doorsteps of several very lucky ladies at our church.

In the flurry of Spring activities, I'd forget all about the date until I'd go outside one beautiful spring day and very nearly trip over some sort of potted plant left on my porch or just outside our gate.

A couple of times I've even caught him in the act of leaving them off, but have never let on.

And though he's still recovering from a stroke which he had just a couple of weeks ago, he still managed to have his housekeeper drive him around town this morning (a day ahead of May Day, I might add, to ensure the 'surprise' factor) to help him with his usual covert May Day mission.

And these were the lovely flowers I found on my porch this morning.



Isn't that so sweet?

Yes, another man gives me flowers which I gush over every year and Jeff doesn't even mind, lol.



We sure do love that guy!

And when we grow up...we hope to be just like Glenn & Betty.

Oh, and here's the little treat which we have to sneak over and surprise him with this evening. Cheesecake brownie bites...made to his dietary restrictions and small so he can't overdo it.

My sister and her family recently took a tour of China.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure which we followed with great interest. It's not everyday that you get an email "From the Yangtzee River in China". They took thousands of photographs (on digital cards), and hours of video footage.

Along with their having seen amazing sights and touring silk and cloissone factories, as well as seeing the Great Wall of China...they got to take an all-night sleeper train across the country! Amazing memories, for sure.

When they returned home, my sister sent out care packages.

Inside mine was this gorgeous serving bowl.

One time since moving into this house did I ever remember mentioning to her the color of our kitchen tile, and somehow she managed to find a serving bowl that matched it perfectly.

Jami has our grandma's infamous knack for finding the absolute perfect gift for someone.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the match is dead on.



See how sparkly and pretty the glaze is on this bowl? I plan to just admire it for a few days before actually using it.



Meanwhile, they also picked out a bunch of cool loot for the boys, too, including money from that country which is always interesting to see. And this was after the goods had been pawed through by the boys.

The blue and white rectangles on the bottom left were nougat candies that taste a lot like a Big Hunk candy bar, except that they're wrapped with rice paper in addition to the outer wrapper. Just above the brightly colored candies in the bottom right are two packs of Extra gum, which in China come with some kind of little collectible prize.



The metallic foil wrapped confections tasted a bit like a long, tubular cheerio, filled with some type of pasty filling. Couldn't quite figure it out, but it was fun to get a feel for the 'flavors' of China. Jericho has enjoyed sampling all the goodies.

By far, Judah's favorite part of the care package were these hats.



Judah proudly wore his all over town the other day. Jericho prefers to display his. He's rather touchy about messing up the 'do' these days.

In any case, we were thrilled to get the packages, and just wanted to send a Thank You shoutout to aunt Jami & Family.

For our family, Easter, and more specifically, the commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ is a very significant and important celebration in our home.

While there is usually a dinner with the in-laws where we do fun things like egg hunts for the kids, always the focus of the week is on the significance of Christ's death and resurrection.

For the little ones in the family, we always bring out the Resurrection Eggs (our version) to explain the events leading to the Cross.

Our Easter festivities also include special Sunday services at church which very often include someone in our family participating in a passion play.

This year, Jeff played the role of Jesus' disciple Peter in a drama which was woven in with a lovely Easter Cantata.

For days in advance we had to relive the horrible events of the denial of Christ in our home over and over as Jeff practiced his lines.

As it happened, the day before Easter was the big dress rehearsal.

This overlapped with an event I was involved in by about an hour, which necessitated Jeff taking Judah with him to the church.

Our ladies craft group was at a local nursing home delivering Easter cards along with these faux Faberge' beauties





While there, I was happily oblivious to what Judah was doing at that moment, secure in the knowledge that Jeff would keep an eye on him. He was to be turned loose in the church nursery right off the sanctuary where the doors between would stay open.

It seemed an ideal plan. After all, it was only for an hour.

Judah, however, is a force to be reckoned with.

In the same way that Judah always gets into his worst mischief when I'm on the phone, seeing his dad was preoccupied, Judah did not stay in the church nursery.

Instead, Judah seized the opportunity to do a little exploring of his own. The entire church campus (thank the Lord not the world!) was his oyster.

Later, when I came to pick rescue the entire cast from his antics pick him up, I found him playing in the nursery. A surprisingly tidy nursery.

That should have been my biggest clue right there. Never is that nursery clean when Judah has been playing in it...especially by himself and unattended.

He got off the rocking horse when he saw me and said, "Hi, Mama! I missed you!"

Of course, whenever he says that I melt and so was distracted enough to not give it a second thought. "I missed you, too."

We waved across the sanctuary to Jeff to let him know he no longer needed to worry about Judah, and then went and got into the van.

Judah immediately began chatting at with our Pastor's mom. She'd been one of the group to visit the nursing home and I was going to drop her by her house on my way home.

Now Marie knows all about Judah. She was there when Judah very nearly busted our Pastor's chin open.

She's also one of those good-humored souls that are very quick to laugh and always has a sparkle in her eye. Her deep Arkansas accent and mannerisms remind me quite a bit of my dear Mamaw in this respect which is probably why I took an immediate liking to her the first time we ever met.

She was enjoying the childish prattle streaming forth from Judah, which ran the gamut from Spiderman to the seeds in our garden and ending with, "Mama...you forgotted to give daddy da church key."

"Oopsie" I said, realizing that I had forgotten to give Jeff the key to let the cast members in that morning.

"I realwy wiked see-een Jerry's camper house!"

"Oh, did daddy take you back there to talk to Jerry?" I questioned, figuring it had been necessary to visit the retiree caretaker's RV when Jeff realized I still had the key.

"No" he said, matter-of-factly.

"So daddy didn't ask Jerry to open the building?"

"Nope, Waura opened it."

"Then how did you see the inside of Jerry's camper?" I asked, looking at him in the rear view mirror.

"I goed in dere when daddy was in da church." His little sing-song reply spoke of having had a grand adventure.

"So you went in there without asking? When Daddy thought you were in the nursery?"

I glanced at Marie, whose brows had risen and who appeared ready to burst out laughing.

Putting in that way, Judah got a certain guilty expression on his face. "Yeah."

He brightened suddenly, "it's wike a witto house in dere." Again with the sing-song voice.

"Was Jerry in there?"

"Nope."

Oh, great...Judah prowling around in someone's RV all by himself. There was no telling what sort of havoc he unleashed.

His eyes brightened. "He has a cool toy truck in dere."

Whether it belonged to Jerry's grandchildren or was a remote control type gadget I didn't bother to find out. I was too appalled. And embarrassed.

By the time I pulled into Marie's driveway, she was doing all she could not to laugh.

What am I going to do with that boy?

:: :: :: ::

Before putting Judah down for his nap that afternoon we made Easter treats for all his cousins.

While I'd planned to finally try the Empty Tomb confections or at the very least Hot Cross Buns, being pressed for time we fell back on a non-symbolic old favorite involving crispy cereal, marshmallows and butter. You can hardly go wrong with that combination.







My young assistant chef had no problem at all with putting away as many of the 'scraps' (between the cutout flowers) as he could.

:: :: :: ::

After Judah's nap, we made the long drive to Jeff's sister's house for the family Easter gathering which had rather unexpectedly been changed to Saturday instead of the usual Sunday afternoon affair.

This is always a highlight for the kids in our extended family as Aunt Karen and Uncle Paul have a pool and this usually constitutes the inaugural pool party of the season.

It was still a bit too cold outside to comfortably swim, but the kids enjoyed hanging out in "da cuh-choosi" instead.



Later, festivities moved down the street to cousin Nikki's house, where she had literally turned her living room into a home movie theater and had all kinds of fun activities set up for the kids, including that annual favorite, egg-dyeing, and the telling of the Easter story with Resurrection Eggs.



Meanwhile, we adults all had a wonderful time visiting together after dinner.

In a rather old-ladylike turn of events, I managed to converse while oh-so-busily trying to finish my big crocheted afghan project to enter in the fair early Monday morning.

I had been working almost non-stop on it for days and finishing it was still going to be a stretch. Nevertheless, I soldiered on. And on, and on, and on.



That night when we got back home and I was still frantically crocheting into the wee hours, eyes, hands and neck screaming for sleep, I decided to consult the fair entry guide hoping I'd gotten the date wrong and that I had a couple of days leeway...only to learn I'd missed the entry deadlines, not only for my afghan but a couple of photographs, a quilted wall-hanging and baked goods. **long sigh**

However, I wasn't going to let it disrupt our Easter observances. I'd just save all my entries for next year. **I could'a been a contenda!**

Bright and early the next morning, we got the fixings for our Easter dinner going, and then got the kids up to find their Easter take-out boxes baskets.





Jericho didn't want his picture taken while still in his PJ's.

Judah, after changing clothes for the umpteenth time that morning, went outside to deliver some treats (meat trimmings) to our dog, and returned with this.



"I picked some fwowers for you, mama."

Best of all, they weren't even from the neighbors yard!

"Awwww, thank you," I replied, gushing over the beautiful flowers and giving him a hug.

I found a little vase and those became our centerpiece.



At last, we headed off for church.

The Cantata and Play went off without a hitch.

Afterwards, all the local extended family came over after church and we had a wonderful visit.

When everyone headed for home, we were cleaning up and and contemplating a Sunday nap when my dad called announcing that he'd be arriving hours ahead of schedule.

Though tired, we were glad he'd made it into town in time for a good dinner and then the evening service at church. It was a special treat to have some of my side of the family there to celebrate with us for once.

My dad barely walked in the door and sat down when we experienced a big earthquake.

It felt rather symbolic having a big earthquake on Resurrection Sunday. In spite of all the festivities, our attention was drawn back time and time again to the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection and the importance that holds for mankind.

Blessedly, we all did manage to get a quick power-nap before heading off to church.

All in all, it was a wonderful Easter.

:: :: :: ::

Of course, a Holiday cannot pass in which I am not out the following morning scouring stores for great deals on useful seasonal decorations.

Aside from the eggs we put in the kids baskets, we tend to decorate more with lambs and crosses and empty tombs, but there generally isn't a lot in those categories left around after Easter.

However, I was not averse to snapping up some cute little discounted birds nests at Wallys.



and this wreath which I got from the Salvation Army (a couple of weeks earlier) for the bargain price of $1.50.



For $7.50 total outlay, I harvested enough supplies



to make a different wreath (pictures to come later)

and some darling little birds nest decorations for another purpose.

Oh, and see that cute little silver footed plate holding the nest up? That was another under $2 find from another thrift store. Nothing a little silver polish didn't fix in a jiffy.



Almost makes up for my disappointment in missing the fair entry deadlines!

A couple of weeks ago we had our Spring Break.

I was kinda bummed it didn't coincide with Easter, but we did manage to get a ton of stuff accomplished in preparation for a stress-free Holiday celebration.

Jeff and Jericho worked on our garden beds.





I appreciate so much having a husband who doesn't mind the heavy labor involved with working the soil, adding in compost and then weeding the area surrounding the beds so that everything is nice and tidy.

You da man, Jeff!

While they were busy with that, I was busy with an another project that I've wanted to get done for ages.

This





is a removable work-table topper which I custom-made to fit atop this MELDAL IKEA bed in our guest room.



This creates a work surface that is the perfect height for me to stand and cut fabric and patterns for sewing or quilting. It can also be used outdoors on top of a couple of sawhorses as a huge table when entertaining. Best of all, it holds my big rotary cutting mat on top.

When not in use, it can be leaned against the wall behind the bed where it will be out of the way.

It was constructed using a thin sheet of plywood cut to the right dimensions, 2x2's, and a ton of wood screws. Oh, and some white duct tape on the edges to guard against splinters.

It involved much sawing and drilling.

It was incredibly satisfying to see the finished project turn out just as I'd envisioned, and now in use in the craft/guest room.



Even if I am way behind schedule on the projects I needed the topper for and will now have to do things in hyper-speed, lol.

If only we'd remembered to go pick up the mattress set for that bed frame in time for my dad's visit, the craft/guest room would have officially been in business (finally, after well over a year)!

:: :: :: ::

Another project in the works are these little nightstands.



I picked them up at the Salvation Army for $25 each. Deal!

They are solidly built and I think will look fab when painted to match our master bedroom decor. I hope to post the completed project in a few days.

:: :: :: ::

My dad rolled into town for a quick visit before meeting up with an old buddy of his for a motorcycle ride through Lake Havasu.

He no sooner sat down on our sofa, exhausted from the long drive down from Washington with only a 3 hour nap midway through...than we experienced a 6.9 earthquake. (It was recorded to be 7.2 near the epicenter!)

The whole house suddenly felt like we were rocking in a boat on the ocean, our chandeliers swaying wildly from side to side, but thankfully no damage. (So thankful it wasn't one of the 'jolt' type quakes!)

Anyway, while my dad was in town we managed to take him to a couple of tourist attractions.

Here we are at Mel's Drive-In (from American Graffiti fame). Judah thought it was really something to be allowed to sit at the counter several feet from our table.




He asked if he could put a quarter in the jukebox.

Grandpa sprang for it, and Judah picked out, "You Are My Sunshine" at random. Amazingly, this is a song he knows because I occasionally sing that one to him.



For dessert, we went to that wonderful bastion of deep fried confections and sugary sweetness...Krispy Kreme. **Homer Simpson drool sounds**



Judah was already licking his chops just watching the whole process. Mmmmmm.



Here, Judah takes charge of walking our purchases to the car.



What can I say? The boy is all business when it comes to his doughnuts.

He's not unlike his Grandpa that way, lol.

However, you don't want to see the boy after he's had one too many and is completely hopped up on sugar.

It's not pretty, trust me.

Our family luuuurves amusement parks.

Recently, some friends told us about a great deal we could get on passes to little park in Southern California. A very kid-friendly park with plenty of rides for even short stuffs little guys like ours.

We all met together bright and early a couple of Saturday's ago to caravan there on a road trip.

Upon our arrival, this was one of the first sights to greet us.



And let me tell you...this elephant looked real.

I was glad to see that Judah wasn't even phased and walked right past like it was no big deal, because there was a day when he was absolutely terrified of elephants.

He was with his buddies that day, however, so little else seemed to matter.

The fresh air, the sunshine, fun rides and good company...what more could a kid wish for?



I did worry a bit when Judah began looking around at the inner workings of one of the rides. I know the boy well enough to know that a.) he loves to climb, and b.) he just might take climbing up into the framework of said ride as a fun challenge...something like the lure of conquering every tree that looks climbable.

It's at times like that when a mother realizes just how flimsy some of the restraining belt clasps really are.



So far so good.

Even if the boys decided to stay on this particular attraction, going between all the colorful car options for approximately twenty-two rides in a row.

The lack of doors with which to further contain the boys on said cars was really my only concern.

There are reasons why the attendants at these places are always repeating the oft-heard phrases over their microphones, "Please do not unfasten the safety belts" and "Keep your hands and feet in the ride at all times".

Two very good reasons.



Later, when we met up with the big brothers in our party, we found this really neat ride that both Judah and Jericho could go on together. It was kind of a mixture between carnival swings and an air glider.



Judah enjoyed it so much that he didn't even fight big brother over who got to control the air rudder.



Here, Judah and his buddies, otherwise known as "the twins", wait in line for another go at the air-gliding dragon ride.



By some fluke, our entire party happened to meet up at this same ride again later that afternoon, and this photo has all 8 of the kids from our group in it, though the big brothers turned around at the last minute.



While chatting with the other adults in line, I snapped this picture of Judah looking longingly through the gate.

Now common sense would tell me that the afternoon sun caused a bit of a glare off my phone camera lens, but I'm not discounting the possibility that this may have been an ethereal glimpse of a guardian angel's wing.



This is Judah we're speaking of, after all.





Yes, these places are always a grand adventure with our Judah.