Happy Birthday Asher

Happy Birthday To a very Special Grandson

Is this cute or what?  Our Grandson Asher is one year old today.  He is our second Grandson out of four.  He is our son Nathan and his wife Himilce's second.    He is such a sweet, easy going boy.  We miss him so much.  I wish we could all be there to celebrate this Happy Birthday. We will miss being at his number one birthday party. We will have a celebration with him and his cousins this summer when everyone comes for a visit.  Happy Birthday Asher. Grammy and Grampa miss you so much. We love you.

Napkin Rings/Week Nine

We don't have a beautiful table at every meal at our house, as a matter of fact it might be said that it is rarely that I set the table with anything more than practicality in mind, because most of the time I am pretty tired out by the time dinner comes along and want only to get it taken care of quickly and easily.  But with that in mind I  will say that for the average birthday party, holiday party, or just a happy get together of any sort, I always enjoy making a pretty table; my Mom was the same way, and always sets the  prettiest tables

I have developed a pattern that I adhere to when I am getting ready for company that has helped me not to stress out with excessive expectations that I have placed upon myself ( it is supposed to be a fun time after all, and guests don't enjoy themselves if their hostess is stressed out).  I clean my house the day before, and cook what ever I can a day or two before, and then the night before or morning of, I set the table. I do this part before going forth with the final preparations, because I enjoy it and have learned to look at it as a creative moment rather than just another part of the work.  All the while that I am doing these things I remind myself that this is the fun part, I don't need perfection and I won't rush about in irritation while doing it.  If I find myself getting nerved out over the preparations, I remember to pray, and get back into the peace of the Lord.  Then I enjoy my company and enjoy the creative part of the preparations.

One fun addition to a pretty table, is the napkin ring.  To me they are a little like jewelry to a table and add adornment to the setting. So as a final part of the little "tea party set", I have made a few napkin rings.  As I was making them I got a brainstorm for quite a few more ideas, so perhaps I'll post those in the future.

Happy Mother's Day Mom

Some pictures of Happy Memories and Years gone by.  There is my Mom in her younger days and my Dad as well, I am the little girl in the pictures along with my two brothers.  In the second to the bottom picture, is my 2 grandpas and one grandma; the other grandma is taking the picture.
When I was a little girl my family lived in Europe and Wales for several years of my life.  That experience added to a part of our family personality, and instilled in us all a desire to see and experience different places in the world.  I have a memory of my pretty mom in all those places and am thankful for the happy family memories I have. My Mom is almost 75 years old now and lives near my brother Dave and his family.  For years, she lived almost next door to us on our property.  We loved having her here with us and are thankful that we had her for the time we did.  We miss her.

Happy Mothers Day Mom
You have always believed in me, and that has meant so much to me.

Thank you for the happy memories growing up and for all your love.

I love you

Good Mothers

"A good mother is worth hundreds of schoolmasters"

George Herbert

One of my favorite books is a book by Anna Perot Rose written in the 1940's.  It is a story
about a family who cared for foster children during the 30's.  It is sweet, funny and full of old fashioned parenting wisdom.  I would love to share the whole book with you.  Here is a little excerpt just for fun.  The lesson from this little excerpt is a good reminder to us all. It is better to teach our children how to overcome obstacles and learn, than to teach them to simply hide from struggle or danger".  As mother's it is instinctive for us to protect our children from harm; it is a God given quality; but to teach our children to see past past fear is wisdom from God, one that we should all aspire to.

Enjoy an Excerpt from the classic book "Room for One More" by Anna Perot Rose

"...I discovered then the kind of person children like. A child feels helpless in this world and likes the kind of person who makes him feel able, clever and competent. He returns oftenest to that person who recharges his mental battery for him. I tried not to fail him.


We went straight home. I undressed him, took off the weight of his braces and put him into a microscopic pair of bathing trunks. All of us got into bathing suits and went gaily to the beach.


But, when I carried Jimmy John down to the edge of the water he took one look at the Atlantic Ocean and flung his arms around my neck, nearly strangling me and screeched, "Don't take me in dere! I'm skeert to deat'! Dat place's bigger'n de Y pool and de Y pool is too d*** big for me!"


I put him down safely on the sand and the rest of us went into the surf. He watched us having a good time. When I came out he called to me, "Take me in, maybe I get over bein so skeert to deat'".


I took him in, but he saw a wave coming at us. "Git me outa here! Git me outa here quick!" he screamed. "I'm skeert to deat'!"


We came out.


Pretty soon, "Take me in again. I'm skeert, but I'll go."


In and out, in and out, we went for weeks-the "ins" gradually growing longer than the "outs". J.J. grew braver and braver and by the end of the summer he could actually swim a little.


He was very proud, but very quiet about his triumph. One day, he sat on the beach watching a woman with her child.


"Junior, come back. You'll drown!" this woman would shriek.


"Junior if you get in that water, the fishes will eat you up and you won't see Mama no more!"


"You Junior, come here, the waves'll carry you way out to the middle of the ocean and the whales'll swallow you and you won't have no mama out there."


This went on for some time. At last Jimmy John spoke: " Dat woman's a bad mudder," he said with deep disapproval.


"She keeps sayin 'look out, the ocean'll drown youse!" She orta say "Git in der and swim and don't be a sissy.' Dat's what you say to me."


He was thoughtfully silent for a breath then, " You're a good mudder," said he."

Russell Graduates from Boot Camp

Russ is the second one from the front with the white flag

Russ graduated from Navy Boot Camp last Friday.  Steve and I got to be there.  We have 2 Navy boys now; our son-in-law Benjamin being the first and then Russ.  It stirs up your heart to be able to be at the Navy boot camp graduation.  It is an amazing reminder that there are still thousands of great things about our country.  I feel a sense of pride and love for our military who have sacrificed and are sacrificing so much for our country.

Russ with Steve

Russ and I 

We had lunch at Chili's for one of those hamburgers that Russ loves

We got two blessings during our trip to "Great Lakes", One of course was to be there with Russ, and the other was; 3 more of our precious clan drove over from Ohio and joined us.  We enjoyed almost 2 days with Jon, Marie and baby Zane. What a time we had.  We hugged, talked, laughed,  ate, walked on the beach of Lake Michigan and celebrated Jon's Birthday and Mother's Day (it was all like one long Mother's Day Celebration to me.)

Precious threesome

Little Zane

Uncle Russ and baby Zane

Jon and Marie and baby drove back to Ohio Saturday night and Steve and I flew back home on Sunday. Russ returned to the Navy base, and will fly out some time this week to Pensacola to begin his training.

Life of course is always waiting; school at home with Eddie, soccer with Olga and Eddie, Olga's fund raiser band concert, and of course there is always the laundry, all of which swallowed us up almost as soon as we got home ( I was glad to hear that Grandma Jo was worn out from hauling kids around in our sted...not glad that she was worn out I should say, but that I haven't just imagined that Steve and I are worn out from running so much lol).

Napkins

The next little project for the tea set is of course the napkins.  There does not need to be a hard and fast rule as to the size of a cloth napkin.  To make mine, I pulled out a few of my other cloth napkins to see if I wanted to use them as my measurement example.  I decided I wanted mine a couple of inches smaller on each side since they were tea napkins.    I cut them at 13x13.  I then ironed and sewed the hem.  Quick and easy.