Have you ever wanted to be the fly on the wall somewhere? While it might not be the "somewhere" you may have desired today is your big chance.

Some conversations and things overheard at our house.

"Ice cream colored glasses"

"Does the world look better with icecream colored glasses?"

"How can it not?! It's ice cream!"

"They weren't scared. They weren't frightened. They were just plants."

I'm also announcing a bit of a shift in my blogging. When I began I wanted to do this every day. It was delightful to do so. Things have changed since then. My kids have become more getinsky and less patient with my computer time. I just don't have as much to say that I'm ready to set before so many invisibles. So I'll be blogging more irregularly in the future.

So my dear invisible friends (and visible ones) Happy Trails!

I bought this tiny copy of Hamlet when I was in Stratford.

It has become the favorite book of both of my children.

Can you tell?

You never know. You just never know.

I love that.

Rain Plants

Raspberries are a'comin'!Drip, drip

Milkweed is so beautiful

More dripping

Went out to take pictures after the rain this morning

Lillie's are just opening up. We had to make a newspaper hat

Dual style!

I've let Mowg take the camera of late. Last night and this morning he had longer than usual unsupervised picture takin' time. Here's a sampling:

The truckOff the porch

Up the bookshelf


Across the table trains and shadow of Mom

Bahgera reading

Bahgera finished reading

Mom in the newspaper hat

Dad at the fridge

Not too shabby!

Rain!

Mowg playing ring-around-the-rosies with imaginary friends.

"We all fall down! Let's do it again!"

Rain for the garden

Look it's RAINING!

Blissful coolness!

Do you ever find yourself reaching for something? And reaching and reaching and reaching? Lately for me it's been a way out of the summer doldrums. It seems that most people struggle to get through winter and I'm no exception. I don't know if it's just me on this one but by this hot time of summer I'm just not sure I'm going to make it. So how to step out of it. How to appreciate what's right now? I found this blog from the other side of the world with a handful of snow and some ice. It's quite refreshing. Need a little cooling? Check it out: http://hugoandelsa.blogspot.com/

Memory

Something that seems to be slowly leaking out of my brain. It's also one of my favorite games. I had a neighbor once that I played it with every once in a while and she always trounced me. It didn't bother me much except that it happened every time and it was always a trouncing. One day I asked about it. Then she told me her strategy (who knew there was a strategy!) she focused on one area until she had all those pieces and then she would move on. By concentrating in one area she was able to collect all the pieces. I tried it. It worked! I don't remember if I won or not, but I do remember that I wasn't trounced so soundly. Life is kind of like that too. When I focus on one area until it's done instead of bouncing from thing to thing it doesn't trounce me so soundly. It's interesting too that it doesn't matter whether it's a physical thing or a mental thing. Life doesn't always allow for that, but when ti does it makes such a difference.

Focus + Concentration = Accomplishment

I must try to keep that thought from leaking out.

This pea is magical!

OOooooo! Look at the trees!

Things I'm grateful for right now:

My husband's handsome face that apparently only I can see.

Tiny's exploration of the "new" things like "riding" a trike, swinging with Dad and rocks.

Moments like the few we took to sit down and play the piano while cleaning our church. I wish I could share the lyrics of Mowg's song. They were priceless, but too random for either of us to remember, with Tiny girl adding her accompaniment.

Then there was the 5 minutes Mowg and I cleaned the glass entry-way. He'd squirt the cleaner. Then while I wiped it clean he'd dust or go outside and hang from the railing the delight in his face while leaning back and peering up at the sky.

Snippets of sleep

Clean dishes

A blog written to help someone on the other side of the world get through winter. The refreshing look of snow in my heat drenched world.

Projects getting nearer completion.

Kissing noises emanating from the tiny girl whenever "Daddy" is mentioned.

Snuggles and pats on the back by tiny hands.

Becoming a road for trains, buses and cars to ride on.

Sparkling drinks and strawberries

Little person logic that twists and turns to make even the disgruntled rantings amusing.

Evenings by the river catching sight of animals like the moose cow.

Weights?

Just before my Mom's most recent visit she asked me if I had any excercise weights. I don't. Tonight as we were walking down the trail I realized why. Mowg wanted a ride back after our rock throwing, hiking adventure. So Dad obliged handing Baggy to me. She was excited--it was her turn to walk. Do you know how long it takes a tiny person to walk? Normally that doesn't matter, but light was fading and we wanted to get back. In any case I started to let her walk a few steps then swing a "giant step". A few times I tried picking her up and walk/running as fast as I could. That brought howls of protest. I wanted her to have a good time so I obliged for a bit. It didn't take long before I was lathered. Good ole Dad quipped to some friends we met on the trail that we didn't need weights--we grow our own. Good thing they're cute! So next time you come Mom, we have weights and they'll let you "hold" them or swing them along the trail so long as you're moving. Just be prepared for a WORKOUT!

A little love for my love.

Can you see the heart shape. :)

A heart near the river--what could be more perfect?

On our hike this past week I was behind a little when Mowg came back down the trail calling, "Mom! Mom! MAAAM! I have a flower for you!" He handed it to me and then looking up at me said, "Dad loves you." I smiled looked down the trail and there he was. Here's the picture I snapped seconds later. I love you too.

Thanks for the flowers, for the rocks, for kisses that make our little girl smile, for the fun, for the serious, for the problem solving, for protection from lightening ;), for all you are to me.

When I count my blessings in this life you are on the top of my list.

Here's my shout from the roof tops that I love you.

I love you!

Always

Who knew that life could be so dreamy?.

A little more Show-n-Tell

These shapes were cut out of Mowgli's paintings and glued down by the man himself.

The idea comes from www.sarahjanestudios.com

Bulletin board for displaying those wonderful creations

I love the geometric design and color of these thistles

So spikey

Once fully opened a bee is in nectar heaven
(This photo courtesy Tiger)

Going for a hike/walk

Baggy's Walk
She's just discovering shoes and doesn't think much of them.

She does however love to walk with a little help.

There's a lot of watching that goes on along the trail.

I love watching the watching. There's so much to see!

Everyone is watching something different

Mowg: UP! Seagulls and other birds

Dad: All around. trail, animals in the brush

Baggy: Down! As in what's down there? Isn't that where I want to be?

Watching trains

More Seagull watching

Mesmerized by river wildlife :)



Family Portrait

Beautiful River

We went on a picinic last night and a bit of a hike

Look see the tiny fish?

I want a closer look!

Gathering rocks for throwing

(not at the fish--nor anywhere to near them)

Rock throwing form

Pebbles through the cracks

Troll Under the Bridge

Nothing quite like being walked over when you're there

Tommorrow--The Hike

I know it's been days and days since I've posted a picture. Here's an old one for fun. He's doing two of the things that I love watching him do the most: reading and watching the world around him. Well he's about to read anyway. We've done a bit of both lately. I've been less prone to grab my camera and more prone to just be part of it. Living instead of living to blog as it were. It's been nice. Sunday we had "a storm coming" in the afternoon. It amounted to a lot of wind, a little thunder and lighting, the faintest hint of a rainbow and a little spritz of rain. Mowg heard the thunder and said his oft repeated line, "What does Auntie Omi say?" He pauses and looks at me, smiles then answers the question by leaning his head back and shouts "FUNDER!" That comes from his belly. He's referring to a story I told him about my sister when she heard thunder for the first time--remember this is me retelling it from the telling I heard from my folks. I've always been just a little nervous about all that electrical power shouting around--not so my brave sister. She loves the stuff. So then we wander outside and the spritzing of rain begins. The little man gleefully announces, "It's raining on my head." Then he leans his head back and opens his mouth to catch the rain. Tiny girl has taken to walking (with help) up and down the sidewalk. She's as delighted as he is to be out in it. I can't let my grown-up mind allow all of this for too long and the wailing and gnashing of teeth begins as we head for the door. For a few minutes though there was "weather" (as it's called here), kids and bliss.

Oh yeah! Thank goodness for books! What could be more lovely than to satiate the wailing with a book and a snuggle.

It's Saturday for us so I've been "fishing" and looking for a bumpy road to race cars on this morning. I've had so much fun with gloaming from yesterday that I pulled The Word Museum by Jeffrey Kacirk of the shelf and thought I'd give a another word for today. So here it is:

Noggle: to walk awkwardly (see cramble)

Cramble: to walk ill, as with corns on the feet; to hobble.

I noggle down to the bathroom each morning (sans corns, but the effect is still the same!).

Happy Monday!

I've learned a new word this week. I've come across it twice. In two very different (at least to my mind) places: on a blog and in a book. So I thought I'd share this Middle English (sometime before the 12th Century according to M-Webster) word that I've somehow missed all these years of my life. I love the sound of it and the time of day that it is.

Gloaming: twilight time of day

I love that tricky time of day when shadows are bigger than life and light gives you glimpses of things you've never seen before. Kind of like Gloaming. I like to say it even in my mind.

I love mustard.

French's Yellow Mustard if we're going to be exact.

When my husband and I married someone gave us a Costco gift card. I asked if it didn't make sense to buy a gallon of mustard as part of our shopping that day. He looked at me as if I were absurd. So we skipped it. Six months later my mother was visiting and I heard him explain what he thought at that time. There was no way we were going to eat a gallon of mustard. After 6 months he now understood that I probably could consume that much all by myself. That said there are other mustards that I have enjoyed from time to time, but I always return to standard ol' yellow. As a side note my son likes mustard and does not like ketchup.

So imagine my delight in my meandering days of yore when I discovered the delightful Mount Horeb Mustard Museum. They also produce an e-newsletter that's kind of fun. So if you're looking for some entertainment check out http://www.mustardmuseum.com/. The site is mainly a sales page for more types of mustard than you can imagine along with news about the museum.

I'm not sure what to write about today. We have peas at long last. (I tried to take a picture, but that didn't work out so well.) This cold spring has done nothing for our garden. The raspberries are making a showing at least that they're going to produce in a big way--they seemed to have liked the cold wet spring/early summer. I got new glasses last week after Tiny decided it was her duty to break my five-year-old ones. They're trendier than I'm used to getting, but I hate the picking out frames stage of glasses and usually acquiesce to what the optometrist's assistant suggests. I would also be a good candidate for eye surgery (NO thank you!).
We played in the kiddie pool yesterday and Bahgera was crispy fried. Mowgli got my family's bronzing ability, Baggy got her Dad's family's crisping ability. (I mean come on, it was an hour!) I'm not sure if that's what keeping her awake last night, might be teeth. Thank goodness for aloe vera! I'm reading three books simultaneously in addition to reading up on the Cub Scout program a little. It's slow going with all of them, of course, as I have to fit them in between filling other roles such as cook(two days in row - I know - Crazy!), playmate, cleaner (not that you can tell by looking at the kids or the house), and organizer. So how's that for random postiness? Have a good day!

Invisibility

"I feel invisible" an acquaintance of mine wrote recently. I've thought a lot about that. I think many of us feel that way at least at one time or another. I know I do. Here's the thing though, it's really not "you" or "me" that's invisible. It's all the people watching. They're the ones that are truly invisible. There are so many people that are impacted by one person....the It's a Wonderful Life idea. So if you're feeling invisible just remember that it's not you, unless of course you're just watching. :) When you're just watching try taking a minute to uncloak. It only takes a word or two. Not much effort, but oh the reward!

Some Crafty Show-n-Tell

Birthday Crowns

for Mowgli

For Bahgera

Birthday placemat side one



Or choice of side 2

Aprons for the boys!

Apron for the mom

(photo courtesy Mowgli)

That's some of what I've done in the last couple of months.