The Wonderful World of Science

Skye's homework assignment for this weekend was a science experiment for the Kindergarten Science Fair.

She titled her experiment "Volcano Magic".

I love that her conclusion was "it was fun!"

This Week's Verse: Psalm 37:4

Finding a Treasure at Sam's Club

We ran into Sam's Club last night for paper plates. Just paper plates. Of course, I always have to pass through the book aisle. Which I did. And I found a treasure.

As a little girl I was in love with the Little House on the Prairie books as were most little girls my age. When I had daughters I fell in love all over again sharing the books with them. As an adult I was thrilled when I came across a blog written by Laura Ingalls Gunn - a direct descendant of Laura Ingalls Wilder. If you haven't read her blog, check it out. She just finished posting in celebration of LIW 150th birthday.

And today I'm preparing to fall in love all over again with the Little House books as Sunny is ready to read them.

What's all this got to do with Sam's Club? I own a paperback set of the Little House books but I've always wanted the hardback set. I have a couple of them, but they're hard to find and very expensive when I do find them. Which is why I squealed with joy when I discovered the treasure in the book section at Sam's Club.

The photo does not do justice to the beauty of these books. Each book has a foreword written by a "famous" woman. Laura Bush, Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman), and Patricia MacLaughlan (Sarah, Plain and Tall) each wrote a foreword for one of these books. The covers are exquisite, the paper used is unique, the price is affordable. I'm assuming that the books will be released a few at a time over the next months.  If you're a Little House fan, get over to Sam's Club and start your collection!

One!

Snow celebrated her first birthday over the weekend. Wow, this year has gone by fast!

Here is our last official monthly photo:

Isn't her birthday crown precious?!

Her party was loads of fun with lots of children in attendance. She enjoyed opening the presents and seemed to like her cupcake. 

Snow is such a sweetie. And a talker. She literally talks the entire time you're holding her. She looks at you earnestly as she speaks, like she's willing you to understand what she's saying. Of course, only a very few words are intelligible. She says hi and bye with gusto. To make the "I love you" sign she points her index finger up in the air. It is so cute! She walks everywhere holding on to something, but hasn't worked up the courage to let go yet. She will... soon!

Snow, you are such a joy to us. We love you!!

The birthday girl with her presents 

Feeding her baby doll

Happy Birthday to you, dear Snow!

Cousin Summer: "Oooh, I love your crown...!"

Official One Month Photo

As you know, Blizzard, my new grandson lives in Kansas. I didn't want to miss out on monthly official photos with him. My son came up with the idea of taking a screen shot of a Skype session with me and Blizzard and using that as the official photo. What a great idea! The quality is not the greatest, but at least we have an official photo.

Tomorrow I will be featuring Snow's first birthday party!

This Week's Verse: Nehemiah 8:10

A Stitching Post

As you know, I had these big plans to stitch in rotation this year. I don't know if that format is just not right for me or if I'm just enjoying this one project too much to put it down, but I still haven't started my rotation.

I am really enjoying the Easter project I'm stitching for my daughter. So this week, once again, instead of picking up a new project I continued to stitch on it. I'm making good progress and at this point I plan to keep stitching on it until I get bored. Then I'll pick up a new one.

SSMT #4

The book of Job is my favorite Old Testament book. I read it every year. It's such a great example of faith in the face of adversity. I'm always inspired by it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This Week's Verse: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

This Week's Verse: Romans 8:6

A Stitching Post

My new plan of starting a new project each week hit a speed bump when we drove out to Kansas to meet our new grandson last week. I didn't want to take the time to kit up a new project so I took the Patchwork Easter Basket with me to work on.

Here's my progress to date:

As I may have mentioned before, I need to stitch six Christmas stockings this year. Here are four of the six patterns I will be stitching. I plan to start one of them this week.

Blizzard

We traveled to Kansas on 1/23 to spend time with JD and Janel and to meet Blizzard in person.

First a little background info.

Dan was born in California and has only lived there and in Phoenix his entire life except for three years of college in Flagstaff AZ and three months that he and I lived in Vancouver WA when we were first married.

I was born in Springfield MO and lived my entire life in Overland Park KS until I moved here to the Phoenix area (and the months in Portland, OR).

We have been married for almost 36 years and have not encountered snow, ice, COLD in years. We told our kids when they began getting married that if they lived in the Midwest our window of opportunity for visiting them ran from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We have made an exception and gone out there in October for Columbus Day if the weather was good (meaning no snow in Flagstaff). After three plus decades in the desert, our blood is very thin.

So it was with trepidation that we headed out to Kansas in January. Yikes! We had to drive the southern route which added three hours to the overall trip due to snow in Flagstaff and northern Arizona.

I won't dwell on it, but let me assure you that we were very cold the entire time we were there. At one point I had on two layers of warm shirts, a sweater, a sweatshirt, a shawl and was wrapped in a blanket. No kidding. We kept our hotel room at 74 degrees so we could thaw out at night. We keep our home at 70 degrees so that shows you how chilled we were. And it wasn't just me. Dan was just as cold as I was. He just didn't want to admit it to our kids!

But all of that aside, we had a wonderful trip. Blizzard is just the cutest little boy ever. He's such a good blend of JD and Janel. And speaking of them, they are doing an awesome job as first-time parents. Janel is so calm and competent. She's so happy - no sign of anxiety that first time moms sometimes display. JD is a great dad and jumps in to help with every aspect of baby care. It was so cool to be around them for Blizzard's first week.

Of course we took tons of photos. And it was desperately hard to leave him. This will be a huge change for us. We're used to having our grands close to us. Available for every family event, for sleepovers, for play dates, for lunch at Freddy's...

All the way home I was plotting, planning and praying about ways to be a part of this little boy's life from a distance. It's such a blessing in this time to be able to "see" each other on the computer for video visits. I warned JD and Janel that I will be requesting visits on a regular and consistent basis!

We already booked our room to return in late May. We have plans to see them in July. We are committed to visiting them in Sept/Oct. And we're praying for an unusually warm Kansas winter so we can return for his first birthday in 2018.

Look at his hair - I've never seen a baby with natural blonde highlights before!

Is there anything more precious than seeing your child as a parent?

Three generations

All of the grandparents

I have several more photos and will share them soon. We are so proud of you, JD and Janel! We love you, Blizzard!

SSMT #3

I chose this verse to memorize because although I know this verse I don't have it fully committed to memory. I love this verse because we don't have to search after these characteristics, we already have them when we become believers. But it is up to us to cultivate them and let them be evident in our life. 

I guess what I'm really saying is that I need a reminder!