|
|
A lovely sunset before the rainy weekend to come.
The ornamental pear trees in our neighborhood are blooming. They are always an early sign of spring. White blossoms in February, echoing the white snowy mountains. They look like giant bridal bouquets.
Friday night we went to set up for our Fine Arts Fair. I had my husband, Bob, son, David, and sister Mary there to help. As well as some of my dear homeschooling friends. It all came together smoothly. I had been running around and prepping during the week and buying the tablecloths, balloons, decorations, plates, napkins, certificates, and ribbons.
My fun and silly guys
Chelsea and my sister Mary - my art professionals
Anne and I worked on the science entries
David and Micah practicing for the next days performance
We had some wonderful entries in Art and Science. It is so fun to see the families arriving to bring their projects before the evening judging. I especially love the excitement in the younger students. We had a good showing in the 3-5th grade, but not many in the K-2nd. I am on a mission to encourage the parents of the children to include art and science projects in their curriculum. It is such a wonderful way to learn and kids love it. I know it is my area, as I teach both art and science, but I hate to see these neglected. I know that that the younger kids will "do art" if you give them the materials. They may even be doing more than I know, and are just not getting it here to be shown. But that too is so memorable for the kids. The faces and excitement the next morning...one mom said it was like Christmas for her kids. Science is an exciting area of exploration too, and collections and experiments are so much fun! My Chemistry students had a great time picking something that had to do with Chemistry, but also something fun to them. They did three experiments all involving Fire! So here are some of the entries.
This was by one of our 10th grade High School boys. I loved it!
 
Great photography entries
Drawing and multimedia
 
Lots of wonderful paintings
 
Science projects
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will wait to show some of the entertainment and the Fair itself next time, for some reason loading this was taking forever. My computer has been slow of late, and uploading pics has been hard on Xanga too.
It is a beautiful cool sunny day today. We had some heavy heavy rains over the weekend. The hills across the valley are so beautiful this morning. We just love to see them getting green after the rains as we have the brown hills for most of the year.
I went to the garden yesterday, it was muddy and needs weeding, but good veggies. Lots and lots of broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, snow peas, and greens for cooking. I made a big oriental cabbage salad to take to our friend's party yesterday. None of us are big football fans, but we liked the excuse to get together. It was a great time of fellowship and rest...oh, and eating too!  My busy week caught up with me and I felt so tired...so it was nice to sit on their couch and put my feet up!
I feel all new and fresh today after a good nights rest. Happy yellow daffodils on my table. David is sitting out on the deck reading. He has had a lot of pain with his back. We are praying for healing with chiropractic, good food, rest, and exercise. Praying for him regularly and asking the Lord for wisdom about if I need to take him to another doctor. He is crankier than normal from the pain. His muscles tend to spasm and then he does not sleep well.
| | |
|  We have continued to work at Nana and Grandpa's house. Bob went up this weekend to do some labor, making a door for the crawl space, putting a tarp on the roof to keep out the rain until the roofers get to roofing. I am enjoying having memories of Nana around our house with some of her things, like these colorful bowls, tea cloth, and striped apron. Don't they look so homey? I feel so tired though. Bringing down a dresser, a side table, a linen cupboard, some very pretty needlepoint chairs, that were great Aunt Heidi's, means that we have to clean, sort, and move things all around here at home. We have downsized to this little place with the big view and space is already maxed out, so I have been trying to juggle things around and weed out. I will show you some things in up coming posts. I enjoy the memories of good days with Nana and Grandpa in having some of their things. We have been giving all the family various things they want so all will have these memories and slowly emptying the house down to the things to donate. We had lunch and church service with Grandpa on Sunday. He is looking well and has gained 10 pounds! He is content and happy which is such a blessing to us.
This will be a busy week as we have our home school open house Fine Arts Fair on Friday night and Saturday and I am in charge of making it happen! So I will no doubt be getting ready for that the rest of the week. Just wanted to get on and say Hi! I need to get back to schooling now. Oh, and still waiting on a fix for my hair. I was able to put on another temporary rinse to deepen the roots to more of an auburn brown 
| | |
|
All of you back east will laugh when you see me taking a picture from our deck by the beach of the snow. But snow is exciting here in Cali. A sunny day after all our rainy days, and some snow visible on one of the local coastal mountains. This mountain is about 5,400 feet, but is very close to the coast, so it doesn't get snow very often. The series of storms that we have had recently have dumped a lot of snow in the area. The mountains that are about an hour in from the coast are pure white when you look at them. I saw them as I drove up to L.A. last Saturday to work at the grandparents house, but I couldn't get a picture.
David's boy scout troop is actually in our living room right now discussing where to go snow camping. They called one campground, and the snow is so deep after the storms dumped 8 feet of snow, that they are unable to deal with it, so the campground is closed for a least a couple months.
Across the valley the hills have all sprouted grasses, and are rapidly turning green. We are always excited about that. The region is semi-arid so they turn very brown for most of the year.
Sunday we decided to go for a walk at the Montage in Laguna. It is one of my favorite walks. Beautiful beach views and nice plantings along the bluff. It was clear, blustery weather, and so lovely!
These aloes plants are some of my favorites in December and January.
There were nice breakers rolling in , we saw some body boarders and a surfer way out where we had never seen anyone before. I think the storms moved the sand around, and the direction of the waves was different.
After a nice walk we went over to my mom's house for tea. She even made gingerbread to eat with the tea. David was very happy. He continues to be a very hungry guy...he eats all the time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hair woes
I don't know if you can see in these pics, but the roots of my hair turned orange, and I mean very orange, like "I love Lucy" orange. 
I was trying a new color rinse on my hair , as I have developed allergies to regular hair colors. This is from the health food store and is made of "natural" dyes.
At first David said, "it isn't so bad mom".
But then he kept staring at me while we were doing school work.
Now he keeps calling me "carrots!!", like in Anne of Green Gables.
Isn't he so helpful?  The color was supposed to be chocolate! Sounds nice. I have a friend that has a license in hairdressing that is going to try to find something to help me out, as she has access to products I do not. I haven't been ready to go to white hair yet. My sister has, and it looks very pretty, but she is a blond...so the blond, grey, and white hairs all mix. As a brunette there is a great contrast between my white, brown, and black hair.
So I have been trying to arrange my hair so you cannot see my bright roots, and wearing hats this week 
What is your funniest hair mishap?
| | |
|
It has been such a rainy, stormy week. We need the rain, it has just been pouring and pouring down, day after day. It has even been cold enough for David to cover his feet!! You have to understand that he is just about always barefoot.
I ran out to Trader Joe's in the midst of the rain this week. It was so cold and wet, I lost the feeling in one of my fingers.
These happy faces had to come home with me!
Springtime here in CA. will be happening following these rains, I can see the hills beginning to get green and I am already seeing some of the trees sending out blossoms. TJ's starts to get in daffodils for only 1.99-3.99 and sells them dry, out of water, with their little heads all closed up. When you bring them home and put them in water it is great to see them open up!
Finally after four days there came a break in the rain. David and I wanted to go see the ocean, and get outside. We started over at the garden. Picked two bags of broccoli, salad greens,tomatoes, cabbage, chard, bok choy, kale, and our first snow peas! We have a wealth of fresh veggies now. Then we headed down to the ocean and harbor.
It was very blustery. This young seagull came down and landed on the hood of a truck. I think he was a bit dazed as he sat there for awhile. The waves were big, but not as large as we heard they had been during the storms.
Still they were crashing and splashing over the breakwater! Many of the birds were sheltering inside of the harbor.
It was great to be able to drive and walk all around the harbor from different vantage points to get a view of the ocean and clouds. This was our first stop. This little road is on one side of the harbor, and next to the surf beach. It is unusual to have waves this far out in the bay.
It was breathtaking and brisk out...made it fun. We blasted the heater when we got back in the car!
Next we drove around to the other jetty to see the waves crashing over the breakwater. It was VERY windy, you had to actively work on your balance while standing here, but also very exhilarating.
 | | |
|
Friday evening we made a quick trip up to our son Daniel and his wife Heidi's house. We were bringing them a bed, some furniture, and " Great Aunt Heidi's china" from Nana and Grandpa's house.
Nana's sweet dressing table
Our friend Rhonda has a truck so we all took off together after work on Friday. We rented a small trailer to pull and started the trip before Rhonda got off work by picking up the trailer and a hutch from our friends. They had given the matching dining table to Dan and Heidi when they got married. By the time we got up to L.A., ate dinner, and loaded the trailer it was after 10 PM...so we didn't pull into Merced til after 3 AM. whew, we were tired. Our son Daniel greeted us and we all sacked out for the night.
Late the next morning we headed out in search of coffee. Dan and Heidi took us to Main Street. The downtown section is being restored and turning into one of those great areas with good food, shops, and interesting places.
Walking down the street... the cafe we went to for coffee is across the street and on the corner behind the flags.
It was fun as we were given a table upstairs and had the entire loft to ourselves. Good coffee too!
Loved seeing an old building with details like this:
We found we were too late for breakfast as it was just noon, and the menu was very pricey for lunch. So only garlic fries were ordered to help David with the hunger...we all had tastes! So yummy. We were just starting our "taste of Merced" experience as the next stop was a yogurt shop with all natural ingredients. I was trying to be good so just had bites, but everyone enjoyed their yogurt and toppings. Next a trip to a donut shop for sandwiches before taking Heidi to work.
On the way back to the car, Heidi wanted to show us what she said was one of Merced's treasures. It was on the side of a building, and the climbing greenery had all fallen over, so Heidi held it off the fountain so we could see what was underneath.
This plaque she wanted us to read about one of the men in town, Robert H. "Bob" Cockerell, an Ambassador for Christ, who had served others in this town and in West Africa. Wonderful to see a Plaza named after him, and a tribute to the kind of man he was. It is an encouragement to me. It says, " Affectionately know in the community as "Bob" by his many friends, Bob gave his life to serving others through his insurance business and personal life. Bob's character and Integrity were the hallmark of this remarkable man. Upon his conversion to Christ in 1958 by a fellow businessman, he gave his life first to business and professional men, then in 1979 to the people of West Africa in Liberia until his return home in 1990. "
Heidi out from beneath the vine.
David had a great time being with his brother and Heidi, as well as Issac, Heidi's brother who came over later in the day.
The rest of our afternoon we unloaded the trailer and rearranged things in the apartment. Beginning with this fun "move the trailer" game.
Fun to see them laughing and "horsing around"...pun intended.
The day went rapidly, I forgot to take any pictures, but we got the hutch set up, with dishes. A bed and several other pieces, lamps, dressing table and all. Heidi's mom came over and brought some cheesecake and tangerines, and helped us. We all went back to Main street and had Mexican food before heading home. Didn't get home til 2:30AM....whew. I am too old for this!
We look forward to going back for vacation in late Spring/ or early Summer to spend more time with them!
We sure enjoyed making use of the long drive to talk a lot with our dear Rhonda. I love how our conversations just seem to be full of the Lord and all he is doing in our life. Our families just love one another! Her son and his wife moved to Colorado recently and live in the same building as my son Nick and his wife. We picked up Rhonda's daughter Katlin, and got to talk to her the last 1 1/2 hours on the way home in the small hours of the night. She had just been to the "Truth and life conference" at Master's college. It was great to hear a bit about one of the lectures.
Today is rainy, we have had naps and caught up with our rest. Hope you are all well and cozy too this Sunday night.
| | |
|
Premium
