Boston MA

My trip began and ended in Boston. Most of our signtseeing was done by bus, but I had time at the beginning and end of the trip to do some walking and due to our bus being delayed the first morning our guide took us on a short walking trip. I think of Boston as a modern city and financial center and had never really thought about all the historical events that took place there. We were all amazed that so much of Boston is on man-made land, too. I picked up several books to read on the American Revolution (I see a trip to the library soon, too for some research) and on Boston. Since we are just a few days away from celebrating July 4th I thought it very significant to be in the city where many of the events that led up to the Declaration of Independence took place and to feel maybe just a little bit of what those people were feeling as they dumped the tea in the harbor!

This is the Old State House and the site of the Boston Massacre

Quincy Market (Fanuiel Hall is close by)

And, of course....sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name

New England

I just got home from a week in New England. I had never been there before, and I'm so glad I went on this trip. Cool temperatures, beautiful scenery, so much history, and sooooo many quilts! I'm posting a few pictures now and will do more detailed ones later. I now understand the concept of "snow birding".

A typical scene in Vermont (made through bus window).

View from the balcony outside my room at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe Vermont.

Portland Head Lighthouse in Portland Maine.


Old North Church in Boston. This staircase leads up to the steeple where the lanterns signaled "One if by land, two if by sea".

Weekend Happenings

Well, another weekend is ending. They always go so fast and then it's like the '70's song about Monday, Monday. And then we are off on another week.

I kept Cameron on Saturday night and made a bunch of photos so I'm putting a few here and on his page, too.

Cam discovered the full wall mirror in the dining room!

For some reason Cameron is attracted to this little door on my entertainment center. He will open the door and put a small toy in the cabinet and then shut the door. He has been told repeatedly to leave it alone, but he just can't so I had to make a picture of him playing with it!

And look at those curls! I love this photo and when I have a little time I'll run it through Photoshop and get the glare off but I had to put it in here! Aaaaaawwwww!

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We said goodbye to Jaydon today. He has left for a visit with his Dad and will be gone for several weeks. I miss that little guy already. I managed to say goodbye to him without any tears today, but yesterday morning as he was leaving we had a tearful scene with both of us crying. I prayed for peace for him (and myself) and I know that was what made the parting easy. I know God is watching over him.

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And finally, I took the pups on their first full walk tonight. They did great, had to pick them up part of the way as those little short legs got tired! When we got home I installed the stake out in the front yard and hooked them up. I had imagined a tangled mess, but the only problem they had was that both of them managed to step out of the harness while they were hooked up. They have now passed out, tired little pups!

New Pages

I've added several pages to the blog (see the pages box to the right) and actually added some content to them. And I'm already thinking of more to add.

He's walking!

Cameron has started walking! Oh the fun is just beginning! Tonight was Gammy night and he came over for a while so I got to see him toddle around. He is fairly steady on his feet but gets his back too straight and then looses his balance. It won't take him long and he'll get it all together. I tried to get a picture of him walking but wasn't fast enough. Go Cam Go!

We Have a Graduate!

Class of 2010 (2022)

Jaydon graduated from Kindergarten today and we are so proud of him! Yeah Jaydon! I made pictures of the graduation but used my "purse" camera that has a flash range of almost zero so the ceremony pictures didn't turn out too great. Lesson learned!

Jaydon and Dr. Williams

It seems like this year went by so quick! But now it is summer and time for a break (we had to explain to him that you get a break during the summer between grades!). To kick off the summer we left school and went straight to the Witte Museum to see the dinosaur exhibit. WOW! It was great and we spent the entire afternoon there enjoying all the fun (kid) things to see besides the dinosaurs. Jaydon was flipped out at first because all the dinos are animated and make loud noises. I think he was having a Jurassic Park fear attack. I realized that they were activated by motion detectors so once he learned that he could control them he calmed down. They also had several that you could activate by pressing buttons on a board so he thought that was neat, too.

Animated dinosaur in front of the museum sets the stage!

Jaydon is digging for dinosaur bones

Inside the Science Treehouse

What a great day! A graduation and then a wonderful afternoon to start the summer season!

Time, continued

I've been thinking about the quote from Ecclesiastes on last night's post. I think there are several ways to look at this so here are some random thoughts.

• Are most people satisfied with their lives and the "toil" that they do.
• Or do most people have the Eeyore attitude about life? There's a little black cloud hanging over me, why is it that everything I do flops, I don't know what I did to deserve this but it must have been very bad, I must not be living right, why is God punishing me? We hear those comments all the time, and yes sometimes they are said humorously but may come from deep down within.
• Do we just go through life, or the activities of our day, and just think blah blah blah or do we strive to be pleased and satisfied with our tasks and the lifestyle that we pursue.
• And, I've never had the Pollyanna type belief that only good things happen to God's people but this verse states very plainly that being satisfied and content with your life is a gift from God.
• Does this gift really refer to having peace in your heart, we should have that anyway. I wonder if this refers to something else (satisfaction vs peace)
• I'd like to know what the word for"toil" that was used here really meant in the Hebrew language.
• The thought of eating and drinking and being satisfied with my life is very calming, and yes, it is a gift from God to be so blessed. As I explore this thought in my life I'll keep posting.

Time

Carole and Joey came over for part of the long weekend. We had a great time, shopping at the outlet mall, eating Mexican food, playing with the pups and just hanging out. It was hard to believe that it was the end of May and we hadn't crossed paths since almost New Years. We had several interesting conversations and it made me feel better to know that I'm not crazy and that there are other working women out there who feel the same way. One of our conversations was about the process of feeding ourselves, but I think that will be a future post. Another conversation was about time.

I've thought about this a lot in the last few years and recently decided that I had to get control of my time. Obviously, before I go any further I have to state that I haven't found the control lever for doing so. I've read the books and know the time management principles fairly well. The instructions make sense and the authors and personal management coaches make it sound real easy. Reality...it is not.

So tonight I came home from work and since I had not planned my time too well (I did start a list) I took some reading material outside to read through while the pups played. First I read a publication from USAA that had an enticing title about "can work ever be optional" and found the article to be pretty lame. It didn't help me in planning how I can quit working in two to five years (dream, dream). So I skimmed through a catalog from a favorite quilt shop and tried to get my thoughts organized around quilting. My sewing room is a wreck and just the thought of trying to clean it up and figure out where I was on projects was too much. So I moved on to an expensive shoe catalog but a quick flip through there told me it needed to be recycled. My last item was Guideposts magazine. It is a quick, easy read and I should have started with it first. There were several articles by women who did not have enough time in their days and how they found a small glimmer of peace through a trying situation. But what really caught my eye was a quote from Ecclesiastes that appeared on the recipe section's cover (right under the picture of the chicken and broccoli stir fry). Here it is:

"To eat and drink and find satisfaction in all your toil--this is the gift of God"

I'm sure this is a paraphrase from Ecclesiastes chapter 2, but it says enough. I've decided that if something doesn't bring me satisfaction and peace from God that it probably isn't something I should be wasting time doing. But I also think this verse is a reminder that God gives us life and we should be doing work that gives us an inner feeling of contentment. I'm going to try using this verse as a guide for time management and see what progress I make.

(and I don't know why blogger won't let me put in line breaks between paragraphs on some posts, grrr)

Ah...the beach!

This past weekend was "Island Time" as Stephanie, Jaydon and I went south to the beach. We all love going and I always think, "why don't we go more often?" The ride down is always pleasant and full of anticipation of another beach trip but the ride home is usually long and sunburnedly painful.

Jaydon celebrates our arrival!

The sea is so fascinating. I don't really care to be in the water all that much, but I could sit on the beach every day and just watch the waves. They have been coming ashore since the beginning of the earth and I know that even as I write this the waves are crashing on the beach. They never cease.

And, we had a small victory on this trip. After buying 3 large umbrellas that self-destructed in the wind and 3 small umbrellas (1 quickly went in the trash, one survived and one was a semi survivor) we bought an umbrella that actually stayed upright in the wind. It provided enough shade for two of us to sit under and we congratulated ourselves on finally getting it right! And Jaydon was pleased because it is his favorite color - bright orange!

Creativity

I found an interesting comment about creativity several years ago. It was in a little comment section in a woman's study Bible. What intrigued me was the statement that creativity demands focus, commitment and discipline. I thought about that a lot, as I found that the three elements were intertwined. You can't have one with out the others and they all work together.

Last fall at the International Quilt Festival one of the classes I took was a dud. It wasn't what I expected and the teacher was really artsy, zany off the wall artsy. But she made some opening comments that I found to be interesting. She spoke of letting creativity flow through you and she stated that she pitied the soul that did not have some creative outlet. It didn't matter what the genre was (music, art, writing, whatever) but every human being needs something creative to flow through them. (I had registered for the class because from reading the description I thought it would be something to inspire me and give me a fresh breath of creativity. Instead of being a quilting/sewing class it was primarily a paint on fabric class and then construct a tote bag using the art. I did enjoy painting, but it was not what I had hoped for at the time. Looking back I realize that I let my expectations get in the way of creativity).

So many people say, "I have no creativity" but I know they do, they just haven't let it flow through into their life. And I know I have creativity but it has been stopped by the day to day of life. I look for it now and then, but know that other responsibilities crowd out my focus and commitment and I don't have the discipline to focus and make the commitment.

Our Hearts Are Heavy

Our family's hearts have been heavy the last week. Ethan lost his battle with life's physical afflictions on Thursday. While we know that he is not suffering anymore in his physical body and we know that he is in heaven we miss him. He and Jaydon were best of friends. I'm so thankful for the times they had together, and especially for that last trip to the beach this spring. Ethan had so much enthusiasm for life and his smile was always uplifting. I will miss his eagerness and amazing personality.

The Angels Rejoice!

Fresh Mowed Grass...and other smells

I just realized that it has been a while since I posted, time caught up with me!

Several nights ago I sat outside on the deck to eat supper while the pups played (this is becoming a routine with us now). It was such a pleasant evening and so nice to be outside. Early evening is my favorite time to be outside, too. I was enjoying the quiet, peaceful time. The birds were chirping and there was a nice breeze. Then my neighbor decided to mow his back yard and the noise of his lawn mower broke the peaceful spell. But it wasn't too long before the smell of freshly mowed grass reached me....how pleasant that smell is! I didn't mind the noise anymore as I enjoyed the freshness of the cut grass. What is it about freshly mowed grass that is so pleasing? I've never heard anyone say they don't like that smell. It just makes you say "Ahhhhh", doesn't it?

The next morning one of the guys in the office made some toast and the smell wafted through the office. Again, I noticed how pleasant the toasted bread smelled and I thought, "Ahhhhh". It is such a comforting smell, just like the grass.

So now I'm noticing smells - pleasant, peaceful smells. I've added to the list: rain, mountain laurel blossoms, roses, gardenias, frying onions, cooking garlic, and of course, frying bacon. I like to burn candles, and although they smell nice they just can't compare with a natural scent. Oh, I just thought of another smell, homemade spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove.