Family Photo Mishaps at Niagara Falls

Did you think I ran away, ever to return to the blogosphere?  Not quite...I've just been enjoying my summer vacation.  Among other things, we recently took a looooong road trip, which included a stop at Niagara Falls.  We were there for about two hours, which was not quite long enough to really do much except to ride the Maid of the Mist, and snap lots of quick pictures.  You know, the kind you to take to prove that you've actually been there.  The problem is, none of the pictures turned out the way I had visualized them in my internal scrapbook layout. 

First of all, the girls hated the boat.  It was crowded with tourists, many of whom were international (read: have different ideas of personal space than the folks we are used to riding boats with).  Second, it was wet.  "Mist" is a bit of an understatement.  They give you these cute blue rain ponchos, which basically keep your shirt dry, but do very little to help your head, legs, or shoes. 

I negotiated with a Norwegian family for this place by the railing for Hannah, hoping that she would be able to see something.  This is the view over the top of her head, so presumably, she could have watched as we sailed by the falls.  But when I questioned her later, asking what she saw, she simply said, "Water." 

"You mean the waterfalls?" I asked.

"No.  The water under the boat."

"Oh.  Well...what was your favorite part, then?"

"When we got off the boat."

In spite of all this, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I thought the view was magnificent.  And in spite of getting wet and having a freaked-out toddler clinging to me for dear life, I did snap one picture of the scenery that I'm quite happy about. 

And the Norwegian family offered to take a group picture, so here we are!

Back on land, I decided we needed another family shot, this one drier - for the scrapbook page I was formulating in my mind.

We started out like this:

Then was the whole "let's find someone to take our picture" conversation.  You know: what about him?  No...he doesn't look like he could take a picture to save his life.  Well, that woman has a camera, do you think she'd do it?  No...she just answered a phone call.  Aha!  There's a guy with a big camera.  I'll bet he knows what he's doing.

So I handed over my camera to yet another international traveler.  But before we knew it, the guy was taking pictures, not of our family, but of us WITH his traveling companions!

This is Jonathan trying to tell the guy to get out of our shot.  

This is Lydia and Hannah trying to figure out who these random guys are.  Notice that the falls are framed (relatively nicely) in the background.

Finally, the man took a picture of just us.  But he did not get the falls in the picture.  We might as well have been standing by the railing at the upstairs of the mall.

So we took back our camera, said thank you, and asked an American for a retake.  Jonathan explained that we wanted a family shot with both sides of the falls visible behind us.  

Well, as you can see, we struck out again.  The kids were frazzled, our parking meter was about to run out, and we just decided to call it a day.  It's times like these when I have to remind myself that I don't need a perfect picture to create a good memory. 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th!  We got a little crafty and made some ribbon and ric-rac shirts for the girls, and fun paper garland for our mantle.   Then we had an impromptu photo shoot.  I love how Hannah hammed it up!

Lydia's First Birthday!

I cannot believe it, but Lydia's first birthday is on Sunday.  Where has the last year gone?  We celebrated yesterday with a few friends, some pinwheels, and all things rainbow.

After watching countless moms eat countless cupcakes from which the icing has been licked off by tiny tongues, I decided to make mini cupcakes.  This way, the kids could have their lick of icing and one bite of cake.  Then, the moms could leave them on the plate guilt-free, and have their own cupcake too.  I busted out my Silhouette and made some rainbow cupcake toppers.  There were chocolate covered Oreos for the party guests to take home, and some rainbow fruit skewers to round out the afternoon's snack.

Hannah and I decorated the driveway with sidewalk chalk.  (See Aurora Bear in the back there?  Hannah got really excited, straightened Aurora's crown, and announced, "I think Lydia should have an Aurora party, just like me!")

When it came time for the cake, Lydia was just as cute as could be.  She sportingly wore the hat, and scarfed her cupcake by the fistful.  She also devoured several pieces of watermelon and a number of blueberries.  Honestly, I think the kids liked the fruit as much or more than the cake.  Go figure...

A friend brought her super fun parachute, which made for a great game. 

And everyone got a rainbow pinwheel.  See Lydia with her hands over her ears?  That's what she does when she's excited.  I'm not sure where she learned that, but it sure is funny!

Happy birthday, sweet Lydia!  It's been a fantastic year with you in our family!

A Little Hopping Going On

It's beautiful in East Tennessee this week.  We enjoyed dinner outside in the backyard, and then just couldn't bring ourselves to go back inside again.  So after the regular yard toys had run their course, we moved to the driveway for some sidewalk chalk.

I drew this hopscotch thingy (what are they really called?), after which Jonathan informed me is not really the way it's supposed to be made.  But Hannah was thrilled, and immediately started jumping from box to box, doing first position then second position, first position then second position - just like in ballet class.

Then she studied my drawing with great intensity...

...and proceeded to draw her own grid.

 Hers was made with circles.  They each had a letter in the center. 

They were all first position.

Of course, Lydia had to get in on the action.  She played along by rolling the egg-shaped chalk down the driveway.  

Ahhh...nothing like a little lesson in inclined planes on a warm spring evening.

An Easter Baptism

I guess it's one of the perks of being the pastor...Jonathan and I were talking about how it was about time to baptize Lydia.  I asked when he wanted to do it; really it could be any time at all.  He said, "How about Easter?  That would be cool." 

And it was!

Remember those matching Easter dresses I sewed?  Lydia didn't wear hers to church.  Instead, she wore the family baptismal gown. 

(By the way, we didn't leave Hannah out of the pictures.  She's there (above), behind the baptismal font.  You can just see her elbow below the flowers.)

This is the gown that Hannah wore when she was baptized.  And I wore it too, although not when I was a baby.  It was my wedding dress.  I cut it up (gasp!) and in the ultimate refashion, made it into a wee heirloom. 

I know that some people are horrified that I would dissect my wedding dress, but when I got the dress, I intended to make it into a quilt.  I still want to, and while the best parts of the bead work went into this gown, there is still a sizable amount of fabric waiting to be stitched into a lovely quilt.  As a matter of fact, instead of a guest book at the wedding, I had everyone sign pre-cut cotton squares with a fabric pen.  Those also sit, pressed and waiting to be the quilt's back.  One day, it's going to be a really neat remembrance of our wedding.  Maybe a ten-year-anniversary project?

The dress is sewn from a purchased pattern, which apparently I don't have any more.  When Hannah was baptized, it was very hot, so she didn't wear the jacket.  I tried to make it as unisex as a wedding dress can be, and in a large-ish size, so it would be suitable for girls and boys of a variety of ages (and sizes).  I don't know whether or not any future grandchildren will wear this, but I wanted to make sure that all of my kids would fit.

The actual baptism was a very nice event.  The real perk of being the pastor is not choosing the coolest day, but being able to baptize your own child.  I was able to baptize Hannah, and so today was Jonathan's turn.  We told Hannah she had a very big job of being the Big Sister, but she wasn't fooled.  Thrilled by the chance to get up in front of the whole church and show off a little, she stood on tip-toes and peered at the water, did loop-the-loops around the font, and finally settled in the front row next to a friend.

Not to be outdone, Lydia almost toppled a flower arrangement before she pulled off Jonathan's lapel mic right in the middle of the prayer.  But not a tear was shed, and she even seemed to enjoy the water.

Well, on to Easter.  We did all wear our matching dresses to the church Easter egg hunt.

Hannah was thrilled by the amount of candy that was strewn about, just waiting for someone to pick it up - like manna in the desert.

 Lydia took the first opportunity to snitch Hannah's basket and see what all the fuss was about.

 All in all, a very good day!

You Can't Take It With You

Even as a baby, Hannah had boxes of books to unpack after a move. 

You should see the rest of our bookshelves...

 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

 

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

 

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

 

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.

Luke 18:18-23 (NIV)

I've been thinking a lot about stuff. My lots and lots of stuff, to be exact. I really love my stuff. Do you love yours?

Remember the story of the rich ruler? This rich man asks Jesus how to gain eternal life. He's been a good person, and followed all the commandments, he says. Jesus tells him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The guy is sad because he's so rich, and he goes away. He can't do it. His stuff counts for too much.

Shortly after we were married, Jonathan was studying this, and he called me at work to say, "I think this is a really important verse. What if Jesus said that to us? That we should sell all we have and give the money away?"

As you know, I'm practically Mother Teressa, so I said, "Of course, dear. When's the yard sale?"

Yeah right.

I said, "We just got a queen sized mattress. Are you nuts? I'm not giving away my stuff. Besides, by some standards, we are poor. Maybe someone will give money to us!"

Well, it's some years later. I still very much appreciate our larger bed. But Jonathan's question has stayed with me all these years. (He, on the other hand, doesn't remember the conversation.) I often wonder what it would be like if we had less, if we lived more simply, if less of my life was dedicated to the acquisition of and care for THINGS.

I knew a woman who was called to overseas mission work, and she sold or gave away almost everything she owned. She reduced her entire household to a trunk filled with only the most important mementos: some things that had belonged to her parents, and a few precious keepsakes from her children's growing-up. Could I do that?

On the other hand, these things that are so important to us may not be treasure to anyone else. I recently watched the TV show Hoarders for the first time, and was amazed by the real, emotional attachment people had with their stuff. I'm not a hoarder - you can even see the floors in my closets - but I really do have a deep attachment to many of my things.

As I was pondering all of this, I remembered someone we knew whose husband had a really impressive library. The kind of library I dream about, with floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books. A whole room of books. Just think about all that knowledge! It makes me excited just thinking about it!

The man died, and his wife was left with the task of doing something with all those books. She called the public library, and they came and took many volumes for their shelves. The she called us and offered any books we wanted. She thought we'd be interested because he had a large selection of books on religion. And she was right. We left her house with boxes of books. And she was disappointed because it looked like we had hardly made a dent. What was she going to do with all those books?

(Jonathan reminds me that in a few years, my dream of a home library will be obsolete, and our kids will think I'm nuts because I collected paper books. I would hit him over the head with a Kindle, but then I remember how expensive it is to move...27 boxes of books during our last transition.)

The point is, this man spent a lifetime accumulating books, which he read and enjoyed, but the library was important only to him. No one else wanted it in its entirety.

What about all the things I love so much? A porcelain piano figurine I bought in Spain, but is now broken and in box in the attic? A piece of needlework my grandmother painstakingly stitched, but looks too 1970's to display? A shelf of music books that I used to love to play, but now sit collecting dust in the bedroom (the only use our piano gets these days is from the Disney Movie Songbook)? No one wants that stuff. I'm not even sure if I want that stuff. But it's my stuff. I've moved it eleven times. I need it, right?

No, I don't need it. But, I want it. I recently discovered this wonderful advice from William Morris: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." My mementos are beautiful to me (even if only to me). The man's library was useful to him...and in small doses, to others as well.

I think that this matter, like so many others, is about balance. I want my house to be full of useful and beautiful things, so that doesn't mean narrow it down to a steamer trunk. It simply means to eliminate the fluff.

I think I would be happier with less fluff.

Now excuse me, while I go rearrange my bookshelf...

Matching Easter Dresses

Remember how I've been telling you about the Big Sewing Project I've been working (and reworking) on?  Well, it's finished!  In January, after my Christmas gift debacle (and I still haven't finished Jonathan's present yet...), I decided that the first thing I was going to do this year was make Easter dresses.  Then I could work on other stuff. 

So, here they are.  I choose coordinating fabric and some of my favorite dress patterns.  The next door neighbor has taken down his fence, which made for some nice pictures.

Hannah's dress is from the book Sewing Clothes Kids Love, by Langdon and Pollehn.  I've made it before, and it looks so much cuter on a kid than on the clothes line. 

Lydia's dress is the Party Dress from The Cottage Home.  Isn't it sweet?  It was a dream to sew, except for the part where I re-sized the bodice much too small, and had to pick out the whole thing and do it over again.

And this is a smocked skirt for me, from Make It and Love It. 

Aren't we going to be cute?!  After these were all sewn, Jonathan reminded me that we're going to baptize Lydia on Easter, so she'll wear the family baptismal gown to church.  Oh well.  We'll look good in our pictures, right?