Hawaii ~ March 2012 ~ Day 1

It's true. We went on this fabulous vacation two months ago and I have not had time yet to blog about it. I'm hoping to get caught up and have this all done before we leave on our next jaunt. 

Everyone arrived in the early afternoon except for me and Ray, and we didn't get in until late that night. Four couples: Fred and Gayle Mackenzie, Dave and Tamara Badger, Karen and Scott Perry, and Ray and I. Oh, we had a wonderful, relaxing time. Just what I needed before the life-storm of April hit. 

We rented a house in Lanikai, which is on the east side of Oahu, just southeast of Kailua. I love that area. It's very near where my sister and family live, so we got to see them fairly often. 

A fair warning to readers: the Hawaii posts will be full of many pictures. It's my way of documenting the trip. 

The house was right on the water. This is the beachfront view.

Dave reading and relaxing. It's how most of us spent most of our time.

This is the pool, which was between the house and the street.

Looking Back A Book of Memories by Lois Lowry

Straight from the front jacket cover flap:

I would like to introduce you to this book. It has no plot. It is about moments, memories, fragments, falsehoods, and fantasies.  It is about things that happened, which caused other things to happen, so that eventually stories emerged.
~ Lois Lowry

I did not know what to expect. I'll say this: the quote above is exactly right, yet the book is so much more. Each chapter, or vignette, or memory, or whatever the chapter entails includes at least one (and often more) black and white photo from Lowry's past. The photos are beautiful, as are the thoughts that go with them.

It's a somewhat random, yet completely logical gathering of events and memories that helped to shape her life and her writing.

It took me only a couple of hours to read. I just now glanced at the spine of the book, and it's categorized by the library system as Juvenile Biography. Yes, younger people would read and enjoy this. However, I think a certain maturity in life leads to a greater appreciation. I finished the book about 5 days ago, and it's still resting in my brain, not ready to go away quite yet.

Sisters 2012 - the Next Generation

My favorite weekend of the year just happened. Sisters weekend for my three daughters and me. It went by much too fast!

Audrey, Diane, Beth, Debra

We gathered from our various corners of the earth (Wendover, Provo, and Seattle) at my house on Thursday night. We stopped on the way home and picked up Cafe Rio for dinner. Mm-mm, delicious!  Then we opened our Sisters Gifts. Traditionally we each bring the same gift for each member of the group. 

Here's the loot for this year: 2012 Caldecott winner A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka, 2012 Newbery winner Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos,  Baby Lit Little Miss Austen Pride & Prejudice, Trader Joe's Kitchen Cloth, gift wrap for all seasons--brown paper, twine, and various tags and ribbons, and home made liquid Dove soap. So fun! Oh, and a little zippy strippy bag I made for the girls.

Our gifts

Friday morning Debra had a doctor's appointment bright and early then we had breakfast at the Corner Bakery Cafe. Their hot chocolate is to die for, and breakfast in general was delicious. It was hard to choose what we wanted - everything sounded (and was) so good. 

After breakfast it was home to do projects (photos, sewing, crafts), watch movies (see below), eat favorite foods (french dip sandwiches, hot cheese canapes, Sopa de Lima) and best of all be together. Saturday was more of the same. Sunday we emerged from our cave to go to church. 

Just looking at this picture makes me want to sit and watch it all again right now. Maggie Smith makes me laugh. And I just want to slap Thomas and O'Brian.

 The Happiest Millionaire is an old family favorite of ours. The kids know all the songs, most of the lines, and several dances. It's always fun to see it again.

Beth and Debra had not seen The Help yet, and Beth just finished reading it. What an outstanding movie (and book).

The babies (Andrew and Jonathan) were so easy we hardly even knew they were there.

Andrew. This is about as much trouble as he caused all weekend. None.

This is what we all felt like at the end of the weekend.

Beth broke up the party and left first--Sunday night. She had to be at work Monday morning. Debra left at the crack of dawn Monday morning and Audrey left Monday evening. I was left all alone, missing my girls. 

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

For the life of me, I can't remember where I read about this book. I thought it was from Everyday Reading, but I checked there and didn't see the review.

Whoever recommended it: thank you! What a delightful book.

The book was written in 1938, and takes place in England. Miss Pettigrew is a prim and proper, genteel governess, seeking a position. She's desperate for a job, and ends up at what should be a job interview with a Miss LaFosse. What actually happens is a delightful account of the next 24 hours associating with all kinds of people she would never encounter in her regular life.

The dialogue was fun, the illustrations amusing, and over all it was a most diverting book.

What Are Sisters For?

Diane and Cheryl, 2006

I've been busy. You can tell, because I haven't gotten much reading in. Two books in the month of April? Almost unheard of for me. But it is an indicator that I've been otherwise occupied. May has been clipping right along too.

Not that I haven't been having a great time being busy, but it's been almost non-stop. That's why I looked forward to this last week so much. My sister came for a visit. She was here to see my mom and dad, and luckily that means a lot of time with me too. We had a fun, relaxing time. Talking, shopping for quilt fabric, and playing Dr. Mario on the Nintendo.

It's great to have my sister come. I don't fret about being "ready". In fact I was so bad this time that I called her and said, "I just can't have the house all clean before you come. I want to warn you that it's going to be a mess." The house wasn't horrible, but it wasn't as in order as I like it to be (a reflection of my life in general right now).  But that's not the worst part. I realized on Sunday right before she arrived that I hadn't shopped for food for the week. I thought I'd just run out Monday morning and do it. Nope. Forgot. Next thing I know, my sister walks in with a bag of groceries. Breakfast and lunch food for all of us. Now that's embarrassing.

As if that's not enough, I got in my car yesterday and wondered if my gas gauge stopped working. It was stuck at full. I started to fret about running out of gas unexpectedly (it's happened too many times before in my life). Nope. My sister filled the tank.

I often wonder what I'd do without her. This week I know: starve, and walk instead of drive. Of course, those are only some of the practical things. Who else will play Nintendo with me besides my sisters? Who will listen to my concerns about my parents? Who else do I laugh with as much?

When we decided to move to Utah I had to tell my sister Cheryl (who lived only a mile away from me at the time). No laughing that day. Ray came into the house and looked at both of us. He said, "You told her, didn't you?" We said, "How did you know?" He said, "No one's laughing. What else could it be?"

She left yesterday. There would be no laughing today either, except all my girls are here for the weekend to distract me. Luckily there is food to eat (thank you Ray) and gas in the car (still thank you Cheryl).

Wildwood by Colin Meloy

I recently read this book for my book group. I knew I wasn't going to be able to be there and was tempted to skip the book because I have so little time to read right now, and thought I might have something else I'd rather read.

I'm glad I read it. It's YA fiction and takes place in Portland, Oregon. I just love the northwest so that was an immediate draw for me. Also the illustrations by Carson Ellis are terrific.

In brief, it's about a twelve year old girl whose baby brother is kidnapped by crows and taken into an impassable forest area. She takes off after the crows to get her baby brother. What follows is quite an adventure.

The story wraps up well, and there is a tiny glimmer of the possibility of more books to follow. When I checked online, it turns out there is a second book, Under Wildwood, due out the end of September. I think I'll give it a try.

Happy Mother's Day

Ten years have passed since this picture was taken of my children and it's still one of my very favorite pictures of them.

Much has changed in those ten years. All three daughters are married. We've added three sons-in-law and eight grandchildren into the mix, making a new and improved version of the Linford family.

One thing has not changed: my love of and joy in my family. Thank you all for making motherhood such a great blessing in my life.

April Report

April?? There was a month of April this year? I think I missed it.

My first thought about the month and my goals was: it was a complete bomb. And maybe for the few goals I've set for the year the month wasn't great. But I did get a lot done.

So here is my evaluation of the goals:

1. First things first: this was a bust, and it proved to me that even if everything else in life is stirred up, I need to do these few basics to keep my head working right. So I need to not skimp on scripture reading, exercise, and eating right. Hopefully lesson learned. We'll see.
2. One shelf/drawer per day: pretty good. See below.
3. 30-30-30: I believe I did not have the opportunity to do 30-30-30 even once during the month. It was that kind of month.
4. Skype/web cam: Ha! Fat chance on that one. 
5. Digital photo system: I'm taking an online class. Good thing there's not a time limit on it. I did look at the syllabus.

Here's what I accomplished:

1. One new grandson. I didn't do much to have him arrive and be so cute, but I did help with his older sisters for a few days after he was born. It was so wonderful.
2. Attend two days of graduation ceremonies at BYU. That sounds like a lot more than it was (maybe I meant it to sound that way?) Actual ceremony time: about 3 hours total. Saving seats time: about 2 hours total. Hmm, that doesn't sound like that much. Certainly not 48 hours worth. But it was fun! And so great to be with family and our good friends, the Pecks.
3. Some church responsibilities.
4. Audrey and kids were here for almost a week. That's not much strain on my time, but Audrey helped me go through my closet (we got about 2/3 done). We weeded and sorted and figured out accessories. Hopefully now I won't look so raggedy when I go out in public. But don't hold me to that.
5. I had a bout of stomach flu, and I'll tell you, I did it right. Luckily it was fierce, but short.  
6. It's been a month of packing. Debra (that cute new baby's mom) is moving this week, and we've been packing, packing, packing. So maybe I didn't clean out one of my own shelves every day, but between her house and mine I cleaned out some shelf every day.

Whew! What a month. Isn't that just how life goes? It never really settles down the way we think it will.

A long time ago--I can't remember what we were doing, playing a game, or something that had a time limit on it--one of my kids said to me,  "Mom, take your time. In a speedy sort of way". That's kind of how I'd like to live life. Perhaps not so much speedy, but maybe efficient, or in the moment. I'll have to refine that motto some more. I'll stick it on the shelf for now. Hopefully one of these days it will be on the shelf I choose to clean and organize. Then I'll shine it up and get it to mean just what I want it to.