The Busy-ness of Home

There were worms all over our driveway this morning.  It rained a lot last night, so they were looking for a dry escape.  They find that all right but dry out to crusty critters, only to be swept away as lawn fertilizer.  I wonder why they make the same mistake over and over again.  I also wonder why the many birds that live here don't feast upon the banquet they offer every time it rains.

I returned from Seattle on March 19th, a Monday night.  All seemed well on the home front.  Layne took care of dinners by taking the kids out almost every night to eat.  Wow.  I thought they would be a little sad to see me back home, but they said they actually missed eating at home.  So good!

Daughter-in-law Dorothy arrived Tuesday evening.  She and I have been running every day since then going through her new home (just 12 minutes from us!) and getting all that is associated with a new home taken care of.  It has been a very busy time.  She goes home tomorrow after spending 10 days with us.  Dorothy is one of those people that is so very easy to have around.  We've had fun.
Here she is, in her new kitchen.

Gerald brought Frances with him last week, on Wednesday.  They will be with us for yet another week.  It is a joy to have them here with us too.  Seth has been dreading their visit as he knew his long hair would get the chop once his mom was here.  And he was right.  In spite of our efforts at trying to talk her into preserving his flowing locks, she would not have it and cut it herself.  Sad day.  Poor boy. 

Otherwise I think the kids have enjoyed having the folks here.  Between shopping with Frances and shopping and errand running with Dorothy there has been little time for anything else.  But it is Spring Break, so it is a good time for not worrying about my own stuff.  Responsibilities are suspended, for now.

Our natural world is changing.  The neighborhood is beginning to blossom forth, beginning with daffodils.  Spring is on its way and the magical transition from dead looking stuff to a beautiful resurrection, turning our world into green, has begun.  Life springs forth.  It takes me in.

 

A Seattle Escape

Some months ago daughter Jessica asked if I could stay with their kids for 2 1/2 weeks while they went to Europe, to celebrate her 50th birthday.  Hum.  2 1/2 weeks seemed like such a long time.  Would Layne be OK handling the kids without me?  Would the English program work OK without me?  I put off committing to the whole time but finally agreed to do it.  Jessica shortened the time to two weeks and that clinched it.

So I came, over a week ago now.  As it turns out, Layne is having a fine time with the kids.  He transports them to their various activities just fine and has been taking them out to dinner just about every night!  I wonder how happy they will be to see me back home again with that kind of thing going on!  The English program is doing fine without me too. 

It was snowing when I got here...in Seattle!  Apparently they've received an unusual amount of snow this year.  It has warmed up since, but it is still cold.  I layer to keep warm and sometimes sit in front of the fireplace to thaw out!  Here's how the front yard looked when I was first here.

Being here has turned out to be a very pleasant respite from my usual busy routine at home.  I am alone almost all of the time as the kids are in school, sports, and Miles works most nights.  I am loving so much time all to myself.  It is restful, meditative and productive.  Even when the kids are home, they prefer their devices to visiting.  I've had a couple of sweet conversations with them, but they are not prone to give them out routinely. 

Miles and Peyton "devicing" and doing homework.

Audrey visited this past weekend.  What a pleasant thing to have her gift for visiting.  We had a lovely time.  Gemma also came home from college for the weekend.  So it was filled with plenty of chatter and bonding.

Chris and Jessica text often and include pictures of their adventures.  It's pretty wonderful to be able to communicate so well from so far away.  Here they are in front of the Roman made aqua duct, that after hundreds and hundreds of years, still works.  I'd love to see that in person!

The time is passing quickly.  I'm surprised by how much I am enjoying it.  I like the kids, I like the place and I like the time that has opened up to me.  What fun to awaken each morning, get the kids off to school and have the whole day before me with no demands.  I can decide how to use each minute!  Its a gift.

English and Ordinary Things

In January Layne and I were asked to take over an English as a Second Language class for a group of refugees.  We have been teaching there and now we are in charge of what is being taught.  That has taken over our lives for now.  There is English....and more English...and even more as we work to organize the mountain of material we've inherited and write up a curriculum through the end of April, when we will stop for the summer.  Gerald helped clear my mind regarding curriculum.  I've decided that the thing to do is concentrate on conversation rather than grammar.  Understanding and speaking are the most important things I think, and the first language skills to acquire.  So I've come up with an outline of conversations to take us to May.  We teach at an apartment complex that rents mostly to refugees.  We have up to 15 students and I love them all!  I want very much to give them the best possible experience with English.

I can hardly think of anything else.

Here is a shot of the apartment complex where we teach. You can see Layne unloading some of our English materials.

Seth and Angelica just get more and more involved with things.  Seth is on a community basketball team now.  Here he is at one of his games.  Practices and games means lots of driving.  He's got his learners permit but not his license so Layne keeps busy transporting him.

Angelica is involved with even more things; piano, dancing and now track.  Getting her to events means even more driving. Wow, keeping up with kids takes some doing.  But we enjoy them and feel grateful to have them in our lives. 

Angelica performed in a piano recital this past week.  She did a great job.

Having the kids with us brings lots more activity and upkeep.  But they are pretty good at helping.  Here's Angelica busy with dish duty and Seth enjoying the happy task of dumping the garbage on the compost pile, in the cold and snow.  Note his bare feet!  Notice also how straight Angelica's hair is.  She's having fun flat ironing her lovely curvy hair into stick straight.  

And so there are no great adventures of late, just ordinary, challenging but rewarding life.

California, Again

Grandson Bruce (son of Reed and Dorothy) turned the magical age of 8 in January.  His baptism was scheduled for the first weekend of February.  It was not to be missed, so off Layne and I went on another trip.  We flew to California this time, on confirmed seats.  That's always a special treat after years of flying standby.  It was heavily compromised however by a 4 HOUR delay!  We arrived very much later than planned.  But we did get there.  Sometimes I forget what a blessed thing it is to have things so conveniently arranged.  When an occasional inconvenience arises it is easy to overreact with a bit too much annoyance.  So with calmness I will tell you that we still kept our appointment to meet up with our very good friend, Beverly Trutner.  She had arranged to provide us with lunch but by the time we got there it became dinner.  Beverly was our neighbor in Sunol.  She and her husband, Ernie, sold us our property there and became very dear to us.  Ernie died of cancer last October.  It was such a loss as he was a fine man and bigger than life.  We were anxious to spend some time with Beverly.  She is such a bright, lovely woman, adjusting to life without her love is, of course, so difficult.  We had a sweet time with her.

We headed to Audrey and Cliff's after that.  They just about always have some space we can fit into.  Every other family household is filled up.  I headed to Palo Alto very early the next morning to paint a mural for Ben and Jessica's youngest three.  They had a picture all picked out, of a sort of crystal city.  I hoped to get it done by 1:30 so as to give myself time to drive back to Brentwood and the baptism.  Of course I had lots of company as some of the kids hung out with me.  Sadly, by 2:00 I still had a way to go.  Disappointed, I headed back to the AH's and got quickly ready for the baptism.  

It was a stake baptism so wasn't as personal as those done just for one candidate.  But it was nice.  Bruce seemed very pleased.  We headed back to Reed and Dorothy's after that and were treated to a catered dinner.  So good.  We gave Bruce our collection of family stories, which I save for all the younger grandchildren for their 8th birthdays.  Bruce seemed quite pleased to have the stories.  I was happy about that.  Here is Bruce with his folks, Dorothy and Reed.

Here is most of the family gathered that night.

I love this picture of grandson Isaiah, his dad Cliff and Rayne's husband, Dominic.

I just could not bring myself to leave without finishing the mural.  So, right after Sacrament meeting on Sunday, I headed back to Palo Alto to finish the mural.  This time my goal was to be finished by 2:30.  By 3:00 it was essentially finished.  So, weary of it all, I headed back to the AHs, where Dominic provided an amazing dinner.  Reed and Dorothy and family joined us and it was a lovely time.

We headed home on Monday and I'm happy to say that the flight was on time. Still, we didn't arrive until 8PM.  It as good to be back as there was English classes to prepare for.

Our stake sponsors English classes for a group of refugees that live in an apartment complex in Boise.  Layne and I were recently asked to take over the program.  Monday was our first day in charge.  I think it went OK.  I love our refugees.  They are almost all women as the men are working at various jobs.  They have been through some horrible experiences, yet are cheerful and positive.  We laugh together as we work on English.  I hope we can do the right job for them.  I've decided that we need to concentrate on conversation rather than grammar, which they have had lots of already.  

I spent most of the rest of the week working out a curriculum through the month of April, when we will stop for the summer.  It feels good to have a plan written up.  Now to make it all work and sort out all of the materials we were given.  It is quite a job.  I'm determined to organize it well enough to make the implementation relatively easy.  Layne is my organization man.  He has already charted the classes, students and teachers.  We do opposite things.  In this case it works out quite well.

Gerald has been here for two weeks.  He goes home on Monday.  I will miss him so very much.

Arizona for My Birthday

"We should take a girl-trip together," my daughters suggested awhile ago.  Since we all like the musical group, "Pink Martini", we decided that attending one of their concerts would be a lovely activity to do together.  The girls found a concert in Scottsdale, Arizona, happily scheduled on my birthday, January 18th.  So we divided the tasks of making it happen into three parts:  Jessica found a place to stay; Audrey got the concert tickets and I scheduled the rental car.

We did all of this several months ahead of time, so we had plenty of time to anticipate.  Finally our time arrived.  All of us joined up at the Phoenix airport where I got the rental car.  Online arrangements indicated that anyone over 70 could not drive.  Humph!  I thought.  But I kept the reservation and made Audrey the designated driver.  When we checked in I made a comment about their too old policy and the agent was surprised.  He said it wasn't so, that anyone with a valid driver's license could drive their cars.  I changed my tune and made myself the driver after all.  Cheers to us older girls!

We headed to Scottsdale, where Jessica arranged for a condo rental for us.  It turned out to be a very cute place.  The girls gave me the master bedroom, since it was my birthday.  So nice!  We grocery shopped for the weekend  and got ready for our concert.  The theatre turned out to be a lovely facility.  We joined the crowd, bought some popcorn, and settled in.  It was a friendly audience!  We visited with a few of the people around us, than all settled down once the concert began.  Pink Martini is an interesting mix of musicians--bass, violin, piano, trumpet, bongos and drums.  And a variety of singers, including "visiting" artists.  Their sound is great!  Their albums contain numbers I don't especially like--sort of filler songs along with the great ones.  But the concert was all about their best pieces.  We loved them all!  It was joyful music that asked us to move.  Too bad there was no dance floor!  It was a bright, happy experience.

Here we are in the theatre.

Pink Martini.  Their lead singer is dressed in red.

Jessica and Audrey, outside the theatre.

Jessica really wanted to tour Frank Lloyd Wright's home in Scottsdale, so that is what we did on Saturday.  It turned out to be the highlight of the day!  His desert compound included homes for his apprentices, which he always had, both in Wisconsin (his original location) and Scottsdale.  It also had work spaces, storage spaces, and a theatre.  All was made of materials found on the land; stones set in concrete.  There was some wood too.  Designs tended toward the geometrical, his preference.
He loved the color red too.  We were enchanted with this place.

I'm sitting inside the Wright's living room, in a chair designed by FL Wright.  Note the geometric shape.  Also the red; gotta love that.

Outside the living room, this shows the use of local rock for the walls.  It is consistent throughout the complex.

Jessica and Audrey standing in front of the Wright home.  Once they put in a well and had water on the property, Wright was able to put in this pond and lawn.

Later we walked through Scottsdale's "Old Town", all lit up in the evening.  We walked through it and window shopped among the crowd.  We had dinner at a place called the Mission, where the prices were high and the food was less plentiful than cheaper places.  It was really good though!  Vacations make this kind of splurge fun.

Here is Scottsdale's Old Town.

Sunday Audrey and I went to a local Sacrament meeting.  It was a friendly, warm ward.  We so enjoyed it.  Then we headed into the desert and a hiking trail that Jessica found.  We hiked the trail for several hours.  I can see why people like the desert.  We found much to admire in the views that presented themselves to us as we walked along.  It was even beautiful.  We took lots of pictures.

Desert view.  Note the glowing cactus.  They look so soft and lovely.  But they almost reach out to us as we pass, to attack us with their needles.

Beautiful sun rises over the hills by our path.

Audrey and I with a giant cactus who's name I can't remember.

Audrey and Jessica along our hiking trail.

My body is used to walking for a certain period of time.  Our desert hike was longer than usual for me.  So I was sore a couple of days later.  But it was fun to be out in the winter warmth.  While we were hiking we saw a far-away fountain and wondered what it was doing there, in the desert.  So we investigated and found that it was located in a desert town called "Fountainville".  We decided to drive there and see the fountain close up.  It was located in the middle of a park and came on for 15 minutes every hour.  We timed our visit for the right 15 minutes and enjoyed it as we walked around the lake that surrounded it.  What fun to explore without worrying about time or place.

Me, at the park surrounding the fountain at Fountainville.

The Fountain, located in the middle of the park lake.  It is one of the tallest fountains in the world, our research said.

 We returned home and watched the moon eclipse.  We could see it cloud over with just a hint of red.
We all took pictures, but photos just could not capture it.  We ate our left-overs and went to bed.  Monday morning was our goodbye as we went our separate ways to fly home.  We've decided that we should make these girl get-aways a regular event.  So we are already discussing our next adventure.
Maybe Mt. Rushmore?

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind.  We've been asked to take over the English program for one of our refugee centers here.  We've been teaching there already so we should be able to pick it up easily.  You would think.  But it takes planning.  I'm on it but I'm still not sure how we should proceed.  We've had company and gone out to eat several times this week.  Wow.  So now I'm 76 and busy as can be.  Its good to be an old lady with a challenge to meet.  But sometimes I'd just like to take a nap.

Welcome 2019

We have had a whirlwind holiday time and it has been great.  We were only home from our California Christmas for a couple of days before New Year's Eve.  I was thinking we would just float through it with our little family circle and go to bed early, but Layne really wanted to have a party.  This is quite unusual for him; he is normally not much of a party guy.  I told him I'd go for it if he made the invites.  So he did.  We had 12 of us for dinner and lingering, until midnight for a toast and general cheer for the New Year.  Some still lingered after that so we didn't get to bed until around 2 am.  But it was so fun!  I'm glad Layne promoted it.

Here's friend Larry Wintersteen toasting and Angelica popping on New Year's Eve, midnight!

Layne is into the toast.

2018 has been a year of losses, as far as friends go.  We have said goodbye to Ernie Trutner, David Thomas, Don Harmon, and Jim Wilkie.  Did you notice that they were all men?  It goes to my theory that men are just not built to last!  It makes me sad as I love the men in our lives.  This is the time of life for losses as we begin to leave this world for the next one.  It is to be expected I suppose, but I don't like it much. 

We drove to Utah on New Year's Day.  I talked Layne and the kids into coming with me since I was afraid of icy roads.  But there were none.  Why knew?  This time we stayed with Layne's twin, Lynn, and his wife, Camille.  It was so fun!  We don't spend much time with them normally, but this time we spent two nights with them.  The kids enjoyed them too, and loved playing with their dog.  We also had a brief visit with Bob and Maryanne.  I was excited to give them our late Christmas gifts and I think they liked them.  I'm hoping that the pjs I made for Maryanne will be useful.  I'm hoping to spend more time with our Utah family this coming year. 

Lynn and Camille's daughter, Kristin Jones, stopped by while we were there.  Here she is, between us.

Here we are, munching at the Black Bear.  Left is Angelica, Lynn and Camille.  Right is me, Layne and Seth.

After we got home from Utah, Allegra, Scott and his Jessica (#3) stopped overnight on their way back to school at BYUI.  It was a short visit but sweet.

We started our new Church schedule today--2 hours of Church instead of 3.  And a whole new study program for the year.  New ideas are usually pretty interesting and I can't help being excited about these.  I'm full of plans for the new year too.  I'm hoping to actually do some of my resolutions this year.  I'm hot for it!

We are home and settling into a regular routine at last.  The kids start back to school tomorrow.  I'm a little tired; I'm an old lady now, you know.  But things are looking good for a calmer week ahead.

Christmas Time

When my children were very young I remember the sweet feeling of knowing that they were all safely tucked into bed and all was well.  They have grown, left and multiplied now, but there is still such a sweet feeling when we are all back together again.  We came close this Christmas, as we gathered to California to celebrate together.  We missed son Gerald and his Frances, but everyone else was there! 

Layne, I and the kids drove to California last weekend and met up with Chris and daughter Jessica, where we stayed in a rental, in Mountain House, together.  Here are the Gendreau kids and Angelica in our rental house.  Seated:  Gemma, Miles and Peyton.

Our California days were filled with fun events.
Sunday:  Bethlehem Dinner at Reed and Dorothy's, after Church.  In spite of all the activity, there was still time for some people to indulge in a little media!

Monday:  Gingerbread houses at Ben and Jessica's.  Miles and Gemma are working on their unconventional masterpiece.  

Even the older kids got into it.  James and his wife, Alejandra, are hard at it.

All this lovely fun was provided by Ben and his Jessica, who baked all of the gingerbread herself!

I was in charge of Christmas Eve.  I planned it all out in my mind and it went so well there.  I warned myself to prepare for things to go not at all as planned.  With all those little people about, how could one expect all to go smoothly?  In my mind, the teenaged children would read a script of the Christmas story while the "littles" would portray the manger scene.  To my absolute surprise and delight, it all went pretty close to how I imaged it!  The teens did a great job of reading their parts and the "littles" stood their ground, in their proper places, the entire time!  Layne played Santa at the end and gave everyone a small flashlight, to symbolize being a light to the world, as Jesus would have us be.  Add a few carols and it all turned out rather well.  

Here are our readers:  Timothy, Vincent (who played Satan), Zachary, Miles (who was Jesus), William with his head down, Seth with his head up, Abigail, Peyton, Angelica, Alexis and, hidden on the right, Jacqueline.  In front is our nativity characters:  Olivia the angel, Jonathan as Joseph, Tia as Mary and Bruce the shepherd.  

After the nativity presentation and Santa's appearance, Christmas Eve gifts were passed out to all the kids.  Christmas pajamas; its tradition!

Tuesday, Christmas Day:  After individual Christmas mornings, some of us went to Audrey and Cliff's for a breakfast buffet.  It was almost the only get-together with them as they missed most of our activities because Rayne's hub Dom was hosting his family, visiting from England.  Later we met up with everyone at Reed and Dorothy's for Christmas dinner.  Wow.  Dorothy didn't take a chance that there would not be enough food.  She had enough for twice our number.  And it was so good!  

Of course we pigged out all during this happy California time.  After dinner, we had a family talent night.  Most of it involved the piano, with most of the grandkids having various levels of piano lessons.  I am proud of this sweet collection of children and grandchildren; their goodness, and their talents.  Layne and I even sang a song with Seth and Angelica.  They were less than enthusiastic about singing with us, but it turned out pretty well as we divided into parts to sing, Mary Did You Know.  I am almost over my nervousness in singing in front of other people.  It is still not my favorite thing to do, but I can make it through now.  Here's Zachary, playing his memorized piece.

Having us all together makes for lots of talking, laughing and all sorts of bonding.  It was all happy, noisy chaos and we loved it.  

Wednesday:  We visited several people, returned to Ben and Jessica's for a "group date" that Ben's Jessica arranged.  She got all the 16+ year olds together, along with dates, so spend the evening at their house.  She had all sorts of activities arranged to keep them busy and talking and it seemed to turn out OK.  While that went on, we met up with Audrey and Cliff, Reed, Chris and Jessica and went to dinner.  Picking the kids back up and driving back to Mountain House made for a very late night.  It is an hour's drive between Palo Alto (Ben and Jessica's home) and Mountain House (Cliff and Audrey's home and our rental), so traveling between places was a bit of a pain.  Traffic in the Bay Area has become pretty bad; there doesn't seem to be a good time to be on the road.  It just is always packed with cars.  

But it is magical to have so much family nearby and together.  I miss it here in Idaho.  We drove home on Thursday.  After 11 hours on the road, we were so happy to be home again.  I thought I felt pretty energetic throughout all these happy events, but Friday I crashed.  This old girl needs her naps, it seems.  Friday morning we awoke to new snow.  I love the snow!

More and more I realize how precious it is to have a family.  I cannot find the right words to express how happy I feel in being with them, and having them in my life.  I see more and more why the Lord emphasizes the importance of family.  That sweet feeling that came to me long ago comes back when I am with family.  I feel overwhelmingly blessed to have one!