You Don't See That Every Day

  Spring is here. The daffodils are the herald for me. When I see those blooms, I know it's spring and warmer weather is on its way. They also remind me of my dad. Each spring he would send out the notice that they were in bloom, and he would tell us to come and cut a bouquet. If I had gotten married in March instead of May, I would have carried a bouquet of daffodils. This past weekend we finished planting the last of the hazelnut trees. Except for the pollenizers. In our orchards we have two main varieties of hazelnut trees, Wepster and McDonald. We have nearly 5,000 of each variety. Interspersed among those two varieties are the pollenizers, of the York and Yamhill variety. These are extra pollenizers as insurance for the early pollen and the late pollen. Well, this past weekend we finished replanting the last of the Wepster and McDonalds. Our Montana relatives were visiting and took the time to help us out, which made the task much more fun. And to my daughter's delight, an...

A week has passed since our spring break ended and I am finally getting to this. It went by too fast! We kept busy enough to feel it, but no so busy that we didn't sleep in. Oh, that felt good. And yes, Monday morning of back-to-school was very painful for all of us. We started the break with a wedding - friends' children who we've known since our kids were little. We all enjoyed the wedding .. it was simple and beautiful. Our Boy got a chance to serve - scooping ice cream at the reception.  We all enjoyed the dancing - The Boy and I joined in on the Mom and Son dance; The girls showed us their moves to songs we had no clue on; and The Mr had some great tango moves. It made me miss our ballroom dancing days. That evening we picked up The Cousins. What a giggle-filled three days those were! We took them to a local children's museum one day. There was an exhibit there for streams - and just like an engineer's grandchildren would do, they each start...

Dear Friend overseas, I haven't been too good at keeping in touch, and I apologize for that. But you know how summer gets around here! Let me catch you up on the month of August at least. I have to do that before I can post back-to-school pictures. The Cousins came to town. We're naming this summer the Summer of the Cousins. In July as I posted earlier, my kids got to hang out with all their paternal cousins - which hasn't happened ...ever. In August we had cousins come to stay at our place. Which involved the necessary trip to the Oregon coast, since it was in the triple digits at home! What a beautiful day it was too! No wind, warm and just about perfect. It also included the traditional damming-of-a-river. Some of them worked hard at it. We had the traditional fare at Mo's restaurant and ended the day with ice cream. We also spent one of the hot afternoons at a local aquatic center. I got up the courage to go down the big twisty slide, but no way ...

How do you deal with disappointment? When you're six, crying is usually tolerated. Last weekend we got another round of snow, lots of it; so much that everything was canceled. We had family from out of state arrive on Friday night. We were looking forward to basketball games and swim meets, sharing our lives with our visitors. Then cancellations started trickling in. And all of our plans were wiped out. Little K had been so excited to have her very first basketball game and to have her cousins there to watch. When you've been dragged to numerous games and meets for older siblings, having someone special there to come to your game .... Well it's enough to send a 6 year old into a near frenzy. Alas, it was not to be. So we readjusted, relaxed and spent plenty of time inside playing while the snow blew outside. This last weekend we had a number of plans too. Our lives are busy, so nearly every day has plenty in it. But once again, disappointment visited our house. The f...

The first snow day of the season was back in December and there was much rejoicing in our household and up and down the neighborhood. Kids bundled up and went outside to play for hours. Cold fingers and empty tummies drove them back inside, and then after a quick lunch and warm-up they were back out there. We parents snapped a bazillion photos of the kids in their snowsuits flying down the hill in their cute winterized outfits, on sleds, throwing snowballs, eating (clean) snow. We relished the peaceful quiet that snow brings - slowing down our days, with no where to go, and no hurry-up, we relaxed and enjoyed the day. And then the second snow storm hit a few weeks later. My kids played outside for about an hour. No one wanted to go for a walk with me in the snow. Thankfully my visiting sister-in-law was up for it. She's from snow country - Wyoming/Colorado -  so snow wasn't any reason to stay stuck inside. Our days came to a standstill however; meets and games were cancelle...

Merry Christmas from all of us! Christmas came even though I wasn't fully "prepared". ((I'm planning on sending those cards and letters out ..... this week. )) I did get the gifts all taken care of in time. So my little family had our Christmas party the Eve before. My kids went all out this year. I was so proud. Now that they are able to work some, they have some spending money. And this year they bought gifts for each sibling and parents. So the 7 of us - times that many gifts (at least one per person) meant we had a lovely pile under the tree. It was so fun to see them give each other the gifts they had spent time and thought on. I think it was one of my favorite moments. And I did get the house (mostly) cleaned. Our company didn't seem to mind the dust bunnies too much. We had a blast with the cousins! The Mr.s family arrived on Christmas afternoon and the games began. The teasing, the jokes, the good conversation, the jostling of 13 of us in ...

Where did the summer go? Let me revel in it once more by going over our August adventures: I was part of the Family reunion committee. I don't know that I did much, but it was still something I had to deal with. It was a beautiful hot day at the park getting to see my dad's side of the family. The kids played on the equipment, played baseball with the cousins, and played the games my sister organized.  The Mr worked feverishly to get the upstairs bathroom shower ready before our company came, but alas, the shower company was not on our time schedule! So the tile looks great, but there is no glass on the shower yet. We - well, the girls - spent plenty of time in the water. Here is Little K's pool. The others would use it too, along with sprinklers, to keep cool this hot month. And then company came. The Mr's brother and his family came from Montana to visit. What fun! We had a beach day, in which they attempted to relocate a little river and stem the tide. I...