A Morning Walk

It is the end of April and the signs of spring are here.

On my walk before church this morning I noticed the splashes of green grass along the edge of the road, and there is a green tint forming in the near hills.

Our house looks pretty good!  But it is our goal to begin fixing it up this summer by getting the paint off the logs and putting some siding on the non-log surfaces.  I imagine it looking really great!   More natural in the landscape.  Can't wait to see how it will look.

This red barn is about a mile from our house, and I love it.  It is tucked in behind many bushes and wild trees, so I can only get a photo from this angle.

The openness of this barn, with the green grasses feels so fresh and warm.  Too bad it was just barely over 32 degrees when I got home from my walk.

We spent part of the afternoon at the library today - sort of becoming a habit with us to go there every other week after church.  Then, we spent a couple of hours splitting wood that we cut last fall.  A big family project it was!

Random Facts

I'll illustrate my random facts with a few random photos of two little girls who were willing to be my photography victims last weekend. 

Random fact 1:  It appears that photos I process feeling like they look great are posting here looking like they have way too much blue undertone.  Very frustrating, and something I'm going to have to fix soon!

Random fact 2:  Mangos are difficult to eat politely - I love them and take them to work often, but I have to hide from students and coworkers when I eat them, because they are so messy and ungraceful in the eating.

Random fact 3:  Tana the cat (the old fat witch who I've refered to as terrorizing the cute sweet kitten) is spending her first day ever outside today.  She'll get to come into the house at night and all, but she has developed some rather nasty habits (like peeing all over papers left on desks, and other yucky stuff) so she is not allowed to stay in while we are gone.  Plus, she's just mean to Sophie, so Andy decided she should stay out.

Random fact 4:    When I took the photo below I did not notice the ashes spread on my niece's forehead.  I now realize it probably comes from the fact that she and J were digging around for bones in the burn barrel where J creamated a dead pigeon a week before.

Random fact 5:  J and two of his friends shot a pigeon last week with their bows and arrows - as parents, we have mixed feelings about this.  The pigeons are a nuisance and a mess in the barn, and we'd like them to be gone, but as a general matter, we are not in favor of hunting and killing anything that you don't plan to eat.  But, this being Montana, killing pigeons in the barn gophers in the field, and coyotes anywhere you see them is culturally acceptable. 

Random fact 6:  Our school has a close to 100% volunteer rate from parents.  Yes, out of 54 households represented, 52 of them have done some sort of volunteer service to our school this academic year - and the year is not over, so the remaining two households still has 6 weeks to step up and do something.  Amazing, in a culture where the rule is usually that 20% of the people are doing 80% of the work.  I think it is a testiment to our school!

Random fact 7:  If you make a mistake and use baking soda instead of baking powder in the almond cookie recipe the cookies will puff up better, but taste not so good.  I know, because sitting on the counter is an entire batch of this inadvertent experiment.  Looks like I'll be making a better batch tonight with the powder instead of the soda.

Random fact 8:  Ten year old boys want to know the darnedest things when they get a few minutes of driving time with their mom.  Questions like:  Why isn't there air in space?  If God loves _________ so much, why doesn't he just make them believe in him so they can go to heaven?  What's for dinner?  Can we go to Papa's office instead of going home?  Why does Papa have to work? 

Random fact 9:  Ten year old boys often follow the answers to their questions with statements that begin with "I don't think so because . . ." prompting mom's to feel a bit frustrated at having put a great deal of effort into providing an accurate answer to the questions in the first place only to be told they are wrong.

Random fact 10:  After the 20 minute drive home from school my brain is usually fried!  If you don't understand this, you try answering the questions of Random fact 8, dealing with the response of Random Fact 9, and driving a hilly sometimes curvy road all at the same time, and see whether your brain is mush or not.

Hope that was random enough for you!  Have a great Wednesday!

He gave me five minutes . . .

to take a few photos.  That's about his limit these days with the whole "Mom with a camera" experience.

I processed this in a bright room and now in the evening what I see is a bit unexpected.  Is his skin a bit blue?  His eyes are sure blue - just like in real life!

Art and Beauty All Around

The other day I had some errands to do for work, and I grabbed my camera and gave myself the assignment of taking pictures of beauty and art all along my way.

These photos are the rsult of that day.

I love these silk flowers from Sola - a relatively  new coffee house in our town.  They remind me of spring, and this day there was lots of new snow, so it didn't feel like spring - I needed reminding!

You probably notice that most of these pieces are primarily metal.  I guess that is Montana art for you.

I hope you enjoyed this mini art tour of Bozeman.

Ridiculous . . .

absolutely ridiculous!  It looked like these photos twice last week, when I took these photos out the windshield.

And it's supposed to look like this again tomorrow.

Not very spring-like if you ask me.

We're still here!

This boy . . .

keeps his parents on their toes - and since neither of his parents are particularly accomplished at ballet, it is a struggle to stay up there.

has an opinion about everything, and he's more than happy to voice it - even under his breath if necessary.

says the deepest and most meaningful things to warm a mom's heart - about faith, about God, about the way to treat your friends.

struggles with being responsible - after 5 years of school you'd think he could remember to put his name on his papers so he can get credit for his work.

still has the best giggle/laugh in the whole world.

is so happy that even when given a chore as a consequence for some mis-behavior he begins to sing within 60 seconds of beginning the task - making those parents, who are trying to balance up there on their toes, super frustrated because the learning opportunity from an unpleasant task appears to be gone right out the window.  But perhaps it is a good thing to be so happy that even in the throws of punishment you can sing - usually a worship song or something he made up on his own.

understands the importance of faith and mourns for those who don't know Jesus.

still wants to be cuddled every night at bed time.

This man . . .

is training for a triathalon - even on a bad hip.

is more excited about the start of little league than his boy.

stands up for the down-trodden and wins big cases a lot lately.

mops my floors.

recently - about five minutes ago - exploded in a loud "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" when he discovered his boy (yes, that one above) using the toilet brush to scrub the bathroom sink, thus showing quite a bit of retraint for not yelling instead "What the *%&^$#@ are you doing?"  And if you knew this man's idiocsyncrasies about bathroom germs, you would understand the true nature of the restraint demonstrated! 

(By the way, that boy up above . . . he just re-cleaned the bathroom sink - without the toilet brush this time!)

would eat my pesto and pasta five nights a week for dinner, and seven days a week for lunch if I made it that often.

The mother of this boy . . . (sorry, no recent photo available)

loves to watch him sleep.

continues to struggle with time management issues now that she works full time.

wishes she had more time for photography.

has more ideas floating in her head than will ever come to fruition, but they float there all the same - sometimes accounting for those issues with time management.

can't wait for warmer weather - usually I'm fine with long winters, but this year I'm anxious to throw off the turtle-neck shirts and put on the short sleves.

loves having an afternoon at home, but doesn't get enough of them.

gets to wake up every day to watch the birds flying around the yard - this morning it was Sand Hill Cranes - now that we all moved our bedrooms back upstairs for the spring and summer.