Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Friends, Family, Food and more

Rebecca and I picked these flowers on our walk. Yes, it was a week highlighted by visits and sleepovers of two grands and a great!


Many memories surfaced this week as well including many photos of our several trips to the Basque Country which always took place around this time of year. The last visit was five years ago already!
It's been that long almost since we really spent time with our main fellow-travellers--Dane and Laurie. We rememdied that, however, with a meal at our house Sunday evening and an outing Wednesday for dinner and a movie--Aladdin, quite a fantastical production! 


Michael likes to cook and he goes all out. Then we enjoy leftovers all week. I have only one photo--the delicious vidalia onion corn bread. I usually make the salads.


Stephan's Monday dinners feature something special every week and quite often we are the only guests. This time Malachi and Lexi came first and then Sam and Kristie and their other three boys. The sobremesa (after-dinner conversation) was so much fun. We heard about: 
--Sam's family's vacation in Florida, 
--Stephan and Karen's week away  at her parents in Evansville with a niece and nephew, and 
--Malachi's internship working with youth at his church, and Lexi's job and involvement with a SERVE project.


Other memories came from reading my parents' journal from 20+ years ago when they were about our age now. There are many references to the practical ways they were preparing the new meeting place of their congregation--refurbishing a pulpit, painting, plastering, cleaning, and on and on for months. Then June 16, 1996 was the first service in the new building. This hands-on involvement in the building and upkeep of places of worship, characterizes Dad and Mother's entire life.

Friday I needed to attend the quarterly Care Plan Conference for Mother at Grace Village. The plan was to take Rebecca. I remember taking Kayla, her mother, when she was about the same age to visit Grandpa and Grandma Hoyt in Winona Lake. I remember her enjoying the swing they had hung from a big tree in the front. I was in my early 50's then. This time I had Michael's help on the adventure. At the last minute he was able to come along. We had a great time with our great granddaughter and she with her great great grandma! Rebecca showed her all her little ponies, demonstrated her ballet routine (using the proper French names for the steps!), and insisted on pushing the wheelchair everywhere! 

It's been a year now since Mother lost her voice and I noticed this time that it is worse, not even a raspy whisper. Insterestingly, she and Rebecca played with her talking machine. Mother would type a sentence and the machine spoke for her. Then Rebecca typed in something, and it repeated the letters!

The grandsons were waiting at our house as soon as we arrived back home. The two younger ones spent the night so Sam and Kristie could get away to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

We had such a good time together with these bright and lively youngsters. 
Jude asked for a piano lesson. I started him by placing his five fingers on the keys from C to G trying to play each individually, i.e. play the do re mi fa sol scale. At first it was difficult to curve the fingers, isolate each sound, keep the fingering. But before long he got it! Listen here:
Jude's first piano lesson

We stayed up a bit late enjoying an old classic--Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Next morning, Chef Zion cooked breakfast--eggs the way they like them!


Then he taught me a new game - Wits and Wagers.


My friend Georgia was selling her beautifully painted shells at a large craft fair in a neighboring town. I took the boys, gave them some money to spend and let them check out the 100+ vendors. They came back with a balloon snake, a crocheted Pokaball, fluorite rocks, and a robot face-paint.



Meanwhile, Michael was riding with the Delaware Cycling Club for the first time since his surgery five years ago! 56 miles and no pain!!!


Robotics-related activities keep him occupied. He is at the shop to help the student interns hired by Dannar this summer whenever they need to use the team equipment. And on Wednesday PhyXTGears put on a presentation for 60 middle school and high school age girls. It went very well. Hopefully some of them will join the team.

We had our last Art Club for the summer and tried a whimsical Geometric Landscape tutorial. And Tuesday, on my own I tried the Floral Hand live tutorial. It's a fun time for me to learn more about water color techniques while Michael is at the weekly team meeting.


Do you have any artistic, creative, recreational activity? 

2 comments:

  1. That cornbread looks FABULOUS! Yum! I love your floral hands. You know what my creative outlet is - ha! I've been slack on that front lately. I've finished all the interesting rows on the project I'm working on & it's time for the boring outer rows. I should just buck up & git er done! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is delightful to keep up with your activities, family, friends.

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you!