Summer Doldrums

Cousin Karin's weekly bouquet features the Taylor University colors, purple and gold, which in turn reminds me to say that these last weeks we've enjoyed a few lunch time visits with Moriah, now a senior TU student working on a summer research project on campus. 

These bright yellow lilies by the mail box, finally burst open this week.

I missed a couple photos last week. Michael loves to ride his bike. (Emphasis intentional and not an exaggeration.) He's been logging between 150 and 200 miles per week. Saturdays he joins a group for a longer ride out of Muncie. These pics are actually from Friday, July 3. The others rode on the 4th  also, and they often ride Sundays as well. It's safe to say that they are even more obsessed with their bicycles! Can anyone venture a guess at the age of one female rider?

The last few weeks photos have surfaced, in the FB memories, of our visits six, seven and ten years ago to the Basque Country where Michael was part of a group that rode around that beautiful region. We have such fond memories. After the last tour in 2014, he underwent surgery for prostate cancer. He is very grateful to still be riding.

One of our favorite towns in the mountains of Northern Spain--Onati, a very Basque town

The day of his surgery, July 9 (nueve de julio--Argentina's Independence Day) 2014, coincided with the World Cup Semi Finals. In his hospital room, with a tiny television and poor reception, we strained to watch the Argentina - Netherlands match.

July 9 is also Leah's adopted birthday. We celebrated with her favorite sandwich lunch at The Bridge. Then I wrote her adoption story.

And here is bright-eyed Kalani, her grandson, excitedly interacting with his abuela (my chosen title is actually incorrect, should be bisabuela).

After many months of not painting, I dug out my watercolors and followed a tutorial for an evening hour of recreation.

Succulent

Mostly my creativity has been limited to knitting while we watch a show or movie, using up yarn scraps.
 

I cannot fail to mention that Michael continues to experiment with making bread and cheese. He added pickled fish to his exploits!  

What are your creative outlets?

2016 Week 23: Summer Joys

So, I've succumbed to the adult coloring trend! Yes, I whiled away an hour while listening to former colleague Win Corduan's gig on streetjelly.com (Thursdays 9-10 pm).

Last weekend we attended several graduation open houses. One home was in a park-like setting. A friend and I walked the grounds admiring the beauty of the landscape. We were curious about this lovely plant. What is it?

 Monday morning this sleeping beauty was dropped off  while mom went to her first summer dance classes.

After her long nap, Rebecca made up for lost time and made sure I got plenty of exercise.

We had a nice group at Monday dinner, great food, and lots of fun sharing stories.
On the way home, this time of year, we enjoy gorgeous sunsets.

 Messi Elijah spent three days with us to attend the Fun in the Sun program at our church.
One evening he played ping pong with Grandpa and Tuesday, when Mike was at robotics, he and I played Hand and Foot and ate thin mints!

Michael lives a very full life. He is still working on the design for the new space the PhyXTGears team hopes to move to late summer. There are always the regular chores: mowing; feeding the birds; checking on the bees; trying to catch the coons that visit and vandalize almost every night. (Notice the $1 contraption to coon-proof the bird feeders.)

Even so, he is never too busy to enjoy a bicycle ride. The longest so far was almost 40 miles.

This was an intense week for Matt and Kayla both working and settling into their new home.

We went over Friday evening to celebrate Matt's birthday and by then they had made unbelievable progress.

We remembered that exactly five years ago was the day of our house-fire which totally preempted Matt's birthday celebration.

Today, Saturday, was the Upland Strawberry Festival. I volunteered for a couple hours in the strawberry shortcake line, responsible for serving the unsweetened/natural/no sugar/healthy berries. Try as I may, using every possible sales pitch, most customers preferred the sweetened ones.

Look who showed up for a strawberry dessert! But, alas, they too, chose the sweetened variety. (sigh)

We had a beautiful sunny day for this popular community event, enjoyed meeting and talking to many friends and acquaintances, and listened to great music.

2014 Week 50: Varied forms of art

A whole week without seeing this cutie! Had to borrow a pic from Facebook again--"Tummy time."

"I'm 4 months old today!"

 I'll try to fill you in on Michael. He gets in some form of exercise almost daily, preferably cycling: indoors, on rollers; or outdoors, a bit more challenging. Little by little (poco a poco) he sees improvement--can go a little further before feeling pain and even then it is not intense like before.

He works very diligently on the bronze piece now in the polishing stage. His 'other woman' is very beautiful!

One afternoon a week, Wednesdays, he spends time making 'art' with the youth at the Red Barn. After our tap dance class, Kayla and I both had the same idea, we stopped by to see how it was going.

Stephan was away for a few days making ice art at a competition in Ithaca, New York.
His piece was very difficult to photograph. Can you see the face, two hands and the bass?

All About That Bass

Thursday was my last class so I took a quick snapshot, only one. Then I enhanced it using http://www.picmonkey.com/. I am delighted with the result and amazed at how it represents the different personalities and the fun we had together. Their final exam is on Thursday. We still do not know about next semester's enrollment.

Saturday was an errand and shopping day for me. I went to a craft fair to purchase a couple gifts from the Heavy Metal lady. She takes antique silverware and makes a great variety of jewelry from parts and pieces.

Diane and I had lunch there--wonderful homemade soups and sandwiches.

Again this week, I focused each morning on the Verse of the Day, preparing my heart for Christmas.

Day 8: John 14:6--JESUS: the only Way to the Father; the Truth; the Life.

Day 9: John 15:5,8--the Vine, we are the branches, if we stay connected, we naturally bear fruit.
But if we don't, we can't do anything. So, much fruit proves that we are His followers.

Day 10: Deuteronomy 18:15--the Prophet, the one we must listen to.

Day 11: Isaiah 7:14--Immanuel (God with us) the promised son to be born of a virgin.

Day 12: Galatians 4:4-5--the promised sign was fulfilled in due time, he was born under the Law in order to redeem us from the requirements of the Law, so that we could be adopted as children of God!

Day 13: Matthew 2:4-6--King Herod heard about the prophecies from the Magi and wanted to learn more. His motives were evil. He inquired where the child was to be born so he could eliminate the threat of being replaced as ruler.

I heard an astounding fact this week. A math expert had his students do a study of the probability of all the prophecies concerning the Christ being fulfilled. The result was one in a hundred billion, Only Jesus matched up perfectly!