(Almost) Wordless Wednesday {Tobin's Onions}

Tobin pulled the onions from his garden!

 He's been a very faithful waterer of his garden, and now he's so proud of the harvest he's getting.  And I am proud of him!  :)

(My apologies if his outfit makes your head spin.  This was one of those days in which he was going bare-chested, but at some point, he needed to quickly grab a shirt.  Since we weren't going anywhere, I didn't suggest he change when he came down with this shirt; but just so you know, he doesn't usually go around looking like this.)  ;-)

What Happens on the 3rd Sunday in July?

 The Huffmans get together for their annual family reunion, that's what!

(my family of 7, plus my parents, my Aunt Helen visiting from Chicago, and my brother David who drove down from Pennsylvania)

This year was special: the 50th time this group reunioned!  (I know that's not really a word, but a workshop I attended at the homeschool convention back in June liberated me from strict grammar rules, so now I feel quite free to make up words as needed.)  ;-)

(the people listed above, plus my Uncle Rufus and Aunt Elaine, and their sons Matt with his wife Megan and new baby girl Sidney and Tim with his wife Amber and their daughter Kinley...this was just one of the branches of the family tree that was there, but this is a pretty big branch)  :)

I remember that first reunion well...

OK, I don't.  I didn't get to be born until 13 years later.  ;-)  But the couple I sat across from today remembered that reunion.  Paul is 97 and Anna is 94, and they've been married 74 years!  :)  During the review of family history today, it was mentioned that the Huffmans have longevity in their genes; and Paul and Anna are a great display of that (although since Anna married into the family, she doesn't have the Huffman genes, of course...but I guess the longevity can even rub off by marriage which is good news for Jeff).  ;-)

There are certainly aspects of the reunion that I enjoy every year, and this year was no exception; but the best part by far of the 2013 reunion was that my brother David came down for it.

 He admitted today that he hadn't been to one of these reunions since he was a kid, but I sure appreciated him spending hours on the road just to make it to this.  :)

 Maybe it's because I'm older, but I found the review of family history to be pretty fascinating this year.

 My little ones, however, found it significantly less fascinating, for some strange reason.  ;-)

 But Josiah and David each took something to read which kept them occupied...

 ...and the younger ones?  Well, after a while, I let them get down out of their chairs to roam around on the floor.  And then, seeing my camera around my neck, Tobin asked if he could take some pictures.  I handed the camera over to him, and he took this picture of Moriah...

 ...and this one of Shav.

 I'm not sure if Tobin or Shav took this picture of our table (because of course, Shav wanted a turn with the camera when he saw that his buddy Tobin was taking pictures with it!), but I like it because it shows Paul and Anna, as well as a box of crayons that Tobin had been using to keep quiet and still at the table.  Crayons: never leave home without them!  :)

 I do know that Shav took this last picture.  Can you tell that it's of Tobin?  And that I'm the lady in the white skirt?  :)

After they "played" with the camera for a while, I took them and Moriah out into the hallways of the building we were in, and they had a grand time running back and forth and all around.  Moriah would squeal as they came towards and past her, and she would crawl (her own unique style of crawling) after them as fast as she could.  I enjoyed watching them have so much fun together (and it sure beat trying to keep them all quiet in the room where the reunion was being held!).  :)

Before I end this, let me just record one funny thing that happened--funny to me, but not so much to the lady to whom it happened (although I hope by now, she's able to laugh about it).  ;-)  When the little ones and I first went out into the hallway, I heard a woman's voice coming from the bathroom across the hall.  She was calling, "Help!  Help!  Somebody help me!"  I quickly rushed over there and pushed the door open, saying, "What's wrong?  What's the matter?  Are you OK?"  I soon discovered that there was really nothing wrong.  The poor lady (who was not part of our reunion, by the way) had come to the doorway of the bathroom after using the facilities and had started pushing on what she thought was the door out of it, but which was really a locked closet door on a wall that stands at a 90 degree angle to the wall with the real bathroom door.  When she couldn't get the door to open, she panicked, apparently thinking (as I overheard her tell her family a few minutes later) that everyone had left and she was locked in.  Plus, a little earlier that afternoon, the electricity had gone out in that building, so maybe she was a little on edge because of that.  At any rate, after I "rescued" her, she pronounced herself quite embarrassed, and soon went on her way with the rest of her family.  I didn't dare think about the humor of the situation while she was around; but I'll admit that after she left, I did let out a giggle or two.  Or maybe more.  ;-)   Oh my!  I do hope the dear lady has recovered from her scare!

Just a Taste...

...of our special birthday celebration...

...for our VERY special brand-new four-year-old!!

Happy birthday, sweet Shavi!  You are DEARLY loved!!!!  :)

Birthday Eve

I don't always remember to do this; but when I do remember, I take pictures of my children on the last night before their birthdays, so we can always remember their last night of being a certain age before they move up to the next year.

Tomorrow Shav turns four!

Tonight I remembered to take pictures.  :)

 It's been fun to ask him recently, "How old are you going to be on your birthday, Shavi?" and hear--and see--his response:  "FOUR!"  :)

Happy birthday eve, dear Shav!  We are all looking forward to celebrating with you!!!!  :)

"Now You, Bacon!"

After supper this evening, Tobin pulled out a box of these big blocks and started playing with them (as did Moriah).  :)  After he built this...

...he informed me that it was Noah's ark!  When he added the long green piece that sticks out of the back of the boat (to the left in the photo), he was trying to explain to me what it was, but I couldn't think of the name of that part of a ship.  David suggested that it was the plank.  Trying to make them laugh, I said in a mock stern voice, "Walk the plank, Ham!"

To which David instantly retorted, "Now you, Bacon!"

"David," I shrieked with laughter, "Do you know why I said that?  It was because Noah had a son named Ham!"

"Oh," he said in a quieter voice.  But he couldn't let the fun die then so he kept making jokes about Porkchop--and other cuts of meat from a pig--walking the plank.

I may never be able to read Genesis 9 with a straight face again.  ;-)


**********


Last evening Jeff picked a large bucket full of green beans and brought them into the house to be prepared for canning--a task which usually involves "all hands on deck!" around here.  Tobin took one look at the beans and then asked, "Do I really have to help?  I'm not that good!"

Nice try, buddy.  You're going to have to get a lot more creative with your excuses to have any chance of being let off the hook.  And by the way, it takes hardly any skill to snap the ends off beans, so yes, you ARE good enough!  :)

In the end, we canned 11 quarts of dill beans last night.

And Tobin helped.  :)

Wordless Wednesday {Riven Rock, My Happy Place}

I Shall Be Random, Vol. 5

~ 1 ~

A dozen times a day, I find myself repeating a phrase that's been helpful during these toasty summer weeks: "It's OK to be hot."  You see, I've been somewhat stubbornly refusing to turn on our air conditioning.  After all, if Laura Ingalls Wilder never had air conditioning...and if our Old Order Mennonite neighbors don't have it...and if I can save a few pennies by not using it, then why turn it on?  :)

As a result, it gets pretty warm in our house some days--for example, 85 degrees today.  The children don't seem to mind at all; and if you've been reading the blog for long, you've probably already noticed that, when we're at home, my boys rarely have shirts on!  ;-)  Jeff doesn't complain either; in fact, he told me this evening that the air conditioner at work keeps the shop so chilly that it actually feels good to come into our warm house at the end of the day.  :)  I sweat buckets each day; but so far, no one has shown up at the dinner table with a clothespin on their nose, so I'm guessing it's not bothering anyone too much.  ;-)  And there's one good thing about being hot all day long: taking a cool shower and putting on clean pajamas at the end of the day feels like an exquisite luxury!  :)

With all that said, I will admit that many times every day, I think, "Should I break down and use the air conditioning?"  Then I answer myself, "No.  After all...

...it's OK to be hot!!"  :)

~ 2 ~

At what age is a child normally expected to sit still while having their hair done?  Moriah's hair is getting long enough to fall down in her eyes; and even though Jeff has trimmed her bangs twice, I actually don't want him to cut them anymore.  (For now, at least.)  So I try to put a little clip in her hair to keep the bangs out of her face, but it's a little like trying to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey...with a real live donkey!!  ;-)

Speaking of hair, I confess to feeling intimidated by the thought of having to do a girl's hair!  With our boys, it's always been so easy for me because Jeff regularly gives them haircuts and keeps their hair short enough that they don't even need to comb it.  :)  But now that we have a daughter, I feel this big ball of PRESSURE on my shoulders.  I have to do her hair!  And then teach her how to do it when she's older!  Yikes!!!  :)

Because of this insecurity, I often cast surreptitious glances at the the hair of my friends' daughters when we're together to see how they do their hair.  And sometimes I even ask them outright--like I did a few days ago with a kind friend:  "Sally, how do you put that clip in Marie's hair anyway??"  :)

I am OVERWHELMINGLY grateful to have a daughter, but... *sigh* ...I sure hope I can figure this hair stuff out.  ;-)

~ 3 ~

I don't know if it's optimism or stupidity, but something compels me to keep putting dirty dishes in my dishwasher...even though I NEVER get a load that comes out perfectly clean!  The plates do really well, and the silverware is usually pretty good.  I never put glasses in because they're like a dirt magnet and come out dirtier than when I put them in, but I do put plastic cups in.  I've learned though that before I put them away in the cupboard after they're "washed," I should always examine them--with my eyes AND with my nose--to see if they've gotten cleaned.  Sometimes they have.  Sometimes they haven't.

I really feel like an idiot sometimes because first of all, I think maybe I should just give up trying to use the dishwasher for more than just plates and silverware.  But secondly, I think that if I could figure out what the secret is, I could have better results.  It all seems so random to me; but still I ask myself, for example, "WHY, in a particular load, did the cups in the left row all stay dirty, but yesterday there were only a couple of dirty ones on the right?"  There MUST be a reason; and if I were smart enough, I could figure it out!  Rather than figuring it out, however, I'm left standing at the side of my opened dishwasher, lifting cups one by one and smelling them, putting some that passed the Clean Test in the cupboard and setting the rest on the counter to be hand washed.  And all the time I'm thinking, "I'm either really dumb...or unfailingly optimistic!"

Foolishness?  Or hope?  I'm really not sure which it is.  :)

~ 4 ~

Whenever I see Old Order Mennonites in a grocery store or other public place, I always attempt to be on my best behavior, smiling at them and being extra friendly--not just because I like to smile and be friendly to people, but also because I'm half-afraid they'll be someone who knows me and expects me to know them, too!  They might come up to me and say, "Hi, Davene!  We sure enjoyed watching your boys play ball with the Shank girls the other night when we went past.  And my, how big Moriah is getting!"   Or "Wilma said you wanted my recipe for chocolate-zucchini cupcakes; I'm tickled that you liked them!"  And I'll be standing there thinking, "Oh my dear, I have no idea who you are.  I know this probably sounds crazy to you; but in your bonnets and cape dresses, you all look alike to me!!!"  :)

So, I just smile at all of them, because I would hate to ignore someone whom I should have recognized!  :)

~ 5 ~

I heard this song for the first time tonight.  I like it a whole bunch.  :)

~ 6 ~

After we watched the movie How to Train Your Dragon some months ago, the boys went through a phase of being kind of obsessed with it.  Among other things, they indulged their obsession by creating these dragons (not from any kind of LEGO kit, but just from a random assortment of LEGO pieces that we have).  This is Toothless, the main dragon in the movie.

 My favorite part of it is the red flap on the back which, if you've seen the movie, you'll recognize as being a very important part of Toothless.  :)

And this is a blue dragon whose name I've forgotten...

 ...and a red dragon, with an equally unremembered name.

 Josiah and David could tell you their names though.  :)

Once upon a time, I used to worry that my kids wouldn't have much of an imagination.

I've officially retired that worry.  :)

~ 7 ~

This morning I was doing laundry when Tobin wandered into the laundry room, at loose ends because he didn't really know what to do with himself.  I glanced at his laundry bin, saw that there were four items in it (a small enough amount that it wouldn't be overwhelming to him), then asked him to please take it up to his room and put his clothes away.  Josiah and David routinely empty their own laundry bins, but this is a new task for Tobin so I answered his questions about where each item of clothing went and sent him on his way.  A couple of minutes later, I heard him giggling as he came back down the steps.  When he walked into the laundry room, he had--sure enough--emptied his bin like he was supposed to (and later when I was in his room, I noticed that he had indeed put everything in the right spot), but his bin wasn't empty.  He had put a big teddy bear, the biggest one we own, into the bin and had carried that back down to me.  It was so silly, and he thought it was so funny, so I grabbed the bear and acted goofy, too; and Tobin laughed even more.  I smile even now, just thinking about his giggle as he waited for me to discover what he had done.  :)

It made me think of an article I once read about how babies develop humor, and one of the first areas is in using normal things in unconventional ways.  For example, a child might put a sock on his head and pretend it's a hat, or he might give his cup to his mom for her to have a drink from a sippy cup, and those things would be funny because they're not normal and expected.

Which is kind of what Tobin did when he carried a bear down in his laundry bin.  :)

~ 8 ~

Perhaps the sweetest moment of the day came this evening right before Tobin and Shav got in bed.  They always get to listen to a CD as they fall asleep, and tonight I picked the Michael Card CD that has Shav's lullaby on it and started it at that song.  For some reason, I felt like dancing to it--maybe it was the 6/8 time signature ;-)--so I kicked up my heels and began.  That drew Shav and Tobin like a magnet, of course, and we all joined hands and twirled around.  Every so often, I would pull one of them around in such a way that he would fall, laughing, on the bed.  By the end, we were breathless; but I'm not sure if it was more from exertion or laughter.

The hugs they gave me as we said goodnight were extra tender.  You know, I should probably dance with them more often!  :)


Previous "I Shall Be Random" posts:  1...2...3...4.