The Huntress

There is a wild beast that lives in my house. And no, I don't mean Eric or the boys. The wild beast is Molly, our cat.

Sure, she might look like a regular old house cat...sort of like a barn cat actually....but deep in her soul a wild beast lurks, just waiting to pounce.

When she is awake, she is on full alert. Up on any perch to be able to see out the window....

...what's that? Wait, what's over there? Something moved, must see it.

Full alert, there are birds and bunnies and squirrels to keep an eye on.

Man...that is a really large furry thing rolling around in the snow...what in the heck is it....

....oh....it's just the dog. I was thinking I'd be eatin' real good tonight if I could only get out of this house and catch that thing...

....hey human, would you please get off that computer and let me out of this house?

I've got big game to catch! Cats...they are really just little tigers waiting to get out you know. Meow.

A Birthday Boy

This cute little guy is having a birthday today...but something has changed from when this picture was taken....the cute little guy isn't so little anymore!

This is Isaac, my nephew, my brother's son. We have two nieces and one nephew on my side of the family, and two nieces and one nephew on Eric's side of the family....funny how that works.

Anyway, this is Ike. He's a good kid. He's been a good cousin to Brian...although neither of them look too sure about this cousin business.

...and he's been a good cousin to Billy....I think that he was a little more used to the whole cousin idea by the time Billy came a long.

Little did he know what being a cousin to Billy would mean! Yikes! I don't think he minded the boys too much.

Isaac played baseball while he was growing up....it was fun for us to watch him when we could.

But my dad was one of his biggest fans. It's good to have a fan watching your back....my dad was the best at that....for baseball and otherwise. I remember when Ike was feeling sort of bad about High School baseball coming to an end...I told him that there was always softball, and that could be fun. He gave me one of those "that's lame and for old people" looks.

Guess who's on a softball team or two now? And even though I haven't seen him play, I'm sure that he's pretty darned good. Sometimes lame old people can actually be right! Hah! :-)

Ike cleans up pretty good. Good enough that my dad had to keep an eye on him....maybe he's looking at my brother...I'm not sure....my brother can be trouble too you know.

Seriously...it's Isaac's birthday...I don't know where the time goes. It seems like just yesterday when he was a punk kid....now he's all grown up, ready to graduate from college and take on the world. Look out world!

Happy Birthday Isaac....and just so you know, your lame old aunt thinks you're pretty cool.

Helping

Billy is a baker. From the time he was big enough to hop onto a chair to "help", he has been baking....Billy is the boy in the front with the curls. I think this picture is from Christmas of 1996. Brian used to help too, but didn't have the passion for baking that Billy has. Thanks to the love and patience and guidance of his Grandma Barb, Billy is really pretty good at it!

Billy is also good at pitching in and helping out when something needs to be done. Well, not at home, but that's a whole different story for a different day. Anyway, Billy is in confirmation. One of the things that the confirmation class does is volunteers to bring and serve a meal at the "Simpson Shelter" , a homeless shelter in Minneapolis. Most kids would volunteer their mom to make something. Not Billy, he signed up to bring the dessert, making cookies.

Eric and I helped a little, just enough that they didn't turn out to his normal standards, but even so, I was pretty proud of him for volunteering.

The confirmation group isn't very big, so they asked if we could sign up for more. I volunteered to make a lasagna. While we were grocery shopping, Eric suggested that we bring two pans....two large pans. Umm...sure, no problem.....5 jars of sauce, 2 boxes of noodles, 3 lbs of hamburger, 12 cups of mozzarella, 2 cups of Parmesan and a few secret ingredients later....

...we had two large pans of lasagna. I baked them at home, we loaded up the van, picked up a van load of kids at the church, and off we went. We had a quick tour of the shelter...this one only houses men...it was pretty humbling to see the mattresses on the floor, the blankets and pillows on a shelf, the one shower....knowing that their other option is to be out on the street.

Next, the food was prepared to be served. There were several other pans of lasagna, a couple of pans of tater tot hot dish, some chicken, a rice dish, vegetables, salads, desserts and milk. The tables were set, the food reheated, and it was time for the men to eat. The confirmation kids did the serving, the rest of us scurried around making sure there was enough food in the line and doing dishes as they came back. We fed 81 people that wouldn't have had a hot meal without volunteers.

It was very rewarding. The best part was the appreciation that some of the men showed. One of the men came up to me before the food was served and said that he had a "split personality" so he needed two plates. Umm...Ok....so that was a little weird....but there were so many heartfelt thank yous. Two men separately came up and said that while the food was delicious, the best part was that it was made with love and they could feel that. And it was.

Helping others however you can is a wonderful thing. Giving just a little brings back so many rewards. I'm grateful to belong to a church that is so quick to give....and I'm grateful for what they are teaching our kids. And I'm grateful for the reminder that one way to feel good about yourself is to focus on others.

On the other hand, just to keep it real about what goes on around here....the lasagna was baking, I just needed to take off the foil and add the Parmesan cheese and let it brown up a little bit. I grabbed the first heavy pan from the oven to move it to the counter top. There was a warning on the label of the flimsy aluminum pan to handle them carefully, but I was in a hurry. I had the pan half way to the counter when it collapsed. The pan landed on the floor, the top cheesy layer of lasagna slide off and landed on the floor. All that work, all that cheese, all that mess...and it was almost time to go. Darn it...double darn it....and no, that isn't what I said....but this is a g-rated blog. After an really loud ERRRRR....I picked the pan off the floor, straightened it out...used a wooden spoon to straighten out the remaining layers...added some spaghetti sauce and more cheese to the top, put the whole thing in a real pan for support and popped it back in the oven. I reminded myself that it was lucky that it hadn't flipped over and been a total loss. Then I scooped the biggest glob of cheese off of the floor and called in the cleaning crew.

Thank goodness for my cleaning crew...she is a ready and willing helper...especially when the job involves floors and food. Whew. What a day.

The View from There

One of the best things about my mom's house is the view that can be seen from pretty much any window. My favorite view is outside of the kitchen window. It looks out to the East, into the pasture and towards the river valley. It looks out to her bird feeders.

My mom has fed the birds for a long time, and they are abundant. One spring day I sat outside near her bird feeder snapping pictures. I had so many pictures I put them into a book. I'll share some of those here another day. For today, it'll just be a couple shots looking out the window.

The net tubing is filled with thistle seed...the gold finches love, love, love it. Chickadees, Nuthatches, finches, woodpeckers, and lots more all are regular guests. The windows are old, the glass is wavy and bumpy...

...but it just adds to the view. The birds, the river valley....

....a hot cup of coffee and warm conversation. I'd say the view looks pretty good from there.

The Shower

Saturday was the day of the baby shower that we had for my niece Stephanie. Remember the invitations? Oh Baby!

Stephanie has less than a month to go before the baby comes. Nothing like a baby on the way to make the days s...l....o...w... d....o....w....n! Every day crawls by for the pregnant mom! It did for me anyway. The fact that both of my boys were born well past their due dates did not help. Those darned kids start controlling your life even before they are born! :-) And it's worth every minute.
Here is Stephanie with her cake. One of her Aunts on her mom's side was in charge of the cake, another Aunt was in charge of the food, I did the invitations and paper products. It's nice to have a lot of Aunts to spread the fun!

This is a picture of Stephanie with her mother-in-law, her mom, and her grandma (my mom). Baby's dad's mom, baby's mom's mom, baby's mom, baby's mom's dad's mom. Whew! It takes a lot of mom's to bring one little baby into this world. :-)

The shower was fun. It was in the basement of the church where Eric and I got married. Here is part of the crew that was there. I really just included this picture to show the clothesline with little bitty baby clothes that I hung up for a decoration. I was so proud of myself for coming up with the idea of combining a gift for the baby and a decoration...then one of the ladies that was at the shower said, "oh, they had something like that at the last shower I went to." Phooey...so much for an original idea! Oh well, it was cute and fun to do anyway. The birds that are holding the clothesline match the ones that were in the invitation. Tweet.

I thought that it would be more fun if everyone brought their gifts up to Stephanie, rather than having one person hand all of them to her. So we did. And when everyone brought their gift up, I took their picture....and when I took a gift up for her, someone took our picture. I hope that Steph can still see after all of that flashing! But at least she'll always remember who was there.

Baby things have changed so much since Brian and Billy were born....it doesn't seem like it was that long ago! Such cute gifts, soft fuzzy outfits, a video monitor, a pack -n- play, blankets, diapers, a few toys, a very cool diaper bag...and at least 4 thermometers. No worries about knowing what the babies temperature is!

Cute little socks and mitties...the baby will be set!

A mother's love, there isn't anything quite like it in this world. Stephanie is about to find out what it's all about....

...and if she's anything like me, the love that she'll have for this new little baby will make it all crystal clear to her as to how much her parents truly love her. Most people do know that their parents love them, it's not that...it's just hard to fully comprehend how much love there is for a child until you are holding a babe of your own in your arms. It's a beautiful thing.

The Wolf Moon

Did you happen to see the giant full moon over the weekend? It was beautiful! These first 4 pictures were taken on Friday night on our way to the rodeo.

We picked up Brian's friend, turned the corner by her house and saw this! Stop...please!! We did. I took a couple of shots....then we continued on.

Just as we got on our way, we realized that the tickets were still at home. Oops. We turned around, Eric ran inside the house to get the tickets, and I took a couple more shots of the moon.

Isn't it pretty? The full moon in January is called the wolf moon. They think it's because the January moon is so bright in the cold, clear sky that the wolves are more apt to howl at it. ooowOOOwooo.

The moon wasn't even full in those pictures. I took some more on Saturday night, when it really was full. I read an article that said this moon was the biggest looking one that we will see this year....something about it's orbit being an ellipse and the full moon being closest to the earth at this point in the ellipse....making the moon look bigger. I don't know about all that, I just know that it looked cool.

I was at the farm on Saturday night, away from the city lights. Here is the moon at the horizon behind a bunch of trees....

....a little higher.....

...and then just a few little branches on the bottom. The moon was orange as it came up, getting whiter as it rose. I always think of this little song when I see the moon....

I see the moon and the moon sees me

And the moon sees the one that I long to see.

So God bless the moon and God bless me

and God bless the one that I long to see.

It seems to me that God above
created you for me to love.
He picked you out of all the rest
because he knew I loved you the best.

I once had a heart called mine you see,
but now it's gone to you from me.
So take good care as I have done
for you have two and I have none.

I see the moon and the moon sees me

And the moon sees the one that long to see.

So God bless the moon and God bless me
And God bless the one that I long to see.

As the moon rose, some clouds moved in....but the moon was so bright it shined right through the clouds. There was an eerie halo surrounding the moon. I snapped a couple of pictures to see if I could capture it. I didn't, but this one sure turned out crazy!

I'm not sure where all the light on the tree was coming from, some sort of reflection I guess...but it was a little creepy....and when I listened really closely I'm pretty sure I heard the ooowOOOwooo of wolves howling. Shiver. Time to go back inside!