Celebrate Two Months!

Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres.

When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

   A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember.

It's been eight weeks since I wrote a Celebrate post. I've missed this weekly gathering of friends. So I'm back this week with a commitment to share a Celebrate post at least once a month.

August and September have brought more tomatoes, lovely sunshine, gorgeous flowers, exuberant fall color, and delightful family time in Oklahoma. I can't resist sharing a few pics of our celebrations in August and September. Who am I kidding? It's more than a few! Actually, since I've never been a scrapbooker, I've come to rely on my celebrate posts as my online digital scrapbook.

Pics from my son's family in Virginia

Teddy ready for church in front of his new house

 Checking out the puffins on his shirt

 Stefi and Blake at Hamilton in DC

 Teddy's mom does instagram movies,

and sometimes I just have to grab a screenshot!

 

 Teddy at the museum

 Teddy goes with Dad for a haircut

Teddy with Aunt Amy at a Nats game

to celebrate her birthday!

Lance w/ siblings in KS 

A celebration of cousin John's birthday 

 A few pics of Mr. Jack

Hanging out with his stuffed animals 

Kid's Quest Museum

Train table play at B&N when

it was too smoky to play outside

He looks so grown up in this pic!

Gathering at Safeco Field

We joined 49,089 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

at a devotional to hear talks from Pres. Henry B. Eyring, Sister Wendy Nelson, 

and life lessons from our prophet, Pres. Russell M. Nelson.

 Pics from our trip to Oklahoma

(We missed having Blake's family at our gathering

due to the death of Stefi's grandmother.

We were blessed to know her and see the 

influence she had on the the lives of so many.)

Kara with her favorite niece at Roseanna's

We were relieved when Allison's family survived the 

torrential rains and arrived on Friday evening.

Allison, a favorite babysitter and adopted big sis, 

lived across the street from us in Houston.

Cousins take a movie break so Sara can bring everyone

slices of a favorite family pastry - chocolate roll!

Jack and Sara read books from 

the bin provided by Aunt Kathy.

Rylee and Ruthie entertain Mr. Jack.

Jack may always remember

Aunt Kathy as the bubble lady!

... but the grownups among us 

love her homemade cookies

(and sausage gravy)!

 

Happy the rain stopped long enough 

for us to stroll through the cemetery 

before church Sunday morning

A pic with daughter Sara and best friend Jan.

James' family with Grandma Kathy and Aunt Kara

Love this pic Kara took of

me and my brother, Karl.

The back of our VRBO with a view of Lake Eufaula

The VRBO as we loaded the car

for an early morning departure.

 Fall color

(back home in the Northwest)!

Poetry Friday and Slice of Life: S'More Time

Amy at The Poem Farm is hosting this week's round-up of poetic goodness. Be sure to stop by to see her poem, "a quiet boat."I love how Amy says that repeated words layer like cozy sweaters. I'm letting the poem I wrotefor Slice of Life do double duty this week. 

I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice"to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to our friends at Two Writing Teachers for hosting this meeting place

each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

S'more Time

My first camping trip in years

and I loved our nighttime s'mores 

 of crunchy graham crackers

with golden marshmallows toasted to perfection,

and melted chocolate oozing out the sides.

But as I reflect on that culinary delight,

I realize that I need . . .  

 s'more time to gaze at the crackling flames of our campfire,

s'more time to linger in the starry night,

s'more time to watch Sara's and Will's outdoor expertise, 

s'more time to sip hot chocolate around our morning fire,

s'more time to throw rocks into the ocean,

s'more time to dig in the sand,

s'more time to watch Jack and Grandpa take walks together,

s'more time to snuggle a sleepy boy as he sings with me,

s'more time to watch Jack's explorations,

s'more time to savor the magnificent outdoors together.

-Ramona Behnke

Spiritual Journey First Thursday: My Path

Welcome to Spiritual Journey First Thursday,

a group of friends who blog monthly about our spiritual journeys. 

Donna who blogs at Mainely Write and our host for September,

has chose the theme My Path as our focus.

When Donna invited us to write about "my path," I ended up thinking about paths that have mattered in my life. In Proverbs 4:26 we read: "Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established." I came up with five meaningful paths: my family path, my reading path,
my baking path, my friendship path, and my discipleship path. 

Anyone who reads this blog knows how important family is to me. I'm blessed to be close to my siblings - two sisters and a brother. Even though we lost our parents when they were quite young (both were in their 60s), we have managed to stay close even though we live thousands of miles away from each other. I'll always be glad for the love I share with my husband, for our two fantastic children,
their wonderful spouses, and our two delightful grandsons!

My reading path is one that I've nurtured my entire life. When I became a mother and heard women say they hadn't read a book since they'd had children, I vowed that I would not become one of those women. So I started a book club with friends from our church congregation and neighborhood. When I moved to the Pacific Northwest, it was less than a year before I started another book club. We are currently celebrating our 20th year together. And it's impossible to think of the years I spent as an educator without remembering the books I shared with students and the joy that filled our classroom

as we shared the words of favorite books.

I'm not sure why I decided that my baking path was significant, but it matters to me. I'm not a gourmet baker, but I love 
to share cookies, breads, and cakes from my kitchen 
with friends, neighbors, and loved ones. 

My friendship path is tied up with my reading path and my baking path since some of my best friends are those that I share books

(and baked goods) with frequently. 

"What are you reading?" is my favorite way to greet a friend. 

I hang onto my friends as long as I possibly can. 

I've adopted a quote from a book I once read: 

"If you're ever in my life, you're always in my life."

The path of a disciple of Christ is one that can be challenging and demanding, but so fulfilling. I've chosen to share a poem that I wrote forty years ago as a young missionary in Hong Kong.

I meditate

        Listening to the rhythmic ocean

        Watching the white-capped waves rushing to shore.

I remember

        An Oregon coast

        My first love

        Days forever gone.

I realize

        As the waves rush to meet the shore and subside

        So must the days of our lives

        The woman I am today carries only the

        memories of the girl of yesterday.

I wonder

        Heavenly Father in His wise purposes knows me.

        What small lessons am I being taught each day?

I awaken

        A figure clothed in white brings me to here and now

        A group of the Lord's servants meet for a rebirth

        That birth most important, of water and of the spirit.

I ponder

        A mission is only the beginning of my life

        What will Father ask of me in the coming years?

I pray

        For the strength to always say I will

        And faith to walk with Him by my side.

Thanks, Donna, for encouraging us to ponder our paths. While my paths may seem rather ordinary, without any surprising doors or amazing opportunities, I'm grateful for the lessons I've been taught and for the opportunity I have to walk with the Savior by my side.

Slice of Life: Naptime Delayed!

I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice"

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen,
Deb, Melanie, Lanny, and Kelsey

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday

and nurturing our writing lives.

It was 12:50. Lunchtime was over and so was playtime. It was time to drink some milk, read some stories, and take a nap. But Jack had other plans. He reached up and unlocked the sliding glass door to the deck. (Oh no, one more thing he's figured out how to do!)

Normally we don't go outside at this time of day, but Jack felt compelled to investigate the very loud noise. As we stepped onto the deck, he said, "Mo mo." That's his word for motorcycle, but we soon learned that this loud noise was not a motorcycle. It came from far up in a neighbor's tree. 

Jack and I watched carefully as the logger wielding a chain saw cut off 2 feet chunks of the tree at a time and pushed them to the ground. Each time one hit the ground, we chanted boom! I have no idea how tall the tree was (my guess would be somewhere around 40-60 feet), but we watched as the logger descended 2 feet at a time to saw through each piece of trunk and push it to the ground. There was no way we could leave until the workman was on the ground and out of our line of vision.

Sometimes it's important to seize the moment and watch something that doesn't happen very often. And that's how Jack convinced Grandma to delay naptime by almost an hour today!