Fog

I've decided I really love fog.
Some may think of it as a wet blanket of dreariness but not me.
So it's probably a good thing I live where I do. I get to experience the fog a lot.
Or maybe it's the memories I have associated with fog.
Last year sitting on my front porch I watched the fog roll in around the cellphone tower across the way and it was sitting there reflecting that I found myself at peace; comfortable in my own skin.
In high school not long after I was elected editor of the first school newspaper in so-many-odd years my friend Evan and I took cameras one early morning and captured the fog streaming over Ebey's Prairie and bluff. One of the photos that I took ended up as our first cover. I've got a copy somewhere, or my mom does but alas I have none to share this morning.
And now to add to the memories there is this morning.
Last night Ivan was complaining of a very stiff neck as we were getting him ready for bed. He couldn't look to the right or the left or move it up and down without it hurting. So we put him to bed but checked on him periodically until we went to bed, then sat down at the computer and Googled "4 year old with stiff neck". Maybe we should stop doing that. Everything we read said, better call a doctor or go to the ER, it could be meningitis, especially if there are other symptoms. Ivan woke us up at 3:30am with other symptoms, he was complaining of a tummy ache and he had a fever. Thank the Lord that my sister Beth is here, so I woke her up and let her know that she was in charge and that we would hopefully be back soon, then we packed Ivan up and drove down to the Tillamook Hospital. We were only there for about an hour and it is not meningitis, strep throat or a UTI, it's probably just viral. They gave him a little Tylenol and he was starting to feel better when we left. I've never dealt with a babe with a very stiff neck and so I'm glad we went even though it ended up to be just a for a very expensive dose of Tylenol. My boy is fine.
This is where the fog comes in. I rode in the back with Ivan, who was able to rest his head on my shoulder and sleep all the way home and I was at peace and the sky was lightening but there was fog. Not enough to hem you in with no visibility but just enough that it wrapped itself around the hills and made just a few of the trees stand out dark against it in crisp detail while 'causing the mist to blur others.
I knew just enough for my present circumstances but not all. I could see just enough to be at peace but I could not see all. Our heavenly Father kind of works like that with us sometimes.
And to me the fog is an awesome reminder of that.

Happy 6th Birthday Hannah!

I haven't gone crazy.

I know it's the end of July and Hannah's Birthday was the end of June but I realized this morning as I was organizing pictures on my computer (sure beats doing dishes) that I hadn't ever shared a picture of this year's birthday cake.

I've started asking the kid's what type of cake they want for their birthday and last year Hannah wanted a cow and pink flowers on her's. I don't know if you remember that one, but it looked like this:

I'm sort of proud of that one.

This year, she was a little more elaborate. She wanted layers and each layer had to be decorated differently. We drew this one out first and then I followed the plan. Please don't send this in to Cake Wrecks. I'm obviously not a professional but Hannah thought it was beautiful and that's really all that matters.

Breakfast at Emily's

Over on Cowgirl Clippings today I'm sharing my favorite-ist Banana Bread recipe.

Things, They are Getting Done

But not by me.

Well, I am doing things but not these things.

Namely cleaning my house and re-upholstering my dining room chairs. Those are all getting done thanks to my wonderful mother.

I inherited a set of table and chairs from my Grandma Dorothy and I love them but the upholstered seats were quite worn and with four kids sitting on them for three meals a day plus random times during the day they've gotten even more worn. I've been meaning to re-do them in oilcloth since I got them; alas it has not been high on the priority list.

But this week my mom is here and she's awesome. Not only do we get to stay up late talking but my house is always cleaner when she leaves and this time she also offered to not only buy the oilcloth for me but recover my dining room chairs also.

So yesterday we took all four kids to Creative Fabrics in Wheeler and picked out the oilcloth.

It's quite bright but I love it and it goes well with my green walls and the orange walls of the laundry room that are sometimes visible when the door is open.

So my chairs that once looked like this:

Have received a make-over and now look like this (and the oilcloth is so easy to clean off!):
Did I mention my mom is awesome?

This Week...

...is VBS and I am in charge of games. Please pray for me.

My wonderful mother is coming down today and staying through Thursday to watch Clayton and Mod during VBS 'cause they're just a tad young for it yet. Yay mom! I signed up to help before it dawned on me that I had two kids that are too young. And I was put in charge before I could remind "the powers that be" that I had two kids that are too young.

So I've been stressing just a little. Only a little 'cause I'm not big on stressing, I just figure that it will happen and if it doesn't I probably won't be put in charge again! I've got some fun games planned and a last minute switch of some games to include water balloons. I was going to skip that whole mess but then decided I just couldn't, it's too much fun.

I don't know that I'll have pictures to share but I'll definitely let you know how it goes especially since I'm counting on your prayers.

Thanks!

Breakfast at Emily's

It's time for oatmeal. This is a staple at our house. We soak our oatmeal overnight in a little whey and water so I've also included how I make whey and cream cheese in this week's edition of Breakfast at Emily's over on Cowgirl Clippings.

Blueberries

Okay, I fail as a wanna-be photographer.

We took a trip into Banks, OR yesterday to meet Erik's mom and pick up his air-nail gun that he left at their house. I painted all the floor trim for our house (that we've had forever) only to discover that Erik couldn't do his part and attach it to the wall were it belongs because he didn't have his air gun.

Not wanting to just make a trip for that we decided to go pick blueberries at Gordon's Acres farm that my neighbor told me about. Thinking that it might be a good photo-op of the kids I grabbed my camera and brought it along.

This is where I fail. Maybe if I had completely forgotten to bring my camera it wouldn't be so bad but I did bring it and then utterly failed to use it. And oh my, was that a missed opportunity. The kids were semi-color coordinated in reds and pinks that would have made a nice contrast to the green and blue of the blueberry bushes and the sun was glorious but not too bright. The farm was situated atop a hill with rows of blueberries and raspberries stretching out before you. On top of that the kids were really well behaved and picked a lot of blueberries. They were so excited about filling their special buckets full of blueberries that they just kept on picking without complaining. Erik got tired of picking blueberries before they did! Marilyn also picked blueberries but they did not end up in her little red bucket. She ate the blue ones and if she happened to pick a green one she put that in her bucket because it didn't taste good. Then she would pick those out and throw them on the ground before heading off down the rows to explore and visit other blueberry pickers in hopes of "gleaning" from their buckets that they unwittingly placed on the ground in easy reach of little fingers.
We left the farm with about 25 pounds of blueberries and 5 pounds of raspberries.
And I am proud to say that the raspberries have all been turned into jam and the blueberries are washed and residing in pre-measured portions in ziplock bags in the freezer.

Oh well, maybe next time I'll remember to take pictures.