Sister Saturday: Crahft Day

A couple of Saturdays ago, my mom and I were sitting out on my deck reading and relaxing. Mom showed me a picture from a magazine of a wreath similar to the one above and we thought it was cute. I had the idea that we should have a mother-daughter craft day and get together with Jeanette to each make a wreath. We knew Jeanette would not mind being left out of the shopping part of the project, so Mom and I got into the car that afternoon and went to buy the supplies needed at Joann.

You see, Jeanette doesn't get as excited about crafting as my mom and I do. But she loves spending time with her mom and sis, and since this wreath is fairly quick and easy, we figured she'd be into it. And she was. We made our wreaths today and had a fun time talking and catching up on the week's events. I am continually thankful to have my sister and my mom so close by. And I don't take it for granted (usually) because we haven't always lived in such close proximity.

In fact, the reason why I spelled "craft" with an "h" in the middle comes from when my sister was living in Germany for three years. She was a member of an international church in Dusseldorf and had friends from many different places, including England.

The group of women from the church got together regularly to have "Crahft" (say it with a British accent). I don't think they added "night" to the event title. It was just "Crahft." Since Jeanette was living at the church (which also housed a preschool where she worked), she would go sit with her friends during Crahft and would sometimes even do some creating of her own.

One time in particular, soon after I had been diagnosed with a malignant thyroid tumor, Jeanette made me the card pictured below.

Inside she wrote some sweet notes of encouragement, along with some scripture verses. Her friends cheered her on as she did this labor of love to send back across the ocean to me. She wrote, "The Lord has used various means of comforting me today. I'm using you as my Craft tonight. I hope this is as much of an encouragement as doing it has been for me." It was a cherished gift and I still have it saved in a box with other memorable cards and notes.

Several years have gone by since Jeanette made me that card. I am cancer-free and don't have any ill-effects from that health crisis. Looking back, the time that Jeanette was away in Germany was a time of great growth in our relationship. We had been friends before, but being forced to communicate via email (phone calls were more expensive back then and there wasn't any such thing as Skype) made us really value our friendship and work hard at staying close across the miles.

I'm glad that we had our mother/daughter/sister craft time today. It was fun to see how each of us made our wreath our own (sorry, I only have the picture of mine). Hopefully we can expand these craft days to include Erica and Mary Lane in the near future!

Redneck Riviera

On Saturday we got to spend some time with our long-time friends, Rhesa, Phillip, Rebekah and Rachel, out on Percy Priest Lake. We like to jokingly refer to it as the Redneck Riviera.

It was so relaxing to just ride on the boat and lounge in the water when we got hot. Daniel and the girls also went tubing, so some of the pictures are of Daniel behind the boat.

World's Best Dad

Summer 1977

Father's Day 2011

I have been wavering about what to blog about on this first Father's Day without my dad here on earth with us. To be honest, I started dreading this day a few weeks ago (probably right after Mother's Day) when I kept seeing ads and emails for Father's Day gifts. I wasn't looking forward to a reminder that my dad is not with us (like I needed a reminder). I just wanted it to be Monday, June 18.

But today is the day. I woke up with thankfulness in my heart for having a father who loved me unconditionally and who cared for every aspect of my life. Of course, he was not perfect, and neither am I as his daughter, but my dad gave me a wonderful picture of my Heavenly Father that helped me to have faith and trust and hope in Christ. I am so thankful to have a dad who I miss on Father's Day (and every day). And I am thankful that my earthly father is with our Heavenly Father and is free from sadness and sickness and the pain of this world.

Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you!

Drum lessons, anyone???

Pardon me while I do a little PR/marketing for my son.

Last summer Daniel had an idea to teach drum lessons, but didn't really know how to get started (and I might have drilled him with so many questions that I unknowingly shot down his plan).

New summer, more drum experience and confidence under his belt, maybe a little more motivation to earn some money. Daniel has spent several hours developing his plan of action, including going through music and developing lesson plans. He made up the flyer above to send out to people we know (and maybe post around town).

If you know of anyone who has an interest in learning the drums, please contact Daniel. He's right that he's one of the lowest priced in town and would be glad to work something out.

A comedy of errors

One of the things a parent looks forward to when a son or daughter gets a driver's license is being able to send him/her to the store for a couple of items while said parent stays home to fix dinner. I got my first opportunity to do this while fixing Sunday dinner. We needed milk, a bag of ice, and bananas, so I sent Daniel to our closest grocery store, Apple Market, just a half mile from our house.

Daniel left for the store and I worked on getting dinner on the table while he was gone. After things were pretty much almost ready, the thought crossed my mind that it was taking Daniel a little longer than I expected to get three things, but I wasn't worried or concerned. He soon came in the door, handing me the milk and the bag of ice. Then the story began.

Apparently one thing that a parent needs to remember is that 1) new drivers don't always go the same route to the store as the parent might and 2) not everyone is as familiar with the location of items in the grocery store. (Now, let me stop and say that Daniel was telling this story on himself and gave me permission to blog about it.)

He said that first of all, he had chosen to take a left turn out of our street to take Brewer Drive to the store. There are three ways to get to Nolensville Road from our house, all would take him to the store, but this way he chose was probably the most difficult, requiring a left-hand turn across the four-lane road. After waiting quite a bit to make the turn, he ended up turning right, cutting through the bowling alley parking lot, and came back down Brewer, turned on the street that goes by our house and finally took the quickest route to the store.

Once inside the store, he wasn't sure about my advice to just tell the cashier that he was buying ice and decided to pick out the bag BEFORE he went looking for the milk. With the bag of ice under his arm, he walked the perimeter of the store looking for the dairy case. At one point, he was right next to it, but looking in the wrong direction, and not seeing milk, took off circling the store again.

When he finally made it home with the milk and ice (he gave up on bananas), he explained why his "quick trip" to the store had taken so long. I was putting the ice away while listening to his story, emptying some of it into the ice bin and then kept the rest in the bag to save for later. As I was putting the opened bag of ice on the freezer shelf, somehow it spilled out a big pile of ice onto the floor.

That's really things really got fun! Have you ever tried to pick up melting ice? I got the mop and we worked on corralling the ice into one pile and then scooped it up with towels to get it off the floor. That's also when the laughter began, since Daniel was telling me about his walking around the store with a bag of ice under his arm while I was scooping ice off the floor.

Good thing we both have a good sense of humor!

Shared traits

Before we get too far into June, I need to go back and tell about something that happened in May, but deserves its own post (not just get included in the recap).

One day in mid-May, Daniel texted me and told me that he had been accepted into the National Honor Society. The induction ceremony took place on May 17, in the school auditorium. Daniel was his normal, humble self about this honor, but his dad and I are very proud of him!

We also joked that the National Honor Society gene apparently skipped a generation, since neither Daniel's dad nor I were invited to join. But it is one of the things that Daniel shares with his Grandpa, as we found out when Grandma presented Daniel with some of Grandpa's pins and memorabilia at Christmas. Daniel's pin might be a little shinier than his Grandpa's but we're proud that he is following in his Grandpa's footsteps of being a diligent student.

Daniel and Grandpa also shared a love of reading and books. Grandpa had a huge collection of books, which he was in the process of giving away and selling in the years before he died. Now that he has passed away, my mom is sharing the remainder of his books with people who will appreciate them. She gave some to her son-in-law, Russell, and offered for Daniel to come browse the collection to see what he might like to have of Grandpa's books. It thrilled her that Daniel was eager to spend the time looking through the books and that he found a stack to take home (see photo below).

Celebrating Mom (a.k.a. Grandma)

Yesterday our family had a great time together celebrating our Mom/Grandma's 76th birthday (she would tell you herself how old she is). It was a perfect day in every way:  weather-wise, activity vs. rest ratio, fun memories made!

We planned an outing on Blue Heron Cruises, which is a fun activity for all ages, and also is relaxing and affordable for families. This was our second time to go as a family and this year, our friends, The Shriers, also joined us. It was hard not to think of Grandpa, since he was with us last year when we went on the pontoon boat cruise on the Cumberland River, but it was fun to have some new faces with us and to have the added celeration of Mom's special day. Here are some of the pics from the cruise:

One of the favorite activities for the kids were the bubble wands

Anna and Kate

Rachel and Jeanette

Captain Jim made lots of balloons and Erica was very interested

Sisters!

Mom and her favorite son-in-law

Phil, Daniel and Mom put the balloons to good use!

After we all had the afternoon to rest up, we headed out for dinner at Chuy's (birthday girl's choice, which none of us minded). I have to give kudos to my sister for suggesting that we go to the mid-town Nashville location instead of Cool Springs. Much easier to get seated and free valet parking! Smart, Sis!

Birthday sopapilla!

Friday Favorites: My Honda CRV

This summer will be four years since I bought my CR-V! I still love driving it and hope to get a lot more mileage out of it (we rolled over 100,000 earlier this year).

This car has definitely been my favorite car to own and drive. I like to ride up a little higher, but it's not as big as a full-size SUV, so I can still fit into tight spaces. It also gets good gas mileage, which is so important with gas prices being what they are.

The CR-V has been a great car for us with all the great cargo room to haul drums around. Daniel likes to drive it and it was the car he took his driver's test in this year.

I don't plan to have to replace this car for a while longer, but when I do get another car, I'll definitely be looking at the CR-V again!