Thirty-six years ago today I married my sweetheart for time and all eternity. It is with him that I most enjoy conversing, exploring the world, and spoiling the grandchildren.
At the end of this Easter Sunday, I found myself thinking of this painting by Carl Bloch currently on display at the BYU Museum of Art. It really touched me when I viewed it some months ago.
Who knew that in just one week's time a low front would blow in bringing 40+ degree lower temps, steady rain, and snow in the Superstitions. Toby, however, was set on tending a fire in the fireplace for two hours, so out came the umbrellas. He had a great time heating up his stick then poking it in the rainwater collection in the dutch oven depression and hearing it sizzle.
Last night they brunt the cedar wood and it smelled divine and burned for hours.
Susan and Heather stayed inside and read books in front of the other fireplace (which now only burns candles.) It was much warmer in than out!
Come July I will look back on this day with envy, longing to wear a sweater and breathe in crisp air. But today I feel cheated. For weeks I have been planning a garden party, a baby shower for a dear friend soon to deliver her first boy. Instead of being outside with flowers in their prime and soft breezes, we cozied up in my combo kitchen/great room. The company and food were great, but we were a bit crowded. Hard to imagine that it was 100 degrees F just one week ago.
This was my Friday visitor. She's enjoying a bit of lunch after taking a two hour nap. Mommy Sally went to the Arizona Science Center with Ruby and her 1st grade class on a field trip.
Mabel is a sweet observer. It was like she was in a brand new space. She looked at everything and everywhere. It must feel different for a baby to be at grandma's house without the other twenty family members to distract you.
After the baby shower/garden party sans the garden, the rain drops ceased and I wandered outside with my camera. The best thing in the garden this week is the rose arbor which is blooming profusely.
So pretty and so fragrant. These Don Juan climbing roses put on a show in the spring and once more in the fall.
They're intermingled with a small white climbing rose. When I planted them, I imagined them blooming as a mixture. They, however, seem to enjoy putting on a show of their own with white following red.
Here are some pictures of what the guests missed in the back garden.
I planted daisies in the pots one year and there have been volunteer daisies every March/April since.
It would have been lovely to be in the garden, but it was still very warm and friendly in the house!
I am a "downwinder." A downwinder is someone who is exposed to nuclear radiation, specifically during atomic testing in the 1950's and 60's. I spent my childhood living on a dairy farm in Idaho. We drank raw milk from our Jersey cows who grazed on grass from the meadow by the house and ate hay harvested from our own farmland, thus concentrating any exposure from nuclear testing in Nevada in the 1950's. It seems that radiation caught the wind patterns and fell hundreds of miles away just like the government thought it would, mostly on less populated parts of the United States. This was information which would take decades to become public knowledge.
The beginning of each October and April, my church holds what is known as General Conference. They broadcast across the world from Salt Lake City, Utah. There are talks by the First Presidency of the Church and General Authorities as well as music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other local choirs. It is a wonderful weekend of spiritual uplift, instruction, and resolve.
It has become a bit of a family tradition for all the family to meet at our home between the afternoon and Priesthood sessions for a meal and family interaction. Then the men leave together to go to our Stake Center to view the session via satellite broadcast with other brethren. The women and children enjoy the company of one another until babies are tired and need to go home.
This is what my library/living room looks like when it is full of grandchildren and Playmobil.
They gravitate to this room with its lovely wool carpeting.
Toby has reason to smile broadly. He hit two "grand slams" at his baseball game today.
Mabel was the first baby too tired to play and in need of going home to bed. She snuggled right up to her Auntie Nichelle while waiting for her mommy. TJ is the only grandchild left in the house. He is enjoying a solo grandkid sleepover tonight.