Lamp Makers

Yesterday we were out with Rich in the shop. He was pouring some slip into the lamp cylinders molds.  Mary had so much fun watching and helping Daddy.

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Flowers and Butterflies

Mary and I were at the grocery store last week and I was heading for the milk and produce department when I quickly sped past a flip flop display on the way in.  I stopped turned around and said Oh, why not?  So I picked out a pair for me and for Mary.  She said her little butterflies wanted to get the nectar from my pink flowers.  We had fun when we got home, wearing our flip flops and dreaming of warmer weather.

Here are some real inside flowers.  My African Violet started blooming on my birthday and now it is in full bloom!  I just love the sparkle on the petals.

Beautiful Lights

We had a fun afternoon. We took my in-laws to lunch to celebrate their 62nd Wedding Anniversary.  We went to Olive Garden and had a very yummy lunch.  Mary looks so much like her grandma in this picture.  She has the same sparkle in her face and smile that Mel has.  We are so thankful for Rich's folks and their wonderful example of love and dedication to one another.  They are such a great light to many in their faithfulness and love in their marriage.   Many people do not reach 62 years of marriage either because of death or divorce.  We had a great time and the food was wonderful!

Rich has been busy in our shop making lamps.  Here is a self full of green ware waiting to be cleaned and decorated.

Here are decorated ones waiting to be fired.

Here are some that he is painting

I am so excited when he is able to do the first firing.  He will then do a second firing to put a clear diamond glaze over the top.  The lamps are so beautiful when they are finished.  A small light is inside the lamp cylinder and it shines out through the holes in the design making not only a beautiful lamp but also a lovely night light.

Spring Has Sprung

Yesterday was the first day of Spring and Mary and I have been sick with a cold this past week.  Rich and I decided that we would stay home this weekend and go no where to help us get over our cough.  The temptation is when we are feeling better but not completely over our cold, is to get busy and do things and then it takes so much longer to get completely well.  So, even though it was hard for Mary to miss her ballet class and we missed church and spending the afternoon with Rich's folks, it paid off.  We are feeling much better this morning.  With Spring just up over the horizon I thought I would post some pictures of a beautiful front yard of a little house very near Mary's dance studio.  It has Snowdrops, Crocus and Daffodils growing up in the grass.  It is so pretty.  The people don't mow their lawn until all the spring bulbs are over with.  Mary really likes looking at all the flowers in the grass.  This house was there and had bulbs in the lawn when I was a young girl.  It was fun sharing a memory with Mary.

It just wouldn't be spring for me if I didn't include a shot of my Golden Freesia that blooms every year for my birthday.  It is so fragrant.  It smells a lot like Jasmine that blooms in the summer.  I have my Freesia plant in the green house and then I bring it in when it starts blooming.  I just love it!

Happy Spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  It truly is a day to remember as it celebrates the life of a Christian man who followed God.  He was born in Britain at the end of the 4th century and was kidnapped by pirates when he was 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland.  There he came to know God and received divine direction to escape after 6 year of slavery.  He made it back home and received a call from God to go back to Ireland and evangelize.  So, he did.  His story is amazing and well worth the read.  I am just including the closing of one story I read on a web page.  The address is included at the end of the excerpt:

Listen to Patrick's poem of faith and trust in God, "The Breastplate":

"Christ be within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ inquired, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger."

Myths and legends have grown up around this hero of Ireland.

As Monsignor Murray explains, it is sometimes difficult to describe the triune aspect of God. So, according to the story, to better illustrate the central teaching of the trinity, Patrick took a shamrock and pointed out the three leaves on it. Interestingly, it is only in Ireland that you find this shamrock. Therefore, the people believed.

"One of the famous legends, of course, is that Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland," says Irish historian Harold Calvert.

In fact, any snakes in Ireland had disappeared during the Ice Age.

"The legend about the driving of the snakes may, in fact, really symbolize the driving out of evil," says Calvert.

In 432 A.D., Patrick built a church on the site of the present day St. Patrick's Memorial Church in Saul -- the first ever Christian church in all of Ireland. It's considered the cradle of Irish Christianity.

"Preaching the Gospel, of course, baptizing converts, confirming them, appointing clergy," continues Calvert.

Patrick's ministry lasted 29 years. He baptized over 120,000 Irishmen and planted 300 churches.

"What Patrick did was really lay the groundwork for Christianity," says Freeman.

To this day, no one knows where Patrick is buried, but many believe that it is somewhere beneath the church on the hill at Down Cathedral.

Rev. Sean Brady concludes, "He was a man who came to face and help his former enemies who had enslaved him. He came back to help them and to do them a great favor -- the greatest favor he possibly could."

Rev. Earnes concurs, "I honestly feel that what Patrick taught Ireland was that there is a cost to discipleship, but it's a cost worth paying. And I believe, to bring this right up to date, the church of St. Patrick must be constantly saying to people, 'Discipleship demands of you, but it's a cost that Christ will help you to pay.'"

Apostle to the Irish: The Real Saint Patrick

More Church History on CBN.com

In each holiday, I want to teach Mary about the Lord and tell her about believers who have gone on before and their stories that are very inspiring.  We made some sugar cookies with the shamrock on them and I have a Veggie Tales movie with the story of St. Patrick on it.  She loved it.  Here is a picture of her helping me with the cookies.

 



Another Year

Yesterday I celebrated another year! I am a year older and another year happier! This is a slide show of my day.

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We got a New Couch! ( and then some)

We had been talking about getting a couch for several weeks.  Mary likes to sit with us while we are watching a movie and has grown to the size where there is no room for her and one of us in our recliner.  So, we wanted a couch so we could cuddle up on, eat popcorn and watch a movie.  I got to looking on Craig's list for one.  Friday afternoon I vacuumed the living room and decided to move the furniture around so a couch would fit.  Then, I went on line and came across this one couch that looked pretty good, the price was great (only $150) and the best thing was that the guy said he would deliver.  Hot dog!!  (that was the selling point:)  Rich got off work early and we all went over and saw it and it was clean and comfy and matched our living room.  So, we had the guy bring it on over.  Some little person was very excited!!  As you can see she is enjoying it very much.
















I made Mary a fancy skirt from a curtain valance.


   I got the valance from a garage sale for 25 cents and I added lace trim and a bow.



She wore it to her ballet class for the first time on Saturday.

She also has reached the weight and size to use a booster seat in the car.  So, our little girl has graduated out of her toddler car seat.  She was very excited about that too.  We were so glad as it is so much easier to get her in the car now and get her buckled up.  At dance class her little friend had a yellow umbrella and Mary fell in love with it.  This week has been very rainy, so when we took her to the store to let her have her first ride in her new booster seat, she saw the same umbrella at the grocery store.  So, I bought it for her.  It was her first umbrella too.  When we got home she wanted to watch Mary Poppins.  She loves to see Mary Poppins float down with the umbrella.  Needless to say we had a very full and fun weekend. 

A Double Win!

Last week I was so surprised to win a drawing on one of the beautiful blogs I read. Tanya at Miller Family Racing had a drawing for a $35 gift certificate at the CVS stores website. There was so much to choose from I had a hard time deciding until I came upon this: 

                         

It is a little wooden stable with 4 horses and wooden fence, ladder and 4 bails of hay!

Mary is in love with it.  It came in the mail yesterday and she has only stopped playing with it to go to sleep.  She wanted it in bed with her but I told her is was a little bit too hard and bulky and might not feel good to roll into in the night!  lol

 

She has watched the movie, Flicka 2, several times recently.  So this set up is just perfect for her to imagine the story in her mind.  She has the horses stampeding and then she rescues them from the wolves.  She puts the horses in the stalls and puts them to sleep.  She has them all named.  She has had just hours of fun playing with her horses and horse barn.  So, I had a double win, I won the gift certificate and I was able to get such a winner toy for Mary.   I told Rich we could add on to it later, with a red barn, more farm animals and some AstroTurf for a field.  As you can tell I am having as much fun with this as Mary!  lol 

 

Can't you just see the horses running for their lives to get away from the wolves and their protector Mary just out of sight to scare those bad wolves away:)

The Amazing World of the Imagination