Church Retreat

October Sundays have to be my very favoritest days of the year; 4-5 crisply clear, invigoratingly warm days sandwiched between coolishly cold nights. (btw, sometime I like to make up words) I am always sad when it rains on an October Sunday. I feel like I’ve been robbed, so glad not to be robbed this time. This weekend was the perfect showcase. For me it did not get off to such a glorious start since I did not so much think about packing until 9 am Saturday morning and we cannot even begin to get a family of 6 out the door in one hour without more forethought. So I rushed around (just for the record – not in this order), yanking a comb through my daughters hair (gave up and ordered her into the shower to try and tame/detangle the bush) threw random...

Too Nice a Day to Work

“I wish days like this would last forever” and “It’s too nice a day to work”.  Thoughts that ring down through the years for me. Thoughts that I associate with my Dad, with a smile attached. And of course I tried to cram way more work into such a gorgeous day than the children would happily endure, so after tiresome *gasp* indoor school time and washing too many windows, on a whim I decided to make hotdog sticks. The kind my Dad made, and I thought a lot about him as I crafted. As usual, two of the kids were under my feet crafting their own hatchets and I don’t know what all, while the other two sat in a 1/2 bushel box (yes, it looked really funny) playing a pretend game of cards and fighting over the rocking horse that has...

Aquarium, October 2011

We headed down to the aquarium in Baltimore yesterday and had a nice time. As usual, the children’s favorite part was the dolphin show, but Al and I agreed that the octopus ‘stole the show’. I will mostly let the pictures suffice to show the day since I am not much of  a writer anyway. But be forewarned that it is very difficult to take pictures at most places in the aquarium as it is very dim lighting. As usual, click on any picture to see it larger. waiting for the dolphin show tricks on the water tricks out of the water tricks in the water Hello! We loved you too! The octopus was amazing, although an aquarium employee kept guard so that no one would use flash when taking pictures. Apparently it scares the ‘pus into squirting ink...