Monarch Post

Sun*day on a Friday

 
I'm backtracking for a post today... last weekend we threw a wedding shower for Ainsley and her girlfriends at our home. It was a craaazy busy week and I want to do a post on it, but the cool craft/wedding idea went home with the-bride-to-be without a photo; I'll have to retrive it and photograph it before another post.

But before the kids went back to school, I helped organize a fieldtrip with our church kids to Salt Lake City. We went on a hunt to find God in places other than our own church.

 
 

It was a gorgeous sun-dappled August day and Salt Lake city was wearing its finest dark aqua-blue sky for us.

 
The Cathedral of the Madeline is a stunning old grand dame with wonderful bones; she's painted so beautifully too. Feels like I've stepped back into time and Europe when I walk through her doors. It smells really old, spicey and just polished... with Lemon Pledge.

 
Loved the baptismal font.

 

 
 
Sunlight streaming through stained glass takes my breath away.

 

 
The kids were so attentive and well-behaved.

 

 
After the tour at the Cathedral of the Madeline, we went to a sister church, St. Paul's Episcopal in SLC. The kids were given snacks prepared by St. Paul's.  After the snacks we toured this lovely old church and the grounds too.

 

 
Each child was given a disposable camera with the instructions to take pictures of where you find God today. Lots of photos of flowers and other children were taken... the kids always get it.

 
 

 

 
Oh, those doors with all the kids charging out... such joy to watch.

 

 

 
After our tour at St. Paul's, we went to The Salt Lake Peace Gardens. Various ethnic communities in the Salt Lake valley have each planted their own gardens, all of the gardens then make up the entire Peace Gardens.

 
 

 

 
We had a sack lunch picnic at the Peace Gardens (we packed sack lunches the night before for all the kids). After lunch, the kids climbed trees (more fun apparently, than the swing sets) and played freeze tag to burn off energy... the parents watched and wondered how the kids had so much energy in ninety degree weather. I said "youth is wasted on the young". We all agreed.

We made one last stop at a funky place called Gilgal Gardens. Lots of stone and scripture creations there, but this on the side of a trash can made everyone laugh

After the Peace Gardens and Gilgal Gardens, we headed back to our church for music, communion bread-making, scrapbook-making, pizza, annnnd a sleepover.

We were gluttons for punishment :)

 

 
 

 
 
The cameras were rounded up and taken in for one hour development. Scrapbook supplies were spread out and the kids snipped, glued, and colored away.

 
 

The kids were fascinated with the film negatives-- they had never seen photo negatives and wanted to know what they were for?! (Ya, really).

They asked if the negatives could go on their srapbook pages.

I told them they could do whatever they wanted to-- it's art!

And the adults felt old.

 
 

 
We finished the day with a short, lovely outdoor communion service. 

The kids each held a small lit (!) candle; there was only one slightly singed head of hair-- whew.

In the morning we were served breakfast by members of the parish; the kids rolled up their sleeping bags and got their rides home.

And the adults tried to unroll various muscles after spending the night on the floor...

I went home and slept on the couch for four hours.

 

It really was a beautiful day... all in all.

 

 

 

neglected, but better now

 
 
Very neglected. This poor old blog and that poor old flower garden... Life did not go quite as I had planned this summer. Shortly after my last post, our basement was flooded by one of the many torrential downpours Utah experienced all spring, and right into the beginning of summer. We were fortunate though, so many farmers lost their crops, and lots of homes were hit much worse than ours by the flooding.

 

And just when the crews of flood workers dwindled down, a routine Dr. visit turned into news that I would have surgery on July 1st... (I'm fine now) and there went July... it took about 
a month to get fully back on my feet. So such an exciting summer (not)- no great vacation photos here today! Now it's already back-to-school shopping time this week and it's definately wedding planning time... all the little details for Ainsley's big day Sept. 17 are on my mind and needing to be made soon.

 

I've wondered through my blue summer if I should even keep blogging... I feel as though I've come full circle blogging and now it needs to be something new, but what I'm not sure yet, maybe it just needs to evolve, or sit on the back burner a little while longer and cook itself into a new thing... we'll see...

 

 Just now feeling like I have some creative energy back in my blood and I'm sure it will one day come pouring back out again. At least I understand now why I hardly had any creative energy this year- I've had multiple health problems, sheesh! And I know for me, health problem do not mix with having abundant creative energy!!

 

 

But the gardens did eventually get weeded, and they are doing their best to put on a bright, ruffly fashion show after struggling all through the rains this spring.

 

 

 

 

(I'm thinking those containers would make a great kid's craft caddy... see, an actual creative idea. Apparently, I do still have a pulse!)

The upside of garden neglecting is finding half-price flowers at the end of July to fill in the bare spots.

 

 

 

 

And as perennial as the flowers around our house, baseball season happened in between all those stormy nights, rainouts, and cancelled games. Jesse's team, (the soggy but happy) the New York Yankees even managed to finish up with a second-place trophy for the town teams in his age bracket. 

 

I realized walking away from the field after his last game, that that really was the last game on our little "Mayberry" baseball field.

Next year, he plays on the older boys field across town.

I got teary-eyed. 

 

 

We've probably spent thousands of hours at this ballpark, watching our boys grow from tiny boy T-ball players (drawing in the sand at second base) to athletic little men.

 

Chewing our nails at slides and strikes, cheering them on, and consoling them when over the bad and lost games...

 

I will miss this ballfield and all those cricket-chirping, starry summer nights, and even the spring game nights; the ones where parents stand around freezing, wrapped up burrito-style in blankets while tag team complaining and cheering each other and the kids on...

 

 

 

Our kids are grown and growing up.

 

Who do they think they are anyway... whaaaaa!!

 

 

This summer two house martins built a nest under the eaves of our front porch. I watched the  four babies grow up in a blink. And one day I watched as they all stretched out their wings and made their first test flights away from the nest.

 

 

I so get how those parents must have felt- (since I like to think all animals think like me :)

 

I stood there hearing the momma bird say,  

"Now don't fly too fast.

Watch where you are going!

Don't be out too late,.

Just because all the other birds are doing it, doesn't mean you need to follow them."

 

And then I heard the Dad say,

"It seemed like they just hatched yesterday,

and now look at them.

I wish they were still little, at home in the nest with us."

****

WHHAAAA!!

 

 
And then they really learn to fly, and go soaring and stretching their wings in directions (with their old baseball buddies) you would never ever expect.

 

At the other end of the "Mayberry" ballfield was a concert for our town's festival days and Corbyn and his folksy band, The Mountain Hymns, were invited to play for the afternoon.

 

He is an awesome African drum drummer.

Who knew?

I was hoping for a baseball scholarship one day, but maybe he can still put us in a really nice retirement home with his rock star earnings.

Not a music lesson ever in this boys' life- go figure!

 
Picnics and your own personal rock band are preeetty cool together.

 

 

 
And so is a new craft book from Amazon when the August heat and boredom start to make us all go a little crazy is super awesome too.

 
 

 

 

This is the CUTEST sewing book for children I've ever seen. Great photos and instructions too.

 
Sophia finished three projects this week with almost no help from me.

 
A button jar.

 
A pencil case for the new school year, made from an old chenille sweater.

 
And a sewing box made from an old round cookie tin.

 

Already stocked... of course!

 

I highly recommend this book, Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy, for anyone who has ever had a bored daughter or granddaughter, (or an unbored child for that matter!)- it has been a life saver this past week, and there are lots of projects to go still. 

 

 

I still have the cutest wedding invitations to show you of Ainsley and her fiance' Jeff, but my computer is running so slow at the moment, I think I'll wait and do a separate blog post for them soon- pinkie promise!

 

 

Anyway, life is finding it's way back to some sense of order and I've started making a few things myself. Mostly for the house right now, knowing company is coming (for the wedding) always does wonders for me in the "hurry and spruce up the house department"!

Mike too, he just painted the garage-- floors and all. Seriously?! We need to schedule more company soon. We could have the whole yard finished landscaping in no time at all- :)

Hope you're squeezing all the last goodness from these beautiful summer days.

Love,

Kelly