Today I noticed...Families are the same - only different.

I had lunch with a friend who I had not visited with in quite some time. We sat and talked about our children and grandchildren. So many of the tales she shared were almost mirror images of our family experiences. There was a bit of difference but so much was the same. 

She has a grandchild who just graduated college and is working as an intern this summer before starting grad school and we have one who just graduated high school and will be going to school this fall. She has one in high school who is being home schooled and we have three in high school and a couple of them are home schooled. They each have their own interests and personalities but they all have commonalities.

I truly left the restaurant thinking of how I had enjoyed the visit with my friend and that I am really blessed to have the family that I do. While her family is the same as mine in lots and lots of ways, they are also very, very different. We both are blessed and love each and every member of our family and are grateful to have them as a part of our lives.

It's the same - only different.

Family Portrait Gallery

 I have done a little work with the photos that I shared in this post.  I'm satisfied with what I have - for now. There is a small landing as one descends into our basement. Where the stairs pause at the landing there is a large cabinet where I have added some books. As one turns, to continue down the stairs, I've added a gallery wall with some of the family photos. 

To the left of the gallery photos is a series of three stairs which stops on the basement floor. There is a wall on either side, forming a sort of hallway. So, I am probably going to add some more photos there. I think it would be a good place to add a collection of photos such as family members who were posing for team pictures or those who are posing with an animal from a livestock show. I'm going to continue to think about this because I'm not absolutely certain of how I want to decorate this little space. 

For this gallery collection, I have Started at the top, left with Mike's paternal great-grandfather. Next to him is Mike's grandfather, and then, his father rounds out the last oval frame. Below those oval-framed photos are pictures of Mike's parents. I think the two small ones are school pictures. They look like they might be about third grade level photos. The larger photo between those two shows his parents at their eighth grade dance.

The gold scalloped frame holds a collage of Mike in his first year. There is a portrait of him at three-months, six-months, nine-months, and one year. 

Then, there is the large antique portrait of Mike's great, great grandmother. Below that is a photo of his father on the left. Then, his great-grandmother is pictured in the middle and the photo on the right is a photo of the great-grandmother at an older age.

I love the variety of vintage frames and feel quite fortunate to have inherited the photos as well as the beautiful frames. 

Gallery Wall Refresh

Do you ever get an idea for a refresh and it just seems to snowball from one thing into another and another? Well, that is certainly the case for me lately. First, there was the laundry/pantry update and, more recently, I've tackled another.

Years ago I created a gallery wall of family photos in the hallway that the guest bedrooms and guest bath open into. I added to it a bit as time went on and new family members were added. Then, it seemed to become full and cluttered. I didn't really know what I wanted to do about it and thus, ignored it for a while (a few years). It was so out of date that a couple or three of our family members were not even represented on it and the youngest grandchild is now three years old. 

I got a germ of an idea earlier in the spring and decided that it would be one of my 'summer projects' this year while I was out of school for the summer. I had tried to schedule a family photo session back in the spring and a friend who is a photographer and I could not work out a good time to coordinate things when I thought all four of our childrens' families could be there. My idea was sparked when I noticed that our youngest had recently been a participant in a family photo shoot with his wife, children, and in-laws. 

I knew that I could get group shots of each child and his/her family from photos they had posted online or that I had shot at various times within the past couple of years. So, I began checking to see where I could get those photos printed on canvas. My thinking was that I could take down the eighteen 8" x 10" frames and 16 5" x 7" frames and replace them with those canvas prints. My plan was to just have the canvas prints done with a black edge and not even frame them since that is all that would be on that wall. This would make a nice, clean update and have all of our family represented as well. My goal was to order the canvas prints and give them to Mike as a Father's Day gift. 

I selected photos of each family group that were somewhat similar. All of them are pictures with a casual feel where they are wearing jeans and the family members are just clustered close to one another facing the camera. I found that I could enlarge the digital shots I had to a size 12" x 16" canvas with very little distortion. So, I ordered them and patiently awaited shipping. As is often the case lately, the prints did not arrive prior to Father's Day. Yet, they did come a couple of days later and that was really alright for me as well as Mike, who is always humbled by a gift from me.

I was excited to show them to him and called him to come to the house as soon as I unboxed them. He was thrilled with them and the idea that we finally had family pictures of all of them even if we still don't have a huge photo of everybody together. I explained where I planned to hang them and he frowned. "Nobody will ever see them there unless they happen to go back there to the bathroom. Can't we put them somewhere so that anybody who visits us will see them and we can see them more often as well?"

So, my plan was foiled. I began thinking and a new idea crept upon me. In our den we have a wall where I hung high school portraits of Bridgette and Bryan alongside a beautiful portrait of a young Stephen and Laura. Both sets of photos were made at about the same time and captured our children at about the same age. So, it had worked together well when we blended our families.

Family Portraits in the Background

I decided that I could move those photos to the hallway and that would update and clean up the clutter there. Then, I could hang the new canvas prints in the space occupied by these formal portraits. As I stood there in the den, I realized that the canvas prints would be the only artwork that would not have a frame. In there we have some paintings and prints with antique frames that have gilding on them hanging above the the sofa. There are also some prints with antique frames. So, in my opinion, the casual vibe of the canvas prints needed to be dressed up a bit in order to fit.

Then, the search for reasonably priced frames of the correct size began. I found a place that made some standard frames that had a similar vibe to these prints I inherited from my Granny. I needed something that would not be too fancy but would still add a finished and polished look to the casual canvas prints. I decided the style shown below would do the job and ordered them.

Frame Style

Of course, these frames were designed for photos and came with glass. So, when they arrived, I realized that I would need to find some sort of clips or clamps to hold the canvas frame in the picture frame. Again, the search began. I measured the depth of the canvas when set inside the frame and found an appropriate clip. Then, ordered those.

Mike helped me attach the canvas prints to the frames. Then, I added the picture hanging hardware and finally hung the family portrait collection. While the entire project was a couple or three weeks in the making, we are really pleased with the finished product. Every time I catch a glimpse of the photos of the entire crew, I smile and have a little flutter of pride that we are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Happy Birthday, Harris!

We love you more than even telephone poles can measure!

 

Happy Birthday, Linley!

 

We love you bunches and bunches!

Today is The Day

Today is the day that the family comes and I am SO EXCITED!

The stockings are all hung at the mantel and stuffed full of goodness and treasures chosen as extra treats. 

There's a special extension cord for the grown gals. I ordered one for myself back in the spring and I just love it. So, I thought they needed one, too! There's good smelling treats to freshen their cars and a jar of smelly jelly from Yankee Candle. There were so many fragrances to choose from and the names of them were just enticing! Warm Luxe Cashmere, Coconut Beach, Mcintosh, and Lemon Lavender, are the ones I finally chose. Don't those names just make you want to curl up with a book and a cup of warmness to sip through the winter? (I may have splurged and picked out a couple of wonderfully named varieties for myself, too!) I always add a kitchen gadget of some kind and this year's first choice turned out to be a dud. I saw this thing that would be an easy guide for cutting up lettuce and ordered all of us one. Not so much. They will get that but they will also get one of these cute little snack bowls that I like so much! I'm going to encourage them to fill it with candies or Christmas Crack to snack on the road. 

There's an inexpensive little jewelry trinket - an elasticized beaded bracelet that is fun to slip on to brighten up the day.  I ordered myself some last year and every single time I wore one to work, a coworker or a student would comment on how fun it looked and who doesn't need a little fun in their lives some days? There's also some things that all moms need like a stick for preventing or treating chapped lips, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes. I hit upon a great sale with some fun flavorful fragrances and loaded up on them for stocking stuffers for everybody!

For the grown guys there's chapped lip prevention, which is an annual staple for stuffing stockings since back in the beginning of my stocking stuffing times. There's home-made deer jerky provided by the mister. There's some sort of tool or gadget that every guy needs to keep in his truck. They each got a headlamp flashlight because they probably will have times when they need to shed a little light on something while their hands are full. The rest of the space is filled with Little Debbie treats, candy, and peanut butter cracker snacks. Mike says, "Something to eat is always a good gift!"

The little fellows also got a headlamp flashlight because I figured they'd want it for playing outside after dark and dad would not want them borrowing his. All the grands get socks in their stockings because the family joke is that when you are on the naughty list you get socks and underwear! They also get some hand sanitizer, lip balm, and sanitizing wipes because I thought that would fit into backpacks pretty well and we all need those items during the winter - especially now. They have some snack treats and little games for keeping them quiet when that is needed by mom. All the grands also got a Gratitude Journal. Don't we all need to pause every so often and think about how grateful we are? I figure it is never too early to encourage this as a practice and this option has spaces for picture drawing, early writing, inventive spelling and all those things this school teacher wants to encourage the young grands to experience!

The female grands are sort of divided into the bigs and the littles. Four of them are tweens and teens. So, they got a cute change purse with a bee on it which I hope makes them think fondly of their Grand B! They also got things like lip gloss and make up applicators and nail files. Of course, the lip balm, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes also went into their stockings because they carry backpacks, too. They got cute socks, fun bracelets, mirrored sunglasses, a cool face washing scrubber, and a gratitude journal as well. All of the granddaughters got necklaces with a fun and wise message from their loving grandparents. The three little girls also got lip balm, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes. Cute little anklets, fun bracelets, and fruit snacks rounded out their full stockings. 

As you can tell, the stocking stuffing is always a fun way for me to give quirky treats and odd things that make us all smile and some things that are necessities but always good as a gift as well. We generally share a meal first and the littles' excitement sort of builds as they try to imagine what might be in the stack of gifts. They tend to eat very little because playing with one another is far more important when we are all together. 

Once we dig into the pile, chaos ensues! Then, they all have to check out what one another got and play time continues. This year there are nerf guns, stomp rockets, doll accessories such as gardening toys and cooking toys and doll makeup, and pound puppies and Minnie Mouse dolls. Of course, all the grands get clothes because I still find it fun to shop for children's clothing since I only do it for birthdays and Christmas. We adhere to the general rule of something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read. So, that is what fills the boxes. Everybody provides a list and I get to choose gifts from the list. Some get bigger ticket items (costing over $100 - we do buy for 18 people, you know) and some get several lesser items. No need to plaster on the smile and say thanks for something that they will never use or want. The lists help me immensely and I feel certain they are satisfied with everything they get that way - very little need to return or dispose of an unwanted item when I know exactly what I'm looking to buy! We like to give experiences such as trip to the zoo or something like that but since last year's zoo tickets have yet to be used, this year there's Stuff.

Mike and I have spent the morning quietly sipping coffee and building our energy to be prepared for the excitement of their visit. I've got to sign off and put the hash brown casserole, breakfast casserole, and sausage balls in the oven. Then, mix up the breakfast punch and crock pot hot cocoa. Mike has already ambled to the kitchen to start frying bacon, warm the country ham, and bake the biscuits. The table is set and we think we are, too!

A Year in Review - 2020

What a year 2020 has been for us!

I first think about the meme I frequently see in social media that says, "When you realize your life really doesn't change that much during a pandemic."  At times that is exactly what I thought! 

I do miss visiting our grandchildren. I miss getting the chance to attend our grandchildren's sporting events like basketball games. I miss just taking a weekend afternoon to go poking around in a thrift store or antique shop. I also have missed having teachers just stop by and sit across the desk from me and chat.

What I haven't missed is long hours in a vehicle going to those sporting events or trekking to and from work each day or packing a lunch each day.  Those things haven't been a part of this year but I haven't missed out on that part of the events.

I also haven't missed being in meeting after meeting because we have had loads of virtual meetings! I haven't missed lots of things in regard to work because as an instructional technology coach, that part of my job keeps going. Sometimes it has just looked a little different or it has taken even more time to put together or make the connections because it has been virtual rather than face to face.  

All-in-all, things have been different for us to a certain degree but not that much worse.  For that I am eternally grateful.

These are the things I've noticed when I look in the mirror at our year:

1. I've made fewer blog posts this year. That was more than last year but far less than most years. I think I've made fewer posts for the last couple of years because the demand for me sitting in front of a screen with my fingers on the keyboard at work has been far greater. Last year I was assigned to support a 1:1 pilot school and this year... well, there has been a pandemic and I often spend twelve to sixteen hours at my computer working in hopes of supporting teachers who are working so hard.
2. Still the most popular posts I have made for the general audience have been the ones about our bay window seat. That is one of the posts that I made in the first year of blogging back in 2011! The most popular posts from this year are the birthday posts for family members. Those stats tell me that this blog is exactly what I intended for it to be - a journal where I share ideas, photos, and information with my family and close friends. 
3. Other than the post about our first grandson's birth back in 2013, the peak of readership for this blog was in March! I'm certainly attributing that to the pandemic! Folks were sent home. They were inside. They were looking for something to entertain themselves with and my family was certainly no different! It looks like readership took a leap at the end of most months this year. So, that makes me think that my family sat down at the end of the month and caught up by looking to see what I'd posted! Readership was also higher this year than any other year. I'm attributing that to the fact that more of my grandchildren are readers and have access to technology so they can look at their birthday posts! Ha!
4. Like a lot of people who were confined at home this year, we got a lot of home projects done during that time. Some of it was by choice and a result of being cooped up and wanting to get things straight - like Project #1. Then, combine that with having a helper, brings me to Project #2.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Some things got done that had been put off for a while and I guess that being at home made me really realize that those things needed attention - things like Project #3, Project #4, the Porch Furniture, and Project #5. Mike spent more time working in the hay field and growing our vegetables and making certain that we had meat in the freezer to fill our bellies.
   
   He also jumped into making jerky when a friend gave him some deer meat and has branched out to making beef jerky as well. Prepping and sharing the meat products has sort of become like a part-time job for him! Harris and I worked on my pantry a bit and then, we had our handyman service really do some work on the pantry to make it far, far more user-friendly. I realize now that I didn't even write blog posts about that! (Maybe I will make photos of the pantry and share in the coming year!)
   
   I got more of the plastic bins with handles like Luci and I used in Project #2 and had Harris here to help me do some sorting and organizing. We put many pantry staples into jars and sorted those jars into like items such as baking supplies or baking mixes or condiments and such. Harris was good at sorting and he was really good at combining partial bags of chocolate chips and such to fill jars. When he was visiting in July, during the heat of the day, we would work on the pantry project so that he would have the afternoons free to ride on the ATV or even drive it with Mike!
   
   
   As always, it is great to have the grandchildren come to visit and stay with us for a while. We always have such fun with them and love the chance to get to experience their personalities up close with no distractions.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   And, I think they really like to visit and do some of the things we do with them as well!
   
   
   
   
5. Another big thing that got done this summer was one that was not really planned. Nor was it even on the horizon. However, massive rainfalls and flooding bumped it up on the list of things to get done because it became a necessity for us and a financial necessity as well.  That was the building of our bridge.  Technically that was a Fall Project and I wrote about it with a solution as well.  
   
   That is one of those projects that we look at and appreciate each and every day. Sometimes begrudgingly because it took such a bite out of our pocketbook but always as a relief that it was a solution to what seemed to be an expensive problem that kept recurring.
6. One of the things we had planned and worked into the budget was to update our front door. The settling of the house over time, the wind damage to the storm door, the drying and damage of cracking the wood of the front door had really taken a toll and our entry door just needed some attention, especially since I had come to look at the front porch as an oasis during the hot summer days. So, we hired a handyman to do some odd jobs that we weren't confident at working on such as patching drywall and adding an electrical outlet to the back porch and adding a fan to the front porch oasis. 
   
   Then, we also had him replace the front entry door. That one project probably made the most difference in my appreciation of this home as my oasis, my sanctuary of anything we have done in a long time! I am just enamored with it and catch myself smiling as I walk by it or through it. It is beautiful and exactly as I saw it in my mind's eye when we first started saving money and talking about updating it!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. There were other pluses to being home and enjoying our blessings provided by living on this farm in a suburban area. The nature that we really had the opportunity to observe and enjoy is one of them. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Having a virtual courtside seat to every single one of our granddaughter's basketball games was another. I probably could not have attended each one in person due to my work schedule but having them live streamed meant that Mike and I could sit at my large computer monitor right here in our house and watch and I could yell and cheer to my heart's content with nobody bothered by it other than Toby and Mike! And trust me, there was lots of yelling and cheering going on!
   
8. I made time to do some things that I might not have otherwise. Instead of feeling tired at the end of the day and facing a long commute through traffic when I finished work early enough to have time outdoors, I actually wanted to get outside and do something. That is one reason I took on creating the wreaths for the fence at the driveway entry and why we often will just take a ride on the ATV just at dusk to enjoy our own holiday lights!
   
   
   
   
9. I also came to appreciate something that I've never really enjoyed a lot - shopping. Well, online shopping! I really do like ordering and having it delivered far better than I've ever liked trekking over store after store and searching for gifts, groceries, and items we needed. I realized just how much on the day that two delivery trucks were in our driveway at the same time!
   
   As I sat at my desk and worked, one delivery truck passed another bringing in the Christmas gifts I had ordered for the grandchildren and children. I just picked up my phone and snapped a picture through the window to document it! Then, another day, I saw a delivery guy bringing a big load of the items I'd ordered for family Christmas presents and felt a strong sense of appreciation for him and the fact that he was saving me lots of steps and from having to drag those things from store to truck to the house. It is far, far better to step out onto the front porch and simply bring the boxes into the house! With ten blessings as grandchildren who we would like to spoil and eight children and spouses, we feel bountiful and blessed in a great way!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   We truly are blessed to have the luxury of online order and delivery and the wherewithal to be able to take advantage of it and that fact never escapes us! We have made it a policy to tip well and let the delivery folks know verbally and, when asked by the delivery company, provide a good rating as well as offer them a treat if they would like it.
   
10. This year has been one where we watched with horror as other folks vandalized and looted in nearby Nashville and all over our country while others were peaceful in seeking fairness. We experienced shocking and ridiculous division in our government that is just unbelievable to fathom. We have been shocked, appalled, and disappointed when we hear or see family, friends, and acquaintances who have come to believe that it is alright to speak ill of others or put them down just because the other person's beliefs are different or actions and ideas are different from their own. When is it ever alright to call people names or put them down just because they are different? We were forced to learn new ways to do things such as teach students or learn to read and learn how to use technology for that so that others could be protected from the risks posed by a disease. We watched and made an effort to support neighbors who were struggling due to businesses closing or being overworked due to the effects of other people's illness from this horrible disease. Yet, all of these things really did open our eyes to lots of things and provided us with a reason and ways to grow and try to become better human beings. For that I am ever grateful and lift up thankfulness.

So, while 2020 has certainly been a very different year from others that we have lived and that I have written about here on this little blog, it really has had some positives.  I am grateful for each of those positives. I also look forward to sharing new joys and hopes and ideas with the few friends and family members who visit here and I thank you for your visits and for your encouragement!