Yesterday afternoon a friend of the family came by for a visit. She’s the head librarian of one of the high schools in the area. She’s also brilliant, interesting and highly creative. She had some things she wanted to share with the kids. The topic of the day’s study?

Salt

The history of salt in Michigan.

Yes, I said salt.

All I can say is – here is truly a kindred spirit. Barb may work for the public school system but she is obviously a homeschooler at heart. Who else would come over with books, websites, three different samples and a passion for such an obscure subject matter?

Salt anyone?

Rachel and Daniel were attentive students of our impromptu salt study. David and Sarah joined us for the salt sampling. We looked at maps of Michigan, traced the Niagara escarpment, and talked about salt mining in Michigan. Fascinating.

Rachel and Daniel pose with all of their salt study materials.

Later the conversation moved to parenting, family and the book of Job, among other things. The children had long since abandoned us. I guess salt is more interesting than listening to grownups reminsce even if it is accompanied by amusing tales and wise advice. I couldn’t help but reflect on the richness of spending time with friends who have been in your life for years and years.

Memories, stories, laughter and tears all wrapped up in the history of a friendship.

And in the end, of course, there’s always salt. As the scriptures say,

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 281

Share or follow

Related posts:

I understand that Kathy and the kids are a bit off the beaten track at the ‘cabin’ where they are staying in upstate Michigan. Nestled in the forest on the coast of Lake Michigan, they are comfortably ensconced in a glorious cedar log home that sleeps 23 people (as long as they’re reasonably friendly). Kathy says she’ll get some pictures uploaded, but until then, you’ll have to do with my feeble attempts to describe what they are experiencing.

Apparently it is quite the family gathering, with aunts and uncles assembling from near and far to honor Phil and his new bride, Emily, as they marry tomorrow.

For me, work rages on, as the quarter comes to an end — happily, my boss lets me work from home much of the time, especially when we are in ‘crunch time’. I have one major project I’d really like to finish before the end of the quarter, so that I can get a good quarterly rating (and a good bonus).

More details will follow as they become available. Kathy apologizes to her faithful readers for the recent lapse in blogging reliability.

Share or follow

Related posts:

The problem with visiting family who also happen to read your blog is that they begin to discover your secrets. There you were, happily blogging along, 1000 or so miles away. No one (except your dh and children – hard to get rid of that bunch) knew whether you blog early in the morning (::snort::) or late at night or perhaps, oh I don’t know, let’s say the wee hours of the morning. Readers were ignorant of how many pictures it took to get “just the right shot.” They didn’t know about posing or staging or even the glories of Photoshop Elements. Not that I would ever edit my photos. Much. I don’t even have Photoshop (yet).

Now when I casually walk outside with my camera in hand, the blog is the first thing people mention (or shout). As if a mother wouldn’t want to take a picture of her sweet darlings just because she can. I mean, look at this group.

This is Joshua’s water balloon crew for VBS.

“Oh, it’s your mother, getting ready for a blog,” my dad said this afternoon when I went outside to capture the water balloon team in action.

Harrumph! I’ll show them. I won’t post the other 8 (totally funny and cute) pictures of them filling up balloons. People will just have to wonder who was in charge, who tied up the balloons, who carried them back and forth between the hose and the bucket. It’s won’t end up in a blog, no sir.

Later in the day my brother Thom and his wife, Jenn (one of those beloved sisters-in-law I mentioned the other day who is WAY better than a kitten) came over for dinner. I casually decided to take a few pictures like this one:

Uncle Thom and Aunt Jenn

What does the aforementioned sister say, “It’s a blog in action. We’re creating a blog moment.”

Seriously people, I get no blogging respect.

How is an innocent little blogger supposed to handle such harassment? Oh, yes, by by taking lots of pictures and posting them mercilessly. What was I thinking?

I usually just blame it on the relentless pace of the Project 365. Then I do my best to ignore Tim who repeatedly tells me I only committed to taking one, a single picture, each day and I could stop at any time.

If you had such a good looking family, would you stop with just one picture?

Plus, I have an obligation to the rest of the family who are still far away and waiting with bated breath for blogs and pictures. Well, I can dream can’t I?

More family arrives this weekend. No doubt they’ll be prying into my blogging ways as well. Soon they’ll be no mystery left at all.

Get your own blog, I tell them. Or I would tell them if I wasn’t too busy trying to sneak my camera into the scene and then getting everyone to smile pretty. Sometimes I even manage to work myself into the picture.

Happy Father’s Day!!!

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 168

Share or follow

Related posts:

This weekend my parents celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary! Wow!! Four decades together, four children, eight grandchildren (so far), years of ministry and faithful service to the Lord. Many, many lives touched. And God chose to place me in this family. Grace. A gift. A rich Christian heritage. Undeserved. Treasured.

Sarah and Grandad snuggle after dinner.

What better way to celebrate 41 years together than with the purchase of a new computer. Being married to a computer geek myself (albeit a totally cool one) I know without a shadow of a doubt that a computer is the ultimate gift. It speaks care and love and thoughtfulness. It says I want you to have fun (movies, games, blogging, digital camera wizardry). I want you to be connected to friends and family (e-mail, Skype, more blogging). I want you to be able to work efficiently and easily (Excel spreadsheets, Publisher newsletters or brochures, Word documents, blogging – really for me it’s all about the blogging these days). I want you to have room for plenty of pictures and music.

Obviously a computer is the ideal gift for any occasion. So Tim and I were eager to help Dad pick out a new computer for Mom. Isn’t hardware the gift for the 41st year?? Tim did the research and put together a great package, even timing the delivery just perfectly. The only problem is that the UPS guy didn’t drop Tim off as well. As much as I love my computer(s) and can find my way around things proficiently enough, I am NOT a computer geek. That’s pretty much why I married Tim, so I would have a live in computer techie guy.

I won’t embarrass myself by revealing how many times I’ve called Tim in the past two days, trying to work out the details of the new computer and high speed internet. This morning, when I asked him how to put the new computer together (“Where do I start? What do I do??? Why are there so many cables?”) he blithely said, “Let Daniel do it. He’s done it lots of times.”

Um. Daniel is 10. Is this a sign of the times? I help my parents get a new computer but I need my child to help put it together? Look how the generations care for each other. Maybe while he’s at it Daniel can program the DVD player.

Daniel was wandering a bit aimlessly around the house at the time of Mom’s Great Computer Assembly of ’07. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to hit David WITH the ping pong ball or play ping pong WITH him. It’s a tough choice and both options offer tremendous entertainment possibilities. He abandoned both at my cry for computer assistance.

The next thing I knew he was opening up boxes, pulling out cables, making space on the bed and lining up everything neatly. He grabbed the basic instructions and started connecting cables before I could say, “Now is there a red and blue wire on computers?”

I guess Tim was right. Maybe I have more than one computer geek living in the house. That might be more than my fair share.

The computer worked beautifully. The high speed internet, however, was another story. When I made the arrangements with Comcast, I didn’t think to request a wireless modem. Tim (leave it to Computer Geek #1) suggested I go with that approach but not until AFTER I had already scheduled an installation date. Of course, the Comcast dude (dude seems to fit) didn’t have that kind of set up in his truck. Right, we wouldn’t want to make things easy. He was very helpful and patient with my dithering (should we reschedule? Should we go with the basic cable and have Tim figure out a wireless solution later? Where is the nearest Starbucks when you need it?). Tim, the rascal, was on a conference call (trying to get some work done of his own between my calls, the nerve) and couldn’t be reached. Mom and I made an executive decision to reschedule.

Wouldn’t you know it, they don’t have any more installation dates available until next week.
Tuesday. So much for having high speed internet this weekend. Yes, I’m blogging on dial-up here. Does that make me quaint or pathetic (please don’t answer that)? Hey, we have a tree house, creek and lots of mud, you can’t have everything.

Well, at least not until Tuesday.

This left me in a bit of a computer installation dilemma. I had a beautiful new computer with a gorgeous monitor, wireless keyboard and monitor ready to go but no internet. Since e-mail is very important to my mom (our family writes nearly every day, maybe more than that), this was not acceptable.

By this time Daniel had abandoned me. His technical services were obviously no longer in demand. I’m pretty sure he went to find David and some ping pong balls. In his absence, I came up with a great solution (I might have a little bit of computer geek in me after all). I decided to hook up the new accessories (monitor, keyboard and mouse) to the old computer. Now Mom can still connect with friends and family and play that occasional game of Solitaire (gotta do something while the dial-up connects and SLOWLY gathers mail), but she’ll do it all in the luxury of her settings.

Whew! Not quite the hero but close.

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 166

Share or follow

Related posts: