Rain Rain

The sun did not shine

It was too wet to play

So we sat in the house

All that cold, cold wet day.

All we could do was to

Sit Sit Sit Sit!

And we did not like it.

Not one little bit.

(words stolen from Dr. Suess' The Cat in the Hat)

Make your own Bunny Nuggets by grabbing Rebecca Dangers free pattern over here.  They are so stinking cute and check out Rebecca's not-so-free patterns while you're visiting.  She makes the most adorable creatures ever!

I Am From Hammer and Nails

I am from hammer and nails, from Avon and fishing poles.

I am from the cool feel of the big stone porch on a hot summer day

Where the sound of laughter and the clink of dishes

Makes you know that you are safe.

I am from brick.

I am from the pines tree's and the aspen whispering

in the soft mountain wind,

from the purple lilac's and buzzing bee's.

I am from the wild onions that leave their taste

in the fresh cow's milk.

I am from 4th of July sparklers,

strong women,

lumber yards

and crackling fires.

I am from the love of Rolin and Leoma,

the strength of Toot and Shirley,

and the storms of Tommy and Janice.

I am from shallow pockets and deep love.

From "This too shall pass"

and

"Rise and shine in the early morning".

I am from Vacation Bible School with the smell of glue

and Mom next door teaching a class.

From cherry tree's and hot August days at the county fair.

I am from Cricket Flat and Denmark,

Alaska and England.

From pumpkin pie and biscuits.

From the young man who drowned in the Grande Ronde River,

the Grandmother who tossed the Christmas tree out the window

and from the woman who longed to be a writer.

I am from a dusty cardboard box in the attic,

letters under the bed,

and from diaries lost long ago.

I am from the carpenter and the country girl.

~Paula Sannar Niziolek

May 2008

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(This is a re-post from a poem that I wrote back in 2008.  It's been on my mind a lot lately for some reason and I wanted to share it again.  This poem was written using a format that gave a loose guideline of which part of your memories to search for each section of the poem.  You can write your own "Where I'm From" poem by following the link here.  I would love to read a poem about the people and places that made you who you are today.)

Easter Basket Swap

My Easter Basket Swap package arrived last Thursday from Mary Lea of Mumsie's Musings and oh boy! Did she ever spoil me!  Just look at all this wonderful Easter time goodness!  I absolutely love it all, but the one thing that really touched my heart is the picture Mary Lea took from my blog of my Grandma.  She printed the picture and put it in a beautiful silver frame.  What an incredibly thoughtful gift to include! 

Grandma's picture has already found her way to my desk at work~

I just had to show you the giant box all this goodness came in.  Wow!  And it was stuffed to the brim.  What a spoiled brat I am!

Mary Lea made this super sweet fabric basket and I'm pretty sure that these cute bunny buttons are made of Shrinky Dinks.  I LOVE it! 

Isn't this wreath one of the cutest things you've ever seen?  Adorable!  The wreath is wrapped in brown paper and the flowers and bunny are all fabric.  SEW darn cute!  Mary Lea really went all out with the handmade goodness she included. 

Here is the wreath, hanging on our front door and bringing springtime cheer to the front porch.  Makes me smile everytime I walk through the front door!

Easter napkins and plates for our picnic, candies, tea, a handmade card, a fun Busy Woman's cookbook,  a lemon pound cake candle, the cutest every chick and easter egg salt and pepper shakers, bright fun easter socks, a hopping little fuzzy chick, wooden tulips among so many other things.  When I say that Mary Lea completely spoiled me, I mean it! 

Thank you so much, Mary Lea.  I cannot tell you enough how much I love this wonderful package you spent so much time putting together for me! 

Hoppy Easter!

 

Welcome to the World, Mazzy Kaye

Sweet little Mazzy Kaye joined the world this weekend.  Our family was so happy to welcome her and meet our newest grandbaby and very first grandaughter.  At 7 lbs. and 9 oz., she's a chubby little thing who looks very much like her Mama did as a newborn.  It took long hours of labor and then a c-section in the end for her to get here, but get here she did and we are all just tickled pink.  Mommy and baby are both doing well.

Mazzy's Papa already adores her and is thinking up all kinds of ways to spoil her!  Her big brother thinks she is the prettiest baby ever and can't wait until his Mommy, Daddy and baby sister are home from the hospital so that he can go home and play with them.  Noah is already the best big brother that little Mazzy could ask for!

Welcome Mazzy.  Our family is so blessed by your presence!

Turn the Page....Tuesday

It's once again time for Turn the Page...Tuesday hosted by the fabulous fantastic Adrienne at Some of a Kind.

My first choice this month is a book that my sister, Stacey, sent to me and one I have seen some great reviews on and really wanted to read.  Thank you, Stacey, for passing this one on to me.  It was wonderful!

'Old Henry Lee stood transfixed by all the commotion at the Panama Hotel.  What had started as a crowd of curious onlookers eyeballing a television news crew had now swollen into a polite mob of shoppers, tourists, and a few punk-looking street kids,  all wondering what the big deal was.  In the middle of the crowd stood Henry, shopping bags hanging at his side.  He felt as if he were waking from a long forgotten dream.  A dream he'd once had as a little boy.'

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is one of those exceptional novels that, once read, will stay with you forever.  A powerful story of young love lost but never forgotten;  of lives torn apart by war.  So much has been written about WW II, but so little about the Japanese Relocation Camps right here in our very own country. 

Living in Cody, Wyoming for many years, I drove by the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp between Cody and Powell so many times that it became just a part of the landscape.  But take a moment, pull off the highway and up the hill to those old buildings.  Get out of your car, walk quietly and peek into the long, low-lying rooms.  Listen and you will swear that the long gone voices of the residents of this remote camp in the high desert still echo throughout those concrete walls.  It's haunting - heartbreaking to think what was done to Japanese Americans right here in our own, their own, country. 

Mr. Ford's novel is about so much;  the issue's between a father and son, the rivalry and cruelty of young kids, a country tearing itself apart during war-time.  We experience Seattle's China and Japantowns during the 1940's and touch on the vibrant Jazz scene there before moving into the Seattle of the 1980's.  In this book, I connected and fell in love with so many of the characters -  Henry, Keiko, Sheldon and yes, even Mrs. Beatty - that I was not at all ready to let them go when I turned the last page.  Like dear old friends that you miss when they go back home. 

I do believe that more of Jamie Ford's work will find it's way to my shelves.  And soon.

This year, Adrienne challenged each of us to read books that have been languishing, unread, on our shelves.  I am trying to do that each month, so for March I picked Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery.   Now, I love the Anne of Green Gables series and had heard that the Emily series was somewhat autobiographical about the author, so when I found "Emily" at out local thrift store awhile back, I brought her home.   I started reading right at the beginning of March, but it took me nearly the whole month to turn the last page.  Not because I didn't enjoy the story, I did;  but with so much going on in our lives this month, I found it particularly hard to read this book.  L.M. Montgomery had a very flowery and very descriptive writing style and I think you have to be in the right frame of mind to read her.  I just kept falling asleep everytime I would pick the book up, but I did enjoy meeting Emily and the story was sweet, innocent and fun.  I will pick up "Emily Climbs" sometime and add it to my reading stack, for a nice lazy summer day, methinks. 

From the back cover:

In this sensitive, heart-warming story we meet Emily Starr for the first time.  Spirited, irrepressible Emily, left an orphan when her father dies, finds she is really not alone.  An unexpected world of family and friends is waiting for her at New Moon Farm.  There Cousin Jimmy encourages her emerging talent for writing, stern Aunt Elizabeth teaches her a surprising lesson in growing up, and Emily's own special way of understanding solves a mystery that gives a lonely man the chance to love again.

Pop over to Some of a Kind to see what others are reading, and join in the fun if it suits you!

Where has your reading taken you this last month?

"It's Spring Fever...

You don't quite now what it is

you do want,

but it fairly makes your

heart ache,

you want it so!"

~Mark Twain

I have it and bad.  That hint of spring is in the breeze, the birds are singing, fluttering around the yard, my hands ache to dig into rich, fertile soil, coaxing those sweet green buds from their winter slumber.

Do you have it?  Is your heart aching for spring?

May you all be blessed with daffodils~