My Blooming Dandelions

I subscribe to a weekly newsletter from HouseofOrder.com (it's in my favorite links). Today there was a very nice message about gratitude so I thought that I would include it here today, the day before Thanksgiving.

Dear House of Order Friends:

I had to wait by the side of the highway for several minutes yesterday to catch a ride. . . And there, at my feet, was a dandelion, a bright, yellow, smiling (or so it seemed to me) dandelion. Autumn has lingered longer than usual where I live and that little dandelion was growing so close to the ground because there has been no time for a long stem and while the sun is warm during the days, the frost chills to the bone every night. I wondered as I waited and realized I’m usually too much in a hurry to notice much about my surroundings.

Are there other dandelions still in my yard? Are the solitary bees still out and about in my garden? Are there imprints of fallen leaves on my sidewalks from last week’s rain? Usually I do not know because I do not see. I’m just in such a hurry.

Go here, be there. “Run, quickly now, or we will be late” is the mode of my life. But yesterday’s dandelion said to me, “Slow down, Marie. I’m blooming right here at your feet to help you remember that being in a hurry and being grateful cannot co-exist. You must stop, or at least slow down a bit, to see and hear and feel gratitude. It is impossible to appreciate while moving too fast through life, space, and time. Be still…”

So this Thursday, in the midst of fixing meals for my family, watching football, and hugging people I love, cleaning up from the meals, and putting leftovers in the frig, I am going to look for “blooming dandelions” in my life.

After reading it this morning I came up with a very short list of some of my own blooming dandelions.

1) Crayons (I have a collection of pictures that my children have drawn from me that are sitting at my computer.)
2) A new toilet paper holder (long story)
3) The building Inspector (He is looking over our basement as I type this, which means it's getting closer!)
4) Piano music
5) The Internet - especially email.
6) Books!!
7) Sunshine in the window
8) Our fenced in backyard
9) 2x4's (The kids have been making lots of fun things with the pieces the framers left.)
10) The garage door (When I hear it going up it means that Dennis is home.)

Grandma Crowther

November 8, 1923 - November 15, 2008


I've been thinking about Grandma Crowther a lot lately so I thought I should write something about her here.

Grandma always had the best homemade cookies, always made homemade gifts for Christmas and birthdays. She gave me my first journal. She never forgot a birthday and even made birthday cards. There was so much more to her but Grandma was the best!
Over the past 11 years or so she has become more than that to me. She has become a friend! I had the opportunity to live with grandma for around 8 months after I came home from my mission while I was working in Salt Lake. Especially now, I really treasure that time I had with her. ( I remember I ate egg plant and artichoke for the first time with her. It may have been a first for her but I can't remember.) She always stalked her fridge with the things that she knew I liked. (Canned ham, cheese and bagel sandwiches for one.) We even had family prayers together at night. I started dating Dennis during the time I was living with her. She met him even before my parents did. I remember on Valentines day Dennis told me that he wouldn't be able to come down (from Ogden) because he had so much school work. I accepted his excuse and was about to drown my sorrows in a little shopping. I talked my plans over with grandma and she said, why don't you just stick around here tonight. Grandma never asked much of me and so I agreed. It wasn't too long before there was a knock at the door and a tall good looking guy with a dozen roses stood there. Dennis wanted to surprise me and so he and Grandma plotted together. It was truly one of the few times I have ever really been surprised!

My relationship with grandma was one with no regrets. I am so grateful for the time I had to be with her. I got to talk to her on the phone a couple days before she passed away. I'm grateful my children had what time they had with "Grandma Great". We all enjoyed stopping by for visits, playing in the backyard, the candy dish on the living room table and the cookie jar. Monthly dinners on Sunday together and playing Mexican train or other card games.

Grandma, I love you so much and will miss spending time with you. You have always been there for me. Thank you so much for the Legacy you have left in place and especially for your testimony.

Finishing our Basement

Our building materials arrived yesterday. We've taken on the task of finishing our basement. For the past 2 weeks or so we have been "moving out" of our basement. It's been a big storage area since we moved in as well as TV room and kids play area. So now most of it is in boxes and in our garage. I'm so excited to have the extra room. The boys will be moving down there so maybe I'll have my own little work room upstairs. I'll finally have a place to put all our schools stuff as well as my craft projects. Downstairs we're adding on 2 bedrooms, a large family room a full bath and laundry room.

Also included in our floor plans is a wood burning fireplace. This was my request. Mostly I want it for a back up heat source, but I'll admit I can't get over the image of wrapping up in a blanket, sipping hot cocoa and reading a book next to it. Last Christmas I was talking to Dennis about it and he made me one. . . out of butcher paper! Isn't he amazing!
We even hung our stockings from it last year. It's going up again this year in our living room because I just love it! The new one will be nice also, but it won't be in by Christmas, which is fine because I have this one.

It's Started

Well we did it. We started practicing Christmas songs this week. My dad would be extremely disappointed, since we weren't allowed to mention Christmas until after Thanksgiving, and I'm actually surprising myself this year since I'm usually the one vetoing the Carols until then. For some reason I just caught the bug early this year. Maybe because it hasn't been pushed on me through the radio or in the stores yet and least not so much that it's started to really annoy, it's just been a personal choice. It has been so much fun. Dennis and I have been asked to play some prelude music at the city Christmas Party and I want to get ready for that. We dug out the Christmas books and have been going through them. Jacob even got in on the action and started playing a few songs with Dennis tonight. What fun! Welcome Holidays!!!

Halloween Collage

We sure had a lot of activities this October! The month kind of got away from me.

The kids all enjoyed the annual City Carnival with games, 2 large blowup slides and a blow up bouncer. Afton got her face painted and they all played lots of fun games and even won a couple gift certificates for ice skating.
Then we had had our friends of Scouting fundraiser & dinner. Jacob made a pirate ship cake for the auction, so with a lot of help from dad they got that finished so he could earn some money for scouts.
We also got together last week for a party with the about 14 of my cousins' kids. They played pass the pumpkin, ghost search & mummy wrap, they made spiders on a web and even broke open a pinata.
Halloween Night was also very enjoyable. This year instead of manning the house and passing out the treats I gave our stash to our neighbor who passed it out for us and went with Dennis and the kids out Trick-or-Treating. Isaac wanted to visit his primary teacher so we walked the 6 blocks to her house. The kids were so tired at that point they just wanted to get home and have dinner. We had our traditional chili and cornbread with apple cider. Dennis and I watched the newest version of the Hulk as part of our Halloween movie tradition. (It is 10x's better that the previous version!) What a full month we've had! Welcome November!