The Ruby Anniversary

Pictures from my parents' 40th anniversary party last weekend~ many of these photos taken by a kind camera thief. 

 Thank you Ellen!

Gotta love the No Stabbings part

 

My beautiful sister in the kitchen.  She was the gal behind the beautiful wedding cake too!

There was entertainment too!  Quite a few songs sung or played on the piano... the children giving the best kind of gifts.

Singing Psalm 100 for my parents.  I love how Judah's hands are in his pockets and Adele is so nervous she is staring me down.

Cassandra singing LET IT GO.  

Mom sang to Dad too!

I had high hopes for getting a few formal group shots- and especially one of my whole family together- it so often doesn't happen!  But, alas...'twas not to be.  A few siblings had left at this point and we were all too beat (and the wind was too cold!) to do any 'formal' shots.

I love them.

Yarn Along

Hello!  I know you all were probably expecting anniversary pictures right about now but I couldn't bring myself to miss Ginny's Yarn Along this week...because I just began a project that I am SO excited about and pretty much in love with.

The anniversary party was a success- my parents were visibly thrilled at the efforts put forth and the great love of friends and family surrounding them on that day.  It was super cold but it didn't rain, the food was good and the decor was in place before everyone arrived.  Pretty much a great success.  I took very few pictures during the party- but a very sweet gal stole my sisters' camera and snapped away, leaving us with quite a few wonderful moments etched in photographic form.  I'll blog them soon...

In the meantime...

 I am SO EXCITED to show you my recent knitting project!

I have adored Fair Isle style knitting, using multiple colors within intricate patterns of knitting, since I first  laid eyes on it.  Yet, it is waaaaaaayyyyyyyy beyond anything I could ever muster.  I've never even used more than one color in a knitting project yet!

Well, I decided enough was enough.  It was time to pull the bull by the horns.  It was time to step out of my comfort zone and push myself into a learning a new knitting skill.  Essentially, this bonnet happened.

Look at this picture from Ravelry and tell me your heart doesn't stop beating for a minute:

Maybe it was the bonnet.  But then again, maybe it was the baby IN the bonnet.  Either way, I was a goner.

It seems like a great (and simpler) introduction to multi-color yarn work.  And, it being a baby bonnet, it won't be huge investment in time either.  I'll learn very quickly if I can hack it or not.   I don't have a knitting instructor anymore- my knitting group is breaking up for the summer- so I am on my own with this...but I figure, if I fail, I will fail in a rather small way and will fail rather quickly.

So far though, I am pretty confident I am NOT going to fail. (BIG surprise to me!)  It looks pretty wonderful and seems to be going rather smoothly.  In fact, I kinda LOVE working with more than one color!  Not only does it add interest to the end product, but it adds interest to the process as well.  I think I am properly addicted.

Just look at that!  THREE colors!  

As for reading- I am finishing up Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Ensolen.  What a great book.  It is written in a satirical tone, which took some getting used to- but the result is both wise/profound and snarky/humorous.

I borrowed the copy I am readying from the library and when Corynn saw it in the basket she said, rather dazed and confused..."Why would you want to destroy the imaginations of your children, Mama?"

A few favorite quotes from its' pages:

“Fairy tales and folk tales are for children and childlike people, not because they are little and inconsequential, but because they are as enormous as life itself.” 

"For in that deep quiet of the heat we hear things. We hear that the world as we know it is passing away. We are passing away. Yet the world is beautiful, and good is no illusion. Evil is the illusion; it is weak, a shadow, a parody of good, a specter."

"If we loved children, we would have a few.  If we had them, we would want them as children, and would love the wonder with which they behold the world, and would hope that some of it might open our own eyes a little.  We would love their games and would want to play them once in a while, stirring in ourselves those memories of play that no one regrets, and that are almost the only things an old man can look back on with complete satisfaction.  We would want children tagging along after us, or if not, then only because we would understand that they had better things to do."

40th Anniversary Sneak Peek...aka...What Has Been Filling My Days...aka...MOM DON'T LOOK!

      40 years ago, under turbulent circumstances, my parents were married.  On that day, Mom, adorned in a pink and yellow gingham dress (which she has always loathed) and without even a bouquet to mark the occasion and Dad, in a blue suit, handed over a $10 bill to a Methodist minister and were married.  They had no friends or family present, the ministers' wife stood as a witness.  It wasn't the ideal situation and certainly not the most beautiful start to their marriage but the Lord has profoundly blessed their marriage since that day.  And a blessed and committed marriage is by far more beautiful and worthwhile than any one day that begins it.

     40 years of marriage doesn't happen all that often these days, to our generations' great sorrow and shame, so when it does, there should be great rejoicing!  We wanted to celebrate my parents' anniversary and their commitment to one another these 40 years but my sister and I longed to also be able to  replace some of the sad memories of that day with the joys of a proper wedding celebration.



    My sister Elizabeth and I are working together on it.  Elizabeth has taken charge of the feeding of nearly 100 people (no small feat) and the making of the 'wedding cake' and I am in charge of the decorating and details.



      I made the invites using a photo snapped on their wedding day and a photo snapped a few weeks ago. They age gracefully, don't they?  I just love seeing the younger them and the present day them set alongside one another.   I wonder if that young couple ever wondered where they would be 40 years from now...would they have expected all that came?

      One thing I was certain needed to be part of this reception was an abundance of flowers.  The woman who is sure to have at least three vases of fresh flowers every week in her home (one in the kitchen, one in the dining room and one, usually on the coffee table in the living room...now you know where my love of flowers comes from) and whose home and porch is always full of abundant and gorgeous house plants and hanging baskets was married without even a small bouquet of flowers.

Unfortunately for me, their anniversary isn't in the summer.  In that case, I could have had ample flowers at the ready from my own gardens.  Instead, I had to go flower shopping.

A friend and I went to Weis and the flowers were half dead.  Wegmans flowers were beautiful but pretty expensive and the only greenery they had were ferns- 2 ferns for $2.00.  (what?!?  SO not happening.) 

We heard Sam's Club has pretty flowers...but neither of us have a membership.  We went in anyway "just to see..." and sure enough, the prices were right, the flowers were beautiful...and we couldn't buy them.  I ended up asking a stranger if she might be willing to let me use her Sam's club card to buy the flowers.  (I have used my Mom's before and this is commonly done with friends and family.  Probably more rarely with strangers. hehehe)  I gave her the whole story about what the flowers were for.  She too was celebrating her 40th anniversary this year.  Like my parents, she and her husband had adopted a child.  Needless to say, she was the perfect person to ask!  I paid for the flowers and bought her a bouquet in thanks, and left with more flowers than I had anticipated being able to afford.  

I was very excited.

All greened up and ready for flowers.  I used cups and dishes I already had for the containers.

My friend Jeanette, who is a floral arranger on the side, came and gave me a few lessons on flower arranging (and taught me the joys of OASIS-the green foam stuff-) and helped me along.  We spent the afternoon arranging flowers....is there anything better one can do on a dreary, rainy April day than play with flowers for hours?

She is a master.  You can certainly tell which ones were done by her and which were done by me!  ;-)

Since Mom and Dad have no wedding photos other than the one on the invitation, and we have no current whole family photos, we are using this opportunity to get some good family photos! 

 Elizabeth and I suggested we stick with a color theme to make the photos coordinate somewhat.  Mom chose the theme of pinks, creams, burgundy and silver.  

Andrew would grab discarded stalks and leaves to make pretty cool jungles while we worked.

It has been an eye-opening experience to crack open drawers and cupboards to find enough junk to furnish an entire reception almost single-handedly.  I have so many tablecloths it is ridiculous.   I had no problem finding containers for flowers...we could have filled quite a few more in fact.  I have been gathering up christmas lights, piles of doilies- all that have their own spaces in drawers and cupboards- and being astonished at the amount of STUFF I have.

I ransacked my doilies and spent an hour or so starching and ironing.  It was surprisingly pleasant work, stretching out the intricate stitches and giving them the notice they deserve.  I do wonder if my obsession with handiwork is going too far at this point.

It poses the question- is it still TOO MUCH stuff even when put tidily away in its' proper places?  I think yes.  Although, in this case, the too much stuff has come in quite handy.  

I think I should wait to pose the philosophical questions until AFTER the party.  ;-)

Soap for favors- it smells wonderful with Red Clover Tea scent and such a lovely creamy color.

Several weeks ago, I made 70+ bars of soap using that soap recipe I told you about.  For those of you who asked about it- I have not forgotten, I've just not found the time to post it.  Give me another week, would you please?

Next on the agenda- wrapping those bars up with fabric and twine.

And about a million other little things... not the least of which is giving haircuts to the Misters of this household, big and little.  The poor things- they look like woodchucks.

I am pretty sure there is a no woodchuck policy at the reception.  ;-)

Eastering

 

I have only pictures of leftovers after our Easter celebration!  We had several extra people and so I spent the time immediately after church and before guests arrived preparing the food and getting the house ready.  By the time I had all the food arranged on the island and everything picture perfect, people had arrived and gone straight to the snacking before dinner portion.  Then, everyone stuffed their bellies with good food and were too full for my homemade cheesecake.  Either that, or it was secretly disgusting.  The worst travesty was that most of that cheesecake went to our chickens-either that or it would wind up on my hips.  Mental note- next year for dessert I will make angel food cake.

Would you believe it snowed on Easter?  SO DEPRESSING.  The great egg hunt possibilities were not able to be spread out among the many great hiding spots in our yard but rather confined to just our living room.  Hiding five dozen eggs (a dozen per child) in one room is...interesting, let's just say.  I got no pictures of us in our Easter duds but no matter- we'll be wearing the same things next weekend at the party for my parents' anniversary.  I hope to get a picture then.  Not that I made any of the clothing this year as I like to do- no, I actually bought new stuff for the most part.  Salvation Army new, that is, or from the clearance rack at Burlington Coat Factory...but new to us, just the same.

It seems like every year the children have worn out their church shoes terribly by this time, so they always manage to get new church shoes for the coming year at Easter.  Everyone felt particularly spiffy in their new, sotrebought duds.

After our guests had left and I was cleaning up, I mentally moved Easter from the To Do to the Done With list.  I hate that it was something I was happy to see done with but this past month has been extremely busy with all extra stuff, leaving not very much time even to do the ordinary, every day things I must do.  We haven't had a fabulously productive, get everything done on our list day of schooling in over two weeks.  The upstairs office is unrecognizable.  It's so bad, apparently, that a cleaning lady left a message on my answering machine last week saying that my mother and father in law had suggested I may need her services!  Ha! Now that is a sign, if ever there was one.

Only one more event on the calendar to get through and then, I hope things will begin to return to our own, comfortable, every day normal.

My parents' anniversary reception on Saturday!

This week is filled right up with preparations and prettyness and little details.  I'll show you some sneak peeks tomorrow!   The closer we get to it, the more excited I become.