Noting the Numbers
After doing some rearranging on the bookcase beside my bed, I counted the books I have on the general subject of plants--food gardening, flower gardening, and landscaping. I have 71 of them. I bought many of them through a book club, and some of them came from the used book fundraiser shop located in the public library in Hutchinson.
In the architecture/interior decorating category I counted 28 books. The bookcase also contains books related to health and wellness and personal growth/spiritual emphasis. I didn't count them.
The dining room bookcase holds my collection of field guides--on birds, fish, mushrooms, insects, trees, wildflowers, and grasses. One additional book contains sections for the above categories, but also amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.
*****************
On Saturday I turned 60. Our sons and their wives staged a stellar celebration last night. Grant and Clarissa were the hosts (They live in our Trail West house.) and every family helped provide the light Sun. eve. meal. Everything was beautiful and tasty--tortilla chips (blue and regular) with a chili-cheese dip, a salad on a platter, with colors and flavors and textures to delight the eyes as well as the palate, a fresh fruit bouquet made with fruit on skewers, with the vase positioned on a platter with more fruit, a soda-grape juice drink, a flower-spangled cake made by Clarissa, with a huckleberry surprise inside--made with huckleberries harvested in the wild in Washington and brought to Kansas by Clarissa, and ice cream. My daughter-in-laws' creativity amazes and blesses me. Before they joined the family, this family got only as creative as making cutout cakes for children, but the one Clarissa made had lovely lavender roses and leafy vines and small blue and yellow flowers. The purple huckleberries and the grape drink served in a pretty punch bowl were even color coordinated with the most prominent decorations on the cake. See a picture of the table here.
Best of all was the gift everyone collaborated on. It was a handmade book with the title 60 Things. All six of the boys and their wives each contributed 10 items--either memories, inspirational quotes, or affirmations and blessings. They collected the pages each of them had made into a booklet held together with rings. The pages themselves were very decorative. I think Dorcas may have engineered that project. I knew good things must be in store when the ladies cloistered themselves in the bedroom right after they got there last night, and before long there was lots of giggling, with no explanation offered at the time. I'm still absorbing all the kind words and the inspiration.
Lots of good conversation, walking around outside where everything used to be ever-so-familiar, and still is, except for the ways time has changed things and Grant and Clarissa have improved the place--playing with Tristan, talking about baby names--so many good things are part of being together. Joel and Hilda also gave me a large platter adorned with a perky rooster. (No one even groaned about an addition to my "pretty chickens" collection.) Some day they will want to claim the huge turkey platter Joel made in ceramics class in 4H, so they knew I would need a replacement.
*****************
Lowell and Judy's family received the sad news Saturday morning that Jonathan Miller (33) died in his sleep in Nicaragua. He was married to Judy's niece Jessica, who is only 26, Pablo and Eunice's daughter. They have three daughters and another child on the way. Jonathan was a pastor in the Waslala church. The burial took place on Sunday.
Just before we prayed for them in church yesterday morning, Lowell read a poignant paragraph from an email from Jessica, which they had received about a week ago. In it, she conveyed a conversation she had with one of her daughters, who noted how much Jessica was missing Jonathan recently when he had gone to the US briefly. "We ought to be thankful we have a daddy," was the gist of the child's positive-thinking effort to cheer up her mother.
I understand that the Spanish class from Pilgrim visited in this family's home when they took their class trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 2011. Timo Miller, who has been in the news a lot during the past year, was Jonathan's brother.
I think of this family often and pray for them.
******************
My nephew Hans posted a Facebook picture of the people from our church. I'm still trying to figure out if a certain white-haired lady on the picture is really me. I wish I had found Hiromi in time to stand with him, but I think he's way over at the right side of the picture. Hans took the picture by standing on a step ladder and raising his camera (fastened to a folded up tripod) high over his head. I think it's the first time anyone tried to take a picture of all of us at once. See the picture here.
In the architecture/interior decorating category I counted 28 books. The bookcase also contains books related to health and wellness and personal growth/spiritual emphasis. I didn't count them.
The dining room bookcase holds my collection of field guides--on birds, fish, mushrooms, insects, trees, wildflowers, and grasses. One additional book contains sections for the above categories, but also amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.
*****************
On Saturday I turned 60. Our sons and their wives staged a stellar celebration last night. Grant and Clarissa were the hosts (They live in our Trail West house.) and every family helped provide the light Sun. eve. meal. Everything was beautiful and tasty--tortilla chips (blue and regular) with a chili-cheese dip, a salad on a platter, with colors and flavors and textures to delight the eyes as well as the palate, a fresh fruit bouquet made with fruit on skewers, with the vase positioned on a platter with more fruit, a soda-grape juice drink, a flower-spangled cake made by Clarissa, with a huckleberry surprise inside--made with huckleberries harvested in the wild in Washington and brought to Kansas by Clarissa, and ice cream. My daughter-in-laws' creativity amazes and blesses me. Before they joined the family, this family got only as creative as making cutout cakes for children, but the one Clarissa made had lovely lavender roses and leafy vines and small blue and yellow flowers. The purple huckleberries and the grape drink served in a pretty punch bowl were even color coordinated with the most prominent decorations on the cake. See a picture of the table here.
Best of all was the gift everyone collaborated on. It was a handmade book with the title 60 Things. All six of the boys and their wives each contributed 10 items--either memories, inspirational quotes, or affirmations and blessings. They collected the pages each of them had made into a booklet held together with rings. The pages themselves were very decorative. I think Dorcas may have engineered that project. I knew good things must be in store when the ladies cloistered themselves in the bedroom right after they got there last night, and before long there was lots of giggling, with no explanation offered at the time. I'm still absorbing all the kind words and the inspiration.
Lots of good conversation, walking around outside where everything used to be ever-so-familiar, and still is, except for the ways time has changed things and Grant and Clarissa have improved the place--playing with Tristan, talking about baby names--so many good things are part of being together. Joel and Hilda also gave me a large platter adorned with a perky rooster. (No one even groaned about an addition to my "pretty chickens" collection.) Some day they will want to claim the huge turkey platter Joel made in ceramics class in 4H, so they knew I would need a replacement.
*****************
Lowell and Judy's family received the sad news Saturday morning that Jonathan Miller (33) died in his sleep in Nicaragua. He was married to Judy's niece Jessica, who is only 26, Pablo and Eunice's daughter. They have three daughters and another child on the way. Jonathan was a pastor in the Waslala church. The burial took place on Sunday.
Just before we prayed for them in church yesterday morning, Lowell read a poignant paragraph from an email from Jessica, which they had received about a week ago. In it, she conveyed a conversation she had with one of her daughters, who noted how much Jessica was missing Jonathan recently when he had gone to the US briefly. "We ought to be thankful we have a daddy," was the gist of the child's positive-thinking effort to cheer up her mother.
I understand that the Spanish class from Pilgrim visited in this family's home when they took their class trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 2011. Timo Miller, who has been in the news a lot during the past year, was Jonathan's brother.
I think of this family often and pray for them.
******************
My nephew Hans posted a Facebook picture of the people from our church. I'm still trying to figure out if a certain white-haired lady on the picture is really me. I wish I had found Hiromi in time to stand with him, but I think he's way over at the right side of the picture. Hans took the picture by standing on a step ladder and raising his camera (fastened to a folded up tripod) high over his head. I think it's the first time anyone tried to take a picture of all of us at once. See the picture here.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
4:15 PM
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