A Patio With a View

Views from our patio on a pleasant Texas Sunday evening:

Looking toward the pond, which is drying up early this year.

 

Bunnies enjoying the porch:

Jackson doesn't think the patio is safe!

Jackson and Cleo!

Cleo!

The Musical Accompaniment: 

Bailey

Dean built our patio several years ago. The back of our houses faces West so we are glad to have the covered patio for shade!

Armadillo!

 Happy Texas Summer!

No More Dead Rats

My mother, Frances Cypert, on the far right.

With Mother's Day approaching, I have been thinking about my mother. She was called "Mama" by me until I was older and then I called her "Mom". I still think of her as Mama.

A dear and talented friend recently posted on Facebook that she had won an award for one of her artistic creations. My friend, Karen, took second place in a national competition for one of her fused glass plates. She mentioned in the post that she wished her mother could have seen this.  Karen's desire for her mom to see her accomplishment or perhaps just to see the art piece itself reminded me so much how we long for those we love to share in our happiness and to see our hard work pay off.

My greatest wish has always been that my mother could have known my children here on this earth. In many ways the kids are my life's work. They do not belong to me, they belong to themselves and to God. But to me they are also our works of art (mine and Dean's).

I know that my mother would have been so happy to celebrate each of their accomplishments and to cry through each disappointment. I know she would have entered so fully into their lives in that way because she celebrated joyfully every ribbon, award, and accomplishment of mine. And she encouraged from the background through failed romances, a failed political science class, two broken cars and every other disappointment. I think what my kids would most enjoy about my mom was that she would have found all their humor to be so funny. She would have enjoyed every geeky, nerdy reference. I know this because one summer she and I watched re-runs from the original Star Trek together every single night (she loved Mr. Spock). And my kids would have benefited so much from my mother's unfailing unconditional love. My mother delighted in me when others did not find me so delightful. She loved me with all her heart and that love was the greatest gift of my childhood.

When I went away to college my friend Sabra and I went to a pet store and bought my mother a kitten.  Sabra and I believed that all sadness and in particular the sadness of my departure could be eased by a loveable little ball of fur.  My grandmother was less than pleased with our selection but my mother loved him. She named him "Chaudry" after one of her doctors. While at college I received letters full of all the news of Chaudry as he grew from kitten to cat. As a kitten he was quite destructive and confirmed for my grandmother that he was a mistake. Yet my mother loved him and he loved my mother.  There was tangible proof of his affection for her.  As he grew older Chaudry began to bring my mother presents. She would open the door in the evening to let him in and he would present at her feet a nice dead rat. My mother knew the gifts he gave were precious to him while repulsive to her and so she cheerfully accepted them and then quietly disposed of them when he wasn't looking.

I'm sorry to say that much of my life at that time was like the dead rat. There were many false starts, many mistakes, many failures, these were not pretty gifts to bring home to mom. Mama did not live to see the life I have today. Because of the kind of person she was it doesn't really matter. She was that rare person who saw who you wanted to be and loved you for it. She believed I already was that person I just couldn't put it all into practice yet.

But I, like my friend Karen, wish that my mom (and Chaudry the cat) could be here in person to see my beautiful creations. My children, who are so different from each other and yet alike, are delightful, precious treasures to me. They confirm to me again and again that my life's work has been valuable. I wish Mama was here to celebrate my joy in them! Mom, all my false starts and disasters turned to hard work and finally paid off! I love you, Mom.

My mom sang the following song to me and taught me to sing the first stanza. I didn't know until just now (looking on Wikipedia for the lyrics)  that the rest of the song indicates that the author was in the Birmingham jail!

Down in the valley, the valley so low

Hang your head over, hear the wind blow

Hear the wind blow, dear, hear the wind blow;

Hang your head over, hear the wind blow.

Roses love sunshine, violets love dew,

Angels in Heaven know I love you,

Know I love you, dear, know I love you,

Angels in Heaven know I love you.

I'm Sad Because You're Not a Dragon

Since Bailey is not here with us she misses being dragged into my many projects as Dean and Parker are. Bailey and I communicate by phone conversation, emailing, Facebooking and texting. Here are some Bailey updates:

 Above are screen captures of the weather app on my phone, I often check both the weather here and the weather in Columbia. Our temperatures are usually not the same!

The above pictures are of Bailey's new hair cut and color! So pretty!
 

 This is how I received those pictures, through texting!

 Another pic of Bailey via text.

This is the cute little felt owl Bailey made for her friend, Layne, for her birthday. Instructions via Pinterest.

 I think Bailey originally posted this on Facebook and on her blog, Stopwatch. This really does say it all about Bailey's personality. All four of us can relate to this. We would like to live at Hogwarts, we would like to travel with Dr. Who, we would like to be a crew member aboard Serenity (Firefly spaceship). Why can't there be a little more fantasy in real life?

Below are Facebook updates posted by Bailey. Both are running related. The runners on Bailey's team call non-running folk "Muggles". It's a Harry Potter reference. And it is impolite to draft pedestrians, they don't understand what you are doing, but having run in the wind and drafted behind Dean many times, I knew exactly what was happening.

Bailey Belvis on Facebook

Walking up some stairs to class.
Me: oh my legs hurt!
Muggle: what? You sore or something?

I forget that everyone isn't just in a perpetual state of pain .

· · 32 minutes ago via mobile ·



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Bailey Belvis on Facebook

April 13 via mobile

That awkward moment when you're walking to class and you look up and realize you are way too close to the person in front of you because not only have they been perfectly blocking the wind for you, but at the right angle, the rain too

·

• You and 2 others like this.
• • 

    Michael Gilton Drafting. It's what you are trained to do.

    April 13 at 11:11am · · 3
  • 

    Robert Hoang That's not how you are suppose to stalk people bailey.

    April 13 at 11:31am · · 1

I am so glad my kids are friends with me on Facebook. It allows me a glimpse into their lives when they are not here with me. The constantly evolving Technology is a weird monster that I desperately try to keep up with. I have many complaints about it as I have mentioned here and here. I do love the way I can be connected to my kids through my phone and on the internet.

While I was typing this Bailey sent me a picture she had drawn of an optical illusion. I sent her a link to the optical illusion last night and I also tried drawing it. I texted my picture back to her. From my text message on my phone I saved both pictures to my photo album on my phone. I then emailed the images to myself. This usually allows me to save my pictures to my HP photo software on my computer and then I can upload them to Picassa and then upload them to this blog. I saved the pictures and they are on my computer but I cannot find them and therefore cannot share them. I think as I get older PERSEVERANCE becomes even more important than it was when I was younger. I refuse to give up...there is a shiny carrot of connection with my kids dangling in front of me...eventually I will find my pictures!

Project Life

Many people take a 365 approach to Project Life. They take one picture every day for a year and document their everyday life. I think this is a great idea particularly if you have small children at home with you, so much goes on, they grow so fast, there are so many little moments: breakfast, playing, reading together, sleepy moments, snuggly moments. I would love to have pictures of all those moments; to have captured our little everyday cocoon of a life for a whole year. It's a little different now. I still feel like we have a warm cocoon at home but since Parker is gone all day and Bailey is in Missouri the days kind of look the same. Dean works in his office upstairs. Dean cooks dinner. I work in my office downstairs, I eat dinner!! Parker works at his computer at the kitchen table, Parker eats dinner. Three hundred and sixty-five pictures of three people at work on computers or eating dinner would not be very exciting. So I abandoned the 365 approach and am just using project life as I would any other scrapbook: for any pictures I happen to take.

Most people (that I have stumbled upon) who blog about Project Life do not go back and play catch up with old photos. I decided that since I own all the scrapbooking papers and stickers and some Creative Memories supplies I should go back and use those things in a Project Life scrapbook so that:

1) I can get caught up - I am years behind with my pictures and
2) I can use all those supplies that mock me from the craft closet.

I look at the scrapbooking supplies, I see all the money I spent on those supplies and I am overcome with guilt. My kids childhood memories are sitting there waiting to be made visible but I feel too overwhelmed to tackle the job. Well, no more!! I have begun to go back, gather pictures by category (example: Fall/ Halloween, Thanksgiving) then gather paper, stickers, embellishments by the same category and finally put them in the Project Life album. It makes me happy to get started on this. and the best part is that there is very little gluing involved. The pictures slip into the pockets! Here are the results so far:

This is the opening page to the scrapbook. Normally, you would use the cards provided in the Project Life core kit. Instead I used scrapbook paper and embellishments that I bought years ago.

 In this layout the small vertical squares across the middle are pockets that can be filled with Project Life journaling cards. Because I have forgotten which Halloweens and Thanksgivings these pictures originated I cut up a pretty fall leaf paper and skipped the journaling step. I could have trimmed pictures to fit in there and I will be trying that next when I tackle some Christmas pictures.

 For several years we went to the same Pumpkin Patch. We went with friends and we went two years with Parker's pre-school, the Prosper United Methodist Preschool. Parker's teacher's were Miss Penny and
Miss Cary.

 These are napkin rings the kids and I made for Thanksgiving.

 One of my favorite costumes!

 These are pictures of Thanksgiving with Grandma and Granddad.

 Again, here I used scrapbook paper, cut it to fit the small journal card pockets and just slipped it in.

 The picture on the far right is of my friend, Susan and her daughter Hannah. Parker and Hannah have known each other since they were in preschool, they are now Juniors in High School. I think we should ask them to return to the pumpkin patch next year as Seniors for encore pictures.

 We made these Fall leaf costumes by hot gluing leaves to old sweatshirts and to floral rings.

 

 Bailey loved this pointy hat - it was from the Wizard's apprentice and had Mickey Mouse ears attached to it.

Pirate Parker!

It is good to get started on those stacks of pictures. I have lots of photo albums that I completed when the kids were little but at some point I fell behind! This is a way for me to catch up and be able to share the memories with our family. I am a big fan of Project Life for this reason. Happy scrapbooking!

The Healing Powers of Armadillos and Bluebonnets

This week has been a "catch up" week for me. When Bailey is home for a break we try to take advantage of her physical presence among us and spend as much time with her as possible. Unfortunately life goes on. Parker had school, I had responsibilities. When Bailey is at Mizzou and Parker is in school I am blessed to have "responsibilities". On those days I call them things like "purpose" and "projects". When Bailey is home or Parker has a day off from school they fly back into the responsibility category and any that can be postponed without anguish are forgotten. So this week has been a time to do all the laundry, catch up on the read-the-Bible in a year plan, load pictures, sort through mail, catch up on Bible study (I completed 5 days of Bible study in two days), make appointments and get back on schedule.

Below are some pictures from my relaxing day with Bailey at the Dallas Arboretum.

Armadillo!! Bailey called these "Armadibbles" when she was about two years old!

Bailey!  She went from saying "armadibble" to muttering things like 'code compiling' ,'byte, Linux, Unix, ROM, RAM and mastering the art of texting, LOL,  and tweeting all in the blink of an eye!

My guess is that bluebonnets do not universally appear in arboretums! Beautiful state flower!

Memories of these beautiful flowers and our peaceful day together will carry me through until summer when Parker will be out of school and Bailey will be back home with us!

 "The grass withers and flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever". Isaiah 40:8

*** afterword*** I texted Bailey and asked what computer science jargon is typical (it is so foreign to me that I can't remember it). Here is her reply: "Currently learning about microprocessors and how information and addresses get sent over the data bus and address bus to the ALU and how to push and pull things off the stack as well as writing transparent subroutines." She also mentioned hexadecimal number systems, dicrete math and assembly language! I long for the days when all I had to do was decipher "armadibble", "frigert" (refrigerator) , and a very sweet one that my friend's daughter said, "high-biscuits" (hibiscus)!