Mark opened his mission call by himself in the grove at the Weber cabin, then he came inside to read his call to Richard and me. His friends don’t know yet, and we will host a little gathering for Mark to announce it soon.
He is assigned to the Denmark Copenhagen Mission and will begin his service on October 7. 😃 🇩🇰
I am getting these ready to display in the stairwell. These little cross stitch pieces are a delightful hobby for me.
We’re celebrating 29 years of marriage! (This was taken at my parents’ 50th anniversary party.)
I will be playing my violin with a Primary choir for Mother’s Day this year. On Sunday I practiced with them for the first time. I had spent some time transposing the music for my instrument, so it was good to hear that my work was okay. My accompaniment is not difficult to play and the notes are understated and mild, but I had taken some time to get it just right.
When I stood at the front of the room full of children and saw their faces as they sang with my violin and the piano, the abundance in this reward was overwhelming. No money or praise can match the wide-eyed wonder, the heartfelt effort in their voices, and the generosity in their facial expressions. I want to remember these faces forever. I also want my giving to be more like theirs.
Primary children teach me every single week what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
Last night was Mark’s last piano recital with his studio. He will have a solo recital next month, so I am grateful that we have one more moment where we can see him shine as he plays the piano. I can’t count the number of recitals we have attended over the last 18 years, but I can tell you that Bridget’s recitals were the best.
Mark played the Chopin Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat with maturity and skill. It was a great event to inaugurate a month of celebrations for Mark, our high school senior.
Our dog is no longer with us, but this memory popped up in my photo album today and gave us a needed lift. 😄
We are so proud of Daniel who graduated this week from BYU with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. He will work at L3 Harris this summer and begin graduate work at BYU this fall.
The quilt looks so much better with this little baby on it.
This Instagram reel is an experiment to make my Grandpa Stewart’s home movies more accessible to my family.
One thing I have learned from watching his movies is that my grandmother was the star. ♥️
This was taken at the Spencer home in Salt Lake City at Christmas time in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s. My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother are beautiful in this clip. Carol is in the pale pink dress, JoAnn is in hot pink, and Lucille is in red.
I don’t know, I just really needed to see this film today.
I will post more short clips with music now and then. I look forward to sharing some very special family times with you.
This is a screenshot from a lecture on YouTube. It shows two versions of works by Van Gogh. The piece on the left was painted outdoors and analysis has shown his materials and the order that he added colors. Plein air painting has its drawbacks, including wind and changes in lighting, so he had to work quickly. Notice how vibrant the colors are on the left painting.
The painting on the right was done in his asylum studio, away from the elements, after the painting on the left was finished. The image on the right is more harmonious and less vibrantly colored.
I saw these paintings at the Met last summer displayed side by side and they are really memorable to me. I immediately liked the more brightly colored one and assumed that the more muted painting reflected the sadness of the asylum where he painted it. But that’s not how the artist saw things.
Van Gogh said that the less vibrant painting, the second version, was the definitive work. After learning more about both paintings, I can see that the more muted painting is more intentional and refined. The wind in the cypresses is more evident in the second one, too.
With art, we can like what we like, but learning more about the artist’s process has helped me to appreciate the qualities of both versions.