The Vacuum Varmint

mark-the-cowboy1This week during one of my cleaning frenzies, Mark walked into the room and announced,

“I shot the vacuum so you can’t use it anymore. It’s dead.” He further offered, “I’ll go shoot it again.”

I won’t do any vacuuming today, okay, Mark?

Tough stuff



When my children were babies, I did everything I could to protect them. As they get older, I see that my need to protect must also be balanced with their need for experience. This means I am learning to allow things like bb guns & baseball injuries into the equation. I’m still here with the bandaids and a hug. And I’ve given a lot of these this week.

Daniel had two days of Cub Day Camp and I got to go with the scouts on the first day. We were up on Mt Lemmon and the pines were as rejuvenating as the scouts were exhausting. I loved being up there and watching the boys learn to work with knives and shoot and try their hands at leather craft. Daniel is a good kid. I couldn’t be more proud of him for his conduct at camp. And yes, Daniel, you earned your whittling chip and can own a pocketknife now!

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Timothy wasn’t hurt in this t-ball collision, but it looks spectacular, doesn’t it?

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See, he’s fine.

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And so am I.

Memorial Day Music Recital



We held our annual Memorial Day music recital at a care center instead of our living room this year. We had a lovely audience of residents from La Posada. The performers dressed in patriotic colors and many patriotic songs were played and sung. Our kids played their compositions; Paige played the National Anthem and a sonatina. Daniel rocked the house with several songs, ending with a great arrangement he made of Chopsticks! Someone commented that the residents really liked that one and were tapping their feet. Janice Gay took this photo after the recital.

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