Never Too Much 4-H

We are nearing exhaustion, but the excitement keeps us going. Grace is taking 11 4-H projects, plus fashion revue. Will is entering 2 Mini 4-H projects. I didn't expect the time required for the activities in the books of some of her projects, so doing them these last 2 weeks has nearly burnt us out. But we don't have any regrets.

Today is day 2. All of the home ec stuff is behind us, and blue ribbons on all. Cookies baked, scrapbook completed, cake decorated (actually a foam one!). Skirt sewed and modeled. The gal in charge of fashion revue was in fashion revue with me years ago! Her sister, my former club leader, was also helping. A couple other fellow former 4-Hers also had 4-Hers of their own with mine! It's fun! We won't find out the results of fashion revue until the public show Sunday night of the fair at 6PM. There were only 4 entries in first year sewing! That's VERY low! I hope that more sewers join next year. Maybe Will will want to make some shorts or a duffle bag.

Here's Grace in her outfit. The skirt is the part that she made.



Tomorrow is only arts and crafts which includes painting and drawing (for Grace it's drawing), and Gift Wrapping. That one was fun and practical as she had to make her own bow.

I think this is a very boring post. I also have no consistency in my posts. Some are stories, some more like a journal entry, some just a recap of the day. There's no 'some' about it, I think this is maybe entry #4?

I'm off to put Grace's drawing into a frame. Tomorrow we have to finish assembling a Forestry poster supposing the leaves are dry and a Photography poster supposing we can come up with 3-4 more pictures with variety! Then it's all downhill from there.

A Message?

I really don't know what I'm to perceive from the coincidences this afternoon. A message of peace, of hello, of remembrance...? I'm not dwelling on it as some kind of a 'message', though I know God speaks to us in many ways. I'm just kind of taken aback by it all.

This Saturday evening we went to 4:30 Mass at St. Boniface. We haven't been there in years as we go to a different church on our side of town, but were planning our weekend with friends around the guys' dirt biking plans and chose to join them at their church tonight so they would ride motorcycles tomorrow.

I notice after we sit down that there is a banner with a picture of a baby in utero on the lector's stand. I don't look too closely and can't tell what the details are right then.

The lector begins the first reading with, A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Amos. It always makes me jump a little to hear that. Since it's been long enough, this time it was with a smile. Twenty-two months ago to the date, I gave birth to a stillborn son at 18 weeks that we named Amos. The name means carrier of heavy burdens, and our prayer was that he would take our burdens and that of others heavenward with him.

After Amos was born, I didn't go to Mass until a few weeks later. That day was the first time I had ever heard a reading from the Book of Amos at Mass. Matt and my jaws dropped open as we looked over at each other. The following weekend we're at Mass, we hear it AGAIN! I googled and found that it only occurs 3 times in the 3 year cycle of readings in the Catholic church. And 2 of them were right then! I didn't think much about it again. Until today!

Then later I squint and see that the unborn baby banner has the number 4 on it. 4 months. It's of a baby in the 4th month. I was 4 months pregnant when he died. There's a ruler marking out his size and everything. I was stunned. I still don't know specifically what to make of it all, but I don't need to know. I guess I just need to keep on listening.

How Many Hail Marys Does It Take...

for me to mow the lawn?

I don't know. But you can be sure that I said one for you. Whoever you are.

A verse in Sunday's reading was repeated in the homily by Father Patrick. It was just what I needed when I needed it. I shouldn't be surprised. That's what God does! Here it is. It's so simple, yet so bold.

My Grace is sufficient for you.

And, yes, it is.

Another blessing this week: A nice lady taught me to play the dulcimer. Well, only 3 chords, but that was enough to get me playing non-stop with a group of pros for 90 minutes!

How Many 33 Year Old Women Do This?

Yesterday, I polished my white walls. We have a new used van that was previously owned by an older gentleman who must have thought white walls out was the cool way to display your tires. As if there can be anything cool about a tan colored mini-van anyway. Since I have this new-to-me vehicle, I thought I'd try something new. Keeping it clean. So, Friday is car cleaning day (thanks to the Fly Lady). Inside at least, but yesterday was a nice day. My husband, Matt, was home for a work holiday, and the outside of the van was dirty. Matt said that's never bothered me before. He's right. I can count on one hand how many times I washed my last van of 7 years. He washed it for me the first 6 months as I had newborn Jonah, but gave up after that. So, since the hose was already out for Matt's mortar mixing, it seemed to be a convenient and easy task. And whaddyaknow, it was! Inside the garage I have a vehicle washing bucket, and inside was a spray can of white wall washer! Why, I don't know, but I sprayed, scrubbed, polished, and rinsed those babies. Then, Jonah, now 6.5, sprayed the van while I washed. I guess people do change.

On another subject, today for the 4th of July, we're going to 2 parties if we want to put up with the rain. The first one is an international foods pot-luck. Non-American food basically. :) Though the party was rescheduled from another weekend, and there really aren't any international holidays to do such a party on. I'm excited about it. The host, Matt's co-worker Steven and his wife, Carrie, are serving Moroccan Stew and international beers and wines. I was going to bring Swiss fondue in my authentic pot, but the logistics of keeping it ready on the way over, and the COST of gruyere and ementaler cheese, holy moly. So, I made tiramisu, with less costly but still expensive mascarpone cheese (an Italian style cream cheese). I made one cake with mascarpone, and one with cream cheese. The mascarpone is SO much better, lighter, sweeter, yum (I licked the bowl, haven't tried the cake). My desserts usually taste good, but rarely get credit for their looks. The first hot milk sponge cake I made for the tiramisu flopped. The final products are so-so. I just took a picture to insert and the picture looks gross, so I will not! Grace is making practice 4-H chocolate crinkles for us to bring to the 2nd party. I hope there is no drunk firework lighting at the bonfire like last year. We'll just be watching and can hopefully get far enough away.