Color Your World

I have several shots today. I have several colors, you see, that colored my world on this Friday. I'll take you on a tour. Come on. We better hurry. It's almost tomorrow. 

Aren't you jealous of these lovely colors? Don't you particularly enjoy the red sauce that nestled my meatballs in the blue crockpot? What about those green houseplants on the white windowsill? They've been alive for as long as tan Camden. Really. And check out the yellowish hue outside the window. That's sunshine yellow. My favorite color is yellow. Did you know that?

Bet you may have these colors in your house. This is a pirate/knight explosion. Play Mobil makes rich plastic colors. Better than Fisher Price, I think.

Now this is possibly my favorite picture of color today. Check out the contrast between the orange shirt (that, yes, I did wear to ice cream last night; it wasn't dirty; I'm only a yellow belt; I don't get sweaty gross at sparring club) and the black air-soft automatic rifle. That's a gun, for those of you who aren't familiar with weapons of mass destruction. I am a decent shot with this rifle. Which is handy to know cause I plan to join the CIA or the FBI or the SPAR one day to help save the world. I shot two aluminum cans off a stump with this machine, which I feel compelled to name Rolf, thanks to Princess. So, anyhow, we went to the Kuhns tonight to their little beach party. The beach, you see, is really a beach. But it's at a creek. Or a crick. Depending on where you are from. Or how your neck's feeling. So we went down to the beach, a walk through muddy ATV tracks and around wooded spaces and through green grasses, wildflowers, and tall weeds, arriving at a cleared-out space dotted with an actual cabin, camp fire, bathroom, shower, garden, and shooting range of sorts. This beach paradise was built by friends and 13-year-olds Austin and Brandon. They go to my school, and they are really the coolest middle schoolers on the planet. They make me so not afraid of real middle schoolers.  It's amazing. Really, their beach place. And, plus, I drove an ATV tonight. It had mudflaps, thankfully. I don't like the idea of getting mud between my toes. Eeeuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwww.

And this leads me to the final picture of color for today. The campfire. I'm a bit nervous that Benjy is a firebug. He loves fire. He loves to capture it on sticks, watch it burn, put it out, and do it again. He would rather burn sticks than swim in the creek. (Which he calls a crick now that we live up here with all these yankee people.) But the fire was glowing a pretty orange tonight, smelling of camping and smores and lazy nights. Funny how you can smell some colors, huh?

Believe.

Today's picture is of a picture that I took of a picture I made for my sister's 37th birthday last February. She died two months and five days later. Michelle left behind her dear husband Brian and a menagerie of pets and a motley crew of friends and family who miss her generous heart and spirit. Because she was a believer in Jesus, she's in heaven now with him. That's what I believe. 

The word for the day is

accessory.

Check out my accessory that goes with my taekwondo bag.

This is style, I tell ya. I whipped this enviable piece up the other day to hold my jahng bong. That's the ultra cool weapon I got for Mother's Day that I love to twirl in the backyard when nobody's looking. I really debated on the fabric I would use for this accessory. I knew it couldn't be black. 'Cause that's the color they make 'em in over in China. Plus also, black is so yesterday. So, I dug through the fabric pieces I had stored in the basement and settled on this furry green scrap. We made ugly dolls with this once. My ugly doll is in Benjy's room. He's rather fond of it. I stitched my jahng bong holder together on my Singer that I use primarily for scrapbooking, added a handy carrying strap and a Velcro closure, and voila!

By the way, in case you still aren't clear on what this holder is, here is a taekwondo man posing with his jahng bong. The whole stick screws together, so when it's in two pieces, it fits perfectly in my accessory.

Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Today's word for the picture was "aaaahhhhhhh". Or something like that.

Now, my entry for today isn't simply a visual thing. It's also somewhat aural. You like it when I use sophisticated words, no? 

I do have a real-life still picture to go with this auditory feast, just so's I don't appear to be dissin' the rules. I wouldn't do dat. Even in my gangsta speak. True dat.

So, here's my picture for to-day.

Now what, pray tell, does this have to do with the word of the day? Well, get your dirty minds out of the gutter. I know's dat's where they are. Leslie. Well, this picture accompanies the sound that goes "aaaahhhhh". If you are into this sort of sound. 

Now me? I think it borders on Frenchy or Germanesque. And I personally find these languages U-G-L-Y. Not the least bit romantic. (Now the hottie on House Hunters International who spoketh Italian? His language totally worked for him. Yes, indeed it did.) But here in America on my back porch? Not so much. 

But, for some people I know, this sound is da bomb.  (And, for the record, I totally dig this man who is making this hideous sound. I love him. I adore him. I think he is da bomb. When he is silent.)

Here, for auditory pleasure....

aaaahhhhhhhhhhh

Now that I have real live bloggy friends, I wanna play a game. Starting tomorrow, if that's OK with my bloggy friends, let's take a picture every day for the next 26 days of something that goes with the word on this list.

1. Aahh!! 

2. Accessory 

3. Believe 

4. Color my world 

5. Did you see THAT? 

6. Effort 

7. Flat 

8. Framed 

9. Fun in the sun 

10. Game on 

11. Half and half 

12. Historic 

13. Juicy 

14. Metallic 

15. Moody 

16. Movement 

17. On the road 

18. Priorities 

19. Relief 

20. Sparkle 

21. Spiral 

22. Splish splash 

23. This magic moment 

24. Tiny 

25. Way to go 

26. Yummy 

It'll be so fun to compare our shots. And the built-in bonus is that for the next 26 days we'll have a sure topic to blog about. Whadaya say? Huh? Wanna play?

In our top story today...

The Eaglescout has landed. Camden and Benjy rushed home from church, skipping coffee hour (ie cookies, punch, cakes, juice, hide & seek in the vesting robe closet) to wait for Dad. When he arrived around 2:00, they nearly rolled head-over-heels downstairs to greet him. They missed their daddy. I missed him, too. Yes, I took a 90-minute nap this evening just because I could.

In other news...

I have two new readers here. Welcome T and L!!! Now I should be up to, what's the count...4 and a half? These are my BFFs up here in Yankeeland. You know, it's really Yankeeish up here. Except for these chicks. They're cool. Not cold. Just cool. They don't have any slaves except their hubbies. They're just about downright southern.

When we first moved up here, I didn't think much of this Mason-Dixon line thing. But now I believe it's real. Very real. Of course, on the south side of this invisible line, it's all Confederate flags and Robert E. Lee and risin' again and scary such stuff. Up here, nobody thinks about that. That's refreshing. But, on the flip side, that warm southern hospitality that oozes off the pages of Southern Living oozes not up here. Now, at L's house? There's a real honest-to-goodness front porch and apple pie! Yes, you read right! Apple pie! T is hosting our next gathering soon. Eaglescout should be able to make this one since he's currently padlocked to the chair in the living room. I don't think he'll be going anywhere soon. 

Check out the resemblance.

And in our feature story this evening...

Our neighbors moved this weekend and we inherited their trampoline. I'd give my eyeteeth if I had a picture of the four men carrying this AS-IS up the road, over the fence, and into the yard. It needs a new net, as you can see. It also needed a bit of sprucing up, which Camden and Benjy got right onto. (And yes, I can and will end my sentences with a preposition. It's my blog and I can do whatever I please.)

Note the vacuum cleaner sitting beside the tramp. T names hers. Consuela is her new green sweeper. Mine's just a red dirt devil. No name. Maybe it'd work better if it had a name. Do any of my other 3 and a half readers name your appliances? 

This is so crackin' me up. I can't believe I just discovered TeacherTube.com. This is utube for teachers. Some of it's serious and inspiring, which roughly translates as "it's summer break and I'm not ready to feel that way right now because I'm rather enjoying staying up late blogging and sleeping late and then drinking about a pot of coffee before beginning my day at, oh, around noon".

Some of teachertube is educational, like this. And who wouldn't like to learn improper fractions from a rapping math teacher?


But, my favorite parts of teachertube right now are the funny ones. The clips that make me giggle and guffaw and snort when nobody's lookin'. And since it's summertime, no one's lookin' at me till the end of August. :)

"It's PINK!" shouted Benjy, pointing out the window. After the cloudiest of days with a couple of bouts of driving rain showers, this is the picture God handed us tonight. Wow.

I skipped out on the annual beach trip with the Virginia girls. I missed them greatly. Especially the lazy mornings sipping coffee, afternoons eating salsa, and evenings eating hushpuppies. Do you get the picture here? I love to eat. I missed all that eating. And I missed my girlfriends, too. But they thought of me! They really like me! :) They mailed me this terrific goodie box filled with two boxes of fudge from Callahans, a green martini glass, and a card signed by all. Wow.

And this is the result of Friday's creating. My pact with myself was to use only stuff around the house. I used an old birdhouse that had begun to fall apart, scrap papers, leftover spanish moss from a school project, and a few choice rocks from Maine. Oh yeah, and Hodge Podge. I could glue a room together with that stuff. This little birdie house makes me happy, even if I did make it. 

Brothers Day. Brought to you by the friendly folks at McDonald's. 

From now on it's June 24. Happy Meals included.

We went to our favorite creek spot at the local park where the boys ran into our next door neighbors and spent three hours creek stomping on a mad hunt for minnows and water snakes. (No snakes were harmed in the filming of this day. No snakes were even found.) Plenty of minnows, though none would hop into their little bottles. So none of those were harmed either. :)

Lots of running and playing and climbing and jumping and

a bit of sitting, too. 

Brothers Day rocks.

That's me! Could you tell? Only I'm a yellow belt now. I'm so happy that Camden and Eaglescout signed me up for Taekwondo. I love it so much I joined the leadership/instructor training program - hence the fancy uniform with my name on the back so that people know who it is that's totally messing up her form in public. Of course, I don't wear this to the grocery store. That'd just be wrong. The new uniform also boasts a red collar. Before, I threatened to take a Sharpie to my old uniform and scribble my name on the back and then iron on a red ribbon around the collar. Now I don't have to. Along with the uniform comes learning how to instruct the other classes. Assisting the Tiny Tigers class is my favorite. Those little Tigers are so darn cute! And even though most of them out rank me in color belt, I am taller than they are. 

And speaking of Taekwondo, Camden tested for his rank stripe on his brown belt last week. Check him out here.





He totally knew his form, but since he was doing make-up testing at the studio and facing the judges, not the mirrors, he got a bit confused and wound up facing the wrong direction. Still, he passed. :) Next comes his red belt and a host of mid-term testings before the big kahuna - the BLACK belt!


While reading my favorite blogs this morning, I came across this post from Jennifer. She has four boys. That's two more than I have. Can you imagine? Well, her brilliant boys decided to make up a holiday. See, Mr. Hallmark isn't the only one who can do that. They deemed June 19 Brothers Day. So, I'm gonna run this by my own personal wild things and see if they want to celebrate Brothers Day on June 24. That's tomorrow. We can make a cake and play in the pool and maybe go to the park and eat whatever they want for dinner and write in run-on sentences all day long if we want to. And since it's brother's day, I won't have to fuss at them for making messes and being too loud until June 25, when it will not be Brothers Day anymore. 

Growing up, I always hated yard work. It's hard, ya know? 

It makes me sweat. And that's just gross. 

But lookie what I accomplished today, 

sweating, working, bent over, lifting, shoveling, raking...

A bit of mulch around the mailbox to cover the dead spot. Another black-eyed susan would top it off, don't ya think?

You can't see it well, but I covered the other dead spot around the lavender with mulch. Looks so much better.

And I mulched around the plants in this bed. It needs edging, but already it looks better than before. I can't wait for the rose bush, bleeding heart, black-eyed susans, and some other yellow flowering perennial spread out some and fill in this space more.

And this lovely spot is where I planted grass seed and fertilized it before watering the heck out of it. Not that I needed to. It's pouring the rain now. Pleeeeeease don't wash away my seeds!!!

And this is the first daisy of the season growing in the garden in front of the house. 

IDHTBPTBB

The Nester has reminded us that It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful and she's challenged us to post our imperfections and share them. Finding imperfections around here is not a problem. I started snapping pictures this morning and had to make myself stop. You don't have all day, after all, to read about the imperfections that surround me. But if I didn't put it here, you might never see it on account of House Beautiful hasn't been able to reach me for a photo shoot yet.

Here's my new friend. I call him Darth. Benjy calls him Dark Side. He has been residing in my bedroom where he usually hides from Emma The Dog. I don't mind sharing my room with Darth. And plus, he likes my window mistreatments. He's beautiful because he makes Benjy use this dark side voice when he comes down to play.

This is the boys' bathroom. These are the beach towels that hang in the boys' bathroom. That's a shower curtain mistreatment hanging by the towels in the boys' bathroom. Now that the pool is up in the backyard, Camden the Bath Boy swims and takes a bath about 167 times a day. He's a clean youngin. These towels are summertime beautiful.

This is my barely-sanded-because-I-hate-the-sound-of-sandpaper-and-then-painted table. I took great pride in this when I first finished it. Now, the boys have taken it over. If Eaglescout isn't piling his magazines on it, then the boys are using it for a Star Wars hanger. (How do you spell that...hanger???hangar???) Currently the Star Fighters are off fighting the Dark Side, so the control tower is the only thing happening here now. Beautiful, huh?

Now these window mistreatments are my very favorite. They're cheap cheap cheap, made of burlap and that cute pom pom fringe and about 933 hot glue sticks. And these fans of my favorite window mistreatments are Benjy's Lego guys. They don't live here all the time, but they do like to be lined up and this is as good a place as any, I suppose. Beautiful in the orderly way Benjy lines up things around the house.

My guest room is rarely used. What a waste. So I have adopted it for folding and sorting the boys' laundry. I can watch HGTV or Fox news or Law and Order or the Weather Channel while I work. And if I'm not in here, then the boys are. They pull out the long-forgotten Rescue Heroes and play for about 2 minutes. And then they leave the sad and lonely Rescue Heroes perched and waiting for an emergency. Beautiful simply because the boys and I have repurposed this wasted space. And all of it is quite imperfect. But, hey, how many of us could actually live in a perfect house?

Today was the first day of Bible School for the kids. The theme this year is Power Lab and Camden's all into the science end of it. I love how into God they are! Camden told me all about their Bible story today - about the 10 lepers healed by Jesus and how only one of them bothered to say thanks. Benjy later asked me if I planted the lavender here that the honey bees are buzzing around. I said no and was about to tell him that the lady who lived here before us planted it. But he quickly said, "Oh I know. GOD made them for the BEES!" Well, yeah, that's true, too. :)

Honey, we're home!

Here's a recap of our vacation. 

It seems a bit strange to be smack dab at the start of summer break and already detailing my vacation, but here's a top 10 of our trip.

* A stop in Camden, Me., Camden's namesake. Eaglescout and I used to camp here long before we even wanted offspring. It's a beautiful harbor town, picturesque and as Down East as you can get. (at least from a southerner's perspective) Camden loved seeing his name on storefronts, billboards, and signs. I took as many pictures as I could zoom in on.

*
Route 1. I have always remembered the quaint way that businesses nailed signs pointing the way to their establishments along the roadside. Route 1 is dotted with these, especially around Kennebunkport. Cute, huh? When's the last time you saw a Walmart sign on a signpost like this???

* Pirate swords. Pirate Benjy just had to have this little beauty, a mere $2.50 at the Lobster Pound in Lincolnville. And now that I think on it, the lobster there is incredibly yummy. The yummiest. So is the chocolate pudding, but I digress. The lobster is yummy. But it's served in its BODY. I couldn't even begin to crack open the shell to get to the yummy parts. I had to ask Eaglescout to do it for me. How pathetic is that? I'll never be president. I bet even Obama can do that. But not me. Uh-uh, I can't even step on an ant.

*
Fog. The fog was so thick on Saturday morning at the beach that I couldn't see Camden when he ventured a mere 10 feet from me. Thick, I tell ya. But it seemed somehow native to the place. And so, I liked it.

*
Rocks. Not the sort of rock that Patrick Starfish lives under. But the kind that roll and tumble in the New England waters before the sea spits them on the shore. They're worn smooth from their journey, rounded and aged. We collected rocks on the shore as if they were seashells. I went for the baby rocks while the boys went for the big daddies.

* Wonder. Camden and Benjy were in awe of the beach and everything around them. They marveled at all the right stuff. The sand. The waves. The tidepools. The sunburn in spite of the sunscreen. Thank you Solarcaine. 

* Dead fish

.Benjy caught his second fish. A 2-incher washed ashore that appeared to have lived its life to the end. He was proud of his catch. And so was I.

* Cottage life. Simple. Clean. Roomy enough. This was our cottage for the week. And it was perfect. The boys had their room. Eaglescout and I had ours. And there was even a bonus living area/kitchen that boasted Archie and Edith Bunker chairs for us to rest in after the boys had bedded down. Simple, unairconditioned, safe, and since it was filled with ♥, it was just what we needed. 

*

*Freedom. From schedules. From work. From thinking in the work way of thinking. Freedom from the stuff of everyday. Freedom translates into hours of reading books, sleeping in, napping, listening to the crash of waves on the sands. Freedom. 

* The Shack by Paul Young

This book made me cry, laugh, feel, and long to be in a closer relationship with God. One of the reasons I love summer break is that I get the chance to dive into book after book after book. This was one beautiful way to start the summer. Alive. At peace. And in the knowledge that My Father loves me and wants to know me better. Thanks be to God!

Finally we are

almost home, but I'm so tired

I write in haiku.

Until I can write

something of literary

worth, I leave you these.

OK, I'll leave you

with nothing. Blogger, why won't

you let me upload???

Finally, nearly a month after Benjy turned 5, we had his party. A house party, it was. Here at Casa de Elephant. That giant pachyderm you see, by the way, isn't real. It's part of a giant house of bounce we rented for the big day. And the best part of all........we got to keep it from Saturday all the way till Tuesday at no extra charge! How's that for customer service?!

Only 3 more mornings before school is out. Not that I'm counting. Camden can't wait to sleep in. Me, too. Benjy already is. His last day of preschool was last Friday. He's been hanging out with Curtis Carl this week, playing outside, watching Star Wars movies, and even napping every now and then. I'm jealous.

So for those of you tired and weary, ready for summer, I leave you with this: 

Matthew 11:28-30 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

That seems just right for the end of the school year.

Prayers needed...

for Chief. He's the dad of our youth minister. He went into respiratory arrest last night, but is doing better now. Still. He's 80. And he wants to fight this. Pray for him. Pray for his health and that God will guide his doctors' hands. Pray for his family that they will find peace. And praise God that he worked this whole entire dinner thing out that I'd bring Jodie's Chicken on the very night when they truly needed a break. With God, there are no coincidences.