Home for the Summer 2019

I was glad to have gone home this summer to spend time with my family. It almost didn’t happen because I wasn’t feeling well but I’m grateful I decided to go in spite of it. Family is everything. We didn’t do much, and I didn’t record much but here are a few shots.

Baby Zania WANTED tape on her face. She wouldn’t let us take it off. (Click or Tap on video image to open vid.)

Mom supplied shaving cream for a bit of fun. She’s done it a few times now, always turns out to be a hit.

Dwynne brought her mini throwing wheel and we all tried our hand at mini pottery.

Mom is a pro. She used to throw pots. Some of her creations can be found in the kitchen if you know where to look.

 

Also at the risk of being disowned I am posting a little fun we had with the aging app. 

Last Minute Niece Photos

While Natalie's van was being packed for its trip back to Utah, (Christmas 2020) I grabbed a few last minute shots of my nieces. Thought some family might appreciate seeing them. 

Zukiswa, 12 years

Malaika, 9 years

Zania, 3 years

Project: Advent

Purposefully skipping over the last several months (because I’m NOT ready to relive events to write about them yet) I bring to you a more current event...
An Advent Calendar Project!

Every year we, the Relief Society Presidency, like to give a small Christmas gift to the women at church after a short holiday program. But this year nothing sounded right, especially at only $1.00 per person.

I looked to the topic “Preparing Our Hearts for Christ” for ideas. And in doing so, landed on making January advent calendars. We would create something that might help the women remember and carry out the challenge in the new year. Each little tag contains a quote, scripture, or a small task for the person reading it.

When I presented the idea to the presidency they all LOVED it. We knew however, the creation of such beauties would require a lot of work—to which we agreed would be worth it. (An agreement we had to remind ourselves of when we realized each one was going to take almost an hour to assemble. To say nothing of the time it took to prepare each element for assembly. We made 35.)

I wish I’d taken a picture of my living room while the crafting was going on. It was a fun mess. And all the completed mobiles were hanging on anything we could find to hold them.

To transport the mobiles to church I did this which worked out splendidly:

And decorate the room, I cut more branches to stick into jars and gathered nuts from the PLETHORA that fell out of our tree this year. We cut extra hearts to hang and sprinkle on the tables.

And lucky us...the ceiling was such that we could lift the tiles and hook each mobile to the metal grid.  YESSSS!

It’s hard to capture in a photo, but the room was cute and had a fun vibe. The women LOVED the decorations and advents and enjoyed picking out which one they wanted.
It was so pleasing to receive such a positive reaction to the mobiles, it made the hours of tying and folding and punching and cutting completely worth it! And I hope what’s written inside each tag is valuable in helping each woman strengthen her personal relationship with and understanding of the Lord.
Now...what do we do next year?!

Atlanta Botanical Garden

The Botanical Gardens in Atlanta surprised me—they're impressive and have quite the leg-up on the Fort Worth Gardens and Dallas as well.

Above: An elevated path amongst the canopy of a forested area.
Below: Impressive potted containers—huge!

Below: A Chihuly installation. There are several of his works around the gardens. (This guy has got to be wealthy, we run into his glasswork everywhere!)

Dear Fort Worth, please take note: At the Atlanta Botanical gardens, a Scarecrow competition takes place and it was on full display for Halloween. What a fantastic idea! There are a few people, I think, who would enjoy doing this enough team up with me and submit an entry, or become my competition. (My mom, Lysha, Heidi, Larissa, Laurel...?) There were SO MANY great ideas. Here are two:

Not what you would expect right? Don't worry, there were enough gory ones to placate that side of you as well. 

Below: Don't you just love variegated foliage? Look at this! The leaves are SO interesting. Though, I'm not sure I care for variegation as viewed on an entire plant. It's much better when studied leaf by leaf.

The featured temporary installations were Alice in Wonderland themed (mingled with other, permanent collections of animals.) 

The gardens also have an orchid greenhouse. I've never seen such a variety before of orchids before—didn't know they could be so diverse!

We also ran into a "jungle" greenhouse and a "desert" greenhouse (no photos though.)

 

It was just a relaxing experience. I enjoyed it particularly because it was a respite from the emotional toll of being floxed. I was also physically feeling pretty good that day (you can tell because I can actually carry my own purse)—we were nearing the end of my treatments and our stay in Georgia. I would go back to enjoy the garden again anytime.