Lift up your eyes…



Saturday I drove down a street lined with trees whose golden leaves had yielded to yesterday’s breeze.   Strewn on the ground, they made a golden carpet, their color enhanced by the morning rain.

We climbed the hill to the plateau on top, parked and walked to the sidelines of our soccer game.  With the sounds of coaches and parents cheering children on, I took a deep breath and turned full circle.  The panorama was breathtaking.

To one side, a mountain dappled with colors of copper, rust and mustard, wispy white clouds creeping down the steep slope.  A crisp white church steeple completed the composition.  Ahead of me another mountain rose, it’s top wearing the season’s first coat of snow.

Next came a patch of turquoise sky the shape of an hourglass, which gave way to a view of the valley stretched out before me beneath layers of gray and white clouds with a single line of blue cutting horizontally through it all.  I studied the nuances in the clouds:  bright white, creams, grays and a stormy deep blue all layered together in soft yet majestic pattern.

A gentle breeze brushed my hair across my face as a sudden warmth touched my shoulders, evidence of the sun’s persistent efforts to penetrate the clouds.  Many miles south I saw a patch of sunlight.  The lake glistened with it, and three small, thin clouds  were suddenly bright enough to look as if they were the source, and not recipients, of the rays.

What a gift.  I shook my head in awe and wonder at God’s use of color and light.

I am so, so grateful to be alive.

Hopeful Homemaker

Three Words

My current job description between the hours of 2:30 and 7:00 p.m. each weekday can be summed up in three words:

SMILE AND DRIVE.

The driving part isn’t new, but there has been much more of it this year than in the past.  The smiling part is something I’m consciously working on.  When I start feeling stressed about how to make a 25 minute drive in 10 minutes so someone doesn’t end up stranded at one activity or another, I remind myself that smiling is half the job.  I make myself smile at the road ahead of me, and sure enough!  I feel better.  It works.  It’s true that forcing a genuine smile on your face can improve how you feel about life.

On a recent Thursday I took pictures of all the drop offs in an afternoon.  It went something like this.


Band Rehearsal.  (He looks thrilled, doesn’t he?)


Gymnastics.


Activity Days (her first one!)


Activity Days (her second to last one.  I love the cheesy smile and the blue mouth) Insert hail storm while we drove to pick everyone up from round 1 activities so they could change clothes in the car and go directly to round 2 while things like this happen.


Gratefully, the rain stopped.


Soccer Practice.


Lacrosse.


Soccer Practice.

Around again to gather them all in and head home for dinner at the lovely hour of 8 p.m.

Like I said, it’s my season of  “smile and drive.”  Life is good.

Hopeful Homemaker

Best Birthday Party

Earlier this week I blogged about my sweet 8 year old’s birthday party.  It was the most enjoyable party I’ve ever given,  so I thought I’d share what we did.  For any of you out there who have girls in the 8, 9 or even 10 year old range, I highly recommend it.  I don’t think that a girl needs to like dolls to enjoy this activity, either, although an affinity for American Girl dolls doesn’t hurt!


It’s the Samantha Mystery Party Game, made by American Girl.  It takes an American Girl character, surrounds her with friends and gives them a problem to solve.  The story is made into a script, and your daughter and her friends each take a role.  You assign them their part in their invitation so they can come to the party dressed as their character.


The game comes with 8 invitations, 8 role cards, 8 scripts, clues to hide and a parent’s guide that tells you everything you need to know and do in order for the mystery to play out.  From start to finish, it was simple and easy to do.  It took us only minutes to prepare the invitations.  All of the girls were so excited to come, and several of their moms commented to me on how curious their daughters (and sisters) were.


On the day of the party, I got the house and clues ready.  When all the girls arrived, I gave them simple instructions, passed out name tags (which also came with the supplies) and gave them each a script.  They spent the next hour reading, prompting each other and acting out the play.  I spent that entire hour with a big grin on my face as I watched these darling girls read their lines, trying to infuse them with the right emotion.  Most of them read their lines well, but occasionally when there was a new word or if someone was shaky they came to each other’s rescue in a way that made my heart swell with gratitude for the sweetness of 7 and 8 year old girls.


Most of the action took place around the dining room table, but some clues had to be found in other rooms.  One of the clues had a morse code message that they had to decipher.   The mystery took  about an hour to complete.  It was a huge success.  All of them had a great time and each of them asked if they could take their script home with them after the party.


Unfortunately, American Girl no longer makes these Mystery Party Games.  They were made in 2005.  I found mine on ebay.  A Mystery Party Game was also made for the American Girls Kit and Molly.  After reading the simple description of all three, we settled on Samantha and I’m happy with that choice.  It was perfect for an 8 year old girl’s birthday party.  I’m seriously considering purchasing a second one to save for a few years down the road.  After all, my 8 year old has three younger sisters!  My older two daughters were also talking about how much fun it would be to each invite a couple of friends over on a rainy day and solve one of the mysteries for fun.

And now, just because the sweetness of each little face bent over a script was too much for me, I’ll finish this post with a photo of each of our guests that day.




















Absolutely adorable!

Jennifer

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