A Day at Connie's

Connie, my friend from church who lives out on the Tres Hermanas ranch, near Salado, invited three of us to her home yesterday for lunch and to teach us the basics of encaustic painting. Encaustic painting involves applying melted colored wax (such as crayons) to a surface in order to create either abstract or realistic art (or a real "mess," which is how mine turned out).

Before we left for the day, Connie walked with us, out onto her property, and helped us identify a lot of the wildflowers currently in bloom in the meadows.

Thank you, Connie, for a beautiful day!

Breakfast with Friends

Tuesday morning we met for breakfast with our Georgetown friends, Milt and Susie, and our mutual college friends from Montana, Dave and Sharon, who were down here visiting their daughter and son-in-law.

Many years ago (about 39 years ago) we all met up at Dave's parents' home, in California. Here are a few comparison photos.

Far left in green dress: Susie. Next to her, in white: Me. Behind me, holding child: Dan. Lady in pink: Sharon. Next to her: Dave. Far right: Milt.  The children in the picture are Tim (held by Dan), Andrea - our foster daughter (held by me), Chris in front of me, Dave and Sharon's son at right. (The extra young man, next to Dan, is one of Dave's brothers, as I recall.)

Above is the picture taken this week. Left to right: Dave, Sharon, Susie, Milt, Linda, Dan. 

Below are two pictures just of "the girls." We are in the same order in both photos, left to right: Linda, Susie, Sharon.

Easter 2018

Easter weekend was full of life, chatter, energy and laughs around here. Chris, Kelsey and the children arrived around noon on Friday and stayed through lunch on Sunday.

Kelsey has been wanting me to take some family portraits, outdoors, for some time now. Every time we plan it, something happens to bring it to a halt. This time it was the wind. Although it was warm and pretty outside, the wind would have played havoc with hair and dresses. 

Saturday was egg dying day. Besides the traditional egg dye, we also tried putting color on the eggs using an "egg spinner." It worked, but wasn't really a hit. 

The Easter Bunny had no problem finding our house and hid eggs indoors this year.  First, the kids looked through their Easter baskets, which were full of fun little gifts and chocolate bunnies. In Clara's basket was a new charm for her bracelet - a cute little silver bunny. Among the most popular of the basket trinkets were these marvelous glasses, which we all had to try on, for laughs, at one time or another over the weekend

Then it was time to hunt for the candy-filled eggs, hidden in the house. It was surprising how quickly the two of them managed to find them all.

Sunday morning saw us all having breakfast at Starbuck's, where Dan and I always begin our Sunday morning. Then we were on to church. I was really happy that Robert, who is in second grade, was the right age to be in my K-2 Bible class. 

When we got back home we took a few family snapshots before changing into our "play clothes." Notice, in the last photo, how much taller Clara is than me now!

Our Easter lunch was not exactly a traditional one. Dan grilled burgers, brats and dogs on the grill. I used up some of the Easter eggs in a big potato salad. 

Sadly, the time for the Houston Judds to hit the road came very quickly. And so ended another Easter weekend. As much as I love having them here, I always find myself pretty tuckered out after one of these whirlwind weekends with the kids. I guess that's why I gave into the urge to take a mid-afternoon siesta. 

Today is Monday, and it's back to routine. Routine isn't nearly as fun as the pandemonium of a grandkid visit!