Wombat Rescue

Recent fires in Australia have revealed surprising behavior in the reclusive wombat.

Wombat Rescue (49 words)

Australian ablaze!

Fire crackles. Wombat huddles in his safe tunnel, alone.

Echidna waddles near.

Smoke chokes. Wombat snuffles in his safe tunnel, alone.

Echidna squeaks.

Wombat peeks. Then dives into his safe tunnel, alone.

Echidna follows. Eyes meet. Wombat retreats.

Wombat and Echidna hide in the safe tunnel. Together.

The Frog princess or How to Unkiss a Prince

The Frog Princess or How to Unkiss a Prince

Belch! I was a fine fat frog.

Along wanders this prince...

...he gives me one kiss and...

Now I am a pouty princess.

Squatting on the Royal Throne is a royal pain.

The banquet food doesn't even move.

Hopping in the Royal Fountain has...consequences.

"I was a fine fat frog. Would you mind unkissing me?"

"That kiss-a-frog thing was mom's idea. I'm curious, Why were you a frog?"

"A witch put a curse on me."

"Let's find the witch and reverse the curse!"

He was unprepared for the journey.

"Are you going to eat that bug?"

"These things are really good when they are fresh."

Eventually we fell in love, just like any other fairy tale. On that day we found the witch's house.

"I want to be a frog," I said.

The witch was stirring her cauldron.

"Try kissing. It worked last time," she mumbled.

So we did and....

"I'm a frog again!" I trilled.

"So am I!" the prince croaked.

The witch cackled, "I need four frog legs for this potion."

Jump!

"Oh, croak!" I chirruped. "Did you want to be a frog?"

"I like the snapping tongue."

"How about a fresh minnow with a side of flies?"

"This is great! My sister can run the kingdom."

"Have a dragonfly!"

"Belch!"

summer sorting

It always seems like the long days of summer are perfect for sorting photographs. I can make messy piles on every surface and no one cares. And if someone stops by, they want to see...themselves!

That was enlightening a year ago when I was meticulously putting pictures in notebooks by year, documenting all that has gone in since bob and I married in 2001. Annuals... That's how I lived it! (And it is helpful to have annual pictures on the wall so I can remember what year we got the cat, when the baby was born, etc.)

Which always jogs the fact that faced with this task when my folks were alive, they opted to dump them all in garbage bags and put them on the curb rather than go through the motions of sorting. I know they thought they were relieving us of the burden, but..... Here is one of the very few we have managed to collect.

SO in thinking about a time the children will have to sort all this.....I realized what they all want are pictures of themselves! Siblings and cousins are nice, but even the "that is soooo embarrassing!" picture become treasures - after enough years. And I plan to live long enough to have those years!

So I reorganized the boxes of loose photos by person. (Have not yet broken up the books...) Then as each child visits we can get out his/her box (and his/her mother's just for fun) and remember.

Now totally digitalized, I guess my next task is a thumb drive of each one. Maybe this summer...or next.

 

Face Time!

I am usually 2-3 steps behind the curve on technology - twitter is dizzying and Instagram a mystery. But Face Time is great! We have a long gap between visit to see grandblessings - they will all be around later in the summer - but Sunday night the Adorables in Iowa FT'd me. I can get carried all over the house, watch the Little Guy shoot baskets, catch up on the Big Girl's summer reading. Even got a glimpse of Dad on Father's Day and Mom arriving home with pizza! For long distance grandparents, it is an easy (believe me!) and wonderful tool!

Not as good a hug, but you can blow kisses!

Graduations and reunions

The Baby - as James will be through his life! - completed Kindergarten this year. That means he will be out of High School in  - oh - 2029? Goodness I hope I get to see that!

More immediate to my thoughts is my own 50 year reunion this weekend. Questions, anticipations - and worries. How different my grandchildren's experiences will be from mine! Carbon paper, mandated skirt length, reading Great Expectations, hot days unrelieved by AC, one dial telephone for the whole family.

Something will be the same even if James is transported in a time machine to his ceremony. Uncertainty about the self, opinions that differ for his folks,' questions about the future, and teachers who no matter how long they have been teaching are "really, really old"!

I hope at the core of who all the children are is a sense of being God' child first - unscarred by words of evaluations of others, but secure in the love of God for each of them, whom
ever they are becoming.
 

Luther Land!

We are headed off to Germany - including the Wittenberg sights. Got my address labels for postcards to the kids!
 

When our lives are histroy

The HS granddaughter called last night - paper due on Friday. She wanted to ask us about The War. You know - the Vietnam War. The one we lived through. The one that shaped our lives and decisions at the time and, for many, for a lifetime. At several points in our relaying our experiences she said, "I read about that in our History book."

Huh.

I guess there are events I lived through worthy of becoming history, but I am still out there making it! Here I am teaching English and visiting temples in Vietnam in Summer 2015!