Museum of Natural History

This place was gorgeous!













I love big cities...so many great places to go...especially great in the winter. :)










We spent most of the day here, wandering around the outdoor exhibits when the weather permitted.










The view from our hotel, overlooking the Cleveland city hall (center), the Browns stadium (on the far left), and Lake Erie (blue stuff in the background). hehe









Sunset over Lake Erie (and the Cleveland Browns stadium).






Stay tuned for Day 3...

The Children's Museum of Cleveland

I've run out of photos to post - yahoo! Finally, something I'm caught up on. :)

Not to fear, though, dear readers (all 6 of you!)...I saved photos from a trip to Cleveland we took right after we moved, back in April.

I know what you're thinking...how could I have taken a trip to an exotic locale like Cleveland and not mentioned it before now??

I'm just nice that way...didn't want to make anyone jealous. :)

Our first day was spent at an awesome children's museum, with lots of things to play with, climb on, and pretend.








This ship's masting was so very cool.
















A cute snaggletooth grin, no?












Tracy volunteering to be the patient just so he can lie down for a few minutes.












Dinner with Keith, a good friend of ours from Missouri that lives in Cleveland now.












The sleeping diva.




Stay tuned for Day 2....

Jed's Monster

Mrs. Smith gave us a set of Cuisenaire rods a while back. I appreciated her generosity, but I was at a loss to know what to do with them. And I was too embarrassed to ask her, seeing as how she has a math degree and probably plays with Cuisenaire rods in her sleep, while I had never even seen them before.

Suffice it to say that math genius, I am not.

So I had them out one day and was doing the only reasonable thing a, um, shall we say, challenged person can do in such a situation...I was looking for help on the internet.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, Jed was using the Cuisenaire rods to practice his mad scientist skillz with the creation of...

Cuisenaire Man

Famous quotes from Cuisenaire Man:

You are my creator, but I am your master—obey!
Beware; for I am intelligent, and therefore powerful.
Don't bother to scream.

For the geniuses out there...which quote is not real? (no Googling!)
And Mrs. Smith - please excuse my dear Aunt Sally (ha!)

All Things Bright and Beautiful

I started reading Design Mom a while back and was immediately hooked. However, occasionally I was a little put off by the uber-expensive things I found featured there.

I might have even left a comment to that effect.
If so, it was only after someone else was brave enough to comment on the issue.

Design Mom addressed this issue in an eloquent and elegant way. Since I can't find the original post, I'll have to paraphrase her by saying she posts beautiful things on her blog, not as an encouragement to indulge but simply because she likes knowing there are beautiful things in this world.

I love that!

It reminded me of the absolutely stunning art journal of my artist friend Kitten, into which goes pictures from catalogs and magazines of things she finds particularly beautiful or inspiring. So now, all those catalog clippings I've saved depicting achingly exquisite but painfully expensive items don't have to be a source of frustrated desire anymore. I can have them all...in my new art journal.

In that vein, I want to share with you one of the first clippings going in my journal...this gorgeous leaf lamp. It's sold by Cinnabar Online if you have the urge to splurge. Me? I'm happy just looking at the picture.

And I have an idea that looking through my journal will be more exciting to me than any pleasure I would have gained from owning something in it.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I'm sure you've all been tingling with curiosity to know how my garden {and I use that term loosely} fared this summer.

No?

Perhaps you don't recall how modest things looked at the beginning.





If you do, you probably had no hope of us ever reaping the fruit of our labors. I know I didn't.

And to be honest, things stayed somewhat on the modest side through the entire growing season (all two weeks of it) (just kidding) (but only a little), but I'm genuinely pleased that the plants lived at all.

It doesn't take much to make me happy. :)



This might look like an odd angle in the picture, but it's actually accurate...the weight of the three tomatoes on the plant pulled it over.

Note to self: stake the plants next summer.

You might have noticed something missing...alas, the brussel sprouts didn't make it. And there are two people living under my roof who are still celebrating the day they heard that sad news.

In the Doghouse

Jed's friend Grace came over last week and we celebrated Jed's birthday with an impromptu party.

I just about melted when I saw the darling birthday card she made. She even drew seven candles on the birthday cake!

The folks on the right are her and her parents, labeled lest there be any confusion. :)

I don't know if all little girls are like Grace, but she sure makes me want one awful bad.



This is Grace and Jed pretending to be dogs in the doghouse.

I'm not sure what part of a dog's behavior Jed is trying to imitate, but I think it's quite evident that he hasn't spent much time around them. :)

Thank you for your kind comments and well-wishes for Jed...he's feeling better today, with just a cold now. No tears for that!

She Shall Be Known by Her Fruit

There is a dear sister in our church that brings fruit as a gift for every family in attendance at our mid-week prayer meeting.

Most weeks it involves work on her part, in addition to her time and finances. Cutting up watermelon, pineapple, and cantaloupe are chores I don't enjoy, and it makes me appreciate her kindness all the more.

Fall weather has made apples the fruit of choice lately - and they don't require any cutting. :)

However, it doesn't look like we'll be sinking our teeth into any honeycrisps or fujis this week...this little guy is sick. Crying as I put him to bed because he felt so bad.

Hope they'll be praying for him tomorrow night.

Auld Lang Syne

I talked with an old friend this afternoon, and it was so very, very good. {Thanks, Diane!}

She asked about the house we're renting, and it made me realize I hadn't yet posted the pictures I took of it recently.

Here are a few of my favorites:

This is the view of the house that greets us as we enter through the mud room {mud room in Maine - awesome!}.

The dining room table is in the original part of the house, and the living area beyond that (including the stairs and the loft above them) used to be a porch and a shed that were incorporated into the house when it was renovated a few years ago.




This is my favorite room of the house, although I don't spend as much time in it as I would like. It's a tiny bedroom, but the perfect size for my supplies and a work table. I love the exposed brick and the old floor. I just wish it looked this neat in real life.








Paintings by Brad Davis. Not for sale.

Just in case you were wondering. :)















The upstairs bathroom is so cute...and get a load of that tub! It's hard to get Jed out of it.

Happy Halloween

Trick-or-Treating 2010

It's elementary, my dear Watson.

Boo!

A-Mazing!

Jed, his friend Grace, and I went to a corn maze today - and it was a first for all of us! And, it was just a few miles down the road from our house. And, it was free!

And it was cool out, and there was the smell of wood smoke in the air, and there was pumpkins and hayrides and cider.

And it was a great afternoon.





















































The End.

Showers of Blessings

I was blessed to host a wedding shower last month for a widow in our church. She's been through a lot of difficulty, and it is such a delight that the LORD has given her a husband.

This was a dessert affair, and I was pretty happy with how things turned out, except for the cake. The wedding colors were pale turquoise and peach, like sea glass, and I tried to make the cake to match. I think I'll leave it to the experts next time. :)



These young ladies were quite the show-stoppers. They were flower girls in a family wedding the day before, in these matching dresses. So sweet!

Signs of Fall

Missouri Trouble is one of my favorite blogs, written by my spinning, weaving, knitting, gardening and letterboxing friend Jenny. In addition to her artistic talents, she is a gifted storyteller with an ability to spin a magical yarn.

She had one such post recently that included a fascinating photograph of spiderwebs down by her pond (click here to see). I am enchanted by the picture and the story Jenny wove around it. I'm also grateful, because I'm sure it heightened my awareness and appreciation when I discovered my very own spiderweb yesterday, glistening with raindrops in my kitchen window. I'm not sure I would have even noticed it before reading her post.







While I had my camera out, I took a couple of other pictures that highlight the changing season in our neck of the woods. This is the scene in my favorite corner of our backyard.






And these are my favorite plants ever - Japanese lanterns. I have a huge bunch of them in a metal container in the living room and have enjoyed them every single day. I harvested the seeds from a few dozen of them that didn't make it into the arrangement, and I'm looking forward to growing my own next year.

Happy Birthday Brad

Eleven days after Jed's birthday, I'm remembering another birth day that is close to my heart.











This boy made me a mama, and he stole my heart from the first. I never knew I could find that much joy in another human being...and he continued to be a joy to me all the years he was growing up.











Now he's going to be a daddy. I can only hope he will enjoy his little one as much as I did him.











Happy Birthday, Brad. I love you the most!

A Little Piece of Paradise

We discovered a cute little park near where we live now, complete with playgrounds, picnic tables, a creek and rocks. Life is good!