Tales of a Shoebox Princess

It's a Sunday morning, I have an hour before I have to leave for church, my Sunday School lesson is prepared, the kids get themselves ready for church, I've eaten lunch, so now what? Blog! It's almost the end of the school year, which means I tend to think about how old my babies are and wonder where the time went. Hayley is almost done being a junior and Matt is almost done being a freshman. I started this blog back in 2008 when Katie was just graduating, and Matt was in 3rd grade. It boggles the mind. Ok enough of that. I gots pictures. Band concert in the gym. Matt looked all nice and I think he knew where I was sitting. Trombonist in action   This was taken at the Robotics end-of-the-year banquet. The girl sitting next to Matt had no problem being photographed. Matt, on the other hand, would not cooperate. This was the best shot I could get of him. Matt and the KING TeC robot. I don't remember the name they gave it. Matt helped a little b...

I'm in danger of turning my own personal Valentine's day into Christmas-like intensity. It's been that way for a few years. I don't know why I like to have so much personal satisfaction sunk into Feb 14. And it's not about what's in it for me as much as what's in it for me when I watch the kids do their treasure hunt and what's in it for me when I sit down to a heart-shapes-and-shades-of-red-infested table at dinner time. I guess I do it for love. And if that isn't a bad pun, I don't know what is. I just love to do it. I love making up puzzles. Thankfully the kids are receptive to the idea of brain teasers and tests of random knowledge based on family favorite TV shows, movies, and silliness mixed in with general knowledge. A small sampling of the puzzle clues from this year's treasure hunts for Matt and Hayley: Where souffle girl crash landed The poltergiest who fears only the Bloody Baron The message John thought he got from the f...

at the MN State Fair. In fact I was so NOT lost. I was the opposite of lost. A less lost person you could not find at the fair today. I say this because there are people out there who equate me at the state fair with getting lost. I shall not deny that once upon a time, I did get separated, unintentionally, from the people I came to the fair with, which caused consternation and concern, especially on my part. Several times.  BUT no more! I can navigate up and down Dan Patch Ave, through the horticulture/agriculture building, and in and out of the creative arts building.  I can tell the arena from the cattle building and the sheep building, I can pick out the two end points of the sky ride. I know where several of the less disgusting bathrooms are, and I can steer through the crowds in the food building without becoming panicky, and I know which end to exit to get to certain roads. Jim did his annual stint volunteering at the Little Farm Hands booth with his company, and Ma...

I keep thinking that I'm going to update Paul's countdown daily, but it hasn't happened that way. There is too much to do. Like right now, I'm making icing. Just a sec while I pour in another cup of powdered sugar. K I'm back. This is batch one of the icing. I still need 2 more batches. And I need 2 or 3 more batches of ground beef cooked. Maybe another block of cheese grated. All this for Paul's farewell. You're coming, I hope? Anyway, since I don't blog like I used to, I'm going to offer up some pictures. Just a few. And I'll probably blog even less when Paul leaves, mostly because I'll be keeping up two missionary blogs for a while. Here Paul eats a Juicy Lucy. It was his request to eat a Juicy Lucy. He got to go to the 5-8 Club again today for lunch with Jim, Granddaddy, and Matt. This picture is not associated with Paul in any way. It's just a picture of Lemmy. It looks like the crockpot is on, but it wasn't plu...

Sometimes I forget how nice it is to leave the house and go on little excursions. It is really hard to leave the house sometimes when I'm not working. I get stuck in a rut and think that I have to do "this" or "that" first before I leave and then if I finish "this" and "that" then I'm too tired to go anywhere. But somehow today, Jim and I left the house. 50% of the children we coerced into going with us didn't really want to go, but in the end, the child was pleasant and didn't fuss too much. It helped that we promised ice cream. We went to a little gem of a park in Minneapolis--Minnehaha Falls. With all the rain, it is greener than I have ever seen it into late June, and the creek was running at high capacity. Minnehaha Creek I've never seen it this full. I've been here a couple times, both during drought years when there has been but a trickle and a stinky smell. Not this year--it was lovely and refreshing....

When asked if they would like to dye eggs this year, the three remaining at-home children all expressed very little enthusiasm. But I bought egg dye anyway. Good thing I did because at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night, all three kids wanted to dye eggs. See, this just adds to the hoarder impulses I have. "You need to buy that just in case," my brain tells me, because heaven forbid we disappoint the 18-, 16- and 14 year olds by not having colorful hard boiled eggs on Easter Sunday. For $2, I couldn't argue very much, although I don't mind disappointing the teenagers once in a while. Dyeing eggs with teenagers means that we aren't making them look pretty with cute little Easter bunnies or chicks. Hayley's theme this year was Pokemon creatures and a TARDIS . Paul chose his two eggs to be checkerboard, one of which involved several steps including tape, and Matt just did random scribbles, one that was nearly completely black (colored by crayon) and a Pokeball.  Jim...

I've decided that I need to go to more book signings. They seem to be a lot of fun. Last Sunday as I was perusing the Variety section of the paper, I happened upon a listing for a book signing for an author Matt really likes at a St Paul bookstore. In amazing alignment of the planets, we were totally free last night when the signing took place. I was so glad to be able to go; I feel like I don't do much with the kids anymore because I'm so dang busy all the time. Woe to me. Anyway, we got to the signing nice and early and grabbed a prime spot. The bookstore is a small one and they had only about 25 chairs set up. I wondered if they really expected that few people--this author is a "#1 New York Times bestseller!" (His name is Brandon Mull) And I was right. There ended up being closer to 100 people there, most of them ages 8-12. Matt was one of the older kids in the room. He definitely had the deepest voice. Brandon Mull was fun to listen to. He told us a li...

Some of you might know about my traditional Valentine's day treasure hunts for my kids. This is definitely not that. This is for people who kiss each other a lot, for example, married people. I do not want my children (except the one who is married) playing this game. This is an idea I have had in my head for a few days, one that I shared with someone recently. I told this someone that first you get 3 dice. They don't have to be matching. Heck, you can even use those ridiculous 20-sided ones if you choose, although I would recommend that two of the three be the regular 6-sided ones. Steal them from the Yahtzee game you have lying around. Don't have a Yahtzee game???? What? Every household needs a Yahtzee game! Go get one! One of the dice will remain as it is (if you have a 20 sided one, that will be the one that will remain untouched). Get a pen and some paper. I'm using pink and purple cardstock just because it was the first paper I found. Cut out 12 squ...

I have a good friend Pam who loves to have parties. (I suggest you all get yourself a friend who likes to have parties) I was feeling a little down and out a few months ago when I realized that Kate would be having bridal showers without me. I was not despondent, but the corners of my mouth were turned down just a hair more than normal. But this good friend of mine, sensing in herself the opportunity to host a party, approached me and asked if she could plan and throw Katie a Skype bridal shower. (Y'all know what Skype is, right?) I thought what a fun idea! I could be a part of a bridal shower for my daughter using the wonders of technology!  And my good friend did not disappoint! She goes all out to decorate. We'll start off the picture fest with one of ME. Because you all need a little more me in your life, right? The table. On the right are candies that are either purple (who knew that purple Twizzlers existed?) or wrapped in purple foil Macaroons--YUMMY! ...