Light blond hair and blue eyes with pretty speckles
Vocabulary surprises
Library trip after library trip
Lego acquisition
Piano compositions and performances
Insights well beyond his years
Rocks, screws, pieces of plastic, air soft pellets, and legos in the laundry
INVENTIONS!
MACHINES!
SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS!
Drawings of space ships and factories
A helper in the yard
Someone with a screwdriver handy
Baseball
Rock collecting
We went to the Desert Museum for school on Wednesday. Paige took these photos.
Dear Family,
I’d like to share some of the research I have been doing about an ancestor. I’ve written this post as if I were her. See if you can guess who she is. -A.R.
This is a picture of me when I was a baby in San Francisco. My parents were Wilhelmina and Emil. People called my mom, “Mina,” which rhymes with “Tina.” Papa worked as the first officer for the Southern Pacific Ferry. I was born in America after my parents left Sweden. I was their second child. Their first child passed away. These were my shoes:
We survived the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. Here is a silver pitcher which was partially burned.
This is a picture of me and my mother, Mina. My dad passed away in his early fifties. My mother worked hard to support the family. She was a wonderful cook.
I trained as a nurse. I kept detailed journals and photo albums, newspapers, magazines, and letters. I always lived a frugal life and enjoyed the benefits of saving money. I married a widower and raised his daughter. Her mother had died of consumption. Here is a picture of me during the 1920’s.
Here are the war ration books from WWII that I saved. The two stars on my pin represent my brother and cousin who went to war. My cousin Harvey died suddenly after coming home from the war from some shrapnel in his body. My brother, Lloyd served in the Philippines. I spent time making USO scrapbooks.
I wrote notes to Presidents, including Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy and kept each reply. I wrote to Jackie Kennedy when her husband died and she sent a thank you note. I wrote to J. Edgar Hoover and had a letter signed by him, as well.
I loved animals and kept birds and cats. I took very good care of my husband and daughter. We lived in Berkeley. My husband worked in the hardwood flooring business. When they built the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), they tore down our home to make a path for it. This was heartbreaking to me.
Here is a picture of me in 1975, near the end of my life.
Do you know who I am?
I am Cerie, the wife of Axel, mother to Ruth.
Doesn’t this picture just deserve a post? What shall I write about? Hmmmmm….
It’s been a week of spiritual highs for me. I’ve been savoring some of the moments and inspiration that have come to me this week but these things are not something easily shared. They’re still simmering, you see? If I were living where I’d rather be living (I’ll just keep the location my little secret), I’d be out walking right now and there would be colorful leaves on which I could gaze. I’d wander to my favorite spots, visit the old trees and smile at the people I met along the way. I think more deeply when I walk. Are you that way, too?
I think I live in Sahuarita to work patience into my soul. I find myself waiting… all. the. time. Don’t worry. We’re not waiting for life to get happy or something like that. It’s just that we have had to learn to wait weeks at a time to get a book we want or to find the time to “drive up tuh town fer supplies” (our neighbors say this in fun). There are other less trivial things for which we wait, too.
Maybe I’m in my last steps to the purchase of a Kindle. Or maybe this post is a reminder to be thankful for the little things, like a corner fabric store nearby or a book supplier near you.
Or maybe this post is about remembering this little truth: Even if I lived in the place I wish I could live, it wouldn’t change the essentials in my life. My real treasures are within my home & church. Living here has helped me focus on my family and that was exactly the thing for which I prayed just before Raytheon contacted Richard. My prayers have always been answered, so I try to be careful not to ask for anything too selfish. And this doesn’t mean answers have been immediate, or the way I thought they should be. But that’s a lesson in patience, too, isn’t it?
Patience without faith, though, is like trying to be warm without fuel. So, while I wait for many things, I’m trying to stoke my faith… So perhaps I’ll be ready when I don’t have to wait anymore.
Maybe you are having similar lessons in patience.
I hosted a beautiful party last night. I mean, the flowers matched the colorful drinks; the Boursin cheese and Carr’s wheat crackers were perfect, and the eclairs were exceptional. (If I do say so myself.) It was meant to be a mom’s night out for friends. I asked each woman to bring a bag with some objects that represent her. We took turns sharing what was in each bag. Gifts were exchanged. We were sad to have the evening end “so soon.”
We shared our faith, our challenges, our children, our dreams. Oh, boy, it was nice. Here are my friends who came:
I was grateful I had some extra treats to share with my family when I got home. We were so pumped up on SoBe pina colada and cheese and crackers, we got to bed really late.