Blintzed

Saturday morning pancakes, post FA Final (Chelsea vs. Everton).

Unbelievably tasty strawberries with just a bit of sugar.

One satisfied fan.

Blintz Pancakes

Sift together 1 cup of sifted all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add 1 cup plain yogurt, 1 cup small curd cottage cheese and 4 well-beaten eggs. Stir just till combined. Bake on hot, greased griddle. Stack cakes and serve with fresh berries. Yummm!

Road to Recovery - Day 3 after surgery

Good weather.


Good books.


Good tea.


Good stuff to look at. We think it is all helping Bern on the road to recovery.

Thanks for the Visit

Golden "Great" Bridge

Bridge to Pier 39
Wente Winery in Livermore

Sisters.

Action Jackson

Telling America what it's all about.Riding the Pier 39 Carousel
Working on a prop for his next adventure video.

One night Jackson vacuumed the crumbs off his bed--the most creative reason for why he couldn't get to sleep before midnight.

Visiting the "Golden Great Bridge" with Mum and Lucy.

We Love Lucy

Jelly Fish Love

I can't help sharing this underwater visual symphony.

Coolest fish at the Monterey Aquarium

This is a Dragon Sea Horse. So cool! You can see its head pointed down toward the left and its body curves upward. They spend their lives camoflaged as sea weed.

Good thing my Dad taught me how to drive...

Rebekah, Lucy and Jackson meet their first Sheriff. Jackson was most impressed by finding himself face to face with a real gun in its holster.

I hit this box-spring mattress at 65 mph just after changing into the center lane on Hwy 101 north. Because I had just changed lanes, I knew I had cars on my right and left and close behind me, so I had to drive on through. Following the impact I looked over my right shoulder and, miraculously, saw a gap in the traffic through which I eased the car onto the shoulder of the highway. The car was handling really rough and making a lot of dragging noise, I so I said to Rebekah, "I think we have a flat."

She jumped out to comfort Jackson who was getting pretty worked up in the back seat, then she called out to me that the mattress was still under the car and might catch fire. Seconds later I was across the front seat, out the passenger side door and had Lucy out of her car seat and in my arms. We moved down the embankment as far as we could and were able to see that the car was not catching fire. Then a sheriff (or deputy sheriff) arrived and let me use his flashlight to call AAA. We also talked to Bern who made his way back to us with Jan in his car. (We had too many people for one car, so he had driven his Lexus and I was following him).

1 1/2 hours later the tow truck lifted my car off the mattress which immediately sprung back open and got shoved the rest of the way off the road. My car was fine, another miracle.

The next morning in my Quiet Time I gave heartfelt thanks that everything turned out the way it did. Then I realized that not only had I safely gotten my car out of a sticky situation, but had also cleanly removed the hazard from the highway. So who's prayers for safety was God really answering in that moment, ours or those of someone traveling behind us? It doesn't matter. It was God's will for things to go the way they did.

I also realized that we came very close to a very different outcome from this accident. It was sobering to think that if something worse had happened, I would still have been required to give thanks to God who is sovereign over all things in my life. The real test of my faith is in being willing to acknowledge Him as Lord in all things, even the outcomes that I don't prefer. The passengers in my car that evening know this even more intimately than I do. For their sake and the sake of their family, I was grateful that we were surrounded by grace and protection in those crazy moments on the highway.

Lego toys take a bath

It's been a lot of years in the dark container in the garage.

First step, into lingerie bags and a wash on the delicate cycle.

Then out to the garden to dry...

and stretch out in the sun.

(Note the cheerful little fellows in the lower left corner who have been through the wars).

Done.

The garage is clean and organized now.

Almost everything you see belongs to one of our kids.

Fun stuff to look at, but a bear to organize!

What to do with these bears...

I have been cleaning the garage for two days (!). There are dozens of boxes of carefully preserved toys, school papers, journals and child-sized artwork. Among the stuff I have been trying to make decisions about are these bears. I thought I would tell their stories while I think it through.

When Andrew turned three years old, Grandma Carson sent him money to buy a teddy bear. He and I went shopping and he looked and looked until he found the biggest bear in the store. It was nearly as tall is he was.

It came home and joined Raggedy Andy who had been a birthday present the year before. Raggedy Andy has held up well because he has always had a place in the house, but Bear has been moved around a lot and gotten pretty dusty and battered. He was Andrew's constant companion for a few years in those early days.

These three guys belonged to Jonathan. The first one was a Christmas present from me when Jonathan was one month old. The second one was a gift from friends when he was born. The third one joined up a little while later, maybe as a gift from visiting grandparents. The distiction these bears have is that they starred in a story I wrote for Jonathan when he was about three years old. He was into destroying his room everyday at nap time and after many attempts to persuade him not to do that, I wrote him a story called "Jonathan and the Bears".

I kept these bears thinking that I would use them as models to illustrate "Jonathan and the Bears", but so far that hasn't happened. Anyway, here are the Thompson Bears. There is one more, but he went to be with his owner several weeks ago and I didn't remember to take his picture. His name is "Friendly" and he belongs to Matthew. Melody doesn't have a particular Bear in the garage, but some of her dolls and Polly Pockets may show up here someday.

I know this is a lot of sentimental nonsense, but it's my job to clean the garage and I can't help remembering where things came from and what they mean.

V.I.B. (Very Important Birthday)

April 18, 2009, Bern's birthday dinner with family at Cafe Esin...

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April 19, Small Group dinner at home with friends...

Joe & Barb Miller (Barb made the cake)

Brian Elchinoff, Cindy, Clinton and Chad Nash

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Happy, happy birthday, Bern!!

Mr. MacRobie

I got the pattern for this tea cozy at The Attic, a fabric shop in Gualala. I knitted it up for Stephanie (in a variation of her favorite color) and added the ladybug decoration by sewing a snap closure to it. By the way, I got the yarn at a shop in Lake Oswego where Kristin buys her knitting and crocheting supplies.

I made it to fit a teapot that Stephanie and I each bought in New Zealand in 1998. We got the teapots at Mr. MacRobie's shop in Blenheim. It was a wonderful little shop with bits of everything from small appliances to buttons. Once I wandered around in it behind a lady who kept talking to her husband, saying things like:

"Morris, what do you think of this? Do we need this, Morris?

Oh, Morris, look here. Morris, should we get one of these, Morris?"

It occurred to me that Morris might be wishing he could change his name.

When Bern and I were in New Zealand in 2001, we went looking for MacRobie's shop, but couldn't find it. We stopped for a cup of tea at a place nearby and asked the server what had become of it. She said very kindly, "Oh, yes, dear, old Mr. MacRobie. He died this past year and his shop is shut now. We miss him very much. Such a shame."

I am very pleased to say that I never failed to buy something from dear, old Mr. MacRobie whenever I was in Blenheim. His inventory was fascinating, high-quality and useful. I wish there were more places like his around these days.