Timberline Lodge

While Sean and I were visiting Mt. Hood last month we took a last minute detour on the way home.  Timberline Lodge is a very cool piece of Oregon history and quite a sight to see. 

When I was in high school I had to do a cultural event.  One of those things where you have to prove you went somewhere, um . . . cultural.  I recall procrastinating this assignment until the last possible weekend (that would be the first of June) and my family drove up the mountain so I could get a couple of brochures to prove I had been there.  This was not on of my finer scholarly moments.  All I remember about the day was I put on shorts in the valley because it was nice and warm, and when I got out of the car at the top of the mountain I was blasted with freezing cold air.  I ran in, grabbed the brochures, jumped in the car, and we drove back down the mountain.  Pathetic, I know.  But I appreciate my parents driving me all the way up there on a Saturday to save my English grade.

This time was completely different.  And so fun.  It was cold, for sure, but it was also just really neat and kind of disconcerting to see a place that should be covered in snow, covered in nothing but dirt and rocks.  You see, Timberline Lodge is at the timberline (brilliant, this name).  So when you look up the mountain from the lodge you see this:

Nothing but a bald rock.  But when you look down the mountain, you see this:

Beautiful, lush forest.  It’s kind of trippy.  A little unsettling.

The Lodge itself is massive, not only in size, but in feeling.  It’s not like a big fancy hotel that has a bazillion floors and lots of ballrooms and restaurants.  What I mean is when you walk inside

you just feel that mass.

This is a solid structure!  The Lodge was built in the 1930s as part of Pres. Roosevelt’s work projects.  Every part of this building is made from wood and stone.  And to help you get some perspective on the size of those beams (which are solid wood – perhaps more illustratively stated, solid tree trunks) . . .

Sean is not a little man.  Those things are massive!  The whole Lodge is like that.  From the rafters

To the staircases

To the furniture

As sad as it is that we could not reconstruct this building today even if we wanted to because the lumber resources are simply no longer available, in a way that also makes this place so special.  It is unique.  Not only to its setting up on the top of Mt Hood, but to its time.  My old high school has paintings in the theater lining the balcony section.  The paintings were done in the 30s as part of the FDR’s work projects.  I recently read a book about marvelous art that was created during the 30s that never would have happened had it not been for the Depression. 

It is inspiring to me to see places like this and the art at my high school and beautiful miniature rooms showcasing the talent of master craftsmen at the Art Institute of Chicago.  I can see their souls in their work.  Work they so desperately wanted to do.  Work that celebrated industry and beauty and craftsmanship.  I am in awe at their desire to give their all to whatever was laid before them.  And I am so grateful to have the privilege of experiencing it.

Sweet Sixteen

Sean and I recently celebrated our sixteenth wedding anniversary!  And what a sweet sixteen years it has been.  When I take into account all the ups and downs and everything in between, I am amazed at how the goodness and loveliness outweighs the sad and difficult times.

We were fortunate enough to spend a few days in a cabin right on the Sandy River.  It was gorgeous!  The cabin was perfectly sized and very comfortable.  And the views could not be beat.

My favorite spot was sitting in the hot tub, surrounded by a garden of lush foliage, listening to the river rush by.  It was so peaceful and so perfect.  And if the water wasn’t so hot that I felt like I was going to pass out after fifteen minutes, I am not sure I would have ever gotten out.

Just about every vacation I ask Sean if there’s room for my sewing machine because I have dreams of stitching up amazing creations while I’m away from my everyday cares.  Sometimes there’s room and sometimes there isn’t.  And even if there is room, I don’t always get around to pulling it out of the car to actually make anything.  Not so on this trip!  We watched Project Runway the first night (We do not have television at home, so Project Runway is something I only indulge in on vacations.  And in all truthfulness I watched PR while Sean clicked and clacked away beside me on his laptop dreaming up some brilliant new program.).  It was the kick in the pants I needed to spend the entire next day sewing jammies for Anna.  I honestly cannot remember the last time I have been able to spend a whole day sewing.  Even when I was working on Anna’s baptism dress in April, I had a brand new baby and four other little kids that needed their mommy off and on all day long, so the dress had to be worked on thirty minutes here and thirty minutes there.  I only sewed the one day, and that was enough, but it was so fun.

We went on lots of walks and visited the library (we sort of collect libraries on vacation) and watched a lot of football and stared at lots of leaves and changed lots of diapers (Elle’s still too little to leave for that long).  The mountains and river were the perfect background, the leaves trying to decide if it really is fall were beautiful, the time together was so needed. 

When Sean picked up the keys on our first day, the lady at the desk was trying to be all nice and conversational, talking about the reason for our trip.  Sean just kept saying (sort of hysterically), “We’re running away!  We left all of our kids and we’re running away!”  I think he sort of scared the poor woman.  But when he dropped off the keys she commented on how relaxed he looked and that the trip must have done its job. Even so, as we were packing up Sean kept saying, “I could use a few more days.”  I just think we’re crazy lucky we got any of it.

In the very, very early years of our marriage, Sean and I decided to set aside a certain amount of money each month for vacations.  It has made taking vacations completely guilt-free.  We never worry about the money because it has been set aside through out the year(s).  And that money is sacred!  We don’t borrow from it or touch it for anything else.  That has been a great decision that has blessed our family over and over.  It helps keep our family fun and our marriage strong, and I’m so grateful we’ve stuck to it.

Brookings

We managed to squeak in one last trip before school started.  Originally we discussed Washington, D.C., which whittled itself down to Salt Lake City, which whittled down even more into Brookings, OR.  We wanted to go someplace coastal that would be at least kind of warm and provide us with an opportunity to visit a National Park – the Redwoods.  Here are some of the highlights.

* story time with Grandpa (my dad has a knack for making making any simple children’s story ridiculously funny making story time a much anticipated event whenever Grandpa is around)
* a gorgeous, sunny, warm day at the beach which is no small feat here in the Pacific Northwest
* picnicking in Rogue River Park (over 25 years ago my parents sat on the banks of this river while on a family vacation and decided to move our family to Oregon)
* interviewing my dad and hearing wonderful stories about his life and my ancestors
* appreciating my mom’s knack for getting Elle to burst out in her newly discovered giggle (and giving Elle her very first taste of plum – she loved it!)
* our charming little beach house with roofs slanted so steeply upstairs that you could only walk down the middle of most rooms
* visiting the quiet chapel in Azalea Park that Anna researched for her “Sights to See in Brookings” project (which she did a fantastic job on)

* going up the Sky Tram and seeing the Redwood forest from the top – or at least seeing the mist of the forest from the top

* Sean and Djeryd and Erik and Grandma bringing us back delicious fresh fish from their deep blue sea expedition – which they vowed to never go on again (but man, that is good fish!)
* celebrating Erik’s birthday with tons of good food and the promise of a rock tumbler and a special personalized present from both his grandpas
* reading family scriptures together in the girls’ room every night (it was quiet, happy peace for my soul each day)
* remembering memories of my own childhood and making new ones for my children

Favorite Things

LuLu’s jam sessions with Elle

My little Goldilocks

Erik’s Arrow of Light is in the bag

Graduation to solid foods . . . and bibs

Alyx’s “Tinkerbell” toes

Craft projects that turn into something so much sweeter

Everyday with all of these

Football Fever

We are not big football fans around these parts.

But, believe it or not, it is something we are trying to correct.

It is a great tangible example of teamwork.

Something we want more of in our family.

So we’re playing football more.

And Elle’s cheering us all on.

Thoughts On a Monday Night

Sean is absorbed in a programming project, so basically it’s like I’m single at the moment.  I told him I don’t mind because once this little girl is born he will not have a chance to while away hours and hours writing code.  In the meantime, I find myself sitting here, tired of books and West Wing episodes and listening to 80’s love songs and contemplating a good use of my time tonight.  Erik gave a wonderful Family Home Evening lesson on journals tonight, so I guess I’m feeling like it would be valuable to post a bit of life at the moment. 

We’re down to the tail end of this pregnancy and, although contractions have all but stopped (perfect timing, right?), I now find myself feeling like I’ve been beaten with a baseball bat in some back ally somewhere.  It doesn’t usually last more than an hour or so, but it repeats itself a few times throughout the day and night.  I am really feeling way too old for this.  ;>  The upside is, sans contractions, I can actually get some things done during the day.  Yea!

Life is really wonderful, though.  I have felt uplifted and strengthened by power beyond my own.  We have been the recipients of little pockets of sunshine and love as people have randomly dropped off dinners or offered to take Alyx on an outing.  It has touched my heart.  Sometimes I feel like I have a Grinchy heart that is “three sizes too small”, but then stuff like this happens and I feel like my heart is going to burst.  And I want to do something to make sure the whole world feels this kind of love.

I brainstormed a little list in my daily notebook entitled “Scatter Sunshine” with ideas for doing just that – for helping people feel loved and watched over.  I find if I can focus on making life better for someone else it makes these long days of waiting go by a little bit faster, and more meaningfully.  Some days I do some good, and some days I don’t, and that’s okay – all I can do is try.  ;>

I know this is a ramble-y  little post.  And I applaud you if you made it all the way to the end without falling asleep or closing out the window.  Here’s to waiting and doing something while you wait.  ;>  My love to all you finishers.  ;>

A Little Light Reading

This is how we found her one night as we were all gathering down to dinner.

She insisted on reading an early childhood education book in order to expand her literary horizons.

Perhaps the material proved a little heavy for her.

Thankfuls

I just wrote four paragraphs about how hard my life is and how messy my entire house is.  Then I stopped, and looked back, and said, “This is a whiney post.”  And so I deleted it.  Because as I was writing about my physical limitations at the moment, I couldn’t help but think of people who are handicapped or permanently disabled or are dying.  And I thought, “Wow!  I am so blessed!”

Every night I write down at least three things I am grateful for.  Sometimes it is something specific to that day, like, “Sean made me a delicious gluten-free, dairy-free banana cake for my birthday today –YUM!” And sometimes it’s more general, like, “Hot water” or “My bed”.

I have so much to be grateful for . . . just to name a few:

*  Within a month this little baby will be out of my belly and in  my arms.

*  Books, books, and more books to while away the hours on my couch.

*  Having the strength and energy and freedom-from-pain long enough to make a whole dinner for my family all by myself.

*  Pencils and paper and pens and notebooks and my dayplanner to sketch and make lists and keep on top of the activities swirling around me.

*  Friends who remembered my birthday.

*  Reading all four Gospels over the past several months and spending a little part of each day walking with my Savior.

*  Finding opportunities to serve, even if they’re small and done from my little living quarters on the couch.

*  Red roses from Sean for Valentine’s Day.

*  Inspiring quotes and ideas (thank you, Pinterest) that help me be a better wife and mother.

*  Moments, that may be few and far between, where I feel so much love for my family I realize nothing in the world could be sweeter than the life I am living right this minute.

Of course, all these nice thoughts are helped along by the fact that the house is nice and quiet with little ones asleep.  The hard part for me is being grateful for all that stuff in the eye of my daily storm.  I’m one of those idiot people that keeps praying for patience – and the Lord lovingly obliges by giving me lots of opportunities to learn and practice patience.  (I’m failing miserably.)  In the meantime, I’ll keep counting my blessings.

Snow Days

Snow started falling Thursday afternoon.

And rapidly filled the yard.

It snowed, and snowed and snowed.

For three whole days.

And then it finally started to rain out Monday afternoon.

A perfect four day weekend.  Love those snow days.

Fringy Flower Jeans

While I do not get around to much sewing these days, I did manage to eek out a little patch job for Miss Anna.  Anna had a very sad looking pair of jeans that kept popping up right before she needed to walk out the door for school.  These were jeans with huge holes in the knees and an unflattering leg shape that just caused bunching at the hem (the jeans have the unflattering leg shape, not my daughter).  If the jeans were getting too short, we would have been in a similar situation with a similar solution.  I’m sure you have a pair or two floating around your house.

I attempted to patch a pair of Erik’s jeans last year and learned a valuable lesson or two.  My biggest problem with Erik’s jeans was that I cut the patches too small and sewed them on very closely to the edges of the holes.  Guess what happens when you do that . . . they rip right out.  Why?  Because the part of the jean the patch is being sewn to is already weak and falling apart – it cannot support the stress knees put on jeans.

With another pair of holey jeans (Anna’s this time), I tried making little iron-on patches with negligible success.  What did I learn?  The patches were (again)too small.  And my super-duper-bonding-iron-on glue was not strong enough for wash and wear.

This time I took all of that good mistake-experience and turned out a sturdy (and adorable) product.  First I cut out a nice big chunk of heavy denim from an old pair of my jeans to use as the support backing for the flower patches (the red and white fabric was glued to one of the denim rectangles).  Then ripped the exterior seam almost all the way up to the pockets so I could work with a flat surface.  I stitched the denim patches to the inside of the jeans, sewing deeply into the good jean fabric and staying away from the frayed, damaged fabric near the original holes.  Then I dug through my ribbons and ruffles scrap box and prettied up those patches.  I made sure the pretty parts were being stitched on all the way through the super-size denim patches inside the jeans.  The result was the patches have two or three concentric stitching rings attaching them to the good, sturdy fabric of the original jeans.

Lastly, to address the problem at the hem I cut strips about 3/8” apart from the hem to about 4”.  I saw this idea in a book called Naturally Fun Parties for Kids by Anni Daulter, and could not wait to try it out on a dying little pair of jeans that deserved a second chance at life.  They are all fray-ey and fuzzy and soft now that they’ve been through the wash a few times.

These are Anna’s current favorite jeans.  They are so unique, though, that she can’t get away with wearing them as often as she would like.  (Seriously, you wear jeans like that every single day, people would notice you haven’t washed your clothes all week.)  I LOVE how they turned out.  Another pair of holey jeans turned up last week.  This one has butterflies and hearts stitched up the sides.  I think I can work with that.

Valentine Treats

I hope your Valentine’s Day was fun.  We gave away our usual lip and mustache lollipops (my favorite) for friend Valentines.  And I made these little S’more packets for the kids as their treat from me.  Now here we are two days later and I think my kids are still bouncing off the walls from all that sugar accumulated over the holiday.  What’s a momma to do?