My Great Grandmother

Today we made a voyage to Sayre, Pennsylvania. Joost, Grace, my parents and my grandmother Bosworth all packed ourselves into the minivan to visit my great grandmother Willson who lives very near the New York state border.
It was quite a trip. Gracie threw up along the way and we made about 20 rest stops (slight exaggeration). It was three and a half hours one way, but well worth it to be able to see my great grandma and my Aunt Janet and Uncle Allen. (Aunt Janet and Grandma Bosworth are sisters, and daughters of Grandma Willson.)

Enough about the trip, though, and more about Grandma Willson.
She is one amazing woman. You won't even believe it when I tell you her age. She is turning 103 next week! And, you'd never know it. She is sharp, healthy, beautiful and a great conversationalist. She was telling me that she is bored at the nursing home because most of the other residents (who, mind you, are in their 80's) are declining in their intellectual abilities and so there's no good companionship or conversation. Ha! What a mind she still has! It's really wonderful to hear her talk about all the memories of her life. She has lived through so much. I was very glad to see her.

The kids enjoyed her, too. This was the first she was able to meet Grace, and Gracie had a ball getting to know her. Joost really enjoyed meeting her again (he didn't remember her very well from the last time he'd seen her) and exploring her interesting 1920 home. We were also able to capture 5 generations in one picture (Great Grandma Willson, Grandma Bosworth, my Dad, me and Joost and Grace)! Not many families are able to have children that know their great great grandparents--but mine do, and I am so thankful for that.

I'm also very thankful for Aunt Janet and Uncle Allen (whom I should have taken a picture of, as well) and their devotion to Grandma Willson and their faithful care over her all these years. (Grandma Willson has other children, but they live further away, so most of the duties have fallen on Aunt Janet because she lives in Sayre.) Aunt Janet has honored her mother well and I am so thankful to her for that. May God bless them and my Great Grandmother as she enters another year of her great life.

The Year of the Rat

Gung Hay Fat Choy -- Happy New Year! Today, the kids and I celebrated the Chinese New Year. (We're a few days late, I know. Of course, the celebration lasts for 15 days, so maybe we're not too tardy.) I enjoy teaching the kids about different cultures and they enjoy the different crafts and stories we learn with the culture study. We also have friends working in that big, big country, so I want them to find ways to relate with the children of those families that have such a great calling.

Among our activities today, we made paper lanterns to string for a "light festival", as Joost poetically called it. (We tried our hand at origami, but we found it to be a little challenging for the kids' current skill set and our lack of decent paper around the house that folds nicely.) We did take a break from the new year celebrations to go sledding. And then, after lunch, I enjoyed green tea (and folding laundry) while Joost and Grace napped.

After a day of chinese games and crafts, I thought I should pull my weight and try my hand at a little asian cooking for dinner. It worked out better than I expected and I was glad to be able to include Jeff in some of the day's festivities. Gracie proved to be a very good helper as we made the won tons for the soup. The kids especially enjoyed the attempt to eat with chopsticks...you can only imagine!

So, happy new year to you--may the year of the rat be good to you!

My hat, it had two corners...

Joost thinks this hat is a particularly useful hat. Not only is it very attractive, says he, but it is also good for storage above his head.

Laura Beth's shower

My little cousin is getting married in 5 weeks. Today we threw her a bridal shower. It's a lot of fun because Jule (her sister, my cousin and friend) is in the wedding and so is Rachel (my sister-in-law, Laura's life long friend) along with myself, so we had fun planning a shower together. I hosted it in my home and the past week has been a crazy flurry of activity to get ready for it.

Let me step back a month or two. When we moved into our house, our downstairs bathroom was partially unfinished. We've been wanting to finish it since then, but were not able to for one reason or another until after Christmas. We thought we would just put up wainscoting to finish the wall under the chair rail, but one thing lead to another and before we knew it, we were repainting all the non-papered areas white, replacing the sink, toilet and putting in new tiling on the floor. This stretched the project out much longer than expected and so work on the bathroom was being done even late last night and early this morning! But we are so happy with the result and thank my Dad for all his hard work on the bathroom--he really is a plumbing and wainscoting master. I wish I had taken a picture of "the before" so that you could fully appreciate the wonder of our new bathroom.

Anyway, back to the subject of the blog...Jule, Rachel and I hosted 29 women for this afternoon tea shower. We sent out invitations to 32 women and fully expected that a decent perecentage would decline, but only 3 turned us down, and I had a packed living room! But it was so much fun to have so many wonderful women in one place that loved Laura (and us) through the years so much. We had tea, finger sandwiches and pastries and Laura recieved so many wonderful gifts to help her set up her home.