Hearts Full of Joy

this & that

i absolutely love my friend crystal's idea for christmas this year. it makes me happy.
100 provident living points for crystal! i want to be like her.

brock & i finally made the trip to carthage yesterday and gave up our arizona licenses for the illinois version. painful! we have had our arizona licenses since '94, brock's grad school days. the same licenses, not renewed. in arizona they issue life-long licenses, good until your 60th birthday when you need to start getting regular vision checks. my license still had 22 years left on it.....good until 2030. i had hoped to keep it until then. but we decided to comply with the law. we were so grateful to have these licenses through our japan years so we never had to worry about getting them renewed from overseas.

and speaking of japan, as much as we didn't like getting our illinois licenses, it was completely painless compared to getting our japanese licenses.....i could write numerous posts on the process of getting our japanese licenses (i only know 1 person who passed the driving test on the first try, and know many people who had to take it 5, 6, 7, even 12 times.....and driving education classes cost upwards of $3000 - not offered in high school, because you must be 18 to drive in japan, which really isn't a bad idea), and which we promised ourselves we would never allow to expire...but they will, as we aren't living there, and have to be there to renew them. such a shame. as i write, i realize that mine probably just expired a few weeks ago on my birthday....alas.

flashback: i just remembered having to go back to the testing center (45 minutes away) when my license was 2 years old and take a 2 hour driving class in order to keep my license. this was mandatory for all drivers. it was excruciatingly boring, in japanese, and included a horrible video of every type of accident it was possible to have, with reminders that in japan, the larger vehicle is always the responsible party in an accident. so if a motorcycle cuts you off, a bicycle darts in front of you, or a pedestrian jay-walks, you are responsible. (we drove a van, one of the biggest on the road, because a family with 4 kids is monster-sized there, and so this was a stressful point, as we were bigger than most everyone else..... one of many, many aspects that made driving in japan a stress-fest.) i fell asleep and then was humiliated by the teacher in front of the class for doing so. at least that was her intent. but i had long since grown a thick enough skin to prevent this kind of humiliation, so that i could manage my life in japan. and i don't think any of the the other students cared either. they all wished that they were asleep too.

i love japan, i really, really do. but i don't miss experiences like these. and don't even get me going on the japanese postal service.....really, don't.

happy thanksgiving

i love thanksgiving. the cozy, warm, happy feelings, shared with friends and family. we plan to be in bloomington, illinois with the smiths, friends from japan, on thanksgiving this year. then on to quincy to join the rodenbergs for the second half of the weekend.

i hadn't planned it, but i'm loving the way the green entryway walls coordinate with my seasonal decor - autumn, halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, and easter all work well with green. the 4th of july may not work as well.....

a memorable day

gracie's first birthday fell on memorial day. a perfect day to share with lots of cousins. my sister's family of eight joined us, and it was a treat.






















gracie was adorable. she looked exactly like one of her pink and white cupcakes with strawberries on top. and how i wanted to eat her up.
















her new doll house was enjoyed by many little fingers.









on her birthday, i re-visited the amazing and overwhelming feelings i had one year before when gracie was born. the next morning when gracie woke me up at 5:45, rather than feeling somewhat grumpy as usual, i remembered holding & feeding her in the hospital the morning after she was born....feeling so tired, and so happy. and i felt so tired and so happy again. and i was grateful, realizing that although a full year has passed, she is still small enough to hold and feed, and cuddle, and cherish, and i will continue to do every one of those things as much and as long as possible. i love being a mommy, and i love my babies.

another reason this memorial day was a happy one is that many families in our small town were blessed by the return of their loved ones after a year of deployment in iraq. i unexpectedly saw my sister-in-law & her sisters with cute baby anabelle on the news that evening, welcoming their dad & grandpa home.




i snapped a quick photo of this scene of flags flying at the war memorial in town as i was running to the quilt show on memorial afternoon.

one week ago

today it is snowing huge fluffy flakes. to remind myself that one week ago we were celebrating a beautiful, warm & sunny easter, and to feel grateful for that fact, here are a few more photos, taken by my sister, who is a great photographer. (huge, run-on sentence there)

we are a family of folks who love to be behind the camera......

mia taking photos of tashi, who was on the roof.

i damaged my camera on easter as it slid off my shoulder and bumped the ground while i was setting gracie down to photograph. it is being repaired, and i eagerly anticipate it's safe return.

happy easter

i love this antique baby double wedding ring quilt from the 1930s, and it seems perfect for easter decorating. two years ago i used it with the easter pillow i made using a vintage embroidery pattern. this year i used it with a bowl of eggs at my easter brunch table.

we had a wonderful easter. my sister's family joined us for an afternoon "brunch" and easter egg hunt, making 10 kids, 11 if lexi hadn't been in japan. the weather couldn't have been better. the kids looked sweet in their easter clothes. the company was great. the food was yummy (& unhealthy) we only wish more family could have been here.

the kids on sunday morning, on the way to church.

tashi finished her dress on saturday afternoon, after many frustrations, and it turned out beautifully! that evening she & i prepared the food for our brunch. she's a good cook and great company. it will be a happy memory for me, cooking & having fun with my tash.

early easter bunny

we put in an early request to the easter bunny to please come to our house on saturday, just after lunch. he likes this arrangement, because it makes less he has to do during the night before easter morning. and we love it because we can stretch out the easter fun, and not have to get up super early sunday morning and rush to get everyone ready for church amid the easter candy frenzy. it also helps us focus on the real reason for easter, our savior, his atonement and resurrection, on sunday.

noah, who is honestly the single biggest candy freak in the entire world (he started getting excited for next halloween on november 1st, and asks about it almost daily), asked me to open a large marshmallow bunny from his basket. then he surprised me by saying, "no, wait! i want to save my candy for everyone", and he packed up his basket and took it inside where he shared some with his sisters. so sweet! his "happy birthday" package was purchased here in town, while he was shopping with me. i asked the clerk if she could keep it out of his sight. she left, and came back with it wrapped. so i (i mean the easter bunny) left it that way ...

daffodils are just starting to bloom, and the weather is gorgeous! brock took this photo while the easter candy was being eaten.

gracie LOVES her toy cell phone! easter bunny was right on with that one!

tashi was relieved once she was informed that the plaid capris were pajama pants, and not something she would be expected to wear to school :)

be mine

happy valentine's day! some of my favorite valentine's goodies this year:

two sweet outfits for gracie, one from old navy, one from target. vintage-y chocolate bars for my big girls. a drunkard's path valentine's quilt i made with a wonderful repro fabric, printed with vintage valentines. i found it at the tokyo dome quilt show two years ago. and my redwork valentine's pillow. the motifs were from a vintage embroidery pattern.

as i was taking photos, another of my favorite goodies crawled into view....

she laid her head on the quilt, and then went straight for the chocolate. definitely my daughter!

wishing you all a warm & beautiful day, filled with the people you love.... and chocolate if possible.

so long, no post

i think that five family parties over the holidays, all at least two hours away (four hours round trip) may have been too much for us. we loved it, really loved it, but it was probably too much. we have all been sick for two weeks, gracie starting it off with a nasty cold, and finishing it up (we can certainly hope) with stomach flu. she hasn't let us sleep much, poor miserable sweetie, and that slows our recovery. add to that: blue screen on our computer a week ago, and i haven't had much time to blog. i have spent any computer time i could snatch backing everything up, between many many blue screen episodes, and finally finished before the computer gives it's final gasp of breath. now we are waiting for our new mac to arrive. that will be a big switch and adjustment. we were mac people at the beginning of our marriage, and loved it, but made the switch to windows to get all the software options. now we are going back to mac. the day after christmas we got much faster internet, so once we have a new computer, things should fly.

i feel very out of touch with friends and family and anything outside of this house. but we were invited to a fun dinner last night with four other couples and their kids last night, and that was a breath of fresh air.

now that i've given you our recent low-lights, here are some highlights....

last minute christmas crafting: i made this for my sweet 6 year old who is struggling to come to terms and a peaceful understanding of her adoption. she and i have had several hour long talks in the wee hours of the mornings recently on this topic.

a stocking for gracie....so fun to make! the center block is a reproduction of an antique christmas card. "here's santa in disguise to give you a surprise" the appliqued patch on the top left says "gracie" and is from a judie rothermel  "aunt grace" fabric line. i have lots of that fabric in both pink and blue and plan to use a ltitle bit of it in most things i make for my gracie. the fabrics are moda's "roman holiday" line.

our christmas eve nativity

christmas morning...the stripey jammies are a seven year tradition for us. we all wear them for christmas.

we FINALLY finished the remodel of our 1940s home, and got a great renterupstairs! lexi models the kitchen on christmas eve. love those cabinets that great grandpa built!

not sure why this is sideways....try to fix it later.

and finally, tashi's photography in the snow:

(mia in the background)

 

candy canes & silver lanes aglow

"looking a lot like christmas"

we have had snow on the ground for all but one december day. so magical!

the noel blocks are a vintage find

darling boy armed with light stick  (from tokyo disney sea) and snowball.

baby kitten finds the ribbons to be the best part of a christmas party with her cousins.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

i like to bring my christmas out a little at a time, and savor it as we go. so our tree is usually up for several days to a week  before it is completely decorated, the stockings come out on their own special day, and i tweak and rearrange things as we go. to me, it seems to help the season linger longer.

this year i finally got smart enough to just turn the gingerbread house decorating over to the kids, and i was surprised by how well they did with it. i should have done this long ago (instead of making everyone crazy while trying to make it fair and cute and enjoyable and perfect all at the same time). noah was the most excited his year - anything involving this much candy is on his list of very favorite things.

i made a new advent calendar from a fabric panel designed by nancy halvorsen. tashi helped me one night as we shared some "one-on-one" time and chatted about her life as we worked - so much funner that if i had done it alone. she had wanted to go somewhere together for her special time, but i was too tired. this was spontaneous, but turned out to be better than we could have planned. just a few of the ornaments are pictured.

these two quilts, a runner, and a topper/wall quilt, were made on comission for the local gift shop. the ginger bread men are a project i have long planned, and the stars were begun last year, and continuing on this year. i can't decide wether to make garlands or tree ornaments of the stars and gingerbread men. i would like to do both.....better get busy and make some more.