Anna comes home for 2 days Feb 2, 2011

My sisters drove with me to BWI to pick up Anna.  She came home for Lena's wedding (Feb. 4th).  

Anna was home for 2 days and was very busy the whole time but here was a moment we had together.

Dinner with the Mom all us kids - January 14, 2012

We had dinner at the Parlor House

While we were waiting for our food.  Mom reveals the secret project which we had been working on so long.  Only Rhoda knew about it.

Rachel and Craig

Jim and Deb

After dinner we went to Mom's house for mince pie dessert and more conversation.

Two Finished Products

A Passing Glimpse 2011

  The green one is my blog from 2011 in book form.  When I started my blog in January of 2011, I was counting on finding a way to print it.  Easier said than done but Austin helped me find a site (blog2print) to work with and it's done!  I hope to improve my final product for next years book but I'm satisfied with this first one.

A Farmer's Alphabet of Stories

The original book, A Farmer's Alphabet, is the collection of woodcut prints done by Mary Azarian for the Department of Education of the state of Vermont to commemorate the farming way of life that has all but disappeared.  One day last summer, Mom happened to notice this book on my dining table and flipped through it.  Her comment was, "I could tell you a story for practically every picture in this book."  Well, that was all that was needed to launch the two of us into a serious writing project.  During the fall we spent time, Mom telling and me typing stories from her childhood growing up on a farm.  It was "more fun than a barrel of monkeys!"   We bought 5 copies of the book (one for Mom and each of her kids), printed out Mom's stories and taped them into the each book.  The book is put together with simply one full page print on the right-hand page and no other text than the one word that goes with that letter of the alphabet.  The left-hand side was completely blank - the perfect place for us to tape a story for each letter.  

We went skating 4 times in January!

Gr Friends January 2012

Andrew, Grantley, Dexter

Barely awake

Tuff stuff - Gr and Nathanael

Stray Photos from 2011

A riot of colors!  When Monica visited Goshen and stayed with Gloria

Levi stopped to see Grandma when Gloria was home on Christmas break.

Braxton

Christmas Eve, Bethlehem Cafe at church

Kelsey singing "Friendly Beasts" with Mike, Matt, Jason, and Linden

There's a perfect caption for this picture but I just can't think of it.  This is David, Micheal and Alexandra's little one.

Michael, Alexandra and David in August.

January 4, 2012 Grantley Multitasks

Grantley and Austin "collected" a toy guitar and a rip board one night.  The guitar is playable but mostly served to make Grantley feel like he had greatly improved his playing when he switched to his full size guitar!

Spots of Time 2012

  There are in our existence spots of time,
That with distinct pre-eminence retain
A renovating virtue, whence--depressed                     210
By false opinion and contentious thought,
Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight,
In trivial occupations, and the round
Of ordinary intercourse--our minds
Are nourished and invisibly repaired;
A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced 

That penetrates, enables us to mount,
When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen.

From Prelude by William Wordsworth (lines 208 - 218)

My title for my 2012 blog is "Spots of Time."  It comes from the segment of Wordsworth printed above.  I hope you are impressed that I have read this huge, long poem and that I have personally picked this phrase.  I wish that were true but in reality, I only heard of "spots of time" from a lecture on C.S. Lewis which I was listening to on CD.  The only other time I've heard of Wordsworth is from Father Tim in the Mitford series.  Anyway, I'm pleased that I now know a small scrap of Wordsworth.  Blogging is my way of recording and celebrating a few "spots of time" from my life.  My mind is "nourished and invisibly repaired" by the exercise.