The Streetpoet

I remember standing in front of my grandmother’s refrigerator as a little girl and studying her magnet collection.

I don’t know when she started collecting them, but when she went any place new she would buy a magnet.

My Grandmother never seemed to be a fun-loving person to me, but her magnets told me something about her that she did not portray to me. Every one of them looked like a toy or something out of a book, and she would let us take them down and play with them and tell us about the places where she got them.

I used to collect marbles. Not because I could play them well, but because I enjoyed staring into the colored glass and I loved the feel of them and the sound of them knocking together.

Maybe that’s why I absolutely love making marble magnets! I just finished an order today for the gift shop at the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve in Lancaster, CA. The gal there sent me some of her pictures of the local flora and I used some of mine and she sells them in her shop.

So I’d like to think that maybe someone like my grandmother will buy a marble desert flower magnet to remember her journey through the high desert of California and take it home to let her granddaughter look at it, hold it, see how strong the magnet is, and maybe she will tell her about her trip…and a little about herself.

Well…almost.

With a tripod and a remote control for the shutter we grabbed these images today.

I was wondering if this one would make a good Christmas card…?

Thank you for these, Peter!

I gave Ian to Seth and my camera to Jerome and he shot these for us. He’s pretty good!

And Ian got his first swing today!

It’s a very hot weekend. We took those pictures then all dashed inside to the air-conditioning and not even Seth asked to go back out to play in the dirt! But what he has enjoyed doing inside on these hot, hot days is look at google’s images of tractors! He’ll spend an enormous amount of time browsing the pictures of tractors and asking what kind they are. We ask him what he wants to do when he grows up and he says “Ride an excavator and drive it.” 🙂

I played my first card game of hearts last night with Mom and Dad and Peter! My brain never did engage and I’m still not sure how to play, but we had fun and I’d like to try again. It reminded me of the double dates we used to do together. Anna came over too and played Candyland and Memory with the boys!

Regina came over for lunch today! It’s such an amazing blessing to have her here…I still have to remind myself that she’s not just visiting! I’m so grateful to have her in our lives.

Maybe one of these days she’ll let me take her picture? Hint, hint! 😉 Love ya, Gigi!

I woke up sick today, so we didn’t get much done at all, and that’s not a very good feeling. But as hot as it was the boys were happy to spend the day inside listening to stories. I’m so grateful to have the Your Story Hour collection of Bible stories and historical stories that family and friends have given the boys this year. They love listening to them and I enjoy having something to put on that builds up their knowledge and spirits.

This evening I took my friend Erika out to dinner because today is her birthday!

She’s a new friend of mine and has a little boy about Jerome’s age and a baby a few months older than Ian. I really enjoy talking to her and getting to know her more. Although the talking we get to do is between correcting the children and the children’s interruptions…it was wonderful to be out with a friend.

Erika is a beautiful person. Her love of life is contagious, and her gentleness with her children is exceptional. She is eager to learn and is just as willing to share with others what goodness she gleans.  I’m so grateful to know her.

Happy birthday, Erika!

This was the best we got of my boys today. Oh, I forgot to mention that my precious two year old drew in blue crayon on the back of the booth in the back of California Pizza Kitchen!…They said it should be washable.

Ian’s hair looked so red in the evening light at the mall! He wasn’t as mad as he looks. honestly.

The boys and I stayed and got ice cream and met their aunties to listen to some live big band music. Not a whole lot of listening happened, but the boys enjoyed test riding the new “skitters” and playing with the remote control cars that were desperately wanting to be sold. As a parent I’m getting better at saying “no”. 🙂

Our day was not over yet. We were invited up to the Barlow’s for fresh baked cookies to celebrate Anna’s taking the CPA exam today! The Partridge children were there, too, so my boys boosted the children count to nine!

It was a wonderful, long evening and I came home feeling better than I did when we left.

And Peter had just walked in the door too. 🙂

Since I still don’t drive the freeways, Jane picked us up and drove our car up to Ventura for the day. We got to the beach before the crowds and before the sun. But there never were many people, since they tell me this is the first day of school, but after a while there was plenty of sunshine.

Before we left Jerome told me that he didn’t want to get in the water because he was afraid he would get stung like last time. (In April something stung him in the water on his hand and he had a terrible reaction and had to go on antibiotics.) So I told him he didn’t have to get in the water. Auntie Jane took him to the edge of the waves to get bucketfuls of sand to build sandcastles with, and he quickly lost his fear.

On the drive up Seth told us “I’m afraid of the beach.” but I think he meant the ocean. He stayed at a safe distance all day.

And on the drive home he confirmed it to us several more times…but I think he had a fun day digging in the sand, climbing rocks, and trying to play with other people’s sand toys. 🙂

It was startlingly different. After a while the wind and brightness and noise became normal, even peaceful. But walking among the rocks there was an immediate reprieve. Quiet. Warmth. Shade. I hadn’t noticed the harshness of the afternoon until I found an accidental shelter. However the rocks were sharp. My boys must be part mountain goat, though, because it didn’t phase them. And they enjoyed the refuge of the rocks. I pray they find refuge in the Rock of our salvation!

This was Ian’s first beach experience! And he slept through most of it…

Thank you, Jane and Donna, for a lovely day at the beach!