They asked, "What do you want to do for Mother's Day?"

...and I said I wanted to go to the castle at Ha Ha Tonka State Park. It's been on my list of things to see for years.

What a lovely weekend with my family.

It was perfect!

We are suckers for the novelty photo...

but hey, at least it was free. 

Denver Museum of Nature and Science is a new and improved version of what used to be the Denver Museum of Natural History. We spent the entire day there and most of us could spend another. 

Leaving Kansas

Don't worry.... we'll be back.

5:00 AM this morning.... "You have to get up early on the first day of vacation or you are going to run out of time for vacating." ~ The Hubby

Dare I entertain you? Wink at you perhaps?

The day before the worst day: poison ivy (or something) of the eye area.

Since several people have asked, and I've never been especially shy about photographs, even awful photographs, in the past... I decided to go ahead and post my swollen eye picture. I only do this because the swelling now seems to be 100% gone and I can rest assured that, No, I will not look like this for the rest of my life. Not that I was ever really worried, but you have to admit that these are the thoughts that go through a mind at times like these.

I have one more day of medication to take and I have to admit that I am really ready to return to my low-key, drug free lifestyle. Benadryl makes me sleep; steriods rev me up beyond belief. I was wide awake at about 2 o'clock this morning and solving all the worlds problems, as well as making fantastic plans for the farmers market, the Kansas Authors Club, and then some. Rolled out of bed and have been going all day, though not actually accomplishing all I had figured out in my mind the wee hours of the morning and stumbling through what I did accomplish more than I am accustomed to. It's weird to be wired; but not on top of things. Full of energy; but lacking precision. I'm still not feeling tired. Actually contemplating more Benadryl just to see if it will get me through a sleep filled night, but I can't say sleeping with the crawly bugs was very restful either.

I honestly don't understand why anyone would ever choose medication of any kind over finding ways to remain well. Stay out of the poison ivy, is my lesson. Stay far away, in fact, from anything that might even resemble poison ivy. And just in case, I shall be more fastidious about de-oiling myself when I come in from wilderness type situations. Obviously I was meant to be a home bound writer. My vast front yard has now become a wilderness to me.

I had a public appearance tonight, a talk at a local Kiwanis meeting about the farmers market. I talked too fast and probably outdid my allotted time, but I'm calling this one a success. It was a room full of warm and energetic people who seemed to have a lot of fun together and not take themselves too seriously. I hope to be seeing more of several of them, as market customers, at the very least.

Wordless Wednesday

Timeless Tuesday: Grandma Skaggs

Grandma with my cousin Chantell.

My brother Barry, my sister Diane, Me, and Grandma Skaggs.

I was just reviewing old Timeless Tuesday entries and I was thinking about why I started these in the first place. Once we were visiting western Kansas, my sister and I with the kids, and we were on a little family road trip. Big Sis and I were just yacking away as we often do, and I heard from the back seat, “Shhh… everyone. They’re talking about Grandma.” My niece said she loved when my sister and I told stories about when we were kids. She especially loved hearing stories about my mom. Only one of my mother’s eight grandchildren really has any memories of her.

At the time I started writing Timeless Tuesday entries, I was thinking about collecting stories about family members to share with the nieces (and nephew!). It also struck me that I hadn’t shared any stories of my grandmother (my mother’s mother) in the entries I had collected so far.

Grandma Skaggs was a constant figure in my life. She moved her mobile home out to the farm when I was fairly young, so she was close enough that I was able to drop in and visit her whenever I wanted, and I did so often. She spent a lot of time at our house, too. Grandma, Aunt Gerry and my mother were always gardening together—sometimes flowers, sometimes veggies-- and preserving what they harvested together. The three of them got together to watch soaps daily and trips to town for shopping were often joint events, as well. It was pretty much a ritual that they met for tea mid-morning every day. I always looked forward to summer when I was out of school and could be a part of their gatherings.

Grandma served Tang out of those colorful, metallic cups that were so popular in the 70s. I can’t think of Tang without that metallic taste. The two go together in my mind.

She was something of a quiet soul, but always good for a hug or to go adventuring with my mom and I. She read Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. She also loved to embroider. She made quilts with handprints and the names and dates of all the babies born in each branch of the family tree. She would also embroider themed quilts, like the shapes of all the states with the capitals, all the presidents faces, or squares with each of the state birds.

Grandma wasn’t much of a story-teller, but it was her past that always fascinated me. She was one daughter in a family with six boys. She had a sister who died at birth. Her mother passed away when she was only four years old (a month after the birth of her second son born after my grandmother). Her father remarried and Grandma always kindly referred to that woman as “the woman I thought of as mother.” Her daddy’s second wife had a stroke which left her disabled. She died when Grandma was in her early 20’s.

The way I understood the story, Grandma’s brothers all fully expected her to stay home, remain single and care for their aging father. I always got the impression that she had done a lot of the raising of her brothers, as well.

It was hard to get a story out of Grandma. Most of what I knew about her life came from my mother. I remember asking her about meeting my Granddaddy, however (always Granddaddy, never GrandPA).

This is what she wrote in “Sketches of My Growing Up Days,” a collection of stories I begged her to write for us when I was still a teen.

“That was about the time that the bridge construction group reached Rayville, and that was the group that Elkin Skaggs was with. He boarded with my school friend’s mother’s boarding house, so one night she asked me if I would like a blind date to go to a show. It was a blind date for about 2 miles to the town before I got a good look at who I was with. It wasn’t long before my plans for nursing school I made were put off. That was the beginning of the years of going places and seeing things.”

(Grandma went back and got her nursing degree when she was in her 40s. She was actually the nurse at the hospital the night I was born. She loved taking care of the babies in the nursery and did so for many years.)

As Mrs. R.E. Skaggs, she moved a lot. My granddaddy was part of a bridge construction crew that took them all over the south, from Louisiana to Texas. He also spent some time building cabins for the workers in the oil fields. Sometimes Grandma would travel with him from job to job, and sometimes he would get her a place in Dallas or Houston where she’d stay a while with the kids as he moved about and visited when he could.

She had five children, three of them grew to adulthood. My mother was the middle child.

Ethel Pauline Sorey Skaggs
July 31, 1908-January 23, 1999

Grandma and me, Garden of the Gods, Lucas, Kansas, 1986.

Where the road takes me...

I heard a piece on NPR about the new iPhone. Apparently it talks to you... While I am a bit taken by the thought, I am also a bit appalled. I pictured myself driving down the road alone having conversations with my phone. Not someone on the other end of my phone, but the phone itself! Is that better or worse than having conversations with myself?

Then it occurred to me that my best blogging probably happens while I'm on the road (not that you would ever see it; it rarely makes it this far these days). If I were to join the cellular phone age, jumping all the way forward to the new iPhone, perhaps I could simply dictate my entries to the phone while driving and them have them emailed away to be posted.

I don't see that upgrade happening any time soon.

Anyway, I am on the road--for fun this time--and took a few hours to stretch my legs in Hannibal yesterday. Hannibal is a town where I always enjoy stopping and generally I threaten to come back and spend more time there.

Gratuitous self-portrait. That's me and Mark Twain, as well as my pumpkin pie latte from the first coffee shop west of the Mississippi. After walking the streets of historic downtown Hannibal, I settled on lunch at the Java Jive. The sandwiches were decent, the tomato-basil soup was wonderful.

Eight hours on the road yesterday with nothing more than a foldable map (no fancy talking devices for me, thanks) and I only missed my turn once. I figured it out right away and when I went back, I immediately figured out the reason. This pumpkin stand had distracted me from watching the road signs. It was directly across from the way I should have gone.

May Peace Prevail on Earth -- stick by the mighty Mississippi at Hannibal, Missouri.

Catching Up; Sharing Pictures

It would be a little bit of what we've been up to if I had been better at documenting with pictures. Here are a few from the last month or month and a half. Fun and busy. Feels like the 4-H fair and now record books have taken up a lot of our time. Others are going back to school. We are looking forward to trying out some new routines, as well.

I guess this is the last midnight Harry Potter party we will have. Time to come up with new excuses for having all the kids over for dress up and fun.

August Markets have been record setters. In spite of the heat, we've had fabulous produce and the shoppers keep shopping.

Grand Champion Air Pistol Shooter -- I think she was 1 part surprised and several parts tickled pink.  Speechless, but her smile said it all.

Middle Munckin's Reading Poster. I really enjoy the posters the kids have put together in this project and will soon have the walls covered with them.

My new shawl! Munchkin #1 wove this from yarn she spun last year plus some yarn donated from local spinners. It's very pretty and I'm looking forward to wearing it this fall.

Munckin Boy is playing football this year. It's a whole new language that only he and his dad (at least in this house) speak. I thought it would be difficult to watch, but finding myself filled with nothing but pride.

Bonus... He's a Great Dad, Too

Way back when I was dating this man and things were getting serious, I never once wondered what kind of dad he would be.

It wasn't something I thought about because children really weren't something I thought about. If I thought about them at all, I thought I didn't want them. Many people are surprised to hear that, but at the age of twenty, children seemed like more responsibility and commitment than I was willing or capable of handling. The hubby and I were pretty much in agreement from the start that children weren't in our future.

If I had to give a list of reasons why I married this man back then, I would have said first that he was easy to talk to and also my best friend. We had a lot of fun together and it seemed from the start that we could dream together and make our dreams come true together. I guess it was apparent right away that we made a pretty good team, and I am happy we spent several years working on being a team together before we brought children into the picture.

Becoming parents was a big step for us. A well considered and planned step, though it didn't, after all, necessarily go exactly as we planned once our minds had been made up. It was as if in turning the corner from not wanting kids to deciding maybe we'd be capable parents after all, some force greater than ourselves stepped in and said, "Okay, but this is how/when/where... just cool it with your master planning...."

And it was better than we ever could have planned or imagined it.

Munchkin #1 taught us even more about teamwork, and in the blink of an eye we had Munchkins 2 and 3. And that feeling that it was right and good and exactly what we should be doing, when we should be doing it has never really left.

I used to tell hubby that I knew he was the right man for me when I realized I could sing in front of him without feeling the slightest bit of embarrassment. Now I tell him I know he is the right man for me because... well... just look at our kids. If they don't speak about how we were meant to be, I can't imagine what would.

Becoming a parent with this man is one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life, possibly topping the decision to marry him in the first place.

Happy Father's Day to my best friend. I'm not afraid to show my bias -- to the best Dad I know.

Moon Watching

My photos of the Eclipse of the Solstice Moon