Daddys and Daughters 365/106

G and A 365/105

bucket 365/104

pier 365/103

rocks 365/102

Flags 365/101

Happy Memorial Day!

highchair 365/100 - #100- bidding adieu to a family friend

Compilation Sunday: (that special time of week when picture and prose become as one.)

Sadly, (0r not so sadly depending on the moment) the time has come to bid adieu to a close member of the family. While this au revoir doesn't have quite the same feel as a graveside memorial, there is bit of a sense of nostalgia and melancholy mixed together in this reminiscing souffle.

Today the C-Dawg has moved up in the world to a booster and has occupied his preordained spot at the foot of the table, directly across from his old man, thus completing our little sextet surrounding the Hiemstra dinner table. With Carter's move to cutlery and table-side dining and the inevitable spills and splatters that will accompany such a move, Team Hiemstra offers a fond farewell to the high chair which has been a vital part of the family for the better part of 7 years. In the festive spirit of Compilation Sunday, we offer these words of tribute to one of the last vestiges of babyhood.

To the Hiemstra High Chair:
Back in the infancy of the W.'s presidency and the early ages of Team Hiemstra, you were but an abandoned and forlorn clearance special at Babies R Us. We rescued you from the cold, inventorial feel of the natal superstore and brought you home with us, a real live family that you could enjoy and become a part of. And become a part of us you did. By our count you've been a part of roughly 5,000 meals, being the sitting post for each of the Team Hiemstra children, as well as the Hiemstra parents on those special, weirder than a three-dollar bills times. (Please don't ask. Just nod your head and smile.)

You've seen the family at its best, laughing with ferocity until the tears trickled down our cheeks, enjoying the sumptous meals Carla's blessed the Team with for nearly a decade. You've been privy to both the most intelligent and the most asinine of conversations You've drawn a listening ear to the words just as they've begun to form in the minds and mouths of the growing toddlers of our family. You've been a solid and stable supporter, never crumbling under the pressure of growing children, never talking back, but rather lurking in silence and inconspicuousness.

You've also seen the family at its worst. You've had a front row seat for the battle of wills, the tussles with iron-willed baby tongues, pledged to push out anything with the semblance of something healthy or green. You've heard the arguments, the frustrations of a young family, the cries of anguish over yet another spilled cup of milk. And though you may have had your own strong emotions over such explosive moments, you've kept them to yourself.

And thus, as we bid you adieu and you end up in some delightful, memorial landfill, we do so with mixed emotions. There is sadness in knowing that the baby stage is over and we're moving on to the next stage of life, yet there's joy in knowing that the toxic two-month old meatloaf which has simmered and festired and bloomed with all sorts of bacteria shall find its final resting place away from the kitchen where our food is prepared.

Good-bye and farewell.

Burgers 365/99

Yum, it's that time of the year. The weather is awesome and so are my husband's hamburgers.

TP 365/98

My only regret is that I didn't take the picture sooner. There was alot more of this stuff around. It must be that time of year again. Students are getting restless. Parents are getting anxious. This house got TP'd again. Every year this person gets it. The legend lives on.
Avery was very confused at the humor of this. She didn't understand why people had toilet paper strewn all over their yard. Then I explained that this was humorous to those spreading around the "love". Then she started giggling because she thought those people peed in the yard and then used the toilet paper.

C standing on chair 365/97

This picture probably wouldn't mean a hill of beans to most, but to us it means Carter is standing more! This is he at Kenna's preschool graduation last night making friends with two girls behind us.

D and A holding hands 365/96

B anticipation 365/95

Anticipation is sometimes worse than the actual event. However, in my husband's case, the event is just as traumatizing. How many of you would have loved to play Rock, Paper, Scissors with your teacher and then physically pummel him too?

A supermodel 365/94

Shave 365/93 - #93- history through the eyes of a glass mug

Compilation Sunday: (that special time of week when picture and prose become as one)

Anytime one makes a trip to a museum, be it as spectacular as a National Smithsonian or as utterly uncelebrated as the North Platte Farm Equipment and Kitchen Utensil Museum, he would find the relics of history, those items which have survived the often harsh passage of time and have lived on to narrate the world of yesteryear to a planet often eager but more likely indifferent to see that era. When one is lucky, sometimes he doesn’t have to travel to a museum to hear the stories a particular artifact has to tell. Sometimes he can simply walk across the room and pick up the artifact and carefully imagine the scenes it’s seen and even hear the anecdotes it’s bursting to tell.

Such is the case with the mug pictured in today’s post. The three handled glass shaving mug has stood the test of time for at least half a century. It belonged to my grandfather, my mom’s dad, and as far as I know, he used it for most of his adult life to scrape clean the whiskers from his weathered face and smoothen the cheeks that would kiss my mom before she left for school every morning.

Not daily, but every so often, I’ll stand in front of the mirror, fill the sink with warm water and get out the old-fashioned brush and cake of soap and take a trip back in time. I lather up my face and razor it smooth as glass and can’t help but reflect on the stories that this mug must be filled with. Perhaps every man has a certain longing or affinity for the past, a reverence for the old ways of doing things, and a desire to walk in the footsteps of those who walked before him. One of my favorite authors, Gary Schmidt, still clicks out his novels on a typewriter. A neighbor down the street still cuts his grass with a non-electronic push mower. There’s a certain lure the past has, a mysterious power to draw men to it. Whenever I use the mug and brush, without fail I ponder my Grandpa and wonder about what this mug might have seen.

Perhaps my grandpa would take down his shaving mug and lather up his face early in the morning before gathering around the large table with my grandma and my mom and her eight brothers and sisters.

I wonder if my grandpa would stand erect and tall in his bathroom and soap up his face and start to shave just as my mom would happen to run into his room and catch him in the midst of it all. Did my grandpa take a little puff of soap and dab it on my mom’s nose and playfully laugh at her? Did my mom, just barely learning to walk, wrap her arms and legs around my grandpa’s leg as he took the razor to his face?

On Saturday nights did my grandpa take out the mug and clean himself up before herding the entire crew into the wagon the next day to head to church? Has the mug been privy to a few generations of faith, handed down from decade to decade?

I wonder about the historic days in which this mug has played a role. Did my grandpa use the mug the day the stock market crashed? Did he pull it off the shelf the night that victory was finally declared in Europe, ending the hell of World War II? Did he use the mug to lather up and shave clean the morning of my grandma’s funeral? Did the tears collide with the soap as he prepared to bury his wife? Did my mom’s face feel the softness of his freshly shaved face on that day?

The questions seem to unravel in my mind as I contemplate this mug and history. And while looking at history involves being firmly glued to the rearview mirror, one can’t help but look out and scan the future horizons when thinking about history. I wonder if my son or my grandson will have this mug situated in a prominent place in his bathroom and think of me fondly and inquisitively in the decades to come.

I hope so, and I hope the trip backwards in time is a pleasant one filled with happy memories made along the narrow highway of faith.

A Coy 365/92

Yay, I'm all caught up with my posts! Avery and I went to the park today to take some pictures. It's fun to discover new things. There was a fishing derby going on for children. Everyone was crowded around the pond with fishing poles and great hopes of catching the "big one". We were also able to talk to a kind older man walking his dog. Of course, if you saw in a previous picture with Avery's fear of animals, she was a bit scared of the pint-size pooch. Compilation Sunday is coming up. Blake and I trade off every other Sunday on who is coming up with the idea for the post. For example, Blake came up with writing about snoopjes so I had to take a picture to coincide with it. It's my turn tomorrow to give him a picture and he has to write. Any ideas?

A H2O 365/91

Blake and I enjoyed the day with only 2 children to take care of. Boy, that was a lot easier. We ate lunch and watched Avery and Carter play with water. I wonder if there will ever be a day again when I can put my bathing suit on and play around in the middle of the mall courtyard and not worry about everyone watching me...probably not :)

Colossus 365/90

Blake and I accompanied nearly 75 8th-graders to Magic Mountain on Thursday. We were on the boys' bus and had a good time. If you see him ask him how his arms are doing after playing Rock Paper Scissors with a couple students.

We went on Colossus and Batman, played some Cribbage, ate some over-priced not-so-great food and walked around. It was fun to meet the kids that have caused my husband a lot of laughter, some frustration, and many hours of grading this year. They're a great group of kids.

J tire 365/89

BW K 365/88

A and kitten 365/87

Though Avery's emotion is not apparent to those who don't know her, this is the look of terror on her face. Some may wonder why when she's playing with an adorable little "fur ball" that happened to find us Saturday morning. Maybe it's because we're not accustomed to animals at this home. Maybe it was chasing her feet and wanting to play with her. Maybe her daddy got ahold of her and explained the evils of little kittens. We'll never know, but this IS her running away from "Delilah" as the girls wanted to call her.

Snoops 365/86 - #86- snoopjes

Compilation Sunday: that special time of week when picture and prose become as one.

Sunday mornings in our household might be described as organized chaos, with the word “organized” being not always being such a regular part of the routine. In a flurry of activity from rousing the kids to eating breakfast to Carla doing multiple heads of hair, with each particular mop wanting a private audience with Vidal Sassoon, the morning rumbles on until we reach the relative sanctity of our van. And hopefully in the mad morning rush, someone has grabbed the snoopjes, the church candy, to get passed between each of us during the throes of another stimulating sermon. The problem is that it is becoming increasingly hard for our family to find the perfect snoopje to get us through the morning.

Believe it, there have been a lot of potential suitors who have come knocking on the door of our mouths only to be turned away after a single date with the cruel words escaping from our taste buds, “It’s not me, it’s you and you’re no good.” Take the unfortunate saga of Mr. King Peppermint as an example. He has history on his side with Carla’s family, plus a large segment of the market share at church. While initially making a nice impression on the tongue, the minty flavor turns too sugary too quickly, but his ultimate downfall is that he doesn’t last long enough. When in the market for the perfect snoop, we’re not interested in the sizzle and dazzle of a sprinter. We looking for longevity.

Another potential Johnny-Come-Lately is Senor Wint-O-Green Life Saver, long a favorite of Blake’s family while growing up. While this eligible bachelor comes from a strong line of life-saving products, its sugary base, as well as having the “taste of Ben-gay” (according to Carla) makes it a case of a candy with a nice personality, but the looks of Gilbert Gottfried.

A distant cousin of Senor Wint-O-Green Life is the multi-faceted, jack-of-all-trades, Dr. Five Flavors Life Saver. Truth be told, he’s kind of fruity, but quirkiness and weirdness is much appreciated in the Hiemstra household. While giving a nice variety of flavors, the Doctor’s ultimate downfall is his close personal relationship with Master Luden’s Cherry Cough Drop. No matter how boring the sermon might just be, no one wants to be passing the time with cough medication. His ultimate demise though comes in the trickery and deceit which characterizes him. Though he professes to be genuine grape, he ends up personifying the embodiment of artificial flavor.

One last possible date is the throwback from another generation, Sir Lemon Drop. He’s got the grace and style of a refined gentleman with a sense of history. He makes you feel like you’re going back in time and visiting the mercantile and plopping a couple of shiny Lincolns on the counter and reaching into that magical glass jar for a handful of loot. His flavor surely satisfies, but when you marry this fellow, you get all of his friends with him, including the most dreaded of all oral companions, Master Lint.

The whole contemplation of church candy has made me wonder about the limits of what is acceptable. Perhaps there’s a section in the Canons of Dordt all about snoopjes. Could I unwrap a Reese’s during church? What about a bag of potato chips? Popcorn? Now there’s something that would make the whole worship experience that much better. Seriously, with the pews we have, we could just pass the bucket of popcorn all the way down the aisle and then everyone’s happy, no one’s forced to read the bulletin during a sermon and in the event of a second offering, the buckets can double as offering receptacles.

Maybe that’s pushing the envelope a bit too much. Scaling back from that a little bit might open the door for the perfect church candy: a lollipop. One can get it in any flavor he wants, it’s got the staying power of Methuselah, and it would surely allow anyone with even the worst of hand fetishes to keep busy during the service. Plus, the communion cup slots would be the perfect holding area for the lolly. Yeah, it’s perfect.

Next time you see me in church and I’ve got a big wad of sucker in my mouth, don’t gasp or say “Honestly” under your breath or take it up with the communications committee. Just take joy that I’ve finally found the perfect church candy.

JK Color 365/85

BW Color accent rose 365/84

Ok...I really have to find time to shoot more pictures. Here is one from the not-so-distant past. Maybe this weekend has the promise of some camera time.

BW B paint clothes 365/83

It's hard to believe it's almost that time of the year again. Two weeks from now my husband changes his profession for a season. He enjoys the change of pace and it helps him look forward to a new school year.

Tube Slide 365/82

As you can see it was easier to take a picture with a few less children in the slide. Who are we kidding though, isn't it easier to do anything with a few less children? But I ask you this, would it be as much fun? Sure, you'd have very nice pictures everytime but I don't think you would appreciate the good pictures though when they DO happen.