Some Fairy Folk

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fairies, family, poetry

I’m still in the middle of my bedroom reorganizing, and I opened another box (this one labeled “pictures”) and found another one of Mom’s poems.  This one was written for a Tri-Counties Doll Conference many years ago…there is no date on the page.  Enjoy!

Some Fairy Folk

They take a fairy shower in the early morning dew

And dry upon the sunbeams just the way we’d like to do.

Then they take a bit of rainbow and drape it here and there

For the loveliest fairy gown you’d see ‘most anywhere.

Some dragonflies so green of hue join the fairies two-by-two

As they flit and soar and dip and dive, quite the gayest sight alive.

The lady bugs so polka-dot bright, join in this ethereal flight

While down below the brownies dance with frogs and toads

And just by chance, if you should be so quiet and still

You might see them do the Brownie Quadrille.

As the fairies light softly on the moist green ground

They join the brownies and go dancing ’round.

‘Til finally, midst laughter and jubilation, the time has come

For this celebration of fairy folk to stop while.

But they’ll be back to make us smile

If only in our imagination.

– Hazel Pender

 

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family, journals, missing my mother

I want my Mother!  I was disasterizing my bedroom closet in an attempt to make my room less jam-packed and more pleasant, and I ran across one of her journals.  She had been given so many beautiful ones, but mostly she wrote on whatever lined paper was handy.  Here is part of her entry from June 29, 1999. It made me cry for missing her so.

My feet are bare and I’m standing in a small patch of soft dirt that feels so warm and good.  I’m watching a “snake” lizard sunning himself on a large piece of firewood, and thinking.

I’m thinking about that little girl I was so long ago with the loose black hair flying in the wind and running barefoot in the hot dirt.

She had a quick laugh and a too loud voice.  But outside in the Summertime running barefoot it seems to me now she felt wild & free & very very happy.

Is she still here someplace deep inside?  Of course she is.  Why would I ever let her go?

Growing a reader

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Calvin and Hobbes, Dr. Seuss, family, granddaughters, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, reading, The Foot Book, The Lunch Box - Visalia, The Teeny Weeny Tadpole

Ours is a household of readers.  At any given moment chances are very good that at least one of us is either engrossed in a book or is deep into Reddit or Facebook (yes, that counts as reading).  For their bedtime story, Georgia has been reading a beautifully illustrated volume of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to the girls several nights a week… unabridged in all its magical wordiness. So it is no surprise that Olivia is the best reader in her Kindergarten class; she is following in Lily’s footsteps by carrying a book with her whenever she leaves the house.

This being Saturday morning, I had the leisure to stay in bed a bit later than usual.  For thirty minutes or so I heard rustlings and creakings coming from the girls’ bedroom, so I knew at least one of them was awake.  When my curiosity got the best of me, I got up and peeked in.  There was Olivia propped up in her bed with The Teeny Weeny Tadpole in her lap, reading to her big sister.  She hesitated over a few words, but figured them out carefully; only once did she stumble…over “course”, as in “of course”.

Olivia represents the “perfect storm” for reading development:  a print-rich environment, family members who value and model reading, a lively curiosity, a wide vocabulary, and the ability to figure out words in context.  Also a Kindergarten teacher who encourages every opportunity for reading and challenges each reader at her own level and a grammy who was once a special education teacher.

Next week they are celebrating Dr. Seuss every day; Olivia has already packed her copy of The Foot Book to read to her classmates.  Life doesn’t get better than this!

Georgia introducing Olivia to Calvin and Hobbes at The Lunchbox.

 

 

Healthy and Strong

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Close To My Heart, family, Fitbit Charge, granddaughters, Painted Elephant Yoga Studio, The Success Principles, weight goals

Yesterday morning I visited my neighbor’s scale for the first time in a couple of months, and was bummed when it seemed to tell me I had gained nearly a pound, even though I felt considerably lighter.  Quickly my inner Pollyanna kicked in, however, and I reassured myself that “I’m gaining muscle with Yoga” and “I’m stronger and healthier than ever”.   My initial disappointment was short-lived.

Last night as I logged in my weight on my Fitbit chart, I realized that, far from gaining a pound, I had lost five since my last weigh-in.  Joy abounding!  I am only three pounds short of my goal (the one I set once I realized walking and working was making me lose weight with very little effort) of being back to my pre-baby-Georgia weight from over 30 years ago!

I cannot describe how good it feels to be comfortable in my body again, happy with who I am, and excited about where I’m going.  Sure, when I look in the mirror there are wrinkles I didn’t have a few years ago, but the stressed look is out of my eyes and I’m standing tall and relaxed.

Some of us in our Close To My Heart group are reading and studying Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles.  I have always been a bit leery about the practice of positive affirmations, feeling them to be very forced and stilted. With more study, though, I have begun to realize that they are pretty close to the things I have always said to myself as I chose to look at the world through my rose-colored glasses.  That positive outlook is part of our legacy from Mom and Grammy Buffington, who always chose to see the world as a sunny, friendly place.

May I continue to model that outlook to Lily and Olivia.

 

Love, limits, and protectiveness

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Anna Trebunskaya, Dancing with the Stars, family, Forever Tango, protectiveness, Visalia Fox Theater

Tonight my oldest granddaughter had her first real foray out into the world without us, as special friends from church invited her to a performance of “Forever Tango” at the Fox Theater, featuring Anna Trebunskaya from “Dancing with the Stars”.  This was her first adventure that didn’t involve other childhood friends and their family members, and it was grand!  It is lovely knowing that adult friends appreciate our young ones and choose to enjoy their company.

Of course, there were conversations ahead of time about how to act and what to do.  Being only nine, she needed to be reminded to stay with our friends at all times, to pay attention to her surroundings, not to go off to the ladies’ room by herself.  And her mother reminded her, as she does every time she goes anywhere with friends, that if for any reason things got weird and she was uncomfortable with the situation, to turn to the nearest adult she trusted and ask to call home or 911.

“You always tell me that,” she said to her mother.  Of course we do.  We want it to become second nature, not only now, but when she is a teenager and runs up against peer pressure that goes against her better judgement.  We can’t always control the world, but we can prepare her to meet its challenges.  When I brought it up again at the last minute in the car, she said, “You sound just like Mom.  And the adults we can all trust here are Terry and Sandy.”  And, of course, she was right.  But what she didn’t realize was that we were trusting Terry and Sandy with her, one of our greatest treasures.

I can hardly wait to hear every detail tomorrow on the way to school.

 

Pumpkin patch

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cookies, corn maze, family, Halloween, Pumpkin Patch, Vossler Farms

I love holiday traditions, especially those that involve going somewhere special with my granddaughters and daughter.  A tradition that has been ongoing since Lily was a little baby is our annual visit to Vossler Farms’ Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze.

With Halloween in five days, we were running out of time, so off Georgia, the girls, and I went after ballet.  (I am used to going in the daytime, as we did for two years each girl with their preschool classes.)  It was dusk as we were arriving, so we relied on the bright lights and full moon to help us make our way through the crowds and pumpkins.

Georgia is better at shooting “selfies” than anyone else I know.

Our first stop was the corn maze (the baby maze), where we wove our way in and out of towering corn stalks, round and round and round.  We eventually found our way safely out, and I breathed a sigh of relief!

I must admit to being relieved at getting out of the maze in a relatively short time!

Four perfect pumpkins were selected (one for Mom, Dad, Lily, and Olivia) and I had the task of wheeling them back to the register.  At first I thought I had a flat tire on the wheel barrow, but it was just the weight of the pumpkins that made it so hard to push.  Who needs the gym, anyway?

They were heavy!

Pumpkin Patch 2015 was a great success!

By next year Lily may be as tall as her mom!

When we got back home, the girls decorated Halloween sugar cookies, a lovely way to top off the evening.  And tomorrow we will get to eat them!

Starting to decorate the Halloween cookies

Teamwork

Tags

California Teachers Association, family, Helping One Woman, registration

I was thinking a bit earlier about how much I enjoyed working the Helping One Woman registration desk last night with my friend and cohort, Vickie, when she posted a picture of us doing just that.

For twenty years we worked together for the local California Teachers Association office, spending countless evenings assisting with workshops, trainings, and other meetings, and oh so many registration tables. I was so happy when she moved back to Visalia and we could start doing things together again.

So here is to you, Vickie…my partner in crime, work wife who became another sister, cherished friend. May we do many, many more events together.

Fawn and Vickie staffing the registration table at the October Helping One Woman dinner.

I’m back!

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family, memories, Mother Nature, rain, thunderstorms, travel, weddings

An unhappy DSL line from last Thursday’s thunderstorm really messed with my blogging mojo as I was trying to get ready to leave town for a long weekend.  But I’m back, filled with memories of a beautiful bride and handsome groom amidst the love of their family and friends.

Nearly seven hours in the car today has made mush of my brain, so tonight I will just say, “thank you” to Mother Nature for the lovely blessing of rain over the past several days…as well as for the thunderclouds that dispersed rather than raining on the wedding yesterday.

Sweet dreams.

Sister Time

Tags

family, Shell Beach, visits

Today my precious sister arrived at Mom and Daddy’s for a week.  I can’t be there the entire time, but I can — and will — drive over right after taking the girls to school tomorrow.  It is ridiculous to think that it has been over a year since our last visit together, but we have had scheduling conflicts the last several times.

Our agenda will be something like this:  Hang out at the house and visit with Daddy and Donnie, go to Shell Beach and sit on Mom’s favorite bench by the edge of the cliff, eat at Denney’s at least once, hang out at the house some more.  Perhaps even sleep a little.  And Melody has promised she will help me go through some of Mom’s more mundane, less exciting, collection/stuff, to see what we can donate to the local thrift stores.

There might even be some Tuesday casino time in there somewhere…not because she loves to gamble, but because Daddy does and we might be invited for the day.

On Wednesday I will come back to Visalia, refreshed from our visit and ready to see my girls again.  And in less than a month, we will be together to watch our childhood friend be the mother-of-the-bride.  Such fun!

Promise

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family, First day of school, fourth grade, granddaughters, Kindergarten, school, SCICON, The Kissing Hand

Was there ever a day more full of promise than the first day of school?  All those shiny scrubbed faces, new clothes, fresh backpacks and notebooks, ready to take on the challenges of a new school year.  And the questions asked by each child:  Will I make a new friend today?  Will the teacher like me?  Will I fit in?  Will I have fun?

Not just on the first day, but each day when I pick Lily up from school, I ask:  “What was the best thing that happened today, and what was the worst thing that happened?”  Typically Lily’s best thing involves reaching a goal or achieving a new level of learning, and her worst thing is known by the acronym BFP, or “Best Friend Problems”.  My hope for Lily this year is that the BFPs will lessen, based on the friends that are (and are not) in her class.

Her best thing today was discovering that she will be going to SCICON with the fifth graders in her class this year (she is in a 4-5 combo).  SCICON is  our local science camp in the mountains, and the fifth grades go for a one-day trip to tease them into wanting to go for a week in sixth grade.

Olivia’s teacher read them the story of The Kissing Hand, and they each drew a kissing hand to leave with their parents when they went to school.  That was her best thing about the day; she said there wasn’t a worst thing (although she told us she didn’t learn how to read today).  She discovered three children she knew in her Kindergarten class, and she really liked her teacher.

All dressed up and ready for fourth grade and Kindergarten. How quickly time flies!

Olivia got a special message from Mom in her new classroom.

I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow will bring.