Graduation party

Libby wanted a small party for her graduation. It was mostly family with a few friends who gathered beneath a shade tree on Monday to witness Libby receiving her high school diploma. Then her guests sampled a scrumptious lunch, which included three different kinds of rolls along with bread, sticky buns and cinnamon twists all baked by Libby. 

Menu: Chicken salad and Curried Chicken Salad served with three types of rolls, bread, bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, vegetarian beans and pretzels.

Cinnamon twists, sticky buns, chocolate cake with vanilla icing, chocolate cake with mocha icing.

2:07 AM

hail

Greenhouse

Soon the baby plants will leave the warmth and protection of Libby's greenhouse to learn to grown in the real world. 

Class of 2012

Congratulations Libby!

Patient

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. James 5.7 NIV.

Color

For Joel: a blue tractor

My nieces are learning their colors. They are a little warped by the fact that their daddy works for a tractor company.

The other day when we were chatting Kaelyn told us she had eaten a strawberry.

"What color was it?" one of her aunts asked.

"It was a Case strawberry," Kaelyn answered.

"Just don't eat a John Deere one," we told her.

Brown eyes

My cousin Christie with her niece Bethany

Yellow roses

When we bought the Cookie House we noticed a wild, thorny mess of a rosebush at the corner of the house. "That thing better be absolutely stunning, or it is so going bye-bye," we said.

This past week that thorny mess has been covered with sweet-smelling yellow roses.

It's here to stay, though, we are still hoping it can be tamed.

Relax

Office

Betsy and I took lunch to Julie's office one day last week. We were impressed with her swanky accommodations. 

Red

Sturgeon Point, Michigan

Perspective

Teach us to number our days aright,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12 NIV 

Eby Cemetery, Pennsylvania

Sunday dinner

Mother daughter tea

Ladies and girls from church gathered at the Cookie house for a Mother Daughter Tea the Saturday before Mother's Day. Carmen organized the event around a sweet theme. Different ladies shared about how sweet it is to be a grandmother, a mother, a daughter, and a child of God. Then, of course, we drank tea and ate sweets at tables decorated with posies. 

Carmen arranges posies for the tables.

Julie, Abigail and Rebekah read stories before the tea.

Libby and Hosanna play with Noah's Ark.

The lovely Lang ladies--Bethany, Carmen, Hosanna, Abigail, Rebekah.

Bicycle built for...

Cook family    Mother's Day 2012

Kitten

This kitten told me it wanted to come home with me.

Julie told me I heard wrong.

For my brothers

(See Brian, my blog is not boring)

Nessa

Mother's day

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20.12 NIV

Because I'm the Mom

Several weeks ago I showed the Mom Song to my students.

The song ends with "You don't need the reason why. Because I said so. I'm the mom!"

I noticed one of my Chinese students laughing.

"Did your mom say that to you?" I asked. He nodded.

Then my Saudi woman started nodding too. She confessed that not only did her mom say it, she now says it to her daughters.

Moms may speak different languages, but motherhood is international. 

Techy lentils

Technology is my friend. Wednesday evening I cooked dinner from a Allrecipes.com recipe on my Kindle while listening to radio from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

(And, since the dinner was so delicious and since it was our first dinner outside for the season, I've included the photos to inspire you)

Lentil Soup with Lemon (click here for recipe)

Beams