Remembering the Murlands....

I should be working on getting samples of items that will be used at a craft day at church for the ladies, but it is more fun, sitting here, yapping online. Actually, I just finished mowing and mulching the grass in both the front and back yards, so this is technically my breaktime. But, it is nice to make it a play time, instead!

Joshua is out taking care of his old car. He gave it to the Kidney Foundation and he had something to do before the deal is finished. Then he wants Steve to help him with a cover page and update his resume'. He found a job offer to apply for. So far, he has not been called in for that job at EDO we were hoping he would get considered for. Something will come along, though...

I started another blog that specializes in scrapbooking. On this site, I can put slideshows up of my photos that I have scrapbooked and other paper craft projects I have made. It is a little harder to figure out how to use than this site but, I will learn to adjust to it. If nothing else, it is a good site to get inspired. I can view others' works and take their ideas and tweek them into something better...hopefully! If you get bored and have nothing better to do, you can check out my blog on that site, too! (I will add the email address later).

We had our first fire in the wood stove, last night. Josh got it really nice and hot in here. It felt sowonderful and it was so nice to watch the fire burn. Cold weather is my favorite time of year. I have thought about why this is, quite often, and I have come to the conclusion that it was the happiest time of the year for our family when growing up. The fighting and bickering seemed to die down a little and we were forced to find things to do together because we were inside so much. Thus, we played lots of board games, card games, and put puzzles together. And this is what our family now does, too.

When it gets cold out, I pull out a new winter/Christmas-themed puzzle and the fun begins. Sometimes, we can get three large puzzles done in a season. And we still pull out the Acquire game. It remains high on our list of quality games to play. Last year, we discovered Blockus which is available in two different shapes but plays the same. I highly recommend it! And we play Pinochole almost every weekend with the kids or our adopted kids who come over often. And now that Caleb is with us weekdays and many weekends, too, we play the typical ones: Sorry, Uno Attack, Clue, Life, and others. I guess you could say we are a 'gamey' family!!

Talking about games and activities while we grew up, another special place to go was to the Murlands...Jimmie and Gordon's. Their daughter Kay would always take us into their country kitchen, seat us in their kitchen nook and pull out coloring books and a tin full of color crayons...lots of them! We would sit and color for hours while the grown-ups played cards or talked in the living room. On the window's ledge behind where we sat, was a little German weather barometer that looked like a little swiss chalet. It had a little boy and girl with water buckets hanging on poles that were balanced on their shoulders, and the figures would swing in or out of the chalet's door, depending on what weather was changing to in our area. Each figure would represent rain or sunshine. I loved that little thing.

If we got bored with coloring, which was almost never, we enjoyed the antics of their pet skunk. We were not allowed to touch him because he bit but, we could roll balls for him to play with. He would run and his fur would bounce like Mr. Snufflufflegus 's on Sesame Street. And, yes, he was 'deskunked'. I still remember seeing Jimmie at her stove cooking. She was often there when we would enter into her home. She always had baked goods available for us to eat and she always wore one of those aprons that you put your arms through thesides and tied it around your neck and at your waist. I don't have any memories of her not wearing an apron. She was a very nice lady.

She and Gordan would make sure that us kids had presents for Christmas. This happened even after her death. Kay and Gordan continued that tradition well into my high school years...until mom disowned Kay and Gordon...her usual method of getting rid of close relationships. They always gave us things that mom and dad would not consider giving us....or me, at least. One special present was a colored glass necklace set. It was so pretty.

Then there were time times that Richard and I would be able to play outside in their yard. They had a wonderful swing, grape arbor, filbert trees, and a plot of spring bulbs that sprouted daffodils and hyacinths. Gordon was jealous over his yard and worked in it all the time. It was a joy to see. Occasionally, we would go across the street to the old Indian Cematary. It was a strange place of very old head stones with different Indians listed on them. One in particular I remember as being an Indian Chief. His grave was so old that it had sunken down in the form of a casket. Other gravesites were in such condition, too. As kids will do, we saw this as an opportunity to play. I remember jumping onto the graves, up and down, up and down, thinking that we could get the ground to sink in a bit more. It never occurred to me that we were desecrating a sacred sight. Mind you, I was in grade school at this time. It was shortly after that that I was told that the cematary was off limits to us and we were not to trespass. Perhaps someone saw us and complained or the folks knew what we were doing and put stop to it. Whichever, it became a forbidden activity.

Another sweet memory that I have of the Murlands' is their Christmas tree. It was the largest and most beautiful I had ever seen. l It was decorated fully with old ornaments, popcorn garlands and dozens of large red and white candy canes. Each year, we were allowed to go to their tree and take off a luscious candy cane for ourselves. It was very, very special because we did not have candy canes on our trees. While there for a Christmas visit, we were also allowed to lift the cover to the key board of their piano and 'play' it. When that was enough music for the adults to put up with, we could wander around the house. It was a fun thing to play on the curved staircase that led upstairs. We would go to the top of the stairs, look into the three bedrooms up there, and then slide down the stairs on our bums. When we hit the bottom of the stairs, we would race back up and start over again. There are many happy memories for me at their house. Sometimes, I wish that my kids could have known the Murlands. I wonder what Kay is doing these days. I have lost track of her.

Well, enough thinking backwards for one day. We will see where my minds wanders tomorrow...