COLORS!

The world is turning summer--which I don't really love, And everything is becoming colorful--
I love color!

I think green is one of the greatest colors and so this year for my annual mother's day family photo we did it in front of the grape-vines on the side of our house (the neighbor's grass and potato plants are in the ground behind that). We didn't have a photographer that day, just a timer, so the pictures weren't perfect, but still fun with lots of pretty green!

Although all my men love pretty flowers, they aren't nearly as important as an afternoon practicing their volleyball technique--David is loving the boys loving volleyball, and they really do. I love to watch them play, especially when I can see one of my all-time favorite colors in the background. Check out the red roses. . .. . .and the yellow roses. I can't take credit for any of these, and probably wouldn't be one to try and grow roses all around my yard, but it is fun to see the large blooms of color!!

Even Isaac can appreciate these big dark pink petals. Of course, he spent most of his time ripping them to shreds, but I didn't stop his pleasurful task. The lawn ended up with sweet pink, yellow and white petal confetti, as did the cat.

Every day holds challenges (whether it's planning my lesson for Relief Society in Italian--new calling; doing chores without complaining--this can apply to Eli, Adam, Gabriel, and mom; or being a 17 month old who really wants to give your 4 year old brother a ride in the grass on a large toy dump truck). I am so grateful for the beauty that color (like these yellow, pink, and orange flowers) adds to my life and how it can make those challenges all melt away for awhile.

. . .

So, how do I feel about the color GOLD? In jewelry it can be lovely, or pictured in a pot at the end of the rainbow--thrilling, but as a pair of 8 year old boy's shoes?!!

Yes, it was time to buy some new shoes for Adam. We went to a local store. Eli had his shoe graph chart in hand to keep him busy, and Gabe pushed Isaac in the stroller, while I "helped" Adam chose. These were the ones:

I tried not to interfere too much in the decision, though the words, "are you sure that is what you want?" left my mouth more than once. I decided that since we are in Italy and there really isn't anyone to mock (except for David and me and we are striving to supress). . . we may as well go for it! When Eli finally joined us again at the store and saw the shoes he exclaimed, "I've never had gold shoes! Adam is always the lucky one!" Okie-dokie then!

I have gotten more pleasure out of this golden purchase than I would have thought. How can one help but smile when they look at these and the obvious pride of their owner?!

We often go walking through meadows of POPPIES

One of my mom's favorite flowers has always been poppies.
She always grew a few in our front yard.

When we moved here to Italy, I was blown away by the wild poppies that grow everywhere in the late spring and summer. They are sprinkled in with weeds and even pop up in a field of wheat--love the view of a lone red flower in the middle of a field of green wheat (another natural reminder that we need to stand for who we are and what we believe in, even if we are alone in doing so).

So, this year the boys and I made a little change to the sweet primary song, I Often Go Walking:

We often go walking in meadows of poppies,

And we gather armfuls of poppies for you.

We gather the poppies the whole meadow over.

Dear Grandma, all poppies remind us of you!

*We think of you every time we see these pretty red-orange flowers,and that is often!

We love you, Grandma!

And we love you, mom!!

Our cute little stinker--Isaac!

You see 20 garbage bags pulled and piled, a bag of potatoes (you don’t see the potatoes with cute little bites taken out of them, but they do exist), and a good length of paper towels rolled out along the floor.

What did I see?

5 whole minutes without this sad face clinging to my legs while I did the dishes—priceless.

Isn’t he cute—even with dispair upon his face?!

There isn’t much mess that isn’t worth that bit of happy baby time while I accomplish something.

I did, however, have to draw the line this afternoon at EATING A DRIED DEAD SNAIL COVERED IN A HUNDRED LITTLE ANTS!

I was reading a book on the porch while Isaac and the boys played outside. He walked out of my view for a few seconds. I asked Eli what Isaac was doing. He looked over and said, “He is eating something.” (of course). That was quickly followed with a cry of, “It’s a snail, mom!!”
I am known for allowing crazy things to continue while I run and grab the camera for a photo, but even I couldn’t justify it this time. I jumped up, ran over, pulled the huge mouthful of snail-in-shell out of his ant-covered mouth and just grossed out for a minute. I guess that dead, sun-baked snail covered in protein rich ants could be a sort of delicacy, but. . .

Cute little stinker!