Sticks and Stones

Today when we got up bright and early (since there was no school), we got to work on Mary Claire's American Girl library.  Don't your dolls need books? of which have no pages?  She got the new American Girl Doll School (For Girls Who Love to Teach!), and it had tons of stuff to do!

for $17.95 at Amazon.com, you can have the set too!

There are report cards (seven maybe?), cardboard to make books, stickers and labels for the covers and spines, handwriting paper, math and spelling worksheets (with multiplication-I love them!), posters with inspiring words, pictures for a yearbook and "Picture Day", a cursive alphabet, etc.  She wanted to work on the books at 9:30 last night after swimming, but I was exhausted after that chicken ordeal!

So, today, as the sun rose, we made books.  I used scrapbook paper to cover them:
and then we put on labels.  It recommended using a little plastic organizer for the library shelves, and I happened to have one! : )

There were four sizes, these are the last of them!

Stickers : )

the beginnings of the Library : )

And we also made Ethan a couple-he was up early too, and you can't make books for one, and not another!

making his own books!

She put up the posters inside the Library Area.  She even carried the "Library" all over the cemeteries we visited today and to the restaurant for lunch!  Her girl, Megan, is going to be smart!

Then we fulfilled our Memorial duty-I like to make things to put at the cemetery next to our loved ones (and loved friends).  This year, I made crosses from sticks:

tied them with jute strings in the middles and ends, added little bouquets of flowers:

and made matching bows for them.  I only bought four bunches of flowers, but I had enough sticks to make five crosses, and we took the extra (with ribbon only) to a new grave-of a family friend who passed away last week.  She was a wonderful person-and I had to explain to Mary Claire that it was the lady who bought so many girl scout cookies from us this year-her heart was huge, and she'll be missed.


It's always hard to go to the cemetery.  We've lost people close to us..

and even as I made the five crosses, I was thinking of my own five.  Maybe one day we'll have a stone made?  I am content to lay the crosses at the feet of others for now.  It's too close and personal to have anything made.  I saw a school friend's father that I hadn't known had passed, a fried crying at his father's graveside, and I saw the stone of a sweet girlfriend that I'd been in girl scouts with-she was a precious person, and died at 16, longer than her life expectation.  It's so hard to see all the families and people we've known.  We have lived in the same city for my entire life, and most of my parent's lives, so we know most of the families at the cemeteries.  Hard.  It's even hard to see the ones who died in the late 1800's or early 1900's, and they don't have flowers-even the people who knew them and their families are gone.  Some are so old, the dates have just worn away, just stones remain.


Ok, I'm moving on... : )  Memory Lane can be slow, sorry!

Don't forget to register below for the embroidered/monogrammed towel giveaway this Saturday, June 4th!  Make sure you are following so I can find you or your blog, and leave your first name on your comment! : )


Remember to be thinking about your towel color, fabric for the big letter, and thread color!  (These are the hardest decisions, people!) (...ok, maybe just for me!)


Hope your day was blessed with sweet friends, family, and great memories!  And special thanks to our veterans who defend our country with their lives, we can never say thank you enough.  Thank you Kitty, Rodney, Dwight, Travis, Justin, and any I can't remember right this minute!!

Only 2 defining forces have ever offered to die for you...Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.