Returning home after a month away has been a bit like waking up from a long sleep. A reeeeally long Rumpelstiltskin-style sleep. There's been so much to catch up on and it's been a challenge to get back into the groove here. A lot changed while I was gone.
Summer disappeared. Jack Frost zapped my garden and all my flowers. I was sad to see the bushels of red tomatoes hanging frozen on the trellises. There was no one available to pick them and make them into something delicious.
My expanding house got a roof and a beautiful entry door.
My little boys got taller and became more accomplished at the piano.
My family got jipped out of my birthday. They didn't get any birthday cake. I missed Seth's birthday but I think I made it up to him. He got a pie and a day at the symphony with me.
But, I can verify, absence does make the heart grow fonder.
I left my camera cord at Katie's. Being a very visual person and a photo fanatic, I find it difficult to write a blog post without photos. I'm still taking photos, I just can't get them off my camera and onto my blog.
So looking through the file from Michigan I found a couple photos to share. The day before I left I paid one last visit to the Amish neighbors. After our chat in the simple Amish kitchen I took Ruth back with me to see the new baby. She brought along her adorable toddler, Edna.
Being a strongly visual person and a photo fanatic I was painfully yearning to photograph beautiful barefoot Edna with her long blue dress, white bonnet, and crystal blue eyes. I have faced similar photographic desires whenever I was around the Amish children who are so doll-like in their dress and so innocent and joyful. I wanted to take pictures of them so badly! When we went out the door to visit Baby Andrew, Edna's mother put a tiny black cape and black visiting bonnet on Edna and I just died a thousand deaths.
At Katie's house I screwed up my courage and asked Ruth if I could take a photo of Edna from the back just to see her dress and black bonnet. Even that pose, without her face, was not acceptable and permission was denied. The Amish don't allow any photos because they think it breaks the commandment against making and having graven images.
But then Ruth playfully put the bonnet on my grandson Evan and suggested I photograph him. Which I gladly did because even he was adorable in a black bonnet!
Oops! Edna almost stepped into the picture!
I feel sorry for them. I have dozens and dozens of photo albums full of special memories of special times and I couldn't live happily without them. I'm such a sinner.
My photos make me happy. Right now the photos of my beautiful grandsons remind me that I was not napping during October. I was making memories.