Grace O'Malley costume

A couple of years ago, Miss E dressed up as a pirate princess.  This last year, Miss M chose a pirate queen.  Grace O'Malley was an Irish queen way back when (during the 1500's) who was resisting the English advances on her land.  She claimed she was a queen levying a tax on ships in her waters.  The English viewed her as a pirate.  At one point she visited Queen Elizabeth to plead for the lives of her sons and her brother, captives of the English.

This was a fun costume to research and make.  (You can see our inspiration here.)  The Irish of the time wore shirts with big, baggy sleeves the English hated.  And the wealthy wore it dyed with saffron.  We just used yellow.  I used elastic around the neck and sleeves to scrunch it together.  This shirt is supposed to be baggy, which makes fitting it nice and easy.

Next we made a bodice that laced together down the front.  I used a shirt of Miss M's to guess at the size and the pattern.  We laced it up with a brown ribbon.

For the skirt, we used either a brown, tiered skirt we already had or a basic, full green skirt I made.  Miss M wore two or three skirts underneath as petticoats.

We finished with some belts, a sword (foil covered stick), and a cloak.  The cloak was either a piece of fabric, or a warm blanket (for the cold night), held together at the neck with a safety pin.  We added a nice rose pin to pretend to be the clasp.

I present our pirate queen, Miss M.

Just like Mom...

Miss S wants to be just like me.  One day a few months ago I stepped out of the kitchen for a minute while making waffles.  I came back to this:

My favorite part of the whole thing is that by trying to be just like me she is just like me.  My mother has a picture of little me cooking eggs at the stove with the drawer underneath the oven pulled out for a step-stool.  This picture of Miss S was taken for her.

Ardella Laird (Park) ~ April 1929

One of EMB's photos

In the pictures I have from EMB, my great grandfather, we found a number of pictures of a young woman.  The two envelopes containing most of the pictures were labeled.  Both said "Indpce" in script that looked more like "Mapel" and "Apr 1929".  One said Laird and one said Ardella.

With that, I began the fun part.  And I found Ardella Laird (Park) from Idaho.

Ardella Laird Park ~ 1985

Ardella Laird Park

Ardella Laird Park looked similar to the pictures.  She was buried in a cemetery near my parents' home.  My mother (a high school teacher) asked one of her students about the name and was connected to one of Ardella's children who lived nearby.  And looking through our photos, they found one that Ardella Laird Park had kept a copy of in her photo albums.

Ardella grew up in Idaho Falls, where EMB and his family lived.  She was close to the same age as his oldest son.  And she graduated from Idaho Falls High School, just as my great-uncle did.  In 1929 she was serving a mission for the LDS church in Independence, Missouri.  After she came home, she married and became a teacher (at the school my nephews go to now).  Her autobiography is available at the link above.

Another of grandpa's photos

Now the pictures make sense.  My great grandpa visited Independence in 1929.  While there, he visited with a missionary from back home.  It is likely that he knew her family before that.  And what family doesn't want pictures assuring them that their son or daughter is doing well?  And, when far away from family and friends, who doesn't enjoy the serendipitous meeting of a familiar face?

Another of grandpa's pictures.  I'm guessing these are the sister missionaries
in Independence, Missouri, in April 1929.  Ardella is the second
from the left.  I'm still working on the other five.

The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns

I recently found a new book at the library called "The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns" by Margaret Dilloway.  It is a story about Gal, a high school teacher who loves breeding roses and needs a kidney transplant.  Her niece shows up on her doorstep needing a home.  Both of them struggle in their relationships with others.  This beautiful story is about them learning and healing as they face the misunderstandings and the hard experiences in their lives.  I love the compassion and hope with which the prickly people in this book are written.

Block Sampler 2.1-2.10 ~ Square in a Square

A few years ago I started my second sampler quilt.  While I haven't quite finished it, I thought I would update my quilt blocks with those that are done.  I will update the names of the blocks (maybe) sometime.  Here are the first ten.

Facing the impossible

I was reading Timothy Dyches' talk from last October recently.  I was struck with his examples of the Savior healing.  He describes the scene at the pool at Bethesda:

As the Savior raises the edge of the cloth with one hand, He beckons with the other and asks a penetrating question: 'Wilt thou be made whole?'
The man replies, 'Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me' (John 5:6–7).
To the man’s seemingly impossible challenge, Jesus provides a profound and unexpected answer:
'Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
'And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked' (John 5:8–9).

To me, it seems like the impossible challenge wasn't the man explaining why change is impossible; it was Christ's response.  What is more impossible than telling an infirm man to take up his bed and walk?

This isn't the only time that Christ asks someone to do something impossible.  He asks Lazarus to come forth.  He commands the daughter of Jairus to arise.  He asks Peter to walk on the water.  Each time, He then provided the ability. Each time he healed them and blessed them and gave them all that was needed to fulfill his commandments.  But each time, the miracle isn't clear until they trust and try.

I'm reminded that often when I pray for help or guidance, the answers seem impossible.  Whether it be to have another child or to share a personal experience or not get angry at my children or move to a huge city or forgive a careless (or not so careless) remark or even to find time for scriptures each day, I am often like the man at the pool of Bethesda, patiently explaining to the Lord exactly why it is impossible for me to do more or be more.  "I'm broken," I explain.  "There's not time."  "I'm not talented like that."  "I don't know how."  "I'm exhausted and scared."  "I can't even do my current responsibilities."

I'm learning to trust and move forward.  I'm learning that, yes, it is all impossible.  And yet as I strive to do the impossible, miracles happen.  The power of grace fills in all the gaps, and then some.  Through his power, things work out eventually in beautiful ways.

Maybe someday I will be able to hear an impossible invitation from the Lord and rejoice in the miracle that is about to happen.

Rainbow at the lower Yellowstone River falls

Last summer, the Professor and I got to spend a day in Yellowstone without the children.  I took this picture on the path down to see the lower falls on the Yellowstone River.  No wonder they named it the Yellowstone River.

Looking at this, I am reminded just how very much I love those mountains.