Mud-Pies and Raspberries

Dear Reader,

How nice of you to stop by today! We have been busy (On top of nursing the two littlest through their recuperations) the last few days planting all the trees, flowers, and raspberries my mum has brought out from her yard.

Her yard is the opposite of our yard, with too many trees and flowers (We're still not sure how that's possible, but we're glad to take the "volunteers'' off of her hands!).

What is happening in this picture? Perhaps Grandma is singing an aria from "Madame Butterfly"!

The weather has been nice enough to make mud pies, when we aren't busy working, and for going to the river and playing Little House on the Prairie, wading and catching frogs.

Looks almost good enough to eat!

Do you recognize this species of frog? We think it's a chorus frog, but we're not sure.

Thankfully, the weather forecast predicts colder temperatures and rain, so that we might have a chance to recover from our spring frolicking for a while!

We hope you have been enjoying a bit of gardening and fresh air, as well.

Love,

Marqueta

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from the book "Family Fun", written in 1931:

"Our increasing leisure time holds for family recreation both a promise and a challenge. This promise is that the time will come when no father or mother will have an excuse to say, "I can't play with you now, I'm tired. Run along, please!" Already mothers are freed from much of the drudgery of yesteryear's housework through labor-saving inventions. Homemakers should gain more and more time to play. And, as production in industry is speeded, the working day must grow shorter. In not so many years we should have fathers coming home from work, not to an armchair and dozing over the newspaper, but early in the afternoon for outdoor play with their families and friends....

Fun in the home is as important as food."