TCC First Annual Dads & Daughters Night

This was not the first Father/daughter dance I'd been to. I've been to one that was in a slightly decorated gym, where everyone brought a snack to share, a hired DJ played all the "usual," there was no room to sit, less room to dance, and it was lots fun. Until one night, I listened to one of the songs that was played, and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wish I could say that one song was all it took for me to want to leave, but it took three reprehensible songs, and then I was ready to leave and never come back. And that's what we did.

I always enjoyed the night spent with my sister and daddy, (even when the songs were horrible) and I missed it this year (it was always around Valentine's Day). Then, just a couple weeks ago, Mr. Finneran announced that he was planning a Christian Community Dads & Daughters night for August 13th.

I was excited about the idea, but I confess that at first, I wasn't too happy that it was going to be right after hours of swimming and water polo. I ended up having to miss water polo to get ready in time (30 minutes might be enough for Sarah and Jessica, but it's not enough for me!) It was worth it. The messy little room at TAC was transformed by Mrs. Finneran, Mrs. Jacob and my mom into an elegant and lovely dining room and dance floor. The fluorescent lights were out and the lighting was provided by candles, soft lamps and Christmas light strands. Pink and white streamers, light pink balloons, beautiful table cloths, and delicate doilies all added a special touch. I could never believe it was the same stark, unfinished and harsh room we'd had our swim team awards banquet in.

Sarah and Jessica, preparing for a picture together...

Sarah and Jessica

We had a meal, Mr. Finneran gave a devotional talk, and then the dads presented their daughters with a rose. Since my mom was responsible for getting the roses, I had seen them ahead of time, and already had my heart set on one that was not quite as bright pink as all the others. When Daddy picked our roses for us, he picked for me the very one I wanted!

My little brothers and some of the other young men were being the waiters, and they were all so cute, refilling drinks and offering more salad, or more sparkling apple cider. Little Torin was especially adorable, he was so excited to be a waiter, so eager to do anything, and very serious about his job.

My brother, Joel, and Torin, "helping" the DJ.

Then the DJ (who played the piano during the meal) cranked up the dance music and we danced. Then we ate cake, and danced some more.

Jessica and her dad, dancing very well...

It was all over way too soon. It was such a special evening, I'm so glad to have the night with Daddy and Sarah back. And the older girls are looking forward to planning an similar event for the dads and moms sometime soon!

Our table...

Sarah, with her lip-like heart candy from the dance.

Our roses... (there were three left over, so the three moms who were in charge of decorating and the six hours of hard work got a rose each as well.) Can you see the difference between mine and Sarah's and Mom's?

It was so nice, I can't wait to do one for the moms!

~Lizzie

"It's cute... not saying I like it, but it's cute..."

- Sarah's opinion of this little arrangement.



I had been feeling sad about cutting Black-eyed Susans because they almost always have little baby buds on the stem that are too low to fit in the arrangement, but too high to avoid being cut along with the main flower. But today I decided to try sticking them in their own little vase instead of throwing them away, and they ended up looking better than I imagined they would!


This is the arrangement of Zinnias that I wanted the long Black-eyed Susans for. (It's kind of blurry, but the flash looked much worse.)

Sarah and I are very excited about Wicked coming to DPAC April/May 2010... but I am beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have a problem with the witches and wizards and magic in Wicked. After all, I rejected Harry Potter because of Christian objections to witchcraft and witches being portrayed in a good light. Glinda is a "good" witch. There is witchcraft in Wicked... flying on brooms and such. Wicked seems more like an innocent story than Harry Potter, but it still centers on witches who are supposed to be "good." I'm very torn. I feel that I should be objecting to Wicked too, but I've heard that it's such a good show, and I have the soundtrack and the music is fantastic... and it's not like I'm a child that could be fooled into thinking that real witches are good just by a show!

Also, J. K. Rowling (a professed witch) has said that she intended Harry Potter to encourage American children to experiment with witchcraft! Wicked is just another Broadway musical: typically slightly cheesy, with no mind-blowing intent beyond being a well-acted and well-sung musical... the witches are just another twist in a thread of musicals with all-too-similar romantic plots. Right? At least I have 8 months to think about it. Thoughts are welcome. =)

~Lizzie

The beginnings of my attempt at flower gardening...

As you may remember from this post that I started growing some flowers... here are the first blooms!

Several little moss roses...

I like the vibrant color...


This one is probably my favorite though. It's such a sweet pink...

These Johnny Jump Ups are cuter than I imagined! They are sooo tiny!


A little moss rose growing amongst rocks... and weeds that I didn't stop to pull. :P

Snapdragon just opening up (and still in a starter pot on the table... he needs to be planted...

And a bright orange Zinnia.

I'm really enjoying my flowers. And I'm really pleased with how well my camera took those shots. It's just a little camera (not at all like Sarah's professional monster of a camera) but it does really well.

It's a good thing I have my flowers to cheer me up, because my cooking skills continue to fail me. (Cooking skills? What cooking skills?) Yesterday I made a crockpot dish for an impromptu potluck/softball evening with some of our friends. I tried a new recipe from our Betty Crocker Slow Cooker Cookbook, "Lentil and Mixed-Vegetable Casserole." We had just opened a 5-gallon bucket of lentils, and we had everything else we needed, it looked very easy (as if cooking in a crockpot isn't easy enough anyway) and it even looked tasty! We had a lot of errands to run during the afternoon, so I could just let it cook while we were gone and then take it to the potluck.

I got it put together and ready to cook, but since we were going to be gone 3 to 4 hours, and it said to only cook it 2 to 2 1/2 hours, I turned it on for an hour before we left, kept it on "warm" while we were gone, and turned it back on to cook once we got home. It wasn't ready when it was time to leave (the lentils were still kinda crunchy) so I plugged it in to cook while we played softball. It still wasn't ready when it was time to eat. Daddy looked at it, and gently informed me that my lentils were actually split-peas, which is why they were taking so long.

Split peas.

Lentils.

I should know the difference! It's not like I've never had lentils or split peas before! I was told that the bucket was lentils, and I just didn't doubt it, or even use any intelligent brain waves on the consideration.

Mr. J kindly said that with another 30 minutes, my casserole would have been superb, Kara insisted that it tasted fine and Sarah said she liked the crunch. It was nice of them to say those things and I'm sure they meant them... but I thought it tasted like casserole with sand. And it needed more salt. Not to mention, it wouldn't have been too bad if they had at least been lentils... instead of split peas.

~Lizzie

Fragile dreams

All my life so far, I've looked forward to when I would finally get married and have children. It has always been my goal. Ever since I was around 10, I have planned nearly every aspect of my the life I want to have once I'm married: the kind of house I want (a cute little farm house with space for a vegetable garden and extreme amounts of flowers), the way my days will go, how many children we'll have and how we'll train our children. So far I think the only thing I left entirely up to God was the man.

It was only recently that it hit me: perhaps I am naively imagining an impossible dream. I'm just a silly girl, gazing starry-eyed into a romantic fantasy that's unmarred by reality. Eventually, my shiny, happy future will shatter like a delicate glass into 10 million pieces. The disillusionment will cast a gray hue over all my broken plans and my former hopes will be a bright mockery of the cold, hard truth.

Or maybe not. Isn't there a chance that God has planned a Godly man of character to marry me? Is it impossible for me to be a firm, but gentle, loving and disciplining mother? Am I not capable of making a lovely home for my family? Is it too much to ask that my girls have a meek and quiet spirit, with gentle feminity? That my boys be strong leaders, kind and loving to their sisters and show honesty, diligence and intelligence in everything they do? Should I not hope to one day have a joyful, loving family with obedient and thankful children, led by a hard-working spiritual man?

Could there be a lovely, simple life in my future?

~Lizzie

First Day of Spring Eve

It feels like Spring... really like Spring. Not like "Oh, it's 75 degrees outside in the middle of winter, gosh, this is like Spring already" fake Spring, but real Spring! Even when it started raining in the middle of our baseball game, it still felt like Spring. And I'm so ready for it.

I got a few flower seeds out shopping about a month ago, and yesterday, Mom got me a starter tray and lots more seeds! So I've got a nice start of six pods for each different kind of flower.


You can see the row of seeds that are uncovered... I didn't know that there were seeds that aren't supposed to be covered. But apparently Achillea (or Yarrow) seeds need light to germinate.

So all the seeds I have in my tray are Achillea, Snapdragons, African Daisies, Forget-me-nots, Carnations, Moss Roses, Black-eyed Susans, Shasta Daisies (like the boy in "The Horse and His Boy! Shasta... I wonder if that's where C. S. Lewis got it. I think it's a good girl's name. :P ), Johnny Jump Ups, Salvia, and two rows of Zinnias. And then I have two kinds of Sunflowers, Lupine, Foxglove and Nasturtium to plant directly in the ground sometime in late April.

And Mom just got the book "Lasagna Gardening" at Goodwill. I'm so excited about starting my flower gardens with the "lasagna" technique! And for those of you that know our front yard... don't you think it'd be nice to have a big gazebo surrounded by flowers in the middle of our front yard? (We have a pretty big, nearly empty front yard.) Vines of Moonflowers growing up the sides of the gazebo, surrounded by all kinds of flowers... and especially a rosebush or two... *sigh* I think it would be lovely. Now to get Daddy and the boys to build the gazebo... :D

First Attempt at Flower Arranging

Mom brought me some flowers home from Costco today, because she knows I've been dying to try my hand at arranging flowers, and unfortunately, there's nothing of the flower variety to be found outside around our house yet.

I've never really tried to arrange flowers before because I had no idea how to go about it. All the arrangements I tried as a child (with dandelions and buttercups) never turned out like I wanted. All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my first official attempt.


I wish the greenery didn't stick out quite so much, but that's the way it grew, and there was nothing I could do about it.


I waited until it was getting dark out to take the pictures, and the "Available Light" setting my camera kinda makes it look black and white...


But it's kind of blurry without flash. And the flash looked bad.


I love roses!

I really enjoyed arranging these flowers, so I'm going to try to do it more often, and maybe get some more ideas (I got some ideas from Trina's blog), definitely collect some more vases (from Goodwill and yard sales) and hopefully start my own flower garden this year.

~Lizzie