Memorial Day - Giving Thanks to our Vets

Our city has an annual parade and program held at Spring Grove Cemetery each Memorial Day.  It's a great small town kind of event featuring the Delavan American Legion colorguard, vets who march, or ride in vehicles, the DDHS band, boyscouts, and city officials and more.

This year the cemetery has been going through some much needed renovations.  There has also been some horrible vandalism to many headstones, some have been repaired and uprighted, but there are still a lot that need to be fixed and uprighted.  The Civil War Monument has been looking great so far, thanks to efforts by many people, of all ages, spear-headed by Ken Wargo - Thanks Ken for all the work so far!

My Dad, along with others from Gifford Tree Service, donated time and equipment about a month and a half ago to help clean the monument.  See how dirty and stained it was ... and here it is today, at the ceremonies we attended this morning.

 Here are other photos from today ... giving thanks for the men and women who fought for our freedoms and continue to do so today!

 

 

Pentecost! Come Holy Spirit!

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of thy love...

What a great day ... a full morning of worship, praise and fun!  Up to head to Church early to set up for the coffee and fellowship time, and to take some photos of the early Chapel Service butterfly release...

The adults posed for a fun photo shoot using the butterfly nets I bought for the Sunday School kids to use to try to capture a couple of butterflies to take home (after the later Church service).   Seems that young and old still like to try to catch butterflies!  *lol*

That woman in the sunglasses catching one is my Mom!

We had kites we flew for the processional and outside before the service (doves and butterflies), candle sconces lit (symbolizing the "tongues of fire" spoken of in scripture - Read the Book of Acts).

We had a baptism today too... welcoming into the household of God, thru the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, Nicholai.

The Sunday School kids showed us that "speaking in other tongues" also includes signing with your hands.  And since it is Memorial Day weekend, they also did, for the Recessional Hymn, a more patriotic song.

Here's a video of the kids singing and signing to God Bless America ... little did I realize that one of the younger ones would be revealing too much..*lol*  But, the kids did a great job!  I'm proud of them!One appears to be stage struck, and she did so well in practice the last few Sundays?  Ahh well.   Here they all are, "my kids"!   Gotta love them, and I do!

 

After the service we did the butterfly release too .... last week the kids begged to have one of the butterflies, so this week they got to try to catch one and put it in the butterfly hut we bought for each child to have.

 

The kids captured a butterfly or two each, everyone enjoyed the snacks too... it was indeed a Spirit filled morning at Christ Church!!  Thank you Lord!

Appetizers for Pentecost ...

Tomorrow is the Sunday we celebrate Pentecost...  And I have coffee and snack time, so since we are releasing butterflies (to symbolize the releasing of the Holy Spirit in our lives), after the service, I made these fun appetizers for part of the snacks.

 

Look closely, they are suppose to resemble butterflies..*L*

I also made some cake cones, with creamcheese/powdered sugar frosting and inside the cone was strawberry cake on the top, chocolate cake on the bottom... they turned out pretty good after I frosted them.

So, heading off to finish up a few more of these before bedtime.

Butterfly Wrangling....

This afternoon Kasey helped me gather up the butterflies, which had been in a larger net area, and herd them to the smaller net habitat so we could easily move them to the Chapel and Church Services tomorrow and then out to the garden courtyard to release them after each service.

They didn't want to leave their larger area, or their cantalope meal either....

 

 

 It took a bit of wrangling, and we did lose one out the window where the screen wasn't fully closed... eek..$2 flew out the window! *lol*  But finally we got them all together in one place.  I added some sugar water sprinkled carnations for them to eat until their release tomorrow morning.

Thanks Kasey for your help!!

Assemblage of Pentecost Flowers ....

Each year, our Church sends a flower arrangement, to the area Churches we work closely with in ecumenical events, for Pentecost Sunday.  Pentecost is recognized as the time the early disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, so much so, that thousands were added to their numbers, it is therefore known as the "birthday" of Christian Churches.  We send them the flowers to show we are all One Body in Christ, and to wish them Happy Birthday and Happy Pentecost.

Today Susanne and I put together the flower arrangements, and we, along with help from Deb, delivered them to area churches.  They are very Pentecost colored (red = fire of the Holy Spirit), and turned out looking pretty nice.

We've used these kind of flowering plants several different years, check out another kind we used a few years back here.http://robertasrandom.blogspot.com/2009/05/pentecost-plant-assemblages.html

Another Old Art Piece from LOOOONG ago.... Clown Hall of Fame Donation

Found another Polaroid photo in some old boxes, and an old Clown Hall of Fame brochure featuring a picture of it in use.  The Clown Hall of Fame got it's start and used to be in Delavan for many years before moving to Milwaukee many years ago.

I made, and donated, this wooden clown in a barrel photo thing.  John helped me with putting together the barrel part of it. 

I wonder if they still have it and use it in the Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee?  I recall seeing it at their first Milwaukee headquarters long ago, but have no idea where it might be now?

Art that I USED to do LOOOONG ago....

My school and me
circa 1958.

My family - Dad, Mom,
sister Chellie, Me & Brownie
our dog - circa 1958.

Big brown bear in the woods.
circa 1958. (my bear art
seemed to have continued
in later years too...ha!)

I was looking through old boxes of photos and stuff for an upcoming Father's Day project I'm working on, and came across some old art that my Mom had saved from my kindergarten days.  I was a budding artist even back then....  I'd like to think my art abilities have grown since 52+ years ago, but, maybe not??  Ha!   When I'm dead, and then a famous artist, these pictures may be worth MILLIONS!! *LOL*

I also found some old Polaroid photos of art I used to do 35 - 40 years ago.  These I called "buck burning" - I used a wood burning tool to burn pictures into deer hides, then stretched them on a frame.  I don't think my art work is so spectacular, but back when I used to do these, they were not common, and so they sold pretty good.   I used to go to art fairs and art shows with these, and some of my other wood working projects and crafts ... hinged fish, nursery rhyme characters, candlesticks and more.

Bear in the wood - buck burning, circa 1973 or so.

I made several vests with pictures
of bears too!  Circa 1975 - 1978 

It seems doing art with bears in it continued in my "old" age....

Buck Burning, deer head on deer
hide shaped like the State of WI,
circa 1974 or so.

Buck burning of doe and fawns.
This was before it was stretched to
a frame.  Circa 1976 or so?

Indian head on deer hide. Circa 1970's.

 Here are a few other buck burnings I did back then too .... ahhh memories of burning deer hides ... *lol*....

Wooden, jointed fish & buck burning
Indian picture.  Circa 1976 or so.

Butterfly Habitat Enlarged - More Hatched!

Almost all of the butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis'.  Only about 5 - 6 are left to hatch.  After they emerge, we take the empty chrysalis shells off the netting, to make more room for the butterflies.



Empty feeding pods that the
larvae, then caterpillars lived in until
forming chrysalis'



Empty chrysalis shells removed from
the net habitat after butterflies emerged.



Since so many have hatched now, I made one of our Nets4Life into their new habitat .... not sure how I'll be gathering them up for release on May 27th yet... but I did find out the little butterfly nets I have for an upcoming kids event DO work well when one escapes from the net.. *L*  It just may take awhile to swoop up all 75 of them on Pentecost though?  Guess we'll see....

 

  

 

So here's a few more photos updating our butterfly babies ... and their delicious feast of cantelope and sugar water sprinkled carnations.



Violence at Churches Rare - Ministers Remain Vigilant ... Episcopal News Service Article

Two weeks ago, a horrible tragedy occurred at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Ellicott City, Maryland... the parish administrator and one of the rectors (both women) were killed by a homeless man, who then took his own life too.  I read the many articles on the very sad events at the Episcopal Cafe (The Lead), where they asked for responses:  "We would like to hear from those of you who have wisdom to share about keeping church members who work with people struggling with mental illnesses safe from harm. Please join the conversation in the comments." 
So, I responded.  In response to my response, Mother Mary Frances Schjonberg contacted me and asked if I would be open to a phone interview.  I said yes, but also asked our Church Secretary, Deb Weber to be part of it too.  So last Thursday Mother Mary Frances, Deb and I shared with each other for about 30+ minutes.  It was a good conversation, and we shared resources with each other about precautions, security and why we minister to others, I'm sorry it had to come about due to the deaths of others however.

At our Vestry meeting last Tuesday, we also discussed some things we might be able to have written guidelines for at our Church to help with security and safety, not only from violence, but for any emergencies.  We have some people willing to help by sharing manuals and info from the local schools and from online resources as well.

The Episcopal News Service article on the interview Deb and I did, as well as comments from others that were interviewed can be found here