St. Mark Presbyterian--50 Years!

Our church is celebrating its 50 years anniversary this year.  I am the historian of the church and have been busy for a year getting photos together, helping with a new history book,

Writing articles for the newsletter and attending meetings. With the celebration Memorial Day Weekend, we are all pitching in cutting place mats, picking up balloons, setting tables.

Mother's Day in KC

 We made a quick 24 hour trip to Kansas City for Mother's Day and was greeted with Libby's banner for her mother.

 Kyle's parents Pat and Con joined us for an afternoon of family fun.

 Rebecca proudly sported her #1 Mom button!

 Then, it was time for some backyard fun with baseball,

 And swinging,

 Followed by our favorite activity:  cross-dressing. . .er. . .playing dress-ups.

 We, then, headed a little north and spent the night at Rebecca's where we saw another banner made by Roman.

It was a great, if quick, visit!

Art by Day

 Last week, we got a sneak preview of the Chinese Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

 It is called Art by Day, Magic by Night.

 Although most of the lanterns are outside, some are in the visitors center.

 There was plenty to see although it is still under construction with many workers/artisans brought over from China. 

 We still have our wonderful Dale Chihuly pieces that are enhanced by the beautiful lanterns.

 Not everything is made of silk.  This lantern being constructed across the lily ponds is made of china plates and cups.

 Although we were there 3 weeks before the opening Memorial Weekend, we could still see how magnificent it will be.

 One of the lanterns is 3 stories tall.

 Some are in all sorts of whimsical designs.

 Being a big recycler, I really wanted to see the art made of medicine bottles filled with colored water.

The Garden was packed 3 weeks before the opening; many were buying the night tickets.  But, I already thought it was magical.

Go-getters

 We have a group of women at St. Mark Presbyterian called the Go-Getters who have lunch once a month.  The group started many years ago when someone had to move her elderly mother to town.  With no friends, her mother was unhappy until this group was formed.

Although the group sometimes meets at church, they usually eat at local restaurants like Miss Aimee B's in St. Charles, Mo.

Spine Poetry

My former teaching colleague posted this on Facebook---Spine Poetry in honor of April being Poetry Month.   You pick books, stack them and voila--poetry.  "You are not so smart, Thinking, fast and slow, This will make you smarter."

So, I wanted to do it, using one of my friend's books: "The Red Tent, The Red Desk, The Crimson Petal and the White: Mind Games".

 This was my first attempt---the bottom two books were easy, but finding the right first book was the hard part:  "The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, When Elephants Weep."

This one proves you can get a great grouping, but if the books are the wrong size, or the writing goes the wrong way on the spine, the effect is not as good:  The Fatal Shore, Check-out Time, The Reckoning:  Ashes to Ashes.

I am only using books that were found on my book shelves: "The War of the Worlds:  A Thousand Splendid Suns, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

I wanted one that had a local flavor---Tower Grove Park---my favorite park.  I was so lucky to have grown up across the street from it:  "Then Sings My Soul:  Walking in Tower Grove Park, Where We Live."

I decided the books should reflect me and my reading interests, so I came up with "Slaves in the Family---I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  Bitter Harvest."  Now, sometimes the tricky part is getting them in the right order.  Maybe I should have ended with "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings".

This is one which reflects my love of history, plays on words and my sometimes random grouping of ideas.

I decided to see if I could come up with some DVD poetry: "Finding Nemo? Off limits. O, Brother, Where are thou?  Finding Neverland. . . ."  Somehow, more thought provoking than I thought I could get with our large collection of Disney, Sci Fi and History collection.

Now, that I've cleaned off my book shelves, maybe I need to set some aside for the ABC Sale at church. . . .