Don't sweat the small stuff !

Thanksgiving Day discovery
It's a BUGS LIFE !!!

You know how when you're going to have company you run around your house cleaning, picking up, polishing, sweeping, dusting, etc. Well, I do this also. However, when I'm doing it I'm also thinking..."what have I missed"? On Thanksgiving Day the webs in the top the lamps in the living room presented themselves when we got ready to take family pictures. After being embarrassed, I just had to remind myself that there are some things that one can always count on. In this case it's the dust I've missed, the webs not removed, or maybe the windows not cleaned. BUT...I decided awhile ago to just be the best housekeeper I could be. OK...that may mean I don't dust often (makes me ill, literally), I don't vacuum everyday, I really don't "do" windows, and there are things I can just live with. But, really, don't we all have our household tasks that we just don't want to do?

I decided to use the cobweb experience as a means of learning something about myself. I discovered that this is truly one of those moments when I should "not sweat the small stuff". In the world today a spider web is so minor on the scale of important things to worry about. Not only that...but it's the holidays and there are lots of things I would rather be thinking about than housecleaning. So, here's my plan...I will sweep, dust, vacuum, polish, wash, de-web, and all that kinda stuff as necessary. After that I will enjoy the holidays with family and friends and tackle the small stuff another time.

Just a final note. To those of you who are visited by me...don't sweat the small stuff, cause when I come to visit, I won't be looking!!!

Field Trip with Paige

Paige and her classmates outside the Visitor's Center at Knights Ferry

The beautiful Stanislaus River

The Chinook Salmon and Paige pretending to be a salmon trying to make the trip upstream to spawn.

The State of California is rich in history and beauty.

We were privileged to be asked to attend Paige's field trip to Knight's Ferry last week. It was so much fun to see the inside of her classroom, meet her teacher, get to know her fellow classmates and ride on the bus. Yes...I said ride on the bus. Paige wanted to sit with Stan and I, so we squeezed our three bottoms (two big ones and one small one) inside a seat together on the bus. It was cozy to say the least, but we enjoyed every single minute of that 40 minute ride. Upon arrival we were given some history of the Knight's Ferry area and then had fun looking at the salmon trying to swim upstream. There weren't very many fish in the river, but after the game the kids played pretending to be salmon heading upstream, it's very understandable why we didn't see many fish. What a horrendous journey those incredible fish make to get back to their birthplace to spawn.

We really enjoyed getting to know some of Paige's classmates. We were assigned 4 children to watch over and had lots of fun being their chaperon (a word they didn't know the meaning of). After our lookout on the bridge and watching the fish we headed to the visitor's center to learn some more about the Stanislaus River, the old covered bridge (330 ft. long) and some history of the area. They showed two short films that explained alot of the history and we had a scavenger hunt where we had to use the displays in the museum to answer some questions, unscramble words, complete a crossword puzzle and identify plants, animals, and rocks. Wow...I sure learned a few things.

After all this we had a little picnic lunch (temperature outside was about 58, but pleasant) and then back on the bus for the trip home.

I have to say...this was one of the more behaved groups of children I have seen. Their teacher is a sweetheart and we could tell that she loves and cares about everyone of these children. We had a chance to talk with her during lunch and get to know her a little bit. She also had some wonderful things to say about Paige. We totally agreed with her assessment!!!

All in all, it was just a lovely, fun and informative day. Thank you, Paige, for letting Grandma and Grandpa be a part of this day. We loved it !!!