Festival of Talents

We had a fun event at our church Saturday morning. A young woman in our congregation, I will call her Sarah... because that's her name, arranged it all. Sarah went around weeks ago and sweetly asked people to share a talent, to teach a short class. Seriously, she has the sweetest way about her and no one could turn her down.

Sarah had it all organized so we each had a room or a space to teach our thing. There were three sessions and each teacher taught only two sessions and attended a third. 

I taught crochet. It is hard to teach it in 30 minutes so maybe I just set them up for frustration but I promised to be available for help if needed.

Maria taught vegan baking. I don't think there are many vegans in our church but lots of people appreciate learning ways to lower calories and cholesterol in their baking. I heard that class all got chocolate chip cookies! Maria wore a lovely dress and apron, complete with high heels. She was quite a classy looking cook. She did NOT learn that from me but I like that she is often dressed up.

There were classes on writing a will, tying fishing flies, sewing, making and playing with play dough, voice lessons and more. It was wonderful!

Eric taught the basics of drumming. Eric is an accomplished drummer; I already knew that.  I took his class and really was impressed at how well he taught. We learned quite a bit in 30 minutes. I learned why a snare drum is called a snare drum. I learned a bit about how to train your limbs to all do different things at the same time, not that my brain will ever make that a reality.  I know which drums in the set are the Toms.

I don't expect I will ever be a drummer but there were some young people in the class who seemed pretty inspired!

The event made me think a bit about talents. We all have God-given gifts but we often don't recognize them or allow them to show. Sometimes I think it is because we think we have to be among the greatest in order to use our talents.  That is just dumb but it has taken me a lot of years to realize that.

I was thinking maybe we could tell each other about some of our talents.   I will if you will.  

I am not the greatest crocheter or typist in the world, but I can type and crochet like the wind.  I usually find it easy to express compassion. I can calm almost any baby, or at least I think I can. Confidence is worth something, right? My favorite personal talent is the one that took me many years to recognize as a talent. I am very adaptable. Move me to a new environment and I will adapt. It maybe isn't as cool as being a great dancer but it has served me well. Perhaps God knew what he was doing with me.

Ok.  Your turn... Go!

Week-End Wind Down

What a fun week we've had! We started off celebrating Ben for his 29th birthday, happy that he was here with us for his day this year.

Later in the week Sara arrived with her parents.

We enjoyed a sweet time having them visit here in Wyoming.

It is nice when others can see the beauty of the West with us.

By Friday evening it was back to just Mike and me.

We were in our dual rocking chairs when a cold wind blew through, 

bringing hail and lots of rain.

 It was really, really a LOT of rain!

THEN, our cell phones and our land line all started ringing.

We are signed up for a CODE RED alert system that

calls us with serious weather threats.

We were being warned of the potential for flash flooding!

We didn't have any problems at our house but we did

learned that the local art museum was flooding.

That's the museum where our son-in-law is employed,

where they were just starting on their big week-end festival!

Yikes!

I don't think he had a very pleasant evening but

he and the rest of the staff there did get

everything under control.

 It turns out to be tougher than you might think to get a 

good photo of rain and hail but this at least gives you

an idea of the bouncing and splashing that was occurring.

 By this morning, things were calm again so we headed into

the festival to enjoy...well, to enjoy the festivities.

The girls had their faces painted.

Elise held her face funny but she was very still throughout the process.

Cordelia requested a butterfly face.

She was very specific in asking for a monarch butterfly.

Aren't they precious?

 There were stilts there for people to try.

Cordelia did pretty well with them.

 There was plenty of cotton candy.

 Our little monarch butterfly really enjoyed her cotton candy.

 This is how I smile when I am trying to take a photo of Elise

but due to the glare on my phone, I didn't realize the camera

was in mirror format (looking back at me).

Oopsy.

 There.

I got it figured out.

It was fun to watch Elise

work her way through the cotton candy.

 Yes, she was wearing two hats.

Cordelia's kept blowing off as she was dancing around a bit

so Elise kept track of them both.

Uncle Ben found these adorable hats for them

in New Mexico and they sure were drawing a lot of compliments.

When we first arrived at the festival we had a chance to chat with a man on stilts.

As we were leaving, we saw him from the back.

Well, what can I say about that?

No thanks.