4/28/2014

Springtime Harvest of Love


Today I walked outside to get the mail and saw quail trailing across my driveway and into the protection of our towering pines. I heard the doves cooing in the locust tree and saw baby robins in a nest. Twenty three years ago my husband and I bought two acres in the country and lovingly planted hundreds of trees, bushes and flowers - and ten beautiful young children. Now all the native birds gather here  . . . so do those ten children so quickly grown and their spouses along with many, many grandchildren. When you plant with love there is always a season of harvest far beyond your dreams. 

4/24/2014

Birthday Story for a Six-Year-Old

Logan and the Magic Gum Ball Machine
By
Grandma Baadsgaard
Happy sixth birthday to a very special boy I love very much.
I hope you have a great day.

When Logan unwrapped a gum ball machine for his sixth birthday, he smiled, looked up and said, “Thank you Grandma.”
When their eyes met, his grandma winked at him. Then his grandma did something rather peculiar. She stood up, rubbed her tummy once, hopped up and down twice, then twirled around three times.  
Logan’s eyes popped open. His grandma did not often do those sorts of things. He wondered if she was giving him a secret code. Logan liked having his birthday in April because that is when everything was coming back to life. But even more than he loved spring, Logan loved bubble gum. He especially liked to stuff several pieces of gum into his mouth all at once until his mouth was so full he could barely chew.
Logan usually chewed up all his new gum the first day but this time he had a plan to make his gum last. He decided to eat one colored ball a day.
 On the first morning he picked a red gum ball. All of a sudden Logan felt terrifically grumpy. He stomped into the kitchen and glared at the table.
“Who ate all my favorite cereal?” Logan yelled.
“Wow. Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?” his mother asked.
Logan crunched his eyebrows and frowned.
“My bed is against the wall. There is no wrong side.”
That whole day Logan was perturbed, annoyed and short tempered. His family was happy when he went to bed that night.
The next day Logan chose a yellow gum ball. All of a sudden Logan felt happy and warm inside. He took a long bath, brushed his teeth without being asked and got dressed for the day.
“Good morning Mom,” Logan said with a big smile at breakfast.
“Why Logan,” his mother said, “I don’t know what has got into you, but I like it.”
All that day Logan cheerfully sang a song while he emptied the trash, fed the bunny and swept the kitchen floor. He read his brother Liam three books, put his baby brother Gideon to sleep and then carefully organized all his toys. He even mated and color coded the socks in his sock drawer.
“Pardon me please,” he said at supper whenever he burped.  
“Thank you for this delicious meal,” Logan said when he finished.
“Logan, I like you better this way,” his older brother Sam said.
The next day Logan decided to eat a blue gum ball. Suddenly he felt sad. The hangnail on his big toe made him cry. When his brother poked him in the side at breakfast, he burst into sobs.
“Logan you’re being a little dramatic,” his father said. “Every little thing is not worth crying over. Buck up kid.”
Pretty soon Logan grew confused about his jumble of days. He just didn’t feel like himself. While he was in bed on the third night, he tried putting all the puzzle pieces together. He thought about how he felt on the day he ate each color . . . yellow - happy, red - mad, blue - sad. Then he remembered his grandma’s strange dance demonstration at his birthday party. Maybe that was the clue.
The next day Logan chose a green ball. He immediately grew two feet. The buttons on his shirt popped off and his long pants became shorts. Logan bumped his head on the door frame. When he walked into the kitchen for breakfast his mother screamed and his baby brother laughed.
Suddenly Logan got a super idea. He rubbed his tummy once, jumped up and down twice and turned around three times. Suddenly Logan shrunk two feet.
“I never know what to expect with you,” his mother said.
“Do it again,” my younger brother Liam laughed.
“Wow,” his sister Sophia said.
“I wish I could do that,” his brother Sam said.
“Well,” Logan answered, “you just need a little magic gum ball machine. And when things get tough, don’t forget your grandma dance.”

I wonder what will happen when I chew my purple ball tomorrow, Logan thought. And orange, that could be interesting.

4/21/2014

Prom Night At The Baadsgaard House

This is my son John. I am so impressed with him and the other young men in this group.  They decided they wanted to offer the young women they asked to prom a unique experience where every aspect of the day would be wholesome and fun. The day started bright and early on Saturday as they decorated a cultural hall themselves at a local  church. Then they picked up their dates and spent a few hours providing service at a local food pantry and thrift store.  Next came a three-legged Easter egg hunt. Then they dropped off their dates to give them plenty of time to get ready. Next came pictures  followed by a delicious six course meal. Then they took the girls to their decorated dance site where they had arranged for their own play list of music that was tasteful, fun to dance to . . . and not too loud so they could talk to each other. They danced for 2 1/2 hours and had a great time. Every girl wore a modest dress and every boy treated his date like a princess.     

4/01/2014

Birthday Story for a Four-Year-Old


Andrew and Fred
by
Grandma Baadsgaard
Here is a story I wrote just for you Andrew.
Have a Happy 4th birthday.
I love you forever.

Once there was a boy named Andrew who had a best friend named Fred.  Fred was stuffed frog with green and black spots and a bright yellow belly and toes. Fred’s plastic eyes looked like green marbles.  Fred was soft so Andrew could snuggle with him in bed or put him on his lap at dinner time.
Fred went everywhere Andrew went so he got a little ruffled and muffled and one of his eyes fell off. When Fred got a hole in his side and his stuffing fell out, Andrew gathered the white stuff in handfuls and brought it to his mother.
“His soft fell out,” Andrew said with a frown.
“Now let me see this,” his mother said. “I think I can fix Fred in a wink.”
Before long Fred was fixed and Andrew took him outside to play. He sat Fred on the grass while he dug holes in the sand box around the swing set in their back yard. That is when the neighbor’s dog ran through Andrew’s yard, grabbed Fred in his teeth and took off running for the field next to their home.
“Fred!” Andrew screamed casing after the dog.
Andrew saw the neighbor’s dog dig a hole, plop Fred inside and then cover the hole with dirt.  Andrew waited until the neighbor’s dog left, then sneaked up to that small mound of dirt.  Andrew dug the dirt away with his hands and there was brown and muddy Fred with his head almost ripped off. Andrew picked up Fred and ran to his house.
“Fred’s broken,” Andrew screamed as he raced into the kitchen.
Andrew’s mother looked at Fred and shook her head.
“I don’t think I can fix him this time,” his mother said. “Maybe we should throw Fred away and buy another frog for you.”
“No,” Andrew said frowning. “Fred is my friend. If you won’t fix him, I don’t care. I still want him.”
Andrew’s mother took Fred and did her best to sew him back together but most of Fred’s stuffing was gone and his eye was nowhere to be seen. So she gave him a bath and dried him in the sun.
The next day Fred was flat, missing an eye and still a little stained from all the mud, but Andrew did not care. He took Fred in his arms and hugged him like nothing had ever happened.

No one told Andrew this but he just knew . . . when you are a real friend, you never leave each other - no . . . matter . . . what.