The Fish Weren't Biting...

...but it was a wonderful weekend anyway because our daughter was home for a visit!

Robyn wanted to try kayaking for the first time. We put the boats in at Three Mile Lake for a paddle on Saturday, but it was so hot, we abandoned that pretty quickly in favor of relaxing on the beach.

Relaxing With a Book and Keeping Cool

That turned out to be a good idea. The breeze across the water kept it cool enough for us to enjoy being outside, even on one of the hottest days of the year. Summer is our extreme season for weather. Right now, we are in a hurricane watch as tropical storm Edouard heads our way. If it should become a hurricane, we will evacuate, so don't worry about us.

While Robyn was here, I asked her to teach me a few crochet basics. I want to learn to crochet so I can make the flowers in Crochet Bouquet, a new book written by my friend, Suzann Thompson. Robyn started me out with a pattern called Simple Five. I crocheted a few of these sweet flowers with varying degrees of success. I definitely need more practice.

Learning to Crochet

As we thumbed through the book, I noticed Robyn's eyes light up at all the interesting flower designs in this book. There are about 50 different patterns for flowers and foliage. Each pattern is rated with a skill level, so it's easy to know which ones are suitable for beginners like me. I could tell Robyn was itching to try some of the more detailed flowers, so I returned to my knitting and encouraged her to test out a few of the ones she liked. She worked from my stash of Cotton-Ease and came up with these.

Pretty Flowers

The pansy and the daffodil are her favorites. She gave Suzann's designs and directions a big thumbs up. If you like to crochet, you'll really enjoy this book.

Crocheted Daffodil

Those of you living in the Houston area will be interested to know that Suzann Thompson will be at Yarntopia on August 21 from 5-7 p.m. signing books and demonstrating some of her crochet flower techniques. Visit Suzann's book blog for more information.

I hope to improve my crochet skills by then. I'd love to be able to show Suzann a few flowers that I crocheted myself.

A Gift from Aquiles

We are having a good visit with Matt and Carly. It's the first time we've seen them since they went on a mission trip to Mexico at Spring Break and of course, we've been asking lots of questions about their experience.


The Edmond Church of Christ took over 200 people, many of them OC college students, to the Aquiles Serdan Valley to serve the church there and the people living in Aquiles and surrounding villages. Just thinking about the logistics of getting everyone there is mind boggling. The group drove down from Oklahoma in rented vans, bringing with them food for the week, water, tents and teaching materials.


They set up their tent city in Aquiles. From what I hear, this is a remote village in a mountain valley. The people that live there are subsistence farmers. They have very little compared to us. In fact, they just got electricity about three years ago, but it is unreliable at best.

The group from Edmond was able to serve the people in a variety of ways: construction projects, painting, dentistry, insect extermination and Bible teaching. The people were very appreciative of all the good work done, but it was the workers that received the greatest gift from serving.

One of the highlights of the trip for Matt and Carly was the day they hiked two hours to a village on the top of the mountain and helped to conduct a Vacation Bible School for the children. A guide led the way to the village and a burro was used to carry teaching materials and craft supplies that would be needed.


On the night before the group was to leave Mexico, the local ladies brought out their needlework and offered it for sale. Matt and Carly selected a beautiful crocheted doily for me. It is a nice large size, measuring about 21 inches across. I immediately felt a connection to the ladies of Aquiles when I received this gift. I do not speak Spanish and they do not speak English, but we have in common a language of another sort.

I'm posting a video of the trip to Mexico especially for family and friends of the family that visit this blog, but you may be interested to watch also. Matt is the first person on the video after the opening. You'll recognize him by his red hair.