least favorite things

In the spirit of balance and equal representation, I would like to offer the following list of some of Mary's not so favorite things. In no particular order and with no implied judgment:

longline bras and girdles

the Bush/Cheney administration

SUVs (also known as SOBs)

casinos (she once used her casino quarters for laundry rather than slot machines)

cigarette smoke

Florida traffic

ironing

the Doobie Brothers (not sure why...something about “they sound like they have mashed potatoes in their mouths” ) Listen carefully, and you can detect a certain spudiness in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqZ95a249p0

unruly chickens

being called "girly" by her brothers

a grand relationship

Being together for sixteen years.

Sweet.

Being there for each other no matter what.

Grand.

Unconditional love.

Priceless.

midsummer's daughter

A song for my mother born at the beginning of summer; a gift and standing monument to a steadfast parent, dedicated wife, and to the end, a daughter of God.

the hills are alive

Speaking of The Sound of Music, this dispatch just in from one of our loyal birthday commentators:

"Actual sound of music, 1990 in the mountains of Canada. I can still hear it 19 years later."

Just like it was yesterday. I can still hear it, too.

where are the marshmallows?

favorite things

My mom has a thing for The Sound of Music. Given a mountaintop, she is sure to break into a run - arms wide open, joyfully singing to the sky, "The hills are alive, with the sound of music."

With Julie Andrews as inspiration, I offer a list of some of my mom's favorite things.

picnics - anytime, anyplace
campfires - preferably with s'mores and sing-alongs
Scrabble
fresh tomatoes with salt
Zion National Park
Linda Eder
laying on the grass and watching meteor showers
Grandma's doughnuts
crossword puzzles
reading in bed
train cakes
grandchildren
raspberries and cream
fabric shopping
Tripoly
Wisconsin bowling alleys
polar fleece
impossible projects
Minnesota Public Radio
grass-whistling

Other ideas? Just click on the link and add your ideas. We'll update in a later post.

Mary's Favorite Things

quilt anthology

wrap yourself in a Mary-quilt and
listen to the cozy love poem
hand-stitched meter, heart-rhythm

thread memory and metaphor with
stanzas of birth, marriage, death
bind together patterns, layers of meaning

recite each bright verse, warm and lovely
sense the soothing touch and whispered lullaby
lyric ode to form and function

simple splendor

11/8/1990 Scott Griebel

Snowball Crib

12/1990 Bridget Nelson

Snowball Crib

5/8/1991 Mara Elizabeth Pieper

Rainbow Crib

1/1/1992 Matthew and Katie Blake

Snowball (2) Crib

6/1992 Kira (Joann’s daughter)

Snowball Crib

7/11/1992 Steve and Kathy Schwister

Scrap Snowball, Nine-Patch Queen

11/8/92 Scott Griebel

Star-in-Heaven Twin

2/1993 Norm and Mary Schwister

Banbury Cross Wall Hanging

4/19/1993 Jessica and Jacob Ahlborn

Album (2) Crib

2/1994 Mark and Kathy Schwister

Goose-in-the-Pond Queen

6/1994 Norm and Mary Schwister

Blazing Star Wall Hanging

8/1/1994 Stephanie Sneden

Album Crib

8/29/1994 Katie Schwister

Around the Twist Crib

12/7/1994 Hanna Rae Mikols

Snowball Crib

11/1995 Norm and Mary Schwister

Banbury Cross Queen

6/16/1995 Mark and Kelly Schwister

Dutchman’s Puzzle Queen

8/29/1996 Katie Schwister

Baby Rosebud Doll Quilt

10/6/1996 Frieda Schwister

100th Birthday Scrapbook Wall Hanging

12/25/1996 Scott Griebel

Jingle Sock Stocking

12/25/1996 Hannah Griebel

Jingle Sock Stocking

12/25/1996 Sam Griebel

Jingle Sock Stocking

12/25/1996 Katie Schwister

Jingle Sock Stocking

3/7/1997 Julia Trandahl

Album Crib

3/21/1997 Hannah Griebel

Baby Rosebud Full

5/1997 Linda Waring

Tulip Wall Hanging

6/1/1997 Angela Behrends

Turtle Wall Hanging

11/8/1997 Scott Griebel

Windblown Shadows Twin

11/8/1997 Sam Griebel

Pinwheels & Paddlewheels Twin

11/1997 Norm and Mary Schwister

Lei-Kukui Wall Hanging

12/25/1997 Erin Schwister

Jingle Sock Stocking

4/1/1998 Katie Schwister

Baby Rosebud Twin

8/1/1998 Scott and Angela Schwister

Grandmother’s Fan Queen

12/25/1998 Norm and Mary Schwister

Christmas Morn Tree Skirt

12/25/1998 Kathy and Mark Griebel

Christmas Morn Tree Skirt

12/25/1998 Steve and Kathy Schwister

Christmas Morn Tree Skirt

12/25/1998 Mark and Kelly Schwister

Christmas Morn Tree Skirt

12/25/1998 Caryl and Ed Steenberg

Christmas Morn Tree Skirt

3/15/1999 Kathy and Mark Griebel

Twilight Village Table Runner

3/15/1999 Kathy and Mark Griebel

House and Tree Placemats

3/15/1999 Kathy and Mark Griebel

Twilight Village Wall Hanging

7/1999 Samuel Glasford

Baby Pinwheels Crib

7/1999 Lois and Steve Radke

Bear in the Pines Wall Hanging

12/25/1999 Erin Schwister

Spinning Stars Doll Quilt

3/28/2000 Norm and Mary Schwister

Homespun Puzzle Crib

4/19/2000 Hannah Mueller

Shortcut to School Crib

6/22/2000 Clare Nissen

Baby Pinwheels Crib

1022/2000 Gabriel Konar-Steenberg

Dolphins Crib

10/22/2000 Olivia Tikalsky

Baby Pinwheels Crib

12/25/2000 Erin Schwister

Checkerboard Garden Twin

3/7/2001 Norm and Mary Schwister

Hidden Circles Queen

5/20/2001 Hannah Griebel

Hannah’s Friends Doll Quilt

8/15/2001 Norm and Mary Schwister

Sampler Table Runner

10/17/2001 Norm Schwister

Attic Windows, 70th Birthday Wall Hanging

3/15/2002 Maggie Gibbons

Baby Pinwheels Crib

4/4/2002 Jacob Goldfarb

Baby Pinwheels Crib

12/25/2002 Sam Griebel

Windowpane Lap Quilt

12/25/2002 Hannah Griebel

King’s Highway Lap Quilt

12/25/2002 Scott Griebel

Double Irish Chain Lap Quilt

12/25/2002 Katie Schwister

Double Irish Chain Lap Quilt

12/25/2002 Erin Schwister

King’s Highway Lap Quilt

12/25/2002 Norm Schwister

King’s Highway Lap Quilt

12/25/2002 Mary Schwister

Double Irish Chain Lap Quilt

3/3/2003 Motorhome

Trip Around Arizona Queen

2003 Mary Schwister

Pinwheels Table Runner

10/19/2003 Kathy Griebel

40th Birthday Quilt Wall Hanging

12/17/2003 Hailey Sadler

Baby Pinwheels Crib

12/17/2003 Sophie Pehl

Little Sister Crib

12/25/2003 Mark Schwister

King’s Highway Lap Quilt

12/25/2003 Scott Schwister

Prairie Meadows Lap Quilt

1/24/2004 Kent Fenske

All God’s Critters Wall Hanging

5/13/2004 Mark Schwister

Trip Around the World Queen

10/19/2004 Steve Schwister

40th Birthday Quilt Wall Hanging

7/19/2005 Tarikua Griebel

Sweet Lullabies Crib

9/2005 Ethel Baker

Reversable Sashiko Table Runner

12/25/2005 Tarikua Griebel

Jingle Sock Stocking

12/17/2005 Hayley Marie Settem

Baby Pinwheels Crib

1/17/2006 Nadine Banack

Nine-Patch Paws Table Runner

3/28/2006 Mary Schwister

Raggedy Denim Beach

4/2006 Mary Schwister

Welcome Home Wall Hanging

6/20/2006 Andrew Erik Thomford

Baby Pinwheels Crib

7/18/2006 Kelly Billig and Scott Schwister

Renaissance Wedding Ring Queen

10/14/2006 Kathy and Mark Griebel

Hawaiian Wedding Ring Queen

12/25/2006 Tarikua Griebel

Little Sister Lap Quilt

1/2007 Nadine Banack

Log Cabin Placemats

4/2007 Mary Schwister

Table Runner

8/26/2007 Jacob Vanderbosch

Home of the Brave

10/4/2007 Finn Schwister

Rolling Stone Crib

12/25/2007 Finn Schwister

Jingle Sock Stocking

2008 Worke

On Eagle’s Wings Wall Hanging

2/7/2009 Caryl Steenberg

Strip of Stars Table Runner

the seamstress

oh seamstress
thread your needle
sew sparkling memory seeds
join fabric, family, dress

you get used to hanging if you hang long enough

Surprise arrivals usually make their appearances late at night, often taking unexpected forms. You wander into the kitchen one morning, bleary-eyed and bee-lining for the coffee, to find a late-arriving guest dangling from the ceiling---luckily outfitted with a full complement of airbags.


Safety first.

Saint Tardia, the guardian angel of late arrivals, was just one in a long line of items discovered hanging from the kitchen ceiling. Over the years, this mysterious phenomenon included many other instances of unexplained "dangling"---stuffed animals, poems, hacky-sacks, collages, extraterrestrial-repellent foil masks, bundt cakes, and other baked goods hanging precariously in apparent defiance of known physical laws of cohesion, adhesion, structural integrity, gravity, and gravitas. And Mom was always the early-riser to discover whatever fresh startling horror was hanging there, offering its cheery, gravity-defying greeting. GOOD MORNING FROM MID-AIR! And she was the one who always had to take it down and dispose of it.

Which brings us to birthday blogs. Think of this as a continuation of the hallowed Saint Tardia tradition of dangling objects. How exciting! For the next sixty-some days, we'll stumble around at midnight, sneaking and giggling, gluing and baking, stringing up a little something to greet Mom in the virtual morning. Somebody make some coffee.

birthday drawing by finn

extraordinary genes

With genes like this, seventy is the new thirty.

Sentimental Journey

Sentimental Journey

Gonna take a sentimental journey,
Gonna set your heart at ease.
Gonna make a sentimental journey,
to renew old memories.

Got a blog, it’s a celebration
Photos, stories - new each day
Like a child in wild anticipation
You log-on without delay

Seventy…Mary June will soon be seventy
Every minute has been heavenly
Counting every year - we’re right on track
To take you back

Gonna take a sentimental journey
For your birthday Mary, dear
Gotta take that seventy-day journey
Sentimental journey’s here

preamble

Dear Mary,

We the people in your life, in order to preserve a more perfect (re)union, establish celebration, provide for the common joy, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of love, memory, babies, crumpled Kleenex, chocolate chip cookies, photographs, hikes and walks, apple slices passed back, one by one, from front seat to back seat while South Dakota slides by and the threat of a mandatory ear-inspection looms when it's my turn to sit up front, and the pursuit of happiness to ourselves and our posterity, do hereby gleefully ordain and establish this blog for the celebration of your 70th birthday.

So there.

Sound familiar?

Let's do the math. Mary's 70th birthday is 70 days from today. For the next 70 days, we'll be collecting memories, stories, photos, videos, songs, and other celebrations of Mary, and posting them on this blog. What can you do to help? Read, comment, follow along, comment some more, contribute, call Mary and sing a birthday song, etc. Join in the fun.

To steal a phrase from Norm's birthday blog: "Your contributions will help us build an online collection of memories. It’ll be a multimedia birthday extravaganza!