Author: Kay Kauffman

A geek to the core, I reside in the midst of an Iowa cornfield with my husband and four children. When I'm not chasing the kids every which way but loose, you can find me penning fantastical tales of great heroism and twue wuv...and possibly procrastinating online.

Photo 365 #267

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dandyDandelions are such happy flowers.  When I was little, I loved picking dandelion bouquets for my parents.  Despite their weedy status, I loved them.  As a matter of fact, I still do, even though they’re threatening to take over my yard.

But really, is there any sight quite as joyful as a field of dandelions?  If there is, I’d like to see it.

It must be the color.  Yellow is such a happy color, and after a long winter, dandelions are like little spots of sunshine appearing to remind us all that there’s more to life than snow and gray and endless cold.  Dandelions are symbols of hope, and Suzanne Collins wasn’t the first to think so.

Anyway, Thumper and Cricket are enamored with dandelions at the moment, and it’s got me thinking about childhood and wonder and seeing the magic in the everyday.  Yesterday, Thumper picked a dandelion bouquet for me, and it graced the table till well after supper, even though the blooms had closed up by then.  I just hadn’t the heart to throw them out.  He took so much joy in picking those bright little flowers and then carting them all over the yard – they were his new best friends.  They climbed trees together, they chased cats together, they ran themselves ragged together.

I don’t have a whole lot to add to that at the moment; I’m too brain-dead to come up with a decent ending to this post.  Brain-deadness has become my new best friend, and it’s one I could really do without.  Hopefully the solution to this problem is right around the corner.

In the meantime, may your weekend be filled sunshine, whether in the sky or in the ground.  Have a great one!

(c) 2015.  All rights reserved.

Photo Friday time!

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It’s been such a lovely week here that I’ve started thinking about camping again.  We always have a lot of fun camping, but with the move and everything last year, we weren’t able to go.  We’re making up for it this year, but in the meantime, I’ve got these great shots to get me in the spirit:

These pictures come from a trip to Pine Lake a couple of years ago, and are some of my favorite camping photos:

I can’t believe it’s May already – camping season is just around the corner!

Have a great weekend, everybody, and don’t forget to stop by Charnele’s blog and check out what she’s got going on today!

(c) 2015.  All rights reserved.

Springfall

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springfallLast week, I got a great picture of my son in motion.  The kids were all outside; I was busy snapping pictures of them in the magnolia tree they’d swarmed.  Bubbles in particular loves climbing trees, so it was no surprise to see him in it, but the others spent almost as much time in it as he did.

Eventually, Miss Tadpole and Thumper started posing for the pictures, and I got a couple of really nice shots of them.  Then Cricket joined in the fun.  Not to be outdone, Bubbles joined them in all his silliness.

He spent five minutes horsing around in various states of upside-downness, but at last, his shoe gave way, and down he went.  Unfortunately, my shutter finger wasn’t quick enough to catch his shoe as it followed him to the ground (with a brief layover atop his head).

It wasn’t the first time he’d slipped out of a tree that afternoon, and it wasn’t the last, but it was definitely the funniest.  What can I say?  He inherited his butterfingers from me. 🙂

(c) 2015.  All rights reserved.

Photo Friday throwback: Wedding!

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DSCN1153So since I recounted the story of my first date with Seymour and the story of our engagement the last two weeks, I thought I’d recount the tale of our wedding today.  That was when I discovered that I’d already recounted it once before, and in a much more entertaining fashion than I could possibly come up with today, thanks to being brain-dead after staying up way too late last night (thanks, insomnia).

To read what I wrote about our wedding for the 2012 October Memoir and Backstory Blog Challenge, go here. 🙂

I also discovered, from the same blog challenge, a post wherein I recounted the story of our first date.  I skimmed the post, and I actually liked the older post even better than the one I shared two weeks ago.  See?  This is the sort of thing I mean when I say I can’t remember squat.

Anyway, this week’s throwback photo is a favorite from our wedding reception.  That’s the best man holding the flower girl while being attacked by the ring bearer.  Lots of great pictures from that night; lots of great memories.

Have a great weekend, everybody, and don’t forget to stop by Charnele’s blog and see what she’s thinking about this fabulous Friday!

(c) 2015.  All rights reserved.

Review time!

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sotmOver the weekend, I read the latest from Mark R. Hunter, Slightly Off the Mark: The Unpublished Columns.  With columns on everything from politics to the weather (one of my own favorite topics), this book was chock full o’ laughs.  I was crying with laughter within minutes of opening this book, and I elicited strange looks from my family as I continued reading.

At 190 pages, it was a quick read, and I finished it within a day.  I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately, and this was just what I needed to cheer me up.  So if you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it.

Go on.  You know you want to. 🙂

Mark R. Hunter is an author, firefighter, humorist, dad, and self-proclaimed home maintenance failure from northeast Indiana. His weekly humor column “Slightly off the Mark” appeared in three newspapers for over twenty years, which is coincidentally the age of his first grey hair, before being unceremoniously cut short in 2014. This volume collects his previously unpublished and “leftover”columns.

(c) 2015.  All rights reserved.

Hey, look at that!

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I’m a guest again today!  Kevin Morris is hosting me today as well, and you can find out all about some of my favorite poetry by heading over to his blog.  Poke around a little while you’re there – he’s got some fascinating stuff there, including spots by other authors, information about his own work, and all kinds of fun stuff. 🙂

(c) 2015.  All rights reserved.

I’m a guest!

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Today I’m hanging out with the wonderful Jane Dougherty and talking about poetry (in verse form, even).  You can find my post here, so stop by and check it out!  Don’t forget to have a look around the site – Jane’s got some wonderful posts up, including a series of one-sentence stories, a series of poems for National Poetry Month, and information on how and where you can find her books in The Green Woman series!

(c) 2015.  All rights reserved.

Photo Friday: Engaging!

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After last week’s throwback post about my first date with Seymour, I thought I’d share a little about our engagement.  It, too, is a fun story, and one I love telling. 🙂

Greg&MeSeymour proposed on December 23, 2008, which happened to be my grandpa and step-grandma’s fifth wedding anniversary.  He had just died three months prior, so it was rather a sad day for her.  But not for me – I was anxiously awaiting the end of the day so I could get all gussied up for the ROTC military ball in a neighboring town.

I got my hair done after work, then hurried home to put on my beautiful black formal dress (complete with black gloves, pink wrap, and pretty tiara).  When I came downstairs looking all pretty (and feeling it, too), Seymour gave me a beautiful corsage of purple carnations and orchids.  Then we left for the ball at the Pipac Centre (fancy schmancy, if you didn’t know).

When we arrived, there were all of six cars in the parking lot. Seymour looked around and said, “That’s not right; there should be fifty or sixty cars here.”  He parked the truck and said, “You stay here and I’ll go see what’s going on.”

He came back a few minutes later.  “I have some really, really good news: behind the cut!