Bees and beards

Just like I think I should have my own hobbies and friends, I also think that my husband should have his. So, I often encourage Elijah to enjoy his interests as well as start new ones. That is, till he informed me he really would like to raise some bees. When I think of bees, I immediately think of bee stings, not of honey. Elijah has smoothly convinced me that if you leave bees alone they won't hurt you, but provide honey for you instead. Now, I like honey, but not enough to raise my own bees in my own backyard. Nevertheless, I love my husband and I trust him, so friends, we have bees in our backyard now. Elijah's friends, who raise bees themselves, came on Saturday to help him set the bee house up. They assured us that the bees mind their own business and that they are too busy working to bother with us, mere humans. Here are some pictures of the bee lesson:
Later on, after the bees were all settled in their house, and Elijah had finished cutting the grass and had done other yard maintenance, he felt inclined to finish his day of outside jobs by putting our hammock up. We love our hammock. Jeremy, Elijah's brother, had it hand made for us while he was in his mission in Columbia. It has our names loomed in it with a big Y in the middle of it. We were living in Provo and going to BYU when he was serving his mission. We have had it for almost ten years and have used it during all that time. So, putting it up means we are settling well in California and intend to stay. The hammock is up. Let the good times begin!


Today, when we were driving to church, we had the most peculiar discussion going on in the car. It was about beards. Jefferson, and as a result James, hate beards with a passion. Elijah usually teases them about it, but today he tried to find out the reason behind this dislike. Elijah mentioned to them that their grandfather and great-grandfather used to have beards, and maybe one day he might grow a beard himself. Jefferson didn't like this fact and was very upset with his father for wanting to have a beard. He told him that he would never have one. When we asked him why, he just said that he didn't like them, they didn't look good on people, and they felt rough. Gillian added that they made men look old. Well, I like my children to be passionate about life issues, but about beards?