The moment I have been waiting for has arrived.

After almost a decade of wondering if it would really happen.

It did.

My teenager wanted to spend time with me!

I guess it helps that she is now 20. But I will take what I can get.

In June we went to Sunshine Lavender Farm for their festival and it was such a good time. One of the activities we all participated in was glassblowing. My uncle was a glassblower that traveled around to different shows and such so it has always interested me. When I had a chance to do it myself, I jumped at the chance. Then it got even better when Daughter and Bixby wanted to join too!

I knew that it would not be easy nor turn out as beautiful as Uncle Bill’s creations. I read somewhere recently that the foundation of curiosity is humility. I knew I might just come back with a lump of glass, but I also knew that just learning more from the glass blower and doing this activity with my people would be well worth it. This message may sound familiar as it was the foundation of the recent podcast episode on hobbies.

On the day of the event, we each got to choose our colors and the artist worked with us to create our globes. The master glassblower is George-ann Greth – she is just fantastic. She was no nonsense, which I appreciated because I was nervous with heat of the fire. Once she found out Daughter was an artist too, she ignored the rest of us and chatted up Daughter on all things art. It was neat to sit back and just watch Daughter be Adult Person.

After the event, George-ann took the projects back to her studio for them to cool. They cool in a kiln – isn’t that crazy!? The same kiln that heats up to cure pottery cools glass-blown crafts. Then she finished them into hummingbird feeders for us. Sunshine Lavender Farm shipped them to us about a week later.

We hung each of the feeders in different places in the front and back garden so that we can all see them from where we are in the house. The one below is Daughter’s and she can see it from her bedroom window. While the experience itself was the reward, I love that we created the souvenir that will remind us of the time we spent together.