Rainbow Cottage

Thought for the day.

2012-01-09T09:10:00.001-05:00

Quote from our sermon yesterday:

"Oh, the beauty of the gospel that invites us in."

another digest.

2012-01-04T07:17:00.002-05:00

I can't figure out what is the matter with me. I used to be a "thinker," and be able to pour out pithy blog posts pretty darned often. Of course, starting school last semester was sure to put a crimp in that. But here I am, in the third (and final) week of my break, and still no Astounding Thoughts for you to gather in to your bosom...just. another. digest. of. stuff. going. on.

(not in any particular order...)

On New Year's Day, Charming was feeling puny (and I had just recovered from my own 48-hr. bug), so we decided not to mass-infect our church family, and stayed home. While my offspring were still asleep, we read together Genesis 1&2, Matthew 1, and John 1. Though those chapters are oh-so-familiar, we tried to read them with fresher eyes. How astonishing that Almighty God would choose to share His story with us! We noticed with the creation story that it doesn't really matter if the "days" are literal 24-hour days, or "ages" or "eons" of time. What is clear is that our world (and us) did not just "happen." A Creator far bigger and wiser than we can imagine thoughtfully and deliberately created the world, in a specific order, for a specific reason. Then He hand-created Man (not just spoke us into being), and Himself breathed life into us.

Matthew 1 (and the companion Luke 1) give genealogies of the Christ, from His earthly father back to Abraham (and then from His mother back to Adam!). I find it fascinating that our Father thinks it is important for us to know the lineage, and places that lineage in time (fourteen generations from Abraham to the captivity, fourteen generations from the captivity to David, fourteen generations from David to Christ...) hey, ancestry.com can't do better than that!

John 1. What to say about arguably the most-loved book in the Bible? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "The world was created by Him, and without Him there was not anything made that was made." "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us..." An unbelievable story, but believe it!

We also read all the historical notes in my Bible. Most interesting of those was about the four rivers mentioned in the Garden of Eden: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The note said that photos taken from space show two dry river beds near the Tigris and Euphrates. And we talked about how the Garden of Eden was not destroyed--it's still there, somewhere, guarded by those angels with flaming swords. Fascinating stuff, and you can never get to the end of it!

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I can't think of a New Year's resolution. Last year, I chose No Barbie Bashing, because I am really good at that. My naturally negative disposition can get me in a downward spiral quickly. But I have learned over the years that negative self-talk does no one any good, and does me pretty bad. So I determined to stop it, and did generally Very Well noticing it and stopping it in its tracks. I'd give me a solid B for the year.

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The 48-hr. bug. That nasty ol' thing. Blackeyed Susan got it first--Wednesday the 28th at 3am. I got it Friday at 3am (making it a 48-hr. incubation, as well). Was I surprised when, 72 hrs. later (also at 3 am!) I. Got. It. Again. Mama was not happy. That was Monday, so I cancelled my trip to see my friend Kaybeautiful on Tuesday. We rescheduled for Friday. She said, "so in case you get it a third time, you'll be over it." ha. ha. ha.

Kaybeautiful lives 100 miles away, so we meet in the middle in a town that has a Goodwill and a quilt store. She always has 50% off Goodwill coupons for me. We usually hit the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch, and this time, I have a 10-punch buffet card that is full--free lunch for moi! She is also bringing my Christmas surprise from Violet (she and Violet live in the same town). Violet bought me a new winter coat! It was a $250-original-price-down-to-$99. I have never had a $250 coat! I'm so excited!! The little irony of it is that it has been in the teens this week, but will be 50 degrees on Friday. I never wear more than a sweater in that weather. Oh, well, guess I'll be roastin' this time...perspirin' but stylin'!

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Per my tradition of starting a new quilt after Christmas, I pulled out one I've been wanting to do for several years. I waited, because I planned to piece it by hand, something I do like, because I can do it while waiting for kids, or if I'm fifteen minutes early for Bible study. The pattern is dove-in-the-window, and if you remember, Mary Ingalls made one in the stories. I looked for three years for the "right" color pink that I pictured it in, and then found it on the $2 table at Wal-mart! In fact, I found mirror prints--the same pink on a white ground, and then white-on-pink. I bought blue on white and white on blue of the same print, so I may make it a blue and pink quilt.

I made one square, and wasn't too happy with it. It didn't lay very flat, and is very complicated (56 diamonds per square). So I don't know if it is something I want to deal with during school. I may pick it up in the summer, or I may continue it now--that completed square looks just like I pictured it, even if it isn't too flat. Everything "quilts out," you know!

Which brings me to another thing--my camera is not working. If I can get Susan to take a photo of my square, I'll be sure to post it.

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Back to school next week. My in-person classses are only on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and Tuesday nights. I also have one online class. Hopefully, because I have that first semester out of the way, I can more keep up with housework and other things I love.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hastily...

2011-12-16T15:05:00.003-05:00

Oh, the many WEEKS since I have blogged!! I have missed it. The problem is that I couldn't put together the time to *really* say what I wanted to say about things going on in my life. But, since I can't stand it any longer, I'll give you a little "digest:"

Charming's mother, my dear "Queen Darl," passed away early in November. We thought she was going to leave us in July, but the Lord spared her for a few months to us. We had a wonderful week with family, saying goodbye.

I finished my semester today! Looks like all A's for me. Next time: Anatomy & Physiology II, (medical) Office Admin. II, Basic (medical) Insurance Coding, and Interpersonal Communications. Spring Semester begins January 9, so I've gotta blog, blog, blog on break!!

Christmas. Decorating, except for the Tree. Charming works retail, so it's about all he can do to work, work, work. I'm 'bout to get a tree without him. Let's everybody stop shopping for about a week, so he can spend some time at home, okay? ; )

Today my sweet Forget-me-not turns 30! That makes five of my children in their thirties, one in their 20s, and two still-teens.

My daughter was named after a James Taylor song. I couldn't find a YouTube of J.T. singing it, but here is a good version:

Maybe I can get her Daddy to sing it to her, the next time he sees her...

I'm sure there are tons more things happening in my life, but my kitchen counters are piled with dishes (casualties of Finals Week), and I need to tend to them. I *promise* I'll be back soon!

Getting off the Wheel.

2011-10-22T07:12:00.005-04:00

Here I am, finishing my ninth week of a sixteen-week semester. It is Kickin'. My. Behind.

Oh, I'm doing well--I have an A in every subject so far. This past week I had four tests, three of which I have grades for: 92, 92, and 92. (I'm in a rut, but a *good* rut!) But I can't seem to get the hang of doing school and doing home along with it. I can do dishes and laundry. And supper about twice a week. But forget dusting and bathrooms. I do have two teenagers, but they are working alot, and I don't see them--I think we need a family meeting or something!

I've heard this is normal for non-traditional students. After all, it's been a long time since we've been the ones studying this hard. I expect next semester to go a little more smoothly. One of my profs says we are looking toward the goal, keeping our eyes on the prize: December, when we have three weeks off. That's when we can go to coffee with a friend, fold laundry, whatever. That made me feel so much better--others are in the same boat as I am!

Still, I feel as if I was on a giant hamster-wheel. I really needed *something.* And yesterday one of my friends on facebook posted this Bible verse:

"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." Ps. 90:14

Man. It doesn't take much to get me right back on track. I really need to "sing for joy" and be "satisfied with His love." And it is there for me, for the taking. Do we really realize that? I think I want to say that again:

I can have that (being satisfied). Just for the taking.

I am "singing for joy" today.

A Birth, A Wedding, and a Death...

2011-10-03T05:30:00.003-04:00

"'When I was a child I heard an old minister say that a house was not a real home until it had been consecrated by a birth, a wedding, and a death . . . . "

--L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

Anna shared this today over at Pleasant View Schoolhouse, and it made me think about the home I grew up in. My first thought was that it might be difficult to find many "homes," with the way our culture makes families move over and over, through the years. Charming and I had ten homes by the time we had been married ten years. Now it is up to twelve, but next month we will *celebrate* twenty years in this house!

My parents lived in their last home for 42 years. There were two births (one a stillbirth), two deaths, and five weddings from that home, as well as four First Communions and Confirmations. Toward the end, there was a grand 50th anniversary celebration.

Remember the old poem? "It takes a heap o' livin' in a house to make it home?" by Edgar Guest?
The poem sounds kinda corny nowadays, but the sentiment is good. It seems that today "home" is a place to change your clothes on your way from here to there. Even homeschoolers joke that they are "car-schoolers," going from one enrichment activity to another.

We have had two births and two weddings in this home of ours. Thankfully, no deaths, unless you count my parents. But we did most of the raising of six, and all of the raising of our last two, here. I have several neighbors that have been here longer than I. I am a blessed woman.

Will share more on this later. Gotta run for now...

Enzymes, and other Oddities.

2011-09-07T08:01:00.004-04:00

So, are you getting tired of me talking of scientific things? There was the paregoric/heroin thing, followed by the ionic/covalent bonding thing. But I have been in love with biology, and especially human biology, since I discovered it. And now I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology--well, you can put up with me, or ignore me till I *recover.*

I'm still in Chapter 2 of the book, the one about body chemistry. Good GRIEF, the chapter goes over so many things--matter, atoms, molecules, elements, and compounds; ionic, covalent, and hydrogen bonding; acids, bases, and pH; sugars, complex carbohydrates, proteins, lipids; enzymes and ATP...all, absolutely all, fascinating, and makes you in awe of the One who created us and the world in which we live. But let me share two more things from this chapter--on molecular chaperones and one on enzymes.

Molecular chaperones are a class of globular proteins contained in all cells, which help proteins achieve their three-dimensional structure. Here's a quote from the book:

"Apparently, molecular chaperones have numerous protein-related roles to play. For example, specific molecular chaperones:

1) prevent accidental, premature, or incorrect folding of poly-peptide chains or their association with other poly-peptides
2) Aid the desired folding and association process
3) Help to translocate proteins and certain metal ions (copper, iron, zinc) across cell membranes
4) Promote the breakdown of damaged or denatured proteins
5) Interact with other cells to trigger the immune response to diseased cells in the body"

Human Anatomy and Physiology, Marieb and Hoehn, ninth ed., p. 51.

And, about enzymes...

Enzymes are proteins that act as biological catalysts, substances that regulate and accelerate the rate of chemical reactions, but are not used up in the process. For instance, you can accelerate the rate of a chemical reaction using heat: the more heat, the faster it will go. However, the human body runs on a delicate balance, heat-wise. If your temp. goes up too high, cells (and you) die. That strategy won't work for the chemical reactions that go on inside us. But, without enzymes, biochemical reactions would happen so slowly that for all practical purposes, they would not happen at all.

"Each enzyme is chemically specific. Some enzymes control only a single chemical reaction....the presence of specific enzymes determines not only which reactions will be speeded up, but which reactions will occur--no enzyme, no reaction. This also means that unwanted or unnecessary reactions will not occur...Some enzymes are produced in an inactive form and must be activated in some way before they can function [such as a change in pH]. For example, enzymes produced in the pancreas are activated in the small intestine, where they actually do their work. If they were produced in active form, the pancreas would digest itself." and, finally,

"Because enzymes are unchanged by their catalytic role and can act again and again, cells need only small amounts of each enzyme. Most enzymes can catalyze millions of reactions per minute."

Marieb and Hoehn, pp. 52-53.

Now, probably the language is a little tough for you to follow. That's okay, it is for me, too! But what I wanted to point out, and what I am sure you *can* understand, is how incredibly ungrasp-able our Creator God is. The more you learn about how the body works, the more you understand how ridiculous the notion of "creating life" in a laboratory would be. My textbook says over and over, "still we don't know the exact function" of this or that thing. Or "exactly how it does its function."

My favorite definition of science is "discovering what God has already done." We will never get to the end of it, I'm sure. The minute you learn one thing, the next is already upon you, and it is a mystery. I have heard many, many times that "one cannot be both a scientist and religious." Baby, I don't know how you can be a scientist and *not* be a believer.

Marriage as Chemistry.

2011-08-30T07:45:00.007-04:00

I am back in school, after a 37-year hiatus. This is Week Two. I'm behind-er than I want to be with my homework (READING), but if I look at it objectively, I think I'm doing Just. Fine.

I was reading in my Anatomy and Physiology book about the chemistry of the human body, and came across something I have learned several times in my life (high school chem, college chem, homeschool chem, you get the picture...) but which always fills me with awe at the incredible Creator God that we serve.

God can take a silvery-white metal (sodium) and bond it with a poisonous green gas (chlorine) to make a white, crystalline substance that has healing properties, preserves food, and makes food taste better, as well.

A. Mazing.

Two completely unrelated things, and one of them poisonous to humans, to boot. (tho' does pretty well at bleaching your white things...) He designed their outer valent shells (think back, your chemistry is still in your brain somewhere!) to "desire" to have the full allotment of eight electrons. Sodium has one electron in its outer shell; chlorine has seven. Sounds like a "match made in heaven," right?

Exactly.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." --Gen. 2:24a

When sodium and chloride get together, that's called bonding (ionic bonding, to be specific). There's another type of chemical bonding called covalent bonding. This is where the two elements share electrons. An example of this is two hydrogens sharing with one oxygen to make water. Since we are 60% water ourselves, we have a lot of covalent bonding going on already. But that "two become one" thing--always difficult to grasp, though with a marriage of almost 36 years (so far), I can "apprehend" it. God takes two different things, putting them together to make something strong and beautiful. Somewhat different from the original parts (tho' a marriage is not as drastic a change as sodium chloride, right?) but better, stronger, and with a shared purpose.

"Ye are the salt of the earth." --Matt. 5:13. Salt has so many beautiful properties. It is healing. It preserves things. It tastes good! My pastor says that we should work to make our marriages the very best they can be, because Christian Marriage is the best picture God has, to show Himself to the world. So I can say the same thing about marriage: it is healing. It preserves things. It tastes good!

I suspect that marriage is an example of covalent bonding--the "shared electron" thing. My textbook says that "the shared electrons orbit and "belong to" the whole molecule, ensuring the stability of each atom." Isn't that beautiful?

Whew. I'm glad we're not ionic bonding. Then one of us would have to be the "silvery white metal," and the other would have to be the "poisonous green gas." And I'd be a little afraid to ask God which one I am...

Textbook quote taken from Human Anatomy and Physiology, Marieb and Hoehn, ninth ed., p. 34.

Paregoric, and other pleasures.

2011-08-17T08:29:00.007-04:00

In one of my online Scrabble games, my plate had these letters: P A G O R I C. It made me think about Paregoric, an old-timey medicine for diarrhea. It was in a brown bottle in our medicine cupboard, and I used to love to open it up and smell it. It smelled like licorice, and when you took a whiff, it was very...oh, I don't know what word to use...maybe refreshing.

In fact, when I thought about it, I could smell it! (I love the way memories can be attached to smells.) Of course, because we live in this internet age, the first thing I did was to look it up on wikipedia.

Sure enough, paregoric contains honey, licorice, flowers of Benjamin, camphor, oil of aniseed, (two licorice-smelling ingredients!) salt of tartar, and spirit of wine. And,

Opium.

Yep. Heroin. In fact, the proper name of Paregoric is "camphorated tincture of opium." It was also used for asthma. It remained available without a prescription in Indiana until 1970 or so, when it became available only by prescription. As of 2010, it is not available, but only because it has never been tested by the FDA.

Also for diarrhea (and Mother generally gave the children this one), was a chalky, probably-related-to-milk-of-magnesia medicine. It had a yellow label, and was "supposed" to be chocolate flavored. It was called Diamagma. Nothing tempts those taste buds like chocolate chalk, especially when you have intestinal distress. I think I would have chosen paregoric every time.

Man, I wish I still had a bottle of ~~heroin~~ paregoric. It smelled really, really good. . .

Changes. All Good...

2011-08-14T08:28:00.003-04:00

Well, time has gotten away from me AGAIN! The first news to share is that the Lord has spared my dear mother-in-love Darl to us, for a time yet. She rallied from her very-near-death state. At first, she was strong enough to leave her bed for periods of time, and sit in her recliner. A few days later I got a call saying she had walked to the kitchen, and was complaining that things were out of order. (Her exact words: "Get this [stuff!!!!!] out of here!!" ....tho' she used a more *colorful* word...)

She has recovered enough that my sister-in-law Winnie has returned to work. I understand that this is common with COPD--a huge downturn followed by a period of recovery--but I know that Queen Darl is still quite ready to make her journey Home. I am delighted beyond measure, however, that we have her for a little while yet.

Other breaking news is that, after a season of 37 years, I am going to school!

I may have blogged here before that, because of the economy, Charming was out of work for eight months in 2009/10. When he went back to work, it was with a $20K pay cut. You can understand that things have been a tad bleak on the financial front. I have been looking for a job since 2009, and have only gotten one interview! Let me put that in perspective. When Charming got this job, his was one of 130 resumes submitted. Out of that, they gave seven interviews. I think I am always in the "stack" of 130 resumes! (always a bridesmaid, never a bride...)

I'm sure that the reason I'm never at the top of the pile, is that I have been out of the workforce since I was pregnant with Alvin Fernald, who will be seventeen in a couple of months. And, my last computer class was WordPerfect 2.1...

So, I have taken Find-Your-Skills classes and resume-building classes, and interview classes, and umpteen Microsoft Office classses, and so I'm much more marketable than I was. But still not getting any bites. So last fall, when we were talking about filling out FAFSA's for Blackeyed Susan, I decided to fill one out, as well, knowing that you get bunches more financial aid if there are two of you in the family going to school. I said to the fam, "I'm going to apply for school, but: if I get a job in the meantime, I'll drop school--Money has to come first.

I considered going back for the degree I started in 1973--medical technology (that's a lab tech for any of you who aren't medical geeks). But the only things that would transfer would be my gen eds--all of my major work would be too old. So, it would definitely take me four years to finish. I'll be 56 in a couple of weeks--hmmm, I'd be 60 when I finished, and probably with school loans to pay back--who wants to work till they are 70 just to pay back loans? That's...Stupid.

So that left me with our state-wide Community College, which has the lowest tuition in the state--$3000 per year. A good beginning. I wanted to take Medical Lab Tech, natch--but it isn't offered at our local campus. I could move in with Queen Darl, cause it is offered in her town, but then I'd have to live away from Charming for two years...I guess not. Then I saw Surgical Tech--Cool!! Also only at Queen Darl's town. I landed on a Certificate in Medical Coding. Hey!! I've done this in real life! In fact, these are the jobs (medical billing) that I have applied for for two years. The applications always ask, "do you have a certificate?" The certificate is for, like, 27 hours of credit, which sounds like two semesters, but I have to take Medical Terminology as a prerequisite of Basic Coding, which is a prerequisite of Advanced Coding, so it looks like a three-semester dealie.

Forget-me-not, who has a degree in psychology, wanted to go back to be a nurse. So she has signed up at the same college. She has to take Anatomy and Physiology I and II before she can get into the two-year nursing program, so she's up for a three year hitch. Blackeyed Susan, who loathes anything academic, and was feeling like college was a prison sentence, landed on Massage Therapy. Now, she could get an associates degree, OR a certificate, which means very little academic work. (you know what she chose...) Hers will be a three-semester dealie, as well.

Well, Susan has a job to supplement her financial aid, but I do not, so it came down to I-can-go only if the aid pays for all of it. Period. So we have waited to hear until this week.

drum roll please...I'm going! Both Susan and I have enough in Pell grants to cover tuition *and* books!!

Now this is the fun part. Forget-me-not and I are taking the same A&P I class on Tuesday nights. She and Susan are taking two online classes together. Susan and I are taking the same Medical Terminology class (tho' not at the same time), and since mine is on Monday morning and hers on Thursday, we're going to try to share a book. Also, since both Forget-me-not and Susan have to take A&P I and II, but Susan will take hers a semester behind FMN, they can share books! And, if Susan wants to keep her A&P books, I'll already have number I, so she'll only have to buy number II.

The rest of my schedule, besides A&P and Medical terminology, is an online Psych 101 class, and this lovely thing called Administrative I. It is a medical office procedures class, things like dealing with patients, confidentiality, scheduling, etc. Since I have Run a medical office before, I'm hoping it will be an easy A.

I'm a tad apprehensive--it has been awhile since I've had college homework. And this online class thing--weird, right? But I took the placement tests: 99 in writing, 99 in reading, 86 in algebra (then there was the 32 in college algebra, but we won't talk about that, especially because my certificate does not require math!).

I. Still. Got. It. Thank you, homeschooling.

Preparing for the Journey

2011-07-25T08:44:00.003-04:00

My dear mother-in-law, Queen Darl, is at the end of her journey here on earth. She has been in hospice care for about four months, after a loose prognosis of "months" to live. The grandchildren have been coming in for several weeks for a last visit. A week-ago-weekend, Charming and I went for a visit. Last Wednesday, I went with Blackeyed Susan, Alvin Fernald, and Don Quixote. Forget-me-not also came with one-year-old Tiger Lily, whom Grandma had never seen.

Grandma held court from her recliner. We gave her the news of the summer. She shared her peanut-butter and jelly sandwich with toddling Tiger Lily. We watched the Cubs game for awhile. Every once in awhile she would mention her situation, saying things like, "can you believe we're here already?"

By Friday she had taken a turn. A hospital bed was brought in, along with other equipment. Her episodes of incoherency were a little more frequent. We decided to come up again Saturday evening.

I was reading a Family Manual, published by the Hospice people. It told what to expect between three months and one month before death; then between one month and one week; and then in the days before death. I wanted to tell you two things I learned, that were so, so beautiful.

"You may notice your loved one often dropping off to sleep. However, they may not be sleeping. They are "doing business" with themselves." They are getting their life in order, assessing their life, determining if it was what they wanted their life to be, preparing for the journey to come. And later...

"You will notice that your loved one eats less and less, and eventually may stop eating altogether. But do not confuse this with starvation." Especially if they are a person of faith, their spiritual beliefs are becoming the focus of everything, and they no longer need food: their body is being sustained by their faith. They are literally "more there than here."

Aren't those beautiful thoughts? God made us so that we can be perfectly prepared to make the journey home. So many times people are sent to the hospital at the last, and medicated and fussed over so much that the person can't be alone with their own thoughts. This is why the hospice experience is so wonderful--it is truly "death with dignity."

Darl is going through some of the things on the last list, the one called "in the final hours/days." We had good, good visits this weekend, so if we don't quite make it when we're called again, it will be okay. We are just two hours away, and get almost hourly updates from her daughter Winnie.

One more thought: remember I told you that Charming was reading Plato on our vacation. One thing Plato wondered. If so many people believed that there was an afterlife, why, when the time came to face it, were people uneasy? Death should not be an enemy. Of course, we know that Jesus conquered death for all who believe. We have no fear of death. Our dear Darl says that she is ready for "the next phase of her life." Like I said, more "there" than "here."

How beautiful.

Vacation.

2011-07-17T17:17:00.011-04:00

This is Lake Huron, from the tippity-top of the Thumb of Michigan. A perfect view for thinking in the morning, and an unhindered view for God's Sunset Show every evening.

I'm more the morning-type. The colors are "cool"-er. Most everybody is still in bed, so the thinking is better. (tho' we never miss the Sunsets--all evening activities are scheduled around it.)

The wonderful cabin, just a little slope-y hill and eleven steps down to the beach. One of the grandfathers built it in the late 40s or early 50s. Completely knotty pine inside, with all of the dressers and beds built-in. Lots of cupboards and crannies to make it oh-so-cozy.

My favorite place, the yard-swing, in the yard in front of the year-round house Grandpa built, I'm thinkin' in the 70s. The house is next-door to the cabin.

Never saw these before. They are like reverse-anthills. Funnel-shaped, they were most often found next to an anthill, but these were all around the base of an oak tree. Charming says they are home to spiders that trap unsuspecting ants on their way home from work.

The view of the Lake from "my" swing. See why I love to think here?

This is the deck which is actually the roof of the boathouse. These are front-row seats for the sunset. And for the fireworks show that Alvin Fernald put on, down on the beach.

What can you do to pass the time while in the Thumb of Michigan? Thumb-wrestle, of course! Here are Blackeyed Susan and Violet, who was able to join us this year.

The Grand Idea that didn't work. Charming proposed that we play EuchreForDishes every night. The losers would have to do dishes all the next day. Only we never got to euchre until the last night!

Violet and I spent hours--simply Hours--talking. And never got half-done. (do women ever get "done" talking? I don't think so!) We went three times to the next-town-over for ice cream at the general store. They are known for the biggest ice cream scoops. I had the "baby" size, and it was softball sized. I almost couldn't eat it. How Alvin got through the "single" (three scoops) I'll never know...

I took books along, natch. A Grace Livingston Hill romance, old and familiar. A find-a-word puzzle book. A book about Haunted Tales of the Great Lakes. That fizzled--the stories were not very good and the writer not very good, either. A book I got from the library: Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living. You know, books you take on vacation. Do you know what Charming took? Plato on Immortality. (1873)

Beach reading? Really?

The beach campfire didn't happen, unfortunately. Too much wind on the two nights we had left it open for. So I brought home the s'mores stuff, and Alvin and Susan will have a few friends over and use our little backyard fireplace. But not this week--near 100 all week. I will miss those 70's from vacation.

A blessed respite. Refreshing and renewing. All the good stuff. Thank you, Father, for all Your blessings to us!

new obsession.

2011-06-28T09:06:00.004-04:00

My honey thinks I spend 'way too much time on Facebook. I don't really think so. I think it's because I'm "on" when he gets home, or in the evening. Then he imagines I've been on it all day, as well.

We go to a large church, so that when someone new comes on, my notification says "93 mutual friends" or "104 mutual friends"--all from church. So I do have a lot of posts in the newsfeed that either want prayer or relate funny things that happen to the family, whatever. When our special-needs baby Nettie was born almost two years ago, with Apgar scores of 0, 1, and 2, that prayer network on facebook was phenomenal.

Well, then there is Scrabble.

My favorite game, and Facebook has a version of it! I am currently playing 28 games, but only with about seven people. You can't just play one game at a time! Each "turn" takes one or two minutes, sometimes less, but not everybody plays every day. I try to play my games twice a day, morning and night, but like I said, sometimes I only have six or eight games running. Fifteen minutes, tops.

Until last Friday.

My sister had told me that one of my cousins had joined facebook. Although I had seen her a couple of times a year growing up, it has been at least thirty years since I had seen her. I "friended" her, and she told me that she had gotten a new computer and was going to upload my Grandma's photo albums to facebook. Her mother was Grandma's oldest daughter, so she got the albums before Grandma died, then when she passed, Jill got them.

So I decided to take an idea my sister had, and Just. Do. It. A number of years ago, my sister and sister-in-law were visiting my dear Auntie M in Washington State. The movie, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood was popular at the time. They decided to form a group called the Yo-Yo Sisterhood, and all of us who were Plasterer women, or married to a Plasterer man, could join. We have quite a number in my own birth family already, so when Auntie M would visit, we would go out to dinner and call it the Yo-Yo convention. She has passed, as has my other aunt (Jill's mom) and my own mother. My sister called me last week to talk about how all of our mentors are gone, and now *we* have to be the mentors. Not a bad thing, but even us Titus 2 types need Titus 2 women, you know?

So last Friday I made a Facebook Group called the Yo-Yo Sisterhood of Plasterer Women. I invited all the sisters and cousins and nieces I could find on facebook. If you are on fb, when you get invited to something, you get a notification, so all these girlies were aware that I started the page. WELL. Jill found me right away (within minutes) and so did Cheryl, another cousin whom I only see at funerals and such. My sister and my daughter Violet joined us moments later, and we Spent. The. Morning. on facebook. Jill was loading scores of photos, many from 1900-1920. Violet, who has scanned many of our own ancient photos, uploaded hers.

We also Spent. The. Afternoon. on facebook. Then, Saturday morning, I made a photo album of my great-grandmother's quilt. Sunday, I photographed all of my grandmother's quilts I own, and made another album. My sister made an album of Yo-Yo brides--I have my own, Forget-me-not's, and Lily's photos here on my desk, ready to scan and upload.

Well, the upshot of all of us looking and identifying photos, commenting on each other's posts (Cheryl's parents divorced during her childhood, and she had never seen her parents' wedding photos, and my sister's had been destroyed, but Grandma had some!) and catching up with 30+ years of history (yeah, we were all kids when we were last together, and now all of our kids are raised!!), well....

I Need To Get Some Housework Done.

But this all happened the day after my sister had called me. God answered immediately. We are re-connected with cousins that share the same blood, have had the same experiences, and we can share our wisdom not only with our children, but with each other.

Thank you, Lord, for this gift. (now, give me Supernatural Speed for the work I have to do!)

Quilt Projects Update.

2011-06-23T12:22:00.006-04:00

I had written before about the four Sassy Girls quilts. These were four similar quilts for Blackeyed Susan and three of her friends, featuring the Sassy Girls fabric. I quilted Susan's, and tied the other three.

For Afro, Susan's boyfriend, I had an idea for more of an artsy quilt. A little black boy with a handful of balloons, who is out on a windy day, and gets caught up in a gust of wind. One of his balloons gets away from him, and he himself is beginning to be lifted off the ground:

The balloon that gets away is made of "ivy" fabric, which, if you have been paying attention lately, is symbolic of the high school that Afro graduated from. I also have a Pokemon balloon, and a patch from the Wildcat Baseball League. Susan and Afro actually played on the same team in sixth grade. Of course, I can't remember back that far, but Charming remembers Afro as a great pitcher. Notice also the "grass." The fabric is from Alexander Henry and is called "Everglades." The colors are absolutely astoundingly cool. I went back to the fabric store, and bought more fabric for the binding for the quilt.

If you can see it, click on the photo and look at the "swirls of wind" quilting I did.

Here is the back of the quilt, continuing my ongoing effort to Use Up Pieces of Fabric From My Stash. Here I used three pieces, and I used them all up! Altogether, with the five graduation quilts, I got rid of twenty-five yards of fabric out of my stash. The very, very sad thing, is that it hardly made a dent. Sigh.

************************************

Here we have a (Finally!! Finished!!) quilt that has been in the works for, oh, ten or twelve YEARS. I wrote about it already, as well, only I had underestimated the time I had been working on it.

Now, I gotta say, it looks really spiffy all quilted and stuff. And I really like that checkerboard border. But it still isn't me, you know?

So, it is a gift for a friend of many years, who has wanted one of my quilts. The pattern is called Rosebud. So I thought I maybe would name it Citizen Kane--you remember his sled was called Rosebud. Or, after the Dick Van Dyke Show episode about Richie's middle name being Rosebud. I couldn't find a YouTube for that episode, unfortunately. Poor Richie finds out his middle name is Rosebud, and is in despair until his Dad explains why. Now, I'm a little hazy on the details, maybe seven men help Laura get to the hospital or something. Anyway, there are seven men who are instrumental in Richie's birth, and Rob and Laura need to honor them for that. Their initials are R, O, S, E, B, U(llyses), and D(avid--thank you, Don Quixote, for that info!). Instead of seven middle names, Rob and Laura light on ROSEBUD.

Instead, since I took ten or twelve years to make this quilt, I'm just calling it Rosebud Journey.

Now, I'm in a pickle. I don't know what I'm doing next! I have a quilt that is in a "sandwich" (ready to quilt) but I don't feel like doing that one. I have a set of blocks that I made nine years ago, twins to MacGuyver's grad quilt, that I could put together. I could make a "mess" of dolly clothes--lots of ideas there. I know that Rocky Balboa and Tiny Dancer don't even have a Barbie-quilt yet. So, I guess the next thing is to Decide.

But first, I'm going to eat Lunch.

Update 10/11/11: There was a Dick Van Dyke Show marathon on tv last week, and they showed the Rosebud episode! The names were all grandfathers' names, and the names of their fathers and such. The names are Robert, Oscar, Sam, Edward, Benjamin, Ulysses, David--ROSEBUD!

Graduation.

2011-06-19T09:27:00.010-04:00

Finally, Graduation Day! Because of extra snow days, graduation was postponed a week. Many of the parties (including Blackeyed Susan's) were last weekend. But the Day had finally come:

ready to go to the ceremony.

Alvin Fernald and Cheergirl.

Susan and Afro with Mr. Smith, their beloved principal until this year when he was transferred. Mr. Smith is an incredible man, and he goes to our church.

Susan and Mr. Holmes, the most incredible teacher ever. I blogged before about him here. Do you know the "Chuck Norris" jokes? Here's the latest: Do you know what happened when Chuck Norris went with the Navy Seals to root out Bin Laden? He found Mr. Holmes sitting there, drinking a Diet Pepsi. Yep. The stuff of Legend.

Best friends forever.

Next year will be the first time they have ever been separated since they started homeschooling together. Even the past two years in public high school, they shared teachers and friends. The very first day of school junior year, which was so difficult for Susan, she came home and ran to Alvin's room. She wanted her Buddy. An incredible blessing!

of course, we need yet another photo of Susan and Afro!

Congratulations, Norah.

Ivy Day.

2011-06-14T09:44:00.014-04:00

Well, as you can see, I haven't posted for weeks. But that is how it is when we have a graduate--May and early June simply rush by with no time for anything but the baseball-six-days-a-week for the sophomore. And for the senior? The Awards Ceremonies. The Banquets. The Practices. The Thises and Thatses of Senior Year.

So let me tell you about Ivy Day. Ivy Day is unique to our high school, and there is nothing else to compare in our city, or our county. It has been celebrated since our high school opened in 1921. Each year, the police block off the street in front of the school. The seniors, in caps and gowns, parade around the school to the music of the marching band. They are preceded by the Ivy Queen and her court, in formals. They walk to the auditorium entrance, where the Ivy Day ceremony takes place. The Ivy Queen is crowned, and a pot of ivy is presented to the school, to (hopefully) grow up the sides of the school for a remembrance of this senior class. The senior choir members sing "The Halls of Ivy," and everyone sings the alma mater. Then we are dismissed to the cafeteria for breakfast (read: photo op for parents) before the seniors are dismissed for the day.

This year, it rained for Ivy Day, so everything was in the auditorium. Since there was no parade (although the seniors marched in to the music of the band, anyway--rah, rah, RAH!!) the seven girls on the Ivy Court did not know who had been chosen Queen. (tho' we who had programs knew because it said, Ivy Queen: Norah Kell*gg!!)

here is the Queen and her court.

my beautiful Royal Daughter.

Norah (Blackeyed Susan) and Alvin Fernald's girlfriend Hannah.

one of her besties, Megan.

one of Norah's first friends at public high school, another Hannah.

Being Ivy Queen is one of the highest honors bestowed for a senior. It is more prestigious than Prom Queen, because of the ninety-year tradition. And it is especially poignant to me, because Norah only began public high school as a junior. It is a blessing to me, that she has made her mark on the school.

I had thought Norah would wear her prom dress, but after discussion with the other girls, decided a different dress would be more appropriate. Fortunately, J.C. Penney's had a lot on their Clearance-Prom-Dress rack. Forget-me-not took her sister shopping, and found this beauty for $51.00:

and the back:

This will be a dress that she can wear for four years at college, for Christmas Banquets and other formal occasions. A good investment. And hand-washable/line dryable!

"The Halls of Ivy," sung by the Notre Dame Glee Club:

http://youtu.be/m-uG_qetEJE

Well, this proud Mommy will sign off for now, and will post more Graduation Stuff later this week!

Beautiful Prom People.

2011-05-15T06:07:00.012-04:00

Prom was last night! The last week 'bout to drove me crazy, as every "prom" week has. Ordering flowers, then *remembering* to pick up flowers--hard for me this year--hair appointments, and on and on. But, of course, it was all worth it--we girls love us some prom stuff!!

Alvin Fernald and his girlfriend Cheergirl. Sorry 'bout Alvin's goofy grin--I was only able to grab two quick photos before they were off to the park to meet friends for another photo shoot.

Okay, Cheergirl's dress was incredibly fantastic--and in charcoal grey, no less! Fabulous. I wish I had noticed that her orchid wrist corsage was not visible--I could have had them turn the other way. By the way, did you notice that Alvin is wearing a suit and not a tux? I am on a big campaign of Poor High School Boys Should Not Have To Rent A Tux, It's Not Their Wedding. They already have to do a corsage (3x the price of a boutonniere) and dinner. The girls argue, "but we have to buy an expensive dress!" But, girls, you get to Keep the Dress.

Okay, I'm putting my soapbox away.

Here are Blackeyed Susan and her boyfriend Afro (no, that is really his nickname). I made his vest and nifty bowtie from the leftover fabric from Susan's dress. It [the dress] is made from a 1950s pattern, and is in orchid taffeta. When Susan tried it on, she said, "Mom, it makes noise when I walk." Exactly. The. Point. Taffeta was perfect for this dress.

Rustle, rustle.

I made last year's prom dress for Susan. This year I paid our beautiful friend Esther to make it for me. You must, Must, MUST check out her blog. She comes from a family of artists, and has already won awards for making a prom dress from paper bags and one from aluminum foil. Designer, seamstress, she is the whole package. She did change the neckline on Susan's gown from simply "draped" to sweetheart.

Aah, the flowers! Afro's mother got these gorgeous orchids made into a barrette. Can I let you in on a little secret (don't think me tacky.): These were "day-old" orchids, that retailed for fifty dollars, and she got them for fifteen.

I know I've never worn fifty dollars worth of flowers in *my* hair!

Happy couple, beautiful smiles.

Susan wavered between wearing rhinestones and pearls (I was leaning toward pearls, as we had a pair of my mother's pearl screw-on earrings--remember those?) But she landed on the butterfly necklace that was a gift from Afro.

kinda neat: they wore matching Toms shoes. You may know Toms as the company that gives away a pair of shoes to a child who has none, for every pair you buy.

I'm sayin', Hooray for flats! I'm going to suggest them for her wedding, as well.

of course, granddaughters Laura Carrot and Sweet Pea *had* to come over and share in the Princess fun. Decorum was not part of the program, however.

Today's plan is Rest. Recuperation. and Dishes.

2011-05-05T06:39:00.010-04:00

Just a reminder that next Monday is

Wear Your Apron Day!!!

To get you in the mood, check out an older post about Apron Day Fun.

See you there for Apron Day!

It all depends upon your point of view.

2011-05-04T08:28:00.002-04:00

My son Joe Hardy posted on his facebook page on Monday:

"One of the craziest, busiest, and most impactful weekends in (recent) history! A royal wedding, beatification of the late Pope John Paul, and what happened with Osama bin Laden...all in one weekend! Let us not let these things distract us from the truth: Jesus is coming soon! Stay awake, Church!"

This was Charming's reaction to his post:

"Wow. I went to work Friday, woke up Saturday and went to work, woke up Sunday and went to work [he works one Sunday a month], woke up Monday and went to work. I didn't even hear about the Pope thing."

But, he went on to say:

"But there is another Royal Wedding coming, and I am part of the Bride! And, at that time, we will all be "beatified." And, at that time, the worst terrorist of all time will be chained forever!"

Look at the three points of view, here. The World was watching all of these events, and calls them Important. World-changing. The news networks have never-ending stories of every conceivable twist and turn of each event. Yet, the entire worldwide panorama happened, and not one event impacted Charming's life, personally. Most of our lives went on without interruption (after the wedding, of course!)

but...

When those Final Events happen, the World will stop and notice. Every single life will be affected. It will be of greatest importance with which side you are aligned. Truly, truly, "life or death" will be decided.

Because of our busy lives, and the inundation of media 24/7, we sometimes do not see things as they really are, in relation to our own lives; I'm speaking of our "real" lives. That's another thing we need to re-examine, perhaps: of what does our "real" life consist?

Can we take a few minutes this week, to Stop, Look, and Listen? Stop and Look at our lives, and how we are filling them. Charming has a great saying: We need to learn to Live Deliberately. And then we need to Stop and Listen to our Father, for He can tell us how to change our lives. He is the One who is "conforming us to the image of His Son." Is our non-stop life getting in His way?

Sassy Girls Quartet Finished.

2011-04-26T13:35:00.017-04:00

This is sort of an odd photo. I laid my finished quilt out across the couch, and took a photo from farther away. It didn't look right, so I "turned" the photo on my computer. Now it still looks wonky-jawed:

...but you can see the entire thing.

I call this quilt (and three others that I made for Blackeyed Susan's friends) Sassy Girls. That is the name of the cute fabric here. Click on the photo to see it more easily.

(it is the fabric that is not the horse fabric.)

"Sassy" describes Susan and her friends perfectly.

*and* Susan loved horsies and horsey books when she was smaller.

Here you can see, not quite so large (photographer I am *not*) a gorgeous ballerina fabric, some music fabrics (Susan wanted "lots of ballet and lots of music" in her quilt), and a fabric commemorating September 11, which is unfortunately part of our children's lives. All of the Sassy Girls have a piece of that in their quilts:

(even though Susan does not play piano, she loved the "keys" fabric.)

Our high school, which opened in 1921, has celebrated "Ivy Day" every year since it opened. All of the seniors parade down the street in front of the school, and the Ivy Queen and her court present a pot of ivy to the school, to be planted and (hopefully) begin climbing up the sides of the building. So I put ivy fabric in two corners:

Love tradition. South Side is the only high school in town that has any tradition this cool. They also have real-live china that is embossed S/S that they use, with a silver punch bowl, for special occasions.

I have two "nutcracker" fabrics in the quilt, commemorating Susan's six or so times she participated in our city's production:

More ballet fabric, and some baseball fabric, on top of which I sewed the patch from her baseball hat. I don't remember this, tho' everybody else in the family does, but Susan played on the same team as her boyfriend in fifth and sixth grade:

... and check out that Kellogg's fabric. How cool to have a fabric with your last name on it?

The fabric on the left below says Gracie (Susan's real middle name is Grace. I found a "blackeyed Susan" fabric just before I quilted this section, so I ripped out a square and replaced it. She shares that nickname with her grandmother:

Cubs. 'nuff said.

The "roses with stripes" in the top of the photo below is left over from a dress I made Susan when she was a baby. The red and white "how do I love thee? let me count the ways" fabric is what I used to back Johnny Tremain and Lily's wedding quilt. I love putting the same fabric in lots of things, just as my Grandma did. I used to love finding them in different quilts in our home.

I found three yards of a cute pink ballet fabric at the store. That is enough to cover half of the back of the quilt, so it does.

Another fabric on the back is ballet tutus with the names of famous ballets: Swan Lake, Coppelia, etc. On the left, the purple and green diamonds fabric was the backing to Rocky Balboa and Forget-me-not's wedding quilt:

...and more soldiers because of the Nutcracker thing.

Susan's quilt is quilted, and her three friends' are tied. And now, all they need are their labels:

Sassy Girl: Norah

Sassy Girl: Maddi

Sassy Girl: Hannah

Sassy Girl: Brittany

I really, really had fun with these. Thanks for looking!

A red-letter day.

2011-04-06T08:57:00.005-04:00

Oh, my.

Norah Grace

I had such a hard, hard time yesterday morning.

I woke up crying, and cried all through the morning. All because my sweet Blackeyed Susan turned eighteen.

When we had six-in-eight-years, then almost ten years later had Susan and then her brother Alvin Fernald, I figured the last two were supposed to go more slowly. So that I could savor each and every day. Well, darn it, time didn't slow down. Susan's childhood went just as quickly as the others.

What a precious privilege it is to be her mother. So many things stored away in my heart that I can remember and laugh or cry over. Even the fight we had the night before her birthday will be softened when next I think of it. (it wasn't a biggie...)

I bought a beautiful card with sappy sentiments (yeah, I cried through the entire card display--possibly not a good time to buy a card, kinda like "don't go to the grocery when you're hungry" sort of thing), and then forgot to give it to her! We watched some trash-tv together (Say Yes to the Dress, Cake Boss, Project Runway) and that evened me out, emotionally. We looked online for fabrics for her prom dress. We had steak-and-mushrooms for her birthday dinner. (She's an expensive girl: her brother MacGuyver always wanted pancakes for his birthday dinner.) We had all the grandkids over to sing Happy Birthday and have a piece of cake. Alvin bought Susan her junk-food trifecta: Flamin' Hot Cheetos, Mountain Dew, and a Reese's pb cup. Her boyfriend bought her two lottery tickets because she was 18--hey, she won 50 cents! Kind of a quiet day, and that was okay for me. I still have to endure graduation!

I'll leave this with the sentiment on the card I did *not* buy:

It's your 18th birthday!

Now you can Vote!

Now you can sign a Contract!

Now you can get Married!

(open)

Looks like you've got a very busy day ahead of you!

April is Poetry Month

2011-04-01T07:37:00.002-04:00

I kinda planned to post a poem today, being the first day of Poetry Month, but I found a wonderful link from The Common Room. So go there, be blessed, and I'll look for something to share next time!

Nothin' much.

2011-03-22T07:39:00.003-04:00

I see that it is many days since I have blogged. I keep waiting for something interesting to happen to me, to write about. Of course, when nothin' much is happening, that's okay, too. "No news is good news," you know.

I've spent the last ten or eleven days suffering with a lower back problem. This is not something I am used to--bless the Lord, I have not had the lower back problems (or other things, such as migraines) that plague so many people. Chronic pain? Not a part of my life.

I did something biggie to my back, tho'. I went to the chiropractor, who predicted four visits to get this in order. My first visit, I rated my pain 8-9, on a scale of 10. Yesterday, I told him it was down to a 3, with about 85% improvement. Praise the Lord for chiropractors! Non-invasive treatment, with alternating heat and ice did the trick. (okay, I did 'bout go through a bottle of ibuprofen..) My sister, who does essential oils, told me to rub lavender oil on the places where I had spasms. All good stuff! Today, I'm doing laundry--what a treat when I have been unable for going-on two weeks.

Other than that, we are at the time of year when things start to heat up, as far as the schedule goes. Blackeyed Susan's graduation, Alvin Fernald with his newly minted driver's permit. I have a huge problem with my new cellphone account, that I will have to fix face-to-face with someone. A flat tire on my van that I need to take care of today. All those things that take me out of the house anyway, and I'd rather be "spring cleaning."

But I've had my coffee, checked my facebook, and am ready to go! Have a wonderful Tuesday!!

My Daddy can fix anything.

2011-03-04T06:58:00.003-05:00

I stole this facebook post from my friend Wende, who had spent some time in our church's prayer room:

"Comfy couch, soft fuzzy blanky, quiet prayer room and the best part: the Lord wrapping His arms around me, whispering to me to rest in Him. Just letting ya know the Prayer Room is all prayed up for those who are weary! Run to Him and He will give you rest."

Isn't that sweet? I especially love the phrase "the Prayer Room is all prayed up." Imagine if I get up extra early, with my coffee and my Bible, and have a precious time with the Lord. Then, when Honey gets up, I say, "the couch is all 'prayed up.' Come, and welcome!"

I had a dear friend many years ago, who told me that she always pictured herself climbing up into her Father's lap, in a big rocking chair, sharing her highs and lows, as well as her requests. Our four-year-olds have this down pat: Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! and running into his arms. Whatever the boo-boo, whatever the crisis, whatever the need, our little ones know where to run. And they don't waste any time doing it.

I know I'll be running to Him today. How about you?

Snow day.

2011-02-25T06:53:00.002-05:00

Another snowstorm today. It began about 1:30 am, as predicted, already four inches on the ground. Wind will make it worse, but we are snugged in tight. Charming is on vacation, schools are closed. I am sorry that Blackeyed Susan is ill; Alvin Fernald is finally over it. It is running rampant through the schools, a combination of sore throat and chest cough.

(I wish I could have slept past 5:30 am, though.)

I took a free Word 2007 class this week, and got a 96% on the test. I'm trying to update my computer skills, to make me more marketable, job-wise. Not that I desire to work outside the home; I am completely satisfied to be Suzy Homemaker. But since Charming is making $20,000 less than he was five years ago, we have to hold out my working as a possibility. *If* I can get a job!

I have finished one of four "Sassy Girls" quilts I'm making for graduations this spring. Susan's will be quilted; her three friends' ones will be tied. I've finished one of the tied quilts, and am basting Susan's. The other two are ready to lay out, to make the quilt "sandwich." But I do that at Lily's house, and, well, the snow...it'll wait!

Still working on re-organizing my Fabric Mountain. Since much of my fabric is in my basement, it is easy to leave, and go back to as is convenient. I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, though, and am anxious to get the rubbermaids stacked up against the wall, all nice and neat!

But before that, COFFEE. Sorting laundry. Writing a letter to my sister. My "normal" Friday stuff. I'm thinking bean soup and cornbread for supper. Maybe some Waltons on the dvd player. A quiet Friday night will be a novelty!

Hope you have a nice "snow day," if that is happening where you live. And "someday," we'll see spring, right?

Cornflake S. Pecially for Violet

2011-02-19T08:45:00.010-05:00

Music.

Isn't it *wonderful* how hearing a certain song can take you right back to a particular place in your life? Most of the time it is a happy place. The other night, I was driving home with Blackeyed Susan, and listening to the Oldies (70's) station on the radio. "Reelin' in the Years" by Steely Dan came on. All of a sudden I threw the volume button 'way up: Susan! This was my favorite song in the spring of my senior year! In fact, it was *everybody's favorite song!* Everybody rolled down their windows and sang along when it came on!

[I could say the same thing about food. Just thinking about my grandma's chicken and noodles takes me right back...but that is a discussion for another day. This is about Music.]

We also learn things through music. I don't think we could begin to count how many things we have learned through a song. ABC's--hello. But this morning I was thinking about a Special Song by a Special Man--Mr. Rogers.

You are my friend

You are special

You are my friend

You're special to me.

You are the only one like you.

Like you, my friend, I like you.

In the daytime

In the nighttime

Anytime that you feel's the right time

For a friendship with me, you see

F-R-I-E-N-D special

You are my friend

You're special to me.

There's only one in this wonderful world

You are special.

You are Special

by Fred Rogers

@1967

Besides being an awesome song, it was also a teaching song. My daughter Violet (who has not only a Masters degree in English, but also placed third in a national spelling bee), not only learned to spell the word "friend" with the song, but still sings the song every time she writes the word...Friend.

I have to admit, I do, too. Thank you, Mr. Rogers.

Here is a link to a video. Just click on the little tv icon:

You are Special

Have a Special Day.

an Uncommon book.

2011-02-18T08:30:00.005-05:00

"Every family ought to be...a little church, consecrated to Christ and wholly influenced and governed by His rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual."

--Jonathan Edwards

I am reading Marriage to a Difficult Man: the Uncommon Romance of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. I don't even have any words to describe how much I am loving it, and I'm not even to page 100 yet. I'll be writing more about it in the days to come, but I wanted to share this quote today.

The concept of "family education and order" being a "chief means of grace" is one that I could meditate on for years. I used to hear about something being a "means of grace," during my Catholic-upbringing years. Grace, of course, being God's "unmerited favor." Now, if I had to choose anything that my home has *not* been, it would be one of Order. Probably my biggest struggle, nope, Definitely my biggest struggle. But I think we did pretty well on the "family education" front. I look at my six grown children (really, people, there are eight--the last two are almost-eighteen and sixteen) and am pleased at how they turned out. But I readily admit that I am too-much married to the world and not to the Kingdom. Lots of work to do there. I really do need to take down all those "no trespassing" signs I've put in God's way.

I am thinking that this book is very timely for me. Sarah Edwards managed to raise eleven children while being married to a famous preacher, with all that entailed. (for instance, before the days of reputable inns, travelers preferred to stay at the homes of the local preachers. Many times Sarah hosted multiple guests at once, and often. There is no complaint of "busyness" I could manage to use as an excuse that would come close to what she had in her life, to account for my lack of discipline.

So, it's back to the book, and I will share as I go along!

Busy today...

2011-02-09T06:14:00.003-05:00

I have not worked outside the home for sixteen years, so I am eligible to avail myself of some state-sponsored classes, at no cost. My last formal computer class was WordPerfect 2.1 (with white letters on a black screen), so the opportunity to take all of the Microsoft Office Suite is exciting.

Today's offering is PowerPoint. I've only done one powerpoint in my life, and that was with a tutorial (add photo NOW, click here NOW, you get the picture). The class is all-day, 8:30-4:30.

Next week I have a class, "Navigating the 2007 Ribbon." I'm told it's the "new toolbar." My PowerPoint runs with the Ribbon, so I will have some experience already. On the 21st I have Excel. I have never ever made a spreadsheet; should be interesting. The 23rd is Word--a place with which I'm much more familiar. The week after that I have Publisher, and then Access (don't even know what that is for!) is in several sessions through the end of the month.

Then I'll be ready for a new computer! Honey?

Update: I had to make a seven-slide PowerPoint presentation and "pass" to get a certificate. I got a 95%!! Yeah for me!

Five years.

2011-02-03T06:44:00.002-05:00

Today marks five years since my precious Mother went home to be with the Lord.

Oh, how I miss her! She was my Mommy, after all, and how do you live without your Mommy? I remember, after getting married, calling her every time I got sick. I wished she could come take care of me, but knowing that she couldn't, I wanted her to *know,* anyway. She was always sympathetic, and told me to rest and drink plenty of liquids. Yeah, I already knew that, but needed to hear it from her.

One post would not be adequate to write my feelings about her, of course. Her love, her wisdom, her love of Scrabble (which I share!), her faith--all so much a part of my life, a part of who I am. I know that many women don't have a good relationship or any relationship at all, with their mothers; that makes me sad. I had the most wonderful mother! What an incredible blessing from the Lord!

So, if you still have your mother, give her a hug and kiss for me today, won't you?

The Great Snowstorm of '11, in which we dodged the bullet....

2011-02-02T06:21:00.004-05:00

It looks like we dodged a bullet with the great snowstorm. Yesterday, they were predicting 8-15 inches of snow overnight. By the time I went to bed, they had lowered it to 1-3 inches. And I'm not sure we got even that. We *did* get the "wintry mix" of snow and freezing rain, with high winds, starting about 4pm, through the evening. I was happy to see Charming get home safely!

This morning, we are under a Level One snow emergency, which means that only emergency vehicles are allowed to be on the roads. So Charming will not be going into work, at least "on time," this morning.

I got up too early this morning, so "going back to bed" is definitely on the list. Or maybe just a long nap...I would also like to get back to my "organizing my fabric" project. I started it three weeks ago, and never got back to it. Being in the basement, I can leave-it-and-come-back-to-it, but I can't seem to get back to it! I think it will be a nice project for a Snow Day.

I'd love to share a link from Little Jenny Wren. Beautiful thoughts for a Slow-down Day. Enjoy!

I'm out visiting today...

2011-02-01T07:08:00.001-05:00

...over at Fresh Starts. Come on over!

Relationship evangelism.

2011-01-21T08:42:00.002-05:00

"Grace was no insistent evangelist, flinging her message out and demanding an answer. She breathed the fragrance of Christianity in her smile, and her words came involuntarily from a heart that thought much "on these things."

--Grace Livingston Hill, Re-Creations.

Cuteness.

2011-01-20T07:53:00.002-05:00

At every Super Bowl time, the governors of the states of the two contenders will make friendly wagers. But for this weekend's Bears/Packers game, librarians in Chicago and Green Bay are getting into the act with their own wagers.

If the Packers win, the Chicago Library will be the happy recipients of the following books:

Little House in the Big Woods

Old Bear

Quickie Makes the Team (by a local Green Bay author)

When Pride Still Mattered (about Vince Lombardi)

and, finally: We're Going on a Bear Hunt.

If "da Bears" are victorious, the Green Bay Library will receive extra copies of:

Meet the Bears, and

The Stinky Cheese Man.

How darn cute is this?

I love Men.

2011-01-10T15:29:00.002-05:00

I get so, so tired of tv shoes and movies that make men look moronic. I think I first really noticed it when the show Home Improvement was on the air. It was funny, for sure, but Tim was always the one with the Idea that Wouldn't Work, or Messing Up everything so that Mom or Wilson or one of the boys had to straighten it out.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't understand men. But they don't understand us, either. We have a joke around here: if women weren't around trying to "civilize" men all the time, they'd just stand their jeans up in the corner of the cave every night. Saves on laundry, right? And I've laughed at my share of oh-my-goodness-MEN! jokes. But I notice from time to time that it gets to be a habit. A habit that definitely needs adressing.

I like to look at Charming's hands. They are what he calls "ping-pong paddle" hands--as wide as they are long. No long fingers as would befit a guitar player of more than forty years. But I love to watch them as they move along the strings. I love those hands when they are holding mine. When they comfort one of our children or grandchildren. When they are fixing the toilet at 11 at night, or changing the taillight on the car at 10 degrees outside. Things that he doesn't ask me to do. We actually had an agreement: I wouldn't make him change diapers if he didn't make me "wrestle" a toilet (changing the wax ring). I know, I know, you have to do that about three times in your lifetime, but still...

My sister lost most of the men in her life last year. My father passed away in March, and her father-in-law in November. And in August, she lost her dear husband. But she still has her two strong sons to stand by her side, and wrestle that toilet if need be.

I know that women are as capable as men at doing just about anything. But I think the Bible teaches that that Protector/Provider role is a good thing. My "knight in shining armor," as Kate Hepburn said to Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond.

Maybe this post doesn't make any sense. Maybe it's just where my mind is wandering this afternoon. But I think maybe I need to do a little less man-bashing, and a little more appreciating these days.

Love you, honey. Thanks for doing that toilet thing.

New Year's Ponderings

2011-01-03T08:25:00.002-05:00

I didn't have any real New Year's plans, except for catching some of the Twilight Zone marathon on Syfy channel. Blackeyed Susan commented, "so many of them are about outer space!" Certainly the America *I* lived in in the late 50s and early 60s was obsessed about space! We were in a race with the Soviet Union. They won the first two rounds, the first artificial satellite, and the first man in space. But we caught up with the first man to Orbit the earth! President Kennedy vowed that we would have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. And the wondering about whether there was life on other planets pervaded our television programs. Why we assumed that those life forms were always more intelligent or technologically advanced than Earth's, I don't know. Why couldn't we be the most intelligent, and find lesser life forms on other planets? Oh, well, I don't make these decisions...

I went to the grocery on New Year's Day, and found an incredible bargain. I bought two four-packs of New York strip steaks for about $2.60 per 12-ounce steak! We put away the two biggest ones for a later date-night, and invited Susan's boyfriend and Alvin Fernald's girlfriend for dinner. Yummy-yum yum! I baked my favorite pie (Marie Callendar's Razzleberry) and vanilla ice cream for dessert. We had dessert in front of...more Twilight Zone. It was an impromptu party, and very, very fun! One of the things Charming wants to do this year is to do more things with our youngest two children, who, at 17 and 16, usually can find something else to do besides spending it with parental units...

I'm not good at resolutions. But, going along with Jen at The Pause That Refreshes, I wanted to make a personal goal of sorts. So here it is:

No Barb-bashing this year.

This is extremely personal, as it is something that only I do. I can get to feeling worthless faster than breathing, almost. Listing all of the things I've been a failure at. All of the things I need to do that I'm not doing. BUT...since God thinks I'm fabulous just the way I am, and my family loves me *anyway,* then I am doing nothing but wasting precious time, taking this responsibility on myself. Or listening to the Enemy, if that is what it is. He is the "accuser of the brethren," and the "Condemner." So if I am hearing negative things about me, they are going to have to be shucked into the garbage where they belong. Let me know if I'm falling down on this, okay?

I will also continue to read some of the classics that I've missed along the way. Last year I read Dracula, completing my Monster trilogy (in 2009 I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein) and the unabridged Little Women (562 pages!)

Well, I am off for Monday Morning Errands. I'm jealous of Jen, who is going. nowhere. today.

(maybe tomorrow!)

A little bit o' Christmas.

2010-12-27T08:58:00.011-05:00

If only I were a more talented photographer.

Each of my three daughters has taken classes in photography. Violet has a beautiful (read: expensive) camera. All of the photos taken with other cameras are nicer than these. But you'll have to put up with mine!

Blackeyed Susan and Alvin Fernald were invited to a "fancy" party Christmas week. Don't you love when your kids get gussied up?

Alvin and his girlfriend Hannah.

Susan and her boyfriend Devonte.

I had to make new Christmas-baking aprons for my four oldest grands, because they, well, they just outgrew their toddler ones. (imagine that.) Here are three of them, with their brother, who still fits in a little one:

Laura Carrot, Junior Asparagus, Cambridge, Sweet Pea.

Susan made Devonte a hat! She picked up crocheting again (first time in years), and finished very quickly. I love her comment: "it's so nice to have something to do with your hands while you're doing something else."

I made flannel jammy pants for the grands, as I always do. But the two older girls wanted matching pjs for their dolls, so I did the nightgown thing. I had forgotten how wonderful flannel nightgowns were. This won't be the last pair I make!

Charming found a present for our newest granddaughter that he just couldn't resist. Put on your Justin Timberlake voice and sing it with me: "I'm bringin' chubby back..."

Tiger Lily sportin' a 'tude.

One thing I don't understand. My thighs look exactly like Tiger Lily's, but nobody thinks they're cute.

Christmas Day was quieter. We had a slowish day, then dinner at night. Several of the family were at other commitments, so all of the grownups fit at the "grownup" table. We had music later, to finish the evening.

We are looking forward to a more normal schedule for Charming, who now works in retail. He was almost three weeks without a day off, and his store was open 7 am to midnight the last week. Incredibly, he has two days off this week! I'm going to have to remember what that is like.

My prayers for a blessed New Year go out to all of you!

Don't eat yellow snowflakes.

2010-12-16T09:02:00.002-05:00

Alvin has an "ugly Christmas sweater" party at school today. I pulled out the sweater my Daddy wore for Christmases most of the way through the 60's. (not that it's ugly or anything...)

I kept the sweater in order to make a toss pillow out of it. Alvin, however, has claimed it for himself, for as long as the spirit lingers.

By the way, the sweater is "100% acrylic", which explains the lack of moth hole damage. It will probably look exactly the same a hundred years from now!

I'm out of the Cottage today...

2010-12-13T05:24:00.003-05:00

I'm over visiting at Fresh Starts today. The link is to my own blog entry. Be sure to also go the main blog and read all of the entries for Advent. And tune in every Monday for a great new devotional!

In and out of the car eight times. Not a good thing.

2010-12-09T06:05:00.003-05:00

Okay, if I never drive again it will be too soon. Yesterday went like this:

7:10 am drove Blackeyed Susan to school. Alvin's friend was picking him up.

8:00 am drove Joe Hardy across town to college. His battery is bad, and can't fix it till Friday.

Was supposed to drive 4-year-old Blueberry to pre-school, but his daddy was home.

9:30 am. Got a call from Lily. Could I drive Sweet Pea to ballet?

10:00-11:00 am. Sat at ballet, and met the greatest Catholic lady! Talked about lots of stuff--we are definitely going to be friends.

After driving Sweet Pea home, I actually was home for two hours! Took a nap.

2: 00 pm. Drove to the pickup line at high school. After sitting for 40 minutes, Alvin said, "didn't I tell you I didn't need a ride home?" (no.) Susan went to a friend's after school.

3;40 pm. Drove Alvin to work at the mall.

4:00 pm. Picked up Joe Hardy at college.

4:30 pm. Dropped off Joe at his house. Called Susan: are you ready? no.

6:15. Forget-me-not called. Could I go sit with the kids for a half-hour? She was getting off work late, and her hubby had to leave.

7:25 pm. Forget-me-not finally home. Called Susan--she was finally ready.

7:35 pm. Picked up Susan.

7:40 pm. Home again. Took Don Quixote and his laundry home.

7:50 pm. Home. Supper.

8:45 pm. Off to the mall to pick Alvin up.

9:20 pm. Home. Called Joe Hardy. Told him he could borrow my car tomorrow. Going to call all of my children and tell them that the only people I am driving/babysitting are the ones that live under my roof.

Alternately, going into hiding in a convent.

gotta love the English language.

2010-12-03T14:53:00.003-05:00

I asked Don Quixote (fount of all useless and sometimes useful knowledge): Honey, you know how they used to hang a bell outside of caskets because sometimes they would bury someone alive by mistake? I know that we get one of our idioms from that, but I can't remember what it is.

Don to Mom:

They had people who worked the graveyard shift so that dead ringers could be saved by the bell.

Mom to Don:

Show-off.

(but don't you think it is funny that we get *three* of our idioms from one situation?)

Bono calls the Church on the carpet.

2010-12-03T06:01:00.003-05:00

Food for thought:

"Stop asking God to bless your work. Find out what God is already doing, because it is already blessed."

Friday wrap-up.

2010-11-26T22:23:00.003-05:00

I wasn't going to go out today.

I used to love (and I mean LOVE) going out on Black Friday. I'd plan my strategy, set the alarm, get a cup of coffee, and out the door. Park away-out-on-Pluto. Stand with the madding crowd waiting for the doors to open. Get my stuff (I was always fairly successful in getting what I wanted), and off to the next store. I usually went two places, and then home by 9 am or so. It was fun. It was an adventure. And I was in my thirties.

About ten years ago, the appeal just wasn't there anymore. I went a couple of years ago to the fabric store with Lily. And it was there that I developed my Fabulous Black Friday Strategy. (yep. I went all those years without it.)

[I will share my fabulous strategy in a minute.]

So, after waking Charming at Two A.M. (he now works retail, and his store opened at 3:30 this morning), I went back to sleep and woke up at 6:30. I got up to a quiet house. Kids asleep. I fixed coffee, wrote my sister a letter, picked up a few dishes that were laying around. Charming had to take my car to work, because the heat is out in his. I figured to have Joe Hardy take Blackeyed Susan to work at 5 pm. I would Stay Home All Day.

But Joe said he couldn't take her. He could, however, take me to get the car at Charming's store.
We went at 10:30.

Wow. Every parking space filled. Cars waiting while "done" shoppers made their way to their cars to steal their spaces. I figured that while I was there, I might as well go into the store.

The line to the registers went from the front of the store to the back, all the way across the back, and three-quarters of the way up to the front again. That's when I remembered my Fabulous Strategy, but I didn't have a partner. (darned teenaged sleeping people.) Here is how it goes:

When you walk into a store on *those* days, one of you gets a cart and immediately gets in line. (my line was 45 minutes long, but remember, I went late morning. Charming said the early lines were 2 hours.) Certainly you can shop in two hours, right? Well, one of you stays with the cart. The other shops for a few things, brings them back to the cart, and then the other person shops. Tag-team it all the way around the store. Your waiting time is almost down to nothing then!

The way it works in the fabric store is this: when you go in the store, you get a take-a-number from the cutting table immediately. When I got mine, there were fifty people ahead of me. Fifty. Five-oh. By the time I finished shopping, I had just a ten-minute wait for the cutting table.

I watch the morning news during the school year, for weather and other things. Every morning for the last two weeks they have featured a story on Black Friday shopping. How to plan your trip. How to get the best deals. How to whatever. Not one time did they give a strategy for reducing your wait-time in line. So I just did it for you.

There you have it. I got exactly what I went in for: gifts for the four grand-boys. I got just what I wanted, and Charming's 20% discount. Like I said, I didn't bring a partner, so I had to wait the full time. But I got to share my strategy with the two carts ahead of and behind me in line. And they took opportunity to do more shopping while we queued around the store, using my strategy. So I was able to increase sales for Charming's store while I was at it!

The only bad thing was that I Had To Go Out Today. But that's okay. I got four gifts with not a lot of grief. Got to share my Strategy with several women. (as I was leaving the store, a pair of ladies asked me for my cart. I told them about the Strategy, and one of them volunteered to stand in line while the other shopped!)

Yep. My good deed done for the day. *and* I got a nap!

Wow. Thanksgiving.

2010-11-25T05:36:00.002-05:00

That is, Thanksgiving already.

It is so exciting this year, because all eight of my children, three spouses, one boyfriend, and eight grands will be here. That's twenty-three for dinner, folks, and it is a good thing.

Since all good and perfect gifts come from the Father, it is easy to have a heart full of thanksgiving. I find myself saying "thank You, Father," all the time. Yesterday we had an incredible sunrise here. Many facebook friends mentioned it, or posted a cellphone pic. I thought, how wonderful! God can get everybody's attention, all at once! "The heavens declare the glory of God." I could never, ever list all of the things I'm thankful for (so I won't try), but will name just one or two, if it's okay with you?

Thankful, of course, that we will all be together this day. Informal family photos planned. Gift exchange names...exchanged, for Christmas. Delegated the food this year, so all I'm making is turkey (carved by Charming, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy (made by Charming.) I did throw together two pumpkin pies yesterday, because Blackeyed Susan said I had to (even tho' two other desserts are coming). You know, even with all of the Food Network shows "steppin' it up" with the Thanksgiving menus, that. never. works. Don't mess with the basics.

One of those desserts is a Birthday Cake (made by Forget-me-not). My baby boy (Alvin Fernald) turns sixteen today. I'm not dealing well with it. Just like two weeks ago when we ordered graduation announcements and cap-and-gown for Susan.

Alvin was born the day after Thanksgiving, on his due date. The doctor didn't want me to go over, because he was so honkin' big. (ten pounds, five-and-a-half ounces. Charming asked me once, "why do you add that half-ounce? It doesn't matter!") Any of you who have had a baby, especially if you had him naturally, and pushed for an hour and ten minutes, knows it-certainly-does-make-a-difference. So there. It's my WarStory, and I'm stickin' to it.

Alvin (my "sweet Baby James") is a lovin' boy. There are so many things I could tell you about him. He is talented (and coming along amazingly on the guitar), smart (wish he'd show it more often), a good worker (ditto the former comment), loyal. And, he is finally bigger than his brothers, who are eleven, fourteen, fifteen, and seventeen years older than he.

Happy birthday, my sweet boy. I thank God especially for you today.

Old House Hunting; or Re-living a Life in Three Hours or Less.

2010-10-25T08:23:00.010-04:00

Note: This post is made mostly for my own children, so I won't be offended if you skip it!

Charming and I were able to get away for a three-day to celebrate our thirty-fifth anniversary. Our daughter Violet, who works at Notre Dame, was able to secure a guest apartment for us to use. What a blessing! A place to be alone when we wanted, to eat "in" if we desired. Because we met at Notre Dame, we planned to stroll the campus on Saturday. When we woke, Charming had a different idea. He thought it would be fun to go find all of the houses we lived in when we lived in South Bend (which happened in three different spans of time).

Here is our first crummy little apartment, upstairs at 2428 West Monroe. It was partially furnished, and we paid $95 a month. The Polish landlady lived downstairs:

And yes, this house has been torn down. But you can see the entrance to the driveway!

A year or so later, Charming was promoted at his job, making a big $230 a week, which meant that I could quit my job and be a homemaker. We found this little house, 214 Riley Place, for $135 a month. It is the first of three little houses-in-a-row. Riley "Place" is really an alley with four houses on it:
This house is a really important house. Here the Enemy tried to steal our marriage, and Here the Lord prevailed, healing it to a better-than-before state (the only way He does things, don't you know?). One of the big Ebenezers in our life.

Just a bit of fun trivia. During the Blizzard of '78, Charming braved the chest-high snow to walk to this neighborhood market to buy milk and Pepsi.

Now we have a little break in the action. We moved to Lebanon, Indiana, then to Decatur, Indiana, Fort Wayne, and two houses in Noblesville, Indiana. Five houses, five moves in the next eighteen months. At the end of that time, Charming once again got a job in South Bend.

He went ahead of me, in order to secure a place to live for us. He found a house that was actually less than ten years old, that was for sale, but empty. The owner was in Texas, and told Charming he wanted six hundred a month. Charming told him he could pay $325. The owner declined, but called him back four hours later to accept. Thus, we lived in a really-cool-newish house for the first time in our lives. It is at 1215 Priscilla Drive:

Eventually the owner sold the house. A lady knocked on the door one Sunday night and told us we had to be out by Wednesday at midnight. (now we know that this is not legal, but back then we didn't know so much...) Charming had the next two days off, so we thought we would be Just Fine.

Those two days went by, and Nothing happened. So here we find ourselves at Wednesday morning, Charming heading off to work, no telephone (another story), and we (us, three kids and one-on-the-way) had till midnight to get-out-of-Dodge. No home, no husband to help pack, and not enough boxes, either.

This was going to be a walk of faith, of trust that, not only "could" God do it, but that He "would!"

I walked to the Seven-Eleven to make a phone call, and on the way home, I passed the home of somebody who drove a potato-chip truck. He was throwing a number of boxes out of his truck, so I walked up and asked him for them. That little thing helped me carry on with my "you can do it, God!" thing.

I worked all day, still trying to trust, and, sure enough, at seven p.m. Charming drove into the driveway with a U-haul, followed by two or three guys to help. The Lord had provided a little house at 1134 Rose Street:

We unloaded the last box, Charming drove the truck back, and we shut the front door at 11:45 pm.

I loved this little house. It had asphalt linoleum that you had to wet-mop every day or it got really dusty. It had a lot of built-in dressers and other cool things. AND a big-honkin' air conditioner that cooled the whole house.

Then we have another break again. We left South Bend for Louisville, and lived there for three years (and two more babies).

When we came again to South Bend, we found a little house at 626 East Fairview:

I don't know how we got eight of us into this little house, but I liken it to birth: when we moved out, we never could go back in!

In this house, Violet turned twelve, so she was finally old enough to leave our other kids with. Charming and I developed a habit of long walks in the morning. We had never owned a home, and decided on one of our walks to just start the process. We found a really lovely home in an older neighborhood, at 1037 North Brookfield:

We lived here for almost four years, and then moved to our present home in Fort Wayne.

We lived in twelve houses in sixteen years, and next month, we will have lived in our present home for nineteen years.

Maybe we've finally settled down?

Hmmmm.

2010-10-19T09:24:00.005-04:00

I saw that commercial for chocolate. You know the one--or maybe I'm morphing all the chocolate commercials into one. Rippling brown satin in the background. Beautiful women with brownish lipstick. Or the one with the Everywoman getting a piece of chocolate "just because she deserves it."

Then they use the word: Decadence.

Or maybe the commercial is for a luxury car, hidden in the driveway at Christmastime with a big red bow. Or that fabulous four-course dinner, with the decades-old wine. Or the show on the Discovery Channel--World's Largest Mansions. Did you see the one with the World's Biggest Yachts?

We can use the word Decadence again. Or maybe Ultimate. Or Over the Top. Or Extreme. Whatever it is, we deserve it. Maybe we can't afford it, but We Deserve It.

When did the word "decadent" become something desirable? Looking it up in my dictionary, I find it means

perverse, deteriorating, decaying.

Yep. The root word for decadence is DECAY.

Now you remember, don't you? They used that word when describing the Fall of Rome. Or Henry the VIII. Or Marie Antoinette: "So there's no bread? Let them eat cake." Decadence indicated a deterioration of moral standards.

Oops. Does that phrase remind you of...America? We complain that our children have no work ethic, and in extreme cases, no conscience. "what's in it for me?" is the new creed. We deny ourselves nothing.

Nothing.

And of course that description is not just for our children. We are getting too far away from the time when the actual value of anything matters. I don't even use ten dollar bills. I use ones and fives and twenties. I complain that "once I break a twenty it just disappears," and I really don't do anything about that. That's just one example. Let's get into something that really matters.

Charming and I were talking about this a few days ago, and he said something I've been trying to process: Are we living in the full integrity of the Holy Spirit? First of all, what does that mean? And what does it say, that I don't have an answer for that? I have heard people say (and if I am truly honest, I'm sure I've said this, as well), "Oh, well, I know that is a sin (or whatever euphemism they might use, like "mistake" or "poor judgment") but God will understand. What is that?

We talk the talk really well. When are we going to walk the walk? We use excuses: we're too busy, too distracted, not enough money, not enough time. Yeah, I'm right there with you. And if you have a quick and easy answer, let me know.

Or maybe not. Because I don't think this one is going to be either quick or easy.

Yet another update.

2010-10-19T06:48:00.005-04:00

This is really pathetic. I have been blogging so sporadically in the past months. And most of them are "updates." I used to "think" once in awhile, and really enjoyed putting those thoughts down here in Blogville. And, Jen, I did get your message about another Fresh Starts. Workin' on it, girl.

Yesterday, Charming and I celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. That is a really long time, folks. Until I think of my parents' sixty-four years. Then I realize that we have "not yet achieved", but it is a beautiful road on which to travel. At once it seems like we have been together a long time, and that it has just flown by. What? Six children grown, and the last two in high school? Impossible!

Charming has a rare three-day weekend, and we are traveling to the Beginning Place. Violet, who works at Notre Dame (where Charming and I met), will get us a "guest apartment" on campus. The weekend looks perfect for strolling the campus and remembering--70 degrees and sunny. We will also see family for pizza, and best-friends for a steak-dinner-for-four. Alone time *and* Family time--perfect.

I returned last Wednesday from a trip to Phoenix to see my sister. It is the first time I have been in her [very gracious and lovely] home, and the trip was more special as she has recently lost her husband. In fact, he was the one who suggested the trip, and "upgraded" my plane tix to first-class! The trip is not the same one we planned in July, but we spent precious time together, which is better than anything else, you know? Lots of time in her backyard swing, and lots of Scrabble!

[First-class is the BOMB. I will probably never be satisfied with Coach again.]

This week I am making not one, but two bridesmaid dresses. For a wedding THIS SATURDAY. The fabric did not arrive before my trip. So I'm scramblin'.

I probably have much more to say, but no time now! I am chained to the sewing machine!!

by the way, remember the pumpkin shortage I talked about a couple of posts ago? Walmart has pumpkin again, and it's not in the grocery section. It is on an endcap, right by the registers. PUMPKIN! it shouts. 'way cool.

The Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2010

2010-09-21T10:08:00.003-04:00

Every year I process two pumpkins, mostly for use in pumpkin bread. I do have three or four ziplocs of frozen pumpkin left in the freezer, which I planned to use up in the next couple of weeks, before putting this year's "harvest" up.

I was reading A Simple Quilter, and she was talking about the canned pumpkin shortage. I would not have noticed until November: although I could use my frozen pumpkin for Thanksgiving pies, my husband prefers canned for that purpose.

Can-you-believe-that-there-is-a-shortage-of-PUMPKIN-of-all-things?

Go ahead and read her blog post, and learn how to process fresh pumpkin. She has pretty pictures that you can follow. I will add one more instruction: I put pumpkin in ziplocs in two-cup measures, because all of my Pumpkin Recipes call for two cups--pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies.

And don't forget to click on the "what canned pumpkin is going for on ebay" link. (in case the link expires, here are a few offerings:

4 cans $23.99
1 can $6.00
5 cans $24.99
3 small cans $17.99
1 can $5.00

no comment...

updateupdateupdate...

2010-09-01T08:26:00.003-04:00

Well, usually at the end of August, I post a lot. My birthday is the 29th, and I wax eloquent with some bit of wisdom that you are just waiting to hear, I know.

(I am now 55, and I was born in 1955, so it is sort of my "golden" birthday.)

However, plans for my weekend changed, as my dear sister's husband passed away suddenly on the 28th. She lives 2500 miles away, so I have been on the telephone a lot. Plans are already in place for me to make a trip to see her in October, so we are leaving them in place, and she will have a military ceremony for Joe one day while I am there. I feel so privileged, that she is waiting.

And now I'm doing what I do best under stress: get sick. My tonsils are swollen, and have a few white spots on them. I'm going to try my vitamin C-every-two-hours, and napping whenever possible, to try to stave off a full-blown attack. I must have a little fever though--it has been 92 all week [thus my a/c is not "frosty cold"], and this morning I am shivering in a sweater. Not like me at all.

The other thing I do on September 1st is to break out the Christmas music. This has been going on since I was in high school, making Christmas gifts for all my friends. It is now a family joke, of course. Today's offering is Jackie Gleason's "Merry Christmas" album, ca. 1955 or so.

Well, I am really shivering, so I am going to go to bed. With my wool blankets and a good book. I covet your prayers for my sister and her children...

Just Wonderin'...

2010-08-23T07:37:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wondered about cooking sprays, such as Pam? Zero calories per serving. Zero fat as well, as advertised on the label, right? Yet, you look at the ingredients. Besides the propellant to get it out of the can, it is: Vegetable Oil.

Look at your bottle of vegetable oil. 120 calories per tablespoon. Along with 14 g of fat. Love the little note: 120 calories per serving. Calories from fat: 120. (duh)

I found out the little trick. One serving of Pam is a 1/4 second spray. I don't know about you, but I can't even depress the sprayer in 1/4 second. I remember when this product came out, the commercials said, "a two-second spray is all you need." Well, that is eight servings of this product! The problem is, you can't just multiply the one-serving numbers by eight, because you would still get zero. (we learned that in homeschool!)

Now, I use cooking spray. Isn't it a sad commentary that I have to spray my skillet before cooking bacon for heaven's sake? But I won't say it adds no fat to my food. I wish I had a way to measure that 2-second spray in volume. Would it be a tablespoon? I don't think so, much closer to a teaspoon. But that would be 40 calories and 2.67 g of fat, going with the numbers from the oil bottle.

And speaking of bacon, here's a little thing I learned several years ago. The article was about how fat we are still getting, even though we are low-fatted and low-carbed out of our minds, almost. The author's premise was that we have lean-meated ourselves out of hunger-satisfaction. She made my mouth water with her tales of marbling in beef roasts and fat-borders on pork chops. Back in the day (30? 40? years ago?) the average hog rendered sixteen gallons of lard. Today's hog? One ONE. gallon of lard. Back-in-the-day our portion sizes were smaller, as well. We didn't have to eat between meals (tho' if you were like Almanzo Wilder in Farmer Boy, you 'bout died waiting for dinner...) because we were filled up. Our calories weren't empty.

But I digress. I think my point is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Beware of advertiser's promises. Know the price of what you're buying, but then, if it's worth it, enjoy it, right? If we didn't have fat, we would have yucky skin and lousy hair. If I'm remembering correctly, some hormones need fat, too, to work. Fat is a great storage system. But my storage facility needs some major de-cluttering!

My children are back to school today. I wonder what my days will be like. Last year, Baby Nettie was born in September in great distress. My father was still alive and needed my time, as well. Both of those things are not on the agenda this year.

Do you think I might find a closet or two?

Just Busy. and a Book Review.

2010-08-13T07:45:00.002-04:00

I haven't been around the Cottage much lately. My two latest posts were "grabs" from elsewhere. I've been wondering whether I'm even "thinking" about anything anymore.

I finished The Gift of a Year by Mira Kirshenbaum. Let me tell you a little about the concept. I won't be "quoting" from the book, but these ideas are taken from it:

Imagine your life as a wood-burning cookstove. We don't even know how to cook on these anymore. The things you need to cook more slowly go in the back. Got the picture in your mind?

The stuff in the front of the stove is the Urgent Stuff. Your water heater goes out. Your child breaks his arm. A funeral. This is the stuff that takes precedence, no matter what time of day or night--it's going to get done. Right away.

In the middle of your stove is the Important Stuff. Paying bills. Balancing the checkbook. Groceries. Taking kids to lessons. This is stuff that needs to be done on a timely basis, in order for your life to go smoothly. Add to that, your job outside the home, or homeschooling, which take hours and hours every day.

So what's on the back of the stove? All the stuff you've shoved back there "until a later time." All the stuff that you dreamed about when you were young. Piano lessons. Travel. Reading for enrichment. Those things that were so important early in your life, that you've been putting off and putting off, because of the Important and the Urgent stuff.

So eventually, there are more and more pieces of "you" back there. All the stuff that makes you, You. Because, as we know, there will always be more and more Important stuff crowding You out.

But that stuff on the back of the stove is Still Cookin'. Still there, asking for attention. You're still there, behind all those other things. And what happens if you ignore You for too long?

Best case scenario? Fatigue. Desperation (where did that girl go who was going to do [fill in the blank]?" Worst case scenario: It gets so bad that we completely lose sight of ourself and try to get it back by doing something,
anything, just to "feel" something. We maybe start drinking. Or get involved with someone else. We can throw away the most precious things in our life (marriage) just because we haven't taken care of ourselves for too long.

So. The idea of the book is, for a year, to pull one of those pans off the back of the stove and move it to the front. Well, at least to the middle. The book shows you that you *can* find time to do something for yourself. You may have to say "no" to one or two of the other pans in the middle. Or you may take time by going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. You get the picture.

Wouldn't it be so, so cool to be able to do something for yourself for an entire year? Dust off that longing to take art lessons that you've wanted since you were little. Prepare for a trip-of-a-lifetime to Paris. (spend most of your year researching the geography of France, and learning to speak French.) Read an "important" book every month. Learn to sew. Fall in love with your husband all over again by re-courting one another.

The really interesting thing (the author puts in loads and loads of testimonies) is that, for many of us, at the end of the year, not only have we "found" ourselves again, but sometimes we find new directions, new purpose.

Remember that when we are happy and whole, we have a lot more to give to our husband, children, church, and community. "love your neighbor as yourself," but remember to Love Yourself. If we take care of our bodies, we need to take care of our souls as well.

I have my own list of things. How to choose? Well, I decided that I could give myself the gift of a year more than one time. If I have already carved out so many minutes or hours a week for myself, I could just keep going after the year was up, right?

So, get the book from the library. See if it resonates with you. And maybe I'll see you on the journey!

for Pinky Marie.

2010-07-24T16:52:00.000-04:00

(thinking about listening to this on the radio in our bedroom with my sweet sister...)

[and, hey, you still need to teach me the Mashed Potato.]

Beautiful Thoughts (borrowed)

2010-07-20T10:19:00.002-04:00

I'm going to take a hint from Auntie Leila and link to Little Jenny Wren for a beautiful post about enjoying and really noticing the small things in our daily life that are productive, but also creative.

Enjoy!

Little Jenny Wren: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

Hectic Weekend

2010-07-19T09:03:00.003-04:00

Things were turned upside down pretty quickly on Saturday morning when Tiger Lily (not quite four weeks old) fell out of her stroller and landed on her head. On concrete.

Forget-me-not and her hubby had just arrived at a day-long Christian music fest. Prayers were going throughout the stadium (there were lots of people who belong to our very-large church there, so word spread very quickly) throughout the day. The first CT scan showed slight bleeding in the brain, so she was transferred from the downtown hospital to another with a pediatric ICU. Good signs were that Tiger Lily never lost consciousness, and as soon as they allowed her, guzzled four ounces of milk. Three doctors saw her during the next hours, and concurred that the swelling was not between the brain and the skull, but between the skull and the scalp. (think of a giant bump-on-the-head). She did sustain a small skull fracture. I was amazed at how many of my friends have children that sustained a skull fracture in early childhood, but they all assured me that Tiger Lily would be okay.

Sunday morning, another CT scan was done, and pronounced "stable." They removed all of the monitors, and transferred her to a regular peds room. She will stay another day or two, just to watch her, before she comes home.

Prayers are of course, appreciated. And we praise God for watching over our baby:

"For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash your foot agains a stone." --Psalm 91:11-12

edited to add: Tiger Lily will be coming home at lunchtime, a full day early. Her swelling is greatly reduced. Praise the Lord!

Lainey Lou

2010-07-16T13:06:00.003-04:00

Finally got a couple of good photos of Tiger Lily, though she was sleeping here:

(channeling her Auntie Janet with her red hair and purple outfit.)
Her first middle name is Laine, which is Charming's middle name. Lainey Lou is one of many nicknames she has fallen heir to. Eventually, I'm sure, one will "stick."

I took a few more photos, but couldn't seem to get one with "eyes open," so you'll have to wait to see their gorgeousness. At four-weeks-old-next-Monday, she is learning new things everyday.

Which is something we should all aspire to, eh?

Time Enough at Last

2010-07-12T03:00:00.008-04:00

[title credit to the Twilight Zone episode of the same name.]

I'm reading the book The Gift of a Year by Mira Kirshenbaum. She says something early in the book that seemed quite profound to me:

"Time isn't our enemy. It's our home."

God has seen fit to set our lives in Time. It looked pretty simple at the beginning:

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years." Genesis 1:14

In our twenty-first century world, Time can seem like an enemy. We scramble through our days, trying to get our tasks done before they bury us. We think it's bad when our children are little--too little sleep, too many "drudge-y" tasks. Every day looks the same: wake-up (change diapers), breakfast, lunch, naptime, supper, bedtime. Whew, made it through another day.

When my children were little, my dear mother and mother-in-love both told me something that, though I "believed" true (because they said so), but could not possibly apprehend. "This is the easiest time you'll have while raising children."

Those of you out of the infant/toddler/preschool age know what that means. Besides the unending running here and there of school-age children, there is the Worry Factor. We can expend a lot of time worrying, right? My mother-in-love Queen Darl says, "raising children is easier when they are all at home, tucked in bed at night."

Add to the problem Technology. When I was growing up in the '60's, they spoke of the 21st century as a time when technology would make life so easy, people would be working 20-hour weeks, and our biggest problem would be figuring out what to do with all our free time.

Still waiting for that one.

The more technology, the more time taken up. (and more $$$, too!) Cellphones are wonderful. We can reach and be reached if needed. Queen Darl thinks I'm nuts to have one: "I used to love to get in the car and do the weekly shopping. No one could reach me for two hours!" Not so today, right?

Well, I have good news for you. This is something I truly, truly believe, but if you think I live Here, not so much, yet:

God has given you enough time to do everything He wants you to do.

Including, getting enough sleep. Enough time for you and your husband. Even some time for you.

Think about that for awhile. We'll talk again later.

Oh, Happy Day...

2010-07-09T16:07:00.006-04:00

I realize that I haven't posted for way, way too long. Our sweet granddaughter was born the day after Father's Day. Eight pounds, two ounces. They measured her at 22 inches, but at her one-week checkup, she measured 19 inches. The office nurse explained that they sometimes don't take an accurate measure, and "estimate." Three inches???

She has a headful of dark red hair. Here on the blog, I'm going to call her Tiger Lily.

As is my custom, I made her a baby quilt:
The feature fabric was Cicely Mary Barker's "Flower Fairies:"

Tiger Lily is doing very well, getting accustomed to the world. So, so cuddly and sweet. It is such a blessing that she lives just five minutes from her grandma.

Here is a quickie, big-squared, tied quilt that I made in time for the Fourth:

I call it my Happy Day quilt, because the colors make me happy to look at them. A lot of light blues and bright reds, with a few darker blues to make it interesting.

[here is the fabric that was the inspiration for the quilt. Doesn't it make *you* happy?]

Notice the binding. I made it from teeny gingham checks, cut on the bias. I have used this binding four or five times in the past. I think it's my favorite ;)

Per my resolution made a couple of years ago, I'm trying to use up my Enormous Stash. I was able to use up three large pieces of fabric for the backing.

I have lots of things to say, marinatin' around in my head. So expect to hear more from me in the days to come.

Here's hoping you have a Happy Day!

Father's Day

2010-06-21T01:12:00.002-04:00

I have some great fathers in my life.

My own father passed away in March, and I greatly miss him. He was an incredible father, and if asked to described him in just a few words, it would be "a man who showed me the Father's love by the way he lived his life." He was the Model when I was ready to marry. He always said that he wanted to live to see all of his children married, and he lived to see the last one married almost 28 years. I thank the Lord for the many, many years we shared.

Then there is Charming. The finest husband, the finest father, my best friend. Perfect for me, and willing to fulfill my dream of lots of children! I love you, honey, so, so much.

Charming's daddy, Free, is a wonderful man as well. We have a great relationship, and he is a superb Grandpa for our kids. Love, love, love you, Free!

My two brothers. My dear son Johnny Tremain, and son-in-love Rocky Balboa. The many great Dads at church whom we "do life" with. I am surrounded with men who love the Lord and love their families.

We had a wonderful day at church. Charming sang a special, a song about a father's heart. Later he grilled steaks, and we watched "Alice in Wonderland." As a person who never liked the book or any film version I'd seen, I really-really-really liked this one. As the movie was ending, I got a call from Forget-me-not, saying she'd been having contractions off and on all day, and wanted to come over for a little visit. After about a half-hour, she asked me to drive her to the hospital, while Rocky showered. Now it is about 1:25 am, and she is being admitted. Looks like we're having a baby today!

[Forget-me-not has two boys already, so we're hopin' for a girl....]

Birthday presents.

2010-06-09T11:27:00.007-04:00

Sweet Pea's fourth birthday found her asking Grandma for a "ballet fairy outfit" for her Shirley Temple doll. "I want it pink on top and purple on bottom!"

I made a pink leotard and a purple tutu, then a belt of ivy leaves (because we are a Woodland Fairy), wings made of larger leaves, and purple ballet shoes.

Joe Hardy's birthday gift was way, way late:

(but beautiful.)

I call it Long Time Comin' for ~~two~~ three reasons: a) though I have been hand-quilting quilts for ten years, I've never made one for Joe. b) Joe will earn his bachelor's degree in December at age 31--his degree is a "long time comin'." c)And, unintentionally, his birthday was eight weeks ago and found the quilt unfinished--his gift is a "long time comin'."

(here is a close-up of the quilting--in GREEN thread. Joe shares my love of green...)

(the back of the quilt is cute covered wagons. I bought this fabric years and years ago on the dollar table at Wal-Mart.)

This is the last day of school for Alvin Fernald and Blackeyed Susan. Now I have a sophomore and a senior. And, they are MINE for the summer.

I miss homeschooling...

She's...ALIVE. (Stay away from the villages!)

2010-05-26T08:08:00.008-04:00

Well. Now it's day seven of being sick. I took the last dose of antibiotic today, and this is the first day I've felt "I'm getting better." (or, as I sometimes put it, "I'm going to live.")

I still have significant swelling in my glands, but they will shrink down, day by day. I would say that I'm now about 60% of normal strength. This was a bad bug, or I was really stressed out. Yeah, we know which one it was...

Memorial Day weekend coming up! Charming will be with us "on the day" for the first time in five years. Love the not-restaurant job. He got a surprise that had been lurking on his schedule. He just got off of a three-day weekend, during which he nursed me and not much else. He knew he got a holiday next week (meaning, one manager has to work, the others get Memorial Day off, and that manager gets a three-day the next weekend.) As he checked to see if he worked, he noticed that, not only does he have Monday off, but Sunday. and Tuesday.

What? Three days off two weeks in a row?

Blessed, folks. We are blessed. And we can have a cookout either Sunday or Monday, whatever is more convenient. Because the weather's gonna cooperate, too!

I bought a new badminton set, because our old net was crummy. You know how tangled they get. This one says "no tangle." I picked up four rackets at the thrift store, so with our old ones and the new ones, we'll have plenty for the grandkids to give it a try, as well.

I'll make my famous/fabulous potato salad. Charming will do bbq chicken, and hot dogs for the littles who don't seem to appreciate chicken yet. (that's okay, more for me.)

Well, I need to get off here. I'm doing the opening lesson next Wednesday for our Ladies Summer Bible study called Conversations. My topic: The Lost Art of Conversation. I'm supposed to find a YouTube to go with. I think I've found it:

I'm using the end part, about 3:50 into the video.

So, I'd better get to my studying! and the laundry...

Today's Fun.

2010-05-25T07:26:00.004-04:00

I found this over at Little Jenny Wren:

It is a photo by Robert Doisneau. He wrote:

"The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the
unexpected that you find in the street."

[yep. I've already put a book of his photographs on reserve at the library.]

Climbing out of a very deep hole.

2010-05-24T23:07:00.004-04:00

This was day 5 of being sick. My estimate was that I'm back to about 40% normal strength.

Thursday I had a stomach-bug. You will remember that I had diarrhea meds in the house already. (I'm a good Girl Scout!) Didn't have any action at my northern end, but I was pretty miserable.

Friday, I noticed that the glands in my neck were swelling, tho' not my tonsils, which are usually first on the list when I get sick. Now, tonsils and glands collect dead germ-guys *and* the white cells that give their little lives to kill them. They are then routed out through the lymphatic system and out of the body. When they are overworked, you get tonsillitis or swollen glands.

Saturday morning I was feeling better, and thought I was really "on the mend." I took a nap like a good little sick-girl, and woke up feeling really, really awful. My tonsils had blown up like balloons, and were covered stem-to-stern with yellow, waxy (well, let's be gross) pus pockets. I had no energy to even get up to the bathroom.

Great. Saturday late afternoon. My preferred treatment would be chiropractic (explained later), but my chiro wasn't open either Saturday or Sunday. Was not going to wait until Monday, folks.

Now, let me explain about me and tonsillitis.

From the time I was a little girl, I spent two weeks a year (one fall and one spring) with tonsillitis/swollen glands. The actually-fairly-new drug penicillin worked wonders, and was used often. Later, amoxicillin and ampicillin and other antibiotics were also used.

Once I grew up and entered my childbearing years, these bouts would come three times a year (young mom/tired thing, I think) and often turn to bronchitis or pneumonia. Still loaded up on antibiotics. Only sometimes the meds wouldn't work, and I'd have to try another kind. Twice, I did three rounds of different meds, and still was sick. Not. Fun.

When I worked for the chiropractor, he adjusted my neck (which had been in *horrible* shape (his word). If I felt sick, he'd just adjust it at work, and I'd be back at my desk. He did call me "a stubborn case," though, because sometimes he'd adjust me four times a day, and each time it was like he hadn't done it before.

I worked for him for two years. Having my neck adjusted worked so well, that for the next six years, if I felt sick, I just went to bed as well as I could with kids, and get better with no meds. The effect eventually wore off, and I began to get sick again.

At times, our insurance didn't cover chiro well, but did the urgent care center at 100%, so, sorry, it won out. A new drug, Zithromax, was a wonder for me. You know how they say it takes 36-48 hours for the effect of an antibiotic to be felt? 12 hours after Zithromax, I was improving. Verra, verra cool.

I started getting sick only about once a year, I figure because I have had so many infections, I've prolly got antibodies for most of them, right? I've had these symptoms *maybe* 75 times or more. Is that as scary to you as it sounds to me? I'm thinkin' I might be antibiotic-resistant.

Fast forward to Saturday night.

I hate going to the urgent care center, because I get a doctor I've never seen before, and they always think that the world is ending when they stick that tongue depressor in my mouth. "OH MY GOSH!!" (it really does look horrible...) This doctor wanted to do a test for mono. (really, Doctor, it's not going to be mono, it's going to be tonsillitis.) *just to be sure.* I waited, and he came back in the room, really disappointed. "It's not mono. It's acute tonsillitis. Hasn't anyone ever suggested to you to get your tonsils removed?" Actually, the only doctors that have ever suggested that have been the urgent care doctors. My own doctors have told me that if all that cuh-rap doesn't have tonsils to go to, it will just be shoved into the neck glands, which, honey, are like little rocks, they're so hard and full. My tonsils are part of my not-very-well-functioning lymph system, and I'll keep them, thank you.

I told the doctor that I have had good luck with Zithromax, and so he wrote a prescription, as well as giving me a shot of something. Now, shots are something I've tried before, as well. Supposed to work faster than pills. Haven't had too much success with them, tho'. But, okay, let's go. Honey, that was the biggest shot I have ever seen (volume wise.) Nurse said that it was a whole gram. So I went home and waited to be amazed.

At twenty-four hours (early Sunday evening)...nothing. Felt just as bad, looked just as bad. So much for Miracle Zithromax and Fast-Acting Shot. This morning (Monday) I noticed a Change. I could actually do something for about ten minutes before crashing on the couch. Before school I folded two baskets of laundry. I was exhausted. Took the kids to school. Had to rest when I got back. So I paced myself all day, made sure I did no more than ten minutes' effort, with at least 20 minutes' rest before doing something else. It wasn't much better this evening. I went to the atm to deposit a check, then to the gas station for $15 worth. Gone between ten and fifteen minutes. Didn't even get out of the car at the bank. Could hardly walk up to the house and throw myself on the couch when I was done.

So after five days of being sick, I'm still at about 40% of my normal strength. This one's a bad'n. But tomorrow is another day, and Rest is a good thing. (and I can make an appt. at the chiro!)

******************
Nettie (Myra) came home tonight! You can read about her "adventure" here.

I. am. off. to. bed.

Rules for Life no. 16:

2010-05-20T13:11:00.001-04:00

...Two things you should have in your house before you ever need them:

a toilet plunger

and

Diarrhea meds.

I did have the second on hand. Goin' to bed (again).

Update, and Other Stuff.

2010-05-19T07:04:00.004-04:00

Things are looking up for Baby Nettie (Myra). She responded quickly after they finally got an IV in (naturally)--Lily noticed that her eyes were no longer sunken, and her little jowls puffed back up (only in a baby are jowls considered "cute!"). They will check electrolytes this morning, and hopefully, she will be coming home sometime today. Thank you all so much for your prayers.

*********************************
Still working on Joe Hardy's birthday quilt (now almost 30 days past birthday). The good news is that I *think* I'll be finished by Memorial Day! I am anxious to take the "finished" photo on that one, to share with you. He will be able to use it all summer, because he sleeps in the basement next to the a/c. Since we live in an old house with leaky ductwork...let's just say it's the Coolest room in the house!

But before I can continue on Joe's quilt, I need to make birthday gifts for Sweet Pea, who is turning four this week. She wants a ballet outfit for her doll. I got the incredible reuse/recycle idea to use an old pink t-shirt for the fabric for the leotard. The tutu will be easy-schmeasy: remember the fifteen yards of purple tulle from Blackeyed Susan's prom dress? Yeah. Lots of leftovers. And Sweet Pea requested a "pink and purple" outfit.

Perfect.

************************************
I finished my "monster trilogy" that I began last summer. (I was going to link to the blog entry, but it is over on Homeschoolblogger, and they are re-doing their entire site, and I can't access the archives.) In my ongoing effort to read some of the classics I missed the first time around (you know, high school...) I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Frankenstein. In my blog entry of last year, I noted that I was surprised that in both of the books, the "hero" did what he did in order to honor the Lord. Dr. Jekyll was looking for a formula that separated the good and bad parts of our personalities so that people would be able to live in their "good" part all of the time. Unfortunately, it so happened that the "bad" part prevailed. Dr. Frankenstein was trying to find a way to generate life from the dead in order to restore children to life who had died from disease. He sorta forgot, however, Who is the Author of life.

So, on to Dracula. The book is long (417 pages) and it took me several weeks to read. It is set up as a series of journal entries by several of the characters. The story was predictable, tho', as in the case of the other two books, much, much better than any of the movie versions. For most of the book, the only references to God were the use of the crucifix and the communion wafer as deterrents to the "undead" characters. Finally, about page 365, Van Helsing makes a speech about why they are doing what they are doing, referencing God's saving work through the death of His Son.

So, I can cross another "classic" off of my list.

Next I picked one off of another list: Newbery Award winners. This time it is Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. It reads much faster (of course, it *is* a children's book!) and is a good picture of life in the last part of the eighteenth century. Charming had a long period of fascination with "ship" books as a youngster, but I never indulged. My next classic will probably be Two Years Before the Mast, since I'll be in the "life at sea" mode...

I just picked up from the library This Momentary Marriage by John Piper. I hope to read a chapter a day along with my devotions.

******************************************
Finally...horrors! Susan called me from upstairs this morning--she saw a mouse! I have several questions:

a) Mice come in houses in the fall, not the spring. There is plenty to eat outside.

b) Mice that have dared to enter our home come in through a hole near the back door, and either go to the kitchen or down the basement stairs. How did one little guy get all the way upstairs?

c) Where was my cat? The fact is (and why we never fixed the hole by the back door...) when we don't have a cat, we get mice. When we have a cat, we don't have mice. Joe Hardy grabbed Sherman and took him upstairs, but he didn't seem interested. I think we give him too many kitty-treats....

d) I need to buy a trap, b/c I obviously cannot trust my attack-cat any longer.

We have not had to deal with this for eleven years. I feel betrayed.

Please pray for baby Myra...

2010-05-18T09:28:00.003-04:00

Update: They were finally able to get an IV in, so the dehydration will very soon be taken care of. Myra is taking a paci for the first time since Saturday, and wants to nurse (appetite?). Lily's last facebook post said they were delaying her nursing. (WHY?) So thanks for your prayers, things are looking up!

My grandbaby Myra (Nettie) has been in the hospital since Saturday night. She started choking at home. The ambulance came, but she had stopped by that time. They left, and just a few minutes later, she began again. After three days, they still do not know why she is gagging and choking off and on, but it keeps her from being able to eat. She still has a feeding tube in her tummy from her first month of life, so she can get nourishment. However, a big problem is that they have not been able to get an IV established.

She also developed a double ear infection, as well as "explosive" diarrhea. (they've given up diapers in lieu of a baby blanket wrapped around her to "catch" everything.) All day yesterday, Lily asked the nurses whether she should be concerned about dehydration--baby's mouth seemed so dry, and skin a funny texture. They did blood tests, and the results this morning show...dehydration. Nettie was transferred to pediatric ICU, and they again failed to get an IV going. They injected some fluid under the skin, hoping to get an IV in, after it is absorbed.

Nettie has lost a pound since she has been in the hospital. Since she was only "almost" eleven pounds when she went in, that is almost 10% of her weight. (she is almost eight months old.)

Please pray for her recovery, and also for wisdom for the doctors, so that they can find out what is wrong with the baby. I thank you in advance!

...in which we feature my gorgeous daughter...

2010-05-12T08:56:00.011-04:00

Prom night!

Blackeyed Susan and one-of-her bff's Mads did not have dates for the prom, so they decided to go with two other girlfriends.

[Susan, Mads, and Sam]

[Susan and Mads]

Dinner was at our house: bbq chicken breasts, baked potato, nice salad, and strawberry shortcake. Afterwards, they crowded into our teeny-tiny powder room to freshen up:

[of course, it's a known fact that girls visit the powder room in herds.]

[little photo, but I wanted to show the four girls: Susan, Megan, Sam, and Mads]

***************************************

Changing subjects now.

One of Susan's friends asked her to participate in her photography project for school. Here are two that I grabbed off of facebook:

this one looks super-creepy to me, especially as I am reading
Dracula, and the description of the "undead" is eerily similar to this photo.

this one is not so creepy, more "artistic"-looking to me.

The art show at the high school is tonight. Susan may go, but I have a date with Alvin Fernald for his baseball game. The spring has been so cold/rainy/hail-y/windy that he has had more rained-out games than he has played. So I will be sitting in my hoodie/blanket, with umbrella at my side.

National Apron Day

2010-05-06T09:26:00.003-04:00

National Apron Day is Monday!

National Apron Day is the day after Mother's Day, and a day to wear your apron proudly! I would even encourage you to wear it "out" on your daily tasks, as my friend Kaybeautiful and I did last year.

And what could be more fun than a giveaway on this national holiday? Calamity Kim has a darling apron that she is giving away--go on over here to learn more about it.

Kim has some gorgeous, gorgeous things for sale in her etsy shop as well. If you haven't visited before, get yourself a cuppa and plan to stay for awhile. I'm completely envious...

Be sure to spread the word, and don't forget to wear your apron!

Awww, yeah.

2010-05-03T07:17:00.005-04:00

Veni, vidi, vici.

I came. I saw. I conquered. (for those of you who were not fortunate enough to take Latin...)

The Deep Purple Prom Nightmare is over!

(now, promise not to look at Blackeyed Susan's face. I told her I would take the photo from the neck down. See how well I succeeded...)

[the dress is much more *Purple* in real life.

Here it looks royal blue-ish.]

back view.

[but I'll bet you guessed that already.]

Taffeta. Gathering miles of tulle. BONING.

DONE.

Actually, I'm not quite finished. I have to sew ribbons inside that will slip over a hanger to hang the dress up. But that's all. And, somewhere in all this process, I got "encouraged" to hem one friend's dress, and re-place a hook and eye on another. But today should see all that done. Then tonight I'll watch four of my boys play their first church-softball game of the season.

Then tomorrow maybe I'll do dishes. Yesterday we had to use the "good china." This morning we ate cereal out of Cool-whip containers. [just to show you I'm not Wonder-Woman...]

This 'n' That

2010-04-28T06:59:00.002-04:00

Busy, busy, busy.

I remember this, from back-in-the-day when my older children were in public school. The end-of-the-year crush. Alvin Fernald is playing j.v. baseball, and doing well. Yesterday he pitched (not his normal position) and got two strike-outs. Last week, Blackeyed Susan was inducted into the National Honor Society. You may know that Susan is my seventh-of-eight children. We sat at the banquet with a couple whose tenth-of-eleven was being honored. Large families--a cool *club.*

I'm working on Susan's prom dress. I used to work with a woman who made wedding dresses on the side. She also outfitted the entire bridal party. Not. Me. Sewing with slippery fabrics makes me crazy, anyway, besides the fact that you are cutting into expensive fabric. This dress (Simplicity 3878) [I'm making the pink one on the live model, in deep purple taffeta] has lots of gathering, fifteen yards of tulle, and BONING.

Ahh, boning. All I remember about boning is that when I made Violet's prom dress in 1993, I swore I would never, ever do Boning again. And, here I am. Well, in my defense, the boning I bought looks much more user-friendly. You can even sew through it. Since I'm not that far into the construction of the dress, you will have to Tune In Tomorrow to find out if I have torn out all my hair...

In-between times, I'm (still) quilting a birthday quilt for Joe Hardy (whose birthday was last week...) I'm *almost* halfway done. Don't have any idea why it is taking so long.

Well, I am going to get back to the sewing machine. The Dress is becoming a monster that, until I slay it, will be taking over everything in the house. I will post tomorrow with an Update...

I touched history this weekend.

2010-04-19T01:26:00.005-04:00

Charming and I took off (alone!) Friday evening for a short visit upstate. We spent Friday night with Charming's best buddy Mike and his wife, my dear-dear-dear friend Kaybeautiful.

Saturday morning, over coffee (and tea for Kaybeautiful), we looked over a bag of "stuff" that she had of her grandmother's. This bag of "stuff," she has had for all of her 31-year marriage, and it has come through moves from place to place, basement to attic, here to there, and Kay had never examined it. What surprising treasures it held!

We found a number of pamphlets called The Story of The Old Rugged Cross, referring to the song written in 1913 by Rev. George Bennard. A pastor of a little church in Pokagon, Michigan, invited him to preach a revival in January 1913. Rev. Bennard had written the first verse to his song earlier, but finished it at this time, and the church choir performed the song publicly for the first time there. Kay's grandmother was scheduled to sing that Sunday, but was home with a sick wee one. However, Grandma's two sisters and one of the sisters' husbands were among the five-member choir.

Kaybeautiful knew the story--she also grew up in this church. But to see the little pamphlet with photos of her aunts was so, so exciting. There were also a number of leaflets, year-by-year, of Old Rugged Cross Sunday, an annual commemoration. We also found a carbon-copy of a letter written by the pastor of the little church, telling how he and his wife paid for the first printing of the music.

This little incident reminded me of the concept of the human web, or six degrees of separation, the idea that any two people on earth can be connected by no more than five other people. I am three degrees from the writer of The Old Rugged Cross: me to Kaybeautiful, to her grandmother, to Rev. Bennard, who taught her to sing his song. And, if you know me (and I know you do!) you become four degrees.

Do you wonder how the song became popular? Evangelist Billy Sunday used it extensively in his crusades in the 1920's. Later, Billy Graham found the Lord under Sunday's ministry. Billy Sunday's home is a museum 35 miles from my home, at Winona Lake in Warsaw, Indiana. Winona Lake is home to Grace College, formerly Winona Lake College, where my grandfather graduated--another "human web."

A few years ago, my neighbor who lived in the teeny-tiny upstairs apartment next door, came to ask if she could serve dinner to an English missionary couple who were coming to visit, in our dining room. I told her I would be glad to make dinner. Even though it was out-of-season, I made a full Thanksgiving menu, complete with pumpkin pie. As we enjoyed our meal, the wife mentioned that her favorite books when she was a child were the Gene Stratton-Porter books. I told her that Mrs. Porter had owned a house just three doors down from us. So, after dinner, we knocked on our neighbor's door, and our missionary friends got the Grand Tour, complete with Random Historical Facts.

Think about it. You are a missionary to Africa, born in England, come to America for the very first time, and land by serendipity at a house for dinner that is three doors down from one your favorite author used to own? Bizarre.

As Charming says, "God is so bizarre." But, he also says, would you want to serve a God who wasn't? He fills our lives with ever-new, ever-connected things that show us He is in control. Nothing is by accident with Him. And He makes living fun.

Saturday we went to Charming's Mom's house, and visited with two of his sisters, a nephew, Kaybeautiful, and Violet. We looked at more of Kay's stuff, including letters to her grandmother dated 1907, and a packet of my father's WWII letters to my mother, that I had brought along to show Violet. Stepped back into mid-century, and further back to early-century, through real-life people with whom we are connected. No better way to spend a weekend!

To read a little more about The Old Rugged Cross, go here.

Perfect.

2010-04-01T08:58:00.004-04:00

If you don't know Kellie over at Enjoying the Small Things, you are missin' something good. For one thing, she is an amazing photographer, and heavily peppers her posts with lovely photos. A few weeks ago, the Lord surprised her with a baby daughter, Nella, who has Down's Syndrome. Her journey of discovery with her daughter is really worth reading.

In the post I linked to above, Kellie talks about Perfection. When her pediatrician gave her the news about Nella's being special, she said to her, "She's beautiful...and perfect."

Here is what Kellie says:

" ....and I wonder what it is about different that makes us think that it's not perfect? Why is it that we set the bar higher and higher and expect ourselves, our children to be flawless? What is it we strive for and once we achieve it--this perfection--what have we achieved? It's never enough. Even the razor I used in the shower this morning tries to outdo itself with now six
blades layered to give a more perfect shave because apparently the five-bladed prior model didn't quite master the hairless perfection we're attempting to achieve."
I think about my son, Don Quixote, who has Asperger's Syndrome. He has been wired differently in his brain from us ~~normal~~ NT (neurologically typical) people.
(I do like the term "neurologically typical" instead of "normal.")
For awhile, I thought that maybe Don's Asperger's came from being immunized, a popular theory. But, one day I read an article in a homeschooling magazine that featured special needs children. For each "special need," there was an article, and a sidebar from the editor listing symptoms, so that you could get your child screened if need be. Looking at the list of symptoms of Asperger's, I saw that Don fit them perfectly, all the way down the list. What is more important to me, however, is that I could divide the list in two, and put my name at the top of one, and Charming's at the top of the other. In God's amazing creativity, he made a DNA combo, a "perfect storm" if you will, that became Don.
Don, who, when he reads something about a "cure" for Asperger's, says, "I don't need a cure, I'm not broken!" and, upon further discussion, says, I wouldn't want a "cure," anyway. Take away the Asperger's, and I wouldn't know who I was."
Wow. Wowowowowowowow.
I think about my brother Scotty, who was born with an incurable blood disease. Throughout his 8 1/2 years, he was poked and prodded, tested and guinea-pigged more that most of us will ever be. My mother told him one time, "I am so sorry that you have to go through this." He replied, "that's okay, Mom, this is my life. This is all I know."
And now our little granddaughter Nettie. She has challenges that we don't even know about yet. God has done a mighty work in that little one, but, for right now, she's not completely healed.
But, that doesn't mean that she's not perfect.
Of course, we live in a fallen world, and "things" happen. Nettie was oxygen-deprived near birth. Myriad other things can happen that can make us not-normal. But if I'm reading my Bible correctly, God doesn't make anything that is not perfect. Everything He made, "He saw that it was good." We have all seen a tree that has grown around something foreign and is twisted in a funny way. Or a kitten with an extra leg. Or [on and on and on...] Whether the circumstances happen before birth or after, just because we aren't flawless doesn't mean we're not perfect.
We need to look at ourselves and those around us like God looks at us. Seeing through God-eyes would be so enlightening, wouldn't it? How much less would we fuss about things that aren't of any importance at all, in the grand scheme of things?
Thank you, Don, and thank you, Nettie, for teaching us about God.
Finally, another quote from Kellie:
"The concept of "perfect" is not flawless or four-point-oh. It's happiness. Happiness with all of its messiness and not-quite-there-ness. It's knowing that time is short, and the moments we choose to fill our cup with should be purposeful and colorful. And that's perfection."
Edited to add: After discussing these thoughts with Charming, he said something: God's plan is perfect. It is not perfection.
Food for thought.

Thinking today...

2010-03-23T11:12:00.002-04:00

...over at Homeschool in the Wildwood.

Also, you *must* check out Lily's latest entry over at her blog. Besides giving an update on Baby Nettie, she talks about the journey that she is on, with a disabled child. Such wonderful, wonderful things the Lord is doing in her life.

Now, off to do my work!

My New Friend.

2010-03-22T07:25:00.010-04:00

I haven't cried yet.

Actually, I've only teared up once, during the funeral Mass.

I don't need to have a meltdown; I spent hours and hours with Daddy during the last week of his life. All the things I wanted to say and wanted to hear, I did. But I can feel a few tears right behind my eyes. I just need to get them out somehow. (I have been a little short with my family; that's one reason I know.)

My dear sister, Pinky Marie, whom you may know from her comments here, knew just what to do. She sent me a New Friend:

(here she is, by some beautiful flowers from my neighbors.)

She is a Vermont Teddy Bear. Maybe you know about them. I personally think they are a giant step above build-a-bears. My new friend is purple because my sister loves purple. Her eyes are green because that is my favorite color! I'm going to call her Nettie, my Victorian-bosom-friend name, which is a nickname for my middle name, Annette.

Look at those eyes. Nettie is a Thinker, and she is not letting all of her Deep Thoughts sit on her face. She will keep all my secrets.

She is wearing a wonderful t-shirt that says, "Sew Happy to be Quilting." Nettie already knows what will make me smile!

I get to spend the day alone today. I'm looking forward to it. The death certificates have not arrived, so I can't do any of Daddy's final business. I will just be working on everyday duties and some de-cluttering. I'll put on some music, and See What Happens.

And Nettie will be ready with her hugs when the time comes.

Daddy's Victory Lap

2010-03-16T08:28:00.002-04:00

My Daddy passed away quietly in his sleep early on Sunday morning. He had been off his medications for six days. This meant clarity of mind, *and* renewed taste buds! I spent hours and hours with him, holding his hand. Friday morning he told me he had shared another beer with my brother. "I finished that one!"

Sunday morning about 1 am, the nurse checked on him. He asked her to change the movie in his dvd player, and he wanted a couple of pieces of candy. When she went back an hour later (which was then 3 am because of the time change), he was gone. After she called, my two brothers and our spouses gathered for a couple of hours at his bedside. Every once in awhile one of us would get up to kiss his forehead. I knew he was gone, but, after all, his body is how his "real self" interfaced with us. I will miss his kisses and hand-holding very much.

Daddy loved bow-ties. Mother did not care for them. Dad used to say, "Mama, if I go first, bury me in a bow-tie." Mother would say, "no, I won't!" Shortly before she died, she pulled me aside and said, "if Daddy dies, you can put him in a bow-tie."

What is really cool is that I have seven of his bow-ties! Five of them are 40's-50's style, and two of them are the 70's variety. So I have one for him, and six for his grandson-pallbearers.

The girls are not going to be left out. Daddy joked with me all my life about my gum-chewing: "Just like Mama, cracking her gum." Forget-me-not is her generation's champion gum-chewer. She shared many a joke with her grandpa. And not far behind is three-year old Sweet Pea--I never see her anymore without a piece of gum in her mouth. Now, it may look funny, with all the girls chewing gum at the graveside, but Daddy will get the joke!

The funeral is Thursday, but since Wednesday is St. Paddy's Day, we're going to have an old-fashioned Irish wake. The men are going to pass around Daddy's pipe and have a proper send-off to a special man.

I may have told you before, that, waiting for him in heaven were his wife of 64 years, and nine of his children. What a reunion that must have been! My father lived an exceptional life, burying seven of his children (two children were miscarried). Through all that my parents went through, Daddy never turned to drink. Never became a workaholic. Turned with his wife to the Lord. When the doctors told them not to have any more children, he said, "We will trust the Lord." This is the example he gave for us, all the years of his life.

For Daddy's 50th high school reunion, he wrote about himself, "I am a simple man, who has lived a simple life, raising a family with a wonderful woman." For his obituary, I changed that a little. I wrote, "he was an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life."

He fought the good fight; he ran the good race. This past week was his "victory lap."

I love you, Daddy. It was so easy to realize how much my heavenly Father loves me, because of the way you loved me. We thank the Lord for your life, and that He chose to share you with us.

If you'd like to read Daddy's obituary, go here.

Update

2010-03-12T15:26:00.002-05:00

Well, they took my Daddy off of all his meds on Monday. The nurses and doctors expected a quick passing.

Hmmm.

Tuesday afternoon Daddy was transferred back to his nursing home. He was so very excited because he can open his windows there and get the fresh air. It has been close to 60 degrees all week, and wonderful for him.

Tuesday night he wanted a beer.

My brother brought one. Now, I hear from beer connoiseurs that drinking beer with a straw from a plastic cup isn't the preferred way, but Dad did it justice, getting about half the bottle down. His comment after two sips: Hmmm. doesn't taste like I remember. After two more sips: Yeah. That hits the spot!

(Thursday night he had another beer, only this time he finished it!)

I've been bringing Pepsi everyday. This morning he finished the 24 oz. gas-station cup almost in one sitting, meaning he didn't put the cup down between sips. "Oh, that's good!" I need to bring a 12-pack...

I'm sure being off meds for five days has restored his taste buds. They have sure restored clarity to his mind. We are having so much fun!

Now, I'm not sure how long this "honeymoon" will last. He ~~takes~~ took insulin for diabetes, bp meds for high blood pressure, as well as about a dozen other meds. Will one of these conditions be the one to finally end his life? He also had a heart attack last week; will his heart finally "give out," old-school style?

My sister-in-law, a nurse, heard of a person who went off their meds and lived for seven more years. Sure gives credence to the theory of being over-medicated as we age. Whether we have my Daddy for one more day or seven more days or seven more years, we have been given a gift. And I thank the Lord for it.

Right now I'm doing a lot of traveling for visiting. This puts a crimp in my computer time, but I will post as I am able. Charming is back from training and in his store here in town. And he is loving it! Working for money. Such a good thing.

Thank you for all of your prayers. Your thoughts for me are so much appreciated.

Taking a minute...

2010-03-10T07:58:00.002-05:00

...to check in.

My dear Daddy is getting near the end of his life here on earth. It is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I'll be blogging later about this journey. I know that you dear friends will be praying, and we'll be feeling it. Thank you so much for your care for us.

More later, loves...

Party Time

2010-02-25T07:22:00.011-05:00

I finished quilts for Oxford and Cambridge for their second birthdays. (in addition to baby quilts, I make each of my grands a two-year-old quilt.)

Cambridge is really into penguins. I had two penguin-themed fabrics, and added a Veggie-tales fabric just for fun. I really like the way the colors work together:

For Oxford, I did an I Spy quilt--eighty-eight different squares of very-fun things. However, you will not find any ballet dancers or other girly-things--Oxford is all boy, all the time:

Saturday, Blueberry and Oxford had their birthday party, with a Toy Story theme. Gotta say that Blueberry makes a great Buzz Lightyear:

Cambridge would not let me get a proper photo all afternoon. I did sneak in a side-shot of his Woody alter-ego:

The guests were invited to dress as a favorite toy. Cambridge's favorite thing in the entire universe is his cowboy hat. Here he is, chewin' the fat with Pop-Pop:

Baby Nettie didn't have to dress. She's a doll-baby already:

Laura Carrot graced the court as a princess:

Here we see Princess Sweet Pea with some G.I. Joe guy, played by Junior Asparagus:
Blueberry and Oxord also have six cousins on the other side of the family, so it was a noisy party! Our next birthday extravaganza is next month for Junior and Cambridge. I'd better get rested up...

Here is a photo of my next project:

It is just so cool to me, that three little piles of squares can become a quilt top in just a few days. This will be a simple design, so it will go fast, but I am really liking the colors. You'll be seeing more of this in the days to come.

Charming is flying out Sunday to begin training for his new job! He will be heading to Mankato, Minnesota. Yep, following in the footsteps of Pa Ingalls. He wants to drive out to Walnut Grove and Sleepy Eye, while he's there. While Laura lived "on the banks of Plum Creek," she lived in a soddy in the side of a hill. All that's left is a depression in the hill, but it is marked with a plaque. Not an ostentatious memorial, but that's okay. Laura's life was just the same as other pioneer children. I do love that some things survive, even if it's the Little Depression on Plum Creek!

Charming will be gone for two weeks, then home to begin working in the store in our city. One of these days, normalcy will return. Whatever that is...

I'm Thinking Elsewhere Today...

2010-02-22T08:26:00.001-05:00

Check out Fresh Starts today!

A Blessed Week

2010-02-20T08:49:00.003-05:00

Wowwhataweek!

On Monday, Charming finally got his call with a job offer, *and* I filed my taxes with a biggie refund. Still living off the high we got with that day.

Yesterday, we got the results of a three-hour EEG for baby Nettie (now four months). The EEG showed no seizure activity of any kind! She still has a number of tics, which are bothersome to her, but she will probably outgrow them. I am amazed that she is "bothered by them," but you can tell that when her face jerks, she gets upset. The working of the Lord is evident day by day in her life. Lily is a champ: do you know that she now has five children, and her oldest isn't seven yet? Her plan of an orderly, homeschooling day is often interrupted with appointments for Nettie--doctor(s), therapy, and the other, normal four-month old's idiosyncracies. Lily seems to take it in stride; she does not show frustration very often. Having Nettie in her life has made her sweeter and softer. Isn't God so very, very good to order our lives to make us into the image of His dear Son?

I'm still discovering the changes in my own life because of the journey of the last eight months. By nature I was always a worrier; I've ~~learned~~ begun to learn to let the Lord do worrying for me. I've had a lot of people ask about what it was like having Charming around all the time; I have fallen in love with him over and over again. I can honestly say that those little irritations came rarely, and only for a few hours. Maybe the Lord is making *me* sweeter and softer?

Today I'm going to a double birthday party. Forget-me-not's boys' birthdays are two weeks apart. Blueberry is four and Oxford will be two. I've got my presents ready, and it will be a raucous two hours. There are a number of cousins on both sides, and Fun Will Be Had. But I will have my cellphone at the ready: my Daddy, aged eighty-seven, has pneumonia. He continues to try to call me a number of times a day, and I can tell it is so, so difficult for him to get his breath. I spoke with a nurse this morning, and they are considering sending him to the hospital. For him, pneumonia can easily be life-threatening. So today, I will have one foot in each end of life, trying to straddle the middle, which is laundry and negotiating Blackeyed Susan's and Alvin Fernald's weekend schedules and planning Sunday dinner. But I know that I am not living through this day alone. This day has been planned by my Father long before it came, and His plan is Good.

Yep. It has been a Blessed Week here at the Cottage.

I pray your weekend is blessed as well!

Burglary Deterrent

2010-02-19T16:15:00.002-05:00

Many years ago, we lived in a little house, and I didn't have a place to store my portable sewing machine. (which was not-so-portable, being in an ancient Singer wooden case and being made of, oh, let's say, cast iron or something--that critter was Heavy.) It ended up in the hallway from the kitchen to our bedroom, sorta across from the bathroom door.

One day, I was sailing into or out of said bathroom and stubbed my foot on the sewing machine. Even though I was wearing shoes, I knew that something was BROKE. (now, I know that, grammatically, I should have used the word "broken," but somehow, BROKE is much more descriptive of that searing, blinding pain. Bad words even came out of my mouth, for which I had to apologize to my then-very-young children. I called Kaybeautiful, my nurse-y friend, and asked her advice. She said that I could tape two toes together for five or six weeks. "What if I went to the doctor?" She said, "they'll tape the two toes together for five or six weeks, and charge you thirty-five bucks." (I told you it was a long time ago...)

So I taped the two toes together. Five weeks later I took off the tape for a trial run--too early. Two more weeks, and I was fine. And I haven't really thought about this incident for years and years and years, till last night.

Charming "found" another sewing machine last night, on his way back from the bathroom. I had just about forgotten about this little number. Lily found a sewing machine with a table at a garage sale this summer for ten dollars. She only needed the table, so I took the machine, thinking I would refurbish it for Tiny Dancer sometime. I put it out of the way, beside a bookshelf in the upstairs hallway. Unlike the former incident, however, this machine had no case, so it is out for all to see in it's heavy-metal glory. It had sat there, basically forgotten, for all these months. But *evidently* someone had kicked it a little out of its normal place, and Charming was the unfortunate victim of a triple-stubbing.

Ouch. Are you rubbing your little toesies in sympathy?

Out of this incident, however, we have devised a Scathingly Brilliant Idea. We can pick up some more discarded, ten dollar machines here and there, and sell them as Burglary Deterrents. Just set them inside your front door at bedtime, and wait for the unsuspecting burglars to show up. They'll run away lightning-fast, spewing bad words as they go. And they'll probably spread the word to other low-lifes who might be considering a crime spree in our neighborhood.

Now to figure out how to attach a really annoying alarm to the machines...

Rejoice with us...

2010-02-16T09:27:00.002-05:00

...After eight months, Charming has been offered a job!

And, for the first time in thirty-five years, it is Not. In. A. Restaurant!

God is so very, very good. (but I already knew that.)

Yesterday, when he got "the call," was eight months, to the day, since he lost his last job. I remembered that "8" is the Biblical number of New Beginnings.

Would you like to hear more good news?

I had just finished doing our income taxes a half-hour before Charming got his phone call. The refund we will be getting is enough to catch up all of our bills that have been behind. This means that we will start the new job at "even" instead of "catching up."

God is so very, very good. He does give us "full and running over." All the time. Money or no, job or no, health or no. It's just Who He Is. He has proven it, again, this time.

Thanks for all of your prayers. They were so, so appreciated, and they kept *me* going.

(off to continue my little "happy dance...")

Spent some time...

2010-02-10T07:26:00.001-05:00

...thinking again.

Go check it out!

How to Become a Member of the Cornflake Family...

2010-02-06T11:04:00.007-05:00

(...our family name being the same as the parent company of Tony the Tiger, et al...)

...according to Maddi, Blackeyed Susan's buddy:

Chapter the First

Having once had eight children at home, we had a number of salt and pepper shakers for everyday use. Right now we have three salt shakers, a pepper shaker, a pepper grinder, and, in a pinch, the Can of pepper. But you will often find one of the salt shakers in another part of the house, having been used for popcorn, or if supper was in front of the tv.

Maddi thinks this is rather amusing, and her belief is that everyone in the family has their own set of salts and peppers. I think that *Maddi* is rather amusing to have even noticed.

Chapter the Second

We received a number of lovely gifts for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, including two sets of not-for-everyday salts-and-peppers:

a lovely silvery set, and a crystal set that I believe are supposed to represent pagodas.

Then, one day at the thrift store I noticed a tiny little glass set (on the right below), and decided to try to acquire eight or ten sets, for when we have more formal dinners. They look pretty darned cute sitting by each place.

The odd set on the left is composed of another, square glass shaker, and a really lovely silver one. I wish, wish, wish, that there had been a pair of those. I really love the shape:

Yesterday I was in another thrift store, and saw these little beauties. New-in-box (but years and years old), and just $1 for four:

Chapter the Third

So, Maddi's birthday is in March. I am going to take one of the sets, fill it, and present it to her with a note: "Now you are an official member of the Cornflake Clan, because you have your very own salt-and-pepper set."

Of course, she will have to bring them over when she comes for dinner!

Little Things

2010-02-01T06:29:00.005-05:00

The grip of the extremely freezing temperatures is broken, at least for now. When we got home from church yesterday, it was a "balmy" 32 degrees. The sun was out, so the snow that remained on the sidewalks was melting, and I wore just a coat, not adding a sweater underneath. It's all relative, isn't it? Who knew we would *enjoy* temps in the 30s?

*********************
I picked up a can of green beans last week, and noticed something a little "off." I wanted to share it with you, in case you would not notice it if it happened to you, and reap sorry consequences.

Before E. coli and salmonella were the stars of the food poisoning world, we talked about ptomaine. Ptomaine is a food poisoning that had a reputation for hangin' out in canned goods. When I was younger, my grandma would come across a jar of canned peaches or something that had a lid that was swollen--that was a sure sign that it had been incorrectly sealed, and the ptomaine bacteria that was inside already, had reproduced, with gas as one of the byproducts of reproduction. Mom told me to always watch commercially canned items, as well--once in awhile we saw a can with a swollen top, as well.

These green beans I picked up last week looked a tad funny. I couldn't say that the top and bottom of the can were "swollen," but they definitely weren't "flat." The telltalle thing for me, though, was that when I shook the can, the beans weren't "tight" in there, it was really "loose," and those beans had a lot of room to slosh around. "Better safe than sorry," my Mom always said, so I set them aside. (I didn't throw them out because I wanted to show my kids and their friends.) I sure wouldn't want to get food poisoning, especially when I got the beans on sale for 3/$1!! I have only seen suspicious cans about three times in my marriage (34 years), so I thought I would spread the word, for those of you who may not realize the warning signs.

So, after all that, Charming reminded me that what I am talking about with canned goods is botulism, not ptomaine. Same warning, different poison. Sorry.
****************
I learned something the other day. I have noticed recently the push for Vitamin D supplements. Evidently you need them to prevent cancer. Paired with Vitamin C, they head off a cold. Now, I was a little confused. After all, we get our Vitamin D from sunshine, right? Even in the dead of a grey winter, sit in a window with the light coming in, and ten minutes a day is all you need to get your Daily Requirement.

So why all the advertisements pushing supplements? It seems that, indeed, we are not getting enough anymore. The reason? All that sunscreen we wear to protect our skin, summer and winter, keeps the Vitamin D from getting in. Can you believe it?

I think we need to take a cue from Ma Ingalls: "Laura, wear your sunbonnet. Your skin is beginning to look like a red Indian!" Yep, those ladies did not worry about sunscreen, and they didn't get skin cancer, either. So, I propose a new campaign, like Wear Red for Women, or even Wearing Pink for breast cancer: Wear Sunbonnets for your skin health!

I think it will go over in a big way, don't you?

**************
I watched a few minutes of the Grammy awards last evening, in between things I was doing. I don't get much out of the Grammys anymore, because I don't listen to very much secular music. The Dove Awards would be more my speed. But the little bit that I saw was very telling. They showed a little clip of Bobby Darin singing Mack the Knife, and said that he won the Grammy for Record of the Year fifty years ago. (yeah, I remember Bobby Darin, and the song...scary.) Then they announced the nominees for this year's Record of the Year, including Lady Gaga. (don't know if I need to hyphenate that one, or capitalize it or what--no disrespect intended, Lady...)

How far we have come. From Bobby Darin in a black suit and white shirt, holding a microphone and singing, to the huge production numbers accompanied by fireworks, we saw on the program last evening. My mother would say something like, "well, when you don't have talent, you try to cover it up with glitter." Hmmm. I think I am beginning to turn into my mother! I did catch myself saying, "they don't write songs like they used to..."

*******************
Blackeyed Susan and Alvin Fernald have completed their first semester in public school. The second quarter grades were better than the first's, but still not up to what they did in homeschool. Most of their problems stem from teachers that don't teach well enough for them to get the concepts. (and the report is, that a number of other honor students in the same classes have the same opinion...) So, there you have it. When you have a mother as your teacher, who will teach to your particular learning style, and pursue the matter until you understand it thoroughly, well, that is a distinct advantage. There is nothing like a personal tutor, right? Homeschoolers, Keep. On.Keepin'. On.

************************
Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. I learned when I was little, that if the groundhog saw his shadow, there would be six more weeks of winter. I was much, much older when I learned that that was not the desired outcome. Here in Indiana, *only* six more weeks of winter was a good thing. I didn't know that if the groundhog did not see his shadow, spring would come sooner! But, here in Indiana, I don't think the weatherman pays any attention to the groundhog...

***********************
So there you have a Few Snippets of Nothing in Particular. (sounds Pooh-ish, doesn't it?) I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Update on Nettie

2010-01-22T07:04:00.002-05:00

Lily has posted an update on Nettie over on her blog. Please go read it, and continue with us in prayer for Nettie's complete recovery from her birth trauma.

And don't neglect reading the little story Lily links to in her blog entry. You will be super-encouraged and rejoice at what GOD can do!

The Legend of Mr. Holmes

2010-01-18T07:56:00.002-05:00

We all had a teacher or two that impacted our lives in a significant way. I remember Mrs. Gloman, opening up my biology world. We had her for two years (advanced biology as well, you know...) and every one of my close friends in her class majored in Biology in college. Talk about turning on the lightbulb....

Even though I wasn't the biggest literature-lover, my senior English teacher, Mrs. Raison, made it wonderful. She was just so Excited about the whole thing. If the idea was to have a job doing something you love, she personified it.

Though I homeschooled all-but-one of my older six children for a longer or shorter time, they all went to public high school. And they were all blessed to have Mr. Holmes as a teacher.

Mr. Holmes teaches only one subject: Honors U.S. History. He had a career in the Marines before becoming a teacher. He is a two-tour, front-line, down-in-the-trenches infantry Vietnam vet. He allows no monkey business in his class: he expects ladies and gentlemen, and gets what he expects. You know the saying of living up to the expectations set for you...

My children have said that Mr. Holmes is the only teacher that truly prepared them for college. They've told me about the can of Diet Pepsi on his desk. Mr. Holmes brought it to school the day he began teaching. He didn't drink it that day; it is still on his desk. He says he'll open it the day he retires.

He covers the period from the Civil War through Vietnam. He spends nine full weeks on Vietnam. When you come out of his class, you know the Why we were there. The horrors that were over there. The Way things were at Home. The final is a blank Blue Book: Tell me about Vietnam. The final is held at 6:30 am, because it is 90 minutes. Mr. Holmes brings the donuts and orange juice. And the prize?

The T-Shirt.

Everyone who ~~survives~~ finishes Mr. Holmes class gets a t-shirt. The front says Honors U.S. History 2010, the back has an inspiring Mr. Holmes/Marine/inspirational quote of some kind. Now, Violet took Mr. Holmes' class before the t-shirts; her prize was a Marine sticker. Hard to earn, proud to own, even today.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Mr. Holmes was still teaching--he could have retired since my last Mr. Holmes-student graduated in 2002. And now it is Blackeyed Susan's turn.

This weekend she is working on the *three* assignments due the first day of class. (this gets you ready for the Large Workload to come.) Oh, she knows what she is getting into. I know that Mr. Holmes will grow her character. If I can't be her teacher, I can be confident handing her over to him for ninety minutes a day.

I told Mr. Holmes at the beginning of the year that he needed to postpone retirement until Alvin Fernald takes his class in two years. Then all eight of my children would have the privilege of being in his class. Now our school corporation is trying to get Federal money in the form of the new Race to the Top program. If you are a target school (troubled), these are the requirements:
1. Fire the principal. 2. Fire all the staff. 3. You may re-hire up to 49% of the staff.

No options. No accounting for individual cases. Isn't this like the federal government? The rumor is that Mr. Holmes isn't going to deal with the whole thing, that he'll just retire. Though I can't blame him at all, I'm sad. Sad that a truly GREAT teacher can be treated in this manner.

So, Susan may be in his very last class.

Oh, well. Maybe she'll get a sip of that Diet Pepsi.

Closing Out Another Project.

2010-01-12T10:36:00.004-05:00

I have a custom of beginning a new project the day after Christmas. Something for *me*, after the three to four months of crafting gifts. This year, I wanted to finish a quilt I had put down at the beginning of September. I was able to finish it on January 3rd!

This quilt is called Barbara Star, and you can read about it here and here.

I quilted it in diagonal rows, as did my grandmother with the original. The squares were hand-pieced. I did put the rows of squares together by machine, and then hand-quilted. It looks like it took me a total of about nine months to do, not bad for such a large project.

And this one is for our own bed! How exciting is that?

Poison Green, and other lovely things.

2010-01-07T09:09:00.004-05:00

Wow. Two posts in one day! This one, however, is for quilt-y types, especially if you are interested in reproduction Civil War-era fabrics.

I always wondered why they called a certain color "poison green," often paired with "cheddar yellow (or orange)", a color that I *do* understand. If you are interested, read this little thing about fabrics in the nineteenth century.

Shudder.

But that is not to say that today's fabrics are worry-free. You may know that formaldehyde is often used in the manufacture of clothing. As well as other nasties of which I'm not aware. You should always, always wash anything you buy before you wear it. Those of us who sew usually wash our fabric before we begin sewing.

You can get some further information by reading the comments under the blog entry. Lots of good stuff there.

ooh. One more thing. The article referred to in the blog post is from the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. Gotta love that...

In Praise of Avogadro

2010-01-07T07:15:00.003-05:00

This is related to yesterday's post, but Jen, you'll be able to understand this one!

Avogadro is famous in chemistry for Avogadro's number, the number of atoms or molecules in a mole of any chemical element or compound, based on the number of atoms in 12 grams of Carbon-12 (the normal carbon). He proposed this principle in 1811.

1811?

Does it seem weird to you that anyone was interested in something like that, 200 years ago? The value of the number was indicated later, in 1865, by a man named Johann Loschmidt, who estimated the average diameter of molecules in the air (I ask why? HOW??) by a method equivalent to estimating the number of particles in a given volume of gas.

So the value of Avogadro's constant (as it is officially called) is 6.022 141 79(30) x 10-to-the-23rd. (abbreviated for us high-school chem types as 6.02 x etc etc.)

I am in awe of the mathematicians and scientists who have come before. I remember Gregor Mendel, a monk who invented the entire field of genetics by observing the plots of peas that he tended at the monastery. Blaise Pascal, who, living in a time when you didn't start your math education until ten or eleven years old, invented his own math system at age seven or so, including geometric proofs. Euclid (for whom geometry is named) goes way farther back. How did they come up with the number pi? They even measured the size of the earth back in the Greek civilization.

I could name names for a very long time here, folks.

Now I love poetry, and literature, even growing in my appreciation for Shakespeare. History has become a love of mine, ever since I got OUT of school (too bad it didn't come earlier...). But I am a science girl at heart, and that means I must be a math girl, to an extent.

The advances in science and technology have come at an exponential rate, beginning in the last three decades or so of the nineteenth century. Remember, the electric light and telephone came in the 1870's, radio and flight in the 1900's. We make little comments about the size and capabilities of our cellphones compared to five or ten years ago. But I don't think we're in *awe* anymore about these things. I just wanted to take a moment to honor those upon whose shoulders we stand. Those who began with nothing but an idea. Certainly their ideas were God-given. Which reminds me of my favorite definition of Science: discovering what God has already done.

Stoichiometry.

2010-01-06T07:06:00.008-05:00

Go on. Say it.

You know you want to.

Stoichiometry, if you have forgotten, is the "math" part of chemistry. Balancing equations is the first thing you learn. Later, finding out how much of this-n-that you need to produce so much product. This is why you can't take Chemistry until you have had algebra.

Last night, Blackeyed Susan asked for help with her homework. At first I stared at the page of problems. I referred to her textbook. (have I told you before how inferior her public school text is compared to my beloved Apologia science books?) The practice problems were so easy you could actually do them in your head, so those were no biggie. We worked on the next problems for awhile, and then the lightbulb went on for me. The answer was in the Unit Multipliers.

You remember unit multipliers, don't you? You actually use them every day. Say you want to find out how many feet are in three miles. You multiply 3 feet by 5280 feet Per mile (imagine that as a fraction, I don't know how to type math symbols...) and get 15840 feet.

Here is one simple problem: How many moles of ammonia are produced when .60 mol of nitrogen reacts with hydrogen?

Here's the equation: N2 + 3H2 = 2NH3 (except that in chemistry the = sign is really an arrow)

This means that you need 1 mole of nitrogen combined with 3 moles hydrogen to make 2 moles of ammonia. All you need to know is the ratio. If you need 1 mol of N2 to make 2 mol of NH3, then to find your answer you multiply .6o mol of N2 by the unit multiplier 2 mol NH3 *over* 1 mol N2. Cancel, multiply, and your answer is 1.2 mol NH3.

We also did mass. Calculate the number of grams of NH3 produced by the reaction of 5.40 g of H2 with an excess of N2. (equation: N2 + 3H2 =2NH3)

This required three unit multipliers to get from grams of H2 to grams of NH3. Or how about this one? How many molecules of oxygen are produced when 29.2 grams of water is decomposed by electrolysis according to this equation?

2H20 (arrow with the word electricity over it) = 2H2 + O2

Hello. How many molecules? Yep. Easy-schmeasy with Avogadro's number, the number of molecules in a mole of anything: 6.02 x 10-to-the-23rd. It becomes your final unit multiplier.

Oh-my-goodness-this-is-so-cool.

Oh. You want the answer, don't you? Here's your math:

29.2 g H20 x 1 mol H2O (0ver)18 g H2O (you get the mass of one mole of something from the periodic table) x 1 mol O2 (over)2 mol H2O (your ratio) x 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd molecules O2 (over)1 mol O2. Cancel, cancel, cancel, multiply. Your answer (and I know you'll do the math because you can't resist):

4.88 x 10-to-the-23rd molecules of O2.

We also did gases (mass is 22.4L per mole) so it got pretty complicated there. But it got so exciting for me that I wanted to just take the book from Susan and just do the work myself!

Gee, I miss homeschooling.

(and did I tell you that it has been 36 years since I have had any chemistry?)

Have a fun-filled, math-filled day!

by the way, if you care, I blogged on my other blog today as well!

Michigan Whites.

2010-01-04T06:12:00.004-05:00

That looks funny in print. Maybe it's a pig, like Chester White. Or a sheep--Suffolk White. Or a chicken: Rhode Island Red?

Naah. You prob'ly know it's Potatoes.

I grew up on Michigan white potatoes. Staple of the American table. We had potatoes five or six times a week. Nine times out of ten, boiled. Most days, after I got home from school, I had my cookies and milk, then it was my job to peel the potatoes. "One for each person, and one for the pot," my Mom advised.

I used Michigan whites in my own home for probably the first ten or fifteen years. Then I branched out: Idahos. Russets. I found Idahos, though the choice of steakhouses and Wendy's ("the largest purchaser of 70-count Idahos in the world!") grainy and without a lot of flavor. I needed a LOT of butter to get those babies down. Russets were *okay,* though I did not like their thicker skin.

Later on I discovered potato heaven in the form of Red potatoes. My sister told me they had the most nutrition. I knew they had the most flavor. Their thinner skin made them, in my opinion, better for baking, as well. You could eat them with just salt and pepper. We got so used to the flavor, that my family could tell if I used a different kind for my potato salad. Altogether, a very good thing.

I made a stab at that other fairly new specie: Yukon Gold. Supposed to be so good "you don't need butter." Yeah, they are yellow, so you might think so, but...no. Grainy. Taste-free, in my family's humble opinion. I found five-pound bags one day for $1.49 apiece, so I bought four. Cooked one panful, and gave the rest away. Family just would not eat them.

Isn't it funny how you think of something, and then it happens? Last week, I had the thought, "I haven't seen Michigan White Potatoes in the stores in years." Of course, you know what happened when I went in the store yesterday. There they were, right on an endcap in the produce department. And on sale! Can you beat $1.99 for *ten* pounds?

Now, I'm not sure how they will compare to our fave red ones, but I'm going to give it a go this week. I'll let you know how it turns out...

Pajama-rama Recap

2009-12-26T08:12:00.006-05:00

(almost finished; that is, 8/9 finished!)

Last Christmas, as I packed the leftover fabric from making flannel pj pants into the rubbermaid bin, joining the remnants of other years' gifts, I decided to *finally* use all of them to make quilts. I didn't know how many the twelve or fifteen years' worth of scraps would make, but I decided to Make A Beginning of it. You can read about my New Year's adventure here, here, and here.

Early in the summer, Charming lost his job. This gave me "encouragement" to really get going on the project; it might be a large part of our Christmas gift stash. I figured out a way to manage the layout I had decided on, so that it wouldn't get out-of-hand for me. Just a few weeks saw nine quilt tops finished, one for each of my eight children and one for myself.

Since I had spent nothing on the fabric for the tops, I decided to make a game out of making these quilts for as little as possible. When my older six children were small, their grandmother had given each of them a set of flannel sheets. The pillowcases and fitted sheets were long gone, but the top sheets were still in fair condition. (probably because with bunk beds, top sheets are difficult to manage, and I left them off much of the time.) I couldn't actually believe I still had all six, since the children have all left home.

Blackeyed Susan and Alvin Fernald were not yet born when the sheet sets were given, so I used the fleece throws I made for them when they were about 6 and 4 years old. That left my own quilt, but (can you believe it) I have one remaining top sheet of a set of wedding sheets, 34 years old, and still in good enough shape to use?

As the flannel sheets were of varying sizes, and all were smaller than the quilt tops, I filled in the borders with extra, larger pieces of flannel I have in my stash. (I think the stash-fairies come and increase my stash with every project I do, instead of reducing it!) So, for both tops and backs, I spent $0.

Polyester batting was $10 at Jo-Ann's. I bought seven batts with a 40% off coupon, and two of them with a 50% off coupon. Total: $52.

I used nine large spools of thread, buy-one-get-one free, $1.99/spool. Total: $9. I tied them with bright-red crochet cotton. I finished the spool I had, and bought two more at $1.97 each. Total: $4.

So: total out-of-pocket expense for nine quilts? $65. That is, $7.23 apiece. Not too shabby for a fabulous gift, eh?

Oh, wait. I forgot to include Time Spent. Hmmm. I should charge myself $10/hour or so, shouldn't I? How much would that be for Months and Months of work?

I think I'll just take it out in Love, please.

I ended up finishing eight of the nine quilts. My own top is finished, and the backing made. A little manner of a few days to finish, and the Project can be put into the record books.

The children were, of course, thrilled. A fun time was had, finding years' worth of former pjs in their quilts. An eye-spy deal, as well! Though I'm not sure I'd want to tackle such a large project anytime soon again. But think of the empty rubbermaid tubs out of my stash!

I'm sure you are wondering what is up next for Super-Quilter. On the list for 2010 are quilts for Oxford and Cambridge, both turning two. (I do baby quilts for each grand, as well as one when they turn two.) One of my children has only one Mommy-made quilt--everyone else has two (or three. or four. Except for their new Christmas one, of course.) So, Joe Hardy, you get the next one on the list. For myself. I need to finish hand-quilting one in the frame. After that? I think a project for ME, ME, ME!!!

But, very first on the list? Doing the dishes from the last two days. I think it will be two dishwasher's-full, plus hand washing...

Christmas Making

2009-12-24T05:47:00.014-05:00

Spoiler alert: If you are a member of my family, be sure not to read this until the day after Christmas!

Okay. Here we go.

With Charming being off work for more than six months, I knew that Christmas gifts would have to come from my stash of fabric and crafty-stuff. That was Not. A. Problem. as I have more stuff than I can possibly use in my lifetime!
This summer, Lily bought a little guitar for Junior Asparagus at a garage sale. He has been carrying it around in the cardboard box it came in, so I thought it was time for a "gig bag." The green twill is a fun print with swamp animals on it. The bag is lined with bright yellow fleece.

I had enough fabric left over to make a gig bag for Charming's first instrument, a ukulele. His sister made a corduroy drawstring bag for it, which is long gone, although the hand-crocheted strap is intact. I'm glad to finally get this instrument protected. The uke was a cheap one, but it is over forty years old, and, like I said, started Charming on his illustrious "career" in music. Don't despise small beginnings!

This one is cool. I had a wool blanket that I had bought at a thrift store for $1.50 about three years ago. I felted it as well as I could (washed it in hot water and dried it in the dryer to shrink it), and waited till I had a project for which to use it.

Blueberry's favorite animal right now is the Owl, so I made one out of the blanket. It reminds me of toys my own grandma made me, sort of old-fashioned looking. But I think it turned out really well!

I have also been collecting cheap wool blazers in different colors, cutting them up and felting them. They are not so predictable, however. Some of the better wool is actually washable, and refuses to shrink!

(do you remember Farmer Boy? Almanzo's mother wove wool cloth on her loom, then washed it in hot water. She called it "fullcloth," and said that the suits she made from it were completely warm and waterproof. "not a bit of water could get through..."(nor the weather either, I'll bet!)

Cambridge's favorite animal is the penguin. The white parts are the wool blankie again.

For Oxford, I had to call Forget-me-not to get his favorite animal. She quickly replied, "the meerkat."

Meerkat? He's not even two years old! What one-year-old's favorite animal is the meerkat?

(thank you, Animal Planet...)

So, here it is, folks. The first thrifted, felted, wool Meerkat.

The tail is an important feature.

Laura Carrot is always up for a new dress for her 18-inch doll. I used a reproduction pattern of a set of 1950's doll clothes. Remind me never to make this one again--the construction was a nightmare! (Laura also wants a pair of glasses for her doll, so the outfit will include a pair.)

Sweet Pea wants a dolly quilt. She is receiving a Shirley Temple doll for Christmas, so I found a 1930's reproduction "cheater" print. This is a quilt the real Shirley could have had when she was a child.

I also made Sweet Pea a ballet bag, but evidently forgot to take a photo.

My final handmade gifts were eight (EIGHT) quilts, one for each of my children. I will post photos in a day or two when I recap my year-long Pajama-rama project.

I pray each of you has a wonderful Christmas day. Enjoy the day with family or friends, and in remembering the Wonder that God chose to come to earth and live as a man, and then die for us, to restore the relationship that we messed up in the first place.

"Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift."

Flour Power

2009-12-24T05:15:00.016-05:00

Tuesday was Cookie Day here at the Cottage. Lily's children came in their Christmas smocks. Unfortunately, Forget-me-not's boys were not able to come. We made a big mess even without them!
Learning to keep the cookie cutters close together, to get the most out of a rolling of dough.

Cambridge preferred to supervise, rather than get his hands dirty.

Baby Nettie (Myra) watched from her perch on Lily's shoulder.

Junior Asparagus and Sweet Pea get serious, and seriously flour-y.

Laura Carrot maintains that red lipstick makes you look fabulous!

Sweet Pea agrees!

Laura is not afraid to get up on the table to make sure she gets her turn.

We must have a bit of flour on our nose, or we're not really serious about Christmas baking.

Charming steps outside to take a photo of the falling snow. Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!

Moving to the dining room for decorating. Junior's apron is up almost to his chest. I guess a new one is in order for next year!

It was so hard to wait to sample a cookie, but Sweet Pea voted thumbs up!

My beautiful Blackeyed Susan with Sweet Pea. (can't you read her thoughts: Pop-pop, I haven't finished my cookie yet!)

Big-boy Junior, almost seven years old!

We filled plates with cookies to send home with Lily and to send to Forget-me-not. It was a fun-filled morning!

I've Been Thinkin'...

2009-12-19T06:26:00.001-05:00

...over at my other blog. Go take a look!

I Really Didn't Fall Off the Planet...

2009-12-08T08:57:00.003-05:00

....I just got busy! (I know, no excuse, we're ALL busy.)

I promised to tell about my sister's Happy Box. Now, in my busy-ness I neglected to take photos of everything, so sharing with you might be oh-so-boring. But I will press on, because someday you might want to make a Happy Box for somebody you love.

My sister and I grew up, a product of the '50's and early '60's, so I am always on the lookout for things that remind us of that time. First up: a teen-book from 1943, Jane Withers and the Phantom Violin. The title page has a subtitle: featuring the film STAR Jane Withers. This is a sort of Nancy Drew-like story, and, as for Jane Withers, if you are just a little older than some, you might remember Josephine the Plumber from commercials in the 60's and 70's. *That* was also Jane Withers.

Next up: two beautiful vintage hankies. One was floral, purple and green. When I picked it up at the antique store, it was beautifully starched and ready for dabbing at a teary eye at the movies. The other hankie was an apricot-colored linen, embroidered with an "A" monogram. I told my sister she needed to change her name to Anne, or maybe jAnet.

Next: a copy of the same sewing book my mother had in her home while we were growing up. It is Constance Talbot's Complete Book of Sewing. We laughed over some of the illustrations in the book that we remembered.

Finally, a cup-and-saucer in the pattern Golden Wheat. These dishes were given as premiums in the 1950's in boxes of Duz detergent. Many, many of your mothers or grandmas had these dishes in their homes, as did our mother. Of course, all of our dishes are long gone, but sometimes I see them in thrift or antique stores. I was able to score two cup-and-saucer sets, one for me and one for my sister.

So, see how easy it is? I just keep my eyes out throughout the year, to gather fun things to laugh over. It doesn't matter what they are or how much they cost. One year I had a couple of hometown newspaper articles about something special. The year that Joe Hardy worked at Starbucks, and got a pound of coffee free every week, I stuck a pound of her favorite beans in the box. Or a little cassette tape of a song we used to sing to on the radio while getting ready for school. See how it works?

I'm sad today, because Janet is going back to her home in the west (she's driving, so she's trying to skirt the blizzard that is coming through the plains) and I just want some more talk-time. But it will wait till next time. In the mean-time, I'll be scouting out items for next year's Happy Box.

Happy Birthday, Janet the Planet!

2009-11-21T07:23:00.002-05:00

Today is my sister's birthday!

Now, if you don't have a sister, Janet is the one you always wanted. She is 6 1/2 years older than I, which means I got to get into all her makeup and stuff, and play her Beatles 45's when she wasn't looking.

Her nickname was Janet the Planet, which means nothing, except that there is no other word which rhymes with Janet. This, of course, is opposed to my name, Barbara...oh, well, never mind.

On Janet's fifth birthday (November 21, 19*53), my Daddy bought a television set. It was the very first day tv's went on sale in our town. I heard the story so many times during my childhood, that I thought maybe it was an urban legend or something. Then, in 2003, Channel 33 ran a documentary about the 50th year of television: "We went on the air November 21, 19*53..."

Janet is a Svengali--she could get me to do anything. Got me to clean the boys' "offerings" around the base of the toilet by saying the Outside was not as bad as the Inside, which she cleaned with a brush. Offered to play Clue with me, but she always cheated. If she won, I had to kiss her toes.

Other than usin'-and-abusin' us, she was the Funnest. Sister. Ever. She has lived far, far away for over forty years (married an Air Force guy), so I don't see her very often. But, since we both know the Lord, that doesn't matter. Our relationship is sweet, like she is.

Janet is coming to see me next week! I am getting her Happy Box ready. (this is a collection of things I find during the year...I'll post about them next week, and you'll see why I call it a Happy Box.) It's going to be a great week!

Happy birthday, dear sister. I love you. But I'm *on to* your tricks now. Next time we play Clue, you won't get me to close my eyes. And I'm sorry about the time you had all those stacks of Girl Scout cookies in our room, and I ate one cookie out of each of about twelve boxes. And that time you caught me with your eyelash curler in your hand, and I said I didn't do it? Well, I did.

However, that time someone gave me a piece of a Hershey bar while I was walking home from school, and later you accused me of getting into the Oreos, and I said I didn't, and you made me open my mouth and saw chocolate, and told Mother I lied? Well, I didn't.

Na-na-na-na on You. I know you feel bad now.

Catsup Time

2009-11-05T05:29:00.000-05:00

If you're old enough, you might remember Hunt's Catsup. This would be opposed to Heinz Ketchup. As a child, I was concerned, because they were one and the same product, but my family pronounced it "ketchup," so spelling it that other way seemed a little silly to me. So instead of saying "Catch-up Time," as I usually do in these bloggy situations, I thought I'd do something Just A Little Different.

After making a nice little resolution to take the month of November to be thankful for something every day, I fell off the wagon the very first day of the month! So, here goes with Thankful, part deux...

Monday, November 2

Today I am thankful for my brother Rick. He is just fourteen months younger than I, and was born four days before Eisenhower was elected for the second time. (gollee, does that sound old!) He and I are very close, and always have been. I can't remember a single instance of sibling rivalry with him, though I'm sure there are minor incidents here and there. Our relationship was cemented when I was pregnant with Violet at nineteen, and living at home. In the middle of the night, throwing up in the bathroom next to his room, I'd wake him up to commiserate with me. He never complained. We still speak about those times, even though there is *so* much more life we've lived since then. Love you brother, and a very happy birthday to you!

Tuesday, November 3

Today I am thankful for our beautiful miracle baby, Myra. Go here to see a new photo. I do, however, need to choose a blog-name for her, as my custom is to use fictional names for the family.

Myra shares my middle name, Annette. With one person in my life, I have the nickname Nettie. (you can read about *that* here.) So I thought Nettie would be cute. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Johnny Tremain and Lily had discussed the same nickname for Myra in real life! So, Nettie it is!

Thank you so very much for all of the prayers for Nettie. I think of the verse, "the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much." So, so true. Please continue to pray for stomach issues--she acts colicky, and possibly is bothered with acid tummy. (it all plays out the same in her fussy times!) Otherwise, she is gaining weight, and growing in all those beautiful baby ways.

Wednesday, November 4

Testimony time! You may or may not know that Charming and I went through a major, major marriage crisis early in our marriage. We have spoken a number of times in marriage classes and marriage retreats, giving our testimony of God's restoration. And you know, when God fixes something, it is better than it was before it was broken!

Last night, Rocky Balboa brought Blueberry and Oxford over to see Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop for a few minutes. Rocky was so, so excited he could hardly speak. He had shared our testimony with a woman at work who thought her marriage was over. Things are very bad, but the woman wants to come to church to find out what the Lord can do in her life. Hooray! Thank you, Lord, for Your healing work in our lives, that You can use to help others!

Thursday, November 5

Two things today: today is Winnie's birthday (see "Nettie" link above to find out about Winnie.) I thank the Lord for Winnie, my dear sister-friend.

The other thing I am thankful for today is Indoor Plumbing. (don't laugh)

I have often said that I am richer than Solomon ever was, because I have indoor plumbing. Think about it. You'll agree. But I was up in the middle of the night, making my way to the bathroom in my centrally-heated house. And I thought about chamber pots. Good at their purpose, but of course they needed emptying each day. That led me to think about....

Laura Ingalls. Chamber pots. "The Long Winter." Whoa.

I know you'll be thankful too, today, for your indoor potty.

So now I'm caught up!

Oops...

2009-11-01T22:55:00.001-05:00

(Violet took me shopping and bought me this outfit.)

Okay, so I forgot to put the REST of my post in earlier. I was going to put the little poem down, and then put *my* view of November. Ditz-brain-fog settled in, and I pushed "post" after the poem.

Sorry.

November is a very nice month. As in, November is Nice! My sister's birthday is in November, as well as my next-to-me brother's. Not to mention Alvin Fernald's--he'll be turning fifteen. November is the month of Thanksgiving and all that beginning-of-the-holidays-getting-closer-to-Christmas thing.

In fact, I had a homeschool friend of mine tell me she was making November an entire Month of Thanksgiving. So I'll try, every post, to be thankful for something, 'kay?

November 1st: Gotta go with God's provision. Charming has been out of work for four months-plus now. We still have our house and all of its utilities...ON. Still eating. Still wearing clothes. What is that verse?

So if we have food to eat and clothes to wear, therewith be content.

And thankful! God is not moving at my requested pace (so, when does He ever?) and I am trying to learn. Trying to not-worry. Trying to praise Him for His goodness in this situation.

Because He IS good. Yep, all the time.

Thank you, my Father, for your bounteous provision.

November--No Way!

2009-11-01T08:40:00.000-05:00

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,

No comfortable feel in any member--

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,

November!

--from a poem by Thomas Hood

Hear ye, hear ye...

2009-10-31T09:29:00.000-04:00

....Rocky Balboa and Forget-me-not are expecting!

Forget-me-not has given birth to two of my very favorite grandchildren. But Blueberry was born three months before Lily's Sweet Pea, and Oxford was born just four weeks before Cambridge. Her boys were also born in tandem with their cousins on Rocky's side of the family.

But not so this time!

As you know, Myra is just a month old. Rocky's sister and sister-in-law had babies this summer. So, for the first time ever (drumroll please): Forget-me-not is pregnant all by her lonesome!

We can celebrate! Party! Shower! Boast!

It's. All. About. Forget-me-not. And that's the way it should be, you know?

(the baby is due June 28th, and we're hopin' for a girl.)

Four hundred ninety-four years ago...

2009-10-25T20:32:00.000-04:00

(okay, so my son pointed out that it is FIVE hundred ninety-four years ago...)

"This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, 'Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day,'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words--
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester--
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered--
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
William Shakespeare, Henry V.

If you have never read Henry V, I would encourage you to do so. When we studied it last year, we got the book version, and read-along-with an audio version. After we were finished, we "treated" ourselves with the BBC version on dvd.

Even though details of the Battle of Agincourt (October 25, 1415) were probably "enhanced" by Shakespeare, it is an excellent picture of battle during that time in history. I had never studied a lot of English history when I was in school (past the Magna Carta, 1215 doncha know), so it was quite a new experience for me.

Props to Violet (my masters-in-English daughter) for suggesting it for our homeschool!