Cold and Perfect Friday

Last night, I had to go outside and it was cold, crisp and clear. I could see so many stars. Only briefly because I turned  tail and ran back in the house. There was a roaring fire and all of the house critters were sleeping as close to the stove as they could get. I can count on one hand the times we have had cold like this. Which means, not very often.

 Living in the middle of a oil field like I do, this week, there has been a oil rig at the back of the property pulling sucker rod so the oil well will work better. Every morning long before the sun comes up the lights come on and you can hear men's  voices getting ready to start their day. As I watch, from my perch in the house with my hot coffee in hand, I am so glad I am not them. That poor man who must go up into the crows nest to guide the pipes as they come out of the ground must have the worst job in the world. Being up there with all of the cold and getting all covered in oil and sand.

 

One of the things I have been very thankful for this week, is my nice chicken house. I am so glad they have a place that is so clean and not as cold as the old coop. I sit out there a few times a day to just watch them be chickens. I noticed the other night when I went out to lock them in and they were all on the roost, how like children they are. As I stood and watched and all of them were trying to find the best spot, one of the hens would look at the one next to her and just peck her in the head for no reason.

It made me remember family vacations. You know how you are driving down the road and kids start to get bored and you hear, " Mom!!! They are breathing on me!!!" " I am not! You are breathing on me!!"  Then as the chickens do comes a giant peck and the fights is on. I thought of that standing there. Having chickens for the eggs is very nice but the entertainment value is priceless.

 

The weather man keeps saying we will have snow tonight and in the morning. It hasn't snowed in 16 years so I hope this is a year for snow. It is pretty and clear and not a cloud in the sky so we will see if the models are right. It is so frosty though, I can almost pretend it is snow. I have decided that arctic air is wonderful to breathe as it smells so good and clean. After the long hot summer, I think this is bliss.

Have a wonderful Friday, I hope the ice storm isn't as bad as the weather men keep saying. I am watching very nervously our orange and lemon crop. It is just starting to get ripe. We picked some last night and they were okay.

I love Fridays and if it is a snowy, rainy Saturday it will be so nice.

I hope your days are nice too.
~Kim~

Finding Quietness In December

One of the things about December is I can get so caught up in the rush and bustle and all of the good things that have to be done. I forget the important things. The places that give me the strength and peace to make this a nice holiday and not one filled with stress and worry. I must find places in my day to find quietness. No computer, no music, just the quietness and peace. Even if it is only five minutes. To make myself a cup of tea, to sit and watch the leaves fall from the trees. To sit quietly and offer up prayers for those I know and love. To reflect on the faithfulness of the Father. To see the difference that one short year makes.

Last year in 2012, the road ahead and all I could see was change and hardness. My life, I thought was so full of change, I doubted if I had the strength to do what I knew was being asked of me. Today I am so thankful for it. Last year was out of my control. I tried every thing in the world. You will laugh, but I made every bargain I could with God. I was like that old Keds commercial,  I made promises to God that I would run faster, jump higher and do more impossible things if only He would answer my prayer the way I was begging Him to do. He said loudly and over and over, " No." Firmly sometimes, accompanied with, " My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are my ways your ways, My ways are higher than your ways  as are the heavens are above the earth."

 

I would read things like this, " Let's never forget that some of His greatest mercies are His refusals. He says no in order that He may, in some way we cannot imagine, say yes. All His ways with us are merciful. His meaning is love." ( Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart, p.119)

This Christmas season, after a year of change, in every area of my life. I am thankful for the consistency of God and His unchanging love that never once let me go, though there were many times I wanted Him to make it all go away. He taught me that He doesn't do these things because He hated me but because of His love that is unfailing.

One thing that I think colors my life, the year I was 10 years old, my mother gave us this incredible Christmas. She brought cupcakes to our home room on the last day of school before Christmas vacation. She was so beautiful, and her laughter was so warming. Even the teacher seemed so mesmerized by her. The kids in the class room watched her and would ask me, " Is that your Mom?" I would smile and they all said the same thing, " You are so lucky." She took us shopping after school, and then she bought decorations and we made paper chains and our house in my 10 year old eyes was more beautiful than it had been ever before.

 

 By the next Christmas she was gone. Our house was cold and dark. I had my grand mother take me to the store and I bought the same decorations as she had the year before. I decorated as she had done, I tried so hard to capture what I had lost. That year, it rained and rained and the house was cold and dark. My brother was eight, my sister six and I was eleven. I remember watching the rain, alone, as my Dad went to spend Christmas with his new girl friend and her family.

 

The next Christmas, I would have three step brothers and a new step mother. Life changed so much. For years, do you know how people would say God Doesn't make mistakes, well in my mind, He did, I would say, " God you took the wrong one." As I saw it we could have done just fine if God had taken my Dad.

I spent years, and when I finally came to the conclusion, God doesn't make mistakes, all things that God allowed, were Father filtered. He allowed those things to make me who I am today.  No matter how bad life gets, God never allows anything but what is good and perfect and a gift. Because in the midst of the hard things, there as a secret lining is joy that can not be contained. Like this year. Every where I turn is joy and laughter and blessing. I am so thankful for every single bit that I have been given. Without the clouds, there would be  no rain. Without rain nothing grows. I am so thankful for the rain and how when God promises that
He will never, never, never, never, never, leave us or forsake us, He doesn't. He has wonderful surprises in store.

Have a wonderful day. I know this is long, but it is my Christmas story for this year. For me this year is a miracle. It has been the best of years. I am so thankful.

`Kim~

December--- Here We Go!!!

I still have a few Morning Glories. Until this week. We will have hard frost by Wednesday and everything will be gone. Am I sad? Not a bit, I am dancing around yelling, Yahoo!!! A real winter.  Cold and all of that jazz. A fire burning and cozy blankets and lots of stitching. I feel like Christmas is here!! We might even have rain.

I hope you had a lovely weekend. I have tried to keep up with your blogs but I am woefully behind. There was so much to do every day. I even made a excellent start Christmas shopping. I did manage to get some stitching done. I have been listening to Bleak House an audio book. I love stitching listening to that. Last night Ron worked on another wire tree and I started reading out loud to him. I started reading Brother Cadfael,"  A Morbid Taste of Bones, by Ellis Peters." It was so nice to read out loud. Not very Christmasy I suppose but a good story.

I was looking through my old photos of 2011, On December 1st of that year I started hooking rugs. This is my very first rug hooking project. I didn't have a wool cutter so I cut the wool with my rotary cutter and I didn't have real wool but a wool blend. All I had done was read books over and over but learning from books isn't the same and doing it.

Here is my latest rug that I really like.

I used the flash as I can't get the regular light enough. This was fun to do.

This is my second 1820 sunflower. The pattern is by Cathy Greschner at Red House Wool Studio. She is one of my favorite rug pattern designers. I tried to be bold with this rug. I don't think I will try bold anymore. I think I will continue to be safe.

I finished up some small counted cross stitch designs by Pineberry Lane.
This is one of my favorite Christmas Carols so of course I sit and try to sing very quietly as I stitch. I loved working on this pattern.

This is a simple freebie. I had so much fun just sitting and stitching this one, because I really do enjoy doing letters in counted cross stitch.

I drew out four rugs on backing too. Today on my list is to cut wool for them. As is decorating the house and cleaning and doing laundry. This morning as Ron was leaving he told me to channel the inner washer woman. I laughed and have been chucking to myself ever since. Storms coming, firewood stacked, chickens happy. What is not to be happy about on this wonderful day in December.

I hope you have a wonderful week,
~Kim~
"If we give out of love, there is ultimately no way in heaven or earth to avoid, receiving  far more than we could possible give."
( Love Has a Price Tag. p. 42)

Fun Day

I hope everyone had a very nice day filled with food and family and much laughter. Our day was next to perfect. If my oldest daughter and her family and the new baby had been here then it would have been perfect. It was cloudy and just a great day for Thanksgiving. We smoked the turkey all day. We used a dry rub for the first time after we put it in brine all night on Wednesday. We just stuffed it with butter, apple and onion. We put it right on the grill in the smoker and it will go down as the best turkey we have ever had.

Ron was cutting the turkey, and all of these helpful people were eating as he cut it off the turkey, I thought it was so funny because they were not waiting and sometimes even took it off the turkey.

We had such a good time at dinner, lots of food and lots of stories and lots of laughter. The kids were at their own little table.

 

Even Munchie is big enough to sit at the table this year. They told me that they liked my dinner rolls very much. We had a friend of Nik's here too for dinner and his wife. She goes by the name Cat. But Munchie who is just learning to talk, would call her Meow. It was the cutest thing you ever heard. You know how with babies you say, " What does the kitty say?" Well when he heard her name, he said Meow? So it stuck.

We had chicken move in day. They did really well and have taken to it very fast, even the new nest boxes and the new roost.

Sasha is very happy because she can lay down here and watch chickens again. She is sleeping better after having a job to do.

On Wednesday night, Ron got some wire and started making a tree. In styling his Bonsai trees he was having a hard time seeing the trees in his mind. He thought if he sculpted one out of wire it would help his mind. So while we sat in the living room sitting around talking. We would watch him as he worked on this tree. The photo doesn't do it justice. It is beautiful and the movement in the limbs and trunk is incredible.

This just came out of his brain. We were just mesmerized by it. If it wasn't black Friday I would be out finding him wire and cutters and all kinds of things to make more. I know I am biased but my husband never ceases to amaze me.

 

My youngest son sent me a cartoon the other day. It is two pictures, one of Buddy the Elf being so excited that Christmas is coming. The other is Theoden standing on the parapet at the Battle of Helm's deep, looking down he says, " Now it begins."
Well people are in two camps, you are either like Buddy or Theoden. I admit to falling in the Theoden camp. I have laughed and laughed about it. So there is no way I would venture out on Black Friday. I do hope those people who set up tents a week ago in front of Best Buy, got whatever they were waiting for last night.

So have a wonderful day. I may just stay in my pajamas and get a fire going and put my feet up. Ron just came in and said that it is raining. What a great day.

I hope you have one too.

~Kim~