A Twaddle Post

Do you ever click on things on your computer? I saw a button this morning I have never clicked on. It says, pictures from your phone. This is a phone picture. That is my yard. Last year. When I had sunflowers. Isn't that a cool picture? Like a old snap shot. I didn't do that feature, there are gnomes that live in my computer who do these things with my pictures. Today the pictures will be from my phone. From the past.

Hot today. Blazing hot. 109. With humidity. I worked in the flowerbeds yesterday. That is why I have short sentences. I am suffering from brain cook. The day before I shampooed my living room carpet. It was 105 that day. The house felt like a sauna. I wanted you to know. I found a new love. Its a secret, but I thought I would tell you because you are my friends. Shh don't tell anyone. Its my carpet shampooer!!! Most. Amazing. Machine!! It makes my little OCD self blissfully happy. Not to mention it is fun.

I made one tiny little mistake though. I got the bright idea to use it on my tile floors. Life is an experiment, right? So I would work a little on my carpet then take a little swirl over the tile. Except, I forgot to go back and rinse really well. Elliot was out washing the car, and when he came in I heard this sound of swink-swink-swink.
across the tile floor. I said, " Are you sticking to the floor," Words I didn't want to hear but were, "Yes I am." I had worked from 8:30-11:30 shampooing the carpet. It was now almost 2:00 in the afternoon. I then had to get out my mop bucket and I mopped the tile until I put my mop away at 3:30.  I took a shower because Ron was going to be home soon and I didn't want to greet him looking and smelling like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Oops, my selfie from my camera.

 Its so nice to get my house clean. We are going to stop painting upstairs for a bit, we will get back to the bathroom up there soon.
 I have this lovely friend and she told me she was going to sell her Hoosier cabinet. I have wanted to buy one for most of my life. She had one that was in her house the previous owners didn't want and now, She doesn't want it any more. (Yay for me!)  After my fiasco at the antique store in April. I decided I wasn't even going to look for one. Ever!! Here my friend walks in and tells me the horrors she experienced on Craig's List. Trying to sell it never dreaming that I would take it. So this weekend we paint the dining room and I will have my Hoosier cabinet. I am so thrilled. Do you know how nice all of my old dishes will look there.

How come this is what happens in my life. I will want something so bad. Then some fiasco happens with me trying to accomplish my goal in my own strength and I give up. I walk away. Then God so graciously puts it into my lap. Its happened to many times to be a coincidence. I just wish I learned faster.

Poor Ron. I am not the most obedient or submissive wife. In fact. Most of the time non-existent. More like crazed fiend. (See picture above.) Today though, he said. " Please don't work today in the sun, I worry about you when I am at work."( Sweetest man in the world.)  I thought today I would try that obedience part. (Notice I didn't say submission part, this is not a perfect world.)  I am going to listen to a book on my headphones and work on my His Eye is on The Sparrow. It really is too hot to hook right now. Do you want to see a picture of my progress? Mistakes and all?

That deer, was nigh on impossible. Three times I have taken it out and re stitched it. Now you want to see a picture of how far I have to go?

I just finished page one. Today I will start page two. I am pretty excited. With it being hot maybe I can hopefully do a bit more. I would love to get lots more done on it this summer. I really do love it and His Eye Is On the Sparrow one of my favorite hymns. Win-Win.

I will stop here. I hope you have a lovely day. When I get the dining room painted and my lovely Hoosier cabinet installed, I will show you lots of pictures I am sure.
Have a lovely Wednesday,
~Kim~

“All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

A Weekend Post

 

I thought I would stop in and write a post. I maybe should be out working in the garden and the flowerbeds. The air quality is so bad, I shrink back from being out in it.
We have a terrible fire in one of our mountain communities. They are calling it the Erskine Fire and it has already burned 30,000 acres and 100 homes. It is only five percent contained with 800 firemen fighting it.
Fire is always a bad thing, but this one is so close to home. It hit so fast and grew almost overnight. My heart aches for the people who have lost homes and the fire fighters and their families who are putting themselves on the line.

 

I have to share with you this quote that I found in a very old book. I have been going down rabbit trails this week. I wanted to read my copy of Wind in the Willows. I thought I knew where it was on my bookshelf.
I ended up going out in my shed and going through boxes of books that I have out there. I had been thinking of these books as well as I moved books around a week ago. I brought in and started reading these books.

1. In The Days Of Poor Richard---Irving Bacheller, copyright 1922

2. A Man For The Ages---Irving Bacheller, copyright 1919

3. Out of Africa and Shadows on The Grass---Isak Dinesen copyright 1937

The quote I wanted to share is from A Man For The Ages. That book is about Abraham Lincoln.

"Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself,
thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

Abraham Lincoln.
March 21, 1864

I thought about this quote a lot this week. In light of Brexit and the coming U.S. election. I thought that if Abraham Lincoln and Soloman Binkus, would be shocked at the way our country and the world has become and they would be sad.
 What is interesting about these books, is that the stories are told, through letters that the author was given the privilege of reading and holding in his hands.
Irving Bacheller was known for being an American journalist and who started the first newspaper syndicate in the United States. He was a prolific writer and he was a journalist that loved liberty and his country.

 I only knew of him through my Grandmother and in the days before the internet, I had met a man who lived back east. I have no idea how I even found his bookshop, but I would write him letters and he would find books for me. Then I would buy them from him. I would send him checks I think.

   My grandmother would give me titles of books that she had loved and of authors she remembered from her girlhood and he would find these books and I would get them in the mail and I would take them to my grandmother to read. She spent so many hours reading them and then she would give them to me then I would read them. We would talk about each book like they were friends. As she began to get sicker and her mind couldn't keep track as well, she began to put marks in these books where she left off after she stopped reading. I remember how alarmed I was when I noticed it. I am sort of a book snob and some of these books were first editions.

 

Then I noticed that she no longer read. She said she was too tired as she would sit with the book on her lap.
Then my friend, the far away book seller died. His wife sent me a letter one day in the mail to let me know he has passed away suddenly. I was so lost with out that correspondence with someone I only knew though letters and our shared love of books. I am reminded of all of this, now when I open one of these books and I find the little check marks at the end of a sentence. Things that aggravated me so much then, has turned into a reminder to me of a sweet little window in time.
I still haven't found my copy of Wind in the Willows.

 

 We have a new heat wave coming. Starting tomorrow. Ron was outside just a bit ago and he said that ash is covering the cars now and the air smells of burning trees. I guess I am tired from painting. I sewed one day. Then spent the evening ripping out everything I had sewed. I tried it the next day, and spent that afternoon ripping out. If I get up the nerve to try it again, I am not ripping it out a third time.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, who knows what I will end up doing, but I do know I am not painting.

~Kim~

God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.

Isak Dinesen---Out of Africa

First Day of Summer

Happy first day of summer!! I love the first day of summer. I always have. I like the longer evenings with the dark blue twilight. When I was a kid, I told my Mom, ( I imagine in a very bratty voice.) " That when I grew up I was going to be so rich that I would have an airplane and I would get on it when the sun started to set and go to a place where the sun was coming up so I would never have to go to bed at night!!"

She would sigh and say in a tired voice, " Fine Kim you do that." I hated going to be at night. Now, it is my favorite time, she knew as all mothers do that night would become my friend. I still like the longer days and the sun coming up early. I just like the sun though I am fond of the moon now.

Painting is almost done upstairs, carpets cleaned and everything put back. We just have the bathroom left. We are going to take a break though. We. Are. Sick. of. Painting!!!

This weekend I did manage to make Hobbs. I will take him to his new home today. I think he will be happy about it.

Hobbs

I wish I made stuffed animals more often I might get faster. This one still took three days. All of his stripes have to be sewed on by hand. I am glad I really do like hand sewing so much.

A Kessie Rug.

I now have all of my rugs bound too. Now I can start a new rug. I think I will need a day of dyeing wool. We are in the words of the weatherman "having a record breaking heat wave." I think this will be my next rug. I love the ants. That is why I haven't dyed any wool--- and the painting.



 Only this time, we aren't as hot as everyone else. It hit 118 in Arizona yesterday and it will be 120 today. My daughter  just pooh-poohs it. They really are set up for it. The play grounds have these nice covers to keep the sun out and the parking lots  are are covered  too. They are much better equipped to handle heat. Not to mention they build power plants. Unlike this state I currently live in who doesn't do any of those things or repair roads, because they want to spend billions on a train. Okay rant over.



Today is my grandson's 7th birthday. I am going to his birthday party. He wanted a helicopter, a good watergun and a lamp. I cracked up. I have to see what this grandma can do about it.

Enjoy this first day of summer. I have always judged my life by my summers. There is just something wonderful about the toasty air, the smell of the water in the swimming pool, the dew drenched grass and the velvet skies in the evening, filled with spangly stars. The only thing that would make it perfect would be the little lights blinking off and on of the lighting bugs. We don't have them here. But the sound of crickets make me just as happy.
Happy Summer Solstice to you,

P.S. That means Fall will be here before we know it. *wink-wink* 
~Kim~

For Debbie

“Come with me,' Mom says.
To the library.
Books and summertime
go together.”
― Lisa Schroeder, I Heart You, You Haunt Me

Busy June

 

Oh Happy Day! Isn't waking up on Saturday morning just the best? I love to wake up and not be rushed.
We only have one more bedroom left to paint. I am so glad we did the loft and the stairs, because painting bedrooms is not so hard. We have finally hit our stride. Today, Peter is home so with four of us painting I am not expecting as big as a job. It feels so nice to have things cleaned and fresh. I am looking forward to starting down stairs. That will be its own huge task though, but I don't think as hard as those stairs.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day. My own Father passed away in 2003. I still can't write about him. Maybe someday I will be able to, all I can say was he was a study in contrasts.

 I am thankful though that  our children had a wonderful Father to grow up with. I am by nature rather flighty bouncing from one thing to another. Ron has been solid and fair. He is everything I am not. He never discusses personalities only plans.
He tries to keep improving himself and working harder and he never stops learning. I may have homeschooled them but it is he who has instructed them in what it means to have character.  To do what is right rather than what is easy. He pushes himself beyond anything I have ever seen, and when I watch our children now adults push themselves I see how they reflect him.

I have a stitchery I made when we were newly married. It says, " The love of the father is reflected in the eyes of his children." I have thought about it through the years, when I made it I was thinking about God. I see today how it applies to that of our own children and their father.

I hope you all have a wonderful day. More painting and more cleaning.
Thank you so much for visiting today. I hope your weekend is fantastic!
~Kim~

“Humanity can be roughly divided into three sorts of people - those who find comfort in literature, those who find comfort in personal adornment, and those who find comfort in food;”
― Elizabeth Goudge, Little White Horse

Thankful Thursday

I just had to write today. I am so thankful for this morning. Its cool and the ocean breeze is still blowing through. It feels like a resort and with all of the windows and doors open it is such a pretty day. The weathermen are predicting "historic heat wave." It makes this cool breeze that much nicer.

I bound my two latest rugs. I did something that I have never done before. A mistake that I am glad and I hope to never repeat.

I was binding my flag rug.

I had this very nice blue wool that I decided to use. I got the whole rug bound except for maybe an inch or a inch and a half. No more yarn. It was such a different kind of blue, I knew there was no way I could ever match it. I had bought it from a lady who was no longer rug hooking and she had bought it in the early 2000s.
For two days, I thought about it, then on Sunday morning, I decided, I would just take all of binding out and start over. That is what I did. I will now never bind a rug unless I have more than enough matching yarn. I have read so many hooking books, and you know I have never run across that in them. I just don't know if I am the only one who ever did it. I learned a good lesson though.

Having Ron draw out my patterns is really a good thing. I don't think my rugs have ever had such a straight edge before. He really is good at drawing them out. Much more careful than I am.

Last night, I didn't hook. My brain is tired and so are my hands. I need a new project, but something that doesn't require me to think. I start feeling like I can't settle down. Hooking helps keep my mind quiet and my hands busy. I really do like keeping my hands busy.

Our charge card got stolen online again. I do wish I knew how this happens. Our bank has really good security though. On June 8th someone got it and tried to buy two mountain bikes and extra tires. The security company for our bank caught it and declined it. Ron had that nagging feeling and he checks our bank all of the time so he did and sure enough, there it was. The really nice thing this time was, I had bought paint and went to the grocery store. They had let my charges go through. So I didn't look like a idiot in the store. I told Ron we must be really boring people. The bank knows we would not be buying mountain bikes in the middle of the night. We always have to call them when we are going anywhere or if we are going to do something different out of our normal pattern. It made me wonder if it is that way with most people. I wonder if there is one of those card reader things on a machine at Lowes. That is the only thing I did different. I normally pay cash but I didn't that time.

I wanted to tell you about my learning experience. While I have been painting when I start to get tired, I put on my ear buds and listen to my Ipod. On the Blue Letter Bible they have been up loading messages from Elisabeth Elliot, one she gave in the past. I have 10 on my Ipod now. I listen to them over and over. One day, she was talking about the verse. From Philippians 4:19
" But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
She went on to say that " All means All." When the charge card got stolen, I thought about how without me knowing, God was taking care of me. Lately every time I feel my heart getting anxious about things, I find my mind running back to that verse and I pray a prayer as I lean on that idea that nothing has ever surprised God. So if I am in the safe in the arms of a loving Father, then whatever He allows is for my good and His glory. Its just something I have been pondering as I paint and think about. I thought I would share it with you.
Not very deep thought on the state of the world, but I know that I don't need to have all of the answers. God does, and I am trying very hard to be what I was called to be. "A older woman who admonishes the younger women to love their husbands and to love their children." (Titus 2:3-4)

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you are all having a lovely summer day.

~Kim~

" How sad and tragic this is that there not more Christian men and woman of the golden age who are serious about taking up the burdens of the younger ones. The world is desperate for examples, for models."
---From Aging: The Forbidden Topic, Elisabeth Elliot

Tuesday's Post---Pictures

Maybe I should change this to a post about home improvement. I hardly got outside yesterday. Early morning, afternoon and late evening. I worked upstairs getting everything in order for nine hours. I had it looking perfect. Elliot is ready to paint his room this week as he has this week off from work. So he relocated his room to William's old room and his dresser into the loft.
I thought you might like to see some pictures anyway.

This was how it looked yesterday when I started.

The empty loft

This morning when I went up there this is how it looks now.

That wall with all of the books back on the shelves. That poster is one that Emile made for William.

Odds and ends bookcase. I was getting tired and I was ready to stop.

Little kid books.

All of my Little House books are all finally together.

My Grandmother bought this set of books for me when I was born.

Shelves.

I took all of the silk flowers out that I had here. I washed all of the silk flowers and I am still debating if I want to put them back. Such a huge area to paint. Here is the ceiling that I couldn't even watch when they were painting it.

I noticed I left my water bottle up there and the I pod player. Ron made us a play list for painting. Since one of our favorite audio books is Treasure Island he called the playlist.  " Smart As Paint, Jim."

The view outside Elliot's window this morning.

Elliot's room

I hope Elliot's doesn't want to paint today. I will help though if he does. Peter wants to paint his room on Saturday. Then all that will be left will be the bathroom to finish up. Then we will move downstairs. Because its a two story there are so many angles. Once we get down stairs it shouldn't be as bad we just have more windows that will be a bear to paint. I guess this will be called what I did on my summer vacation.

This morning, as Ron was leaving he said, " Don't work! Just do something like sewing or something like that." Do you ever notice that or it is with me, once I get started working I can't stop. I need to vacuum and mop down stairs so we will see. The flower beds are calling my name. I can only stay inside for so long then I start going crazy. I do like the white though. It makes me so happy to see every thing so clean. Painting the trim around the stairs was so hard. I am not bendy like I used to be. I guess I need to do Pilates again.

Anyway, just a bit of home improvement. Thank you so much for stopping by today.

~Kim~

“This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.”
― Elisabeth Elliot

Monday Again

 

Its Monday again! Today is William's our third child, second son birthday.  He is 27. It was a day like this too when he was born. He was my Waterloo baby. I had felt that the Lord wanted me to homeschool. I was against in every way that could be, I had my feet dug in. I had these things I told the Lord that had to happen for me to homeschool for one year. First, I had to have a quiet baby who slept. William did, four hours at a time. He rarely cried and was always such a happy baby. Then the Lord had to provide the money for the curriculum. He did that too. So with three kids I began what I would think began my life's work. I also got the bright idea after William was born, that we could let God plan our family. That is whole blog post of its own. Something to this day I am thankful we did. I just wish I had more faith after Peter was born, to continue having babies.

 

We painted and painted this weekend. Painting the loft and that ceiling was a huge job. I have never been so tired in my life. It took about nine hours I think.  With three of us painting. Today I am moving all of the book cases and the books back. It will be nice to get things back to looking normal. I will take pictures after I get everything all moved.
I had to go buy some paint as the place above the stairs took so much paint. While I was waiting for them to mix my paint, I stood and watched people. I still really enjoy watching people.

When my paint was finally ready, I took my basket and was lifting the paint cans into my basket. A young man and his wife were standing there and he jumped over to where I was and said, " Here let me do that for you." I laughed and said okay, and he said, " Are you painting? You have paint on your elbow." I said "yes, and we needed more paint." He wanted to know, what on earth were we painting to need so much paint. I told him, and then it dawned on me, no wonder I am so  tired, I have never painted this much in my whole life. It is a huge project. I keep getting mad at myself because I can't paint as much as I did when I was 20 but then at 20 our house was so much smaller. So there is the rub.  Upstairs doesn't look that big, until you are trying to paint it all. It looks very fresh and clean and bright. I am so over yellow now. The color was Sunshine white, which is really a light yellow color.

The parrots have been flying over in flocks. I am afraid I am a big disappointment to the parrots. Not a single sunflower to be seen this year. One was in the tree squawking at me yesterday. Too bad I don't know parrot. I could have told him it was a painting year and not a gardening year.

Its been nice chatting with you. I hope you have a lovely week planned. June is such a pretty month.
 Thank you for stopping by today. 
~ Kim~

“… and Laura let her sunbonnet slip down her back so that she could feel the wind on her face and see the whole great prairie.”  By the Shores of Silver Lake.