Odds and Ends

 Its early this morning. The sun isn't even up yet. We begin painting today. One of our son's was getting rid of old movies on his phone and he had taken a movie of this house the day we got the keys. We got to see all of the things we were going to change and haven't in five years! We were going to paint all of the house and get new carpet. But we didn't. There were other things that we had to do. We are now back on the trail now. Painting begins this morning. All four bedrooms. Then all new carpet. Then last of all, I am going to buy a new hooking chair. 

I won't even take a picture of my old hooking chair. I love my chair but it has seen better days, like maybe 10 years ago. My Mother-in-law got it at a yard sale in the 90s and then she sold it at a yard sale, and I bought it. It was old when she bought it. J.C. Penney used to sell them but its got harder and harder to find them. I finally had to admit, everything is worn out on it and when I am afraid for people to see it because its so ratty, maybe its time. Our son Peter just turned 30 and he said, I think you have had that ugly chair since before I was born. Time goes by fast doesn't it?

I don't know if Ron and I can do it, but we have great plans to paint two rooms today, and the smallest room tomorrow. Then next weekend the master. But you know that getting older thing right? So we will see.

I just thought I would check in, I am that close to getting my rug finished. I hope all of you have a lovely weekend, while I am here getting covered in paint. I can never figure out by the end of the day it will look like I rolled around in a paint can, and Ron will have no drips or anything. Same goes every time we work in the yard. He is spotlessly clean and I look like I dig ditches for a living. Sometimes things just don't change. 

~Kim~

 

Hooking Clouds

 

 The whole time I have been hooking the ground and the mule and the man, my thoughts were on the sky and the clouds. When I was dyeing wool, I was trying to picture the clouds in my mind. We don't get rain very often in June. But this morning, we have rain clouds and thunderheads and I felt so thankful when I walked outside. It felt like this sweet blessing to me to sit and watch the clouds as they formed, and filled the sky, as the sun began to rise, the clouds changed to rose and pink and then gold. The gray, the blue that shined in places. I sat and watched mesmerized as they became different shapes like the air ships sailing across the early morning sky. I tried to put them in my mind so that when I picked up my hook today, I could remember what I watched this morning.

When I hooked this doing the sea and the sky, took so much thought. I love whales but they are so hard to hook. Saundra, drew this out for me and she is so good. She drew lines for direction and it helped me so much. The men on the boat and their faces were next to impossible, because they are so tiny, I knew I couldn't redo them over and over. So I sat and stared at them before I hooked them. I reread my book on hooking animal faces and watched tutorials on hooking eyes. I think maybe I over think things to much. I am just saying, compared to this rug the rug I am hooking now, is much more complicated in my mind. 

The rug I am hooking is going to be called Zachery and his Mule. After my great, great, grandfather, Zachery Robbins.

He lived in Paul's Valley Oklahoma. He and his wife, were from Virginia. They traveled to Paul's Valley and were farmers. He was out in the field trying to get his hay in, there was a big thunder and lighting cloud coming and as he went through the barb wire fence, lighting struck the wire and traveled down the wire until it struck him. My great grandmother, on her dressing table, when I was a kid had a dish, with this welded money and glasses sitting on her table. I asked once, what it was and she handed it to me, while she told me the story. I was shocked to say the least. Its a picture in my mind though. 

Then my grand mother was born, on August 14th 1919. They were a superstitious bunch though. My great-grandmother, gave my grandmother to her mother who had just lost her husband to raise. So my grandmother lived with Mrs. Robbins. I don't even know her name, because that was all she was ever called in my mind. My great-great grandparents had been first cousins, and felt as if they lived under a curse and this was just part of the tragedy.  That was why they had to leave Virginia because of the family. As far as I can find, they never went back.

So its for this man I never knew. I have some really old pictures of them on the farm. I will see if I can find them. I have wasted to0 much time looking for this picture of his gravestone. My grandmother would cry and cry, so I stopped asking her about it. It was like she thought it was her fault that by being born she somehow was responsible for his death. I think that is why I don't know more about it. 

I mentioned I think I have been rearranging and moving furniture. I moved my Hoosier cabinet into my office. I love this thing so much. I can't change anything on it. The flour sifter has green paint on it so I have an idea it might have been green. I am going to leave it this color. Its so nice to have it where I can see it everyday. I am going to make it into my hooking/sewing storage area. It took me so many years to find one, its one of those pieces of furniture that I just love. I love that it even has the metal bread drawer. 

So I know I just wrote a post on Sunday, but I wanted you to know, about the clouds this morning and I didn't want to forget. Which I will of course. 

Have a lovely Tuesday,

~Kim~

Lisa Kleypas

"This is the smell of June, honeysuckle, green hay, wet linen hung out to dry." 

 

Happy June

We are halfway though the year. Can you believe it? I do love turning the calendar over to a new month. All filled with new possibilities, adventures and new goals to keep. I spent last week, rearranging, and de-cluttering. As I get to this morning, I keep trying to think what I want to clean and de-clutter this next week. I think I will work on my pantries. 

Our son Ben was a keynote speaker at a Homestead Conference.  Megan sent me a picture. I really loved seeing him speaking and thinking of how much he has changed.

One thing with them living all the way across the country from me, its so much different to go for a visit. I am so glad we live in a world with phones and face time. I can't imagine how it would be to have to wait on letters. It never makes it easy to see the kids grow up from a distance.

 We had a surprise party for our youngest son. Peter, our youngest is now 30. He is the one to the right, with his wife Belle. She wanted us to all go out to dinner. It was a fun time and nice to celebrate without me cooking. I think its a first time. Next to Peter is our son-in-law Nik, our daughter, Emilie.

Ron and me. Then Elliot and his wife Karren. 

 These are the four that still live here. The oldest two live out of state. I really need to figure out how to get a new family photo. Yesterday, I got Kessie's latest book. I have no idea how on earth she manages to get books published. 

She writes young fiction. Her kids think its really cool that their mom writes the books they read. When ever I am there one of them will be sitting and reading one of her books. I asked them what it felt like to have a Mom who writes and they all thought it was pretty neat. Her finest work that she is most proud of is her family and her new baby.

She sent me this last week, right after the baby had her bath. I am sure she has changed so much now. She weighed 7 pounds something at birth and she was already over nine pounds. She is a little chunk. 

Okay, enough bragging. Well maybe one more thing. A photo of my rug. I almost got to the sky. That is the plan this week.

I think the thing that is hardest for me is to leave it. I could sit and reverse hook, and then I would never get it done. So that is by far the hardest thing I fight while hooking. I have to remember that while I would love to be a perfect rug hooker. Its the beauty of rug hooking that says, " Its your rug, do what fits your style, because after all its a rug." That is why I don't paint, well, for one thing, I am not a painter, and have no want to, because as with anything you have to have, "the want to." That is why I love rug hooking. I have a jillion rugs in my cupboard, and each one represents a milestone in my life. 

Its hard to describe that to someone when they see how many rugs I have.

This swallowtail, waited for me to run in the house and get my phone so I could take its picture. I just think summer is the nicest time of year, truly, I never can decide what time of year is my favorite. Each one has its own beauty that I like when I finally get there. 

Have a lovely day, this first day of June.

~Kim~

“It is better to be a young June bug than an old bird of paradise.” – Mark Twain

 

 

 

 

Memorial Day Weekend

 

 Do you have memories of Memorial Day? Today, I think it's treated as just another holiday. Maybe not on the East Coast but here in California it is. As a child though, my Mom would have people save tin cans and they would bring to our house, which she cleaned and they would sit on the back porch until Memorial Day weekend, which she called "decoration day." We lived in a very old farmhouse then. On a property filled with every kind of flower and tree you can imagine. Then she would begin collecting flowers and greenery and she would assemble all of these cans and then we would all go to the cemeteries and she would visit everyone who had gone on ahead. I remember when it dawned on me, there are dead people buried under my feet. Kind of a shock when you are four.

So I woke up thinking about that this morning. This is my grandfathers place of sleep. He maybe had the worst job in the world, in W.W. ll His job was to land on islands in the South Pacific and "clean up." Every island of combatants. He was also at the Battle of Manila. He was changed forever by what he experienced in battle.

 

He never told me stories like he did my brother. I really never knew much about it because he was from that school of women were the weaker vessel and he didn't think it was something a woman should ever hear. I wish he had told me a little bit.

 

I don't know if you can read this but it says at the top of the picture Henry and Maude Ethyl Sexton on their wedding day in 1902. That was my grandpa's parents. So much hope in their young faces. I love that picture of Maude. I never met her even though she was alive when I was a kid. 

 

How did they get from the happy excited place they were in 1909 to here. I always think about that.

These were the five youngest children. The older ones were already married. I think there were 13 children. Part of the farmers, I see in my head as I hook my rug. 

 

He became a farmer too. When we drive to North Carolina we always drive by his land in New Mexico.

See that tree in the background? Its still there. That is the marker I use to see his land from the road. Now it belongs to another family. I think about him every time I pass and remember what it was like to sit on his screened porch and listen to his stories. 

As I hook, and remember, its a story, I didn't know I wanted to tell. I think about it when I am sitting in my sewing chair, remembering and thinking of all of those people who came before that made me. Someday, perhaps, my grand children will tell or write funny stories about what they remember of me. I can just hear my grand children saying, " Do you think Grandma ever heard a Bigfoot? Do you think she ever saw one? " Because I am afraid that is all they will remember because of the stories I told them.  

I hope your weekend is lovely and full of good things. I have set a goal for myself that this rug will be finished by July and hanging above my mantel. That's the goal. So see how my plans go. 

~Kim~

 " Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 3:12-14 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 This has been a beautiful May. Just blue skies and warm temps. I normally sit down and by May I know what kind of projects I want to do for the summer. I haven't even planted my tomatoes. I hope to do this for this long weekend. I can't believe we are already to Memorial Day. 

I have been working on my rug. Its funny that I feel like I have worked on it every day for hours and it seems that its not going as fast as I thought it would. Robin asked how big it is. Its 30 by 38. Is that big or have I just turned into the slowest hooker in the world? 

As I am hooking, one of the things I thought to myself, was how on earth would you hook sweat on a working mule? How would you hook, turned earth? How do I hook so it looks like spring planting? 

I have been reading old books, one of them is called, The Land Breakers, by John Ehle. Then I am also reading The Trees by Conrad Richter. But, they don't use the mules or horse to pull the plow. They do it themselves. Maybe when I get further into them they will go into it more. I am so fascinated by The Land Breakers, we have lost so many skills. I was so intrigued by the gathering of herbs in the wild, by the spinning and the looms and the dyeing of the wool. I keep reading so I can find what it looked like, felt liked and smelled like by a man working hours breaking the land, in order to take care of his family.  

Our son and his wife were leaving, and he just stopped and took this picture of Yosemite. I just thought it was breath taking beautiful. I thought you might enjoy seeing it. 

My plan is to work on my rug today. I hope your day is filled to the brim with pleasant things.

~Kim~

---From The Land Breakers---"The wash of color flowed down toward the clearing, reached it in the sharpness of an early morning. And about them now the woods were changed into a fairyland of color.

The Buckeye turned yellow and dropped its eye-shaped seeds. The box elder near the spring spring turned into a bank of yellow leaves and pods; the maple in the valley just to the edge of the clearing got red as fire and beside it a white oak turned into the color of old wine; the sourwood was a rich red, the red oak was orange, and the possums climbed higher every night into the persimmon trees."( John Ehle)
 

Back from Roaming

 

We are finally back from Arizona. I had mentioned we would be going there after our daughter had her baby. She had another girl. The girls are ahead now. Eight girls, seven boys. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and she was 20 inches long. Her name is Rebecca Rowan. Mom is doing fine. 

 

We spent a lovely time with her and the whole family. Her children are from 18 to new born. So I was pretty busy and loved every minute. The hardest part about any visit is going home. I took all of my hooking and all of my sewing projects. Did I do any of it? No, I don't know why I bother. I always have this idea that I am going to sit in the campsite and hook and do all of that. Do I ever? No, we always hike or do things and sitting is something that we don't do very much. 

 

I really did take pictures of our newest grand daughter. I thought. Ron must have taken the pictures and as I write this blog, I do not have them on my phone or on my computer. She is such darling little thing.

I never had babies that small. She has all of this lovely dark hair. I held her and rocked her. Kessie would hand me the baby and say, " Don't let her go to sleep." It was such a sweet place to be, with all the different ages of kids and to be rocking a baby. Just a sweet time of life. Now the drive home was different. The wind through the desert was so crazy. We stopped for gas in Barstow. Then had to stop again in Tehachapi.to get gas before we could get home. We were getting less that 4 miles to the gallon because of the wind. It was so nice to get home though. Polly went crazy running and running in the back yard.
 

Before we left I slipped in two days of dyeing wool for my rug. The is for land, and sky and the mule.

The sky I want to look like the skies when we are driving from New Mexico into Texas. The sky is so big and endless. But I also want the clouds to look like the thunderheads that build over Oklahoma in the afternoon. This winter one of my friends traced my family history for me. It was such an amazing gift. I found out that as far as you got back in my family history, my family were farmers. Farmers who farmed with teams of horses and mules. It so captured my thinking that I wanted to see what I could do with the picture in my mind. One of the interesting things was they were some of the first settlers into North Carolina and Tennessee. Which I found extremely interesting because they lived first close to the place our oldest son, Ben and his family live now. Its like those mountains called Ben to come back home. But you can follow their track as each generation kept moving west. 

 

 I am working on the mule and thinking about the generations that worked and poured out their sweat and tears and sometimes their lives to raise each generation. While I try and tell a story that lives only in my mind and try to transfer it to wool. This is the biggest rug I have ever done. Its going to be what I work on this summer. 

I hope its been a nice May for you all. Its just been a beautiful spring here. I still haven't got my garden in yet. I did manage to get it ready to plant some things. I hope you have a wonderful time doing what ever you love to do and thank you so much for stopping by, my once and a while blog.

~Kim~

 

 Then followed that beautiful season…Summer…Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

April in all its Beauty

 I am off this next week, so I thought blogging would be a good start to my vacation. Its been some wild few weeks. We will be off to Arizona in the coming days, for the visit with our newest grand baby. No, I don't know what it will be, its going to be a surprise. At this count though, We have seven boys and seven girls. This next one will be a tie breaker. Really, I didn't know that until I wrote all the names out on a post it. I am a happy grandma.

Our son got married in March. This is him and lovely Amanda. I am so blessed to have another awesome daughter in love. Weddings are just so much work. I think she must have spent days and days getting all of the details figured out. 

 

This is our family that live here. We have a pretty large family. Now that they are all married.

I wanted a picture with Ron and I. We just celebrated our 45th anniversary yesterday. I look way different in the picture from 45 years ago.

See the thing behind us? Amanda's Dad built it. I just thought it was so cool. When I saw it all put together, I wanted our picture in front of it.

I really hope to finish this rug, so I can get it bound and put our while its still April. I love these rugs by Whimsy rugs. I enjoy doing each little picture. So that is on the list of things I hope to get done and finished this week.

 Last weekend it was different for me to do. I have this rug I want to do so bad. I had decided just to see if I could just buy a projector and draw it out that way. Ron, most talented person I know, said, " Why don't you see if I can just draw it out on a grid". Since I am so fancy, we got butcher paper and taped it together and he drew a pattern with a grid on it for me. Just by luck, I had enough red dot tracer and backing to draw it out. He helped me with both, because its the biggest rug I have ever done before. That will be my new project. This week I am going to dye my wool for it. I am so excited and it was fun because he got to see how the whole thing goes together. He never knew how much work there is to getting a rug drawn out. Plus it was fun working with him. He thinks of easier ways to do things that never entered my mind. 

The rug? Its going to be a secret for awhile. I am still in the midst of rug planning. I will show you at some point in the future. 

So that's it for today. I hope its a lovely day for you all.

~Kim~

“The sun was warm but the wind was chill / You know how it is with an April day / When the sun is out and the wind is still / You’re one month on in the middle of May.” – Robert Frost

Mid week

 We have our first sign of spring. This is our Oklahoma Red-bud. Its the first thing that seems to wake up this time of year. We had a nice bit of rain yesterday. It rained all night too. Maybe thundershowers this afternoon. I really do love all of the unsettled weather in March. We have birthdays and now a wedding in March. Our three oldest grandsons will be 18 next week. I can't believe how fast time has flown. Eighteen years ago, in one week, I went from being a Mom to a Grandmother of three. In April, I will be a grandmother of 15.

Who knew I would be blessed with such a family. Not me of course. But its all good. 

I have hooked a tiny bit this week. Not like I hoped. But getting any hooking done this week of all weeks I consider a win. 

I love these rugs by Whimsey Rugs because I can just do it in squares. I have done the Halloween one and I have done the Easter one.

 

This one was fun, but after I finished it I put it away. I didn't look at it for a year, then I got into my rugs and found it again and I liked it. Do you rug hookers do that too? Just put them away and then next time you go and get into your rugs, its like finding treasure? I do. I also find myself cringing at some of the monstrosities I have created. 

This is our grandson who lives here in town. Our only grandson. In California. He comes over on Thursdays.

He is so sweet and its so nice to get to be in his life. We didn't get to see him until he was 4 so its such a blessing to get to see him now.

Some one has been very patient while I write this blog. So we will put on rain shoes and go out into the rain. At least the sun has come out for a tiny bit. Its very wet and muddy.

I hope you have a lovely rest of the week. I hope I have cute pictures to post from the wedding.

~Kim~ 

"Help me to live this day quietly, easily; 

To lean upon Thy great strength trustfully, restfully;

To meet others peacefully, joyously;

To face tomorrow confidently, courageously."

Taken from Secure in The Everlasting Arms, Elisabeth Elliot, from her aunt Anne Howard. p.162

Well Hello March

 I just thought I would stop in, maybe this should be a once a month blog. I really never mean to let blogging get away from me.

I will just let you know a tiny bit of what takes my mind away and in different directions. My step-brother passed away totally unexpectedly. Our son that has lived here, moved to his own place and will be getting married next weekend. We had a lovely shower for her last weekend.

Among other things, I had to find a dress. I know that sounds pretty shallow but finding a dress and shoes just sends me into a panic. I finally felt the day I found one I could take a breath. We have a local shoe store that I in desperation went to and thankfully they are like shoe stores used to be, a man came and took my shoe size, went and got shoes and helped me to find shoes I can wear all day and not come home crippled for a month. I only buy shoes when I can no longer go out in public unless I have something wearable. When did I change I wonder. Do you know I still have dresses I bought when my almost 30 year old son was a baby? I can still wear them and I do and luckily for me they never went out of style. I just  don't buy clothes very often. In fact, my husband noticed the other day when he came in from work and I was still in my nice clothes, " Wow! its so nice to see you in clothes without holes and paint. I guess I should do something about that. I can't be alone but I would rather buy wool and patterns instead of clothes. 

My neighbor next door has these flowers that grow on the fence. They are the only thing around here that looks like spring. I am working in the flowerbeds and in the morning I hope to get my raised beds ready for spring when it really is spring and not this fake you out time of year. It was 85 yesterday so its really tempting but I am not going to fall for it.

Just a short post. Just to keep my oar in. Thank you Lauren for always encouraging me to post. I don't know what I would do without you. Get well soon, Robin, I am praying for you.

~Kim~

 

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

[Meditations Divine and Moral]”
― Anne Bradstreet, The Works of Anne Bradstreet