Just Friday

 

 This morning when I woke up, my thought was it is Friday. The moon was shining in the window. The world was all silvery gray, and the trees, have all of  their bones showing in the moonlight.
There is the silence that comes as if the the world is holding its breath before the sun comes up over Bear Mountain. There is only the barest change as the sun makes its way back to Greenhorn for the summer.

 

I am such a home body that having things to do now, makes me love the days that I am at home. I find that being at home, feels me with such peace. It makes every  thing seem so good. I find ways to take something simple like a vase with flowers gives me joy. Having the luxury of baking rekindles that love I have always had for being at home. Dyeing wool  is like opening a present every time I take a new piece of wool out of the pot. I take it out to hang on the swimming pool fence to dry and watch the magic that happens as the wool dries.

 

 Yesterday, I watched two hummingbirds. One was making this loud call, unlike any bird call I have ever heard. Then the other humming bird was making that sawing noise. One was in branches on one side of the tree and the other on the other side. The female I thought was making the call, but then the male would fly straight up into the air and do a couple of flips and would fly back down and make the sawing sound. Right now, as I walk out in the cold, I notice the birds that fly from tree top to tree top following me. They really don't like it when I stare at them and if they catch me they will fly away. I try to keep my eyes averted.

I have two rugs I have been working on for it seems so long. I was trying to finish my snow man rug yesterday so would have a finish but no luck. I thought I would show you anyway. These are the biggest rugs I have made yet. I have dyed all of the wool for them.

My snowman rug.

It will look better once it is steamed. Steaming rugs always makes it looks so nice. This is a pattern I got by Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson. " Quilts and Rugs." The book is so nice because of all of the full sized patterns.

This whale rug I am pretty sure I have been working on it for three years at least. It is one of the first things I drew out on backing. It is by Polly Minick and the book called, "American Summer.

 

I think once I make it though my stack of rugs I have ready to hook, I will be drawing out more whale rugs. Though Polly Minick has a mermaid rug I really would like to hook. I just don't think it will be in the plans for 2014.

I have all of these old magazines that I have kept for years and years. Every time a magazine would have some of Polly's rugs I would stare at them and wish that I would be able to do that someday. I am so very happy that every time I pick up a rug hook, and run the wool through my fingers or cut a newly dyed piece on my cutter, I am so thankful  that my someday came

.
When I went to that Wool show in September, did I tell you I got to see Polly Minick? Do you know what I did? I stood with my mouth open, in mid step, looking like a idiot. She smiled and said hi. I don't know if I even said hi back. Ron was miles across the hotel from me by then and as I ran to catch up, I said, " Did you see Polly Minick? She said hi!! she said hi to me, isn't that cool!!!"  I felt just like one of those fan girls you see at movie premiers.

I have some very important people coming over to hang out with granny. I need to get some stuff ready for the visit. A very good way to spend a Friday.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.
~Kim~

 

" Heaven is a house with porch lights."
" Ray Bradbury---Switch on the Lights."

Divine Appointments

 

You know that when I went for my annual eye appointment and realized that 2014 was going to be a different kind of year, I admit to asking, "Why this year Lord, couldn't I just take a rest? A year with just minimal trials and a year of just smooth sailing? " So this year so far I have sat in medical offices far more than the ten years previous. Waiting rooms are places I avoid like the plague. Being made to sit there is the worse kind of torture. I thought I would tell you of some of my experiences.

 

I found out one day where you can buy girdles for cheap. I also found out that if I was a spy, I could tell you so much secret information you would never dream the people just tell me in waiting rooms. Or that when you have sat one hour after your appointment that people start yelling at the television. Did you know there are whole channels devoted to nothing but infomercials?
People don't look like Hollywood. Most people are very nice and are maybe more scared-bored-alone etc than I am and  more often in more pain. In my boredom, I decided to start trying to see these people as my divine appointment for the day. To see each person as a gift to me from the Father's own hand. It is funny how it changes my perspective. To try and see the ladies behind the counter as just as overworked and behind rather than just a pain in the neck.

 

Yesterday as I was sitting in yet another office. I had been there for already two hours, and I didn't think I would be going anywhere for a while. I noticed there are not clocks in a waiting room. I also noticed in this particular office, which is very nice by the way, they had every kind of drink you can imagine for the patients.
Which I thought very nice, but wondered, why do we have to have so much to pacify us while we wait?

Then as I waited, a lady came in. She sat next to me and started reading her book. I don't think she even looked at me. I just turned my head and stared at the window wishing I was anywhere but sitting in the chair I was occupying. The doctor came out to speak to the lady, and as I was trying not to listen, I started listening to her voice. I realized it was someone I had known and had not seen in a long time. I turned my head and said her name, and she turned and looked at me and my divine appointment was for a gal that had been one of my close friends. I was in her wedding a long time ago.

 

Our families had vacationed together and we had attended summer camps together. But as so often happens just lost touch. So I thought it was a very nice appointment that I had and decided that I have to change my attitude to one of expectancy and to see all of this as a good thing. I can't change the situation I find myself in these first few months of 2014 but I can change my attitude. I can be thankful for the place I am in rather than throwing a fit like I am so apt to do when I don't get my way.

 I was so thankful when I did get home. I was thankful for the fresh air and my chickens that give me peace. I was thankful my son had coffee waiting for me. There are so many nice things in life that I want to focus on rather than those things that just aggravate the tar out of me. I am so thankful today is Wednesday. I can't even begin to tell you. A whole beautiful day. I got my order from Dorr yesterday, so I already have wool soaking so I can dye more wool. I am thankful for this because it brings my attention to the small things and gifts than I take for granted.

Have a lovely Wednesday,
~Kim~

 

 " Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered, not by the things which He enjoyed. In order to fit you for His purposes both here and in eternity, He has lent you this sorrow. But He bears the heavier end of the Cross laid upon you!"
( Keep a Quiet Heart, p. 78)

Monday, Monday!!

First thank you for all of your lovely comments. They give me such joy and comfort. I was walking through my dirty house on my way to write this post and that old song was going through my head, Monday, Monday. It was by the Mama's and the Papa's Here is a link for them in 1966 I was eight years old, so I don't think I listened to that stuff then. This weekend was a nice weekend.

Man, I am just blast from the past today on this blog post. When I was a kid, my favorite movies and shows were  ones with dogs or horses. My  favorite of all time was Disney"s "The Horse in The Gray Flannel Suit." My dream was that someday I would have white split rail fences around my property and a stable to clean and muck out. It wasn't until I watched that movie again  I was reminded of the fencing. Even the house looks kind of like ours. I was cleaning my hen house and putting in new shavings and I thought, " Wow, I am living that long ago dream of having a barn to muck out. It made me happy. For one thing to be married to a man who has given me my dreams. Okay, enough mush

. Here are my chickens. I have two flocks. The bantams and the big hens. The roosters only like the Silkies and are down right rude and ill mannered to my big girls. I am getting a bit fed up with the roosters. I don't do well with favoritism. The little white Silkie hens really flaunt it too. So about half the time I wonder why I thought they were so cute. 

 

Then the big hens who are over in the shade where it is cold because the roosters think they need to be segregated.  Did you know that happens? It happens in my hen house. It drives me nuts. You would think that all chickens are the same because they are chickens. Not according to the roosters. Big hens belong  on one place and Silkies in another. If the rooster finds a tid bit and does his call of good, good, good, and a big hen runs over, that rooster will have a mean look cross his face and he will power peck her in the face and then make the call again for a Silkie and the big hen walks off dejected.

 

  I have been trying to improve the big hens self esteem by giving them extra treats. Well except for my Silkie hen who I named Barbara Streisand. Barbara for short. That hen looks just like Miss Streisand. Same nose/beak. The roosters hate her for some reason. So she gets special treats too. 

 

It was a plowing day this weekend. This will be the future garden. A bit bigger than last year but not as big as the year before. I am starting to think of seeds I want to start soon. One of the places I buy seeds from had sugar beet seeds this year so I hope to put in quite a big plot of sugar beets.

 

Ron had just started disking on the pasture when I  took this. In previous years we have had enough rain for this to be nice and brown and damp looking. Not this year, there is no moisture to speak of  I don't remember it ever being this dry. Going into the third year of drought is worrisome. Water is always precious out here but it is going to be more so I think. 

 

This was this morning, with a touch of frost. My path is all nice and smooth. I walked on it yesterday morning and because it was all nice and smooth I couldn't believe what a freeway it must be in the night. It was filled with all kinds of animal tracks. Skunks, foxes, cats, and I thought possum. Oh not to mention bird and mouse. Lots of things going on out here at night.

 On my way back into the house I stopped by my chickens. This weekend I had a hen, I thought would be dead this morning. She was having labored breathing and couldn't stand like she was paralyzed. I went out last night to see if she was able to make it in the hen house. There she was sitting on the roost pretty as you please. When I walked out there this morning she was up looking all bright eyed and bushy tailed. Pecking around like she was starving and no paralysis. No labored breathing and her eyes were interested in her surroundings. So I was so relieved.

 

Time to get the day underway, get that vacuum going. I hope you have a wonderful week. I hope you have a bit of warm up instead of more cold. 

Monday, Monday,

~Kim~

A Sunday Post

 

I was thinking of the passage in the Bible where it talks of being Fearfully and Wonderfully made. I wasn't going to talk about my doctor appointment but as I think about it, I thought I would share a bit about it. Going in I just thought it was a consultation. Not a full blown, eye exam. What I found out is this.

In a normal person who gets cataracts, the  cataract grows from the outside of the eye inward. It is very slow and takes 8 to 10 years for it to bother your vision. Then there is me. What has happened to me, is I have a cataract growing from the center out. Think of an eclipse. It is growing so fast it is covering my whole lens.

 

So it isn't my imagination that it feels like every day I loose just a bit more sight. Because I am. Things I did just a week ago, I won't be able to do this week. Driving has become really scary. Hand sewing or machine sewing is almost next to impossible. Even now I am loosing my ability to be on the computer because I can't see the words. So the fearfully and wonderfully verse came to me as the doctor was telling me that he would be able to give me back my freedom to live again. Quietly in my mind, came that verse that told me even in this, God is in control and He had a purpose and a plan.

 

I have a lot of hoops to jump through before the surgery. But I will go ahead and do them. Little things like why I never could see to cross stitch on linen, maybe I will be able to once I can see.
They told me funny stories about people getting this done and being able to see color again. I don't see color anymore and to have them tell me that I would no longer be in a black and white world but one full of color brought me joy. I think what has been the hardest about this is to think I was going crazy. Week to week.
To have them tell me that it wasn't in my head made me so happy. The really fun part will be is they said, I might never have to wear glasses again.

 

I think what makes me happiest is that I will be able to see color and design and it will be a new world.  Not to mention they kept telling me how good I would do because my eyes are so healthy.

I find that I put myself in God's hands to do to me what He so desires. I can say, even in this I am thankful that even in this trial, He shows me that I am His, and He is mine. I am the one that has spent so much time outside in the sun, I am the one who spent hours trying to have the darkest suntan around. Yet, I don't go through this alone.

I always think it is wrong to blame God for things that I did and choices I made. I am thankful though that He promises to never leave me nor forsake me and that when I pass through the waters He will be with me. Life is still an adventure and I am still very thankful to have been given the life I now live.

Have a lovely Sunday,
~Kim~