Scattered Pictures

Hello! My mind is zipping around from corner to corner this morning! I want to blog about order. Hmmm. I will, but first look at Birdie's new wheels! Isn't her new car cute? Kelli is such a good gift giver. Giving gifts is her love language. This reminds me of the Kid-a-lac I had when I was a little bird.

Toys are always a delight color-wise!
Ta da! The curtains completed. Kelli = delighted Pom Pom = thankful! SO much straight sewing.

The 35 year old work horse. My little sewing machine was such a perfect high school graduation gift back in 1976! Thank you, Mom!

My kids make fun of me about this sewing scissor warning. Jeff will often tease me, pretending like he used them to cut through plastic or tin or something equally abusive to THE SCISSORS.

I read in Nehemiah this morning that God advised the Israelites to enter into the Promised Land with order. Yesterday my little grandmother, Evelyn Rose, kept popping into my thoughts. She and my great grandmother, Sarah Ann, lived together in a tiny house in Anacortes, Washington. My mother often let my sister and I stay there for a short overnight visit. I was very young, but I noticed stuff. I like the way my frugal little granny organized her things. One time I opened a drawer in the kitchen and I found her dishtowels folded in ship shape manner. I've never forgotten it. It looked so right, so good, so respectful. She served us bread and cheese. The cheese came in those small, narrow glasses and tasted so good and granny-ish. She canned and her fruits were all lined up in the garage, fat and shiny. She slept in the kitchen and my great granny slept upstairs in one of two attic bedrooms. Evelyn had suffered a few strokes, so I think she needed to avoid the stairs. Her bed was covered with a "vintage" cloth. It was bright and memorable. Later, when she moved into our house for a short period of time, I liked the way she kept her Bible and her Decision (Billy Graham) magazine close to her chair. She always put big rubber bands around things. I liked her style. She piled things, but her piles were purposeful. She was shy, not bold or boisterous. She was my godmother, too. She stood up with my parents when I was baptized. I think she took that very seriously. She celebrated me in little ways that made me feel special even in my big family. I have read all her diaries, because my mom still has them. I remember so many things about her ordinary days, so I'm thinking there is great good in ordinary. Your order may be very different than other peoples' order, but it is YOUR attempt at respect and it is good. So here we are at the cusp of a new year and I'd like to think that however we make sense of our surroundings, it will have an impact on someone else. We share ourselves and THAT is VERY good.

I actually organized these a while back, but then the bookcase fell over . . .

The wood by the fireplace looks orderly . . . thanks to Bill!

My mug obsession (has to be Hartstone!) looks nice, I think.
Teapots always look right, right?

Bill is good about ordering things like DVDs.

All the angels. Carolyn's pretty gift to me, too! A PURPLE scarf. I put it here because I look at it all the time and think about loving, giving hearts that make things for Pom Poms who live across OCEANS!

God's PERFECT order. This poinsettia that Bill gave me on the last day before Christmas break, keeps wowing me. Isn't it so gorgeous? A perfect design.

And talk about amazing . . . God makes HUMANS and they are unexplainable. YOU are. I AM. I can't get my mind around all the miracles.

Before I forget, I have to tell you how sweet SuKnitWitty is. Go to her knitting blog here and see how honoring she is. She's an expert at friendship. I'm all happy hearted!
I wish I had all your home addresses so I could send off cards to you. When I first started blogging, Gigi at Firefly Cottage was one of the first bloggers I discovered and I won a give away (The Gentle Art of Domesticity) and I was too young in my blog journey and I didn't save her address when the package came! Doh! Now I can't figure out her new commenting form so I feel lost! Gigi! Help me! THANK YOU!
Happy New Year! One thing I am going to do is start making lists of all the books I read. Gretchen Joanna and Wayside Wanderer both do and I think making lists will have all kinds of benefits. So today, I wait for two little girls to come over and bob around our house with us. I shall go to the market and buy some fizzy cider for tonight. I shall make something to eat that comes from the sea, just for giggles. If I think of it (and I hope I do) I will light luminaries out
on the driveway and look at the blue moon. I looked at the moon this morning when I got up and it is glorious. Again, the orderly Creator . . . He's GOOD!

Fabric and New Hair

It's fun hanging around home during the day and it is also fun skipping off to the fabric store with Kelli and the girls.

Kelli doesn't sew, so she isn't tempted at the fabric store. She brings a list and finds everything that is on the list. Done. Not me. I get distracted by shiny things. I could browse around the fabric store for hours, so we kept losing each other. We found the hearts. Ahhhhhhh. I am a sucker for Valentine merchandise. Doesn't Miss Bug look cute with her Valentine antennas? Birdie's head is bigger, so her head band stayed on.

Miss Bug, all belted in with Gran's purse tucked beside her, LOVED the fabric store, too! Yay!

My eyes kept gravitating toward the flannel. I have loved flannel all my life! Flannel bed sheets, flannel nightgowns, flannel shirts, flannel pajama bottoms, flannel quilts. What else could I use flannel for? Any ideas?

Don't you think Kelli is smart to collect nutcrackers? Miss Bug's real name is Clara! Cute, huh?

Pretty heart, but too expensive. I bought discount stickers and two bead garlands that remind me of my Camp Fire Girl award beads.

Okay, so don't laugh. Actually, laugh all you want because laughing is fun. I'm of the age where "stuff" is changing. I have a bit of insomnia sometimes, the cold weather makes me ache, my eyes need all kinds of lenses, all that, you know? So, my hair seems thinner. I needed a haircut to fix this problem because my hair seems all fly away and crazy looking. I found this picture and NO I had no notion of it looking exactly like this beautiful young woman's hair.

I think she's someone famous, but I wouldn't know since I spend all my viewing time reading your blogs. Anywho, my hairdresser liked this haircut, too and tried to get as close as he could. What do you think?

It'll have to do. I don't know why my hair is such a big deal to me and why I spend so much time trying to solve my hair problems. I guess I'm shallow (smile).
I'm procrastinating because I have to finish Kelli's curtains today. I don't like the type of fabric she picked out. I don't like cutting down the middle of a big hunk of fabric. I don't like trying to make homemade curtains look professional when I am NOT a pro curtain maker. Grrrrrrrr. I have papers to grade and THAT will take hours and hours and hours. Double GRRRRRRRRR.

I had ice cream for breakfast.

Worms

One green thing left - the basil that Reve gave me for Christmas.

Another Reve gift for a birthday a while back - a tiny jam spoon.

I opened a big bag of worms! They're soft. They're chewy. They taste wonderful. Uh oh.

So many options . . . movies to watch, hats to knit, books to peruse . . .

Pencils to play with . . .

Books to REREAD. This one a joyful favorite!

Oh yeah. Papers to grade.

The last of the Christmas goodness. The tins that must be taken down to the basement. Bye bye, Christmas 2009!

Bill and I keep looking out the window like two sad little kids who can't go out to play.

I stepped out onto the hard cement this morning.

When I came back in, I looked at the map. Next week at this time Bill and Jeff will be in Cambodia for our friend Pyneath's wedding. See how far away it is?

Jeff captured this darling young man when he was in Cambodia some time ago. Now he looks at us from the wall in the living room. Beautiful.

Jeff's been shushing me while he reads Les Miserables. Yesterday he came home with the film. I wonder if we'll watch it today.

Jeff leaves books of poems around the house and I picked up one of them this morning. I found these truthful words:

"This is the age of science, of steel -- of speed and the cement road. The age of hard faces and hard highways. Science and steel demand the medium of prose. Speed requires only the look -- the gesture. What need then, for poetry?

Great need!

There are souls, in these noise-tired times, that turn aside into unfrequented lanes, where the deep woods have harbored the fragrances of many a blossoming season. Here the light, filtering through perfect forms, arranges itself in lovely patterns for those who perceive beauty."
~Roy J. Cook, Editor of One Hundred and One Famous Poems (copyright 1958 by Reilly & Lee)

Aren't you thankful for your eyes that can see beauty? I am also thankful for the way others see things - it gives me new vision for the every day stuff. I never tire of candlelight, books, pictures, things that grow in the earth, color, writing - what it looks like, how fun it is, and what it can DO, warmth, friendship, and on and on and on. Bless you today, warm soul. Time for a handful of worms.

Sweet Space

Hi. How are YOU? Doing okay? I hope so. I have one more sweet week before I go back to school so I am in my new pink pajamas (a gift from Kelli and Bryan + girlies) and reveling in a stretch of time that is free from going and doing. Ahhhhhh. It feels VERY good. What to do? What to do? Pretty much NOTHING . . . unless compelled and inspired. I wouldn't feel so appreciative if I had this sweet free time, all of the time. I know that about me.

Yesterday, I felt a little sluggish so I went out for a camera walk. It was icy in our neighborhood. Many people were too busy with holiday celebrations to clear their walks, so I had to be extra careful. I don't want to break a hip! Anyway, I put the bulky, black camera around my neck and set off. Starbucks gift card in hand (thank you, Blake the eighth grader!) I meandered down to the grocery store. One of my favorite clerks was having her lunch at the Starbucks counter. I joined her. I hope she didn't mind eating her lunch with me. I noticed she felt a little shy. Yikes. I probably should have just said hello and gone on my merry way, but it was nice to hear how her Christmas went, and listen to her employee woes. Our neighborhood is covered in icebergs so there were not many pictures to snap. As I was rounding the corner toward home, I saw the adorable snow princess above. A sweet little family just moved into the house. I love them already even though I haven't even laid eyes on them yet! She's very snowy and wonderful, but not as cute as my little princess here.

Today, I'll go out again and slide around the sidewalks. The sky is such a brilliant blue. I'm sure I'll find a sight to photograph with all that gorgeous blue background! Isn't the sidewalk pretty? It looks like camo! Oh, it's very cold around here. We are trying so hard not to whine! We usually have some 60 degree days during winter, in this part of Colorado. We're spoiled!

There are no leaves, of course. The needle trees have center stage. I'm thankful for them. I miss the lush plants of summer and the reason I miss them is because they are here for a short time. Another reminder that if I had all I want, I wouldn't appreciate anything quite so much and appreciation really is a DELIGHTFUL sensation!

Three "I'm so THANKFUL" realities:

1. Bill and Jeff are home. They leave for Cambodia next Monday. They'll be gone two weeks, back a week and then they'll be off to Africa for two more weeks. I will miss them so much. However, they ARE HOME right now. Yahoo!

2. I have a job that affords me many little breaks that feel very affirming when they come around. I'm thankful for one more week of vacation. I want to savor every moment.

3. The winter causes me to LOVE summer more and more. I used to like the rain and the cold weather more, but now I love the light. Is it because I am getting older and I see the miracle of growth and the holiness of each new day in a different way? I don't know! I just know I appreciate the air I breathe more than ever.

Now that Christmas is over, I'm so ready to enjoy the new year with you! I can't wait to read about what you think and tune in to your musings about how you live your life. I anticipate finding more connections with you and I look forward to miraculous "coincidences" that really aren't coincidences at all but true connections between people who like each other. Even the readers who don't have blogs (like my family members) still connect with me when they read my ponderings. I like that. Believe it or not, sometimes I'm pretty conservative about sharing my thoughts and opinions, so this fun little spot pushes me to share. Thank you for coming on in and participating! I find this supernatural and kind connection extremely rewarding. I hope you do something creative today, read something powerful, listen to the human voice and say a prayer to the King of kings. THAT would be a GOOD DAY. Thank you for your love.