• 2020…

    January 4, 2020 / No Comments

    I love new beginnings.  Like the first day of school with brand new No.2 pencils and a clean, fresh notebook with empty blue lines on bright white paper.  Lines waiting to be filled with everything I’d learn that year.  At this point in my life, it’s a stack of fine heirloom fabrics, coordinated in the wonderful homestead colors I love…just waiting to become quilts.  Quilts for my loved ones.

     

     

    At this point in my life, it’s also continuing to work on a family history that has come so far but still is not complete.  I’m the youngest of four daughters and, unfortunately, not the one with the most memories of the early days.  That would be my oldest sister Dorothy but she’s in Heaven now.  We worked together on it for many years.  There are also boxes of photographs that chronicle 60+ years of my life and the lives of my children. I need to focus on scanning and having photos printed to compile albums for each of my three children.  They’re busy raising families now and may not think photo albums of their childhood are that important.  In time, I think they will cherish the albums and memories.

    2020 will also be a time to focus on traveling as much as we can!  We belong to a couple of travel companies that make planning trips a little easier.  There are so many places to go and new things to see before we get any older!

    Since I celebrated my seventy-fourth birthday on the first day of December, I’m wise enough to know there may not be too many more decades left to complete everything, so I’ll take advantage of the beginning of a new year and a new decade to, once again, tackle these important projects.  Beginnings, in contrast to endings, are about hope and second chances.  I’d say hope and second chances are good for each of us.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Eleven degrees and snow on the ground…

    November 11, 2019 / No Comments

    We got all of four inches of snow last night.  Just enough to be pretty and start the snowball rolling.  The wind has been blowing like crazy all day out of the North-Northwest.  The large flags in town were blowing straight out just like they’d been starched.  Earlier today, I think it was about eighteen degrees.  At the moment, it’s down to eleven.  It is so cold and I’m not ready for winter.  Since my two favorite seasons are Spring and Fall, I guess that’s a clue I don’t like hot and/or cold!  We definitely needed warm caps and a heavy coat today.

    About this time a year ago, I took an ungraceful fall on the sidewalk right in front of one of my favorite shops in Lincoln Square in Chicago.  The sidewalk was uneven and, apparently, I’m clumsy.  I think I saw on Facebook that if one falls and everyone laughs, you’re young.  If one falls and everyone comes running, you’re old. Needless to say, it was embarrassing when everyone came running.  I ended up with a torn meniscus and knee surgery on Valentines Day 2019.  Today, I saw my orthopedic surgeon for a shot of cortisone in my knee.  It will help for several months.  However, it probably means I won’t sleep much tonight and tomorrow I will have bright red circles on my cheeks.  Just a couple of temporary side effects.  It should help the residual pain and, hopefully, give me a boost of energy for a bit.

    Tomorrow I have a CAT scan on my right inner ear in preparation for my ear surgery in January.  I’m not thinking about it or dreading it yet.  It has to be done.

    After the injection in my knee, we stopped at Olive Garden for lupper…late lunch, early supper.  Tiger met us at the back door when we came home.  Obviously, we had been gone much too long to suit him.  I don’t know why he was complaining though.  He’s in a nice warm house all curled up in his cozy spot.

     

    What you see behind the last windbreak of shrubs is a harvested corn field

    belonging to the farmer who owns the land behind our property.

  • Donors Choose…

    November 7, 2019 / No Comments

    Have you ever played the game what would I do if I won the lottery?  Sure you have. So have I. Obviously, I haven’t won the lottery.  It would probably help to buy a ticket (it does help the schools here) but I haven’t lately. I have discovered something that’s almost as good, except this time you’re giving.  You can donate any amount of money. I’ve done as little as $10 and as much as $100 but absolutely any amount helps.

     

     

    Donors Choose is a wonderful organization supporting schools all over the country. Teachers propose a project that is needed in their classroom.  There is a detailed list of exactly what will be ordered and from where.  The teachers describe their classroom and their students. You’re given a word picture of the students and the challenges they face daily. Most of the students are from financially challenged areas. Many of the students come from homes with severely limited incomes, not enough food and no books of their own. It doesn’t take a lot to break my heart but that will do it.  Imagine being a teacher and trying to teach without the needed supplies.  Yesterday, I gave a little to a nursing program that simply needs an over-the-bed table with wheels!  Such a simple thing but try nursing without it.

     

     

    If you want to help, here’s what you do.  Go to https://www.donorschoose.org  You can choose your city and your local school. You can check out needed projects all over the country.  Or you can click on “most urgent”.  There are several schools in Des Moines I’ve supported.  I support my youngest granddaughters’ school and their teachers as well as other teachers in their school. And by “support” it doesn’t have to be a lot of money but anything helps.  I also like to click on Iowa and rural. I have supported several projects that way. Once, I found a class in the Bronx with refugee children who needed seating for their classroom. For $20, I was able to complete that project. That is so rewarding when you get to actually complete the project. It’s especially thrilling, when you receive a notice that a project you have helped (with any amount) has been completely funded and is about to be delivered! The teachers have sent me photos of the children unpacking whatever their project was and it’s just like Christmas morning. I love it!  The teachers are given a certain amount of time to fund their projects.  There have been a few times when the projects weren’t funded in time.  You can choose to leave your donation with that teacher for a future project or move it to an urgent need.  It’s up to you.  And, of course, your donation is tax-deductible.

    Many of us are retired and on “fixed” incomes.  I always wondered what that meant.  Now I know.  Very few of us are wealthy (we’re not), but most of us waste enough money to help a student or a classroom with such need.  If I ever do win the lottery, I’m headed straight to this website and have so much fun!

     

  • Gerry…

    October 14, 2019 / No Comments

    Eight years ago yesterday, I was in Chicago meeting my new little granddaughter Maggie.  I can’t remember who called on the telephone, probably one of my nieces, Cindy or Sharon.  I just remember the tears starting as I realized what she was going to tell me.  My beloved sister Gerry had lost her battle with ALS.  I hadn’t said a word but Maggie’s precious mom took one look at me and her tears started too.  I was due to fly to Memphis in a week and spend time with Gerry.  It wasn’t meant to be.  I changed my flight and flew home for her funeral service instead.

    Gerry was one in a million.  I’ve written about her before.  If you’ve read my blog very long, then you know she was my guardian angel.  The one I fled to when my heart was broken.  Fifteen years older, she was the one who always made sure I had what I needed.  The one who saved an engraved, gold Elgin watch for me until I was twelve and old enough for it (she had won it for being President of the Mississippi 4H when she was eighteen).  She was so good to everyone, not just me, but I was her baby sister and that’s what she always called me.  Her baby sister.

    She loved the Lord with all her heart and I know she’s loving Heaven.  If there are angel biscuits to be made in Heaven, she’s the best one for that job.  Faithful to the end.  It was hard flying back to Oregon after her memorial service.  Back in Oregon, I would sit at my computer overlooking the beautiful mountains in the distance and I would cry.  Evidently, I cried too long for my husband at the time asked “are you EVER going to quit crying?!”  I didn’t know there was a time limit on grief, but I tried to cheer up.  It wasn’t his fault really.  He hadn’t known her very well and certainly not like I did.  We were divorced a year later.

    Each year gets a little easier.  I miss her and my sister Dot so much.  She and my oldest sister Dot are keeping Mama and Daddy company in Heaven.  They’re wondering when Eunice and I are going to get there but let’s hope it’s a little while longer.  In the meantime, I’ll remember the good times and cherish the sweet memories.  

     

    Below:  Gerry in front of the pond down from their “house on the hill”…

     

    Below:  Gerry, Bill, Eunice and Dot.  Just Eunice and I are left now.  The rest are in Heaven.

     

  • Yesterday…

    October 7, 2019 / No Comments

    Yesterday started out with bright sunshine and cool Fall temperatures.  We enjoyed a wonderful church service continuing the series on Moses.  I love the story of the burning bush…reminding us, once again, that God is faithful.  We came home for a quick bite of lunch then drove to Ames to watch our ten year old grandson play in a soccer game.  He puts his whole heart into it as he runs up and down the field doing his part to win the game.

    After the game, we enjoyed the Iowa countryside scenic route home.  We stopped briefly at a pumpkin farm and bought a pumpkin for the front porch and a few ornamental gourds and stalks of decorative corn.  I love this time of year…

     

    I think I’m a country girl at heart.

     

    Found this Williams-Sonoma roosters tablecloth new on eBay.  I love the farmhouse feel.

  • Mercy and grace…

    October 5, 2019 / 1 Comment

    You’ve read the news, just as I have.  After a long shift, an off-duty police officer returns home.  Unfortunately, she gets off on the wrong floor of her building and proceeds to what she thinks is her apartment – it would be, if she were on the correct floor.  She’s distracted, tired, sleep-deprived?  We don’t know.  We weren’t there.  Sadly, we do know what happened.  She shot and killed the twenty-six year old occupant of that apartment, Botham Jean.  An act she will live with every single minute of every single hour of every single day – for the rest of her life.  She was sentenced to ten years of her life.

    How would you or I feel if the young man who lost his life that day had been your brother or my brother?  Angry, confused, hurt, sad…angry.  No doubt, all of those feelings went through the mind of Botham’s brother, eighteen year old Brandt Jean.  After Amber Guyger was sentenced to ten years in prison, and during his victim impact statement, the young brother made a brave and surprising decision.  He asked to give his brother’s murderer a hug.  He had listened to Amber Guyger’s sobbing testimony when she repeatedly said how sorry she was.  He chose to forgive.  In a long embrace, Brandt Jean hugged Amber Guyger and forgave her.  I don’t know what she said to him but she wept in his arms.  Reportedly, Brandt Jean said “if you are truly sorry – I know I can speak for myself – I forgive you.”   Mercy and grace.

    This truly was a picture none of us will forget anytime soon…a compelling look at what Christ Jesus did for us.   Regardless of what we’ve done or who we are, God loves us.  Unmerited mercy and grace.  Our debt of sin must be paid. Amazingly, God sent His only son Jesus to pay for our sin – on the cross.  It is a gift but it must be accepted.  We must come undeserving to the foot of the cross – asking for forgiveness, repenting…believing in His gift of salvation and eternal life.  Thank God when Jesus walked out of that tomb, he had conquered death and purchased our pardon.

    I thank God for a Christian judge who gave her personal Bible to Amber Guyger.  I pray Amber reads it.  I pray she begins with John 3:16:  “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not die but shall have eternal life”.