Music Man
I just got home from the high school play, Music Man. What a great job those kids did! They are so talented and they put so much effort into doing this play well.
Our community has so many musicians and they come together for the high school musicals and play for the performances. I loved hearing them. Some of them had kids in the play but many of them don't. They come back to support the high school kids and because they enjoy using their musical talents. We are so blessed!
TB Test
To be a Hospice Volunteer, one of the things you must do is to have an annual TB Test. Today was my day. Sometimes it hurts more than at other times. Last year, it was a little painful to me but this year, it was hardly a pinch. I'll have my test read by Judy, our church organist who is the nurse who deals with occupational health issues. The nurse who gave me my test today was one of my fifth grade students. I was glad to see her and she what a beautiful adult she's become. She was a beautiful person as a fifth grader, too!
Ventriliquoist
The program for the luncheon yesterday featured a ventriliquoist. His name was Phil and his puppet's name was Simon. He began his program by telling us that sometimes when he's in an elevator and they play muzak, he likes to mess with people's heads by singing along with the music without moving his lips. Then he demonstrated, as though he was in an elevator and sang Luck Be a Lady. He really was good, not only with his craft but also as a singer.
He made Simon come alive to the audience. It was easy to think of him as a little wooden person because of the personality Phil gave him. He ended his program with audience participation. He got a man and two women to come up on stage and he had them be the puppets. They would open their mouths when he touched their shoulder and he would speak for them. He gave the man a high pitched voice, one woman had a man's voice, and the second woman had the dog's voice. He had them be Dick and Jane and Spot. We had a lot of laughs from his skits. We really enjoyed the program.
Embarrassing Moment
My husband was asked to drive to the luncheon today because several of the women wanted to ride in a car instead of the church van. We were going about an hour and fifteen minutes away. Our leader wanted to arrive early but there was a mix up in the announcement of the time to leave so we ended up leaving later than we intended.
As we left town, my husband said, "Oh! The gauge says that I'm almost out of gas. I thought I had enough gas." All of us told him, "Go now and get gas. Do it now." But he said that he was pretty sure he really had enough to get to Meadville and he'd get gas there. But he had a gas can in the back with about 2 gallon of gas in it.
Enough said, eh! We ran out of gas. Pastor, driving the church van behind us, pulled off the road with us to make sure we were OK. They got the gas in the car and my husband said he would stop at the gas station as planned. I don't know why it took about 15 minutes to gas up at the gas station. Pastor pulled off at the gas station, too, and waited for us. So, everybody in our group arrived late. We didn't get to sit together. I feel like I should apologize to our group leader. I haven't seen her to talk to her.
My husband says, "I haven't run out of gas for 15 years." So, why did he let it happen today when so many people wanted to arrive at the luncheon early? But, the good news is that we did arrive, all of us, safely, and we had a really good meal and enjoyed the program, too. In the long run, no harm done. Just some embarrassment. This, too, shall pass.
Early Morning
I usually love early mornings and today is no exception. It's quiet and peaceful around here. The school traffic hasn't started yet though it's going to begin in a few minutes.
It's going to be a beautiful day! Too bad I have to go away for most of the morning and afternoon, to a luncheon meeting. I'll enjoy it, but I'm such a stick in the mud! I'd love to be home today. There's so much to do here. But I'll just have to do it later or another day.
It's time to get the day on the road. The school crossing guard has taken her post and I see my neighbor from the other side of the road going for her daily morning walk. It's time for me to get perking, too. Talk to you later!
Camcorder pictures
I was able to get some pictures of the chipmunk and of some of the birds, too. I don't know any other way to view them than as video tape in the VCR, but from time to time, I can look at them that way. I haven't used the camcorder for a while and I wasn't really steady as I held it. With practice, I'll get somewhat better at it, but to be perfectly steady, I would need a tripod. Still, it's fun to work with.
video
I just got back from Aquarobics. I put a lot of effort into it and now I'm tired, but I'll snap back soon.
Yesterday I realized that I could us my camcorder and take close up pictures of the activity at my bird feeders. I have it set up and ran it for a little bit earlier today but so far I haven't seen the chipmunk. I really want to get some pictures of him. He's so cute!
I get to have lunch soon. Goody! I feel hollow after the great workout this morning.
S'no Big Deal!
We had our snow and it's not a big deal. It wasn't bad at all. Of course, It wouldn't have been a good day for an outdoor field trip with a picnic lunch because it was pretty cold, but the snow was minimal. There was enough snow in the air to say it snowed but it didn't blanket the yard. When I hear snow in the weather forcast, I expect an inch or so and we certainly didn't want an inch of snow yesterday.
It's time now to put on my coat and go outdoors and fill the bird feeders again. Maybe tomorrow I won't need to put my coat on when I do this. We are looking for warmer weather through the rest of this week.
Voting
A light turn-out was expected for today's primary election in PA. When I went to vote, I was the only voter there. There were four people sitting at the table to run the election and Rita, who sets up the voting machine for people. There wasn't much to vote for! There were two areas where there was a contest, but for the most of the rest, there was only one person's name to vote for. There was no contest at all. Still, I'm glad that I exercised my civic privilege and voted.
Taking a Break
I have found places to hang two of the pictures I had exhibited at the art show. I will put the tulip picture away and I'll use that frame for another picture when I need it later this summer. That leaves Bindweed Beauty to do something with. It's not a big picture. I should be able to find a place for it somewhere. I'll keep that on my mind as I finish up my housework.
The Pysanky keeps calling me. I did take time to do a little more work on the eggs. The last egg I did was Ladders to Heaven. It's vertical lines, dividing the egg into 8 sections. Each line gets little lines, like pine needles. Between the vertical lines there is room for a flower motif. I used white, turquoise and red for the line design, and then finished it off in black. I like it. Black is for rememberance. Ladders to Heaven were given to the elderly at Easter time. I don't have anyone in mind to give the egg. I just like the design. It's also an easy one to do.
Today is primary election in PA. I'll go out to vote at noon and do some around town chores.
Happy Dance
I'm doing a little "happy dance" (at least in my mind) this morning, because it's such a pretty day after all, and no snow. Of course the day isn't over and we could have rain mixed with snow later today, but for now the weather is beautiful.
Today I will do my hour of "house blessing." Fly Lady does hers on Monday but Tuesday suits me better. I'll also do more Pysanky and if it isn't too cold for working outside, I'll do a little more yard work, "yard blessing," I guess.
The yellow tulips are open now and I'm enjoying them so much. Jean, at church, gave me two of the Easter lilies to plant in my yard. Today might be a good day to do that. I am grateful for this day, --this day which the Lord has made.
Afternoon Sun
This afternoon the sun came out and the day was much warmer. It was still cool enough that one would need a jacket but it felt good to be outdoors. I decided that it would be a good day to watch the high school girls' softball game. I took my seat cushion and went to the ball field. There was no game going on. What happened. I asked a couple of guys who were talking together outside the tennis court. They said the came was called off because the filed was not in good shape to have a game. Oh, right! All that rain affected it. If I'd have thought about it much, I wouldn't have been surprised to find that the game had been called off. I came home and had my dinner instead.
Oh, yes, the bus driver for the away field and track team spoke to me as I passed him. He told me that there would be no game tomorrow, for sure! Yes, the buzz all around town is about the probability of snow tomorrow.
My Rings Are Home!
Today I got a call from the jeweler. My rings were ready. I said that maybe I'd not come today, that maybe I'd come tomorrow. But, it's been so long since I've had my rings. I couldn't wait till tomorrow, now, could I? A little while before he closed, I went to pick up my rings. It's good to have them back again.
How much did it cost? I thought it would be around $50, give or take. But, I was pleasantly surprised. It was $18, plus tax of course.
He cautioned me not to wear the rings to Aquarobics again and I am of the same mind. I don't want chlorine erosion to get my rings again!
The Buzz Around Town
It's the weather! Everyone is talking about the weather reports that say there will be rain mixed with snow tomorrow. "Did you hear that?" people ask each other. We've most of us heard the weather news but now and then there's someone who hasn't heard it.
"We could move to a warmer place," we say to each other, but then we finish up with the fact that we'd really rather have it on the cool side, even possible snow tomorrow, than have it in the 80's and 90's. "That awful heat!" we tell each other. Most of us would have moved by now if the cool weather bothered us, but then there's those who are tied to jobs who will move to warmer places as soon as it is possible for them.
As the saying goes, we talk about the weather, but we don't do anything about it. After all, we really like it to be on the cool side and we all have sweaters and jackets to keep us warm if we need them. We need them today and tomorrow!
Sandpaper Drawing
It's still rainy and cool this morning but it's not so cold as to be snow. We know that April is supposed to bring rain but snow is something that belongs to March, not April.
I'm still thinking about the art show and things that happened. The woman who did the demonstration on using pastel told us that ordinary sandpaper can be used as drawing paper for pastels. It reminded me of my experience.
I had read that sandpaper could be used and it should be a really fine grain sandpaper. I wanted to try it out. One of my sons and his wife and I walked to an auto store near here to buy sandpaper. It was the closest store that would have sandpaper. They had it, of course, to be used to sand rust away from metal before painting. The salesman came to help me and I wanted to see the finest sandpaper. When we established the fact that it was the finest grained sandpaper that they carried, I asked him if it came in a different color. I hadn't told him that I wanted it to draw on, so he was really jolted that I would ask for a different color. What difference would the color of the paper make when you're sanding rust away? And, no! He didn't have it in a different color.
The Tulips
The yellow tulips in front of the living room window were beginning to open today. It's so gratifying to see them come into bloom. The new tulips are now well into bud. There is a tiny line of red showing on a couple of the buds. I think I do remember that I got red bulbs last fall to add a different color for this spring. They will be blooming in a few days now.
Some people told me this morning that it's supposed to snow here on Tuesday. I am so in hopes that this is not true. Our spring flowers are beginning to look so pretty. And we are all ready for warm weather.
Oh, by the way, the rain had stopped by the time I had to leave the house this morning. Maybe stopped isn't the best word to use. It wasn't raining when I left the house but it rained on and off throughout the rest of the day. It was sprinkling when we took our pictures to our cars at 5 when the art show was finished.
The Show Is Over
The art show is over now and I'm home for the evening. It was a good show and I really enjoyed having my things in it and participating, but a person can't help feeling a little bit relieved when it's over. It is tiring.
Today I sat in on my friend, Terri's, demonstration of Pysanky eggs. I added some comments, --I hope not too many. We both took our first class in Pysanky at the same time. She made a fine demonstration but she had a couple of surprises. The egg she was wiping the wax off of just broke in her hand. What a yucky mess, but she took it in stride. There must have been a flaw in the shell of the egg that she hadn't noticed. And then she was reaching to pick up an egg to show the people when the egg underneath it exploded. She hadn't blown it out and sometimes they build up gas and maybe she bumped it a little as she lifted the one egg out of the dish. We all know that sometimes the eggs which aren't blown out will explode. So we got to see a real live example of it happening.
I also attended the next demonstration called frottage. It's Frence, pronounced Frayh-tayzh, and it means rubbing. Basically it was about taking rubbings of interesting textures but Steve also showed how these rubbings or appearances of rubbings could be used in art.
I think all of us were ready to grab our pictures and head out when it was finally 5 o'clock this afternoon. Tired, but happy. It was a good show.
Cold and Rainy
It's cold and rainy this morning. It was hard to get out of bed. It's that kind of morning. The chipmunk is out and about as usual. One little sparrow flew down to the bird feeder, saw the chipmunk on the edge of the feeder and put on his brakes and turned away in mid air, but then came back a few seconds later and went to the opposite side of the feeder. A few minutes later, five or six little sparrows flew up from the ground where they'd been eating the fallen seeds and I hadn't even noticed them. They just blend in with the brown of the earth and when you look casually, you don't see them.
The clouds are even darker now than when I first got up and I just heard some thunder. It seems like it's too cold for a thunder storm. People are gathering in for the early service in the Lutheran Church just down the street. They walk slowly under umbrellas but some hardy souls hunch their shoulders and push through the rain to the shelter of the sanctuary. Soon I'll be dashing out to our car to drive to church. We don't have an early service.
I dreamed last night that I was criving our big Chevy Caprice 130 miles to my dad, to have him help me get it to the garage to be fixed. I never drive this car. It's too big for me and I don't feel safe driving it. I was surprised in my dream that I was driving it such a long distance when I won't drive it around town.
The rain is pouring down very hard now. The birds and chipmunk have gone to shelter. People who are arriving to church now without an umbrella are running to get inside the building. A man with a big black umbrella strolled slowly across the street. A young man without an umbrella threw something white over his head and did the sprint.
It's tempting to just sit here and watch the people deal with the rain, but now it's time for me to get dressed for church. Maybe it will stop raining by the time it's my turn to head for church. At least I can hope so!
Unfinished Business
At the art show tonight, Steve told us that when he looked over his paintings to see what he could enter, he discovered that he has a lot of unfinished paintings.
I know that when I don't finish an ink drawing and come back to it much later, I have lost the drive to do it. I seldom finish an ink drawing that I have let go for over a month. I asked Steve if he would be able to finish any of these paintings.
He considered this and then said that probably he could finish most of them. He said that what he does is line them up and look them over carefully to see which one will beckon to him, calling, "Work on me!" And that's how he chooses when he decides to finish a painting. But lately, they must have all been silent.
The Demo
It's over and it went well. I just knew it wouldn't be attended by a lot of people. The time wasn't right for that, and the subject isn't all that enticing. Not everyone is interested in pen and ink. In fact, I think most people don't consider it an art form that would be on a par with oil painting. When I was reading about pen and ink some years ago, I learned that it's a medium used mostly for illustrating and for temporary projects, not usually considered highly desirable to be framed and kept on display.
The person who had the time slot before me was doing a demonstration of pastel. There was much more interest in pastel and she was actually doing a drawing on an easel and people watched her do it. I couldn't demonstrated pen work like that. I just work in my sketch pad, either on a table, or on my lap. The person ahead of me was an art teacher! I am not an art teacher. I couldn't do the kind of instruction that she did.
But I showed my own examples, the good ones and the ones which helped me learn things. When I first started doing pen drawings, I sometimes used Flair pens with felt nibs. They were such fun to work with. But they weren't standard ink for artists to use and in just a few years, the ink faded from jet black to either a brown color, or a green color. That was OK if I used the same pen for the whole drawing. If I used several different pens for the drawing, the inks would change with time and it was very evident that I hadn't used the same pen. Now I know to use the artist quality pens and not to switch pens while working. It's OK to use a Micron .005 and a Micron .01 because it's still the same ink and the only difference is in the size of the line drawings.
So we talked technicalities like that and even used the pens a little bit. I wasn't stressed and I think the people who attended enjoyed the discussion and the tips I gave. I really think it was OK.
The Funeral
As funerals go, this one was also a sad one, but there were good things. The weather was great. Although it was on the cool side, it wasn't bad at all. There were lots of tears, and lots of hugs. There were lots of memories expressed, -good memories.
The traffic didn't hinder as much as I expected it would. A military vehicle went past and the driver slowed down and almost drifted past us, making little engine noise. We appreciated the show of respect. The big trucks didn't seem as noisy this morning as I remembered them from the husband's funeral some years ago. I think many of those drivers were also considerate about their engine noise.
It was hard for the family to leave the cemetery. Now they are gathering back to the house next door and taking things out of the house. For the next few days, I'll be looking in on the cats again, until it's decided what they will do about the house.
She was a good neighbor. I have missed her already.
Pen and Ink
Last night I looked through my art magazines and found some articles on doing work with pen and ink. I'll use those illustrations as examples of ink work, and I'll also get my old ink drawings to show when I do the demonstration this afternoon. I'm scheduled for 6-7 and the show goes till 8 tonight. I really don't expect many people to come to a demo at that time, but I still need to be prepared in case there is some interest. It seems to me from past years that people tend to come when the show first opens and those who come in the later hours, just before it closes, just want to walk through and look at the displays. Still, this demonstration in pen and ink is what is on my mind this morning.
But first, I have to be at a graveside funeral service at 11 this morning. It will be at a plot in the cemetery beside the road where there is a lot of traffic. Some years ago we buried the husband there and had a graveside service. It was difficult to hear when truck traffic went past. It was also cold. Today would have been their wedding anniversary. The family chose this day for the service, even though it meant waiting a couple of weeks to bury the ashes. They chose this day because of the anniversary. It will be a hard day for them, one daughter told me, and they would rather have the family together than each of them go it alone today. So it's going to be a bitter-sweet day.
Someone Will Like It
Tonight at the art show, I was talking to a recent new member of our Artists' Guild. She was trained at the Art Institute and she loves to do experimental work.
When we talked about how we've seen growth in our skills over the last five years, I asked Tina if she throws away her old stuff that she feels isn't as good as what she's doing now. I want to throw away some of my old stuff.
Tina said, "No! There's always someone who will like that picture." I never thought of it like that. I always feel that if I don't like it, my own work, why would anyone else want it? If I feel embarrassed by it, I just want to get rid of it.
Tina said, "Give it away. If anyone says, 'I like it," just give it to them." She insisted that there is someone for every picture. That's food for thought! At the moment, I think I want to toss my beginner stuff, but I'm willing to think it over some more.
Yard Sales
I was thinking about something that I'd like to get today and then I thought, Maybe I could pick it up at a yard sale. I think that often but then I don't follow through. Yard sales sound so good and offer so much and I know there are many bargains to be found but when I do finally get myself in gear and get going, it's not bargains that I find. I've found the kinds of things for sale that I would just throw away. When I think of driving from place to place all over town, dealing with parking space and then looking at great collections of junk, I just don't want to make the effort. But I've known people who have great success in finding bargains at yard sales. One of their secrets is to start out early. That's one of my problems. I'm still home doing my e-mail while the real bargain finders are out there getting all the good deals.
A Flock of Chipmunks?
Today at Aquarobics, I was telling a friend that I have been enjoying watching a chipmunk at our place. She responded, "I live out in the country. We have lots of chipmunks. I don't get a kick out of seeing chipmunks."
She said that she has chipmunks, squirrels and even a groundhog and they aren't much fun for her.
On the way home, I was thinking about this. It's entirely possible that if I had a "flock" of chipmunks to watch every day it might not be as enjoyable as watching the one which I think of as "my" chipmunk.
They do get into mischief, I know. A lot of chipmunks can get into a lot of mischief and do a lot of damage. I am satisfied to have just the one chipmunk.
A Move of the Bird Feeder
It rained last night and the sky is overcast this morning. It's very cool here now. Kids have gathered in to school and it's very quiet in the neighborhood now.
It may have been a mistake for me to move one of the bird feeders to a spot beside my trellis archway where I can see it from my seat here at the computer because I want to look at it all the time now. The first thing I saw this morning as I sat down to check my mail was the chipmunk filling up at his own filling station. It was hard for me to take my eyes away from him. I realized that it is a full time job being a little chipmunk. He was very watchful in every direction, and yet for most of the time, he's reasonably safe. But he does have to be alert for a neighborhood cat, and a few other dangers that threaten him. He needs to eat a lot because all the running around he does uses up a lot of energy.
The little birds at the feeder seem calmer in their level of alertness. The purple finch visits this feeder often. He and his mate are the ones that tried to build a nest in the light fixture on on the porch. I don't know just what discouraged them from building there but I'm glad that they decided on another place because it would be so messy. There's a lot of people going in and out of our front door, and that may be what changed their little birdy minds. I know they are nesting somewhere near, but I haven't discovered where yet.
I do touch typing, so I can write as I watch the activity outside my window, but I have to take my eyes away from the busy scene to proof read my work, and I'm finding the bird feeder scene much too interesting to ignore.
Art Show
Today was the day to take my pictures to the site for the art show. I have four pictures that will be on display. Would you believe that I almost forgot that today was the day to take the pictures!! I have an easy forgetter, but fortunately I was rereading something I had written about art and it jogged my memory that now was the time. The show opens tomorrow night. There will be live background music (I think it's classical guitar) and it's a dress up event. Then Saturday afternoon we'll have demonstrations, and I'll be doing a demo on pen and ink. I'll have to look up some good tips on ink work, although if I'm just talking conversationally, I have things to say about working with ink. I am excited about the show tomorrow, in spite of almost forgetting today.
Invaded!
You knew that it had to happen, didn't you! My little world with the chipmunk and the little birds has been invaded by a squirrel, not a cute, bushy tailed, gray squirrel, but a big, annoying, red squirrel. I saw him out there on the bird feeder this morning and he was longer than the bird feeder! He was wrapped around it cozily and digging in for dear life. I went out onto the porch and scolded him and he took off. I haven't seen him since, but I know, ---he'll be back!
Diamonds
The lupin has leaves that have veins that all meet in the center, right where the leaf sits on the stem. This forms a little depression, like a little cup. After a rain, or the early morning dew, water collects in this little place and it sparkles there just like diamond. Because of the way the veins meet at the center, the water drop that's trapped there even takes the shape of a diamond. I love to see these diamonds sparkling in the lupin leaves. This morning the lupin leaves are sporting their precious diamonds and I got to see them again.
Tulips
After our brief wind storm yesterday evening we had a lot of rain but this morning it's not raining and it's not windy either. I've been outdoors in my shirtsleeves and got our trash to the curb for pick up. I also filled the bird feeders again.
I saw that the tulip buds are swelling bigger and bigger and will open in a few days. The daffodils are starting to look a little ragged but from a distance, their beautiful sunny yellow looks wonderful.
The tulips in front of the living room window will bloom first. They will also be a sunny yellow. They seem to glow on a sunny morning. I never get tired of looking at them.
Last fall I planted a lot of new bulbs. They are starting to send up their buds now. I'm looking forward to seeing their color when they open. In the last couple of years, I have been buying new bulbs, and I find that I forget by the time they are growing in the spring what color I bought and I'm surprised joyfully when they finally bloom. The yellow tulips that will bloom first have been there for many years and their color is deeply impressed in my mind.
Sometimes I forget where I planted new bulbs and then it's interesting to walk through the yard in the spring and discover where new things are growing.
I have a question though. How did the daffodil get into the center of the Iris bed? I don't remember putting it there. Sometimes I think my plants inch along and get themselves into new places.
Storms
We've been hearing about really bad storms across our nation as well as near us. Monday in Clymer, a whole row of telephone poles was blown over. They needed a lot of machinery and man power to get them back up again.
Today about 6:30 weather conditions around us seemed very ominous. The sky got dark and the light was weird and the wind was very strong. Tomorrow is our trash pick up and lots of people put their trash out any time on the day before. Anything light weight was blowing around and out on the road. I did a bit of trash rescue before the heavy rain pelted down and before we went to choir practice.
The storm is over here and we just have steady rain now.
Letters
When I was evaluating the day last night, I forgot to write that I wrote several letters. The letters may be what I feel best about, next to the joy that I felt. And I talked to Evelyn Anderson on the phone. Evelyn writes nature articles for the Erie Times News. I enjoy her articles and would love to meet her. I had invited her to be the speaker for the June meeting of the Retired School Employees but she will not be able to do it. However, she was very gracious and polite as she told me she would not be able to speak to our group. She even suggested a couple of other names for our consideration. I feel like I talked to a celebrity! It was a good day yesterday.
Taking Pills
Every morning I have to give my dog Desy three pills. One is for a thyroid condition, one is phenobarbitol to keep her from getting really excited and bringing on a seizure, and the third is an allergy pill. She has severe allergies, none of them food, all of them things like dust, grass, pollens, household inhalents. (She's a high maintenance dog!) These pills are all very tiny and I tuck them into a bite of banana and she takes it without any problem.
Today I decided that it's time to start the heart worm medication. I picked it up for them a few weeks ago but decided to wait till the warmer weather to get it started. Today is the day.
Last year the heart worm medication was a chewable tab that looked and tasted (I assume, I didn't taste it) like a treat. Both dogs took it eagerly. This year it's a huge, round, beige pill, and hard as a rock. I seriously doubted that the dogs would think it was appetizing. I gave Desy hers first because Desy eats most everything. She spit it out! I wasn't surprised.
I tucked the pill into some banana and she took it. She worked at eating it and though she spit out part of it at first, she did end up getting the pill swallowed. Rusty, however, doesn't like banana. I decided to get a really big gob of peanut butter and surround the pill in peanut butter for him. I thought he might get the peanut butter off the pill and spit the pill out, but I was grateful to see that he downed the pill eagerly and was ready to lick my fingers clean again.
Now I know, next month when it's time for these huge pills again, I'll just reach for the jar of peanut butter to start with.
The Measure of a Day
At the end of the day, I like to reflect a little and take stock of what I accomplished in my day. It's easy for me to measure the value of a day when I either did a lot of work or just a little. It's easy to think that since I did a lot of work I spent my time in a worth while way, or conversely, if I got little work done, I feel that the day was a loss. But I suspect that that isn't the true measure of the day.
Today I feel good about the things I've done. I've pulled weeds, chased dirt, talked to neighbors, done laundry, read my Bible and prayed through a good portion of my prayer list. I've cooked meals and taken care of the critters in my home and around my home.
I've felt joy. Perhaps that is the best measure of my day!
Weeding
Today I started the arduous task of weeding. I'm pretty much past the raking stage of clearing out the flower beds. Now, it's time to pull weeds. The air was a little bit cool today but the ground on the surface was warm. Plants are responding to the growth and the sunlight. Why is it that weeds respond much faster than cultivated plants do?
Sitting with the Cats
I spent about an hour this morning, sitting with the lonely cats in the house next door. Sitting with cats is not at all like sitting with dogs, or maybe it's just that my dogs aren't starved for human companionship and these cats certainly are. My dogs demand attention from time to time, but not non-stop for an hour. They are content to lie down near me while I read or write.
I thought I would sit and read for a while. Patches never left me at all, the whole time I was there. She jumped up beside me, she rubbed against my hand, my shoulder and reached to pat my face. She patted my Bible and chewed at the zipper of the dust cover.
And, the whole time, she purred! She wanted me to pet her and scratch her ears. She wanted attention and she basked in it. The other cat, a dark brown male with beautiful yellow eyes, was content to be with me for a while and then go into another room for a while. But when I left, he was right there to see me off with his sister, Patches. I promised to come back for a while this evening and stay a little while when I turned on some lights again.
Reading
I am currently reading The Bookman's Wake. This is a mystery in which Cliff Janeway is the main character. He is a retired policeman and an avid collector of valuable books. At first this story is slow moving but still it's enjoyable. I'm learning a lot about how books were made and what makes a book valuable. Author John Dunning puts a lot of his knowledge of book collecting into his stories.
The Bookman's Wake relates a lot of factual material in with the fictional story. Some times when he talks about books, I'm not entirely sure what is fact and fiction. I think that when he talks about the publishing house that is central to the plot of the story, Grayson, it's fiction but even in dealing with the fictional, he uses a lot of facts as to the fine points of printing and making a very special book.
I've been enjoying this book. I'm getting very close to the ending of it now. I haven't checked the page numbers, but I think it's less than 100 pages now. I haven't been trying to figure out the solution to the mystery. I've been enjoying the scenery, but I've had a few tense moments while reading it because I have come to care about Eleanor Rigby who is now in great danger.
Eleanor Rigby, --yes, Dunning makes a lot of the fact that Eleanor Rigby is the subject of a song the Beetles sang.
A Day of Blessings
This morning we went to the hospital for my husband to have a yearly exam. His test results were very good. No problem in that area. The problem that he does have is very possibly from the medication that he's had to take. We'll be working on getting that straightened out.
It was very windy today and this evening it started to rain very hard. This made it a lot cooler today than it was yesterday, but it's still pretty nice.
It's hard to understand how one day could bring such a change in the outdoors. One day of warm, sunny weather and green leaves are popping open on the bushes, shrubs and trees. The snow on the mountain, which has been all green until this morning is now living up to its name. There were mounds of white blossoms today where yesterday there were just green plants.
The bird feeder continues to be an area of busy traffic. Today the grackles were back. There were two of them, --I suppose mates. Their heads are a dark blue, almost purple color and the bodies are jet black. They are much bigger than the finches and sparrows and even bigger than the cardinals and blue jays. I got a good look at them as they clung to the small lip of the bird feeder and searched out the tidbits they wanted. Their eyes are white rounds with black centers and look like they are glued on to the sides of their heads. Very curious.
This evening I spent about 20 minutes with our neighbor's cats. There has been no decision as to who is going to take the cats yet and I volunteered to go into the house and spend a little time with them. I just went down this evening to turn on lights so that the house looks lived in and the two kitties ran to meet me. They are starved for attention from people. We usually think of cats as being aloof and enjoying solitude. Well, they do when they want some alone time, but these cats have been alone long enough that they really crave some people time. I'll spend a little more time with them before I call it a night.
All in all, there have been many little good things today, and then of course, the really big thing, -my husband's physical exam shows nothing wrong. For that I am giving thanks.
Promises
Yesterday morning I felt like there was a promise of something really good about to happen. Well, nothing spectacular did happen. But then again, nothing bad happened, either. It was a good day. The weather turned warm as summer. The Sunday school lesson went well. I played the piano well for the choir. There were lots of friends to greet at church.
We discovered the chipmunk helping himself in the bag of birdseed. I saw him later in his usual routine on the wall in the dog pen and he was OK. He didn't have a heart attact from his great fright at being discovered in the bag of bird seed.
I saw good friends again in the evening and later spent quiet time reading a good book. I'd say the day lived up to its promise even though there wasn't any unusual or wonderful surprise. It was a very good day.
Vanilla
I recently bought refills for my plug-in air fresheners. I got two varieties, spice, and vanilla. I put the vanilla ones in the downstairs areas. Now when I go from room to room, I'm greeted with this good smell that makes me think of freshly frosted warm cinnamon buns. Some day soon I may have to bake cinnamon rolls again. The great smell isn't enough. I think I need to eat a cinnamon roll now!
My Chipmunk
Recently when I was getting seed for the bird feeder, and I had been noticing how "my" chipmunk was feeling very much at home at our place, not only in the back where the bird feeder hangs, but around the side and under the porch and in the planter at the front of the house, I began to wonder if he would start getting into the bag of bird seed that I've been keeping on the front porch.
Today when my husband and I got home from church and he walked onto the porch ahead of me, he laid some of the things he was carrying down on the table under the mail box. He just thumped them down. When he did that, a very frightened chipmunk popped out of the bag of bird seed and dashed off to safety!
The bag is nearing empty now, probably 3/4 used up, so there's no point in moving it. I folded the top down tightly and left it where it was. But I know that my resourceful little chipmunk can easily gnaw through the bag to get at the source of his food supply. I'll keep an eye on it for signs of forced entry.
Renewed
This is another morning where I thank God for the rest and renewing which I receive through the night. I was very tired last night but this morning I am renewed and ready to take on the responsibilities of today.
One never knows what a day will bring but there does seem to be a promise of something good to be discovered and enjoyed. I'll be on my way to church soon and I definitely expect to find a blessing this morning.
Starfire
My Starfire Daffodils opened yesterday. They are much smaller than the usual daffodil and they are delicate cup and saucer variety. The cup is a deep orange color and the saucer is much lighter and is yellow-orange. It's a real treat for me to see them there each time I go in and out of the house.
Brunch
I am not a "brunch" person. I like do my morning routine at home, and that includes breakfast, which usually is Cheerios and banana. That works for me and has worked for me for years.
Today I had to go to a Brunch to honor Hospice volunteers. It started at 10. I am used to having breakfast before then. If I ate breakfast before I went, I wouldn't be hungry when I went to the brunch. I would prefer not to wait till 10. And even then, we got settled in and then we gave our order for what we wanted, and just after 10:30, the food came.
Then, of course, I wasn't having lunch at noon and shouldn't eat again till dinner, which, in a way throws me off for the day. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool breakfast, dinner and supper person.
Framed
I didn't have a very fine point pen and I was holding off on the inking in of the bindweed flower because I wanted it to show up as light as possible since that's the thing that appealed to me in the picture, --the pure simplicity of the single white flower.
Carolyn had offered to help me get the pastel drawing of the barn reframed to put in the art show. When she called and said she had time to do it, I went then to get it done. She lives just a couple of blocks away from me.
I knew she wanted to get the bindweed picture framed, too, while she had an evening with no demands on her time, so I told her I would try to get that flower finished but I was feeling uncomfortable about it because I hadn't been able to get the fine point pen. She had one, an .005. The line it made was perfect for what I needed. I brought the pen home, did a practice flower on scratch paper and then inked in the flower on the picture and I think it came out just as I wanted it to.
Then I went back to Carolyn's and she framed it. What a good feeling it is to have my pictures ready and the show isn't until next week!
Still No Rings
Well over a month ago I had to take my wedding/engagement rings to the jeweler to be repaired because the metal broke through across the bottom where they were bonded together. I thought they should be finished by now but hadn't heard about them yet. So today I stopped at the store to check on them.
Ted has them in the little yellow envelope in the small bin on a desk in his work space at the back of the store, not worked on yet. He'll do it next week, he said. He's been busy, he said. It's good to be busy, I said. I was just afraid that he'd be comfortable forgetting about them and maybe time would go by and I would forget what I'd done with them. Wedding rings, I would think, I used to have them. Wonder what I did with them. So, I'm keeping the memory alive.
I asked if I could have a loaner wedding ring, like some car places do when they have to keep your car for an extended period. But, of course, Ted doesn't do that. Next week, he says.
A Mail Surprise
My mind is spinning today because I'm so overwhelmed by the letter that came in this morning's mail. I was on my way out the door to go to Aquarobics and noticed that the mail had been delivered. I took it back into the house and discovered one letter for me from a name I didn't recognize. I took it with me, intending to read it at the Y and leave it in my locker while I went to the pool for exercise. But I discovered that there was money in the envelope. I took it back into the house.
It was a letter of restitution from a student who was in my class in 19975-1976, in the fifth grade. She told me that the letter was long overdue but she had to make right the wrong she had done me when she was a student. She said she'd stolen money from my purse! Not a lot, just change and sometimes a dollar. She used it to buy snacks from bake sales which the school had.
I'm just overwhelmed because I never had any idea that any student had taken money from my purse, and if I had known, I wouldn't ever have thought of this student. She was the ideal student! She was intelligent, quiet and well behaved. And all these years she's suffered from this guilty secret.
I'm so glad that she's decided to confess to me. I feel really bad about the years she's suffered from this unconfessed sin. Even though she had confessed to God, she believed that God wanted her to confess to me but she's had such trouble bringing herself to tell me about it. I'm so happy that she is now free. It really was a small thing to me. I never missed the money and I've always thought she was a very special person. I'm sorry that she gave in to temptation and then struggled so hard with that guilt. I'll get a letter written to her today, telling her that of course I forgive her. I'll tell her about the time I carried my guilt for breaking an ornament on my aunt's Christmas tree and just never telling her that I had done it. It was such a big issue to me and I felt terrible while I carried that secret. When I confessed to my aunt years later, it turned out that she had thought nothing of it and was not concerned about it at all. I should have told her right away. How great it is to be forgiven, by God, and by the person we know we've wronged.
And the money? I'm going to send it to Ramabi Mukti Mission in India. It's an orphanage where they rescue baby girls who are put out onto the streets, or relatives sometimes bring little girls to them because they can't care for them financially. They can make good use of this money. It is a precious restitution and I want it to make maximum value! What an interesting day I'm having!
Colors
We have been changing over to DSL online connection. When my husband was sorting out the connection cables, he called to me to help him. "Can you see on the diagram where the green wire is?" he asked. There were three cables. One was yellow, one blue and one gray. I thought I already knew the answer, but I asked any way. "Which one is green?" He pointed to the gray one. I thought that was probably the one he saw as green.
We've done things like this before. He'll tell me about someone's green car and it will be gray or brown. At first we used to have "big discussions" about colors, until we visited the planetarium in PGH and there was a series of tests for color blindness. I saw all of the patterns but he missed several. Then I knew that our difference of opinion was not really opinion at all. It was his way of seeing things. He is color blind.
We got the gray-green cable connected to the right place, --with the help of our helpful high school senior friend who gave us about an hour and a half of his time to get the DSL installed.
The Age of the Zip Lock Bag
Yesterday I bought a nice big head of cauliflower. I trimmed it and put some of it in a dish to munch on at the dinner table. The rest I put in a zip lock bag but left it on the kitchen counter till after the meal. Then I put the cauliflower that wasn't eaten at the table into the zip lock bag with the rest of it.
As I did this, I commented to my friend, who was a guest at dinner, "Isn't this age of zip lock bags wonderful!" And she responded, "Yes! I use them for so many things." And I started to do the zip to seal the bag, only to find that I'd turned the bag inside out to wash it and reuse it and I hadn't turned it right side out again.
It was funny that I said what I did because as I was praising the zip lock, I was using the bag incorrectly and could not zip it as it was meant to be done.
The King's Properties
Last night I read from I Chronicles, the last few chapters. These chapters contain lists of the people who cared for King David's properties. There was a man, an officer, in charge of all the separate concerns for King David's possessions, -from his fields, to his livestock, to his household. I've been impressed in times past when I read about an officer in charge of the donkeys. To me, it doesn't sound noble to be in charge of the care of donkey, but King David elevated this position to something to be proud of. The Officer in Charge of the Care of the King's Donkeys! I'm still impressed with the way David made so many "important" jobs for so many people but last night, my thoughts took out on another path.
I started to think about how my attitude toward housework would change if I felt that I was keeping the house as an Officer in Charge for one of King David's properties. Then surely I wouldn't mind doing the same thing over again each morning, each day, to keep the dirt and dust at bay. Surely I wouldn't. I decided to consider my work from this point of view today.
But this morning, my thoughts rabbited down another trail. If I was an Officer in Charge of housework for King David, I would have someone in charge of kitchen detail, someone to do the laundry, someone to do yard work, etc. (Well, maybe not yard work. That would probably be a whole other domain.) It would certainly be easier to get the work done that way, wouldn't it!
Today, I'm still the Officer in Charge of Everything and I must make the decisions as to when I will sweep the living room and when I will work in the yard. Meanwhile, I took time out to Watch the Chipmunk! And then write about it, no less. I hope King David would understand that. Maybe I should be the Officer in Charge of Writing about King David's Life and Properties!
Surveying My Kingdom
This morning I brought in the recycling bin after it was empty and then I checked the bird feeder in the front of the house. I decided to put a little more seed in it but as I approached the porch where I keep the bag of bird seed, I stopped and gazed at beautiful things beginning to grow. The hyacinths have not only budded but are beginning to show color. The starfire daffodils are still tight yellow buds but seem to be on the verge of opening.
I looked at the chain hanging in the archway of the porch and thought about the possibility of bringing out a geranium to hang there on beautiful sunny days like today and taking it in again each evening till the warm weather is here to stay, when suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a dash of movement.
I hadn't realized that I'd been standing so still for a few minutes, but there was the chipmunk, unmindful of me standing there, so I must have been motionless for some little time. He dashed out from under the porch and into the big planter which held a mum last fall. I thought he saw me standing there, but I stood very still, just in case he was unaware of me and not just being bold while I watched. He was picking up little seeds from the planter and eating them. All the time he was watching this way and that. Then he saw me! I could tell when he saw me. He froze, just for a few seconds, and then turned and dashed to safety back under the porch, leaving me with the memory of the beautiful, furry, little creature, busy in his own world which had overlapped into my world for a brief minute.
Snow is Gone!
It's a beautiful morning in our town again. No snow this morning! And there is a promise in the air that there will be warmer weather this afternoon. How much that lifts the spirits!
I bought a new yard rake yesterday. It's a little rake to use under shrubs. I think it will be good for flower beds, too. It shouldn't tear the growing plants while it gets the old leaves away from them. I think it should be fun to use it and I'm pretty sure that today's the day I'll get to try it out.
I wish I could jump up and click my heels together but I won't try that. The last time I tried to do jumping jacks, my back hurt for a couple days. Of course I hadn't done warm up stretches and that may be why. Today is the kind of day that makes a person want to run and jump and play and work hard, but of course, there is a time to "act" one's age. I'll keep that in mind while I enjoy my yard work.
Got the Go Ahead!
Today Carolyn, my art teacher, stopped in on some Artists' Guild business and I showed her the bindweed picture which I've been working on. She was very encouraging. She liked my sample drawings of white flowers and gave me some advice for finishing the picture. I should be able to complete the work tomorrow. Woo-Hoo! I'll be happy to see it framed!
Bindweed
I don't think I ever knew about bindweed before we moved into town. One summer I made it a project to learn to identify wild flowers. I bought books about wild flowers and weeds and learned a lot that summer. To my surprise, I found that bindweed is considered to be a noxious weed. This surprised me because the flower is like a morning glory and is very pretty. I tried to tell my husband about this noxious plant but he wouldn't believe it.
He put up strings along the windowless side of the house and let the bindweed climb there. It was pretty! And he says it helped to keep the house a little cooler that summer.
Since that summer, he's had to accept the noxious weed designation about the bindweed. It is very invasive and it binds and chokes other growing plants. All summer long we are working to pull bindweed out of the rhododendron and other plants. It's a never ending battle.
The bindweed which I am drawing was vining up a pole at the side of the front porch entrance. I let it grow there because it wasn't choking anything and it's almost useless to pull it up because the root system is so extensive and you just can't get it all out. The noxious weed part of bindweed is unfortunate because the flower is stunning in its simple beauty.
More Snow
After two days of rain, this morning there is snow laying on the ground! It's not what any of us wanted to see just now. We want to wear our lighter jackets but we have to keep the winter coats out yet. Yesterday my neighbor across the block took her morning walk in a light white jacket and carrying an umbrella. This morning she is wearing her winter coat again. The good thing about this is that it won't last long and the trees and plants aren't far enough along in their spring budding that this will harm them. But, oh! How much we want to welcome the warmer weather now.
Almost Finished
I can't believe how much progress I've made on the ink drawing today! Well, it's not a large piece. I think it's about 9x12. The leaves were fun to do but now I have to complete the picture with a single, white flower. I know the less ink I use, the better. I think it may be difficult. I've practiced doing the flower on other paper a couple of times. I can do a nice flower, but not necessarily that it shows up as pure white. It's the pure white of the flower that makes this picture really neat, so I'll try a few other things before I actually ink the flower. Here's hoping!
oops
Oops! The man's name that I heard giving the inspirational talk was Bruce Wilkinson. I was close, but just not quite right! Wilkinson!
Inspiration
The approaching deadline for the Spring Art Show pushes me to get busy with the pen and ink drawing that I'm supposed to enter in it, but yet, I hold back. Deep in my heart I know I can do it, --but I don't know how well I can do it. I've wanted for months to get to Michaels to get some new drawing pens. I've needed to plan a frame for the drawing and work the piece to fit the frame. Apart from those things, I was ready to get started.
Then yesterday morning I heard Bruce Wilkerson talking on Dobson's program. He was saying that everyone has a dream and when we have a God given dream, we need to follow it. He said that fear holds many people back from following their dream. They think that if their dream was really right for them, everything would fall into place smoothly and it would just happen for them. But what they don't know is that everyone has fears about following the dream and it takes an effort to leave the comfort zone and do what is necessary to accomplish the goal.
He talked about the people and things that discourage us from moving out of our comfort zone and called them Border Bullies. Everyone has to face Border Bullies. They would keep us from making the most of our opportunities.
I realized that doing this art work is part of my dream and my fears of imperfection and using inadequate materials shouldn't deter me from pressing ahead to do the work to make this picture a reality. It was what I needed to hear.
I chose a suitable frame, got out my pens and paper and got started. Yes, I found some of my pens inadequate and I bit the bullet and threw one of them away and there will be a couple more that I'll toss soon. I'll check with the local art supply today and see if I can get what I need and if not, I'm taking a trip to Erie! But I'm started. I have a significant portion of the drawing well under way.
The thing about pen and ink that makes me love doing it, is that tone lines can go every which way and look confusing when you view it up close, but prop up the picture, stand back and look, and you have highlights and shadows and depth in the picture. Sometimes the effects of the pen strokes are amazing.
My dream isn't on a par with that of Bruce Wilkerson who is following his dream to help aids victims in Africa, but it's part of the creative dream that makes me who I am.
Fun noodles
The big thing at Aquarobics today is that we got new Styrofoam noodles! We wrap the noodles around our backs and lean into them and do various exercises, knee crunches, v-sits, around the world and others. The ones we were using have been shared with children on family nights and they are all beat up. Children have bitten chunks out of them! Some are split and ragged. Today we have crisp new noodles in mostly pastel spring colors. We had to peel the stickers off them before we took them into the water.
This little thing was a really big thing to us. Sometimes it doesn't take much to make a person happy!
The new noodles are very slippery! But we know that it won't take long in the chlorinated pool and they will be comfortable as the old ones and without the bites taken out of them. Lisa put them away separately and the children will continue to use the noodles which they already bitten to bits!
Not a brick short
A few days ago our home town newspaper had a picture of a big pile of bricks stacked along the sidewalk of a certain street. The caption said that these bricks were going to be used in the repair and relaying of the brick street and the public was asked not to take any of the bricks.
As far as I know, no one has bothered the bricks! Is this a small town, or what!
New Routine
All winter long, no critters came to my critter feeder. In fact, the critter block sat out in the weather and with the warming rains, it slowly disintegrated. And then the critters started coming.
Now, in addition to the routine housekeeping chores, I have this new routine:
Check on the chipmunk. Is he sitting in his favorite spot?
Refill the bird feeder.
Keep an eye out for the big black cat that was lurking around here for a while.
Today I will have the pleasure of wiping the wax off another finished Pysanky egg. This one is done with all horizontal lines. I've not done many with just horizontal lines because it's harder to draw the horizontal lines than the vertical lines. I'm not sure why that is, but it definitely is. I'm hoping that this will be an attractive design. It's another one that I did from bits of designs that I've put together from various Pysanky designs that I've liked.
My day is well started. It should be another good one.
My Pysanky Eggs
These are eggs which I've decorated in past years. I will probably continue to do Pysanky until sometime in May when the spring yard work gets to be more demanding and takes too much of my time to allow me to do this slow, relaxing work.
Our Town's Mural
This mural is painted on the outside wall of a building near the railroad. It was painted by Scott Rispin, an airbrush artist. The paint was provided by Sherwin Williams and the town merchants funded the project. We are proud of our town mural.
The Season
Now that it's Easter, I realize that I missed the opportunity to have some hot cross buns. Usually I buy some, maybe a couple of times during the Lenten season. I was somehow unaware of the hot cross buns tradition until we moved into town here and a neighbor, since deceased, told me about someone bringing her the traditional hot cross buns which she had almost missed having that year.
After Dorothy told me about them, I always bought some each season while I was shopping, but this year, I didn't even see any for sale. You know the old saying, "Out of sight, out of mind." It really worked for me for hot cross buns this year.
I guess it's the result of my pattern of shopping recently. Neither Walmart nor Save-A-Lot have bakery departments where hot cross buns are on display and I didn't go to the stores where they would be. Perhaps I'll bake some cinnamon rolls some time soon. They are almost as good as hot cross buns.
A New Guest
This morning when I let the dog out into the pen, there was a big black cat sitting on the other side of the fence. I don't know whose cat it is but it's pretty obvious that it's had its eye on the birds and chipmunk. The cat ran like a streak when I opened the back door. I don't want it bothering my regular guests. I want it to stay at its home.
Regular Guests
I've just been watching the chipmunk that often sits on the cinderblock wall of the dog pen, and of course, visits the bird feeder. But though he eats of the seeds, he often just suns himself on the wall. I watched him jump up on the branch of the maple tree and run to the end of the branch. Then he nipped off one of the new buds on the branch and munched it down. I think it was his salad. There may possibly be more than one chipmunk who visits our bird feeder but it seems to me that it's always the same one that I see because he picks out the exact same spot to sit and look around each day.
The birds, too, seem to be the same birds coming back day after day. There's a pair of purple finches that visit regularly and I always enjoy seeing them. They tried to set up housekeeping in the light fixture on our front porch. I'm not sure what discouraged them from doing that, but I'm glad that they did change their minds. Birds keep a messy nest! And they would be annoyed by the mail man, the paper boy and other guests coming to our door, as well as by our daily in and out activities. I would enjoy seeing their little family though.
It was hard for me to believe they are purple finches because there is no purple on them. The male is partly red and the female is brown. My son told me that someone told him that the male looks like his head was dipped in red Koolaid. That's a good way to describe him. I haven't seen where they did set up their new nest but I think it must be nearby.
Progress
Today looks so bright and sunny that I thought I might get some work done in the remaining flower beds, but the sunshine is deceptive. It's still very cold and I didn't want to work outdoors in the cold. But it's certainly a heart-cheering day.
I did pot up the begonia slip that I'd taken from one of my plants a couple of months ago. I had set it in the upstairs hall window, facing east. To my surprise, it thrived beautifully. It bloomed while it was still rooting. The blooms are large and bright red. They are much larger blooms than the parent plant's blooms. And it was just standing in water!
I also separated the two zebra cacti that were in the same pot and beginning to crowd each other. I repaired the violet that Rusty knocked over when he got excited about someone walking a dog down the street past our house. It needed a lot more soil added to the pot to make up for what it lost in the spill last week.
I look at the newly potted red begonia while I work at my computer and it is a very pleasing sight. I hope it will continue to thrive now that it's planted in soil. I think I'll take some more cuttings of begonia and they should be ready for outside planters in early June. I love growing things!
Prayer for a pet
I've been reading about the time when our dog, Skip, was sick, in 1981. She was 11 years old and she became critically ill. All the signs pointed to her impending death. I was very sad about it. At Sunday school, I asked the class, if it wouldn't bother them to pray for a pet, if they would please pray about our Skip. My friend, whose name was Skip, prayed for her. We named Skip, our dog, before we knew Skip, our person friend.
His prayer was beautiful. He mentioned that God gives us these little ones to teach us about love and responsibility and husbandry and that they become a part of our family and we really care about them. He also prayed that God would help us to realize how much love and enjoyment we had received from our pet.
Skip did have to have an operation but though she was critically ill, she bounced right back. The vet was surprised at how quickly she got over her operation.
Skip lived to be 16 or 17. In the end, she was blind and deaf, but she was familiar with her surroundings and she seemed contented. We were grateful for her extra years. The prayer was a beautiful prayer. Skip did indeed teach us about love and responsibility and husbandry.
Getting the job done
Flylady certainly has the right idea, when she says to set your timer and get to work on a task for 10 or 15 minutes. Often I've found that when I get started on a task, that's the hardest part, --getting started. If I get it started, I usually get motivated to do the job, and more often than not, it's a small job that I can complete in less than the 15 minutes that I allot myself. So why do I find it a problem to jump in and get the job started and therefore, get it finished? Hmm. I don't have a good answer.
Another good day
What a beautiful day this has turned out to be! The weather is much warmer again. In the early afternoon, I walked around in the yard a few minutes, looking at the growing things. The crocuses that I planted along the front walk way are finished now but the giant crocuses (I know that technically they should be croci but that seems so odd!) are still looking lovely.
I planted a lot of grape hyacinth last fall and I thought that there should be some of them showing now. I asked someone at Aquarobics this morning if theirs were up yet and the answer is no, just the crocus and snow drops. I have a lot of snowdrops. They seem to multiply fast. I've taken them out of the garden area and tucked them into many other spots. It's a marvel how these two plants can grow right under the snow and as soon as the snow is gone, they burst into bloom.
My indoor plants are doing pretty good, too and I have a couple of things to repot. Maybe tomorrow!
I think that the only things I have to do tomorrow is get rolls for Sunday dinner. I can either bake them or buy them. I hope I can get a little more work done in the yard tomorrow, if the weather is as nice then as it is now!
I now have a couple nice pictures of my Pysanky that I will post with some help from my computer helper.
Busy morning
I don't know about the rest of the day, but this morning is shaping up to be a very busy one. I plan to go to Aquarobics this morning, and that takes two hours, counting the time to get there and back home again, the dressing and undressing, and the hour spent in exercise. Of course, I could shave a little time off that by going in a little bit late or leaving a little bit early. Even if I got half an hour of water exercise, it would be good for me. On Wednesday we had to wait about 10 minutes to get into the pool, so going late isn't really a big deal and sometimes turnes out to be just as well because then I don't have to stand and wait to get into the pool.
Then I'll be attending the community Good Friday service at noon. After that, I'll be home again and doing routine activities to get ready for the holiday weekend and church services.
Antiprocrastination
Today was Antiprocrastination Day for me. I did several tasks which I've been putting off. I wrote a couple of letters, registered my art for the show, and returned my book to the library. I walked to the library and the post office, and bought some stamps for the next letters that I'll be writing. It felt good to be out walking and getting some chores done at the same time. I have to laugh at how virtuous a brisk walk can make me feel but when I get right down to thinking about, it really was less than a mile that I walked. But it made me feel like I was doing something special.
Getting Ready
This morning I had to settle my thoughts and register the art work that I'm going to display in the Spring Art Show. I could be satisfied to just show my latest painting which I've titled Annie Looks at the World, but we have been encouraged to enter four pieces. One of my online friends told me that the cat in my picture looks just like her cat Annie who died two years ago. I've named the cat Annie, since she looks so much like Donna's Annie.
I have a pastel drawing of an old barn that I have to reframe. I have a colored pencil drawing of yellow tulips that I will show. That means that I need one more. Carolyn thinks that I should show something in pen and ink. I need to do a drawing to fill this need. I have the subject in mind, I've found a frame to put it in, and now I have to draw the picture. But today I need to get it registered. It's really hard to register a picture before I have it drawn, but this isn't the first time that I've done that.
When I entered our local fairs, the instructions always said to register the item even if it wasn't finished because it could be scratched off the list if it wasn't finished but it couldn't be added late. Thus, I'm used to registering work that isn't complete. The difference this time is that I must name it, set a price for it, and tell what size it will be. Since it's only a small seed in my mind right now, I've had to really reach for that information! Now I must try to live up to my shadowy vision.
Grandma Emma
When I was a girl, Grandma Emma lived with us part of every year. She lspent roughly six months of the year in PA and the other six months in Indiana. She had one son in Indiana and five children in PA, all in the same area, but she lived with us when she was in PA.
Grandma was almost 60 when I was born and had been widowed for many years. She was set in her ways and had developed a habit that annoyed my dad. She stayed up very late and then slept late in the morning and even napped in the afternoon. I don't know what she did in those late hours but she was back and forth from her room to the kitchen and she "rooted around" in her bags and boxes of "junk." She made noise which kept Dad from sleeping, and he had to get up early in the morning and get to work. He would talk to her about her noise keeping him awake and she would try to be quiet but apparently Dad was a light sleeper and it really bothered him that she wasn't sleeping at what he thought was a proper bedtime.
I'm thinking about this because I find that every once in a while now, I stay up really late doing odds and ends of things, and then, sure enough, I don't want to get up early in the morning. Last night I was up too late finishing up loose ends of things that I could have done earlier in the evening. I'm beginning to understand Grandma Emma a little bit. But tonight I'll plan to get to bed at a reasonable hour and not turn my sleeping time upside down as Grandma Emma did.
Meeting Deadlines
It's rather funny how time gets away from us occasionally. Usually I do pretty well with the organization of my time and meeting deadlines but not always. I don't do well with getting birthday greeting sent out but I think about them and know that I have plenty of time, until it's the day before. I think it's the date itself that surprises me. I can think, Shirley's birthday is on the 15th, and think that from some time at the end of the month right up to the 14th and suddenly realize, The 15th is tomorrow! I don't actually associate the 15th with a certain day next week or even in two weeks. If I thought about it in terms of how many days till that date, maybe that would make a difference in getting a card out to a birthday person.
I rarely miss a deadline for a library book but this evening when I checked my last library book, I discovered that it was due on the 5th. Already that's a day that is past and I have to think hard to realize that it's not very far past, as it first seemed. I'll take the book back tomorrow, for sure. I don't like keeping library books past their due dates. I like to meet my deadlines. I've let time get away from me again.
Weather Complaints
This morning at Aquarobics my friend Eleanor told me that this cold weather is really getting her down. "I don't usually complain about the weather," she said, "but this year this cold is really getting me down." It's true that she doesn't usually complain about the weather. In fact, she seldom complains about anything. I think, wouldn't that be nice if I could live like that, so that I'm known for not complaining, about the weather, or much of anything else either?
So, --it's still cold today. But! No complaints!
New Morning
Usually I love morning, even the mornings when I don't want to get up early. Today is no exception. I was enjoying an interesting dream and bed was so cozy but once I got up, I felt like a tree with new sap running in my veins. I know that's a goofy way to say it, but it's a good way to explain how I feel this morning.
On the way through the kitchen to let the dog out to the pen, I took time to look at my latest Pysanky egg. It is resting on the drying rack with two others. They are all lovely but this last one is very pleasing to me. I made its last dye bath the color named brick and it finished the egg beautifully. The colors came out soft and sort of glowing when the final coat of varnish was applied. It inspires me to take time to work on eggs again today.
My husband had no trouble getting the lid off the green dye. I'll use green in one of my egg designs today.
I'm thankful that my strength is renewed in the morning.
Back to Egg Art
I put the Pysanky away over the weekend and just got it out again today. I wanted to have a couple of dozen eggs decorated by Easter but it doesn't look as though I can make that many now. Counting the ones I'm working on today, I will have 13 finished soon.
I tried to use my jar of green dye this evening, but I couldn't get it open. I haven't used it for many months and the lid may have corroded, making it impossible to open. It might be easier to mix a new dye in another jar. The dye packets cost 85 cents, so it's very affordable! Since the dyes are chemical, they do corrode the metal jar lids. Before I give up, I'll see if my husband can open it for me. He's very good with opening jars.
Another cute story
Some years ago, one of the well known men in our town told me this story about his experience in the Navy during the war. (That's WWII). Frank was a dog trainer. After the war, they had a big parade of the Navy, the Marines and the Coast Guard to honor Adm Nimitiz. Frank was with a platoon of German shepherds. Another platoon handled Dobermans. In Frank's platoon, when the parade backed up and they had to stop and wait, every man would give his dog the silent signal to sit and in unison, every dog would sit. It was a very moving sight.
This event was written up in a story in Newsweek. One reporter wrote that he had seen a woman crying. He asked her if something was wrong that he could help. She said she was so touched to see all those men with seeing eye dogs! He assured her that the men were all right and that the dogs were war dogs.
Sewing Chicken
I have a sewing chicken that holds pins, needles and buttons. A friend in my home town near Pittsburgh made it for me probably more than 30 years ago. It's made of wood, --a cut out of a chicken and painted to look like a white chicken. It's wings are pincushions and the chicken itself is fixed to a wooden base with a drawer to hold buttons. There are wooden dowels on top of the wooden base, to hold spools of thread.
Yesterday morning I had a few minutes to spare before going to Aquarobics, just enough time to sew a couple of buttons on a shirt and jacket for my husband. But I couldn't find where I had set my sewing chicken. I looked in the usual places, near the book case in the bedroom and on the book case under the hall window. I could not find it. I never did find it before going to Aquarobics but when I came home, there it was on the bed. My husband had found it. Where was it? Sitting on the ironing board in plain sight! How could I have missed it? I have no idea. How can I look at things right there under my nose and not see them?
I sewed the button on then, but first I had to get another button. I have no idea where I put the first button. It's probably there somewhere in plain sight but I couldn't see it. I think the real problem is that I hate to sew on buttons!
Kidthink
Once when I was teaching third grade, one of my really bright students didn't finish his math paper. He only did a small portion of it. I wrote on his paper
Return and finish for a grade.
34-52.
He hadn't done those problems. Within minutes he had returned the paper. I wondered how he had done those problems so quickly. Well, it was simple. He had written:
34-52 = 22
and he was finished!
Third graders were frequently able to subtract larger numbers from smaller numbers, though I never figured out how.
Inconsistencies
Last Monday at Aquarobics the water was so cold we had to move around vigorously to be warm enough. Today, another Monday morning, the water was so warm that I thought there were times I had bath water that wasn't that warm. I think a happy medium would be better, but maybe it's hard to maintain that middle ground. I admit that the warmth of the water today felt wonderful on joints.
Journals
Over the weekend I read my journal from 1980. I knew when I started r