Monthly Archives: April 2019

Magical or Miracle?

I hear people say something is magical when they see it. I’ve said it myself a few times in my life.  And yes, some things are magical.  Why else is Disneyland called the “magic” kingdom.  Magic is the art of producing illusions. Things that aren’t really there, but appear to be. Disney does that very well.  They produce an illusion that everything is perfect and beautiful and fun when in reality it’s all an illusion. You can go to Disney and have a good or even a great time, but it’s all been an illusion that disappears the moment you leave the Disney park.  I’m not knocking Disney here. I have loved going to their theme parks and have enjoyed myself immensely, but there is a dark side to Disney none of us sees because it is kept well hidden from our eyes.   It truly knows how to produce magic. It has mastered the art of illusion.

I believe in miracles.  I believe they have happened and still happen. I expect them to happen.  I want them to happen. Miracles are extraordinary occurrences that surpass all known human power or natural forces and are ascribed to a divine or supernatural cause especially to God.  I know God performs miracles. I have seen some in my day.  Right now I am praying for a particular miracle to happen and I have no doubt in my mind that it will happen because I have a God who performs them. I may not live to see this particular miracle.  Now I don’t know why God performs miracles in some people’s lives and leaves them out of other’s.  I don’t know but it might be the faith that one has or lack thereof or maybe God knowing the future, knows some miracles won’t really change things in the long run.  Maybe you have had a miracle happen in your life. Maybe you are praying for one now. One miracle I witnessed was when my daddy became a born again Christian. My daddy was a two pack a day smoker and could swear like a sailor(no disrespect to sailors here) and never went to church unless he had to.   That’s not to say he was a bad daddy, because he wasn’t. He was a very good daddy in many respects and I loved being around him, but he was not a Christian.   Then my mother got very sick and almost died. I don’t know what God told him in that church the day he attended, but that day he went forward when the call to the altar was made, got down on his knees and gave his life to Christ and from that day forward he never smoked another cigarette, never swore and never missed a Sunday in church.  He spent the rest of his life working for the church.  The day he died I knew he was speaking personally with Jesus and shaking his hand or hugging him and I know that one day I will see my daddy again and he’s with my mother and if that isn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is.

God performs big and little miracles.  I know this story will sound crazy and I was imaging things, but to prove God performs little miracles and also has a sense of humor, here’s my story. I was walking one of my dogs in a field years ago and took off her leash and stuck it in my coat pocket. When it was time to go home, I felt for the leash and it was gone.  I searched all  over that field with my dog by my side and could not find it. Then I just said, “God, if you know where that leash is, would you please show me?”  Then I looked right behind me and curled carefully at my feet was the leash!  It looked like someone had placed it there as neatly as could be.  I have always thought God had done that to show me that even in the little things we should not be afraid to ask for help. And He will.  We all think God only works in the big things, but really, He’s in everything if you just look and just ask.

I guess I’m writing this today because I had the strangest dream and am up at 3:00 in the morning and felt like God was telling me something in that dream.  I can’t tell you the dream because it is too personal, but I think I got the message.

Also, I went outside my front door today and witnessed the best miracle of the season. I usually go in and out our back door when I’m at home, but we were going somewhere and we went out the front door and this is what I saw.

A mass of pink everywhere I looked.  Just a few days ago all was barren and dark and drab. Definitely not an illusion.  Not magic.

New life awakened from what was once dead looking.  A miracle. At least to my eyes and to my heart it was.  Who can explain it?  I’m sure there are scientific words to explain why the buds form and burst forth at a certain time, but who tells that bud to form and who tells it when to open?   I believe there are miracles all around us if we just open our eyes and look with our hearts.  This beauty won’t last long, but there will be other things to replace these.  My irises and poppies are getting ready to bloom.  I’m going to keep looking for miracles.  How about you?

Here’s to miracles and the One who performs them.  Bye.

 

2016

I’ve been scrolling through some of my favorite blogs and looking at their lists of favorite blogs and going to those blogs to read them. It seems that the year 2016  was the year the writing died.  Or at least it seems that way for many of the blogs.  I have told you that I got into the blogging world late, since I have always been a late bloomer and always found out about things long after they weren’t cool anymore, but I really miss some of my favorite blogs.

Anyway 2016 is the year, it seems, when many bloggers called it quits or moved to Instagram. Or Pinterest.   I’m just saying, looking at Instagram is like looking at people’s pictures from a vacation and wishing you could get away, but you keep looking because it’s the polite thing to do.  And pinterest can be lovely to look at, but how long can one look at pretty pictures of the same things?

I love reading blogs. Some people think their blogs must be boring, but I have never found a blog post to be boring. Maybe that says more about my life than theirs. Hmmmm.  Anyway, I find others’ lives so interesting. I feel like a voyeur at times peeking into someone’s house seeing what they are up to.  People will share on their blogs things they would not necessarily tell people they actually know.   I know.  I’m one of those people!  Sometimes it’s easier to write down your thoughts and send them out into the netherland than it is to tell the same things to a living, breathing person right next to you.

Is it a sign of our times when people feel the need to share with strangers all over the world what you did on a particular day or how you are feeling or how great or how awful your day has been?   Are we reaching out for validation of some kind or do we just like to write and this is our outlet?   I love to write.  I write lists.  I write notes in church.  I write letters sometimes.  I write stories I have made up.  I write memories of days gone by. So writing this blog is just an extension of my writing.   I just wonder what happened to all those bloggers who suddenly stopped in 2016.  Were they tired of writing? Did their lives become too busy to write?  Did the newness of blogging lose it’s shine?

So here I am in the year 2019 still plugging away at this blog of mine and I have no plans to stop. There’s still a lot of living to do and a lot to blog about so you won’t be seeing me disappear anytime soon. If you are still blogging, please, don’t stop. I may be one of your faithful readers and I would miss you.

To all the bloggers all over the world. Thank you. Bye.

Spring Fling

I can’t believe March is already gone and April is half over. My three favorite months are March, April and May and I really wish they’d go a little slower, but I’ve learned that time waits for no man or woman and is going by ever so quickly. I love this time of year when the birds are busy nesting and the flowers and trees are budding or bursting with bloom.  I walked out my front door this afternoon and was amazed how many things were blooming seemingly overnight.

 

I haven’t even taken pictures of the Weeping Cherry which just broke out in bloom today and the azalea that is engulfed in pink blooms. I’ll try to get a picture tomorrow before they lose all their blossoms. We are  expecting rain the next two days, so don’t know how long all the blossoms will last.  It surely is beautiful and lifts the spirits.

David and I took  little trip to Streamcliff Farm last weekend where we met up with our oldest son, his girl friend and her mother. Streamcliff Farm is a farm built before the Civil War.  It has many out buildings that have been turned into little shops selling antiques and garden paraphernalia.  There is a little chapel where weddings take place.  There are gardens to wander and a nursery, but it is still a little too cold here to set any flowers outside.

There were two green houses open that I looked and dreamed through.

This sign shows where the gardens are.

Garden art everywhere.  It was magical.

Inside the chapel.

You can buy all kinds of gardening things.  They have these wagons you can pull around and fill with all you purchase.

This is the house with a nice patio out front.  They have a Christmas dinner you can go to every year and I’d love to attend it one year.  I would love to see inside this grand old house.

There is a café there where they sell lunches and so we put our names on the waiting list.

Once inside you are seated at a pretty table and a very nice waitress comes to wait on you.

I ordered the Birdseed salad which had no seed in it at all. It was a pasta salad with broccoli and tomatoes and the best dressing.  All the salads came with their own flower which you could eat if you are so inclined. It was delicious. I also ordered their lemonade which is the best lemonade I have ever tasted.

I have had it before and had to have it again this time.  It was a very pleasant meal.

Enjoyed visiting with our son and his girlfriend and her mother.  Then David and I decided to order dessert.

Blackberry cobbler with ice cream. Yum. Yum. So good I decided I am making it for Easter dinner this Sunday.   Dave and I shared this, but next time, I am only ordering this with a cup of coffee and that’s all I’m eating!

Back during the Civil War, Morgan’s Raiders, a confederate band got as far as the Indiana border and came up near Streamcliff over this creek.

They didn’t get much farther.  Northern soldiers ran them back south.

It was a fun day and then David and I took the back roads home. Indiana is beautiful and interesting in the Spring.  We saw this old church. You see a lot of old churches on back roads.

Sad that it stands empty. I hope the congregation is meeting someplace new.

Since it’s bird nesting season, I asked David to put out all the old birdhouses we have had laying around here for a while.

This one has been around for a long time. It looks like a haunted birdhouse. It is home to a bird family every year.

The birds have homes now so I hope they pack their bags and move in.

And David got the pool open, but it’s much too cold to swim yet although every year one or more of our grandchildren jump in no matter how cold it is.

I’ve been doing a little Spring cleaning.  Washing some quilts.

I only have about one hundred or so.  Some are very old and one of them I washed fell apart a little bit.  I should have washed it on handwash.  Oh, well.

Dusting is something I don’t like to do very well and in this old hundred year old house, I can dust and the next day it doesn’t look like I’ve dusted anything, but I manage to get off the layers.  Having company coming always makes me look at my house a little harder and notice things I don’t usually pay attention to.  Several are coming for Easter and we are having an Easter Egg hunt for the kids so we have been busy getting ready for that.  I should say, David has been getting things ready.  Our church is having an Easter cantata Sunday and I’m looking forward to that.   I love Easter. I’m glad it’s late this year or I would not have been ready.

And because I don’t have anything else to sew, I have been making these little mug rugs just for fun.

I love making little things that take very little time, but look cute.

Hope you all have a blessed Easter and remember the Savior who died for us all. He loves us that much.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

Sad Day

I told you about my baby chicks in the last post and today I have a sad thing to tell you. My Auracanas did not make it.  They looked a little puny after a day and yesterday one of them just sat and did not do anything and this morning the second one looked unwell.  I knew it was just a matter of time.  David, as usual, took care of the bodies for me, like he’s done ever since we’ve been married and I have had pets.   He’s less attached than me.  Sometimes you get sickly animals when you least expect it.  We had a dog once who was always nervous. She was scared of her own shadow. When I’d walk her, she would shy away from  mailboxes. We always wondered if she had poor eyesight or some nerve condition.  And one day she just up and died. No warning or anything.

Growing up on a farm there was always the chance of an animal dying. We had cows, pigs, one sheep, a horse, chickens, ducks, guineas, rabbits, dogs and cats.  There was always the chance of one of them dying or being part of a, ahem, meal.  So we learned early not to get too attached to the animals that were our food.  We did have one bull calf we named Penny because he was a beautiful copper color.  I helped hand raise him and he grew up big and strong and lord over all the cows.  But he was destined to be meat for our table and one day, the man who did the butchering, came to our house and shot him and dressed him for my father.  I stayed in the house all day and cried.  I vowed I would never eat any meat my mother cooked from him.  Long story short, my appetite got the better of my sadness and I did help eat Penny. But I still remember how beautiful he was. If this disturbs some of you, just remember that was and is farm life.  Most people don’t get to see where their food comes from and vegans would never have eaten Penny, but I was not and have never been a vegan.  We raised our own vegetables also so I know where they come from, too.

Boy, did I get a long way from the death of my baby chicks.  I guess it’s to say, it’s the circle of life. Some live longer than others, just like we humans and we feel sad about it, but we go on and maybe I will get more baby chicks in the future. I still have four of them that are hale and hearty and I hope will grow up to be good layers. I just won’t have blue eggs like I was hoping for.

Maybe you have a sad tale about a pet or animal you loved.   If you grew up on a farm, like me, you probably have several tales to tell. Bye.

Life’s a Little “Cheeper”

Turn your tv off. Stop listening to all the talking heads who only have opinions.  Put down your cellphone, unless you are reading this on it.  Take a deep, hearty breath of the fresh Spring air, if it’s Spring where you are and come visit with me for a while.  The more I hear the news, the more I want to turn it off because according to most “news” people life will end soon. So I have decided since I have such a short time to live, I may as well enjoy myself.

I indulged myself this week and got some baby chicks. I had argued with myself that I really didn’t need even more critters around that depend upon me for their livelihood.  Then I walked into Rural King and back to the troughs where they kept the baby chicks and my heart melted. I have lost two of my hens in the past month and it’s been kind of traumatic for me so I felt like I needed some little cheepers.    They are so adorable.  I had to get six as that was the fewest Rural King will sell at a time so I got two more Buff Orpingtons, two Barred Rocks and two Auracanas, ones who lay blue eggs.  I’m so looking forward to seeing those.  And here they are.

The Auracanas looked like little chipmunks. In fact, I asked the guy who was getting mine for me to get the ones who look most like chipmunks.  David said I should call them Chip and Dale, but since they are females, I am going to call them Chippy and Dahlia.   The Buff Orpingtons are Rosy and  Peony  and the Barred Rocks’ names are Violet and Pansy, keeping with the flower theme. In the past my chickens have been named for women in the Bible and women in my Sunday School class. This made it kind of bad when one of them died and I’d have to say so-and-so had died.  Miss Mary Foster is one of my older hens and the name of a good friend of mine and I’m thinking when Miss Mary Foster dies, I’m not telling anyone for fear someone would get the wrong idea.

They are as curious about me as I am of them.

Can you see why I think she looks like a chipmunk?

They keep me company in my shop while I sew.  One of them was cheeping all afternoon.

 

I have had to use this seam ripper several times with these blocks.

 

This is what I have been working on.  I am sewing a mystery quilt featured on Kathleen Tracy’s blog.  If you go to her blog and click on the files on mystery quilt, you can get the directions for four months of quilt blocks. When we have them all sewn, she will show us how we are to put them together into a quilt.   I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but this has been fun and I look forward to each month’s new block. And while going through some of my fabric, I found this fabric that has all the colors in the blocks.

If you are a quilter or sewer, you can understand how I felt when I found this fabric. Kind of like Christmas.  I can come upon a fabric I had forgotten about and it’s just like that to me!   I’m hoping I have enough of this for a border for this quilt.

It just goes so well with all the blocks.  It really does not take a whole lot to get me excited especially when it comes to quilting.

Another project I am just starting is this….

Found in this magazine…..

The blocks are made with one and one half inch pieces, the smallest I will go to make a quilt.

Then there is this square to be appliqued and embroidered.  I think I am going to really enjoy making this as I do love handwork like this.   I am making this to hang in my shop.  I’ll have to hurry because when the weather finally gets warm, I want to be outdoors as much as possible.  We are looking at 70 degree temperatures by the weekend.

And speaking of outdoors, we have corn out for the birds and whoever else wants it, but we never have seen anyone eating it until this week when I saw this squirrel busily munching on it.

He/she sat there for quite a while picking off kernels and eating them.

We are still feeding the birds, but soon they will be foraging for food in the wild again and won’t need our help.

The puppies are so happy with the warmer temperatures.   I do believe Molly is smiling here.

And she’s in a playful mood.  Both dogs’ tails are wagging like crazy here even though you can’t see it.

“Come on, Belle, let’s play!”  Belle will be twelve years old this year, 84 in people years so she decides when they play.  She still acts like a puppy at times and then at other times her joints hurt and she limps around.  I can’t believe she’s that old already. Seems like we just got her as a puppy not long ago. I guess that will be the next new pet I will be looking for.

Hope you are enjoying the beginning of Spring and that it’s warming up in your neck of the woods.  Bye.