Tag: sowing and reaping

Rock collections

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Every little girl / collects rocks and pony tails / ribbons and lace to tie up her curls / She remembers the very place / where she found each stone or lace / and her memory is sharp and clear…. How do we grow / from the child of long ago / to an age of wisdom and grey hair? / Will the pleasures of our youth / and the joy of each stone / whet the mind and keep us sharp in our chair?…. Every little girl / grows up to collect new stones / the value of to whom it is beheld / whether glass objects, fabric swatches, plants or recipes / She finds her treasures an like her toys she wants to share…How do we grow / from the child of long ago / to an age of wisdom and grey hair? / Will the pleasures of our youth / and the joy of each stone / whet the mind and keep us sharp in our chair?… Every little girl / leaves her collection some day / to those whom it’s value does not share / She will one day walk away / from the gemstones of childhood play / to look for shells on sandy distant shores… How do we grow / from the child of long ago / to an age of great wisdom with grey hair? / Will the treasures of our youth / and the joy of each gemstone / whet the mind and keep the memory clear?

Today while I was thinking about my mother, some thoughts came to mind about my grand daughter. She has this little rock collection that she wanted to show me one day a month or two ago. It was so interesting to hear her tell about each little stone and where she had found each gem. Of course the rocks looked pretty much the same to me, but she knew each one by size and location of their find.

Then my mind went to my sister’s rock collection. Hers are a little bigger. Like really big… They need a skidster or tractor to move. She cannot put them into a little black back and show them off to a visitor. No, she planted them in her yard and build a garden around them. I have some rocks on my acreage like that also. But each one here was found by some piece of equipment out in the field while my father-in law or his dad were faming! He does not like my rock garden idea. I do not like piles that are full of weeds or trees.

Then my mind drifted back to all of my mother’s collections. The many multiples of silverware sets, the five days of packing up china and glass were all apart of her “every girl’s rock collection.” Just like some little girls small black bag of gemstones, did we find value in her treasures? Each piece holds some dear memory for her.

It all falls into the “beholder” value. Which mother would deliberately throw away her seven year olds rock collection? How could anyone simply throw away the many collections of their mother?

I remember when my children had their strongest value stolen from them. We had gone on a zoo trip with the family. After leaving the hotel where we stayed, it became apparent that their blankets had been stolen from the room as we were packing up to go. The blankets were folded and placed on the bed ready to carry out. Both dad and mom had thought the other person grabbed the blankets. Later after many phone calls we remembered a hotel cleaning staff member entering the room before we left. In the guise of “spending” tip money on books about “angel” she had been very convincing. But in her arms she had collected some towels, the blankets, and sheets in her arms. She stole the blankets right from under our noses!

The blankets were very valued by us as a family. The blanket for my eldest daughter was made by an elderly women from church. She had embroidered each of the teddy bears with exquisite detail. The blanket of my second daughter was made by my maid of honor. Also lots of embroidery work So sad. We were hurt and could not replace the items at all.

This experience taught us to value things differently. Christmas gifts and other items long hoped for became prized possessions. It was always hard to watch their cousins lack of care for some item that the girls had on their wish list for a long time. It never failed that someone else got it before them and then did not take care of the item or appreciate it. It was always a blessing to see the girls take good care of all of their toys and such.

Marie Kondo asks the question “Does this item bring me joy?” While cleaning out some closet. I don’t think that is the right question for what we keep in life. Maybe the question should be, “Does keeping this item bring glory to God? Or would giving it away be better?” Another way to ask the question is: Do I give glory to God in the keeping or giving of this thing: If the meaning of life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever… how does this translate into my every day existence?

Every girl has a rock collection that will one day need to be discarded. I wondered at the five days of packing up china and glass items. Until I had a friend come over to care for my greenhouse and she said, “What are you doing with all these geraniums?” Yes, we all have collections that border on the stupid. Like the recent dog rescue that I saw where some puppy mill had 241 dogs that needed fostering, medications, haircuts, and proper nutrition. That is not a good collections. We all get caught in our “too muchness” at some point in our lives. For some people it is their eating habit. For others it’s homes and vehicles. For me it was plants.

How can I bring glory to God by enjoying the work of my hands and glorify God in my work? Am I busy turning my earthly treasures into eternal crowns? Maybe this is all a little to deep for today. Can you tell that this is a book review? (John Piper: Don’t Waste Your Life)

Every little girl has her rock collection. What’s yours?

Day after day

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Okay, so the past month or so has kept me too busy to write anything worth publishing. There are a few major happenings and I’ll try to get you all caught up.

The biggest time buster was the greenhouse. The hundreds of geraniums that have still not found a home are taking up quite a bit of my time. Just now there are a bunch of starts just showing new colors that that I did not know took root. The other day I found a pretty lilac purple bloom and a two tone pale pink with white and a red dot! I will try to keep all of the unusual ones for more variety next year.

The other big happening is my doodle troubles. She decided to run off and wallow in bad smell. We were fighting the Halo-fence collar and app for a number of days. She is going to wear it more in the day with me going outside to garden etc cetera. She also got her hair all chopped off, somewhat too short. Honey probably won’t do the heat very well today without much fur to insulate, so afternoon will be inside. She also got an ouchie on one leg from Kona jumping up at her face for the tennis ball. So we had to put the cone of shame on her at night.

In other news, Kona decided he was done with the crate during the day and made some real messes. Not good timing or good experience at all. I spent one whole day puppy proofing the house so that he can be inside during my outdoor work, Hubby also bought me a “horse” trailer to put him in outside while I work. It took a few days but he did get used to the pattern of following me around for fifteen minutes and them into the crate for an hour.

We are moving my mom out of her house this next week. My emotions are all over the board for the whole process. My sister just got a roll off dumpster to get rid of the garbage we find. Like an entire box of empty camera film rolls. Really? We moved that box twenty times? It could have been tossed years ago.

My nightmares came back and chased sleep away for nearly a week. Last night was the first full night of sleep that I received in the last month. So I guess I better get busy doing all the things that I could not do yesterday. Sleep is important, but must be over rated when one goes that long without a peaceful night. The nightmares are always similar- something about being lost amongst a whole pile of logs that I can never figure out how to get out of.

Day after day it seems I make an attempt at a journal entry and only get interrupted. So It is now the following morning. Here I go again. Making my outside list and my packing list, and my just be moment is keeping me from doing any of the lists. Most mornings it has been too cold to garden. So I sit on the sofa with one puppy at my feet and the other next to me.

I started watching NDE testimonials on video the past few weeks. Trying to help myself find some hope during this momentary depression. The allergies and asthma have been so bad that days the weight of living seems overwhelming. It is just so much work to fight to live on the really bad asthma days. Heaven seems like a bit of a cop out actually. So I am struggling with putting one step in front of the other. I am struggling with the day after day constant battle to keep moving forward.

Pilgrim’s Progress has been on my mind alot lately. I recently thought about Jesus saying how “foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place for his head.” I know that my mother is now in the “pilgrim’s inn” of living. While she has a place to lay her head the journey on this sod is nearing the end. Meanwhile my dad is also feeling the gravity of earth tugging on his earthly tent. The thoughts of my parents nearing the eternal passing is so heavy some days that I just cry with the weight of it all.

And day after day, life marches on. Little ones learn to ride bicycles, learn to laugh, and learn to express their thoughts in words. It is the joy of a four month old grasping at a toy and being able to make the fingers do what she wills… Today, might be a hard day for you. Maybe it was yesterday. Perhaps tomorrow the weight of living will suck you back under the covers, but today- look for that little tiny sliver of hope. Open your eyes to the cry of the whipper whirl in the trees. Feel the cold breeze brush across your face. It is all so temporary.

Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Sharing -Irth Day

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Yep that is purposely misspelled. Because something like a Christmas baby, or any other holiday, I share my birthday with Earth Day. And believe me I was never very happy about sharing my special day. So I wonder how other people share their special day with some holiday. Do you?

Well, as it turns out I was actually born in a snow storm and Earth Day was not dedicated as a holiday until a couple of years later. So does that make me older than dirt? What in the world is this holiday for anyways?

It was first decided upon to make people aware of the way that they were misusing and trashing the Earth. Well, maybe it should be a National Composting Day or something. That’s how I celebrated. I spent a few hours digging up the compost bin into some black trash cans so that it can “cook” and be ready to use as good fertilizer. Actually even though sometimes life hands you a bucket of worms they make the best soil for growing plants in.

So considering that the pile of compost was tomato, lettuce, broccoli stems and other refuse last year, this spring it was some of the most beautiful black soil that I have ever seen. So yeah, maybe I am older than dirt. So what?

Sharing my birthday with Earth Day usually means that I am ready to plant something. But spring is in full force here and all of the trees in the pollenating nature are making my asthma act up. So I kept my outside time to a minimum. Normally, I am pretty much of a minimalist anyways.

Yesterday while digging the compost soil into the trash bins, my life partner hubby threw Honey’s frisbee into the top of the Walnut tree. That made her pretty upset. She even barked at it for a while trying to get it to come down like the squirrels. I promised her that the wind would blow tomorrow (today) and that she would get it back soonb.

So this morning she kept watching out the front window to see if the frisbee had fallen down yet. When it did in the early morning, she barked like mad. Of course I was busy at the moment. When we went out a half hour later, Honey ran straight for the fallen frisbee. Well, I guess, she does understand some things!

-Irth Day should be pretty special really. The Earth has been pretty good to me today. I did not meet it once (in a fall) so I guess that answers that question. The asthma has made it questionable at times. And today I spent some time enjoying the tulips that I buried in the ground last fall. So the Earth has been nice for sure.

So, do you share your birthday with some other known holiday? How does it make you feel special? Or rather how does it make you feel like someone sabotaged your special day? How has the Earth been good to you this week?

Somethings in my life make it seem like the Earth has not been good to me. For instance all the diseases, allergies, and eyesight problems that I have experienced. But maybe that’s just genetics and the poor earth can’t be blamed for everything. And the scars that my body has can prove that the Earth’s gravitational pull has played a nasty number on me a few times also.

Psalm 90:12 ESV “So teach us to number our days that we nay have a heart of wisdom.”

My Broken Glass

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The other morning my return home greeting was dropping a small juice glass in my farm sink. Yep, it broke. Broken glass is not so bad to clean up when it is contained. I was careful in my search for all of the pieces and put them into the bottom of the still intact vintage glass. No cut fingers for me.

And today I feel much like that glass. Broken and useless. The message I heard on the radio was about spiritual warfare. How appropriate I think for how I feel. We have finally had some seasonal rain and now all the trees are budding and the grass and weeds are in full growth mode. My allergies took a nose dive into the tissue box and my head is in so much pain. Honey did not wake me up for my asthma need this morning, so I slept in until past nine.

“—A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” —Ecclesiastes 4:8b (ESV) The fourth chapter of Ecclesiastes has a lot of little nuggets in it. This is one of my favorite. In the passage, the wisdom is for people to work together in unity. Two people pulling in opposite directions are only striving after the wind. One person cannot stay warm on cold nights without an electric blanket. Two are better than one to defeat an assailant. So many little treasures of advice.

The last two Sundays I was blessed to go to church with my mother. The first week there was a missionary and the second week there were two baptisms. This same week a friend of ours shared a video of a testimony from another church in the same community. Seeing the Holy Spirit working in others lives is so uplifting. Staying the week with my mom and sister and her two little ones was more work than I thought it would be. By the end of the week though my old habit of not being able to fall asleep returned.

The first night there we let Kona sleep on the bed with us. Not very restful considering he has never done that before. In the early dawn hours, he woke up forgetting where he was. His frightful bark and the big fat tears in his eyes told me he had been very scared. I snuggled him into bed with me and he settled back down. The rest of the week he slept in his crate like ususal. Sleeping with dog on bed is not my preferred pet method. We both need the complete night of rest to be able to put up with each other all day.

Kona struggled with kid magnetics the first few days together with my little nieces. By the second day they had learned to co-exist and him not be so attracted to their every movement. By the fourth day a real rhythm had been set and he was learning to cue some things. His alerts at first were a little loud. He finally decided it was okay to inside bark that the baby was awake. He also cued some of the alarms around the house. The best was the “importance” of my mom’s pill minder. The last day he decided to walk outside with my mother. She just picked up the leash and took him with. Hmmm-I though she did not like dogs. And he also began noticing if the door did not shut all the way. That was helpful also. Pocket full of treats kept him very busy trying to earn a treat!

Meanwhile, my dad’s world had some bad news the past week. It was really hard to hear such sad happenings. But the day I called to take care of the flowers, he had had such a rough day. It was a blessing to keep in touch with him and hear him reciprocate my “I love you dad.” He has only told me he loves me a hand full of times. I think it meant much to him that I reached out even though I was at my mom’s for the week.

Returning home was “fruit basket upset” for me. I felt bad for not being happy to be home. The moving about and putting everything back in its place gets me pretty frustrated. My eyes just don’t always see what I think should be there. I took a detox bath, but it really did not help much. It wasn’t close enough to bed time to actually work.

The cutest event of the week was when the little girls were getting ready for bed one evening. My sister was making the bottle, and I was trying to “settle” them instead of wind them up. So I sang a silly song about the sun going to bed and so shall I. I taught them the actions of the sun coming up and traveling across the sky until it hit the floor again, then laid down to fall asleep. The third time the girls had the actions down and even Kona layed down on the floor to fall asleep for pretend. It was so cute watching them all interact so sweetly.

When it’s my time to go, I wonder how I will behave. Watching our elderly parents prepare for “the day” is hard. Some get listless and empty, letting go of the daily duties with quite a struggle. Getting them to understand that food is their first need and let someone else do the food preparations, can be such a battle. Others will not allow a hired help to come clean the house just for “privacy” sake or something.

I know it was hard for me to let go of the green house chores for the week and trust others to water, rotate, and watch care. Each sibling handles letting go of the parents differently also. Some just let go before it’s time to even relinquish their elder to this earthly suffering so that they do not have to watch the falling season. Some hang on so hard they won’t let anyone else take certain “cares” on because they have to have some control. In the end, the broken glass just goes when it’s God’s timing. We never really know when the glass will slip out of our hands and the pieces will be left to discard. We don’t even know what pieces we will be left with. God give me the grace to handle each broken glass with care.

Bowing Their Heads

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I Chronicle 29:20 “then David said to the assembly, ‘Bless the Lord your God’ and all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and paid homage to the Lord God, and their king.”

The other day we came home from our day away, and my dear hubby pointed out these poor little flowers. Take a look at the yellow daffodils in the butterfly garden bed. We planted the bulbs two years ago along the edge of the wings. And this year the weather was so warm the first few weeks of March, that the green shoots came forth. Like some long awaited resurrection day, I thought it was so appropriate that they bloomed the day after Easter.

Bowing their heads to pay homage to the creator, the little blooms seemed to declare, “Oh Lord God thank you for this splendid day. Thank you for giving us air to breathe. Thank you for the warm soil, the cold wind, the moisture in rain and snow. Thank You Lord.” Really now, how could I blame them for choosing such a cold and windy day for bursting forth in color and song to the Great Creator!

Not many days ago I heard a message about being on resurrection ground. Rather than looking at the cemetery as a place where the dead are buried, we should consider the fact that there are many brothers and sisters there waiting to be resurrected. Thus we are standing on resurrection ground. It gave me a whole new thought about being out there placing flowers every spring.

How does this translate into my daily duties? Laundry, cleaning floors, dishes, and house up keep is so very tedious and not fun for me. Yesterday I tried to listen to Rich Mullins music while working only to get irritable and turn off the music. There I times that I think about the days that the music bubbled up inside of me like a spring. And sometimes like Old Faithful it would come gushing forth. I just could not stop the new song from happening. I too am a poet and song writer. The words and music just come. But when there is no outlet, no one to share it with, it begins to die off. Like a fruit tree that never gets pruned, eventually the weight of the fruit breaks the branches and opens the tree up for disease and then it dies.

That’s how I feel. Like a broken down tree over laden with rotting fruit on the ground all around me. The trees bow their heads in the strong winds. Perhaps it’s time to be uprooted once again and planted anew by the springs of living water.

Today is pack up and clean up and final preparations for being gone from home for the next week. So yes, I feel like an uprooted plant. All out of the normal. My greenhouse duties are so pleasant for me. I simply did not want to leave. I actually took a couple of phone calls while in the dome. Back at the house the laundry is moved and the body nourished. I just wish I had the energy that I use to have. Packing for the week might be a laundry basket full of clothes instead of a suitcase. It’s easier.

God’s Goodness

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Saturday I witnessed a health care worker in action. I was both amazed at her quick decisions and her patience in turn. The fact that she is my niece and “watch” caring for my mother makes it only more blessed in my mind. While everyone is feeling the loss of the changing of seasons in my mother’s life, I am going to focus on the blessings. I want to taste God’s goodness during this season. One time nearly 24 years ago, I wrote a poem that I turned to song about these seasons.

The Spring of the year does not seem quite like the right time to begin seeing the autumn of one’s parents. But along with the fall comes the harvest. And Harvest is everyone’s favorite of gathering up all the goodies that God has blessed us with. So while my parents (all four of them in fact) are going into their season of fall in life, I want to focus on the bounty that God’s goodness has given them all these years.

Railings are such good help when we use them and when they are there. Our back porch and front deck went without such things for the first ten years or more while we lived here. The railing on the front deck was put up first. And we adjusted the steps to make them wider and more functional. The back porch “basket” was done a little later. My eyesight was failing in peripheral enough to make the railings necessary. No more running down or up the steps for me. So getting the railing down the basement steps in my mother’s house was a necessary item that we felt should not be delayed. My husband installed it on Saturday

Keeping aging parents in their home as long as possible can be somewhat of a hardship on the children balancing the watch care. Life becomes something of a juggling act as each one takes turns. There is no sense that life is on hold as the days come rushing by and things need to be done faster that one can think to schedule each day into the calendar. No one is particularly just waitng for the “big fall” rather we are all trying not to miss the balls as they fly through the air to us.

Knowing that my eyesight plays a pivotal role in me even catching one of those flying objects, I hope the others will be nice and roll the ball to me and let me know when it’s my turn to catch something. So here I go trying to schedule my greenhouse care and my doggie duties around traveling. And I’m not a very good traveler. I have already begun preferring to stay home.

I found this verse in my reading time the other day. Psalm 138:8 “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me: Your steadfast love, O Lord endures forever, Do not forsake the work of your hands.” There are verses about us being the “workmanship” of the Almighty. This verse really brought me peace when I was thinking of the days that God has ordained for each of us to live.

My hubby found a little saying that was a gardener’s “ excuse me.” Many times in life for some no apparent reason something in the greenhouse or in the house, plants just dies. The saying was another persons take on the situation. “You are a really good gardener, that plant should have tried a little harder.” But plant’s aren’t like people. And while some plants tell you that something is wrong, most of the time the disease happens way too quickly for me to respond in appropriate care. Having bad eyesight in the gardening field can cost me a whole crop. Preventive maintenance has to be part of my routine. So this winter and early spring I found a dish soap insecticidal spray and cinnamon are doing their job well to keep away some pest issues in the greenhouse.

Of neglected plants… Here below the first picture on the left is a Kalanchoe that my mother in law was “not” nurturing well. The little thing bloomed it’s head off for over three months. Finally after not receiving water on a weekly basis it decided to start dyring up. Then there is all the tulips at our place that came up the first two weeks of March only to get froze off not just once but three or four times. The first plant to show stress of my mother’s lack of “time” concept was her holiday cactus. She did get it moved out of the house last summer to finish it’s slow death outside. Plants in distress can make such a mess in the house.

Leaving the elderly alone for the holidays is also a “slow” death process. I blame the pandemic for the “keeping everyone safe” mentality that left far too many people alone for too long. I think I’m going to adopt my daughter’s mindset that says life is for living not for trying to stay safe all the time. Most of the elderly I know would rather just see their family than NOT see their family.

This week is the Easter Season, or the Holy Week. I have not been able to focus on the Scripture study that I normally do this time of year. So I’m glad that our Pastor chose a familiar text for his sermons around the special holiday. The 23rd Psalm has been one of my focus studies many times. It seems doubly important during this season of our lives.

I use to ask people around me what “season” of Psalm 23 did they find themselves in?… And right now I find myself longing for the Shepherd’s tender leading as I try to find the right paths to take each every day. The words “lead me” occur twice in the passage, so that’s what I’ll focus on asking Him. Lead me softly, Lord, Lead me gently. Just Lead me!

Side note: Kona got his first professional haircut yesterday. He won the cutest dog of the day award. What an enjoyable little bit of goodness in this season of changing goodness!

“Lord help me to taste Your goodness through each and every day. Even if there are some bitter herbs, lead me through the entire path that You have for me Don’t let me miss anything You have for me to taste!”

Winter Greenhouse Update Feb. ‘24

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It has been a very long time since I have done an update that is concentrated on one topic. My life is full and though I might find it hard to be content, there is one building on my farm that I can go to and loose myself. Literally. I just never really want to leave once I get down to my little dome greenhouse. Yes for Greenfield Greenhouse! I am very thankful. Note the little tree outside the door is one that the birds lanted at my daughter’s house a couple years ago. It’s been in that pot for a whole year now.

Geranium count is well over 300. The babies are at over 144 as the trays hold eighteen each. I counted around 84 plants that belong to someone as the greenhouse host program. These host plants are all tagged and will return to the owners over the summer. I am so grateful for the cuttings that I have received. This is truly how I can justify keeping the heat on in the greenhouse. As the cuttings that I take are my “cash crop.”

The snow and ice cap from “father Winter” was perfect for that cold snap last month. It truly does insulate the greenhouse from the bitter cold. I’m sure the melt is hard on the building. But It kept the building at a very steady fifty degrees Fahrenheit. The ice over the front door was rough, but Gavin got it thawed out with a heat gun. Then the little fan on the floor has kept it from refreezing shut.

Vents are opened up now. With these forty degrees days it has reached the mid 80’s. Which by the way is perfect growing weather. The humidity also stays really steady during the night and early morning hours. I am also so grateful for my remote WiFi thermometer. It has really helped my peace of mind during the cold days of winter.

So the pathway is starting to close in. There are thirteen large five gallon size geraniums around the horse shoe middle bed. While I cut them all back in the fall to get them into the greenhouse, they still take up a lot of space. These cuttings are how i get all those geranium babies!

The two pictures on the right below are a bit of the process. In the fall I put the cuttings directly into dry growing mix. The rectangular containers (or oval) work the best as the soil is just deep enough to encourage root growth. For two or three weeks all they get is some misting water. The tank is the best place for this delicate propagation station. The air is steady and the humidity constant because of the 1000 gallon water tank. The water tank acts as a heat battery, warming the greenhouse at night and cooling it during the day. And the temperature stays very stable in this central location. The dappled sunlight is also ideal. Each year it seems that I throw less and less rotted cuttings away.

I use to keep only two or three Bostons Ferns over the tank. This picture on the lesft shows the browning fern.. But since the price of the plants have gone up (anywhere from 30 to 45 dollars for this size seen here) I now have eight ferns total in the greenhouse. Three of them came from other people but as ususal the care that a plant gets prior to arrival shows up pretty fast once in the growing dome. Two of them look pretty sad. This one is a little too close to our heat source. So it’s time to rotate them all.

Movie list continues with watching “midnight in Paris.” Does it not seem like always that 20 or 30 years ago was the golden age rather than the present that we’re living in? And yes the movie is a fall apart romance that ends with another one beginning. There are so many lessons to grasp from the wanna-be-writer. It will be enteresting to see these lessons of life come out in my book about Cocoa.

While I’m busy writing about Cocoa in the past, I will focus on living now. Trying to remember the funny things that my husband says is one of my new goals for the year. For the life of me, my brain just does not work that way. I struggle with remember the “Gavin-isms.”

February is the second month of the year. I finally got my chapter two of Ecclesiastes read and found a gem of a verse towards the end. My cousin’s son in physical rehabilitation after his colon surgery has been on my mind so much. Surely, it is true that without God who can even eat? Finding enjoyment in food is also another one of my goals for the new year. I am simply not a foodie. Ecclesiastes two verse 24-25: “there is nothing better for a person to do than that. He should eat drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw is from the hand of God, for apart from God who can eat or have enjoyment.” ESV

Epilogue: yes I have been distracted again. Finally got my edits done. I employed my hubby the other day to help me with some seed planting. He got to see how very tiny those petunia seeds are. I only planted six cool whip tubs. They supply me, and a few others. Also finally planted some geranium seeds. This is a first for me. The cuttings have worked so well and are such little “work” that I have neglected to do seeds as the mosture control can be tricky. I’ll let you know!

23 Crochet Review

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2023 Crochet projects were numerous. From finishings to to beginnings to brand new things the yarn nearly flew off the hook! And the best is that there were far more than twenty three items done by the end of the year. This writing is only the highlights! No costs calculated… Sorry, not sorry. The regrets are minimal. I loved them all!

January crochet projects included finishing a beautiful mosaic poncho that went to the “holiday in June” gifting basket. Not really sure who found this one a fried. The other project was making a scarf to go with a hat and mitten set that I had made the previous year. It seems there was another mosaic off the hook that month, but I can’t seem to find it in my photo album.

February found me putting together another mitten and hat set. This time I used some homespun wool and an acrylic blend mix. The hat and mittens are my favorite “warm” set for when it is really cold.

In February and into March the GgQq blanket was completed. I love both the thickness and the mixup of the geometric or greek symbols

March found me getting back to the easy C2C stitch. I really love the fast pace of this stitch. And how the project gets done quickly. Make a children’s blanket that we have used a few times for the kids when they are here to visit.

April gave the chance to finish out the salsa C2C that I had started the year before. At some point I ran out of yarn.. Finally had the rest of the yarn to comlplete the project. It is also a new favorite blanket.

May of course was a very busy garden and greenhouse month, but I did find time to make this “handbag.” Then I took the bag to my mother for a jipper addition and probably won’t see the bag ever again. Ugh. Well, it was sweet and I can always make another one, right?

June found me making Bags or sacks or packs or purses. It became my next obsession. It began with one and soon multiplied. The two tone reversing pattern is so addicting to create. I had a blast making a dozen or more of these for the family holiday basket give away. And they ALL were taken. Not one left, so I began again.

Mixing up the colors soon became my favorite hot afternoon past time through the summer months.

July happened on quite quickly. And I received a commission project. Some lovely lady had a child’s blanket that suffered loss in a house fire. It was such a pleasure to replicate the siblings “Grandma crocheted” blanket with the best attempt at color matching possible. The original blanket that I copied was 25 or more years old. What fun to give back something once lost.

August turned out to be even hotter. So I decided that no more blankets were in order until the season changed from air conditioning to heating. Back to the doilies I returned. The pattern took on new finishing touches though. And we renamed the doily- “love multiplies.” I got a little hooked on the little hooks and made five or six of them.

September was busy with harvest and canning. I don’t recall making anything that month. I know I did some yarn shopping for future projects. But kitchen duties were louder than the crochet stash.

The end of September, the 27th to be exact I found a little six pound distraction. For more reasons than I can count, this little black Shih Tzu puppy caught my eye, my heart, my time, my energy and everything else for the next two months.

October and November the hooks remained silent except for my pattern attempt. Here he is sporting the little seven pound sweater. Now Kona is about ten pounds the temps are ready to go sub-zero and I am at it again to update the sizing.

December came with a flourish of activity as we anticipated the new little arrival. I made one blanket and scratched the project because the colors did not speak baby girl very well. So I went back to the store for some yarn that was more girl talk. And there she is! Our little star was born just before Christmas. The blanket was done about ten days to spare.

And finally the old year passed away and the new year began. So I decided to take out the 15 year old sea shell pattern and make my favorite C2C. The sea shell just seemed so busy always and I do so love the farm checked patterns. So another skein of jumbo aran yarn would do and and I was off into the new year and a new project on my lap.

Little Black Beads: Kona’s Journal

Published on by yvonneannetteLeave a comment

“The shiney parts”…. The first week or so with Kona my granddaughter told me that at first she could not see his eyes. I know I replied he is all black and it’s hard to tell. Then she stated that now she could see his eyes just fine because those are the “shiney parts!” Like little black beads on a toy, they are very reflective of any light.

Doing chores every day is something I am used to. Part of living on a “homestead” with animals is chores. First there were dogs and sheep. Then the horse came along and there were cats added tot he numbers. The sheep have long since left and now the numbers of others is even lower. From nine cats down to three is quite the reduction. And the horse is gone also. One day not too long ago I actually heard the “phantom” whiney of the horse as I walked out the door. It had been awhile since that happened. Nevertheless, chores are a part of my everyday exercixe regimen.

Kona’s week nine and ten have gone by pretty fast. I was busy on a poncho and a baby blanket crocheting. So the writing took a back burner. I also had a few upkeep things to do in the greenhouse. We are still witing for baby to come along (grand baby number four),.

“Play nice” is the new saying I repeat often. The two indoor furries have been trying to make “flurries” with their rambunctious play. The other day the two of them finally decided to play and Honey knocked over the kitchen chair. Today they were running through the house after each other. I almost regretted my second indoor dog purchase.

Kona is still trying to figure out my pregnant daughter. The extra heartbeat has him tipping his head this way and that as she gets a few snuggles from him. I am just so excited to see what baby looks like.

I finished the canine psychology book on mirror feelings. There are times that I just don’t want my dog to mirror my anxiety. Her hyper jump up and down rather than settle is so unhelpful when I am trying to get a “frenzy” of activity done. Like cleaning the house or something. Especially when it’s time to walk out the door. Honey just will not settle and watch and wait while I prepare all of my belongings for “the go.” Kona tends to sit and wait a little better.

Physical feelings: cold, hot, pain, hunger, etcetera are not the same as ones emotional feelings. Trying to get in touch with my feelings might actually take some time. As a child I don’t believe my emotional feelings were ever validated. Physical punishment was used to inflict both pain on my behind and shame in my heart. I learned that my physical pain of asthma was not something my parents were willing to pay money for and get me medical help. I had to let go of all the “want” to be cared for in my deepest need for air. My mother would say, don’t cry, it only makes it worse. Stop crying because I could not catch my breath after the lawn had been mowed and the windows were all left open, and my asthma kept me up at night. I had to stuff my feelings down under neath something and just breath, which I could not do because of the asthma.

If my dogs are here to reflect my emotional energy and show me how to heal myself… then here I go. Let’s make a list of emotions first and then try to decipher when those emotions surface and why.

Emotional feelings: happy, disgusted, embarrassment, surprise, satisfied, love, frustration, envy, contempt, hatred, self confidence, annoyance, compassion, jealousy, pride, anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, shame, boredom, guilt, loneliness, depression. All of these feelings have been stuffed under for so long. There was a time that I felt free to cry and be sad. When I lost my drivers license and my previous Shih Tzu “Furbie.” But the sad just would not stop. I had help for a couple of years trying to turn off the sad and look for happy. Butthe feelings only got wiped off the heart monitor and finding happy was so hard.

I remember when we put the dog that doesn’t deserve a name down to rest, my heart just went blank. We had some major happenings in the next few months and I struggled to feel anything at all. Finding a happy place was so hard.

My green house became my happy place. Digging in the dirt and planting things was therapeutic. For me. It took me nearly three or four years of garden keeping to finally decide this was the new me. Garden Oma with all of my pets etcetera. I still struggle to “happy” in the house. The walls don’t talk back, you know.

Raising my girls was such a busy fulfilling time for me. Home schooling was the best use of all my talents. Now, I am just struggling to come up with who me really is. No one understands just how empty the nest can feel when it is empty of children.

And so the grand children come along. And then we see just how small our house really is. The “Tiny House” movement is such an impossible way of life unless there the OUTDOORS. And so that’s what coming here means to the children. Lots of time outside.

Putting practice into my learning or learning into my practice. Yesterday at my daughter’s I found it quite frustrating that Kona kept his nose to the ground so intently that he had no focuse for me or the task at hand. Like going potty on command to be exacta. In fact he spend so much of his out door time grabbing the bunny “scat” into his mouth that by mid afernoon, I knew that he had a tummy ache. Immediately upon our exit to head home in the evening, he lost the “lunch” on the deck outside.

thank goodness it was outside! It had been a rough day otherwixe and one more mess to clean up in the house might have put us all over the edge!

Today, I took a ball outdoors with us for a couple of the walks to get his focus back unto me. Of course, I’m not sure how this will play out through the week into next visit to the “bunny yard.”

Finally got Charlie to play for 2 minutes. He likes tug of war I guess.

Today feelings and Honey not bring frisbee back. Anger gets way up. Why does she play keep away? We never taught her that? The tease play is not fun at all. It’s like she thrives at full throttle and prefers us to be in total exasperation. So while this is a few days later… I have tried not saying any thing at all while tossing the frisbee. Does not hlep that I am usually cold also. So being out there is really a frustrating exercise chore.

Well, I’m going to quit. It’s only one week until Christmas. Time to try to tap into some joy, happiness, love, hope, and peace.