uneven edges...

My Dark Oak Woman name just wasn't suiting me any longer. I love having an "Indian name" but it didn't describe me completely. I have a history with uneven edges so this new name is more fitting. One of my legs is longer than the other. When I was a kid this didn't bother me but as I get older it causes me pain now and then. So, I'm physically uneven and more aware of it. It would be impossible to find someone who isn't uneven.

Alas, I am also creatively uneven.

When I made my very first pieced quilt I didn't understand the quarter-inch seam concept AT ALL. It was a disaster. But, I managed to get all of it lined up on top. You shoulda seen the bottom. Several years later I made a bowtie quilt and didn't like the size of my blocks so I cut them down. This time I wasn't so lucky with the outcome. It does add to the "charm" of the quilt though, don't you think?



Then there was my first afghan...

I dove right in without understanding how to end a row, make a chain and begin the next row. Luckily I thought of a way to fix it by crocheting an edge around all 4 sides and today my mistakes are hardly visible(this is a "before" picture).



Now, thankfully, I have figured out the quarter-inch seam and how to end/begin a crocheted row.

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to trim your own bangs???....

I wanna be a rink rat...

In Which I Ruminate...

As some of you know, we are dealing with Mark's mom's moderate to severe Alzheimer's Disease. She refuses to see a doctor, won't take so much as an aspirin, and considers herself to be healthy "pioneer stock". Mark's dad is doing the best he can and has taken over the cooking and such, but she's really way too much for him to have to look after. They are in their early 80s and he has health issues of his own. She's bad enough that she's preventing him from seeking the care he needs as well. Anyway, without going into all the gory details, it is time for her to be cared for in a facility and we are starting Monday with getting her evaluated and placed.

Soooo, in Mark's communications with his sister about all this, he was presented with the story of how he came to be a part of their family.

Mark's mom has always told conflicting stories about the adoption of their children. He was never really sure where he or his sister came from or the reason his parents couldn't have children of their own. His sister told him yesterday that his birth mother is a relative of a woman his parents knew socially here in our hometown. She claims to have seen this woman once and says there is a very strong resemblance. My mom, Mark and I have, on rare occasion, seen a young man(maybe 8-12 years younger than Mark) who could be his twin. Same hair color, facial structure, body frame, eye color. Mark knows the friends of his parents, he even saw the husband in Walmart last week. He has never, to his knowledge, seen the woman who might be his birth mother. We don't know the situation that caused her to give him up for adoption. Maybe she was a young adult, unmarried and pregnant for the first time, or maybe she was older, divorced and unable to take the responsibility for another child. It wouldn't be hard to find out these things without actually contacting this family, but it would be nice to hear the true story from someone who knows. It is SO unfair that the adults(when he was born) are the keepers of the knowledge. Even now, as an adult, he is, possibly forever, in the dark about his blood lineage while "everybody else" knows his history.

Does Mark want to know her story? We've talked about it and I think he does but not right now. He has an enormous volume of work with his new business and the goings on with his parents so it might be a while before he's able to focus on this part of his life. I hope he chooses to approach the family about finding his birth mother. There are medical issues he's dealing with that are adult onset, things we might need to know for the sake of our children.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we deal with his mom and dad. Its going to be stressful for everyone involved rest assured.

Abundance Is....

(First I'd like to thank everyone who commented on my deliberate living post. What you all wrote was inspirational and has given me more to think about. I'm absolutely at peace with dancing to my own music, using my microwave, and sleeping in dyed sheets.*G*)

Now,

Abundance is...

Having enough to give away and never miss it.

We filled the whole Suburban today with stuff for charity and gave a nice dresser to a needy family. We aren't finished, not by a long shot, but we were cleaning first, sorting out second. There are more weekends coming up.

Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. Ecclesiastes 11:1-2.

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.~G.K. Chesterton

Abundance is...

Perfect weather, rain or shine.

The past two weekends were spent raking, moving, hauling, lifting, digging, bagging, and so forth. We got our entire front and back yards done! This Saturday we awoke to chilly, windy drizzle and it was just perfect because we had nothing to do outside(no yardwork). Ryan had to be at his job just before noon so we all got ready and dropped him off. We headed to Lowe's for some shelf holders and Jake's for guinea pig and dog bedding. The girls were hungry and decided on Taco Bell. Just as we were waiting for the light to change for us to turn onto that road, Mark had the brilliant idea that we needed something a bit more substantial so we headed for our favorite Tex-Mex dive. It was exactly what we needed on a gray day, very comforting and relaxing.

Today we had no plans to work in the garage but it happened. The weather, once again, was just perfect. Not too cold, not windy, sunny and mild. We didn't get hot on the west side of the house nor did we get cold fingers(except the girls when they washed some box lids). Now after hours of hard work, our garage is clean and organized with (almost)everything in its place.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin

There's nothing like biting off more than you can chew, and then chewing anyway. ~Mark Burnett

Abundance is...

Experiencing one of the Earth's most powerful and awesome events and not being hurt or scared.

We had an earthquake early this morning! Actually, what we think is that it was an aftershock from one that happened north of Oklahoma City at 3:43am(Did You Feel It?"). Mark and I were awakened at 4:45 by a series of vibrations like idling in a diesel truck but there was no noise(our bedroom doors did shake a bit). The dogs had actually got me alert a few seconds before so I felt them before Mark. The shakes woke him up. It was unnerving but we really didn't think "earthquake" until we'd got up and around later in the day.

Which would you rather have, a bursting planet or an earthquake here and there? ~John Joseph Lynch

It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. ~Frederick Douglass

Deliberate Living....

A new friend of mine said something that gave me pause. She said she needed to start living more deliberately. Hmmmm. As with all philosophies, some followers are rather militant, taking it to the very far extreme. Many, however, like my friends Cheryl, Kel, and Anet (and others of course) are just wading in and doing what their hearts tell them. Baby steps for me. I'm not sure I am ready to commit to any certain "thing" yet. It might be that I do as these women are doing and deliberately change the foods I serve to my family but it quite likely won't be exactly what they are doing. Maybe I'll work at reducing my plastics like Kel has done.

There are things we have that we cannot give up, like our swimming pool. Sure chlorine isn't the healthiest thing to be swimming in but does the exercise we're getting count against that at all? We can't afford to switch over to a salt water filter but I can research alternatives and possibly switch to a less toxic treatment or determine when the best times for swimming would be. There are other things out there that seem to be hype(or at the very least, overly dramatized) as well. I won't be giving up my microwave, sticking my feet in a detox machine, or exchanging our current bedding for organic, unbleached, undyed sheets. I have no room for a garden, nor do I have the inclination to dig in the dirt so that's out for me too. What I do know is that the phrase I heard at park day, "live more deliberately" struck a cord in me and I want to investigate further. How about you?

Here are more websites about living deliberately...

DeliberateLife.com

Deliberate Living: Slowing Down & Simplifying

Living Deliberately(a discussion group)

Living-Deliberately.com

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Well, just when I thought the bad stuff was over, it wasn't. But, it is now. The perpetrator of the lies, rumors, and innuendo has been found out and whatever she says will no longer be believed. Of course this has come to an end that wasn't what I had envisioned, so if you are a praying person, say one for all involved. I woke up this morning and my first thought was nothing to do with this, that hasn't happened in weeks! I've got such a peace finally, its overwhelming and soooo freeing!!

So, on that HAPPY note, I will post some "lovely" songs for a "lovely" day. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day really. Mark and I are not sentimental beings unless there is a deep personal meaning behind something. V-day doesn't have that for us, although we did get "officially" engaged on February 12th(he bought me a ring the previous November and I made him take it back because it was too big-what was I THINKIN'!!!). However, we love love and don't mind celebrating that at all!!!

Ryan had his first "official" date last night, we drove them to dinner and a movie. He's had casual "friends who are girls" and even "girls of interest" but not a true "girlfriend" before. This is the first one he's let us meet. She's really cute and has a sweet, outgoing personality(and she's smart!!). She's coming over this afternoon with a friend and we're going to grill steaks and shrimp. Now I'd better extract my booty from this chair and go help with the yard work!!















And, OMG!!!

Recovering...

Or actually "Recovered"... from a lot of really bad junk going around... physical, emotional, and spiritual. Let me just say it has been a BAD, very BAD, ugly, nasty winter and a HUMONGOUS TIME WASTER!!!! However, it is over for my part and I'm better for it all around.

Now for some new music I've come across and just LOVE! This first woman, Stephanie deBruijn is AMAZING!!





The Greencards are wonderful too... this video reminds me of my youth and my kids at the same time.





And the SteelDrivers... with one of my favorite songs ever.



Two more of my favorites.

I'm HOME!!!

We drove straight through yesterday, leaving a very cold Micaville around 7am and arriving in Longview around 10:30ish(honestly I didn't look at a clock). There was fresh snow on the far end of Yancey county but not too slick on the roads. It was beautiful on the mountains but I don't have a picture, the cameras were packed.

The trip went by really fast, dad and I took turns driving. We saw dozens and dozens of deer all through Mississippi, probably over 100. The girls and I had fun watching for them, until we hit one. Dang things leapt in front of us, the first one made it across to the median, the second one crashed into the rear wheel well. I have no idea if it could have survived its wounds, we found a dent and where it wiped off the road dirt along the back of the SUV. After that it was a nervous trip, there were deer EVERYWHERE!! Thankfully the Louisiana deer weren't as plentiful.

Mark took me to lunch today for my birthday. Then mom and I went and enlarged patterns from several books and magazines for our thrifted wool projects.

We're having homemade chili for dinner with cornbread. Mark's coming home early because we didn't sleep well last night. He's VERY busy with his new company, getting everything in compliance takes a long time!

Anyway, I've got pictures on 3 different cameras so it's gonna be a few days. I'm sure it will take a week to get back to normal!!!


(the girl in the hat is my mom's mom's mom, Ollie Skaggs)

Computer Woes....

My computer has a black screen and won't do anything. The girls just had a scan that showed 11 trojan horses. Sooooo, I may not be around much next week. Mark is trying to get to a restore point on mine but so far it won't take. Sigh. Everyone is banned from MySpace from here on out, that's where the scan shows the problems are coming from. GRRRRRR.

Dreaming...

A few nights ago I had a dream about having to paint elephants for a circus. We(I guess Mark and I and a few others) were treading water in a huge, deep, indoor pool. The elephants would swim by us to be scrubbed, then go up steps to dry off before we got out to paint them. It was very tedious work, lots of details in the patterns. There were at least 40 of them and probably an equal amount of dolphins which also had to be painted. Another part of the dream was us sitting in a parking lot waiting for someone to join us so we could get "underway" going somewhere. We were in a van with all the doors open and kind of milling around inside. I think we were also pulling a horse trailer with lots of stuff in it(not animals). Anyway...

From what I've gathered from searching, elephants represent our whole self and our power, "the elephant is also a symbol of power, strength, and intellect". Dolphins represent "conscious awareness of one's link with all life; contact with the one life within all things". I'm exploring this and others. There is more in the painting too, about my need to express myself. Interesting.



Last night I dreamed of shopping in a series of thrift shops, much like a flea market but in little open air cubicles. I came across several items that were like ones I'd owned as a child and as I examined them I found my name and address on some of them. More digging came up with this, "suggests that there are still things to be learned and gained from past experiences or what is seemingly worthless. The thrift shop may also symbolize ideas or skills that you may have forgotten". Even more interesting.

Wonder what tonight's will be? I'm looking forward to it!

Watch this video!! I'm slightly obsessed with this song now, its soooo rhythmic.



And this one too, whoa these girls are AWESOME!