Been a Running

These past weeks have been filled with running, running, running as our church prepared for its 125th Anniversary--we go to a little country church, so that means everyone does something and many do many things.  I was in charge of editing and putting together a 1 hour DVD of our church history (along with my mom who scanned in hundreds of photos), putting a hanging photo display back together (that we had to rip apart in order to make use many of the photos) in a way that would be acid free and conserve our church's photos for many more years, designing a set of church banners to go in the front of the church that reflected our church's theme chapter for the weekend (Hebrews 11) and also would be appropriate for use throughout other times of year at the church, preparing a special number or two for a Sat. evening service as well as leading it, and making a dessert for the Sunday afternoon meal--woooooeeeee . . . busy, busy!  There are many others who had just as busy, if not busier schedules for the weekend, so I am certainly not the only one who had much to do . . .

But . . . throw in the fact that with Friday evening came a big wind storm and a power outage at the church that lasted through Saturday evening, we can sure say we were kept on our toes!  We all pitched in and I think that everyone who was able to come out had great time (at least, I know I did).  Playing old fashioned picnic games (like 3-legged races and the like), singing songs with piano and guitar accompaniment and visiting with old friends doesn't take any power (and we had a generator running to keep the refrigerator and big chest freezer going, so our food wouldn't go bad). 

What a great weekend all in all--and I have had many compliments on the DVD I put together--only about 5 left and I believe they are all spoken for, so I'll probably be making a few more copies!

The Pastor who was my confirmation pastor and there while I was in high school was able to come back and visit as well as the Pastor who we had when I was first born--it was great to see them!

Hope your past few weeks have brought you joy!

Smiles for the New Year!

Lake Jennie Church at Christmastime--our little country church

(There were a few tears before Christmas, I'm sad to say)  All my busy times just got pushed together and if I was better at organizing my time, they might not have been there at all, but golly, I hate to organize my time!

We had Christmas Eve at our house this year for my family--no big deal really-everything as basically clean and it was just my parents and one of my brothers with his wife and son.  The food was easy enough and I enjoy making food and making treats, but when you combine that with editing down school Christmas Programs (also a fun time), finishing off your own gifts to give (fun, too), and finishing off other people's gifts to give (fun as well, I like my job) it gets to be a lot of stuff to get done.  Dan ended up doing all of the wrapping of presents which was very nice!

While my brother was at my place we went sledding out in the South yard (cow yard? former goat pasture?) with him and my nephew.  With all the new snow we had gotten it was so much fun.  Even the cows wanted in on the party (wish I had some pictures--I'm waiting on getting them from my brother as we had his camera out there with us).

Christmas was at Dan's parent's place and was really fun as well!  Just a nice relaxing day with his family.

Dan had the whole week from Christmas through New Year's off, so he did all sorts of things around the house.  Most not very visible (like leveling the stove and refrigerator, plugging up mouse holes, and helping sort through all the cupboards and the big walk-in closet)  We threw away so much stuff and have things a lot more organized once again.

Now just a couple of fun photos of the critters I've taken the last couple weeks!

Dakota rolling in the driveway on a cold winter's day--

it was well below zero at this point, but she'd been cooped up inside all night!

Forgive the bit of blurriness and shadow in this picture, I've been trying to get a good picture of Bernie as he sucks on one of our blankets for a while and this is the best one so far (what with poor lighting and the flash blowing out the picture).  Bernie just loves to nurse on blankets--a comforting thing I suppose since his mother left him alone in our chicken coop at such a young age.  Norman used to do this, too with one of our extremely soft blankets, but Bernie really seems to like these striped wool Southwestern style blankets.  Never knew bright blue stripes looked so much like a mother cat!  (Of course, Norman has also stepped in as a surrogate mother at times--who knew a big 6 year-old neutered male cat could be such a loving mother!)

Hope the new year will bring you smiles and fun moments now and again, too!

Chilly, Christmas-y Winter Days Are Here Again

Brrrr . . . I'm chilly today . . . and yesterday . . . and the day before

Do I use . . . too much?

I don't know . . . (he, he, he)

Well, this post hasn't said much so far, but I thought I would show you one thing I had designed in the last month that might be of some interest.

For the last couple of years, I have been designing and printing banners to be hung at my church during different seasons of the year. Our little country church gets decorated so beautifully at Christmastime with candles, wreaths, and greenery. It already looked so special, so I didn't know if anyone really wanted me to design anything to be put up in front for Christmas, but I asked the Pastor and he said that he thought people would like them during this season as well.

So this is what I came up with . . .


I split this picture in two and it is up on either side of the cross in front of the church. The thing I like about this picture most is the scene truly is from the hillside around Bethlehem. (Although a heavily photoshopped version of it all!)

Dan took a picture looking out over Bethlehem when we went to Israel a couple of years ago. Do you notice the tall mound on the far right. That is a Herodioan (built by Herod/Herod's people) from way, way, way back to before the time of Jesus (at least that is my understanding). Mary and Joseph would have looked out on those hills, the Magi may have had to have crossed those hills to get back home. Those hills were there when Jesus was born and, if hills could talk, could attest to have seen angels in the air announcing His birth. Anyway, those are some special hills :o)

Do you want to see the real picture Dan took?

Well, yes, you do.


The part in the banners is in the way back--I am doubting that Bethlehem currently looks much the same as it did in Jesus' time. I hope I did it all some justice in the banners (highly smooshed and manipulated is they may be).

***Me on my bit of a soap box***
I think that there are times when people today think that God doesn't really have anything to do with the world anymore (if He ever did). That maybe He just ended stuff whenever the Bible was done being written (or, that whole thing was faked anyway). He doesn't care about anyone, none of what He did (or was thought to do) can really be explained, so He must not really be out there at all. I get that. I can understand that people don't see things the same way as I do, but, I say, "What if . . .what if God truly is there and truly loves each one of us and truly has a plan for every single persons life on this earth? What if He truly has known you since before you were born?"

My mind and my heart say that we will see one day that God and all the science and everything out there really do work together. And that thoses hills that were there way back at Jesus birth will attest to the fact that He was born one night 2000+ years ago to really save the people of this world (before and after Him) from the sins that have separated us from our perfect relationship with God since the Fall of Adam.

But, I digress, I am not here to start some kind of theological argument. I just get thoughtful about things sometimes and don't know where to put those thoughts except for out here somewhere where they might cause someone else to think something or other.

Well, enjoy these special days and I hope that wherever you are (here in my hometown or out far away) that your fingers and toes are warm and will continue to be throughout the winter.

Is is just me, or did I do tooooo much this weekend?

Hello, all!

Okay, so I did it. I sang and played guitar on Friday night and survived. Whew. I wasn't that great or anything, but I survived (probably won't be asked to do that again, though). I would tell you about the large crowds that came out to hear me perform, but that large crowd consisted of - the two ladies who work at the shop, one of their husbands, my parents, my husband (who arrived late by the way, bad husband), some other guy, and a family of three that has come into our gallery a few times. Yep, that's what I was nervous about. I sang and played stuff (including a few verses of The Ballad of Jesse James(music comes up right away on this site, so if you are in quiet place you may not want to click on this link)). Anyway, it went by (and as it turned out, I had to play for 2 1/2 hours not 1 1/2 (is was 6:00-8:30 not 6:30-8:00)


This was my day Saturday

10:45 -leave for "the cities" to get to baby shower for one of my best friends
12:30-5:00- have tons of fun with my friend and her family (it was wonderful by the way-her mom makes the nicest food and she made us all feel so special by putting fresh strawberries in our drinks and giving everyone a beautiful gerbera daisy as we left). She absolutely loved the little hat that I made.
5:00-8:00-drive home, stop for groceries, get some art supplies for a drawing I want to do, and finally arrive home.
8 something- have peanut butter sandwiches for supper and sit down for a while to do nothing for a minute
9:30- start making salad for 75 to serve at a surprise birthday for my mom on Sunday
10:45-3 gallons of salad are in the refrigerator all ready to go, so I sit down to watch the episode of Martha that I had taped. (The perfect woman to watch at the end of that kind of busy day-she doesn't sleep and probably makes salad for 75 every day)


Sunday-

10:30- go to church
11:45- leave church to rush to my parents house (before they get home from church) and pick up old family photo albums for the surprise party that will be at church later this afternoon.
12-ish-try to figure out something quick I can make for lunch, wrap faux birthday present from my brothers, me and my dad (because the present we ordered for my mom won't arrive for another couple weeks), brother-in-law calls and want to come over, lunch ends up not being as quick to make as I would like sooooo . . .
1:15- eat lunch
1:45-3:30-brother-in-law arrives, husband and brother-in-law go outside to walk around the farm and figure out what they need to do for the pasture in order for everything to be ready by the end of the month when the horses go out on it, I finish off the scrapbook I had started about our trip to Israel (only on page needed to be finished) because Dan and I will be making a presentation at church about our trip to Israel at a church service that we are having this afternoon right before the surprise party for my mom that will also be happening at the church, try to figure out what to say at the presentation and write down a few notes.
3:30-run into town to put gas in the car (because we will not make it to church and back on the amount of gas we have in the car) and pick up supplies for punch for the party.
3:45-leave for church
4:00-5:00-family service at church where Dan and I talk about our trip to Israel
5:00-8:00-SURPRISE, my mom has a ton of fun (my dad and I sent our invites to all sorts of her friends and to a bunch of her cousins that she hadn't seen in a while), oldest brother and his family from come up from Iowa, youngest brother (he's older than me, but he is the youngest of my three brothers) and his family come out from "the cities" (middle brother lives in Idaho and has a 2 year old and an 8 month old, so he stayed put.),
8:15 -9:00 or so- clean up the church from the party and pack up the vehicles with presents and leftovers.
9 something-arrive home and do as little as possible until it is time to go to bed.


Then this morning before I came to work I went outside and picked a bunch of violets from the hundreds (maybe even thousand) that are growing wild in our yard. Ahhhh . . .violets have a wonderfully calming effect.

Myrtle Leaf Shawl

Okay, long ago and far away (a couple of weeks ago) I showed you pictures of the Myrtle Leaf shawl that I wanted to knit and said that I was getting the yarn and all that. Well, the shawl got started (I told you that, too), but then, as you may have noticed, no knitting content!!!!!! What happened you say . . . well, I got done with two repeats of the pattern and it was fun, but life gets in the way of knitting and sometimes (you may be shocked to hear this) it can be nice to do absolutely nothing during your free time. I needed absolutely nothing to be happening for a while (although I did start a simple scarf from the vintage knitting book I have).

The scarf I started is the one in the picture above here-except its blue

The life that got in the way was putting together a youth concert at our local performing arts center for my church. The concert (with Carpenter's Tools and Elizabeth Hunnicutt performing) was on Wednesday and was a success, but I don't know if I will ever again agree to be the contact person for things again. (ie: I should know more about sound equipment and all. I did work in my college's auditorium and set up for concerts and things, but I was always the underling who got told what to do and when to do it) Anyway, I won't go on and on about that now, but I do have something you would like to see.
Very early progress on the Myrtle Leaf Shawl!!!

Here is Rebecca Modeling the first two repeats!!!!


You can't quite see the leaves yet, but they'll show up better when it gets blocked

I have a long way to go yet and I had hoped to wear it in Israel, but that won't be happening. I will just have to accept it, but some glorious day I will have this . . .