Seeing Beauty in Hard Places, part 3

Long hours on the road this summer were brightened by a vase of flowers from our garden!

By the way, Elsa and I trained our way into more driving over the past two months than we had been able to do in the previous decade combined! This is another part of our major "rehab" from years of chronic illness. 

Garden flowers also brightened up our hotel room for part of Dad's month at Mayo.

And the first tomatoes from our garden came along to ripen in the window.

Sunsets and a couple of ponds were another bit of beauty we looked for each day.

Did you notice my “garden” in the photo behind the orange juice*? Probably not. It’s all in one’s perspective!

That little patch of wildflowers between a highway and a hotel parking lot was a bright spot in an otherwise ugly setting. Especially compared to our lush flowerbeds back home with rarely the sound of a vehicle on our gravel roads and fresh air blowing across the prairies… that month in an airless hotel room on the edge of a city was not a restful or healing place.

And yet God turned it into a time of healing the nervous system at deeper levels, just because it was so far from peaceful or natural. What mattered was that He had called me to these new challenges, and He was there to meet my needs. By wiring in the truth through brain rewiring (neuroplasticity) methods, my nervous system learned that even there, I was safe with Him!

*The orange juice itself was a brain rewiring win after more than a decade without! I enjoyed it most days at the hotel as well as training with some more "firsts" of a bagel, corn flakes, conventional ice-cream, and a waffle cone! Plus walking up to 3 miles at a time on the paths and sidewalks of our community.

Seeing Beauty in Hard Places, part 2

When able, we got Dad out of the city altogether during his month of treatments at Mayo. On what turned out to be his best day in several months, we explored a state park that was new to us. Moss, bogs and wildflowers lined a pleasant path to the main feature of the park...

...a waterfall! So refreshing!

Mom even managed the hike between her two knee replacements!

And Elsa and I had to check out the fun playground make of logs and lumber! Reviving a childlike curiosity and spontaneity adds joy to life (as well as making fun pictures to send to nephews and neice)!

Seeing Beauty in Hard Places, Part 1

As mentioned in my last post, we spent a month of this summer at Mayo clinic. Since Dad had less than an hour of treatments per day, we looked for ways to get out of the city/clinic atmosphere as much as possible. At least as much as Dad was able to handle.

Even in the middle of the downtown roar of traffic and construction/demolition, we enjoyed a stroll to this park with a fountain one afternoon.

Then God had a beautiful surprise planned for us on the day we drove up to enjoy the Mississippi River. We always like to stop at the Lake City marina where the river widens to a lake up to 3 miles across. This particular Saturday we were surprised to see so many sails out... until we found out that local sailors were giving rides for a donation to a fundraiser.

And that is how we got out sailing in a year where our own Weta stayed parked in the shed! This Catalina 310 was the biggest sailboat we've gotten to try yet, and our captain and first mate were a good fit for us.

It is just so good to get out in God's creation!

• Viewing the Mississippi from Frontenac State Park (and trying to stay cool in intensely humid heat!)

April "Showers," Flowers, Birds, and Clouds

Our April Showers have been mostly white so far. See April 3rd for example:

But they did bring some April flowers! Can you spot our very first blooms in this April 13th picture? 

No? I'll zoom in.

We recently learned the name of this hand-me-down bulb from Mom's mother, who got it from her mother in law, who got it from a community friend. (My great-grandma's journals are full of these neat facts that tie our life and things in our home back to her days.)

The plant is called Scilla or Squills. It is tiny and easy to miss completely. So glad I looked at the right time this year!

I also cut in some little lilac leaf-buds that day. Here is what they looked like at first.

And more green two days later...

Also last Sunday, I had some restful birdwatching and cloud-watching from deck and porch. The back-lit layers of rain clouds rolling in before sunset finally got me to pull out my watercolors again to add to my nature journal. 

And yes, we identified 14 kinds of birds by sight and another by sound, plus there were more we couldn't name.

What a gift of an afternoon!

Mid-Winter Life

It seems that overall, I have strayed from my original purpose for this blog, which was to help us recognize God's good gifts and the beauty in daily life. I am not sorry for some of the other themes that have crept in. But I do hope to revisit this original vision more often in 2023.

In winter particularly, I find myself looking for life and color around me. So after the Christmas decorations came down and left the house bare, my orchids and last summer's dipladenia began to fill the gap.

This is also a fun time of year to pull out the bright balsa birds we brought back from the edge of the Ecuadorian jungle in 2006!

Plus a few summered-over amaryllis are on their way to bring us joy again.

What life and color is bringing you joy this winter? Feel free to share in a comment below!

Blind Contour Sketching

Have you tried Blind Contour Sketching? I had not... until today. And it was fun! 

✒️ How freeing to know it won't turn out much like the subject but to enjoy the process anyway! 

✒️ How clearing of a full mind to sit and stare at interesting shapes for 30-120 seconds without glancing away!

✒️ How therapeutic for an injured brain to make connections straight between eyes and hand!

✒️ And how healing to finally look down at the paper and laugh!

Resting My Eyes

You have likely heard how the blue light from all our device screens makes it harder to fall asleep due to suppressing melatonin. You have maybe even tried red glasses to block blue light in the evening.

But did you know that our screens can cause eye strain and mental fatigue any time of day? That is why I invested in a good pair of amber lens glasses to fit over my prescription glasses for computer and phone time whenever needed. Like right now!



So when the best sale of the year (so far) came up in the shop, it seemed like a good time to let you know! (see details below)

This company also sells a wide range of EMF blocking products that are getting more important every year. But for today... just a bit more about the glasses.

While my sister and I have the 50% blue light shielding amber lenses, they also offer 99% shielding red lenses for more effective sleep promotion. We did try a pair of those as well but shouldn't have been surprised to find that with all our chronic health conditions, we are among "those suffering from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS) [where] orange lenses may over-stimulate the eyes."



Dad has that pair now, and we are very happy to notice reduced strain and increased abilities for computer work with even our amber lenses!

Sale details:
20% off Entire Site
Ends May 8th, 2022
Use Discount Code: MOMDAY

Learn more here: Defender Shield

(This referral link may even prompt the company to offer you an extra coupon in my name, though I have nothing to do with the company other than being automatically enrolled in their rewards program with my purchase.)

Delphiniums

Pencil and ink were all I could handle for yesterday's Sunday Sketchout, but that completed my page of the amazing Delphiniums from our garden.

The plant was at least 6 feet tall this year before rain broke most of the spikes for us to then enjoy indoors.

I was particularly amazed by the unusual patterns of the leaf veins!

I know many people don't like to get into such tiny details in their nature journals, and that's fine. I don't always either. But I'm not going for quantity at this point in my life.

Rather, on the days where my chronic symptoms are getting too loud, I can find such therapy in looking closely at a bit of God's intricate creation and trying to copy some of what I notice. All the little wrinkles, folds, and subtle but complex colors make me happy and distract my brain from the pain as long as I can focus.

Sunday in the Garden

After weeks of chilly waiting, it seems as if everything is bursting into blossom at once!

[Side note: Do you remember my post about the significance of this flower's funny name ( at this link ) from June 1, 2016?]

The nature journal comes out often now and helps me notice so many details for the first time in my life! 

Last Sunday I spent the whole, beautiful afternoon outside and got carried away with entries. 

First stop: Lily-of-the-Valley (White Coral Bells).

Fran can never keep her paws off my lawn blanket. But she also needed a nap and so found my bag of supplies to be a good sunshade. 

Next we moved to the perennial garden where Elsa was already sketching the early Iris.

Any guesses what caught my eye in the scene below? (Besides Gull slinking into the shade...) 

Back indoors after dark I tried one more version of this rather rare Double Fernleaf Peony on different watercolor paper.

But before that came some time with the self-seeded Chamomile. When I was done, Elsa harvested the first blossoms for tea.

Oh, and the day also included a pen sketch of the spray of Bleeding Heart we are enjoying in a vase indoors.

So, this is what happens when I don't have a Sunday handwork project going but still need lots of audiobook time. And when we are given the gift of such a glorious day!

"Praise God from Whom all blessings flow"

...Including the blessings of water and paint!