Merry Christmas!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

 

Excerpt from Luke 2 of the English Standard Version of the Bible

The Roosevelt Bears

When Elsa and I ended up on the couch with Lyme disease in the winter of 2014, unable even to get our eyes to read due to the neurological symptoms, we turned to audiobooks. Our local library didn't have many we were interested in, so we soon began searching online. 

That led us to discover Librivox, a free online collection of volunteer recordings of public domain books. Though most readers are not professional, we have since enjoyed book after book as if a friend or relative is reading aloud to us.

At some point during the hours of listening (often along with knitting: a proven pain-reducing combination!), an old dream began to revive for me. Years ago when my Grandpa, an avid reader, was first losing his sight to macular degeneration, I wanted to record books for him to listen to. But when we realized this would be violating copyrights, I gave up the idea.

Now I had found a way to record public domain books that could be enjoyed by anyone, anytime! But I still had to wait until my eyes and voice were strong enough to read aloud again.

In January of 2015 I joined the team of Librivox volunteers, learning the ropes as I read a few chapters and parts for books and dramatic readings already in progress (such as Little Women and Rilla of Ingleside.) Later I launched my first solo project, picking a short, obscure children's book for starters.

The Roosevelt Bears: Their Travels and Adventures was a hilarious book I found at a state park gift shop on vacation one winter. With much laughter, my family and I enjoyed its comical duo of bears described in rhyme.  

Two Roosevelt Bears had a home out West
In a big ravine near a mountain crest,
Where they ate their meals and took their rest,
And gathered sunshine and strength and cheer,
And welcomed friends from far and near.
…
The black bear’s name was TEDDY-B;
                The B for black of brown you see,
                                Or bright or bold or brave or boss:
                                                He was always kind and seldom cross.

The grey bear’s name was TEDDY-G;
                The G for grizzly or gray or gay, for he
                                Was as full of fun as a bear can be.
                                                Not B for bad and G for good
                                                                The black bear wanted it understood.

If you need to smile some day, here and here are links to the audiobook I finished in July. :-)

Online searching showed me that Seymour Eaton wrote several more volumes of these bears' adventures. But only one more is currently scanned and posted to read online. (Otherwise one could spend hundreds of dollars to buy the century-old publications!)

This time I got the help of other volunteers to record The Roosevelt Bears Abroad. It can be enjoyed as an audiobook here and here.

Now I am on to the book I really wanted to record and share, What's Mine's Mine by George MacDonald. But this one is so long it will take at least a year at my current rate!

Gather Up Thy Comforts

Here is another encouraging entry I came across in the little book from Dohnavur.

40  NOT EVEN A CUP OF TEA 

          The son said, My heart is disquieted within me. My soul cleaveth to the dust. Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O God. 

          His Father said, In My hand are the deep places of the earth. Is there no blue sky? Have roses forgotten how to blow? Have birds ceased to sing among the branches? Hast thou not the sweetness of the love of a single little child? Hast thou no pleasant food - not even a cup of tea? Have tears been thy meat day and night? 

          Gather up thy comforts, the greatest, the smallest, and thou wilt be surprised that thou hast so many to gather.

What comforts do you have to gather today?

Blue, sunny sky over bright, white snow

Waiting in Hope

I came to my computer after several days filled with extra stress and strain; my eyes still salty from the rather rare pressure-relief of tears. The causes for strain are still there and will be for at least weeks to come. But God's peace is calming my heart and his love soothing the wounds.

With Mom's hug and prayers still in mind, I just took time to catch up on some Bible memory review on Scripture Typer.  I am repeatedly amazed at how God uses His perfect verses in His perfect timing.

First I reviewed Psalm 40 (my 2015 verses for the year), which begins:
"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit; out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God..."

Then I came to Psalm 33:20-22.
"We wait in hope for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you."

Good reminders. "Thank You, Father!"

Second Blizzard of 2016

After our November blizzard, winter held off a few more weeks before settling in to prepare for a white Christmas.

December 7th, 2016

One area school cancelled, but bus drivers probably wished that more schools had followed suit. My piano students were more than happy to have permission to stay off the roads through more snowfall mixed with driving winds. 

The winds formed beautiful snowdrifts - both outside and in!

Snow bubbling in around windowpanes in the porch

Looking out from a snowy porch to a snowy deck

Snow sculpture indoors

Indoor snowdrift

First Heel

A quarter of a century into my knitting career, and a year after I first began this sock, I finally knit my first heel!

This "accomplishment" pales as I remember an excerpt from a cosy book by Winola Wells Wirt, called Of All Places. This is from the chapter where she is spending some months living in Scotland where her husband was studying...

"Sometimes Mrs. Stewart would sit in the study and knit and chat with me after the men had left for the classes at New College. ... My landlady actually started me knitting, and I eventually turned out a pair of heavy socks for my husband. I was told that it was a lazy Scotswoman who didn't knit a full sock in the dark while attending a concert or play. She could also be counted on to carry the knitting bag on tram or bus - everywhere except to Sunday church."

I doubt I'll be knitting a sock in the dark anytime soon, but I don't dread the next heel any longer!

First Blizzard of 2016

November 18, 2016

Snow, 

plus strong winds, 

plus open prairie, 

equals

blizzard conditions!

Is the road there somewhere?

Oh, yes! When a grove a trees blocks the drifting snow, you see all the ice!

But the drifting makes a prairie sunset even more beautiful!

Thankfully the snow had stopped falling by the time I needed to get to town. Earlier in the day when the schools wisely canceled, our county sheriff sent out a call advising no travel on our prairie roads. I doubt we could have seen the nearest power pole then!

Christmas Memories: At the Office

Last December I stopped by Dad's office for one last Christmas. We knew the company would be sold by the time another Christmas rolled around, so I wanted to see it at its most festive once more.

There were Mary, Joseph and Jesus on the front desk as usual. 

There was the retro, "bottle-brush" Christmas tree in the corner, hardly taller than me even with its long top spike. Once again it was decorated with the cloth chain and topped with the multicolored cloth star Mom made years ago.
The gaps in the branches were, as usual, filled in by all the Christmas cards that came to the office.

Then on the wall facing the front door to greet every customer hung the poster that my sisters and I made long ago. We traced and cut around Mom's alphabet stencils from her school-teaching days and our nativity cookie cutters for the silhouettes. It's amazing how well the poster handled being rolled up and stored away year after year.

"Merry Christmas"

This year I can't stop in and see it all. But today brought back the memories as we found a new way to use some of these decorations at home. 

Dad and Maren (who was visiting for the day) bundled up, shut themselves out in the chilly porch, and laughed as they poked the scrawny "branches" into rough holes in the old "trunk."

No water needed for this tree, but I got to help string the lights and spread a heavy, white sheep-skin around the base. (I have forgotten the name of that sheep we raised in my childhood.)

Then Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus found a new home nestled among the long locks of wool.

The box marked "Office...Christmass" with its colorful cloth star and garland will wait for another year.  

This year we are thoroughly enjoying the glitter of simple white lights through frosty porch windows. I can even see the beautiful sight from my piano bench as I practice Christmas carols for church tomorrow!

Loving and Losing

I am grateful for grandparents and great-grandparents who valued life and clung to God for grace and comfort as they cared for, and lost, children with special needs.

An aunt I never met would have turned 68 today. But being born with "water on the brain" in an era before that could be treated, Dad's older sister, Mary Ellen, only lived months.

How amazing to find see my aunt's tiny footprints on her birth certificate all these years later. I don't have a photo of her on hand. There was only one found when going through family photos with Grandma some years ago.

On Mom's side of the family, my grandpa lost several siblings in childhood. One of them lived a few precious years with her older brother and sister.

Down's Syndrome added much loveable joy to little Valborg's short life.

At 100 years old, Grandpa still remembers how very hard it was for his family to lose each dear child.

November Colours

November 1st - Dark skies, golden corn stubble, and a weary green remaining in the old grass

November 5th - Sparkling-clean windows through which to see the colors - thanks to Dad's work!

November 6th - Mom's two-dozen birthday roses a couple weeks after the event - because Dad got to Costco

 November 7th - One last rose of our own to pick in and enjoy

November 8th - Red "I Voted" sticker

November 11th - Red, White, and Blue flags lining all the parks in town for Veterans Day

November 12th - Greenish-brown American Goldfinches fueling up on black thistle-seed from the feeder in an unseasonably warm week

And the same bird feeder less than a week later..

November 18th - A white world!

Morning by Morning

Each morning one of my first motions is to reach for eye-glasses. My near-sighted eyes cannot see detail even as close as 12 inches away without them.

The next second motion is usually to sit up and look outside - whether I think about it and remember what I see or not.

I tend to get claustrophobic in closed-in spaces. Even simple darkness presses in with suffocating weight if there is no sound to help give me a sense of life and space.

So the two windows in my bedroom (shared with Elsa) are very special to me. They are usually cracked open for fresh air and that bit of "sound" on all but the windiest summer days and coldest winter nights. And morning by morning I look out the window nearest my bed. 

What do I see?? You'd be surprised how much variety is within reach of this second-story nest. The prairie offers clear views for 20 or 30 miles under wide, ever-varied sky-scapes, and up close are some favorite trees and flower garden guarded by the grape arbor.

Maybe a few photos snapped across of year of mornings will help - even if they are low quality from phone or tablet.

The year 2016 began with a thin layer of snow under heavy skies beyond our Christmas star.

Spring is always amazing - waking to our crab-apple tree in full bloom.

Smooth and brilliant green grass, blue skies, and the perennial flower garden coming to life fill out the fresh view.

Mid-summer is drab in comparison with heat-stressed grass shaded by the lovely cottonwood tree towering above my window.

In Autumn, the corn fields begin to glow as they near harvest .

The leaves give way to regal tree-silhouettes, and delicate frosts cloud my first view.

And then I wake again to a distinct glow in the room despite heavy clouds: a clear clue (even before reaching for glasses) that the world has turned white.

As I start with this routine morning after morning - even when I don't feel like it because my body hasn't rested - a song or two begin to come to mind.

One by Sara Groves that I first heard in my teens:

Morning by morning I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God's hand in mine
Season by season I watch Him, amazed
In awe of the mystery of His perfect ways
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me.

I can't remember a trial or a pain
He did not recycle to bring me gain
I can't remember one single regret
In serving God only, and trusting His hand
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me.

This is my anthem, this is my song
The theme of the stories I've heard for so long
God has been faithful, He will be again
His loving compassion, it knows no end  

All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful, He's always been faithful
He's always been faithful to me.

And an older song I grew up with and will never out-grow: 

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, They compassions they fail not; As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. 

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. 

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! 

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! 

by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923

November Harvest

Yes, we did have a bit more harvest to enjoy in mid-November. Delicious lettuce, spinach, and beet tops!

How could we grow that when the nights were already regularly in the 30's and days rarely reached 60 degrees?? 

In Dad's trough...

Here are photos of the crop growing back in October.