Springing Back to Early Mornings

Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.
-C.S. Lewis

I love the dark in the morning as the quiet light rolls in misting the earth before the dazzling rain of light storms in. It sets my mood better for the day to have this time to think whispering thoughts before my mind thunders with all the necessities of work for the day and my own reflections are muddied or my intended path is washed away with the flood of the bright new day.

For most of my life, I have been an early riser, which means I also go to bed earlier. However, for about the last two years, I have not been. I felt like I lost a bit of myself and I felt a bit lost with God, as I explained in That Something Broken Between God and Me.

Why the change in rising times? I think it was a culmination of many things. My husband is the one to stay up later for his alone time, but he works away from home most of the time and, at that some points, it is almost all the time for many weeks. It wears on me and I tend to sleep later and shorter periods when he is away. To get my mind off of my loneliness, I began to watch some shows through Netflix online at night, real cliffhangers that make one want to series binge into the wee hours, unfortunately I am susceptible to TV addictions like that. Recently, I made a conscious decision to stop watching shows in bed on my computer and that made a huge difference.

My daughter, particularly two years ago, was having sleeping problems so she often was not ready to start her day until mid morning, which made me feel like half the day was over by the time she was ready to do any lessons. So, part of me was trying to allow her to sleep and not be angry about it, which did not work well. Then when things fell completely apart for her in November of 2015, When the Train is on the Wrong Track, I decided that her emotional health had to take priority. We set rules about no screens an hour before bedtime and gave her supplements to help her regulate her sleeping time, which took months to stabilize completely. During that time, for me, it was why bother to get up early and be angry with her every morning, so I just went along to get along, giving in to her schedule thinking that at some point we would get back to where I liked it better.

Basically, I did or allowed everything I could to make me lose myself so I would not feel depressed or angry or think too much of how I felt out of control, which did not really work because under everything was this anger that nothing in my life was going the way I hoped or planned or wanted. I even stopped reading books because I just could not enjoy them! I was just going along to get along but I was not happy. I felt like I had to be responsible for everything and I felt overwhelmed and I was not getting any help, not from my daughter, my husband, my friends, or even my God. Yeah, we all have had poor-me times like that.

I am not one that has to be in control to feel happy or secure, but I do have to be in control when my husband is away and switch gears immediately when he comes back and those gears get a bit rusty at times. When my daughter rolls out of bed later than usual now that she is on a better schedule, I just take a deep breath as I think of all the things I was required to do at her age, like get up at a particular time to get ready for school and be at a job at a particular time and clean my aunt's entire house every week and hand wash dishes every evening. I felt the only way to be marginally happy was to surrender to their schedules and then there was God, whom I was avoiding for other reasons, and so it has felt like my life was just pouring away down a drain without any lasting purpose.

I apologize for the rant. My point is simply, I really have not been the me I want to be or see myself as. In part it was circumstances and the other part was choices, but now I feel more in control of myself again.

Recently I have been going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. It is refreshing. Maybe I am inspired by the spring mornings. I enjoy hearing the birds' sunrise songs. As soon as it is light enough, I am wanting to go outside to work in the gardens or tackle an area of clutter in my house even before that...and there are plenty of areas to tackle!

I am feeling that spring back into my life and far less anger and improving relationships with all my love ones, especially my Lord.

My Lord, I am so thankful that You are a forgiving and loving God.

Dangers Unseen

All of life is the exercise of risk. ~William Sloane Coffin

Half of my backyard is a part of a larger woods. When we first moved here, our wooded area was fairly cleared and I envisioned starting with a small shade garden with ferns, hardy cyclamen, hostas, dead nettle, purple shamrocks, lily of the valley, miniature bleeding hearts, and vinca so that is what I planted. I started with a simple island of three trees. I place stones to make a border all around it. Along one side I cleared a path with stones edging the woods on the other side. The path led to the back where I had leveled a spot for a bench. I also planted English ivy in the woods hoping it would carpet the wooded areas. I envisioned sitting on the bench barely able to see our my house let alone the rest of the neighborhood and communing with my Lord, petting a sleepy cat, and reading books with my young daughter in cool of the shade on hot summer days.

It was all going to be beautiful and serene...then came in reality. Mosquitoes made sitting back there on the bench quite a miserable experience except perhaps on the breeziest of days. Also, smack in the middle between the woods' edge that wrapped around my backyard where it had been flat began to sink. When our house was built, it is a common practice for builders to bury the wood they cleared, which in time rots away and creates a sink hole. Builders are no longer allowed to do this for obvious reasons, thankfully.

Not knowing how big the sink hole was going to become, I mostly left the woods alone. Some of my plants survived and some did not. Vinca jumped the rock border of the island and the English ivy took off towards the yard instead of filling the woods. Last spring I removed all the plants in the back shade garden and brought them to the front shade garden where they can be enjoyed and look lovely. I did this because another undesirable had taken residence in my woods: poison ivy.

I hate to use chemicals so the first time I saw some poison ivy, I pulled it out. Crazy as it may sound, you have to understand that I never had a reaction to poison ivy that was more than a very slight rash after lots of exposure. My aunt's horses used to eat it and I remember even locking my bike up on a tree that had it when I was camping thinking that no one would bother with my bike because of it. It has been that way with most of my family, including my maternal grandmother until one time and then she had a very bad reaction and nearly died. So, my aunt warned me to be careful anyway, because I could have a reaction later on in life...and I did. It was not until I moved to Georgia and was pulling out poison ivy that I had a reaction.

After that I was more careful, but for the last six summers I have suffered with poison ivy rashes—from a cat!

I get it from both the Mitten Kittens actually, but it is Little Miss Midnight that gives it to me the most. How do I know? Well, Midnight likes being held and when I pick her up, she immediately perches her head over my left shoulder. I am recovering from a poison ivy rash that covered my throat up to my jaw on the left side and a little rather itchy blister in the middle of my right palm with a smaller one on the side of one finger also on the right hand that holds her while she happily views the world as I walk with her. It would really be so nice if there was some warning that she has this invisible urushiol oil on her fur before I touch her. Of course, Midnight is innocently unaware that when she hunts in the woods that she ends up with urushiol oil on her fur. It does not a thing to her, even when she licks it off.

Sharii does not long tolerate being held, but he loves to wrap himself around legs purring so loudly that it sounds painful. I may have gotten mere touches of the volatile oil from him. My daughter thought they were bug bites but there were not many biting bugs out when I got them so I am thinking that they were not.

I have avoided poison ivy completely and burned it out when I see creeping out of the woods, but I just have not been diligent with killing it. Actually, since I alone was doing it, I kind of gave up. However, you cannot turn your back on poison ivy and wish it away. It has entrenched itself and, camouflaged by English ivy, it climbed trees unfettered. Sad really, because it is quite beautiful particularly in autumn and its hairy vines on the trees add interest in the winter.

Last year, I removed all the plants I wanted to keep from the backyard to wage a war on the poison ivy, even if it meant I would chemically burn out every plant in the woods area! I started by spraying every leaf of poison ivy I could see on the edge of the woods and when they died back I moved in deeper. The problem was another vine was draped from tree to tree so that making my way back carefully was not easy, but this spring before the poison ivy leaves were out, my husband and I cut down what we now know were native muscadine vines. My husband loves muscadine wine and preserves, but since I have not seen any grapes, I am assuming we only have a male vine.

Now I am able to get through our little woods to spray down all the ivy and let me tell you that it is far worse than I thought, but it is dying down. I go out about once a week looking for healthy leaves to spray. Yeah, I am that determined!

However, clearing my yard of the stuff will not cure my problem. Sharii has claimed our property as his territory and sticks around the house, but even so our cats do not stay in the boundaries of your yard, particularly Midnight. She is the smallest cat I have ever had, half the size and weight of Sharii, who tends to get rough. He will be wrapping himself around your legs for a few minutes before he decides it is time to grab and bite them. Although I see them sleep near each other in the afternoon and tag team a mouse hunt, Midnight generally does not like Sharii's rough ways and usually takes off for neighboring areas for most of the day, unless I am outside working so I can protect her.

That being said, Midnight often goes toward the neighbor's yard and to the corner lot they own that was never cleared. The woods there is a great place to hide and hunt...and it is drenched in poison ivy! There is no escaping the cats bringing it to me. Every time I spend a few minutes with them, I have to carefully change my clothes and wash off with Fels Naptha soap. Not fun!

After this bout with the poison ivy, I am just as determined to desensitize to it as I am to burn it out of my yard. I found a homeopathic remedy that is a very low potency, 4x, that I will be taking every day until the poison ivy dies. It is said that Indians did not get poison ivy because they ate it. Well, I am not that brave, but I have had wonderful results with homeopathics so this is worth a try. Besides, how can I resist cuddling with little Midnight!

My Lord, may this remedy work so that I can stop trying to avoid my cats.

Three Days and Two Nights in Pigeon Forge

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking. ~Earl Wilson

This picture and the next one of tulips was taken at Pigeon Forge by my very talented daughter, the Princess. Her eye for photography is so natural to her that she does not even realize how good she is.

You might be wondering at this point how we ended up on a long weekend break in Pigeon Forge and this is how it began: In February, during the public school winter break (they have a week long break about every six weeks) a warm spell that fooled us to believe spring was here (because it was really cold, near freezing, after that until just recently) and I was lonely because my husband had been away for a few weeks, a friend invited me to go with their family on a cookout at a park about an hour's drive away. My daughter fell in love with that park.

While talking and walking around the pond (the park called it a lake—I think not), I offered to take care of their six-year-old during the public school spring break in the next six weeks, which shows how much of a friend she is because I dislike taking care of other people's children as a rule. After talking about Pigeon Forge—spurred by being outdoors among the tall trees and seeing cabins for rent there—and finding out that my husband and I had not been there, my friend began forming this idea. She thought we all should share a cabin at Pigeon Forge on the last weekend of that break.

Now we have been out of debt, except for the mortgage, since October and we have caught up on some things that needed fixing—not all, but some. However, we have a major expense coming up for which we have been saving: replacing widows and siding on our house. I was weighing that in my mind as my friend continued this weekend getaway plan in hers.

My husband thought it would be a good thing too. Inquiries as to availability were made. The cabins they had rented before were not available but a larger one was: four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, hot tub, and game room! Everyone asked for time off work (but me) and sent in the first half of the rent for two nights, however there had been a fire in the Pigeon Forge area afterward and for a few days we did not know if the cabin had been involved.
 
Friday we left on what could have been just a four hour drive, but we had to stop for lunch. Our cabin was on the lower part of a quiet, pine-covered mountain just outside "the strip," which is the main road lined with side-to-side tourists attractions. Tourist traps are not usually my kind of thing as I prefer the woods and hiking and relaxing and maybe a little shopping, but I am flexible. We did not go hiking, but we did have a nice balance of doing exciting, action things as well as relaxing ones. The food we made and the food we had out was all very good—too good so shows my waistline. My friend makes the most interesting dishes that are really easy to make and taste delicious, probably because of her love for cheese, cream cheese, and sour cream. She made a layered taco dip and what she called a chess cake, both quite memorable.

There was a bit of a disappointment when we were looking for the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Shop. We saw the inside wall with a mural of a cow on the outside of its neighboring store and rubble where the shop had been. I was so looking forward to going there, but there were other ice cream shops. We decided on Marble Slab Creamery and ate way too much of really, really good ice cream. I do not remember feeling hungry at all during the entire trip, which indicates how much I over ate.

Oh, before you go to the pictures below there was one small hiccup. When we arrived home we noticed that one of our rabbits had been moved from one cage to another and the middle one where it belonged was unlatched. Our pets were to be cared for by a neighbor with four rescued dogs and a cat of her own. My husband set up the rabbits with extra water and food so that she would not have to mess with them at all...or so we planned. However, even though both he and I check the cages to be sure they were latched, at some point one of the rabbits got out. Now we have them in a penned area, but it is mostly to keep large animals out and rabbits can get out. So, the next door neighbors' two dogs are going wild because Sharii (Shah REE) is chasing around the half grown rabbit. Now that might sound like a dangerous situation and Sharii can get rough, but usually with a rabbit of this size, not more than an aggressive male rabbit to another. I felt so bad for the lady, but the rabbit came up to her and she got it into a cage. I guess the next time we go anywhere we will padlock the pen, because someone had to have unlocked the middle cage. (And we were more worried about the dog, because we had never done this before with her.)

Anyway, we finally went on a little vacation that we have not done in almost eight years, spent almost every penny we brought with us, had a very good time with lots of memories, and everyone lived!


Bears' Den Cabin

I need to give credit to the photographer here. All the pictures taken of the cabin except for the one she is in was taken by the Princess. She has a very good eye for taking pictures, especially the one of her friend on the porch swing.

(I have to insert here that I am very frustrated with Photobucket as it used to have a feature so that the pictures in the slide show could be placed in the desired order, but it is completely reformatted and I cannot find any way to do it now. Very frustrating!) UPDATE: Yay! All the pictures are showing in the order I wanted for the slideshows now!

Hot Rods

My friend went once and then gave me her second ticket, but I could not drive and take pictures of me driving, but I will add any she sends to me. The Princess had never driven a go-cart before, but she has driven our riding lawn mower under supervision. Still, she was cautious the first time. Afterward, she went all out.

Hot Air Balloon

Okay, the hot air balloon was actually filled with helium and the "hot rods" where actually go carts, but since the weather was on the cool side for most of our trip, I tried to think warmer.

Old Mill

On Sunday we had to check out before 10:00 AM and we decided to have a late breakfast out in the historical area of Pigeon Forge as well as stop in a few shops, including a candy shop with fudge and salt water taffy made on the premises. It was relaxing for us ladies, but after grabbing the candy, the guys and little girls could not wait to go-cart race again before heading home. By the way, all these pictures were taken by the Princess. (She is so very good at taking pictures!)

~ My Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for good times and good food, and most of all for good friends with which to share them. ~

Spring Swings

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four-and-twenty hours. ~Mark Twain

It has been a wild week! The weather was wild. The horses were wild. Schedules were wild. It all is swinging back and forth, up and down, upside down and right again. It has been enough to make me dizzy with its anticipation and apprehension.

Monday
It was the only normal day I had the entire week and when I say normal, that is including teaching the Princess how to add and subtract unlike fractions. Finding the lowest common denominator and such things that can make her mentally zone out for the rest of the day, if I did not head her off. It was a pretty good day.

Tuesday
Weather predictions on Tuesday were that it would be partially sunny in the late morning and in the 60's, so the Princess and I looked forward to work some of the minis and ride. Our partner family would be there for the chores, but had other obligations that day and I was thankful that it would be just the Princess and me. The mother offered to stay to help us saddle the horses if we would like...all I can say is that I was glad I was on the phone with her at the time, so she could not see me shaking my head and rolling my eyes to stifle the spontaneous laughter that so wanted to be released at that moment.

Tuesday, however, was cloudy, breezy, and a bit too cool all day long. The paddock was mucky, but the arena was in good shape. We groomed one of the most docile of the the minis and planned to lunge him--actually that would be train him to lunge--but Annette, did not have the type of whip the trainer had used the previous Saturday. I tried to improvise with what we had available, but it just was not going to work. We also need rope halters for the minis to give the pressure needed on the nose, so that they will respond better and these we do not have, but I plan to buy a few.

Giving up on the idea of working with the horses after it began raining, we went on to the milk farm. We got our raw milk and diamotaceous earth there. I saw a couple of Sharii and Midnight's relatives. The Princess trotted off to the petting area and saw the baby pigmy goats.

Wednesday
Wednesday my husband took the day off and went with us on the field trip to the tack store. The Princess decided to ride in the 4-H van with all the other children and we drove our own van. The children spread out looking at everything but were well behaved at the store. There the Princess bought a whip, grooming brushes, a comb, and a hoof pick. I bought the the same for myself and a canvas bag for the grooming supplies. We both spent about $40. The whips are not exactly what I wanted but can be modified to shorten the drop so they will work. Most of the 4-H'ers are girls so it was not until after the shopping frenzy subsided, that the owners' son gave a talk about bits and pressure points they use, which was very informative. We stopped to eat on the way home, although I did not eat as it was my fasting day.

Thursday
Miss Annette scheduled her farrier to come on Thursday morning at 9:00 this week because school is out in our county. (Oddly, though, the three of the four families there were homeschoolers.) Although it would crunch our shopping time, I really had not planned on getting much this week, so I felt we could attend. Thankfully I did bring my mud boots, but I wish I had also brought my gloves; I should know by now that hardly anything at Miss Annette's is for just spectators. I was helping children getting horses from the upper pasture to bring to the farrier. They watched as he trimmed the hoofs of each and every one of the four horses, two ponies, and five minis. Only Molly gets shoes on her front hooves to correct her aging posture.

Miss Annette asked me to hold the ones who tend to be less compliant. The impatient Senoia, a regular horse, is a bit of dancer, but she was rather good for me. Ribbon, a mini, was fine until he picked up that same back leg that she gave me fits about two weeks ago. It was the third hoof he worked on so it was not about the order. We are thinking that something is going on with that leg, but there was no noticeable swelling anywhere. The last problem another mini, Blue. Actually, his name is Chip of the Blue Moon, because he is all black with a sliver of a crescent on this head. My daughter and an inexperienced teenager went to get him, but I could see him wildly running around in his paddock and kicking up his heels. The Princess told me later he almost kicked her. I brought him up and had him in place but then he suddenly pushed sideways against me. I did not fall, just got off balanced, so Annette took hold of him. I was still fasting and kind of tired after dealing with Ribbon, so I gratefully handed him over to her.

While there, the mother that works with me on Thursday said that she was personally going to be lunging and training Blue. I just looked far off to the upper pasture as if something had caught my attention. I plan not be lunging the minis until we have those rope halters, but we will be walking them just to get them used to the idea that they will be exercised. Still, it is very hard not to say what I am thinking when she says such things. I think she has a good heart, but she just sounds like she is more knowledgeable and experienced than she is, perhaps the opposite of me because I was thinking I was not all that knowledgeable or experienced and recently I have come to realize I know more than I thought I did. Obviously, Annette thinks I handle the horses well enough.

I really do not feel it is my call to make about what the other mother does, it really is up to Annette, but when I am one out there with her, I can only make it understood about what I will or will not be doing. Annette did lay down the rule that all her horses were to be ridden with bits and no more halter reining. I think she feels it gives the horses too much opportunity to foster bad habits in not responding to their riders.

Although fasting had done its work and all my upper back muscular tightness was gone by Thursday morning, I had made a chiropractic appointment for the afternoon, so we were getting home later that usual. Around 5:00, my husband calls me as I am driving the last three miles home, asking me if we would like to go out to dinner. He was leaving for Denver in a few hours, a last minute thing, and would be back sometime on Saturday. After feeding all my own furry ones and changing clothes, we went out and parted at the restaurant.

The temperature Thursday was in the 70's and then it turned very windy towards the evening. One of our neighbor's trees is now resting at a 45 degree angle toward our fence caught in the branches of another tree close to our property line. Sometime between Wednesday and Friday morning, our phone lines went out, but our Internet service on the same line was fine.

Friday
I was expecting the piano tuner at 11:00 in the morning, but my phone is still out so he would not get through if he tried calling for directions or to tell me he would be late. I used my husband's work VOIP phone to call him and he had car trouble so he said hoped to be here around 3:00. That would cut into the time I had set aside just for me, but then I was not sure that afternoon would go as planned either.

On the last Friday of the month, a skating rink in the neighboring county has a skate just for homeschoolers. The Princess has a standing invitation with her best friend of homeschooling family in our neighborhood. Last month they did not go and they were planning to go this time but they had a snag with their own schedule so they would not know for sure until just before the time to leave. They said they would call to confirm...well, we had to resort to low tech because the phone is still out of commission and my cell phone does not do well at home, so her child got some exercise by riding her bike to our house to tell us they would be leaving at 12:30.

Saturday I finally have a working phone line. My husband is coming home, but it shall be a very late dinner for us; he will be bringing fried chicken. The Princess cleaned her room and is picking out some of the items with which she no longer plays. Then she will be trying on clothes to determine which ones will be in the consignment sales coming up. I am signed up as a seller in two of them, so I have work to do.

~ My Lord, my mind is going in too many directions. I need its swinging to stop and rest my thoughts on You. Help me to do that, please, my Lord. ~

It All Started with a Horse

Let me 'splain.
[pause]
No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
~Inigo Montoya in Princess Bride, 1987

I am writing as fast as I can because I have this really merciful gift of forgetting the details of bad things that happen by the next morning, so I am sure that I am only writing the highlights of what I remember, believe it or not!

Friday April 29th
Friday evenings we have been going to the Miss Annette's to help feed horses and clean the barn and generally do whatever Miss Annette needs to be done. Last weekend we were to have a 4-H Work Day on Saturday, but Miss Annette never passes up the opportunity to begin a job early so she started us all Friday evening. My husband worked with other men preparing to put up new fencing. Began I walking and clearing the fence line of the back pasture of growth and found the breaks and grounds of the electric fence, which would explain why one horse in particular was escaping earlier that week.

Saturday April 30th
Saturday people were assigned all kinds of jobs from putting new fencing and repairing old fencing to cleaning the barn bathroom and moving items up to the loft from out a room to be used as the new larger tack room and making signs for the Spring Fling the next weekend (which was this weekend...but we are not there yet). Anyway, I worked on finishing what I had begun the night before all alone in the back pasture with gloves and clippers enjoying the sounds of nature. I guess Miss Annette thought I was more than capable of handling it all by myself. I was thinking that I should have been somewhat sore from the work I did the night before, but I was not. I was not sore that night either, tired but not sore. In fact, oddly, I have been stronger than I ever remember being since I was a teenager--no kidding! I think it has something to do with just being around the horses. Anyway, I finished and did some cleaning of chairs and started the children on the signs and we ended up being there all day...all day with another all day commitment for the next coming weekend, which was this weekend.

Tuesday May 3rd
Tuesday was the 4-H awards ceremony. The Princess was thrilled to get a larger trophy this year because I actually kept track of the points for when we volunteer time (and all the other things) and we volunteered quite a bit of time this past year.

Thursday May 5th
My husband birthday is exactly one week after the birthday of the Princess. Only was this my errand day and he worked really late, so we planned to celebrate the next evening. Plans are such funny things!

Friday May 6th
The real excitement started on this Friday night. A trainer came to work with one teenage girl and her boarded horse, Duke. He is a large horse, newer to the barn, but generally good-natured. Apparently, though, Duke is a bit on the nervous side about certain things. The trainer worked with a pole that she would use to eventually tap the horse. He is supposed to stand his ground with his rider, but Duke, even after a few training sessions with it, has not yet made peace with that pole. He took a step back, but eventually he stood in place while she tapped him on various places. Although I was busy in the barn, I would look over from time to time and see him shiver with nervousness, but he did well. Then there is an exercise where they place a shirt on the pole. The rider is supposed to take the shirt off one pole and ride up to place it on another. Duke just did not like that idea at all and the rider was down on the ground right after she took the shirt from the pole. The girl was all right with just some bruising and scraps. The trainer calmed Duke and began to use the shirt around him to the point she lightly waved it over to touch him on various places on his body. Again, I could see Duke was tense, even more tense than before, but he stood his ground.

Then I was up by the house and had a bad advantage point so I did not see what happened later. I also am not a trainer, but my aunt trained horses for a mounted women's police group and they could put firecrackers under the horse without it bolting...eventually. I learned much from her, but some of it is just what my grandfather called "good ol' horse sense." I have been raised to appreciate there is a delicate balance in training between challenging a horse and giving him time to get comfortable with something he fears. It is a special relationship and even a good trainer can be surprised by a horse's reaction, but still.... Seeing the building tension in Duke, I would not have done the thing she did next, which was tie on a plastic bag of rocks on his saddle with no rider. This not only makes a get deal of scary, noisy sounds behind the ears of horse, which tends to make them want to bolt, but if he does take off, they hit him on the sides and back as well, which keep him going.

Off went Duke...really off! He jumped the fencing of the inner arena and was out with the other horses, who had not been put out to the back pasture. Then the herd of horses together did what herds do when frightened, which in this case was to run in a frenzy around the outer paddock. My daughter and some other girls, who were in that paddock, were grabbed and pulled into the arena by another mother. At this point I can only see dust but others saw the previous week's fence escape artist, Senoya, a boarded mare owned by another 4-H'er who was there, had decided not to jump the wire fence between them and the miniature horses paddock, but she was too committed and could not stop. She fell into and over the fence, breaking it down and two mini's joined the herd. Senoya got up and was back running with the herd also with Duke's bag of rocks slapping him and making a great deal of noise.

Now there is a danger having miniature horses in with large ones. They can get trampled or kicked in the head, so Miss Annette, a 4'9" woman with bad knees and hips, was working her way to the minis trying not to get trampled in the process herself and I was right behind her knowing that she was determined to separate them from the four large horses and two ponies. Finally the two minis and one pony split off on the opposite side of the arena of the rest on their own. One teen grabbed one mini and Miss Annette, who was smart enough to grab a lead rope before she went into the paddock, got the other. The one mini was not not in the mood to be held and I walked quickly to get a lead for the teen. During that time my husband cut the bag of rocks off Duke's saddle with his pocket knife while the trainer held him.

With horses now standing still and breathing hard, everyone was in the paddock accessing them for cuts and scraps, which thankfully were fairly minor. The three injured horses, including Duke, were brought into their stalls. With the girls holding and talking softly to them, I sprayed every injury with an antiseptic. Duke was last and he was still quite tense, but he allowed the doctoring with only a couple of hoof stomps and nervous snorts. He was also given oral antibiotic, because of the three he had the worst injuries.

My husband, in the meantime, had begun work on the fence as Miss Annette's husband was quite ill in bed and could not. This required pulling a fence pole back over and reshaping wire. I dug out the broken cement and he cemented the based of the wooden post.

With all calm and repaired we went home to what was supposed to be my husband's birthday dinner. I was in a hurry as it was so late. I turned on the oven as I began throwing together my homemade pizzas, one white sauce and one tomato with ground beef, as he requested while he and the Princess fed the rabbits. Eventually, I opened the oven to find...the remainder of the Princess' birthday cake and the partially melted plastic container it was in--No, I am not kidding! I had put it in there to keep safe as it would not fit in the refrigerator and we planned to have it that night, but since it was 9:30 PM before we began eating, that was unlikely anyway. A bit of the icing had dripped down to the bottom of the oven and, as I was cooking the pizzas, it began smoking. I could just see how adding our fire alarm going off would complete the evening, so we opened windows which was all the invitation a few flying bugs needed.

My husband also showed me the handle of a rather expensive paring knife that was in with the cake had some melted areas, but it can still be smoothed out and used, but I was sick about it. This one being a replacement of one that I accidentally threw away with a pizza box some years before.

At that point, I just gave up and just tried to eat my dinner thankfully. My husband, seeing I was at the end of my rope for the day, decided to clean up the oven himself--isn't he sweet? While looking for oven cleaner that I did not even think I had because I rarely use anything besides a good scrubber, he found that water had been leaking under the sink from the connection to the dish washer, the one that is still broken and currently in our garage. He turn it off and pulled things out to dry. After that bit of news, I just pulled the covers over my head in my bed. Actually, we all went to bed as soon as we could because the next day, which was yesterday, we were to be at the 4-H Spring Fling early to set up.

Saturday May 7th
I face painted all day, except for a short time to relieve my husband from supervising the horse and pony ride while he ate during a break in business at my own booth. Duke was not brought but the other two large horses that were injured had been and Senoya probably should not have been as she seem uneasy, but we had no incidents there.

We went back to help Annette pack everything away and feed the horses. Then we went home to have clean up and have dinner. With two showers down and the washing machine working, I decided to hold off my shower until after dinner to be assured of having hot water. We have leftover pizza and the twice baked cake, as the Princess called it, which had a crusty icing that my husband liked. It would take the prize for being the ugliest cake with melted icing blobs off the cake, but the cake itself was still moist--if you can believe it! Anyway, it went well with ice cream.

So, I finally get my turn in a nice relaxing shower and I begin thinking about tomorrow being Mother's Day and then...it dawns on me...the Princess and I were expected at the church right then for the Mother and Daughter Tea. I took a deep breath and resigned to we were not even going to try to make it, even though I really had wanted to go. The past week had been rather busy with 4-H stuff and I was tired. We all fell asleep early and my husband's sunburn looked like he might have a touch of sun poisoning.

Sunday May 7th
Well, we all made it to church and all the mothers received the nicest little notepad to stick in our purses; I so appreciated that. The Princess also made a present of hugs and kisses: the hugs being an outline of her hands attached to the outside of a quart canning jar filled with Hershey chocolate kisses, which I also greatly appreciated the jar and the chocolate as I never have enough of either one.

We stopped at Publix to get a fried chicken dinner as they are so much more reasonable than fast food chicken and tastier. We saw a teenager working there, who used to come to our church but goes to a larger one now and she had been on a short missionary trip recently. She was standing with an icing tube to help children decorate heart cakes for their mothers. We were not planing on another cake, but it was small and the Princess had fun doing it with her. The day's plans were to watch a DVD, mostly likely Avatar for the first time, with my feet up and have popcorn later on, as working outside would not have been good for my husband anyway.

Those, folks, were just some parts of my crazy week. There was more, but I am too exhausted to type it and the memory of all the bad stuff is mercifully fading...except that one thing: My husband put in a different memory card for our camera and told me the camera was already for me to use to get face painting pictures, but then it kept saying it needed formatted and would not let me format it so no pictures. He rarely messes up like that, but when he does...but in a day or two I probably will forget it also...he hopes.

~ My Lord, I am very thankful no one, including the horses, were seriously injured this week and that my husband was there to repair the fence. ~

Spring Fever and Then Some

It's spring fever.... You don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

I have decided that there are basically three types of Spring Fever:

1. The desire to get outside and do things in the warmth of the sun after cold winter months.

2. Allergies, also known as hay fever, due to pollen, which so predominate in the spring.

3. A fever for unknown reasons that just happened in the spring.

We have all three going on here! We are having sunny days at times in the high 70's and I have a sore back so I should not be doing any gardening as I would prefer to do. Now allergies are not a big problem for us thankfully, but Georgia has so many lovely things blooming in the spring that that pollen counts are astronomical—even people without allergies have some difficulties during this time of the year. Lastly, my Princess is rarely ill, but this morning she woke up with that fever headache and has been resting most of the day while refusing food.

All this plus my back still aching, requiring I rest it, gave me some extra time to write, in between bread making and laundry and tending to the child, of course. I tried to not notice the dusting and vacuuming that also needs to be done because my back had enough with the kneading of dough for the one loaf, hamburger buns, and honey topped rolls I made.

Last weekend on Saturday, I face painted for the 4-H Horse and Pony Club but I did not get any pictures this time. I did do some new designs that worked quite well and I may bribe the Princess to let me paint her one day for pictures—it seems commonplace that the children of face painters tend to tire of it all and often must be bribed. I will have to prepare a post with pictures of face painting that I did in the last year with at other 4-H functions.

The Princess will begin with 45-minute piano lessons this week because her skill level just requires more than 30 minutes now. Hanon exercises have been added to her regular lessons. These are meant to strengthen the typically weaker fourth and fifth fingers as well as improve speed, precision, agility, and flexibility in the wrists. Unfortunately, we may not even make it to piano lessons this week because the Princess is ill.

I hope we all recover soon as I have things I really want to do...not exactly sure what they all are right now, but it fairly makes my heart ache, I want them so.

~ My Lord, please bring us back to good health so we can enjoy the lovely spring days again.~

The Minuet

The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities. ~Sydney Smith

The distance and traffic on Friday nights have always made it quite impractical for my Princess to be able to practice with other children on the musical portion of the spring recitals, so Miss Trudy tries to have her do something special like reciting a poem. The first time she did this, she simply recited the lyrics of song she was about to play. This time she recited a poem that enhanced the theme of the program.

Because of how the poem was written, I could see it would not do as a simple recitation, but needed to be acted out and so this was a first for the Princess and she did it quite well. (As I look at this picture below, I cannot help thinking, "Who is this graceful young lady? Wasn't she just a cute four-year-old just beginning piano lessons a month or so ago?")

"Modern ways are quite alarming..."



The Minuet
by Mary Mapes Dodge

Grandma told me all about it,
Told me so I could not doubt it,
How she danced -my grandma danced! -- Long ago.
How she held her pretty head,
How her dainty skirt she spread,
How she slowly leaned and rose -- Long ago.

Grandma's hair was bright and sunny;
Dimpled cheeks, too, -oh, how funny!
Really quite a pretty girl, -- Long ago.
Bless her! why, she wears a cap,
Grandma does, and takes a nap
Every single day; and yet
Grandma dance the minuet -- Long ago.

"Modern ways are quite alarming,"
Grandma says; "but boys were charming"
(Girls and boys, she means, of course)-- "Long ago."
Brave but modest, grandly shy-
She would like to have us try
Just to feel like those who met
In the graceful minuet -- Long ago.


Later she played "Polonaise, BWN Anhang 119" by J.S. Bach of the Baroque Period and "A Little Flower" by Cornelius Gurlitt of the Romance Period. These were the same pieces she played in February for the judging: Judging the Princess.





In this video is of the Polonaise only because the Princess had her first truly big mess up. I suppose it was bound to happen eventually, after all she has been taking lessons and performing for six years this May. On the video, she did have a small hiccup during the Polonaise, but that was hardly anything. The second piece did not get recorded. She had it well memorized but she did not position her hands correctly when she tried to begin it. Of course, Miss Trudy could not remember her piece with about forty children playing one to three songs each and asked the Princess from backstage if she had brought her music, to which she answered "no."

However, I had already realized this was not a small glitch from which she was going to recover on her own when I saw her hands shaking, so I thanked the Lord that I had taken some Valerian before we came so I would not be nervous for her and walked to the stage to hand the music to her. She kept her poise while looking a bit relieved, but she still just could not get her hands positioned correctly until Miss Trudy came out and showed her and then...after what seemed like painful minutes of holding my breath, the Princess began playing the piece as if she had just sat down to play it as I knew she could and never had any problem at all.

She was complimented on how well she did the poem and her playing and some people made a point to compliment her on how well she recovered. I thought she might be upset this time after the performance, but she was just fine. My Princess is a performer.

~ My Lord, thank you for my daughter's gift for piano, poise, and her ability to recover from mistakes. I am often surprised by her talents and enjoy them very much. Please continue to guide her in improving herself and giving the glory to You. ~

Not My Typical Week

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.
~John Burroughs

~ Monday ~
I went to one bank to pay our mortgage in person. For days, I had been checking our bank account online to if my husband's paycheck from the new company had been direct deposited, but it had not. However, we did get it later in the mail--YAY! I was very happy, but I would have to go back out in the afternoon to another bank to deposit it, because it would be a few days in clearing. While out, I thought I would stop into the grocery store near the bank to see if they had any markdowns in organics and specials on natural ice cream where I get an entire container for the price of a double dip of the less natural types at the shops.

While in that grocery store, after I had removed our ice cream selection from the freezer and placed them into my cart, I ran into another homeschool/4-H mother and we talked for about 30 minutes during which time she gave me her phone number...again (I think this makes the third time I have had to ask for it.) As we talked I asked if she would be feeding and caring for the horses on Friday evening at the Sweet Beulahland Farm. This is the farm owned by Miss Annette, the leader of the 4-H Horse and Pony club. I have wanted to take part in this activity for the past year, but just usually did not have a vehicle or money or time as that is near the time I am leaving to pick up my husband at the airport. She said she would be there so we finally parted, I with much softer ice cream by then, planning to see each other the next evening at the 4-H meeting. I placed the ice cream in a cooler and stopped at a dollar store on the way home to pick up baskets and candy for the 4-H community project, which only took a few minutes.

~ Tuesday ~

The March 4-H meeting is always a long one. The meeting included two presentations, which are required of participating older members, and then a tackiest prom queen and king contest where the children are judged by ages. After adjournment, the children prepared the Easter baskets to be given out at a nearby children's home.

My daughter picked out her own outfit for the contest, I only made suggestions about mismatching her footwear and fixing her hair into four ponytails and a braid with the part of one ponytail pulled over into another and lots of hair loose in various areas. Frankly, I thought there were too many others far tackier than she, but the Princess won third place for her age group!

~ Wednesday ~
I fast on Wednesdays, homeschool, and prepare for the next days errands and so this was a more typical day for this not so typical week. However, I decided to fast for a few more days as my weight had risen just above that mark that I promised myself was to be my limit from now on after losing the weight during the 40-day fast six months ago.

~ Thursday ~
Now the one thing I can say about Thursdays is that they are never typical, especially when I am fasting. Errands differ as necessary. I had looked online for all the specials in organics and checked the sales flyers. Good thing too because when I arrived at my favorite co-op grocery store they had not yet placed all the sales tags. This causes me to take more time at the register trying to be sure the sale items were in the system and then for us to try to figure out if the selected variety I wanted is in the "selected varieties" on sale as they are not listed in the flyer.

Then it is practically across the street, a very busy street, to another much larger organic/natural foods chain store for natural meat and a few items that I cannot get at the other place and fewer that are cheaper there.

After driving about forty minutes to get to those stores, I then drive another thirty minutes to Miss Trudy's for the Princess' piano lesson. On the way home I stop in at the bank to make a withdraw since my husband's paycheck cleared--YAY!

~ Friday ~
When I awoke yesterday, I tried to shake off two disturbing dreams I had during an less than restful night, which I tend to have when fasting. This the third day of the fast and it is always the worse one.

I began making another batch of granola in my slow cooker early, still trying out my own recipes. Once the Princess was up, dressed, and beds were made, we went out to feed the rabbits. It was a colder day because of the wind so I did not disturb the babies.

The Princess and I set aside the morning for her to write a poem for a children's talent contest hosted by our church's district. The Princess entered four categories: witing - poetry, solo instrumental - piano (the Bach piece she was recently judged on), visual arts - drawing, and visual arts - painting. The poem needed to be submitted with a post date no later than yesterday and so she wrote a poem that I will post later after the judging. I am now irritated with myself that I did not make a copy of it, because it was in her own handwriting with a drawing at the bottom. I only made her rewrite about three times because, although she loves to write, it is not always as neatly as I would like and I know she can do, especially for something like this.

She was sure happy to have it done at lunch time and so was I!

Because the weather report looked as if it would be raining all weekend and we had to go to the post office to send out her entry, I decided we should get our water refills at a store along the way instead of waiting until after church on Sunday.

Why not also get my raw milk because we have less than half a gallon left? We can fit that in before we go to Sweet Beulahland Farm, which is halfway on the way back home, where we will be helping with Miss Annette's horses.

Now since we are going to the farms, I should call the another homeschool/4-H mother who I ran into in a store earlier this week (when I was also out depositing my husband's first paycheck with the new company--YAY!) because I know she likes to get the milk but has not been able to afford to go out there and she will be bringing her children to feed the horses too.

I call using my headset on my phone—What a wonderful invention!—so my hands are free to break up the granola in the slow cooker and get it into a container. Yes, she would like a gallon of milk. We talked a bit and somehow she mentioned that she loves sourdough bread but lost her starter some time ago. I have some starter if you would like. "That would be wonderful! Uh-oh, Miss Annette is calling me." Call me back to let me know if there is a change about going to her place but soon as I am going to leave in just a few minutes. Poor Miss Annette has a migraine and is very sick with it, so we will have to care for the horses ourselves without her supervision. Of course, because I am a chatty person, I end up leaving half an hour later than I hoped to and feel rushed.

As we drive to our destinations, we see more things are blooming now than just daffodils, like the pear trees, forsythia, red bud tees, and pink magnolias! We make it to the store first and then the post office both not having long lines, thankfully, with plenty of time to get our milk. I see father and son, both who work the farm with a few hands. After I had gone into their little unmanned store to get the first two of eight gallons of milk and noticing there are no eggs, I see the father walking up with smiles. Last time I was here, I paid for eggs and then forgot to take them with me. He laughs..."That is how we make our money! They are cleaning eggs right now, would you like a dozen?" Thank you! The son comes out and asks when was the last time we were there. A few weeks ago at least. "We have baby sheep," he says as he is pointing to the petting barn where they have tours. The Princess is off like a shot. Hey, where's your jacket?

The wind has picked up, especially out in the open on the farms. We arrived at Sweet Beulahland Farm a bit early and have to wait about twenty minutes, so I read the beginning of a chapter book about a girl and her horse that the Princess brought with her purchased at Goodwill a few weeks ago with her own spending money. She decides to anxiously look out the window. After two other families arrive, the children fed and watered the horses, cleaned the stalls, and played in the back field while the adults retreated out of the wind into the barn. I fitted a new halter on one mare because the children were to short to do it.

Time to leave! Milk was exchanged for the cost and the sourdough starter was given. Then we came home to unpack Dragon Heart (the name of the newest vehicle) and put water on shelves in the garage and milk in the freezer. Then it is time to feed rabbits, dog, and cat. For dinner, a warming soup is appealing. Then some time to look on the Internet for a program my husband needs but I find out, after three long time-wasting attempts, it is too big to email to him.

So...after feeding and placing my sourdough starter, we are off to bed half an hour early as we are getting up a half and hour earlier to prepare for the time change next weekend.

~ Saturday ~
It is still in the works but so far....

I am still fasting but my energy has returned. I should have mentioned that except for Wednesday, my regular fast day each week and usually water only, this is a fast like I did for the forty day one so I am still drinking teas and some watered down milk.

I made and kneaded my sourdough to bake a loaf later today. Great day for baking when it is damp!

To my surprise, I was greeted by a pair of eyes in the bunny nest! They are now nine days old and typically they begin opening their eyes around the tenth day. So far only two of the larger baby rabbits have opened their eyes and are lifting those tiny ears. They are all well covered with white fur now. A few are still on the puny side, but they are healthy and active, so it all looks very good in our rabbitry.

Then I began to write a post for my blog, which is taking me longer than I hoped, as I had forgotten how much we did this week. Now I need to get pictures done yet too to post and send in an email to my husband. As soon as I am done with the pictures, I suppose you will see my post. I have a big project I have been working on also, but I do not want to give it away, just in case my husband peeks in here because it is supposed to be a surprise, but it will not be a good one if I do not get back to working on it right now. On the other hand, I have been hanging out at my computer hoping to catch a Skype call from my husband as we did not talk yesterday at all. It's time to knead some dough, too.

~ Sunday? ~
Oh, and the weather experts changed their forecast. It rained some Friday night and sprinkled Saturday morning, but Sunday is going to be mostly sunny, they are saying now, so I could have held off on a few of those errands, but Monday I need to get the plates for Dragon Heart so it is just as well that I have only church services on Sunday and rest in between...but who knows what Sunday will bring?

Whew!

~ Thank you, my Lord, for kindnesses shared and this gifted child who surprises me with what she writes and draws. Help me to finish the project I started before my husband's homecoming. ~

The Daffodil Game!

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

On the way to church this bright, warm day, the Princess and I played our annual daffodil game that we have played ever since she could say the word "daffodil"!

~ My Lord, thank you for the promise warm sunny days and the oncoming spring! ~

Generosity of Friends

We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.
~Mother Teresa

My husband is returning home today after being gone twelve days straight, including the last two weekends...yes, that means we were not together to celebrate Resurrection Day. It was quite a downer for all of us. He was stuck at a hotel all day, while I tried to do the usual things with the Princess. We went to our sunrise service and then afterward I was just planning on going home and...well, I was not sure what we were going to do from there.

Bare with me as I do a flash backwards...that is, more backwards than Resurrection Day. The weekend before, our church did an egg hunt on Saturday. We planned to be there and I had plenty of time to prepare lunch...until someone pulled up into the driveway: the mother of one of the Princess' new friends in our neighborhood. This friend wanted to play with the Princess, of course, and I asked if she could join us for the church egg hunt. Unfortunately, the mother and I talked a bit too long, as I am well too known to do, and then I hurriedly had to make a lunch for the two girls. Now if you really knew my daughter, you would know that eating fast is not her thing with the exception of mac-n-cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and hotdogs, which can disappear in lightning speed by comparison (although it is probably just normal speed in reality). So, we left the half-eaten sandwiches took a cut-up apple with us to eat on the way.

I silently groaned when we arrived because, instead of doing a craft as was done in the past, the church had cupcakes, cake, chips, and sodas for the children before the egg hunt. Then these sugar-charged children were expected to quiet down for a short Bible story about the resurrection...while on this carbohydrate high...I will just let you imagine how that went for yourself. Finally released, the children wildly scattered. Eggs awaited the little ones in the front and others in the back for older ones. The flurry ended in just five minutes. The captured eggs were feverishly opened to find the treasures of candy, but no chocolate or nuts, and little gifts. Then they did a tossing game with raw eggs which was rather messy.

My husband left a few days later in the week to work in Orlando. While he was there, his father went into the hospital. His blood pressure was doing some odd things since his pacemaker was changed out. Being that my husband was only a little over an hour away, he spent an extra day in Florida to visit his parents but is traveling home today and expected to arrive tonight about the time of our 4-H meeting, so we might not see him until later.

If you had not noticed I flashed forward to today, so now, if I have not lost you yet, I am going to flash back to the day before Resurrection Day. That day, the Princess and I colored eggs. This was particularly difficult for us as this was one of the things of which my husband usually takes charge, but we had a very good time and made some beautiful eggs. My daughter has become quite adept at doing creative things and I enjoyed it more than I expected.

While at services on Resurrection Sunday, the pastor's wife, taking pity on us and I probably looked pitiful, asked if we would join them and their family for dinner after church. With both the Princess and I feeling pretty lonely and, after having a tough week with her because of it, I was very thankful for the invitation to be with other adults, but there could have been a bit of a snag. My next door neighbor, since her grandchild was walking, has always invited the Princess to an egg hunt at her place, but I had not heard from her. I felt it was breaking with etiquette to call her asking if the Princess was invited to her egg hunt this year, and if it had not been a tradition for the last five years I would not have been so bold. However, as gracious as she is generous, my neighbor assured me that she had meant to call me earlier, but got busy with making dinner and, of course, the Princess was invited to the egg hunt, which would be after dinner in the early afternoon.

Perfect! I turned to the Princess and said, "You are truly blessed!" The Lord had worked it all out so that we could go to the Pastor's dinner and our neighbor's egg hunt. And both we did!

Our neighbor does not put candy in her eggs; she puts money in them. The Princess came away with just under $20, which we split up as we usually do money gifts and allowance: twenty percent goes towards tithing and the remaining eighty percent is split into savings and spending money.

~ Thank you, my Lord, for the generosity of our friends and for providing all that we need. ~

Craving Distractions

The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It's not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found. ~William Stafford

Yesterday the sun flooded in and the temperature kissed the 70° mark for the first time in quite awhile. The warmth and clear wild blue yonder were far too welcoming. On the hour drive home from dropping off my love at the airport, the silent petition brightly shined in my face: This would not be the typical light-homeschooling-after-the-morning-drop-off-at-the-airport day. No, this would be an all-out battle for the mind of a child between unappreciated math facts and "When can I play outside?"

Who could blame the child?

My own mind-battle, starved of a full two hours of sleep, argued between taking a nap and getting a long list of things done, but all day I craved distractions. Let's face it: anything to do with homeschooling and housework would be superbly and unmistakably sabotaged.

The Princess began with piano followed with math. Then we had lunch on the front porch. Afterward, while sitting on the love seat on the porch, quite comfortably cushioned with pillows, she read a chapter of a book to me, which put me to sleep a few times. Somehow that one word that just did not sound right would arouse me from the light slumber, but I would have to ask her where it was on the page as I vaguely remembered something two paragraphs back and then it all faded away as my eyes closed. The chapter read and my own body in betrayal, we decided that we should indulge ourselves in the hot tub after I did a few things while she played a bit and put her things away.

The hot tub was soothing, but oddly, I did not fall sleep as I have been known to do. Instead, I was enamored with my daughter. I remembered our first summer with the hot tub that she could not stand in the middle at all and how she would, being quite independent, walk all around the edge holding on. I remember the first time she could finally stand on her tiptoes in the middle and still hold head above the water. Here she is standing with the water line at her waist!

I thought to myself, she is such a pretty girl, with her fine facial features and a lithe frame. She has always been a delight to me, but more so that day because she was so pleasant to be with. We had done things that she enjoys so much. Such little things, really, that bring her so much pleasure. Why don't I do them more often?

When she wants to have tea, why does it seem such a bother? While I look at all the preparation, as Martha had done, I forget that she is my Mary, from whom I am to learn to enjoy the things that really matter.

So, we enjoyed the day, each other, the lunch on the porch, the hot tub, and nature. While in the hot tub, we both were called into fascination with a red shouldered hawk in the nearest tall tree, so easily seen since the trees are still bare. The Princess tried to imitate the call, which gave the hawk cause to turn and look at us as if to say, "Now, just who are you?"

Yes, for the most part we wandered through the day, enjoying many distractions, and found each other.

~ My Lord, thank you so much for my daughter. I remember praying to You so many times while she was in my womb that we would be the kind of parents she needed and she would be the kind of child we needed. She is. Thank you for this gift. ~

Renewal and Hope

Daffodils
by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

On Saturday morning, the Princess and I made breakfast together: scrambled eggs and waffles. Our waffle maker fell apart some time ago and has not been replaced so I resorted to recently buying some of the pre-made frozen kind that I could toss into the toaster. The Princess is quite proud of herself in being able to cook the scrambled eggs herself and she does a very good job, even seasons them perfectly.

It was our plan to have a good breakfast for energy to burn when we began to thoroughly clean the house before we had to leave to pick up my husband at the airport...and clean we did! We stripped the beds and made them up. We both dusted different rooms and clean our own bathrooms. I vacuumed. She mopped, took out the trash, and shook out the rugs. A light lunch was squeezed in at the proper time and she had a bit of time to play a computer game.

We picked up my husband around 4:00 PM and he was kind enough to take us out to eat, since we had worked so hard and were rather tired. After dinner, we came home to hungry pets. It was bath time for the Princess. I tried to relax and stay out of the way because I knew my husband would be going through things trying to find something he needed for work but could not find and thought he left at home. He had me looking for the last two days but I did not find it—and for good reason as he did find it last night right in the backpack he had with him on the trip. This is so unlike him that I figured the time zone thing messed with his brain.

Then it was work time for my husband as he had to make his flight plans for New York on Monday, tomorrow, but he did not make reservations for the return flight, as he hopes to take the day off on Friday because the next week he will be in Mexico, training for his new job. We shall see how that goes....

This morning, Sunday, was church services. Going to and from, we played the daffodil game as we always have this time of year since the Princess could say the word. Daffodils are the first flowers to bloom after the winter, so whenever we spot the yellow blooms we call out "daffodils." It is a first call, first tally kind of thing and the Princess likes to remind us how many she has when she is in the lead.

We had a our pastor installation service to formally establish our new pastor today. My husband, the Princess, and I had separate parts we were to read; The Princess was the only child to do this and she read beautifully: clear and loud with feeling. There were also some congregational readings as part of the service and a brief sermon. It was a very good day.

Since we only really have one day together and my husband was still a bit tired with adjusting between the time zones, we decided to not attend evening service. I had to wake him to ask if he would like to go or not. This decision, though, ended up being a mistake of sorts, because later on my husband remembered he planned to pick up his reading glasses left at the church since he would need to take them with him on the morrow. As I write this, my husband and the Princess are taking a trip to the church, since he has the keys and security code, to get the glasses.

When they return, the Princess will have a scoop of ice cream and then prepare for bed. We must leave by 7:30 AM for the airport. No doubt we will be again playing our daffodil game. I wonder who will win tomorrow....

~ My Lord, thank you for providing our new pastor and the first signs of spring. There is a spirit of renewal and hope in both and I look forward to the changes they both will bring. ~

The Princess Turns Eight

You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again. ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

Today is a homeschool holiday. My one and only child is now eight years old—well, technically around 7:30 tonight. I let her sleep in for as long as she wanted this morning--truly rare in my home. Unfortunately for the Princess, we are not actually celebrating until the weekend and we are housebound as my husband is working in town this week (so far), therefore he has the van. There will not be much more I can do to make it a special day today other than suspending lessons and just spending some time doing things together we would not normally do and just letting her play.

We were promised nice weather all day with a bit of warm in the afternoon. I am planning to start working on the garden beds a bit at time, now that we have been having near normal levels of rainfall this year. Today I started with the first one people see by the road, the one around the mailbox which fills up with variegated vinca surrounding a purple clematis on a trellis. Grass has encroached the bed as the last two years of drought stunted the usually vigorous vinca. I would rather have had Black-Eye Susans in that bed as a contrast to the clematis, but it just never really did well there.

The Princess has always enjoyed gardening, but even more so since we read The Secret Garden recently. Beside helping me, the Princess amused herself playing outside dragging out every outside plaything she could find. She talked about how everyone must be wondering why she is just playing outside instead of doing lessons. The post lady certainly knew for the Princess blurted it out as she handed the mail to me.

The Princess also looked for all the bird nests in our trees. A dove has been sitting on her nest in the lowest fork of our cherry tree (not the kind that produces fruit) trying to be invisible by not moving, but so low we cannot help but see her. We heard the neighboring hawk when it got the notion to announce its delight of gliding on the air currents far above, but did not see much of it because of all those leaves on the trees! Spring is not a slow process here. It seems to be a flurry of blossoms starting with the hailing of daffodils in the first week of March and ending with the dogwoods and azaleas in mid April. Then as you look around, you realize that all is dressed as summer has come.

I started out in the cool of the morning, but being that this garden is on the east side, I was in the sunlight--In truth, I was in the sunlight longer than I should have been. We took a break and I made Pina Colada smoothie mid morning, which we slipped on the front porch. While I was making them I noticed that my arms were showing a bit of color and I knew I needed to wrap it up for being outside today soon. So after the smoothie, I finished my work on the the mailbox garden and then we went inside. I asked the Princess to pick a DVD to watch and she picked Honey, I Blew up the Kid.

While she giggled through the movie, I treated myself for sunburn. My arms, as it turns out, were not the worse parts—my knees were really red and really hot. So, I treated first with baby butt cream, our name for diaper rash cream, to get the benefit of zinc oxide. Later I alternated with aloe vera gel and shea cream. Typically, sunburns for me are not painful, unless I have clothing or something directly irritating the area, but the heat with the alternating sweats and chills can get to me!

My husband came home with a bouquet of flowers for the Princess and was kind enough to make dinner, because by that time I was not feeling very well; sun sickness, I think. Afterward, the Princess and he played around in the spa while I stayed inside, out of the sun.

It may sound like the day was not particularly special, but the Princess was excited about her smoothie and playing in the spa and, of course, getting out of lessons, these were the highlights of her day. Oh, she also received an invitation to a friend's birthday party for the weekend after this one, which she talked about for an hour, I think, starting over when her father came home. Obviously, she was really excited about that. Her grandparents called to wish her Happy Birthday while she was in the spa also.

The Princess is so easy to please, really. She told us that all she wanted to do for the day was spend time with her family--her MA (the sound a baby goat makes) family--and that is exactly what we did. (Ever since we stayed with my aunt and uncle three months ago, she has been making goat sounds and calling us that, to the point it is beyond annoying, but like everything else, this phase will pass and I will feel all so sentimental when I think of it someday--but, today, I cannot wait for that day!)

It seems as though it could not have been eight years ago when this child was placed into my arms for the very first time, my Lord. Thank you for this precious soul in my life. Please continue to cultivate me into a better mother according to what You wish me to be. I can always use a weeding out of things encroaching on my garden of relationships and a pruning back of me so that my Master Gardener is glorified.

The Secret Garden

A thistle cannot grow.
~The Secret Garden, Ch. 27

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the Princess had been reading The Secret Garden. Today, with the Princess in sniffles, we finished. Then we watched the movie made in 1993 I had just bought last week, to talk about the comparisons between the two. I must say that the movie portrayed Mrs. Medlock as a harsher woman and it is a shame that there was no Mrs. Sowerby, as she was one of the characters I would have enjoyed seeing portrayed on the big screen. Ah, well.

The DVD was a double feature coupled with the 1995 version of A Little Princess. We read A Little Princess last summer when we stayed in Florida to help my husband's parents, so we watched that movie a few days ago and talked about the differences between the book and movie versions.

We also talked about the similarities and differences between The Secret Garden and A Little Princess today. The most obvious of the similarities were that in both the main characters were young girls who had lived in India and lost their parents. (Of course, in the movie version of A Little Princess, the father lived, but was believed to be dead.) The differences were the girls' temperaments, how they were treated and treated others.

I am hoping, like Mary of The Secret Garden witnessing Colin's behavior, my Princess will see others acting badly, as she can do at times, as encouragement to modify her behavior on her own. In so doing, I am tending my little rose to keep the thistles from growing.

Speaking of gardens...while The Secret Garden has a moving ending, most of my daughter's previously mentioned sniffles were likely due to pollen. The pollen count has been well over 1,000 for a few days lately; an extremely high count is anything over 120. When we first moved to Georgia, I was delighted with the explosion of autumn colors, which make it my favorite of the seasons. (It might not be quite as brilliant as a bit further north, but certainly more a more vivid variety compared the sun-bleached vegetation of middle Florida.) However, spring time in Georgia, I did not expect. It leaves me breathless, in more ways than one. It seems that everything blooms, just everything—it would probably be a shorter list to name the things that do not bloom. With every lovely bright bloom comes a flurry of pollen.

The annual dusting can again be seen on everything outside. At a time when the temperatures are comfortable enough to open windows, it is healthier to keep them shut. The pollen we see covering everything is just heavier types, but I am told it is the invisible pollen remaining the air that is the problem. We all welcome the rains that cleanse the air and we have quite a bit lately, but during the last years of drought, the pollen count has gone to nearly 6,000 on some days.

Fortunately for me, I am blessed that I do not have allergies, but even those who don't have a bit more difficulty with breathing, sinus headaches, and general fatigue on such days with high amounts of pollen. My daughter mentioned a sore throat on Sunday and has been dealing with sniffles and sneezing since then, but it is not too bad. Some years ago, we installed an air purification system, mostly to help clear out the lungs of my husband, who worked in environments full of paper dust year after year. Still, just thirty minutes outside is all it takes for my daughter to have health and behavior difficulties for a couple of days--at least, I am hoping that is the reason my Little Princess had a touch of Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary today. I had to tend my little rose a bit today because of it.

Such is spring in the garden....

My Lord, please show me the best ways to tend my little rose so thistles can never grow in her temperament—even when we both are dealing with the effects of high pollen counts.

March Marching On

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. -Helen Keller

It rained lightly all day long. On days like this the Princess does not mind doing lessons as much, although if given the choice she would probably go for a movie and popcorn in a heartbeat. However, today she practiced piano and even tackled her math lesson without complaint. What a blessing that was! In fact, she was rather polite all day today. She drew some, as she tends to do if we have some time between lessons or if I am busy with another task, but she seemed to be in a quiet mood most of the day.

I find rainy days the best for bread making. I suppose it is the extra moisture in the air, but my loaves always turn out just right on those days. I had put my sponge out last night, as is done with sourdough, and put the other ingredients together this morning. This time I added some whole wheat flour and kneaded it three times during the day. It should be ready to bake in about a half hour and have just enough time to cool before I turn in for the night.

After spelling lessons in the afternoon, the Princess was in a reading mood. Although she voiced a small groan when I told her to get the book The Secret Garden, like always, once she started reading it, she got into the story. It is supposedly a book at the 6.5 grade reading level and yet there are very few words that stump her and it sometimes is rather comical what she will come up with when she just takes a stabbing guess at a word that she does not yet know. When we started it, we would take turns reading. It is not a easy book to read aloud because some of the dialog is written in a Yorkshire accent, which I attempt to speak to give authenticity--the operative word being "attempt." Although the long chapters are broken up sometimes, the Princess has been reading it all on her own lately--even in her own version of a Yorkshire accent!

For dinner, I thawed the turkey stock I had frozen made from our Christmas turkey and made a nice warm turkey noodle soup. I also baked some biscuits to have with it. The extra warmth from the kitchen was just enough to take the chill out of the house and reduce the humidity at bit. Maybe that is why I actually enjoy cooking on cool, rainy days.

Presently, my husband is busy machining a part that he needs for a machine he is servicing tomorrow, so I decided to spend this time I have alone reflecting and sharing one of my typical days with you.

Thank you, Lord, for the humbling tasks you have given to me for they all are great and noble.

Spring, Sprang, Sprung

Happiness is the result of being too busy to be miserable. -Unknown

Last week it snowed, this weekend it is in the 70's. Yellow daffodils have been blooming everywhere for over a week. The Bradford pear trees are blooming in white. Our peach tree is filling up with pink flowers. My dog has been shedding. My daughter is wearing shorts. Tomorrow it will be 80 degrees, but Friday and Saturday the high is predicted to be the mid 50's with rain. Such is spring in Georgia. It is refreshing my spirit and uplifting my mood, even though it brings with so many things to do: gardening, yard work, cleaning up the back deck and front porch, and so forth!

Spring is nature exercising "out with the old, in with the new." As nature's wardrobe changes outside, so must my daughter's. It is time for spring consignment sales, where I get most of the clothes for the Princess. I am preparing the summer clothes she has outgrown to sell in one sale at which I will also shop along with a few others nearby. Typically, these sales are spread out on two or three different weekends, but this year the three main ones I shop are all on the same weekend, this coming weekend.

I will drop off the clothes I am selling on Wednesday afternoon, which is not a little deal because I need our one and only vehicle to do this. My husband is working in town this week, so I will need to drop him off at work and pick him up again, unless he can work from home that day. Thursday, after we return from our errands, I need to go to one sale on the way home and then go to another later that same evening. I am not sure how I will juggle picking up my husband in the midst of it all. Then there is the next day, Friday, with another sale.

I'm not done yet though. Friday night, our church has planned an outing for the children from 7 to 9 PM. I don't know if that will work for us. We may have to not do that one, because there is still more.

Saturday, my pastor and I will be taking our children to a competition sponsored by the district of our church. We will most likely be gone the entire day. The Princess has been entered to compete in piano and art, so not only do we need to spend extra time practicing at the piano throughout the week, but we need to work on a masterpiece.

On a week like this I really feel the pinch of having only one vehicle, but really it is rare for me to need it more than one day a week. I believe the Lord as provided what we really need, although I think I could use just a bit less anxiety when I think about all of it.

Lord, help me to continually be content with what You have provided and never tire of striving to be a better steward with the money and time you have given to us....and the Princess would like us to find some nice dresses at the sales, if You would provide those too.