A Brighter Day

Just can't leave the blog as I did yesterday. Talk about mortification...I truly am...mortified that is. I am blaming a snowstorm and my being prone to think the worst first. You'd think that I would have learned by now for I have always been proven wrong by doing that, given enough time. The blog was an easy fix once I settled down long enough to figure it out.

"It will pass, the sun will break through..."

Okay, moving right along with something brighter...

Yes, it did snow all day yesterday accumulating about four inches. It won't last this day. Funny how snow in December seems good and fine, but at the end of April it is terribly discouraging. Though it may look like winter outside and, while I am hearing the steady run of melting snow from the roofs,  inside it is spring. Further, snow does not compare to tornadoes, floods, hail or many of the foul weather systems that some have faced recently. Spring has always had a mind of its own.

~a simple centerpiece~

Besides, since the first robin has been spotted, it must be spring!

Of this photo, John says that my ink blot profile must be off the chart. (Hmmm...wonder what he means by that.) This is a marble birthday cake made by my grandson and me for his dad's birthday. When it came out of the oven, I called Jakob over to see what he had to say about the picture on the top. We see a rabbit on skis. It looks as if he is tossing globs of chocolate into his mouth. One can even see the motion marks. Jakob said that since he was responsible for the chocolate part of the marbling that he is obviously responsible for this picture. We got a kick out of it.

My gift to you today is closing comments so that you may skip along with all due apologies for yesterday. Gheesh. 

See you next week, The Lord willing and my wits stay intact.

ツ 

Gifts in Spring

Let me try a Tuesday this week...

Three things today:

* gifts
* culling books and furniture
* spring garden 

Last week brought two packages to my door. The first was a gift from my friend Deanna at Creekside Cottage — lovely handmade pillowcases with French seams and decorative top-stitching. True confessions now ... both John and I like to nap on the sofa so we have a regular pillow there for just such a snooze. These pillowcases match my old, but new-to-me sofa. Perfect!  Love them! Thank you for thinking of me, Deanna. 

The second box arrived with a thwump on my side deck. My heart sank when I saw the word "fragile" in block letters on the side. What a happy moment when I unwrapped the gifts and found that each one was intact. Such cute gifts given with thought and in friendship. The giver focused on my love of yellow. 

I had such fun spreading the yellow around. Here...

Here...

 Here...

and one more place, but I'll leave that for you to find.
This Dear One has asked to remain anonymous, though I am sending her a big thank you. What a sweet surprise! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our living room has needed some culling for quite some time. It meant removing a chair and adding a pair of auditorium seats for a place to sit and remove shoes and boots. 

John's chair has moved yet again (this is what I do, shove furniture around) making room for him to actually access his books. It's so cozy in his corner. 

It also means some tidying the bookshelf. John decided to do some culling of books. I find that chore difficult myself so I wasn't surprised to find him back in the chair already distracted by the first book he pulled! That grin is in response to my making some wisecrack about it.

  

No, I do not intend to float that table smack dab in the middle of the floor. Good grief!
~~~~~~

Not a lot going on in my spring gardens. The chives are up, the rhubarb is, too; the front garden has one dandelion, grape hyacinths, and coral bells. I was able to get the yard work accomplished with the help of my neighbor who swept all the debris caused by the snowplow off from the front lawn. Now we are ready for warmer days and some blooming flowers. I can't wait! 

The inserts are more or less where they exist in the actual garden. I was experimenting at PicMonkey with the collage maker when I decided to attempt something different.

Over and out...
ツ  

Still Water or This, Too, Shall Pass

As I write this on a Tuesday morning for a Wednesday morning post, it is raining a cold, gray, steady rain. Talk about a nasty April thus far. Oh well, at least it is not snow and thank God that John had the foresight (when I did not) to fill that oil tank one more time. Ever notice that the weather can often mirror life's circumstances? It feels like that around here these days. I'm in a cold, gray frame of mind.

Moving right along — this month is poetry month and so I am featuring a poem that speaks to me, though, trust me, I have not reclined on the ground any time lately. 

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the Grace of God, and am free.

~ Wendell Berry
The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
Source

Now if you check the source, you'll see that I changed things a titch because I don't feel that nature heals me, though I do feel that God created nature for me and you to enjoy. (Truth to tell, I should change it a little more to match my beliefs, but Mr. Berry's poem has been fiddled with quite enough.) 

~lacking a wood drake and hoping that a forced forsythia will do~

Even Jesus had to get away from time to time for prayer and direction. Whenever my mind slips into cold and dark, it's time for getting away or changing things up. Soon the weather will turn and the flowers will bloom and I will not concern myself with a polar vortex. I'll be busy in the garden getting that blanket of leaves off the flower beds and looking forward to all the warmth and beautiful colors. 

P.S. It just donned on me that I should have asked John to write me a poem this year as he did  *here* nearly four years ago. Oh I do love that poem! ☺

A Successful Day

She has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; Who has enjoyed the trust of intelligent women, the respect of pure men, and the love of little children; Who has filled her niche and accomplished her task; Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it; Who has left the world better than she found it, whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul; Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best she had; Whose life was an inspiration; Whose memory a benediction.

~Bessie Anderson Stanley

(This quote has been feminized.)

Well now, that is lofty *thud*— and more a description of a successful life rather than a single, successful day.

So let's take it in small chunks. What do you consider a successful day? Lately, I have been calling a day successful if I get something accomplished. Preferably, lots of somethings.

 ~last Friday morning when it was warm enough to be misty~

Last Friday, I had what I now consider the most successful day of the year thus far. Please don't laugh ☺, but it was so good that I made a list:

1. stripped the bed
2. dressed
3. swept basement floor
4. pushed laundry
5. remade the bed before noon
6. did the dishes
7. cleaned the kitchen

 ~cute napkins...PW's at Wal*Mart for $4.97 a pak~

8. grocery shopped
9. gassed up the car
10. visited dentist and paid the remainder of my bill
11. visited my mother's grave, cleaned it, and binned the Christmas decor (first day the fence had not been locked)
12. delivered the large Easter cactus to my niece...a late birthday gift

13. made a nice supper
14. dishes done by 7
15. in bed by 10

ETA: To clarify, I made the list after the things were accomplished not before.

Now was that so hard? Not on Friday. Let us not discuss Saturday and Sunday, thank you.

What makes the doing and the checking off the things from my list so satisfactory? Am I more loved? (No) Does my husband pat me on the back? (No, he rarely notices; though he always compliments me on a meal.) Do I feel better about myself? (Decidedly, Yes!) I am not meant to sit too long, even if I am hurting.

And nowhere on that list did I count as important any time spent on the computer. Progress right there, my friend!

Thanks to the Polar Vortex, this week means that I must be inside doing my chores and not outside as I had hoped. Last autumn's leaves still cover the tender plants. I hope that it is enough of a blanket to get them through. Poor things!

~meant to show you the howling wind, yet all one can hear is the coffee percolating~

Hope that you are not in the dreaded PV's blast...

See you next week, The Lord willing and the PV departing.