Happy New Year!

The new year has arrived and as promised, I am sincerely going to try to blog more often. Obviously, it's not going to be daily, but maybe I could manage weekly... or at least, more often than quarterly. How 'bout that? Reckon that will keep my Fan Club* happy?

While I didn't maintain my blog as well as I would have liked in 2014, there are enough posts to give you a good idea of our Year in Review, so I'm not going to do that. However, we weren't able to be together with any of our extended family during the Christmas season, so I thought I'd share some of our recent activities.

We kicked off the festivities early in December with an interchurch Christmas brunch at Country Buffet. The highlight of the morning was the white elephant gift exchange.

The next week we were invited to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. Rather than going out and buying ugly sweaters, we got creative and decorated some old sweaters we already had. Our family spent one whole evening working on our sweaters. I said, "After all this work, I hope somebody in our family will win one of the prizes!" And turns out... they did!

 Laura's "sweater" featured a stocking with a teddy bear tucked in it, a letter to Santa, sparkly pom-poms and jingle bells... and the pièce de résistance.. an obnoxious violin that played Christmas songs. She won the Ugly ribbon (3rd place.)

And then Lyle won the Ugliest ribbon (1st place) with his tableau of Frosty getting run over by an SUV! He and I had worked on his sweater design together. I thought he could have a scene of a car hauling a Christmas tree with a snowman as part of the scenery, but he decided that it needed a little more drama than that. I guess it paid off because everyone seemed to love the snowman parts flying everywhere!

The actual week of Christmas was pretty rough at our house, as both girls had a nasty round of the flu... Laura early in the week, and Rebecca on Christmas Day. Lyle and I were grateful to not catch it this time around!

 We had a nice day at home on Christmas Day. The day started off sunny and mild. Lyle built a fire in our backyard fireplace and smoked a turkey breast on the grill for dinner. He enjoyed watching the fire while he visited on the phone with his mother.

We didn't know how smoking the turkey on the grill would turn out. My dad has been smoking turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas for probably 30 years, so it's kind of a tradition in our family. This year between work, church, and friends, I ended up having three different Thanksgiving dinners... and not one of them served smoked turkey. We haven't been with my folks for the holidays for several years, and I just missed Dad's tasty smoked turkey! So I asked Lyle if he thought it would work to smoke a turkey breast on the grill (since we don't own a smoker). He did some research and said he thought it wouldn't be too hard. He has a little metal box in which to smolder wood chips for the smoke flavor. I soaked the turkey breast in my Dad's recipe for brine for 24 hours, and then added a pan of water for moisture. It worked perfectly! So now we know--a smoker is not necessary! I expect we'll be enjoying smoked turkey more in the future.

And then the snow arrived! The clouds rolled in and the wind kicked up on Christmas afternoon, and the snow started falling. It has been cold and snowed more several times since. But still, we have seen some sunshine in between. After all, this is Colorado!

Thus concludes the synopsis of our Christmas celebration. Looking forward to seeing what 2015 has in store!

*Charter members of my Fan Club include my parents, my husband, and my children... and a few others who have let me know that you miss my blog. I do appreciate your encouragement. It means a lot!

Loading Day

 Saturday dawned cold and clear. We were so grateful for the sunshine, which is unusual for January in north Idaho. There were still patches of snow in the yard but nothing we couldn't work around. We had rented the largest truck available (26-feet long). At the beginning of the day it looked like there was gobs of room for all our stuff.

As more and more boxes were carried out of the house, I was almost embarrassed at how much stuff we have. Just way more than we need. This would have been a good time to get rid of a bunch of it, if I had just had time to make some decisions. As it was, I did give away quite a few boxes of books as well as a few obvious "time to let it go" items. Maybe I can weed out more on the other end as we unpack.

 We were blessed with a crew of about 20 friends who came to help us load. Lots of strong young backs made an overwhelming job a lot easier than it might have been. They called themselves "the worker monkeys."

 At lunchtime they enjoyed a pizza picnic in the empty living room.

 Several of them creatively formed what they called a "chain gang" for passing items up the stairs and out the door.

By mid-afternoon it was obvious that the Big Truck wasn't quite big enough. On to Plan B which was to go rent a cargo trailer to pull behind our Excursion. (We had already rented a car transport trailer for Lyle to pull behind the truck.)

Due to the short daylight hours this time of year, it was almost dark and getting much colder by the time we got back with the trailer. We got it loaded by flashlight and decided to call it a day, even though we still had the cars to load.

We slept in sleeping bags on the floor, which wasn't terribly comfortable... but we were so tired we didn't much care.

Up next... Moving Day 1.

Holiday Ramblin'

To say I'm feeling overwhelmed these days is putting it mildly.

It seems surreal that Christmas is the-day-after-tomorrow. I keep turning on Christmas music (even though I usually only enjoy it in very small doses) to remind myself that we really are in the midst of the Christmas season. Mostly my mind is whirling with trying to figure out how we are actually going to manage to move in two weeks.

In the midst of everything, life goes on. So here's a little glimpse of what we've been up to lately besides packing.

Early in December, the girls and I enjoyed a lovely ladies' brunch at church.

The next morning Lyle and I flew to Colorado for a week to check out the situation there and to make our decision about moving.

While we were there I crocheted almost non-stop because pre-Christmas orders for mug cozies were pouring in from my Etsy shop. I haven't yet taken time to tally up how many I actually made this fall, but I know it numbers in the hundreds! Just crazy!

Last Sunday night we sang in a cantata at church. We enjoyed participating in the choir. It was a fun cantata to prepare for. What was so amazing to me was that our choir director was a 19-year-old young man, and our accompanist just had his 15th birthday! They did an outstanding job.

Wednesday night we had a "farewell" social time with our Bible study group. We have been hosting a weekly Bible study in our home for the past 6.5 years, so we've formed some very special relationships. It is hard to say good-bye.

The girls have been enjoying Christmas activities and time with friends this month. Laura hosted a party for her friends Friday night.

On Saturday afternoon she went sledding with friends and banged up her knee pretty badly. The wound was very deep and ugly, so we decided she should probably go to the Immediate Care clinic. As it turns out the covering of the knee cap was even torn, so it required 6 internal stitches and 4 external... plus a tetanus shot and a round of antibiotics. Lyle said, "We are so glad the accident wasn't worse, but the timing couldn't have been much worse." She is getting around pretty well, but is limited in what she can do.

And so... that brings us up to Christmas week. My shopping is done. I just have a few last-minute gifts to wrap... and countless boxes to pack.

As always... life is an adventure!

Pumpkin Patch

 One of our favorite fall family activities is visiting the Green Bluff area near Spokane, and making a tour of the orchards and farms. We like to get pumpkins... and apples... and kettle corn... and cider... and harvest-y things like that.

 This past Saturday was the day we had decided to go. Turns out that was a good choice. The day was sunny and just cool enough to really feel like fall. The kind of weather you want for an outing in the country.

Mostly I had fun taking pictures of all the pumpkins. The ones in the pumpkin patch as well as the "sweet li'l punkins" that came along with us.

It was a good day!

Writer's Retreat

 This week a friend and I went "off the grid" for a mini writer's retreat. We stayed in one of these cute little lakeside cabins.

It was a productive time. We both worked on our books, brainstormed with each other, and enjoyed probably just a tad too much off-topic chit-chat.

The weather was pretty blustery, though the sun was out for part of the time, but we had a lovely view of the lake from inside our cabin.  We pretty much had the entire place to ourselves, since it's the off-season.

So... I am making [very slow] progress on my novel. I'm still not sure that it will ever be anything anyone will want to read, but I feel compelled to write it anyway. This week helped me figure out what to work on next, and what research still needs to be done at this stage.

It reminds me of working a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. You dump that thing out of the box and you wonder how you're ever going to get it to make a picture. You start turning pieces over one by one, separating out the edges, sorting like colors together, and slowly it begins to come together. The more you get done, the faster it goes.

Maybe someday it will be finished.

Amateur Photographer

Another thing we did while my parents were here was to go on some photo shoots. My dad has a wonderful DSLR camera that he let me use. I had got to use it last fall when I went out to Oklahoma, so I was anxious to get to play around with it again.

Since Becky's senior year is approaching I wanted to see if I could actually take some pictures of her that we could use as her senior pictures. She loves horses and cowboys, so I thought it would be neat to have a western theme for her pictures. When my parents heard of my plan, they offered to take her shopping for a cowboy hat for her 18th birthday so she could wear it for the pictures.

I asked some friends if we could use their place as a backdrop since they have horses. They were happy to agree. And so we set out...

Since I had never done this before, and my dad is also an amateur photographer, he got some advice from my sister who is a professional photographer. "Set the camera on Auto and just snap-snap-snap!"

And that's what I did.

I was pleased with the results. I would love to have a camera like that, but I guess I can probably borrow it just about any time I'm around my Dad. Because he's generous like that.

Camping on the River

Our camping season is off to a late start this year due to all the traveling we did in the spring, but we were finally able to get away for two nights this past weekend. We stayed at a lovely Forest Service campground on the Moyie River up near Bonners Ferry.

 Our campsite was right on the river. It was relaxing to just sit and listen to the water. We enjoyed cooking over the fire, playing games at the picnic table, and good conversation with friends. One afternoon we drove further up the mountain to pick huckleberries.

 Sometimes we just need these times of refreshing. Don't you agree?

The Joy Dare

Not too long ago I noticed that my friend Denise was sharing a list of blessings on Facebook as part of The Joy Dare. I thought that sounded kinda neat, and I wanted to look into it. About the same time I got an email asking if I would be interested in reviewing One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. I had been hearing a lot about the book, and I thought it might be connected with The Joy Dare, so I agreed. My book came a few days ago, and I've started it... but I'm only in Chapter 3, so no review yet. However, I decided to go ahead and start The Joy Dare.

The idea is to make a list of "1000 Gifts" in 2013... a gratitude list. To make it easier, Ann provides a list of prompts to look for 3 gifts each day. Obviously, I'm very late in starting for 2013, but I decided I'd still like to try to do it. So I'm going to start with today's 3 prompts, and then go back to January's list and use the prompts there as well. I don't expect to post every day, so my lists will be longer on some days than others. And I don't know that I'll use all the prompts. I expect I'll just ad lib some of the time. But that's okay, don't you think? I'm looking forward to counting my blessings!

1. A Gift of Rhythm: The rhythmic clicking of the printing press that provides Lyle with work.
2. A Gift of Rhyme: Reading aloud The Llama Who Had No Pajama three times in one evening to the delight of my sweet little nieces last month.
3. A Gift of Reason: "He's the only Reason I live, but oh, what a Reason!"
4. A Gift Heard: Lyle's voice.
5. A Second Gift Heard: The laughter of my children.
6. A Third Gift Heard: Joe's guitar at Bible Study.

More to come...

Not-Friday Fragments

When I'm not traveling it seems I blog in fragments these days. Oh, well... three more conventions to go, over the next three weekends, and then I'll be done for the season.

I'll be flying to Omaha tomorrow morning. While I don't mind flying, it sure doesn't offer the "scope for the imagination" that road trips do. My flight is 5.5 hours long, though, so it should be relaxing to have that much down time. Okay, maybe "down time" isn't exactly the right phrase for a flight, but you know what I mean! I'll take my Kindle, and my MP3 player with an audio book to listen to (though not while I'm reading my Kindle), and some crocheting. Hopefully I can get an aisle seat to accommodate my long legs, and I'll be all set.

The next two weekends will be road trips to Boise and Seattle, so I'll have more pretty scenery pictures to share, I'm sure. In the meantime, we loved seeing a rainbow over our house yesterday at sunset.

We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday we had errands to run most of the day, but took time to have lunch with friends. On Sunday morning it was good to be back in church (after being on the road the previous two Sundays). Then we had other friends over later in the day to watch the Indy 500, which Lyle had recorded. On Monday we enjoyed a barbecue with a large group from our church. It was hosted by a family who lives about 80 miles away. As always, we enjoyed the drive. It drizzled on and off throughout the afternoon and evening, but it was still a fun time with good fellowship.

Our calendar is beginning to fill up with fun summer activities and busy work schedules. We still haven't been camping yet this year, so we are looking forward to getting out to the wilderness for a weekend before too long.

Hope your summer is off to a great start!

Natasha's Lambs

 "Would you like to come out and see the lambs?" she asked at church last Sunday.

You see, all winter I've been asking her, "Are you going to have lambs in the spring?"

Natasha has three pet ewes and all three were expecting "blessings" this spring. I looked forward to seeing pictures and reading about them on her blog, Day by Day. I mean, seriously, is there anything cuter than babies in the spring?

Sadly, one of the ewes lost her babies, but another one had twins, and third one a single-- so there are three babies. And when Natasha invited us to visit the lambs we jumped at the chance. Yesterday was a perfect day for it-- sunny and warm.

The sheep were in the orchard which is, of course, in bloom. Ah, spring! Curious, as many farm animals are, they were interested to see us coming along the lane.

Natasha introduced them to us. This mama is Sweet Pea. Her older daughter (born last year) is Maggie-- also known as the Nibblin' Lamb-- and her new baby is Katniss.

Emma, the white sheep, has twins, Amy and Rory. The babies decided it was time for a quick snack... and I have to tell you, a still picture does not do this moment justice. It is just adorable to watch the little lamb tails wag furiously as they nurse.

After a little while the sheep seemed to get comfortable with us being there in the orchard with them. Sweet Pea and Katniss snuffled on my feet. Later Maggie decided to try to take nibble! Which, of course, is how she got her nickname.

Just look at this sweet face! I could sit and watch the lambs all day, I think. Natasha says they're especially fun to watch in the morning when the lambs run and skip. They had settled down in the warm afternoon by the time we arrived, so we didn't get to see them gambol.

We wandered on down the lane to visit the other farm animals. Here Bob peeks around the barn at us. He's not sure it's worth leaving the shade to say hello.

 But Natasha finally coaxed him out. He's a dear ol' fellow. Age 22.

We finished up our tour by stopping by to see the Guard Llamas and Calvin-the-Pet-Ram. The Bonnie Dog was our escort for the duration of the tour. We had Cookie with us, and she and Bonnie seemed to enjoy getting acquainted.

It was a fun afternoon. I'm so glad Natasha invited us to stop by!

Today I'm Praying for...

...my father-in-law who had a stroke a few days ago.

...my uncle who is in the hospital.

...a friend's sister who lost her baby yesterday.

Join me?

St. Patrick's Tea

A few weeks ago my daughter decided she wanted to host a spring tea... just for fun! She has a special gift for hospitality and loves planning social events. After much thought and discussion, she decided on a St. Patrick's Day theme. The tea was yesterday.

Laura asked each of her guests to bring a treat to share that was either green or rainbow colored. We had a delectable selection to choose from... and most of it was naturally green, not food coloring. We enjoyed asparagus and swiss tarts, spinach roll-ups, green peppers, Waldorf salad, pistachio bread, pesto salad, kiwi, bananas dipped in (green) coconut, M&M cookies, and coconut M&Ms. Everything was delicious!

She also asked her guests to wear green... and a couple of them took it one step further and wore hats! She planned a couple of fun parlor games and made this adorable "Leprechaun pants" bag of "gold" as a prize.

After the scheduled festivities, we enjoyed visiting for the rest of the afternoon... and managed to finish off the coconut M&Ms.

It was a fun day with sweet friends!

Flower Arranging

Saturday morning Laura and I attended the monthly ladies meeting at church. Laura wasn't too sure she wanted to go, but when she found out that a friend of ours was going to be demonstrating flower arranging, she decided that sounded like fun. We were each supposed to bring a bud vase and a pair of scissors.

First, our friend (a former florist) showed how to arrange a dozen roses. I picked up several tips from her. She told us that roses need a fresh cut every time they are out of water because the stems "seals" back up within 10 seconds. So it's important to cut the stem right before you put them back in water. I had known you were supposed to cut them again, but I hadn't known about the "10 second rule" or understood why. She also showed us how to weave leaves of fern together to make a nice base for the arrangement. And then how to arrange 6 roses around the bottom of the arrangement, then 5 in the middle, and then one at the top with greenery as she went along, and  adding filler last.

After the demonstration we were all invited to make our own arrangement using one rose and whatever greenery and filler we wanted. It was interesting to me to see how different everyone's arrangements looked with just one rose. And it was fun to get to take our arrangements home with us.

Pray One for Another

This morning when I logged onto Facebook I noticed a status update from my longtime friend, Denise:

Such an encouraging way to start the day! 

As I read that I was reminded of a poem that Denise had sent me years ago when we were girlhood pen-pals. I know I saved it in my Quotes Journal. In fact, I think I saved the very sheet of pretty stationery she had copied it onto, in her beautiful handwriting. But do you think I could put my hands on a journal from 30-something years ago this morning? Of course not! (It is here somewhere, though, I'm pretty sure.)

I asked Denise if she remembered it. She didn't, but she was very interested in reading it again. I wracked my brain trying to remember the first line so I could Google it. It has taken me all day to think of it... but I finally have! 

So, Denise, this one's for you!

Pray One for Another 

by Marianne Farningham 

 I cannot tell why there should come to me 

A thought of someone miles and miles away, 

In swift insistence on the memory— 

Unless there be a need that I should pray. 

 Too hurried oft are we to spare a thought, 

For days together, of some friend away; 

Perhaps God does it for us, and we ought 

To read His signal as a call to pray. 

 Perhaps, just then, my friend has fiercer fight, 

Some overwhelming sorrow or decay 

Of courage; darkness, some lost sense of right; 

And so in case he needs my prayer, I pray. 

 Friend, do the same for me! If I unsought 

Intrude upon you on some crowded day, 

Give me a moment’s prayer, in passing thought; 

Be very sure I need it; therefore pray.

Valentine Banquet

Our church had a Valentine dinner for married and engaged couples last night. It was a lot of fun. Each table was set for four couples. We enjoyed visiting with the other couples at our table and getting to know them better.

The young people had set up a "photo booth" and passed out our pictures at the end of the evening. I thought that was pretty cool.

The dinner was delicious. During dessert we enjoyed a mini-concert by a 4-piece string ensemble made up of four siblings who are all 16 and under. They are amazing musicians.

After dinner the pastor and his wife had planned some "activities." They asked for 3 couples to volunteer (or be volunteered). We did not volunteer... but some friends at our table volunteered us... and so we were drafted. We haven't been going to this church all that long, so it was kind embarrassing to be the center of attention like that.

Two tables were set up at the front of the room. One for the 3 ladies... the other for the 3 men. Each table had 6 incomplete projects... half were traditionally "women's work" and the other half "men's work." The projects included: pounding nails into a board, using a socket set to screw bolts into a board, putting batteries into a flashlight, separating egg whites, threading a needle, and folding a fitted sheet. Each person had to complete two of the projects (one "woman" project and one "man" project). My responsibility was to separate the eggs and put the batteries in the flashlight and turn it on. Easy-peasy. I was glad I didn't have to pound the nails. I'm sure they probably would not have gone in straight. And I'm not sure I would have known how to use the ratchet, though I probably could have eventually figured it out. Lyle's jobs included threading a needle (and tying a knot in the end) and pounding the nails. He later told me he was glad he didn't have to separate the eggs. The goal was to see which team could complete the tasks fastest. The women ended up winning but only because the men's flashlight didn't work, I think.

In any case, the three couples who participated each got a gift. Ours is a $10 gift card to Post Falls Coffee Company. I decided that was worth being drafted!

The next activity involved blindfolded men putting their faces in a bowl of whipped cream to eat the cherry at the bottom of the bowl. I was glad we weren't drafted for that one.

The evening wrapped up with an inspiring message on marriage by a special speaker. It was a fun way to spend Valentines Day evening with my sweetheart.