Ninth Monday, 2011

It's an ordinary day.  No major excitement.  Except for the roaring wind outside, it's quiet.  A bit slow.  I welcome it, this first day in a week of less: less running, less teaching, fewer commitments.  It's a slow week sandwiched between some very full, busy, outward focused times.  I plan to attend to some projects that have been pushed aside and put off in the fullness of the days. 

Starting this week with thanksgiving...

1697.  Wind roaring outside just now*
1698.  Daffodils, forsythia - the yellows come first
1699.  Two afternoons to dig, rake, prune, weed
1700.  A first time visit to a friend's farm home
1701.  Lunch out with friends after church
1702.  Watching Joel play soccer
1703.  Hearing the goalie say he feels protected when Joel's in his position at center back
1704.  Sitting with Thomas and Kay in church
1705.  Anticipating new projects
1706.  Reading in the hammock
1707.  A tidied garden
1708.  A gift given for a new computer (thank you, thank you, thank you!)
1709.  Reading, singing, praying together at home
1710.  This morning's walk
1711.  The privilege of doing pre-marital counseling with couples together with Coty
1712.  Crisp apples, tart clementines, sweet dates
1713.  Thoughtful, insightful writing
1714.  Sweet time with my sister-in-law.
1715.  God's faithfulness and enabling to persevere
1716.  Waiting
1717.  Spring breaks and boys heading home before long!
1718.  Remembering a dear friend who went home four years ago yesterday

* That roaring wind reminds me of the first lines of Amy Carmichael's poem, posted four years ago as Linda was nearing her death. 

"Before the winds that blow do cease,
Teach me to dwell with Thy calm;
Before the pain has passed in peace,
Give me, my God, to sing a psalm.
Let me not lose the chance to prove
The fullness of enabling love.
O Love of God, do this for me:
Maintain a constant victory."

Surely, thanksgiving is one of the ways we dwell within His calm.  And this counting, a small chance to prove the fullness of His enabling love.

Fabric on the brain

and all over the house!  Down, too. Goose down. Floating everywhere and sticking to the carpet!

What a week we've had.  It's been an Appalachian Trail gear sew-a-thon with my sister-in-law, Laura, who will be hiking the entire AT, from Georgia to Maine, this summer.

Laura is a veteran backpacker.  She has decided preferences about gear, based on her years of experience, knowledge of what works and what doesn't, and what she likes.  And because she is short, she says, she can't find what she likes in a size that fits her form.

So, we made it.  Or took existing items and modified them.

We started with two Mountain Hardwear sleeping bags, opened the side seams and joined them to make a double bag.  We had to figure out how to handle the seam between the bags.  We sewed it with the seam allowance on the outside to eliminate bulk inside the bag and covered it at the end with a stripe of polyester fabric.  We were pretty pleased with the serendipitous color coordination!   

 

 

I learned a hard lesson about working with the thin nylon ripstop shell fabric and my sewing machine light.    Never, ever leave it on the sewing machine with the machine light on when you go to make dinner.  You can see what happened in the photo above.  While I was making curry, the light was melting a hole all the way through the bag.  Yikes!  

No problem for Laura.  She used some of the stripe fabric and some fiber fill and fashioned an insulated patch complete with embroidered embellishment.  Pretty sweet fix.

The bag above was probably the easiest of the projects.  It holds a water bladder that originally came in a ripstop bag from REI.  Now, not to dis REI because I do LOVE that store, but frankly, their bag was not very well made.  With usage, the opening around the spigot had frayed and the edge seams had begun to tear out with the weight of the full water bladder.  We made this little bag from nylon (thanks to Mary Jo's and a very kind employee who offered to go upstairs and bring out the new bolts of colorful nylon for us).

The bag has reinforced side seams and a ring of fabric on the inside to reinforce the hold where the spigot comes out.  We used nylon webbing for the handle.  I'm hoping Laura will got lots of years of use out of this bag.  I think the inside bladder will wear out long before the outer cover.

 No, we weren't rolling out the red carpet for the cat (see his silhouette against the French door).  This was the length of silk we bought to make an inner liner for the double sleeping bag.  It took a lot of careful figuring and measuring, but we Laura conquered the calculations and we succeeded in making a bag that fit the inner dimensions of the double sleeping bag beautifully.  It has two hoods and should provide a very light weight, soft layer of warmth that has, by the way, a gorgeous drape to it.

We also fashioned a liner out of a polyester blanket by folding and seaming it and installing zippers.  The third liner we made was fashioned from a length of very wide polyester quilted fabric lined with very lightweight lining silk.  This is the largest, bulkiest, but also potentially the warmest liner.  Laura was pretty pleased to learn how to put a binding on and lined the top edges of this quilted liner with leftover silk pieces.

 

Our workshop.  

My two machines stayed busy  for a week.  The little black Singer belonged to my grandmother and is perfect for straight stitching of any kind through any thickness of fabric.  It feeds really well. (I taught Coty and Laura about feed dogs).  Did you know that's what they're called.  I love the name!

Our last projects were modifying a pair of down booties, making them lighter and warmer by removing the cotton and foam bottom and replacing it with a double layer of down filled nylon taken from the jacket sleeves.  The rest of the jacket sleeves was used to make a pair of down socks, complete with, you guessed it, a silk binding aroudnd the toes.  Laura thinks the binding looks like a smiley face and she's going to embroider eyes on the down socks.  Just for fun!

Here are the vest, booties, and down socks sitting atop the blanket liner.

And here's the creative design genius behind all this sewing, my sister-in -law, Laura, photographing the finished products.

We were pretty pleased with the fruit of our labor.  I can't wait to see how it all performs on the AT hike. Some of this gear will be traveling all the way from Maine to Georgia. (the various liners will be carried as needed and mailed back when it warms up).

Now that all that outdoor gear sewing is done, I'm all warmed up for more stitching.  I'm pretty tired of slippery fabrics, though, and am looking forward to getting my hands on some crisp, pretty cottons!

Wednesday walk

I've had fabric on the brain (and all over my sewing room and family room and two sewing machines humming for a week) so it's hard to think, much less write, about anything else.  But, I did go on another bird walk yesterday to the same place as last Wednesday.  This time, I went with the rest of my students who couldn't go last week, two of the moms, and my sweet sister-in-law, Laura (who is the cause of the fabric on the brain, but more on that in another post!).

We walked along the same section of Four Mile Creek Greenway as last week and though our species count was not as high, we saw some interesting sights.  We are still trying to figure out if the little bird Luke spotted was a wood thrush or an ovenbird.  None of us got a really great look at it, hidden as it was in the underbrush and moving as much as it did.

We saw a pair of red-shouldered hawks, lots and lots of cardinals, wrens, red-headed woodpeckers, male and female red-wing blackbirds, downy woodpeckers, mallards, yellow-rumped warblers, an Eastern phoebe and more.  We heard a barred owl calling.  When we were near the heron rookery, observing the herons perched atop their nests, my friend, Amber, exclaimed, "I feel like I am in some place exotic!"

Seeing those big old birds perched on their stick nests in the tops of the trees is something that does feels very special and sort of foreign.  What a treat that it's right in our backyard, so to speak.

Yesterday's walk has got me thinking about the greenways in our area.  According to the Meckenburg Department of Parks and Recreation, there are 33 miles of developed and 147 miles of undeveloped greenways in the county.  Wouldn't it be fun to walk all 180 miles of greenway over the course of the spring and summer.  I think I'll be hatching a plan.  Stay tuned...

Eighth Tuesday, 2011

On Sunday, we sang

"Ten thousand, thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ;
Nor is the least a cheerful heart
That tastes those gifts with joy."
                    from the hymn When All Thy Mercies by Joseph Addison (c1710)

Tasting with joy today...

warmth, delicious warmth with sun spilling across the kitchen
humming sewing machines
my sister-in-law, here for a week
backpacking sewing projects to figure out
the first daffodils blooming!
Lenten roses bursting into blossom, too
a new pool liner - come on spring and summer
laughter and fun at a church business meeting
co-op moms
quilt fabrics
color
little Jon's home from the hospital at last!


#1684- 1696

Wednesday walk 4

Today's walk was a two mile, two hour stroll with nine kids and three other adults.  Some of my field biology class went on a bird walk led by Ron Clark of the local Audubon Society.  We had the perfect day for it.  A little cool at the start but warming with the sun, clear, and still.

We saw great blue herons, golden-crowned kinglets, a hermit thrush, mallards, white-throated sparrows, yellow-rumped warblers, red-wing blackbirds, an Eastern phoebe, chickadees, titmice, blue jays, crows, grackles, a brown thrasher, cardinals, downy and red-headed woodpeckers, bluebirds, two pairs and one juvenile red-shouldered hawk, a Cooper's hawk, turkey vultures, Carolina wrens, song sparrows, a rufuos sided towhee, and a raccoon up in a tree. (I know that's not a bird, but it was interesting to see it so high up in the tree in the broad daylight!)

Probably the best part of the walk was watching the hawks.  At one point, we watched a male red-shouldered hawk breaking branches off of a tree and then flying away to his nest area.  Shortly after that, we spotted a juvenile red-shoulder perched on a snag about 12 feet up and only about 15 feet away from the path.  He just sat there and let us ooh and ahh over him.  Beautiful bird and good to see a young one and note the difference in coloring with the older birds.  A little later we saw another red-shoulder flying with something in his talons.  We assumed it was nesting material until Ron spotted where the hawk had landed in a tree across the marsh.  With binoculars we could see that the hawk was eating a frog!  Finally, we spotted another red-shoulder on his nest.  It was a morning of red-shoulders!

Our guide, Ron, was an expert at identifying birds by sound.  We stopped frequently to listen and he would say, "Hear that?" (and then give us a description of what to listen for) "It's a ........"  We usually saw the bird we'd heard, but the one that eluded our view was the brown headed nuthatch.  We heard him several times but never caught a glimpse.

I was so proud of my students today.  A couple of them are real birders and know waaaaay more than me.  They carried on a lively conversation with Ron, spotting birds and discussing field marks, habits, and habitat.  For those that are less experienced or knowledgeable, it was a morning of discovery.

Once again, I am pleased that when my kids sit down to write their exams in a week, they'll have experienced and observed some of what they've learned in class.  When they get ready to write about territorial and breeding behavior, they'll remember those hawks.  When they think about habitat, they'll see in their mind's eye the marsh and stream, the open woodlands, and brushy undergrowth and remember which birds we saw in each place.

And I have two new birds to add to my growing list.  The Golden-crowned kinglet (below) and hermit thrush were new sitings for me! 

photo from allaboutbirds.org

One thoughtful man

OK, my husband is one thoughtful man.  I told you yesterday how he warms up the bed for me. He knows me.  He knows how much I dislike being cold.  So, he heads upstairs before me, brushes his teeth, and crawls in on my side of the bed.  Usually.

After writing that post last night, I went upstairs fully expecting to see him curled up under the covers on my side.  It was Valentine's Day, after all, right!  But, no. He was on his side of the bed.  Reading.

I thought about mentioning the post to him and making a little joke. Instead, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and got on my pj's.  By the time I got done and walked in the bedroom, there he was, on my side.  He knew how long it would take me to get my  "stuff" done.  He probably knows down to the tenth of a second.  He's like that, with numbers and timing and accuracy.  He was on my side in plenty of time to get it warm. 

He knows me, he does.

Today, I found out about a retreat I would love to attend.  I sent Coty a message just mentioning it to him.  I wasn't even sure it was really a possibility for me to go. Then I went out and ran errands and had tea with a friend.  When I got home a couple of hours later, there in my inbox was a receipt for the conference registration fee.  That man had gone online, read about the conference, and signed me up on the spot.

Like I said, he is one thoughtful man.  And I am one very thankful woman.

On this Valentine's Day...

Two links for you.

One by Ann.  One by Tonia.  Both made me cry.  Both spoke of the sacrificial love of Ephesians 5 that characterizes marriages with Christ right at the very center.


 

Seventh Monday, 2011

I started reading Ann's book this week.  I am more encouraged than ever in this chronicling of God's specific gifts.  He is not a generalist.  He doesn't just give food.  He gives butternut squash and ripe red strawberries, hearty whole grain bread and spicy ginger, all of which I enjoyed tonight for dinner. I am grateful.

Tonight, I also give thanks for:

- worship at the hospital with church friends
- a little one who's been through so much in his young life already, still smiling
- my mama's beautiful old wool coat
- sunshine and warmth
- a great meal with friends
- my sewing machine
- old clothes - repurposed
- company coming - again! 
- sweet gifts and a sweet day with my friend, Carla
- cooking for my guys
- sun and warmth and the feel of spring
- friends who are willing to drive a very long way to bring Matthew home in March!
- knitted hats

On this Valentine's Day - and every day - I'm also very, very thankful for the man I married.  He is tender, intelligent, quiet, thoughtful, wise, diligent, disciplined, forgiving and forbearing.

But that is a general list.  Here is one very specific thing for which I am thankful.  In the winter, he usually gets in bed before I do.  He deliberately lies down on my side of the bed.  When I crawl under the covers, he slides over to the cold side so that I can be enveloped in warmth. One of the happy moments of each night is that moment when I feel the warm sheets around me and his warm body next to mine.  I lay my arm across his chest and breathe a sigh of contentment and rest.  Thank you, sweetheart, for warm sheets and warm love.

God's gifts are good.  Very, very good.

#1669-1683

Wednesday walk(s) 3

Today was a two walk day.  This morning, I met Amber early.  The sky was dark.  When cars passed us along the road with their headlights on, I was glad for the reflective stripe on my jacket.

When I drive in the dark and come upon a walker suddenly, not having seen him til I am almost upon him, I remind myself to wear something light, something reflective, something people will see.  You should do that, too, if you walk in the dark.  Better yet, wear a headlamp.  That's your walker's tip #1 for the day.

Our walk was a brisk 2.5 miles in the chilly morning air.  The radio said 28 degrees when I left home.  Besides my jacket with reflector stripe, I was wearing a wool hat and mitts, so I was plenty warm.  When it's cold, wear wool on your head and hands.  It keeps you warm, even if it gets a little wet.  That's your walker's tip #2 for the day.

I love the easy way conversation with a close friend just flows when you walk together.  As usual, we touched on a variety of topics.  I always head home from my walks with Amber feeling encouraged and very often, inspired.  She's that kind of friend.

Today she told me about Sepp Holzer and his permaculture methods. Way back when, a very long time ago, after I was married but BK (Before Kids), I worked in an organic research garden in Palo Alto, California, with sustainable agriculture and biointensive farming pioneer, John Jeavons.  Hearing about Holzer reminded me of the work of Jeavons and many like him around the world who are approaching issues of hunger and a healthy food supply with local, small-scale, thoughtful, creative, viable solutions.  I'm looking forward to watching the Sepp Holzer videos online.  Here, here, and here.

As I drove home, thinking about farming and terraces and growing citrus in the Alps, I was treated to a stunning sunrise.  Down in the eastern corner of the horizon, the sun reflected brilliant orange on low clouds.  Higher up, hues of pink and peach were splashed on cotton wool clouds.  It was a lovely end to a good morning walk.

This afternoon, the sun was shining and I felt pulled outside to walk again. I haven't done much mileage lately, so I decided to go 5 (actually 5.3).  One of the reasons I like walking better than running (aside from the fact that running kills my joints) is that I can talk on the phone.  OK, I know that's not really in the spirit of getting outdoors and enjoying the fresh air, etc., etc., but I was talking to my sweet son, Andrew.

I heard about his French test, his roommates, his desire for a nap instead of his afternoon job.  I'm glad he was going to his job, though.  At his tutoring job at an after-school center,  a little smart mouth kid with an attitude who doesn't want to do homework because she's never been given loving guidance at home because her mom is either on drugs or in jail needed to be told to do her math this afternoon and then patiently shown how multiplying and dividing are sort of the same thing, just backwards.  Anyway, that's the kind of thing he does a couple of times a week.  It's quite often frustrating, I know. I told him I hoped something would happen at the center this afternoon that would make him smile, make him glad he'd gone and not stayed in his room and taken that nap.  And I hope he made a little difference in someone's life this afternoon.

By the time we finished talking, I'd walked a mile.  I passed the German shepherds that bark at me and run to the very edge of their invisible fence daring me to cross it.  Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I did.  Would they eat me?  If I wasn't confident in how well they are trained, I might be a little fearful as I walk by. But they are clearly very well trained and I love seeing those beautiful dogs. I tell them what great dogs they are every time I walk by.

At mile 2.5, I saw a crow on the tip top of a sycamore tree.  He was a black silhouette against a rapidly clouding sky.  Corvus brachyrhynchos, if any of my students happen to read this!

By mile 4, the sky so clear blue when I started, was completely clouded over, as if a layer of quilt batting had been spread across it.  Snow clouds, says the weatherman.

From mile 1 on, I listened to two more chapters of Wives and Daughters.  Here's a little selection I particularly enjoyed.  I love the way the Squire describes his son, Roger, a lover of all things out of doors:

'Look at that!' [the Squire] said, as they suddenly came upon the mere, or large
pond. There was a small island in the middle of the glassy water, on
which grew tall trees, dark Scotch firs in the centre, silvery
shimmering willows close to the water's edge. 'We must get you punted
over there, some of these days. I'm not fond of using the boat at this
time of the year, because the young birds are still in the nests among
the reeds and water-plants; but we'll go. There are coots and grebes.'

'Oh, look, there's a swan!' [said Molly].

'Yes; there are two pair of them here. And in those trees there is both
a rookery and a heronry; the herons ought to be here by now, for
they're off to the sea in August, but I have not seen one yet. Stay! is
not that one--that fellow on a stone, with his long neck bent down,
looking into the water?'

'Yes! I think so. I have never seen a heron, only pictures of them.'

'They and the rooks are always at war, which does not do for such near
neighbours. If both herons leave the nest they are building, the rooks
come and tear it to pieces; and once Roger showed me a long straggling
fellow of a heron, with a flight of rooks after him, with no friendly
purpose in their minds, I'll be bound. Roger knows a deal of natural
history, and finds out queer things sometimes. He would have been off a
dozen times during this walk of ours, if he'd been here; his eyes are
always wandering about, and see twenty things where I only see one.
Why! I have known him bolt into a copse because he saw something
fifteen yards off--some plant, maybe, which he would tell me was very
rare, though I should say I'd seen its marrow at every turn in the
woods; and, if we came upon such a thing as this,' touching a delicate
film of a cobweb upon a leaf with his stick, as he spoke, 'why, he
could tell you what insect or spider made it, and if it lived in rotten
fir-wood, or in a cranny of good sound timber, or deep down in the
ground, or up in the sky, or anywhere. It is a pity they don't take
honours in Natural History at Cambridge. Roger would be safe enough if
they did.'

I'm really enjoying this book. (Thanks, Abby).

Two walks. Almost 8 miles. That's all.  Thanks for rambling along with me.

Sixth Tuesday, 2011

Tonight, I am grateful for ...

1659. attentive students
1660. good questions
1661. plans made
1662. the opportunity to share something I love with my students
1663. hearing their excitement as they describe their experiences with our ongoing project
1664. a generous friend with a printer and laminating machine - my students are the beneficiaries

1665. going visiting with my husband...
1666. who is now cleaning up the mess I made in the kitchen

1668. Lenten roses, starting to bloom

Simple meal plans: Follow the Book #4

Raw Beet Salad

over here...

Simple meal plans: Follow the Book #3

Red Taters and Green Grannies

over here...

Wednesday walk 2

I didn't have my Wednesday morning walk with Amber today because our friend, Jenn, was still here and heading to the airport this morning.

So, I delayed my walk til the afternoon.  It was mild today and sunny.  Lovely afternoon for a walk. 3 miles around the neighborhood listening to a couple of chapters of Wives and Daughters.

All of you friends and family enduring the snowstorms and frigid temps, I remember.  I lived in New England for 13 years and spent a January in Minneapolis.  I've not forgotten the cold. But I am quite glad to live now in a place where a light jacket will do and daffodils are up a few inches by Groundhog Day!  I hope Phil was right and spring is on the way.

For those of you for whom this photo is tormenting, I apologize.  I really do remember dressing in 17 layers, loving my LLBean mucky-muck boots, glorious sledding, and the sound of snow plows in the middle of the night.  If you'd rather look at more snow pictures, I recommend these from up near where we used to live.

I just had to post that picture, though.  When it is 99 degrees with 99% humidity here this summer, you may gloat.  Meanwhile, enjoy your snow and I'll keep my eyes out for the first yellow swellings to appear atop those daffy stems! 

Simple meal plans: Follow the Book #2

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos ... over here.

Fifth Monday

Sometimes connections are just amazing!  I sat at a restaurant tonight with a dear friend and her very dear friend she'd met when they worked in China together.  I knew her friend because he is a friend of good friends of mine and somehow we made the connection that he had worked with my friend when he lived in China and worked for the same branch of government that she did.  Are you confused?  It does seem a little crazy.  As we sat in the restaurant together, they remarked more than once how amazing it was to be sitting in a restaurant in Charlotte - connecting through our family - when the last time they had seen each other was in China.  Like I said, sometimes connections are just amazing!

Tonight I am praising and thanking God for the way he weaves our lives and connects us - across time and distance.

1650.  Jenn, here from China, reconnecting with dear friends
1651.  Ashley, who visited from Minneapolis
1652.  Kevin, from Arizona
1653.  an out of the blue phone call from a Kenyan woman last week - and the connections that were discovered there
1654.  reconnecting with college friends
1655. Abby, Grace, Kandyce, Jonathan - I love how these children of ours have connected in the years since Teresa and I met while speaking together to a group of homeschool moms.  Who'd have thunk it?  That the connections would extend as they have - over time and vast geography.
1656.  phone calls and facebook chats with missionary mom friends in Bolivia and China last week
1657.  "word of mouth" recommendations
1658.  skype tea parties with Erin, Clara, and assorted stuffed animal friends!