Thursday, April 24, 2014

Rainy Day In April

                           Good Things                              




                                                                     
Grab a cup of coffee and sit down to read the whole book of I John  today if you have a minute. If the negative feels more real than the positive; then you need this reading.  If your brother is frustrating you; then you should find the solution right here. If you have been muddling in discontentment and griping, and you are tired of it; you can change that today.
 

Abide in the Son. Love your brother. Walk in Light. It is funny (scary and dangerous) how we so often think that while we ferret out the errors in another, we believe we are being discerning even though we are doing anything but agape-ing him in the process. It is the worst kind of blindness.




Tuesday, April 22, 2014

I Prefer China

 

    Feedback about our new kitchen shelves has been interesting.  I should have expected it but I realize that I am so pleased with the materializing of  my dreams that I am still startled when the "practical" questions are asked, "Won't you get tired of cleaning the dusty dishes?"
    Scenes of Sunday dinner tables set in china and glittering glass and silverware, laden heavy with  honest meat and taters dishes, presented beautifully in china and glass service, come to mind. Our mothers and grandmothers invested considerable planning, effort and thought into a carefully set table and tastefully prepared food. After a long week of dirty, mundane farm chores and garden work or winter sewing messes, a clean house and a pretty table was a delightful comfort of beauty and provision. We all remember.
     Then they made paper plates.  And we started grilling and having picnics.  On a mere whim we could throw in plates and cups and hotdogs and eat on the run off the tailgate by a campfire. It is fun and quick and nobody has to do dishes. We love it. Even the mom has time to tramp in the woods, take a few pictures, and wade in the stream now, because what is easier than throwing the plates and cups on the embers?
      This was "all fine and good" until they started setting the Sunday dinner table with paper plates. Now that is a travesty!  I think the point is to not have to wash dishes.  Why ever not wash dishes? I remember the parade of finely dresses women on a Sunday afternoon, white tea towels and steaming glassware in hand, visiting and laughing, carrying china and glasses carefully back to the cupboard to rest in gleaming rows till next Sunday. A certain kind of visiting happens over dishwater and tea towels. Things that men and children are not meant to know or hear. Tears and triumphs are shared over dishwater. Sisters learn to harmonize while doing the dishes. We miss so much when we use paper plates!
    So in changing my kitchen to open shelving I am hoping to celebrate Clark's statement at the dinner table one day. One of the girls bringing the desert asked, "Do we want clean bowls?" Clark answered the question nicely, "I perfer china."
    Let's not be lazy home makers. We should continue the  tradition  and serve a nice meal on china plates regularly. Everyone needs a break from dirt and sorrow and the common problems of life. Washing the dishes should be a balm to the soul of any home maker is my belief. Why not make even the food and dishes in our lives part of the art of homemaking. Celebrate home and family every single day.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Easter Sunday Afternoon

 We spent the day at Dru's/Lance's house. For the first time we had real short-sleeve weather.  I went out the door to look at the weather after lunch and the children spilled out the door right behind me, happily enjoying the warm pavement under their bare feet.  Of course, the parents made them put on shoes when we took our walk.
 All the water ways are busily whooshing along with muddy, foamy roarings that fascinate all of us.

The babies, Jubilant and Bendick, found a little left over snow pile to support a snowball fight. Rather than get all "hepped" up about them becoming kind men and the dynamics of fair play or not, I sat on the step and enjoyed a rousing, laughing, innocent throwing snow at each other.  Oh yeah, I know, it can get carried away too quickly, but this one lasted only a couple of minutes. Gotta love Benny hugging his little teddy while he plays! Don't be fooled, though, he packs plenty of boy! Next they put snow in their shirts pockets to "save the snow from melting" and immediately realized this wasn't possible. I have a video of that part of the play.  I'm guessing that after this the two moms are going to remember to pack extra clothes for these guys. I get to watch and enjoy. This is great!

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Kitchen Redo Progress Report


Part One Kitchen Redo

    This project has been long anticipated. My family has been very supportive and helpful and patient with me.  So this week we began.  



 My dreams of white bead board walls are fulfilled in wall paper and paint.


 Elv listened patiently to my brainstorms and to my delight liked them. He "sacrificed" some white oak boards that he had slated for a trailer project. Elv, Lance, and Brad helped with planing them. I varnished them. And Elv hung them.  The only fly in the ointment is that in this crooked old house, having them level made them look...not level. But by the time I had everything on the shelving, we aren't noticing whether they are level or not.


















(The last few pictures are from Clark's camera.)  So that is just the top half of the kitchen done.  Next we will tackle the window and the lower cabinets. Elv would like to change the counter top to our own home crafted wooden counter top sometime this summer. So far, I am enjoying this project immensely.  I expect wooden counter top to be a very satisfying adventure for us.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Another Easter Verse







...buried with Him in baptism in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Another Easter Verse

Romans 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life



Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The Veiw From My Living Room Chair

                                 April 8,2014 Buck Mountain Cabin

       I am collecting Easter verses these days before Easter.
I Peter 1:3,4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the  resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

A Visit With Mom

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 When we go to visit Mom we like to make sure we take Brad with us. At 88 years old, she figures no one is going to notice if she plays favorites. So whereas she professes to be glad to see the rest of us; we are definitely just filler in her bouquet for the day. Brad is who she really wishes to see.  He likes  her too, so it is a good deal no matter how you look at it. When I am old there will be one person who will enjoy my repeated stories and need for a hand getting out of my chair. "You do it just perfectly, Brad!" She crowed proudly upon being lifted effortlessly out of her chair by this strapping grandson. He loves the praise, too, don't kid yourself.
      There was not a thing we could say to her about how disappointing it was that she would not wear her newly acquired hearing aids for us. So we smiled bravely and resumed our yelling to be heard. She takes her prerogatives on the merest whim. It is absolutely amazing to me. I cannot wait to be 88 years old. I have finally realized how fun this could be, after all.

 Mom has a wall collage of wedding portraits of all the ancestors in our family. I stand there during every visit just looking at them. Every couple has a story.  A good biographer could do a series of books and carry along a main thread of family, home, and commitment in marriage.  The stories of service in war, the days of The Depression, the elopement of a couple of teenagers, the lives of two different children raised as only children, homesteading stories, triumphs and losses really need to be recorded.
This first picture is of Elv's parents. Our June bride's face looks much like this bride, Louise's, here. Resemblances/roots.

 The teenagers in the middle here are Ben and Abbey Hershey trying for all their might to look grown up and ready for this thing called married life. We know of not one moment of regret. They were plunged into real life immediately. Ben served on a munitions train shoveling coal into the steam engine boiler and when the Spanish flu hit, his wife and wee baby girl were sick and alone in the city far away from his work. Somehow he managed to get word to her and to his Uncle Sol that she was to go to find refuge and care with the uncle.  People died right and left including the fireman partner shoveling coal one night. Ben stepped over the body and worked alone the rest of the night.

 I looked long at Great Grandma Hershey's wedding gown. Just how many yards goes into such a frock? I am guessing there would be close to fifteen yards there.  Hoops and a trim bodice closed with a couple dozen pretty buttons. The full length sleeve that fits so exactly is a wonder, as well. No doubt Abbey's gown for her wedding was adequately beautiful with the full lace collar. And her hairstyle must have been easier then her mother's judging from the picture below.



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