MONDAY, MONDAY …

My Monday is extremely b.u.s.y. today – there is LOT going on.

And I’m okay with that.

I need to stay busy and keep my mind occupied with things in the present.

And tonight is Craft Meet night ... I can unwind as my yarn unwinds and my project takes shape. So around 6:30 p.m. tonight, the busyness will start to wind down :-D

Early this morning I had to run into town to drop something off, so while I was downtown I made several stops at various stores to make purchases I have been putting off – it is still hard for me to do things without Bob being beside me. We did everything together for so long that I just can’t work up the want to do what we used to do together … but after watching the birds time and time again over the months come to the empty feeder and fly off with a WTHeck look on their faces – and at least 1 bird family is being set up in the birdhouse, I decided today was the day to face what needs to be done and then DO IT.

So I did.

First off after dropping off the papers that catapulted me into town in the first place, I stopped at Winco to grab some groceries – and walked out with more than intended; oh well, I needed to do stockpile shopping anyway. Today was as good a day as any.

Then, with the backend of the car practically dragging, I drove across the border and nipped into Wilco where I bought a variety of bird seed to satisfy every disgruntled bird that has been on a starvation diet at our pad since October … I have been feeling guilty because they have literally been singing for their Supper and I have been ignoring them: that was not very nice of me since they faithfully serenade me with soothing tunes. But they will be well fed and happy tonight ;-)

Car sufficiently stocked with provisions for me and my feathered friends, I whisked over to the grocery warehouse by the airstrip airport and spent way too much there too; I only intended to nip some freezer bags, but came out with cookathon containers – which really are needed. I enjoy cooking, and I need to clean last year’s harvest out of the freezer to make way for this year’s bounty: and I want to get to the butcher in Yelm too, to restock the meat provisions; which Bob and I would have done already. Yelm is a 2 hour trip 1 way, so it will be pretty much an all day event when I get to it - and I will be doing it solo this year; I need to be sure I can get there and back without having a meltdown. Not quite ready to do it on my own yet … but soon.

If I say that out loud enough it may actually get done.

Anyway.

Getting back to “in the present” happenings of today …

Recrossing the border and driving Industrial Way heading home the long way home, I realized that with all the moohlah I dropped at Winco earlier I still forgot the eggs! So I nipped into Wal*Mart – and came out with 7 skeins yarn too (not on sale; this was Wal*Mart, not Joanne's). To justify the expenditure I really do have to make hospital shoulder shawls for the cancer ward: I made a lot of baby and child things through February and March, and now it is time to make adult items.

That is my justification and I’m sticking to it.

If there is time at Craft Meet tonight after I put the edging on the Pink n’ Purple Lapghan, I will start on a variegated blue shoulder shawl for a male. It may sound strange, but male patients actually use shoulder shawls when the chills start, so I want to make a type of prayer shawl wrap a male will feel comfortable using, and one light enough that it won’t cause them discomfort due to weight issues.

After I got back home and the groceries were put away, I got busy sterilizing all the bird seed so it won’t sprout under the feeder; it is an aching pain in the lower back to pick the growth out of the lava rock once it gets established – and the famous and constant PNW rains always seem to help that chore along. So, this year I am solving that problem before it has a chance to catch fire.

As soon as I had some cooled seed buffet mixes, I filled the feeder ... and noted how shabby the front steps are looking - the previous owners did not use quality paint when they painted the house, and the construction crew that remodeled the kitchen in 2017 after we purchased this house tore the stairs up hauling kitchen appliances in and out: if for no other reason, the stairs alone would be what Candy would focus on when she does her maintenance walkaround this month. Bob and I already knew we would have to paint the house sooner rather than later, so I am glad Shaun will be coming around the end of the month to paint the exterior of our home - I kinda beat Candy to the punch on this issue ;-)

After the constant busyness of this Monday, I am sooooo looking forward to the Craft Meet tonight where I can actually sit for a little while and do nothing but relax with my crafts and listen to the chatter of the other crafters ;-)

I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT

I am up at the ungodly hour of 4:29 a.m. this morning because I had too much to dream last night.

It was a beautiful dream.

It was a painful dream.

I woke up in a cold sweat.

Missing my husband.

Facing the finality of a physical death in the stark cold dawn ...

COWBOY COOKIES Recipe

I love cookies, and I love cowboys. So this recipe is the perfect cookie for me :-D

I make these cookies using an ice cream scoop to drop them on the baking sheet. That significantly decreases the output, but to me it is worth it to have a larger cookie ;-) An ice cream scoop will make about 4 dozen cookies – significantly smaller output than the original recipe promises.

If you stick to the recipe, you will get a larger batch of smaller sized cookies.

COWBOY COOKIES Recipe ~ Makes 11 dozen cookies

2 c. sifted Flour * 1 tsp. baking Soda * ½ tsp. Salt * ½ tsp. Baking Powder * 1 c. Shortening * 1 c. granulated Sugar * 1 c. Brown Sugar (firmly packed) * 2 Eggs * 2 c. rolled Oats * 1 tsp. Vanilla * 1 pkg. semisweet Chocolate Chips

Sift flour, soda, salt, and baking powder together; set aside.

Blend shortening and sugars together:

Add eggs – beat until light and fluffy.

Add flour mixture, oats, vanilla, and chips. Blend well:

Dough will be crumbly. Drop by teaspoons onto greased baking sheet:

I baked a dozen, and put the rest in the freezer to solidify before bagging/freezing them in dozen size portions for future enjoyment.

If you use an ice cream scoop be sure to space the cookies pretty far apart on the baking sheet – they will spread.

Bake at 350-degrees for 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

THUNDERBUMPERS

 This morning I woke up feeling ambitious, and a little repentant too, so I called my sister Iris just to see how she is doing, say "Hi - I love you", and to get the call into action before my day got away from me again. I had been meaning to call her for the past 2 weeks, but life crowded that out with the plumber and construction stuff going on and the guys coming and going whenever they pleased with no set schedule - kinda puts a kabash on your days and forces you to put everything else on a back burner while you sit around twiddling your thumbs hoping they show: sometimes they do, more often than not, they don't. But what are you gonna do? You wait. And wait; and wait some more before they finally show and do the jobs they were hired weeks ago to do.

And most currently I intended to call her Wednesday, but my ex-SIL, who is still a close friend, and her cousin Pam, who is also an old friend, schemed to get me out of the house and back into the social world ... and that ate up Wednesday. But it was necessary, and it was a fun time.

Yesterday, as soon as I woke up and poured my 1st cup of coffee, I set to work plotting my garden bed plantings, and that literally took all day. I do rotation gardening because I do organic gardening - no pesticides, no 'extra' anythings ... just garden soil, seeds and/or organic transplants, and soil building practices. I have gardened this way for 40 years, and it works for me. I also do companion planting, so my garden beds are planned very carefully and charted every year. It is time consuming, but having a healthy and productive garden is worth it. This is what I charted for this season; the seeds and transplants have been ordered, and as soon as they start arriving the plans will be set in motion.

And our grave stones arrived yesterday - Bob's being set in place in August. So yesterday was not a good day to call anyone; I was on shaky ground most of yesterday anticipating the emotional upheaval of the stones' arrival ...

But this morning, before I even got out of bed, I reached for the phone and called Iris. I like Iris - I have known about her most of my life, but it wasn't until recently that I have been able to actually talk to her and get to know her: this would make Bob happy for me because I have talked about her and wondered about her our entire married life. If Bob were here, he would be happy that we are finally connecting. And it goes without mentioning, that I am extremely happy :-D My youngest sister did a 23andme DNA test this winter and Iris popped up as sister ... so Carla immediately called me and said, "Are you sitting down?" And I said, "Should I be?" Then she said, "I found her! I found Iris." And one thing led to another, and now we are communicating. I have never had an older sister before - I have always been the oldest sister in my immediate family, so this is kinda exciting for me as well as an answer to prayer ;-)

After Iris and I were finished shooting the breeze, I heard the birds happily chirping and noticed the bright sunshine streaming in through the livingroom windows as I came down the hallway, so I put coffee on while I dressed. Then grabbing a cup of coffee and heading outdoors, I got busy cleaning up the breezeway under the carport so that when the guys come to paint the exterior of the house in a few weeks I will not be running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get it done in a few hours; this morning I took my time neatly moving stuff into the shed ... another thing I didn't get to this Fall because I refused to leave Bob in the hospitals alone - he took precedence over home maintenance as far as I am concerned. And Candy can be damned.

Anyway.

Today the breezeway got cleaned, stuff got put away, and/or rearranged - like the garden cages that will be put to use before the house painting gets under way, so they stayed where they were and will be out of the way in a week or so.

And while I was puttering around, I repotted my miniature rose bushes that I didn't get to the last 2 years because the year 1 flew by with interior remodeling eating up the time; we weren't home a a lot due to the dust which played hell with my asthma - we spent most of that year holed up in a hotel waiting for the house to get done. And anyone reading my Blog knows what happened last summer - which ended with my husband's death.

But the Mini Roses got repotted this morning - with returning geese honking and winging their way home across the sky overhead; as well as the yellow Parrot Tulips; and the Chrysanthemums I thought were truly dead (aside from being set out last Fall before Bob went into hospitals, they got NO attention at all - not even a quick watering) delighted me with unexpected new growth that was hidden under the thick leaf mulch - so they got cleaned up too instead of being trashed.

The yellow mini rose that Bob gave me needed severe pruning back, so I pray I did not kill it! That would kill me, I'm sure ...

Those tasks done, I pulled my over-wintered Geraniums from under the front porch (where they normally line the stairs and porch railing Spring & Summer) and started cleaning those up by pulling dead leaves, clipping dead growth, and refreshing the potting soil:

But when it was time to water everything repotted and refreshed, the water faucet started freaking out! So I shot a brief video of it and zipped it off to Alex to see if we can fix it ourselves - or do I need to call plumber Bob again.

Getting this house up to speed is gonna bankrupt me ...

Well, I had to use the faucet; leaking like a breached Dam or not, to water my over-wintered plants, so a LOT of water was wasted - but what's a gal to do? The plants needed water ...

And not even 20 minutes later thunderbumpers showed up:

And hail followed.

So I pulled my tender-shoot-rejuvenating geraniums back from the slashing ice balls ...

The hail viciously pelted everything for about half an hour before it stopped and rain began. 

With the steady falling rain, this would be a good time to have my rain barrels hooked back up, but that is not going to happen until the house is painted the end of April/first of May :-(

GRATEFUL FOR OLD FRIENDS

I am so thankful for old friends that stick through the thin or thick of life.

I knew of Cheryl and Pam in school in Cathlamet … they are both several years older than I am, so I only saw them in passing.

When I married my husband in 1974, I got to know Cheryl and Pam: Cheryl was Bob’s SIL and Pam is her cousin, and was at Cheryl and Ralph’s house a lot. All of our kids are roughly the same age – Cheryl’s girls – Denise, is 3 years older than our daughter, and Brenda was born 2 weeks before our daughter was born; Pam’s son, Spencer, is 6 months older than our daughter. They all went to school together until life paths’ took unplanned turns and we all drifted apart. Periodically we would all converge again at various points in our busy lives and at various locations around Longview we all happened to be at times.

But each time our busy lives converged and we ran into each other, it was like time had stood still and we picked up where we had left off.

After Bob left this planet, Cheryl and Pam refused to leave me alone with my thoughts and upturned life – they faithfully came to visit me, and Cheryl called every day – even though I has specifically told everyone that I wanted time alone for a while. They were not intrusive … just loving. And I was not even aware that I needed what they were giving. But they were aware: they were not strangers to the kind of grieving that only death can bring. I, on the other hand had always avoided death; but I could not avoid my husband’s physical death. And they would not allow me to live in my head. They gently and lovingly prodded me back to life. When my birthday arrived 15 days after Bob’s graduation to a higher level of life, and 4 days following the bleakest Christmas ever, Cheryl and Mike stopped by briefly to bring me a box of home-baked goodies that tasted heavenly and soothed my broken heart – Pam sent her love with them to ferry to me.

Yesterday they pulled me back into a social life for 4-1/2 hours … quietly and small scale, but so necessary, and so welcome. Again, I didn’t know I needed it. But they knew. And I am grateful.

I am grateful for friends that never give up when the going gets rough.

I am grateful for friends that give love so unselfishly and so abundantly.

I am grateful for old friends that share my memories and are not afraid to speak my husband’s name openly and freely for fear they might make me cry – I may always cry when memories prick my thoughts, but I want people to say Bob’s name out loud.

I am grateful for friends who remind me that life goes on – especially an interrupted life.

I am grateful for friends that understand feeling alone when I am surrounded by friends is okay: they “get it”. And it doesn’t make them uncomfortable or twitchy.

I am grateful that Elohim brought us together so many decades ago, and keeps us together through all the twists and turns of our lives to date.

Good friends are hard to come by – steadfast friends are a rarity and a true blessing.

I pray I am worthy and can, in turn, be a blessing to them.

PINK/PURPLE GRANNY LAPGHAN SQUARES

I have been working on these colorful squares for a few days, and today I am going to piece them together in rows.

I don’t know if I will get the entire lapghan pieced together before Sunday, but I am going to give it a good try ;-)

And at Monday’s Craft Meet, I will finish it up with a cheery yellow edging. All together, and finished, this lapghan should be pretty bright and cheerful.

The perfect donation item for a dreary hospital setting :-D I will post a pic of the finished item later on.

I am using the same squares’ design as the previous lapghan I recently finished, but again – I am putting them together in my own design so the square count in MOD PINK/PURPLE GRANNY LAPGHAN will not be the same as the square count/placement in this original pattern; I am using only the square stitches in my lapghan squares because it is light and airy – perfect for Spring: https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/03/mod-jade-flower-granny-square-lapghan.html

THE BOOK OF ROMANS ~Chapter 12

Brethren, I urge you, therefore, because of Elohim’s compassion, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy an acceptable to Elohei. That would be a reasonable service. Do not live according to the fashions of the times, but be transformed from within by the renewing of your minds. Try to prove in practice what is the will of Elohei, and what is good, acceptable and perfect.

Through the grace that has been given me, I want to tell each of you not to think too highly of himself, but rather to be sober minded and to judge himself by the amount of Faith that Elohim has given him.  In a body there are many parts, and all those parts do not have the same work to do. So also in the Church, though we are many, we form 1 body in Mashiach, each one of us being a part of the whole and mutually dependent on the other parts. Each one of us, then, is different and has special talents according to the grace that was given to us. If, for example, our gift is prophecy, let us use it according to the measure of our faith. Or if the gift is some ministry, then faithfulness in that ministry is required; if it is teaching, then this talent must be used. IN the same way, the speaker must exhort, the giver must give without display, the office-holder must be faithful, and the charity-worker must do his work with cheerfulness.

Let your love be sincere. You must abhor what is wicked and hold fast to what is good. Be affectionate towards one another in brotherly love, each one eager to show honor to another. Don’t let your zeal slow down; be afire with The Ruach; serve Adonai Yeshua. Rejoice in your hope; be steadfast in time of trouble; keep on praying. Help the saints in their need; always practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you. Do not curse them, but bless them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony together. Avoid being haughty; mingle with the lowly; don’t be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil; do what is right in the sight of all men.

Friends, do not seek revenge, but let Elohei handle it, for it is written, “Vengeance belongs to Me, and I will repay, says Adonai.” But rather do this – feed your enemy if he is hungry; give him something to drink if he is thirsty. For in doing so you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not let evil conquer you, but you must conquer evil with good.

**ROMANS 11: https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-book-of-romans-chapter-11.html