a cheap date

The time spent... meandering.  First we head down the highway looking for an interesting byway.  A left or a right catching each sight that comes our way.  All through an appropriately smudgy windshield.

Holding hands as we smile down each shadowed mile.  Dusk chases us back as the night sky turns black. The thirty minute road trip.

Have a blessed weekend,  Debbie

does God have a sense of humor?

You tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor.  Erin and Audrey dutifully set their alarms and checked again to make sure the time was set right, hollering back and forth to one another... "what time does yours say... NOW."  "O.K.  What time does yours say... NOW."

They made sure that they were turned on.  Then double checked before turning out the lights.  Here's where God steps in.  Remember that I live snuggled into my little valley where the weather is mild and relatively predictable.  No earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes.  Rarely even a power outage.  Ahem.  

Once a year, maybe once every two years even, during a rare and crazy summer thunder storm we may be victims.  But rarely, I say, do we lose power.  

When I moseyed into the kitchen to make my coffee this morning the room was flashing!  The little clock on the oven was flashing.  The little clock on the microwave was flashing...  NO WAY.  I trotted back up the stairs to say, "girls, time to get up."  Just like days of old.  There was a gentle stirring and then the confused popping up of heads.  "Mom, my alarm didn't go off!"...  "Why is it flashing?" 

So, that's day 1 of my trying to get a bit more order and sunshine into the beginning of our days.  And that's what God thinks of my best laid plans.  

Things still got rolling pretty well seeing as we too had a sense of humor about the whole thing.  We even managed to get a fair amount of schoolwork in before the girls had to leave for their Keepers at Home meeting and I took off for a lovely lunch to celebrate my mother's birthday.  I can't believe she's 29... again!

Blessings, Debbie  

brighter mornings

Today we were very purposeful in our shopping.  On the list; 2 alarm clocks and an enamelware dye pot.  The dye pot is for me...  Well, I guess the alarm clocks are too.  They will reside on the girl's bedtables.  The'll make some annoying early noise that will have to be silenced by the girls.  But the girls didn't really care to have them.  I wanted them.  From now on it's the alarm clocks that will do the nagging. It's the alarm clocks that will have to listen to the girls early moanings, and the alarm clocks will be the only witnesses to the groggy faces, because by the time those faces get downstairs they'll be bright eyed ~ and smiling their good mornings.

Right?  Right.

Blessings, Debbie

and patiently she waits

I was cruising right along with this little doll.  The pattern is in this book. Legs were knit during coffee and breakfast, body at lunch, clothes through the dinner hours.  The top few body rows, head and arms had to wait a day.  I ran out of yarn and quickly plied some singles that were waiting on my spools.  I wanted the body to felt uniformly so after plying I wet and fulled the new skein, hanging it to dry overnight. The next day I was off and running again.  Once everything was knit, it was time to stuff.  The body will be felted, therefore I couldn't stuff it with wool so I used bamboo.  I was skeptical when I began and my concern turned out to be accurate.  Not enough bamboo fill.  It will take a trip to Bend (50 miles away) in order to purchase more.  So she waits.  She's much more patient than I am.

You know how I love poetry.  Imagine how excited I was to find this beautiful linen bound, gold embossed first edition by James Whitcomb Riley at our library sale.  I should have taken more pictures.  The details in this book.. stunning.  Richly illustrated inside and out with tissue endpapers...  My heart is beating a bit faster just describing it.

This is the back of the book...  the back!  And you should see the binding...

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along
and Frontier Dreams
Blessings, Debbie

erin's plan

The girls and I have been asked to participate in the Central Oregon Fiber Market.  We have until the end of  March to create with fiber, or things relating to fiber, or desired by fiber artists.  Our creative wheels are turning... again?... still?

The dark flowers are a deep eggplant~I couldn't capture the true color

Blessings, Debbie

spiritual like a cat?

We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image . . . —2 Corinthians 3:18

The greatest characteristic a Christian can exhibit is this completely unveiled openness before God, which allows that person’s life to become a mirror for others. When the Spirit fills us, we are transformed, and by beholding God we become mirrors. You can always tell when someone has been beholding the glory of the Lord, because your inner spirit senses that he mirrors the Lord’s own character. Beware of anything that would spot or tarnish that mirror in you. It is almost always something good that will stain it— something good, but not what is best.


The most important rule for us is to concentrate on keeping our lives open to God. Let everything else including work, clothes, and food be set aside. The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through. Let other things come and go as they will; let other people criticize us as they will; but never allow anything to obscure the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him. This is an easy thing to allow, but we must guard against it. The most difficult lesson of the Christian life is learning how to continue “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord . . . .”  Oswald Chambers~My Utmost For Hs Highest

I promise.  This is the last cat photo post.  It's just that when I surfed my picture file for something to illustrate Oswald's hard hitting message this morning...  Nolie (pronounced with a long o as in seminole.  Short for the Seminole Warriors.  She's my son's cat.) was again my poster child cat.  I think that I'm learning a lot from Nolie (and Oswald).

O.K.  Maybe she only illustrates the second half of his message.  I looked long and hard at her...  I'm not seeing 'unveiled openness before God'.  Nor am I seeing 'transformed by the Spirit'.  Umm, spiritual through and through?  Nah.

Work, clothes and food are put aside.  That's it.  That's what I saw in the picture.  Did Oswald mention crawling in a bowl?  Now I'm getting confused.  I'd better go back and read the message again.

Blessings, Debbie

if you could be any animal...

Some days I just think how nice it would be to be a cat.  A housecat.  

Blessings, Debbie

my old man

It sounds silly but for years... what am I saying?  I still have to stop and think.  My husband and son celebrate their birthday's within 4 days of each other.  I know that we have birthdays on the 14th and the 18th but I have to make a conscious effort to remember who is which.  My helpful reference has always been an obscure little photo that I haven't even looked at for many years but pops into my mind right at the moment of confusion.  It's a picture of wee baby Cory held on his daddy's lap with a bow on his head.  I titled it 'daddy's best birthday gift'.  Baby with bow, on daddy's lap means baby was here for daddy's birthday. Cory-14th, Dad 18th.  Yes, I question this mind of mine.  

An impromptu party consisiting of family, food, cake, gifts, Outburst and Charades...  I think he actually enjoyed turning another year older.  

Blessings, Debbie

erin knits

Here we have a wonderful, rare shot of Erin in a moment of inspiration.  It could only be a grand plan that would cause her to pick up the needles and begin knitting without prompting.  She loves to create... just not with the needles.  Yes, the scarf shown on the open page would be lovely from that particular yarn, but there wasn't enough of it.  That's o.k. because I'm the one that wanted to see the scarf knitted from her bulky, sky blue, single ply wool.  The photographer held the skein and imagined baby photos.  Yes, she was off and running without a pattern...  Once she had an appropiately sized stretchy band, she got out her new Christmas present.  She proceded to make a posy with her well loved felting kit and voila!  Now she's just longing for a sweet little head to photograph.  

This morning the girls and I began reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  We started with the preface and will read chapter one tomorrow as well as watch the first dvd segment that coincides with the chapter.  

"But before we look at what is wrong and address it, we need to understand something.  The core problem isn't the fact that we're lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians.  The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God.  We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way.  We forget that God never had an identity crisis.  He knows that He's great and deserves to be the center of our lives.  Jesus came humbly as a servant, but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves.  He commands everything from His followers."  

We'll let you know what we think when we're finished.  So far, he's off to a good start.

And speaking of crazy love... my crazy love is celebrating a birthday today!  I really should be in bed seeing as it's after midnight and we're meeting friends for breakfast at 6:30.  Steve happens to share this special day with my crazy love so together we par-tay!!

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along

Blessings, Debbie

great and grand

Erin enjoying the gift of instruction from her mama's mama's mama, a.k.a. Granny.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.  Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.  Titus 2:3-5

Blessings, Debbie

where is the little boy i carried?

The other day the girls and I were watching a home video.  Four year old Cory was so proud that he could read a book all by himself.  He and his oldest little sister (the other two were still blessings to be imagined) were cuddled up with grammie while he read, "These are his socks.  Does he put them on like this? No!  He puts them on his feet.  This is his shirt.  Does he put it on like this?  No!  He puts it over his head." While it wasn't a correct word for word reading and only a memorized rendition, grammie couldn't have been prouder.  Not to be outdone, the 3 year old sister proceeded to 'read' Disney's version of Cinderella.  Cory was so patient as Hillary read, only giving 'big brother' correction when it was absolutely necessary.  Sweet, understanding Hillary always responded with a meek, "BUBBIE!!"

Big, handsome, strong, kind... and 25!  That's my baby coaching those high-schoolers.  That's my baby sporting a full beard and hugging his sisters good-bye as he drives away to his home that isn't my home.

I remember cementing a memory on purpose.  Twenty four and a half years ago as I was walking across the porch of our first home, I caught a reflection in the front window of myself with this chubby, long-legged 6 month old dangling on my hip.  I just stopped and stared and thought, I want to remember this... someday (which seemed eternally far in the future) he will be a young man and I want to remember this.  I do.

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Blessings, The Mama