This Week at Fairview

On the first day of Christmas:
My true love gave to me money for a shopping spree!
We went to my mother and father in-laws’ home for a wonderful meal.
We rested.

On the second day of Christmas:
We decorated the lamppost.

On the third day of Christmas--
We cleaned:
--I organized the sun porch which had my telescope and all my astronomy paraphernalia piled around as well as all our school materials which were moved out of the bay window since the Christmas tree is now there.

We baked:
--Cappuccino Flats
--Peanut Brittle
--Falkenstein Peanuts
--Saltine Toffee
--Peppernuts
--Walnut Carmels
--Chex Mix
--Skillet Cookies
--Spritz Cookies
--Rocky Road

On the fourth day of Christmas:

We baked some more:
--Andes Mint Cookies
--Star Peanut Cookies
--White Nut Bread
--Boston Brown Bread

Thoughts from my big Green Chair
(Well, I really was sitting in a mauve chair nearer to the fire)

I don’t think I told you that I am now knitting a different prayer shawl. Knit 7 rows, pearl 1 row; repeat. I will give it to my nephew’s almost one-year-old when it is done. It represents all the prayers we prayed for my nephew and his family while he was in Iraq. He was wounded, but not as seriously as it might have been. We are grateful that he is now home. We continue to pray for my niece who is still there.

Did you know that Ishmael, Abraham’s son, had both a mother and a wife who were Egyptian? I’d missed that in my reading previously.

I'm writing about beauty in my notebook. Here is an excerpt:

Pause

We scurry; we scramble to finish. Everywhere we go, we drive as fast or faster than the law allows. Our thoughts are a jumble of appointments and schedules. Multi-tasking is a word that describes who we are. As we dash to and scurry from, suddenly we are startled. Our concentration is snatched away from us; we pause. Orion’s belt, perhaps, has caught our eye, and for one moment that is all there is. Or, per chance, we glance out upon a pink sky, brilliantly painted on the horizon, which pushes all else from our senses. Beauty holds us, captivates us; we sense that what we see so boldly states what we are missing and who we want to be.

Beauty is found in glorious simplicity. It trains our thoughts on things above, on our Creator. Beauty allows us to lay down our self-made importance and pick up a better perspective of who we are. Each time we choose to beautify our world—our homes, our selves, our minds, our spirits--we enrich our lives. Each time we give another person reason to pause, we have touched his life with a glimpse of the character of God.

Let us not forget to do what is important in the midst of doing that which is urgent.

On the Farm

Drive Me is still huge with calf. We check her several times a day to see if she has started labor. We assume that she is having twins since it is quite common in her family and she is bigger than normal.

Penelope seems to be upset with me. I’ve missed a few days of bringing her carrots, so she is not so willing to allow me to pet her forehead even when I do bring her a treat. Silly donkey.

The weather has been unseasonably warm. Although I miss having the snow and cold wind whipping through my coat, the warm weather does make farm chores a whole lot easier.

This week my hubby is working out of an office nearby, so he is able to be home each night. How nice!

And for those who love my kitties: How many are there in the photo below?

Blessings!
Jean

Have You Seen My Mommy?

This is a little calf whose mommy has disappeared. Did she get into the neighbor's herd? Did she die and hasn't been found yet? My hubby found the little one and brought him into the shed. Here the boys feed him corn and hay.  

A Picture With Words

Before I could call it a night, I needed to make one more trip out to the car. I slipped into my parka; I thought again and also reached for my gloves and hat. At night I’m always cold, and I didn’t want to shiver all the way there and back.

I unlocked the back door and walked out onto the deck and paused. Stars? A few, but there were too many clouds to find constellations. I pulled the coat around me and walked along the lane towards the garage. Inside I found what I needed, but as I closed the door for the last time, I noticed a familiar silhoutte in the pasture below the house. Perhaps, I thought, I should go down and check on the show heifer to see that she and her expectant twins were doing all right. The wind was not forceful, but it was sharp and cut its way through my coat; I pulled deeper into the warmth.

The heifer was she. I talked to her, but as I drew near, she spooked and started, not familiar with people in her pasture after dark. Below her another shape moved towards me. I heard the slow but weezy inhale and exhale of a soft bray, and I reached out to rub my donkey’s forehead; I apologized for having no carrots in my pocket. She was soft to the touch and seemed to like the attention. I turned and walked under the low hanging branches of the big maple, my feet slipping in my clogs as I made my way up the hill towards the house. Inside the air was warm and comforting. I glanced back towards my friend standing with her head near the fence, still watching me. Good night, Penny.

Trying To Say Hi Can Be Tough!

In the morning I like to choose a photo to share with you. I wait for Picassa to load. I wait for Blogger to load. I wait for the photos to load. I walk away and come back, walk away and come back...and all this with the speed of DSL. My computer must be getting old! Finally, I get the chance to type in a note to you and hit "Publish". Than I walk away again. I check it. And check it. And nothing happens. No photo on Shades of White. Nothing but dear old Penelope still walking around the pasture.... See, I have been here to talk to you, but two posts in the same day just don't happen!

I had some great Thoughts From My Big Green Chair this morning, but I am running late (we stayed out shopping too late last night), so those thoughts will have to be posted another time.

I hope your day is going well!

Blessings,
Jean




















I love Snowflake's little Siamese face!



















A bucket of catfood is worth a balancing act for Bright.


















I snapped this photo of my hubby on butchering day.

When Penny sees me, she has to come over and check to see if there are any carrots in my pockets. 

An Early Morning Chat

Come into my home and sit a while. I'll get the coffee pot or a cup of tea for you, but this morning we will sit in the living room, not the sun porch. You see, the wood stove needs a little repair when my hubby gets home from hunting, and so the sun porch is too cold to be pleasant.

It's Saturday, isn't it? We can scurry around a little later, but right now we get to curl up with one of the blankets grandma brought home from Mexico and relax. Nice.

I've been doing some research on donkeys this morning. If you'd like to learn more about them, I found a very good site: http://www.orednet.org/~jrachau/. With winter coming on, I wanted to be sure that we were giving Penelope what she needs to stay healthy. She has been unhappy lately because many of the cattle have left her pasture to graze in the corn fields. She cannot join them because donkeys do not do well with corn. She looks over the fence at her herd walking throught the tunnel under the road, and she heeeee-haaaaaaws at them. Today she would not let me pet her even though I had carrots. I think she's upset at us.

Do you hear the load rumbling noise outside? At first you might have wondered if it was thunder, but the skies are clear and there are not storm clouds visible. It's just the burners and fans on the grain bins. The corn needs to be dried before we can lock down the grain bin for the winter. The burners make a lot of noise, but it must be endured so that the crop can be stored. Next spring we can sell the corn for a better price than what we can get for it right now.

The men folk are out hunting, and the house is silent. I have joked for years that it is hard for me to find quiet moments in my day that allow me to rub my own two thoughts together. Just yesterday I found myself standing in front of the bathroom mirror talking to myself.

"Oh, my. Everyone has left. I can brush my teeth in silence. I even get to think about something all by myself. Boy, I wonder what I should think abou...."

"Mooooom! Did you hear about the...."

Too late.

I'm reading a book for fun. You know, one of those books that I picked up to read because I thought it looked interesting. It was not on any of my children's reading lists nor was it highly recommended by the folks at ClassEd or TWTM. The book? The Travels of Marco Polo. I found a copy at the Blind Society's used book store. I've only read the prologue, but it promises to be interesting.

Well, I've picked up my old copy of the One Year Bible, and I am gearing up to read it once more. On the January 1st reading I've scribbled, "1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993." It has been a been a while since I've read through that edition of my Bible. It has an Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs reading for each day of the year. If you can keep up with its brisk pace, you can read the entire Bible within the year. I think it well worth the effort. I'm thinking of getting started now, knowing that there will be a few days throughout the year that I will struggle to get it read--and anyway, according to the church year, the 1st day of the new year begins Sunday, right? Last Sunday was the end of the year--Christ the King Sunday. Now we are entering into the season of Advent. Adventus--Latin for coming or arrival. We shall prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord. Oh, special time! This is my favorite time of the year!

Celebrate. Laugh and sing!
He who comes is Christ the King!

Such a time of joy!

Well, my hunters are now home. Life returns to normal. It has been so much fun chatting with you! Will you come again?

Blessings on your day!
Jean

Iter (The Journey)

Broken down

I am always trying to make a schedule that will keep me and the family on track each day. I juggle the tasks and rearrange the chores: Exel, Word, notebooks and scrap paper. Sometimes when I cannot sleep at night, I turn on the light next to my bed and grab my notebook to jot down my thoughts to help me in the morning:

If I get up an hour earlier, I would be able to add____to my schedule. Then I'd have to put _____ into the afternoon so that I could do_____ earlier in the evening, and then I'd have to get to bed earlier.

Let's see. If I were to use this other exercise program in the morning, maybe I could cut 15 minutes out of my routine. What if I were to do those exercises in the afternoon just before I went outside to do the chores? Would I have time to get my shower in and make supper before it was time to leave for AWANA?

I think I need to ....

And on and on it goes. Even after juggling and struggling, my schedule stays close to being the same right now:

Rise around 7 (earlier if I can make my feet hit the floor). Devotions, feed cats and stove, dress, and exercise. Breakfast.
Family devotions around 8 (if Jacob is back from doing his farm chores in time).
Household chores; make meals for the day.
School.
Lunch.
School.
Oops! It's getting dark outside. Gotta check that pregnant heifer before we loose the light.
Finish up that Latin assignment; shower. Supper on the table...
Evening activities.
Read. Sleep.

Deep sleep.
Up at 7 (hopefully earlier). Exercise, cats, stove, devotions...

5 days straight until Saturday comes and I can get up and then I try to get the house cleaning done. It seems as though I really struggle to keep up my energy on Saturday. I'd like to make my house comfortably neat and clean, but I just can't push myself to get more done. Sometimes I rest on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon I feel like doing some work.

And then there is the transcript I need to finish and the course descriptions I've not done; gotta visit that college soon, and we need those done!

I need to get the swing off the back deck and into the garage for the winter.

Better bring some more meat up from the freezer to thaw.

--------------------------------

I use to be a person who loved the beauty of nature. I loved the plants in my garden and the birds building nexts in the trees around me. I watched the sunset and Venus in the morning and evening sky. Each night I walked outside to see what the skies were like. I sewed and knitted many of my clothes. I made soap and potions and lotions. I read. And read.

Who am I? Can I return to whom I was back then--or perhaps become someone even stronger and better because of the life I've lived these last few years? Will the ups and downs, the pain and sorrow, the laughter and love make me a person with more to give and more to share?

I hope so.

I'm weary.

Maybe I'll start again tomorrow being me.

Then again, maybe not.

:-) Jean

Snippets

India Ink

Snippets of This and That

It is a dreary day today. The weather is suppose to turn from yesterday's balmy 60 degrees to a cold 28 degrees tonight. We are suppose to have ice and snow before morning.

My son went deer hunting this morning, and he brought home a deer. It was a small antlerless male. We have given it to our Amish neighbors.

The turkey that we butchered and then ate on Thanksgiving was tender and juicy. There really is nothing to compare to something so fresh.

My mother had a wonderful time at her 80th birthday celebration. Nearly 100 people came to the open house to celebrate with her. I am glad my sister did so much to make this happen. It was very nice.

We are watching a video of Romeo and Juliet today. We people are capable of doing great harm in our certainty that we are right and others are wrong.

I am weary today. School is not getting done as I would like; we will have to do double time the rest of this week to catch up. Another two weeks and we will break for Christmas break.





YEAH!



Blessings to you all--
Jean 

Saturday Morning

Charcoal likes to roam. Even though he was neutered years ago, he still has the wanderlust within him. Last night my husband drove over to our 2nd farm, and there in the driveway was Charcoal hunting for mice. My hubby called me, and I went up to get him. It makes me sad that he travels so far--he had to cross a rather busy highway to get to where he was. I am always afraid that someday we will find him hit by a car beside the road--if we find him at all.

Charcoal is a special cat. He will sit in our laps upside down and purr. He always asks for cheese--cheddar is best. He is easy going and loving. He would not like becoming an inside cat, but there are days I wish I could make him stay. This is also my eldest son's favorite cat. Somewhere along the line this cat was given a nickname that we cannot totally explain: Chuck Bunny. It has been used so much, that the cat responds better to his nickname than to his given name. Such a silly cat!

Today I will get to visit with my sisters. One has come from North Dakota; the other, Florida. We will enjoy our time together. I will also spend some time on the computer getting my daughter's transcript and course descriptions organized and printed. When I need a break from the computer, I will work on making my home neat and tidy.

What will you do today? Blessings to you all.

Jean