It’s 9:30 pm here and it’s been a warm, sunny, summery day. The kind where we really don’t need a sweater. I’m talking in the 70′s and it may have even broken 80 degrees.
Back in March I ordered 45 Hansa Rugosa roses for a hedge along a high retaining wall (something to keep the grandkids away from the edge). There will be a fence too, but the roses are to keep the kids back even further away from the fence, kind of like a thorny moat. I bought these roses from a Canadian rose supplier who has proved to be a good source of the kind of roses that like it up here in the cold winters of Idaho. These should reach 5 feet high the first year. Anyway, these roses were due to arrive today via fedex, and we were not ready for them yet, so my husband took the day off just so he could prepare the ground. So he worked in the peat moss and dug (with a shovel) forty-five holes for me.
We had company for dinner, so I figured I would plant in the early morning tomorrow. But then our guests left, the evening cooled, and I thought I should just go for it and get those Continue reading ‘My Lightning Hedge’
A friend loaned me a book by Jeremiah Burroughs called The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit, and I can’t wait to read it. Already, just reading “The Epistle Dedicatory to the Right Honorable Edward, Viscount Mandeville,” I have found a wonderful quote. And here it is.
“And yet this I desire Your Lordship to consider, as I know you do, that religion is a greater honor and ornament to you than you are to it.”
This seems to be the week of college graduations nation-wide. So many young men and women have received the applause and the diploma and now they are entering the world on the other side of school. Hip, hip, hooray for them! But I know that it can be a little (or a lot) bit unnerving, especially for young women who are not entirely sure what will come next. Should they stay in the old college town and look for a job or go home and move back in with Mom and Dad? Is Mr. Right going to make the move or is he someone else’s Mr. Right after all? These questions bring with them lots of uncertainty and more questions.
I wish all young women at this point could have the benefit of the kind of advice I received from my future father-in-law. He sidled into the little Christian bookstore on the campus where I was volunteering, and he asked me what I was going to do when I graduated. Hmmmm. Good question. I was dusting around for a job that would involve travel. So he told me, quite emphatically, that I had three choices. (Nice.) First, he said, I could teach. No, I told him, I did not want to teach. In fact, I had steadfastly avoided taking any ed courses. Okay, he said, my second choice was marriage. Thanks, but no one on the horizon. Third, then, he told me I could go on InterVarsity staff. So, to make a longer story short, that is what I did. As I look back on this little chat, I see now what a comfort it was to have someone older and wiser give me some direction. It was very kind of him, and Continue reading ‘So you’ve graduated from college.’
Sale on the Longhorn Tee! Yes – you want it. I can tell. And it’s only going to be on sale until I feel like taking it off . . . so you should probably hustle up about it! (You can click here to take you straight to it.)
Parenting Magazine is featuring the Skirty this month and hosting a giveaway on their website! So you can zip on over and enter if you’re feeling so inclined.
My girls have been on a serious craft-a-thon lately. It’s been loads of fun . . . I’ve let them just dive straight into all the fabric scraps and have free run of the sewing machine (while I’m not using it). This of course has meant that we’ve had fluff and thread and fabric scraps just everywhere – but on the upside we also have a very festive little selection of one of a kind designs. I absolutely love seeing what they come up with. We have a shirt which was designed and sewn especially for Nana . . . but of course in the end it might (might) fit onto an American Girl doll. But it’s awfully clever and very creative nonetheless. One of these days I’ll sit them down and give them a speech about seam allowances – but I distinctly recall doing the identical thing myself when I was little and Mom gave me free run of the scrap bag and the sewing machine. My great seam allowance eureka moment was when I whipped up a pair of gloves for myself that turned out the size of a craisin. After my peevishness wore off, it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps I should add a bit onto the edges when I did my cutting. I was quite pompous about that little insight as I recall. I felt that most people wouldn’t have thought of that.
Anyway, the other night it was time for kids to head up to bed – but poor little six-year-old Hero was still in the grip of a creative fever and really desperately needed to finish cutting out the outfit she was designing. So I let her take it up to bed with her to finish . . . and when I went up to check on her, this is what I found on the top bunk.
In case you’re not clear, that’s a shirt and a skirt – complete with a little patch pocket on the front. And yes, I did remove the scissors from her bed, and carefully scootch the outfit out of the way, and put her blankets back on the bed, and get her tucked neatly and cozily in for the night! (A note about what she’s wearing: She doesn’t usually sleep in Ben’s skivvy shirt. It’s just that there was a also a play being produced that evening and she was cast as a sheep. She obviously didn’t change back into her PJs before climbing up to finish off her cutting. “Where on earth is this child’s mother?” I can hear you asking. Unfortunately she was also in the grip of a creative fever and was downstairs trying to finish off an outfit herself . . . )
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