I take my woofing little dog a little more seriously here in the forest when she suddenly sits up and growls menacingly out the sliding glass window that steps out onto the covered porch.    The other day this happened when she was stretched atop the back of the sofa  and Lynn and I decided, without getting up to look for ourselves, that she was “barking at her reflection from the glass doors” again.    Moments later I was sitting reclined in front of the side window that looks toward the trees by the street when movement outside of the side window caught my eye and I looked up to see what I first thought was the neighbor’s dog.    However, as soon as it stepped completely out from behind the bush that has grown up to where it interferes a little with my view, I received a wonderful gift from. nature when it looked directly at me for a moment   I could see clearly, all the way from the beautiful tufted ears, to the defined stripes around its eyes and nose, on down to the bobcat’s stubby tail.   (This picture is courtesy of http://www.weforanimals.com./ )  It looked bigger than those I’ve seen next to the tigers and lions at the zoo.    By the time Lynn made it to the window our cat had stealthily crept the length of the lawn and was headed into the trees at the front of the property.      There wasn’t time to pull out the camera but we have since removed it from its case and have it sitting readily on a nearby shelf.

There’s been a lot of disturbing noise from the property behind this house as lumbermen have mercilessly “clear cut” the large trees that lined the back border and the acres behind us.     It has created a homeless situation among the wildlife that have been our neighbors   I feel sad when I think of their homes being destroyed; especially with winter blowing in so quickly.   I can’t help but wonder where all of my furry little friends will go from here.    We’ve seen squirrels, deer, and possums, and we suspect we have a midnight raccoon but we haven’t yet spotted the neighborhood’s black bears. Needless to say we are taking good care of our garbage and keeping a close eye and a short leash on little poochie while she takes care of “business”.  

We are loving our stay in the woods.     It’s different living where the skies are grey and it rains more than it doesn’t, but it has been comfortable … and healing.   As I write this I’m sitting by a crackling fire listening to the cadence of the rain that counts along with the 4/4 timing of the keyboard as I type.   The rain and I are the perfect accompaniment to the Tabernacle Choir’s rendition of “Sleigh bells”.  The stately pine trees are even swaying in sync.    I just love it, love it, love it!    A huge, from deep in the heart thank you to Warren’s friend, Tracy Green, for trusting us with his mother’s home for a few months.   Anyone would feel good here!

We found this site and I thought, “just how hard can that be”?   The directions were actually written out very well, and if you go to the site you’ll see there is even a video that takes you through it step by step.  The problem?   I zigged when I should have zagged … and I kept zigging in the same spot for over an hour until I almost changed my mind about doing it.   I pert near wore the first dollar clear out by the time I figured out what I was doing wrong.  It’s just a good thing I wasn’t trying to make a living at it because if I’d been paid by the piece I think I’d have starved.   By the time I was finished, twenty hearts later, I was whipping them out without even looking at the directions.   I’d go so far as to say I became a pro.    You be the judge.

I like them this way, where it looks like there is a pretty white flower on the front … but this is how they look with the suggested quarter added …

By the way … for you Granny’s with less grandchildren and more money … you can use $5 or $10 … or however high your income goes.

I shouldn’t be posting this until after Valentine’s Day because I know there are probably four of my grandchildren who will read my blog before then … but in case any of my readers want a cute, inexpensive idea to add to their Valentine treats I have to post it now.    So, Aubree, Curtis, Mikayla, and Kaitlyn … you have to keep it a secret, ya hear.

Last year I crocheted 40 Christmas stockings.    This summer I made three afghans and one carryall bag.    As I worked on the bag, which happens to be the last thing I finished, I had grand ideas of making up several extras and using them for gifts … but about five days into the project I realized that not everyone would appreciate the merits of a crocheted hand bag.   It would have to be a special order.   Only a person who crochets would know what a gift of love it is when they saw that it was three colors of yarn that involved weaving and tying a whole gob of individual knots for decoration, and at least five different stitches.    Of course, that doesn’t account for the times you pulled it apart and started over, or six or seven rows back.   It’s probably a good thing no one knows that or they would think of having you committed for the time spent on one hand bag.       It seemed to me that it took waaaayyyyy longer than it should have, probably at least 40 hours.   It certainly doesn’t look like it should take that long.    But if you asked my daughter-in-law, who is learning to crochet, she would say it took no time at all.        I love how it turned out, though, and look forward to filling it with current crochet projects that I want to carry with me to work on.   Surely someone will see and admire it that way?

The first afghan I made was for my 18 year old grand daughter, Aubree, who is now off to her first year of college.     I can’t believe she is this old and can’t explain away the time lapse from the day she was born and I got to hold her when she was just minutes old.      Lynn says if I plan to make these for each grandchild I’d better make them in advance since the youngest grandchild is only two.

I have an afghan made for me about forty years ago by my Grandma Babcock.    It’s red, white, and blue and I wish I could add a picture here but it’s home … as are the other afghans I treasure.    One was made by my mother as a gift to my father, and two were made by Lynn’s mother as gifts to Lynn and I.     I pick up those afghans and I think of the love that went into their stitches and like to realize that their hands touched them years ago.    It makes me feel warm and fuzzy … a feeling I hope to pass on to my grandchildren years down the road.   

AND … that isn’t all … !!! My favorite lazy-boy recliner is clean too!    The one hidden from the main flow of company because it looked so bad but is so comfortable I can’t part with it.   

The carpet is so clean that now I’ve got to paint the walls!    Gotta pick out some paint with a bit of that money we saved.    Hubby slipped and told me a day or two ago that if we didn’t get the new carpet we’d put the money in a home improvement fund and ya think I’m going to let him forget that?

I prayed about this carpet.   I prayed I would be able to get it clean enough I would be satisfied.   After at least forty hours of me trying to clean it. I’d about decided the answer was, “You need to learn to endure”.      Thank you, God, for clean carpet.   Clean enough for grandbaby feet!

Thank you Bryce Hunt for bringing that awesome cleaning machine over and making it happen.   

It was just one of those really fun mornings!  

“Do you mind if we run that pile of limbs at the front of your property through the chopper so we can get our equipment back and around your motor home?   We need to clip the branches of your tree that are resting on the power line”

Did I mind?   We actually had two piles of branches that I’d been stewing about ever since we’d gotten home in December!   One pile had been pulled to the front of the property so we could load it in a trailer and haul it to the dump, but the other, bigger stack, was hidden in front of the motor home on the other end of our yard, right beneath the electrical wires going into our home.   With Lynn being laid up with his knee surgeries I’d didn’t know how long it would take to get those branches taken care of. 

The next thing I knew their machines were humming and chopping up the branches on the ground and zipping through the gnarly, heavy ones that were playing havoc with the power lines  every time the wind blows.   When they were done there wasn’t a single branch left on the ground.    I wanted to give them a standing ovation I was so pleased!  I know they were getting paid to do the job but you don’t run into people very often who are pleasant and willing to go the extra mile at the end of a long, hot day of hard labor.

I don’t suppose they thought they looked like angels, but I thought they did … even if they were a little incognito.   We appreciated the “Good Deed” and will remember to “Pass It Forward” when we get the opportunity.

I made it!     I finished the last of the Christmas stockings (which was mine) at 1:00 am Christmas morning … just in time for the old man to fill it.

My children all knew the joy of having a crocheted Christmas stocking that stretches and stretches on Christmas Eve and it was fun to hear them tell their children  the Christmas memories these new, super-sized stockings invoked.

I had been worrying the last ten days or so that I might  not be able to get them all finished and could be found at any moment huddled over my crochet hook and yarn.    My new slogan was “Don’t leave home without it.”    I finished Lynn’s at about two in the morning on Christmas Eve and decided I didn’t want one bad enough to pick up the crochet hook one more time in the year 2009.   About 2:00 Christmas Eve I changed my mind.    So … I joyfully can report that I reached my goal!    Counting the ones I helped Kim do for her family there were 40 Christmas stockings finished and delivered by Christmas Eve.    (Patting myself on my own back.)

I apologize to all who didn’t receive a Christmas card from us (which is everyone we know).    I apologize  for not getting the tree up before the 21st of December (but I’m grateful it did get put up before Christmas).    I apologize there was no home made fudge or peanut brittle (but I might have been tempted to eat it if it was).

We do extend our best wishes and a belated Merry Christmas to everyone.    It has been a wonderful year for Lynn and I and we are grateful for our children, grandchildren, inlaws, outlaws, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and each other.     The people in our lives bring us our greatest joy.    We are most grateful for our Savior and for the hope and purpose our lives have because of Him.

2010 … we’ll be blessed once again!    Happy New Year everyone!

I’m just saying …  I would like to be blogging but have to be crocheting …

I wish I would have started sooner … I didn’t think about it until I was at my daughter’s in Auburn, Washington … towards the END of our trip!   She mentioned she wanted to make some “Things” for her family for Christmas so I helped her.   Then I started thinking of others in the family who would also enjoy these “Things” so I started making a list and before long my list was up to 34, not counting the ones I helped my daughter with.    THIRTY FOUR!    Each “Thing” takes me approximately six hours.   Holy Macaroni I do tend to take big bites of more than I can chew now and then!    So far I have five totally finished and ten that each need about an hour more.

The thing about crocheting is that it keeps my hands occupied and my mind is free to go wherever it wants.   I can crochet while watching tv, listening to books, and while Lynn is driving down the road.   I can crochet while I wait in the car with the dog and Lynn dashes into the grocery store.   I even crocheted last night while we were waiting for our meal at Sizzler’s (This is the first restaurant we’ve been to alone since we left home).  I have crocheted in my sleep but to my disappointment when I woke up it hadn’t carried over to real life.

A big basket of colorful skeins of yarns sits near me as we drive down the highways.  I crocheted down the Oregon Coastline and through the Redwood Forest and I will continue to crochet across to Las Vegas and through the mountains to home … and then … I will still continue to crochet.   If I’m lucky and my fingers and wrists hold out, I may just get all thirty four of these done on time!

I am having fun!   Every time I start a new one I think of that person and my heart smiles and I hope that what I am making will warm their hearts as well.   

The first Christmas projects, the ones I have been working on much longer, have been forwarded once again to next year’s “To Do” list.    I think I would have been smart to stick to that one!

P.S.   A side note … my grandchildren all love to roll the wrinkles around on my hands!   Glad those wrinkles are good for something!

You may feel that one of the other candidates deserve your vote, and that is fine too.    Each one has a wonderful story.