Green Blankie and Peach Potholder

Posted on Monday, 23 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

The evening before I left for the Ohio Valley, I went through my hobby closet to find something to take with me to crochet while I was visiting with the relatives.
I had no plans to do much partying, the last couple weeks of my job at the school had been very energy draining, plus there was the long drive through bean fields of 3 states.

I found a few balls of size 10 crochet cotton, purchased long ago from a Clearance bin, waiting for this occasion.

Into my carry-all bag went four new balls of shaded greens, one myrtle green, and one partial hunter green.  I had recently purchased a forest green to make a bookmark, so I tossed it in just for variety.  After I got started, I decided a few stripes of white would brighten it up, so I bought a ball at the Wally World in St. C.

Aunt Lydia’s size 10 bedspread cotton using a size 0 hook

crocheted using a double crochet stitch, grabbing only the front loop of the stitch below
I didn’t count, I just kept working the foundation chain until it looked long enough

the finished measurements are 36” x 34”

this makes a nice lightweight blankie for summertime
I have done several using this method, and parents approve

Over the weekend, I decided to figure a new (to me) crochet pattern
being left-handed and trying to make a circle following directions about rounding and turns is quite challenging

Can you tell it is supposed to be a pig?

~~love and Huggs, Diane

 

 

Posted in Crochet | 7 Comments

A regular Thursday

Posted on Thursday, 19 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

My day was ever so free and easy.
You all can turn green with envy and I won’t mind at all.

For a few days, while slowly walking the treadmill, I was reading the book A DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE by Robert Newton Peck.  It’s a large print hardback, purchased from the Discard shelf at the public library.  I like the large print while I’m walking.  I have read several other books by this author.
This one, I got so into it that I decided to just finish it over breakfast.
Big mistake.  It’s not easy to be swallowing oatmeal while reading about the need to slaughter a beloved pet pig who just couldn’t get pregnant and become a brood sow.  A family too poor to keep feeding a critter fast becoming a burden.  I looked over at my cat Mahalia and told her she has a really great life.

Much of the morning, I was sitting in my bathrobe in a chair on the back porch trying to figure out a potholder pattern which ends up the shape of a pig.  Somewhere in the Archives is a reference to how I acquired the booklet.
The thing will be cute when it gets done, which I hope is in time for a friend’s birthday.

When the front doorbell rang, I hurried through the house to answer, and there was our mailman with a package to sign for.
And me in my bathrobe.
Whew, I’m glad the Women’s Lib movement made history.

I just had to show somebody the completed baby blankie, so I said he should wait a minute and I would get it.  A small excuse to chat a bit longer.  Most of our neighbors are gone to work all day, which is why I am able to sit on the back porch in my robe.
He was properly admiring of the tiny stitches and the bright colors.

yeah, yeah, I’ll get a picture for you soon.

At Noon, when I went to purchase my Thursday latte, the shop owner’s wife remarked that I look like I’m losing weight.  And then for a second, she looked embarrassed, as if this should not be mentioned.
However, I shoved my fist in the air and yelled Yyeess! as a great sign of victory.
I told her we did use the tax incentive check for its intended purpose, and the treadmill gets daily use.

My oh My, did she ever make my day! my week! my goal!

My Yarn Group was all chatty and busy.
Some lovely stuff came in for Show n Tell.  My green and white baby blankie was there.
Then our leader decided to sort out the Projects Done box so we know what is available to donate when requests come.
A couple tables were covered with yarn goodies, all worked by loving hands.
Beautiful! all laid out like that, and now the items are stored away in carefully labeled smaller boxes.

My treadmill routine happened after I got home but before the beginning of JEOPARDY on tv.

Today is the first time I upped the elevation to 2.0 and the pace to 1.9 but then I got to sweating so bad I had to take off my glasses.

After supper, Husband and I went out to the bookstore.  I spied a romance hardback on clearance.  According to the plot outline on the flap of the book jacket, it looks like one I will like, so I bought it.
As I was carrying it out, I realized that my eyes will have to get used to regular size print again.

While Husband was on the treadmill, he watched a dvd of Battlestar Galactica using ear buds.

Our expectations are the same, we just go at it with different methods.

The cats say it’s time for their bedtime snack.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

 

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

Keeping Busy

Posted on Monday, 16 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

Over the weekend, I had to set aside crocheting on the baby blankie to work on some bookmarks.

here they are stretched wet, and held flat by straight pins

The three on the left are going to an event at the ISU Campus Religious Center to be used as door prizes.

The purple/gold/white is for a sympathy card.
Too many of my friends’ parents are passing away.

Three of the blues are for church folks, and the pinks is for a bridal book.

The silver and gold on the very bottom is my own.
I’m gonna keep it.

The story is: a friend from the Yarn Group went overseas to visit her daughter and son-in-law who is in the military.

They went sight-seeing and shopping.

Being a yarn working person, she of course had to shop in a yarn store.

There, she found a ball of thread in the prettiest silver and gold and cream, and she thought of me and my bookmarks.  It came back through Customs just fine and dandy 🙂

I crocheted one for her, and one for me.

While I was finding a new place in my Bible to store it, a piece of paper fell out.
I must have kept it for a reason, and today it came to light again.

It looks like it was clipped from a church newsletter, but there is no name saying who is the writer.

It’s Not Easy . . . .
To Apologize
To Begin Over
To be Unselfish
To Admit Error
To be Charitable
To Keep Trying
To be Considerate
To Avoid Mistakes
To Profit by Mistakes
To Forgive and Forget
To Think and Then Act
To Keep out of a Rut
To Make the Best of Little
To Subdue an Unruly Temper
To Shoulder a Deserved Blame
To recognize the Silver Lining – –
But it Always Pays

~~love and Huggs, Diane
ps to help while doing the ironing, I put in a Celine Dion cd, then hit repeat to carry on through the next task

for a little added interest, I put 6 pounds of weights in a backpack to carry while walking
my treadmill time was 21 minutes at 1.5 elevation and 1.7 pace

 

Posted in Crochet | 4 Comments

Lady of Leisure

Posted on Friday, 13 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

my mom potting some plants, and her cat Tabby

So far today, I have sorted out two loads of laundry (lights and darks) and put them through the paces,
loaded the dishwasher with a day and a half’s worth of dishes (which tell the tale of our summer of fine dining—many are cereal bowls),
swept up some spilled dry cat food off the kitchen floor,
finished a novel SWEET LIAR by Jude Devereaux (one with a Taggert man),

then walked on the treadmill for 16 minutes (elevation 1.5 and pace 1.6 mph).

Now I’m going to sit here and hoppity-skip through my blog Bookmarks until the dishwasher and the dryer get done doing their jobs.

I’ll probably do the ironing later while watching JEOPARDY.

Hope your summer is going slow and easy, too.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

Posted in Family | 3 Comments

Two Movies Watched and Returned

Posted on Wednesday, 11 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

Just got back from a walk downtown to return dvds.

It is a mile from the house to the video store, then another mile back home.  Wonder if I can deduct that time and distance from my treadmill routine?

My youngest son and his sweetie fully recommended JUNO, which is a New Release, so with it I got a free rental golden oldie A FACE IN THE CROWD.  You will have to look for links your own self if you want to see any other news and reviews.

I liked both movies, although they were very different plots.

JUNO is about a 16 year old girl who gets curious, experiments with sex, then cannot believe it when the pee stick gives a plus sign for pregnant.  The scene in the store with the clerk, all the quips back and forth, well no way does my brain connect so quick, so I give kudos to writers for thinking it up and actors for carrying it through.

The whole movie stays true to life.  Even though I was going to college at the time, I had my first baby before the wedding, so I know all about telling the parents, and some medical staff who act so holy.

Yes, Indeedy.

Nice thing about dvd is the special features showing Deleted Scenes.  My thinking is this movie would have been better if the scene when the adoptive mother is crying was still within the whole.  It would have better explained the scene in the nursery near the end, the look of anticipation on her face.

Melessa at I Digress also wrote a post about JUNO.

Andy Griffith stars in A FACE IN THE CROWD.
I think it was his first movie, way back in 1957, in B & W.

It’s about a ne’er-do-well fella who happens to play a bit of guitar, has astute observations of other citizens, and rides the tide of popularity as the voice of an old tyme radio show, moving into the new-fangled invention of television.

Goodness, the expressions on an actor’s face actually mean something.

It might have been better if a few scenes had been deleted, 125 minutes was too long for my back to stay on the couch, so I had to push the pause button. I thought the middle was a bit tedious, yeah, we get it, he actually didn’t need to bend the senator’s ear so often.

It puts me in mind of FORREST GUMP and BEING THERE, which are a couple other movies with a similar theme of rising stars.

A FACE IN THE CROWD came before them, and tells a stronger story. 

Because of time used while watching movies, the crocheted baby blankie grows and grows.
Only about 8 inches to go, then the border.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment

Time with Aunt Ruth

Posted on Wednesday, 11 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

One of the first weddings I remember attending was in the old church building on Jefferson Street, and wondering how my dorky ol’ Uncle Charlie got such a fine lady to bring into our family.
One of the highlights of my trip back to the old homeplace was spending time with my Aunt Ruth.  She is the relative who lives just up the road from my mom’s house, and they check in on each other, and feed the critters when the other is busy.

Mom and Aunt Ruth and I had quite a day together on Memorial Day.  No major plans for backyard bar-b-Q, other relatives were going to make it quiet and easy.
So the three of us ended up at Wal*Mart, then lunch at Denny*s, then off to the cemetery.

at my Dad’s grave

new flowers for Uncle Charlie’s resting place

Our conversation during lunch was about church events.
I grew up in that congregation, but have never been all that interested in church politics.  For me, church is a social occasion, a place where I catch up with friends.

Aunt Ruth, tho, she likes the background notes.
Being a female in that congregation, she can’t be part of the Board.
The Elders take this Bible verse quite literally:

Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.  I Corinthians 11:3 (New International Version)

She did mention something that seems to me to be a conflict of interests.
Aunt Ruth says that the congregation employs three pastors.  The Lead Pastor is about my age, his wife and I attended church camp at the same time.  The other two, both men, are maybe a decade younger.

For all three men, their spouses have a job outside the home.  Granted, their children are pretty much grown and have activities of their own.
But, the congregation does not provide health insurance for the pastors.  Health Insurance for each of the ministers comes through the job of the wife, and this is what my husband referred to in comments of the previous post.
For a congregation to talk so much about a woman’s place in church, it doesn’t seem to mind that these women provide very important support on the homefront.

This is part of a much bigger problem in the whole USA, the need for basic healthcare which does not depend on age (our youngest son’s last birthday puts him too old to be on his dad’s insurance) or a job (when I worked at the county home kitchen, family health insurance took half of every paycheck).

Aunt Ruth’s concern is that so much money goes to mission work and bus maintenance, but there doesn’t seem to be enough financial resources to provide well for the pastors and their families.

Some more time I had with Aunt Ruth in the evening, I was giving a crochet lesson on how to make the potholders.  She already knows how to crochet, I have a high school graduation gift shawl in my cedar chest.

She thinks that working potholders will be good, it’s a small project done in an afternoon, and anybody with a kitchen would like potholders.  Although I told her that a few I made are hanging on walls as artwork.

Our conversation then was about Barack Obama.  I told her I voted for him to become a senator from Illinois, so I do trust him as a government official, and I think he could adapt enough to become a fine President.

My Aunt Ruth is a wise lady, and now I have her phone number in my cell phone Contacts.
I have a feeling we will be chatting more often.

In the time since Primaries are done, and Hillary stepped back, I remember something my own pastor said during a sermon way back on a really cold Sunday in January.  He said the quote was not original with him, but came from a woman during a meeting.

Let us please remember that we are voting for our country’s president for a 4-year term, not a Saviour for all time.
Jesus already holds that spot.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

 

Posted in Family | 4 Comments

Even though I am not an historian of music

Posted on Sunday, 8 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

This morning in church, the song leader gave a short story about how the next hymn was commissioned especially for the book, a brief picture of what the author was trying to say, how the harmony part seems to come in a bit later.

Times like this is what I appreciate about this particular congregation and how much thought and care go into an experience for worship.

Call me old-fashioned, (a label I wear proudly) but I think a church rich with history is in a good position to help with education.  Having the song leader ad lib a bit about a writer adds quality.  Holding a hymnbook and having the music notes pointed out along the page is helpful, even though I don’t actually “read” sheet music, I know about the lines and spaces and how many beats to hold my breath.  In my youth, I participated in choirs.

This brought to mind my experience for the Sunday morning church service over Memorial Day weekend in my home town.  My brother-in-law told me outright that he prefers the first service at 8am because it is a bit more old style, and they do use the hymnbooks.

However, my mother and youngest sister go to the main service at 10am.
Because of my visit, we all went to the second service.
Later, folks would tell my mom that it looked good to have so many of her family sitting together in the pew.

The latter service has what is commonly known as a Praise Band.  The members play drums, a baby grand piano, guitar, bass, drums.  I have to say drums twice because that is pretty much what I heard most.

The words to the songs are projected up on a screen at the front of the auditorium.  It looked like light gray letters on a dark gray background.
Since I need new glasses, I couldn’t make out some of the words if the lettering font wasn’t crisp and clean.

The song leader was a girl in late adolescence.  That a female was on stage was one step in a modern direction, because when I was growing up there, women did not lead, nor read for any part of, the services.  Although the organist was often a woman.

This was all fine for the regular attendees, those who know the tunes and apparently sing them often.  I did know the words to the patriotic songs, done in honor of the holiday.

However, being unable to read many of the words from that distance, not being able to see sheet music to guess the next note, having a leader who didn’t conduct very well,  uumm, I didn’t sing much during the service.

The praise band didn’t seem to mind.
It kept the beat going even when the song leader missed a cue.

The girl cat is between me and the screen.

Must open can of food.

Now where was I?

Oh yeah, talking about helps and hindrances for song in church services.

Now my mind is all ajumbled, so I will just say that I appreciated the music of today’s service.
We even sang all together for a prayer to begin the luncheon.

And I am humming a tune as I load the dishwasher.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
~~Dorothy Frances Gurney  “Garden Thoughts”

Posted in Reviews | 4 Comments

Date Night, Friday Night

Posted on Saturday, 7 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

When Husband asked if I wanted to go to the store with him, I knew he was saying Wal*Mart, because it means he can get almost everything on his list.

I said sure.  I mean what else would there be for me to do alone on a Friday evening?

Other than the dishes, which happened to be left overnight, scattered all over the kitchen counter and stove, not even rinsed or anything, until I loaded the dishwasher a few minutes ago.  Sometimes the weekend means relax, okay?

The rest of you folks have no idea about shopping with my spouse.  I’m not quite sure why he even asks me to come along, because it is one of the few times he goes into ‘single focus mode’.
He organizes a list according to walking in the front door, taking the first aisle on the left, then getting the items as he circles the departments and store shelves, ending up at a lane farthest from the door we came in.

If I have an item or two to buy from some other department, I try not to stray too far from the cart.  When separated happens, we usually end up on the cell phones.

Last evening, tho, I only had plain white index cards to add, and he had something else from that shelf, so we stuck together.

He was also in a good mood, which isn’t often after a long work week.  Little comments about oddities or advert signs, a sideways glance at a pretty lady.

At the checkout lane, we put our goodies on the belt, then I stepped around to the front to be able to grab the bags as they circled, while he dealt with the payment machine.

He read aloud the question; “Was your cashier friendly today?”  The cashier was about the age of our sons, and looked weary.

As he punched the key for a definite YES, I dryly mentioned that so far the girl hadn’t said a word, but she was scanning the items well enough.  Sometimes I can play the crabby wife to the hilt.

I was watching her reaction to this, but she was busy with her hands manipulating boxes to find the bar code.

Husband looked over at me and with a somewhat edgy voice responded,
“Hey, even if she SNARLS at me, I ain’t gonna rat her out to the MAN!”

Having lived with him all these years, I’m used to this, and I already knew he was in a good mood, so this was all in fun for him.  A Friday night shopping trip with the missus needs a little comedy.

At his words and accent, the girl grinned from ear-to-ear.
Then I watched the line of red ring her neck and the blood flooded up and across her cheeks all the way to the hairline.  I think even the tip of her ponytail went pink.

I “scolded” Husband, saying he had made her blush.

He looked back at her and saw the beautiful smile.

She says blushing has happened all her life, but I said we can’t help what Nature gives to us.

She was still grinning as she prepped for the next customer and we wheeled our cart away.

As we were putting groceries into the trunk of the car, Husband said she will probably be smiling the rest of the night, all because some old guy said there was good service.

Yes, we had a very ordinary, old married folks kind of evening.

I hope the young clerk will also remember the scene fondly.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

Posted in Family, Partner | 3 Comments

Safe Driver

Posted on Wednesday, 4 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

for the next FOUR YEARS this is the official me

~~love and Huggs, Diane

Posted in Personal | 5 Comments

Just Saying Hello

Posted on Tuesday, 3 June 2008 by Mrs. DoF

For most people in the USA mid-West, the question “Hi, How are you?” is the usual greeting.

My husband’s response is usually “oh, ‘bout half” which throws them off enough (half of what?) so that more words aren’t needed.

One of the students I worked with in an autism class responds,  “I be fine”

Part of the lesson plan is to correct this, to use proper words of grammar, the passive verb of being

Is—Are—Was—Were—Am—Be—Been

but most of us doing the tutoring don’t have the heart to hammer down with a lesson in speech, especially when the kid rarely talks any other time.

While I was in the Ohio Valley, the greeting came often.

and so I copied from a younger person and would answer

“I be Fine”  along with a wide grin

It worked most of the time, I hardly had to give anybody any information about me, and got bunches of news from people I haven’t seen in a long time.

When someone did manage to get me talking, I’d offer the address for my weblog, or to put them on my Dear Ones E-mail List.
Once something goes here, the whole world can see and visit the archives.

It amazed me how many folks are worried about the Internet, saying “they learn all kinds of information, and someday they’ll use it against you”.

That boat done floated, honeybunch, last time you cashed your Social Security check, or called your kid’s cell phone.

Well, anyway, my current situation is recovering from whatever germ decided to use my body for its homebase, and Day 6 of 10 in a skirmish with side effects of antibiotics.

I am ever so grateful that my wonderful handyman husband snaked out the drainpipes and cleaned the bathroom while I was out of town.
I’ve been making full use of the facilities since I’ve been home.

When I get to the “I be Fine” phase again, I’ll write some more.

That is, if I can put down my crochet hook long enough.
I’m working on a blankie for a cousin’s first grandbaby.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment