turning thirteen

 To quote  Nathaniel Hawthorne,  "Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind." In a decade plus three years, the shadows left behind are nothing short of beautiful memories in regard to Charlotte. 

   I am blessed to be her mother. 

Happy Birthday to my most favorite thirteen year old!

daybook/photo gallery

Outside: If there could be a lovelier spring day it is beyond my scope of imagination, even though we have had comparable ones. Yet the demand to see, listen, feel, and smell is not far from me as I enjoy the open windows and spend times outside.

Thinking: I should be doing something other than this blog post. The days are hard to catch these days, I pursue my moments like a fisherman on the open sea eager to bring in his supply of daily fish.

In the kitchen: Now in this place, besides the daily ministrations of preparing and cooking nourishing, healthy meals for my family, I hone my baking skills using sourdough starter and freshly milled flours. I crave the taste of lentils most days. So a soup of lentils and kale, a variation from a recipe found here.
The sourdough starter is one given by a friend with an accompanying recipe for friendship bread. I decided to experiment and make this starter truly my own; I feed it simply with water and flour. This past week I baked a loaf of banana bread using this leavening and my wheat flour. It was  quick and delicious.

Charlotte and I eat lunch outside these days. Today a lunch of lettuce gifted to me by Claire picked from her garden. I threw in some organic spinach, tomatoes, raspberries, cucumbers, and lentils. This dressing is my favorite at this time. Do you ever get like that too, something becomes your favorite for a season? Here is the recipe:
1/2 shallot
juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon each of fresh chives, parsley, and oregano
1/3 cup olive oil

Sewing:
Another spacious place, a place it seems I can't get enough of, yet I "getalong" nicely. This is a smocked tea cozy, perhaps a form of manipulating fabric would be another name for this type of work.  I am presently sewing buttonholes on a diaper shirt, and I just cut out an infant summer dress, panties, and hat in a tiny gingham of the prettiest shade of turquoise which will be trimmed with orange rick rack.

her little head

She came for a visit the week before Mother's Day, for an entire week. Rose would bring her to me in the morning and I would have the unspeakable delight of cuddle time.

Ivy Elizabeth will be venturing to the beach next week, and I want to be sure her little head is adorned not only in prudence and mother wit, but cuteness too. This baby sunbonnet pattern is a free pattern found here.  

satisfying a peanut butter cookie craving

I had a craving that would not cease, so I gave in and baked a batch of peanut butter cookies. I slightly altered the recipe I found. They calmed the peanut butter craving bug that was gnawing at me. This should curve the craving quite some time...I hope.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
 Cream these together and add:
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
In a separate bowl, whisk together:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Stir dry ingredients into the butters.
Fold in:
1 cup *Reeses* chocolate peanut butter chips
Roll into about 1-1/2' balls and place on a baking sheet with a non stick baking mat.
Flatten the balls. I used my fingers.
Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.

praying and knitting

 I like to think of myself as being an ongoing student in the school of prayer. Simply put," Lord, teach me to pray", and He does. Thankfully, there are excellent books at my fingertips to ponder and pray through as I read them, and there have been many prayer mentors and partners through the years that have directly influenced my prayer journey.  The other day I remembered I owned this little gem of a book by Watchman Nee. So I pulled it off the shelf to reread for what probably is the fourth or fifth time. Don't you just love books of this magnitude? We can talk about the need of prayer, but as its title says, let us pray.

And while at a Precept Bible Training one weekend back in April, I just happened upon a yarn shop tucked in a corner of downtown Cary. Its wooded floors and  beautiful yarns stacked in square wooden bins literally invites a knitter in, as if a knitter needs an invitation to browse a yarn shop! And appropriately, the shop's name is Warm and Fuzzy. While there I selected a Quince & Co. yarn (Chickadee)in the Belize colorway. To my way of thinking at that moment a simple shawl seemed  desirable for a spring project, thus it took minimal effort to choose Piper's Journey shawl by Paula Emmons-Fuessle. I am enjoying knitting this shawl immensely.

It is good to be joining up with Ginny and her Wednesday yarn along today.

in like a lamb...

March arrived, and on the tenth day our treasured newborn lamb was born.

   
         I traversed the highways and interstates two days before her birth. Even with Rose desperately wanting me there, she couldn't contain the niggling thought that came to be voiced,
"What if the baby doesn't come by next week and you must return home?" 

 "No worries Rose, it is truly one day at a time. The Lord has me here now for these very moments."

Baby Ivy Elizabeth waited until her time in the womb was fulfilled and then she joined us in our  wide-opened world. Life has changed, never to be the same again.

a time for every purpose

a.m.

noon

mid-afternoon

I am still in spirit this third day of March.  I consider myself a lady-in-waiting, or a Grandma-to-be in waiting is perhaps the best and most accurate description. After this past weekend, everything on the calendar was accomplished. The precious one has not arrived, so  for now we wait... alongside my very anxious daughter and her even more highly anxious husband. It gives wonderful across the miles telephone conversations each and every day. The plan is when we get the phone call to be in the car within 30 minutes to make the five hour drive in order for me to be with her during the hard labor and delivery. I advise her to  keep busy, plant pansies, make cookies, walk around the library or browse a bookstore, just keep yourself distracted from the obvious. How I recall those days before the birth of each of my children, but I especially think the firstborn has a unique place in that long wait. Time, particularly times of waiting, have such marvelous purpose.

sewing...
     There were a handful of scraps left over from the quilt I made for the baby, so I today they were used  to sew a patched pillow.

reading...
       Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin,  an excellent book of which you can hear an audio sample here.  I hope to lead a Bible study for women in the future.

cooking...(see photo above)
          Green lentils with homemade sauerkraut, this was lunch. I plan to blog about fermenting certain foods in upcoming posts.

housekeeping...
            Cleaned out the two kitchen cupboards that contain my glassware. And keeping up with laundry on a daily basis because we truly do not know when we will get "the call", and something unnerves me about leaving a hamper full of dirty clothes since I will be gone for a week to stay with Rose and new baby.


thinking... 
         Daddy would be 90 years old today. He was buried five years ago yesterday. What I remember the most is standing by the graveside holding on to my two daughters. I vividly remember the poignancy of the moment, how it was not my husband or my brothers or sister that I wanted to hold onto, but my two daughters who had walked this fragile path of caring for him with me during a part of their girlhood. 

a smocked daygown

Fresh and brand-new she will be when she travels home from the hospital in this fresh and brand new smocked daygown made especially for her with love and prayers swimming around in every available space in my heart.

I used the Missy pattern by Children's Corner constructed in a white batiste.

The little miss will be adorned lovingly in her matching knitted pink sweater and bonnet  since she must travel home in style.

"Babies are such a nice way to start people"

                                                                                                       Don Herold

now the sweet bonnet...yarnalong

 It seemed the only proper thing to do upon the completion of the sweater was to knit the matching bonnet for her soon-to-be-born-sweet head. After all it was such a fun project to knit, and the sweater is adorable. So I picked up my #5 needles and the Bernat Softee Baby yarn and began knitting once again. I love the addition of the softest 1/4" pink silk ribbon  woven through the eyelet knit holes.  I am flagging this pattern  as a favorite knitted baby set, especially for little girls. Therefore, I am giving kudos to it once again on this weeks 

yarn along with all of you.

My family is back to "normal" once again after a flurry of family visits and other activities of the past week and a half. But I did find the time to pull my Lenten books off the book shelf. This book, written by Walter Wangerin, Jr., is a new one I purchased last year but never read. I look forward to this being a part of our family Lent devotions as I do like what I have read in the introduction thus far.  During my own personal quiet time this morning I revisited this excellent book by Nancy Guthrie. 

I do love this season.

...to the uttermost

It has only been thirteen days, but we have packed the days as full as we could...to the uttermost. That is where I imagine that Alan is returning to in the clandestine places of my heart, to a uttermost region of the world. I have never been to Taiwan where Alan lives.

But I am extremely thankful for these past thirteen days that we have had to just be with him, to sit and drink potfuls of tea, times of laughter and great chatter, moments of sitting quietly being nourished by familial closeness, visits from family and friends, praying around tables and in circles at special gatherings, comings and goings. We are storing up to the uttermost gladsome memories until Alan will return to us again.

It seemed as if time stopped for a awhile as routine somewhat ceased, but isn't that silly? Time rushes on and we struggle with his short visits end. Yet, we are tremendously thrilled he can continue to pursue his dreams, and make a difference in the world even if that means in a foreign land.

Charlotte has been carefully learning world geography for the past two years. At the end of this year she is preparing to draw and label the entire world including continents, countries, oceans and seas all correctly recorded. She drew Asia this past week. 

"Charlotte, years ago, yet not that many years ago, missionaries such as Hudson Taylor and Lottie Moon had to travel on a boat on this route to get to China", I stated as I traced my finger on the flat map.

 Coursing through my mind and onto the tongue I hear myself say, " And they did not have *Skype*or *Line* either. They were not able to see their relatives or friends or hear their voices for years. It would possibly even take months to hear from the folks back home in letter form."

 Thankful I am for technology on this day in February.

We watched him head to the gate this late afternoon.

thursday

I joined a bridge club this past summer. I am finding that bridge is suffering from a lack of youth these days.  Unless the next generation's interest can be piqued to learn how to play bridge, the bridge games and clubs of yesterday might just fade away. A wonderful group of ladies welcomed me into their club and are patiently teaching me the fun and challenge of playing bridge. I do find it challenging, therefore the brain stimulation is excellent for me. We meet one Thursday afternoon a month and play for about two hours. Finally, I am the youngest one in a group again!

And we picked Alan up from the airport last night! He has been living in Taiwan for the past 21 months. I am truly grateful for technology allowing us to "see" him regularly. He is taking an afternoon nap at the present. His schedule will be off for a couple of days until jet lag has been conquered. For two whole weeks he will be with us!