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An April Day

Posted on April 16, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Spring

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March.

—Robert Frost

The past few April days have felt more like the middle of March…or even February!

The yard sale went well, though not quite as well as I’d hoped. I made about $100, Jesse made $20-something. I had come all set up for sitting in the sun, wearing a lightweight dress and having brought sunscreen — but we were freezing! We boxed up what we didn’t sell and are thinking about having another yard sale later on after we have a chance to sort through the attic. Or we might just give it all to Salvation Army — by the time you itemize it and get a receipt so you can claim it on your taxes, I think you probably come out about the same.

I thought families with boys would snap up some of the toys Jesse was selling, but I kept hearing parents say things like, “You have enough toys!” I understand that feeling, too! It’s funny what we get sentimental about — Jesse had about four “army sets” as we called them. One of them looked like a big tank from the outside but folded out into a flat playset for army men and Hot Wheels type tanks, etc., with little hills, turrets, roads, etc. He spent so many hours playing with those spread out all over the living room floor. I thought about saving them for grandkids some day — they are just neat play sets that I don’t think anyone makes any more, plus one day they might think it is neat to play with something that was their dad’s. But I was torn, so I didn’t say anything. Only one sold at first, so I thought we might get to keep the rest. But the last three sold in the last 15 minutes. 😦 Oh, well — I try to remind myself they are just things and hang on to the memories. One friend said it signified “the end of an era,” and I guess that’s part of it — knowing that my youngest is growing out of favorite toys.

I wrestle some times with saving for posterity vs. keeping sentimental things. We really don’t have much in the way of mementos from either side of our family, and I’d like to keep some special things for posterity. But I try not to keep anything that I don’t really think anyone will be interested in or that might break down over time — I figure it would be better for someone to go ahead and enjoy that now, so I give it away. And I remember my kids weren’t much interested in boxes of faded old toys at grandparents’ houses, so I only keep things in great condition that might be timeless in its appeal.

The fellowship also went well. There were a few less than usual, but it was “cozy.” I think our new youth pastor is doing a great job with the kids. His new wife was away for the weekend, and I had been looking forward to having her over, so I was a little disappointed there, but my friend Carol came over for a little while — she teaches first grade and usually just hangs out in her classroom while her kids are at fellowships since she lives too far to make it worth going home and coming back in that time period, so I told her she was welcome to come if she wanted to. So it was good to “visit” a little. 🙂 Before she became a teacher here we used to volunteer once a week at the school, and I really enjoyed working with her and getting to know her — I’ve missed our visits!

I told myself with all the busy-ness of the last week that I was giving myself today “off,” so I am sitting back enjoying my nice clean house and catching up on e-mail and blog-reading. While I was in the shower I was looking at the freshly-painted ceiling and thinking, “We ought to have people over more often!” Not for a while, though — we both need to recuperate! I wish Jim could have taken off today — I don’t know when he’s going to have time to do taxes.

I usually keep up pretty well with the regular weekly housework — meals, dishes, laundry, bathrooms, floors, etc. — and an almost-weekly “extra” job thanks to tackle-it-Tuesday. But somehow I need to incorporate some of the “extra” jobs into a regular routine so we’re not having to catch up on everything before company comes. Yet I don’t like a real rigid system, like every first week of the month this and this are done, etc.

After I got out of the shower this morning, I started having pretty bad muscles spasms in my back. I don’t know if I wrenched something this morning or if this is the result of working the last few days. After an Absorbine Jr. patch, ibuprofen, and a heating pad I am able to move a little better (did you know that when you blow your nose you use muscles in your back? I never knew that until blowing my nose sent a spasm across my already-spasming back!) I guess it is a good thing I hadn’t planned anything for today!

Walking Through the Flames

Posted on April 16, 2007 by Barbara Harper

A young woman’s faith in the midst of finding out she had a brain tumor* reminded me of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s faith. They knew God could deliver them from the fiery furnace in and they resolved to believe in Him even if He didn’t. Since then a song has been running through my mind based on that passage in Daniel 3.

“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).

Walking Through the Flames by Jeanine Drylie (words are here):

*I originally had links to her blog, but it is no longer online.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Hobby

Posted on April 14, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Theme: Hobby | Become a Photo Hunter | View Blogroll

It’s been a busy day — and I am late with my photo hunt!

Needlework has been one of my favorite hobbies, and this piece was one of my favorite pieces to do. I made it before Jeremy was born, 22 years ago.

Here is a close-up of the detail I love about this piece. I don’t know if it will show up well, but the little iced cookies are raised and the little cupcakes have french knot icing. I love the stitching for the grass and fringe on the blanket as well.

It’s kind of sad that the boys have outgrown it and there is no place for it in the house now. I hope when the grandkids come along to have a room for them when they come over, so it will be back up then. 🙂

Most of the needlework I have done had been cross stitch, but most of that has been for gifts. I haven’t done any kind of needlework in ages — I wonder how well I’d be able to see it now.

One of my favorite hobbies has always been reading, as represented by two of our four bookcases:

You can see to the side there evidence of one of Jason’s hobbies, golfing, though he hasn’t done much of it since getting out of high school.

And finally, one of my favorite new hobbies is computing. This is where I visit with all of you. 🙂

Stray thoughts

Posted on April 13, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Did you know there is a National Association for Information Destruction? Jesse and I were sitting in the car at a red light on the way to school this morning when a truck with that association’s logo pulled up beside us. The truck was from a company that sheds secure documents. I don’t know why, but the name of that association struck me funny — identity theft and the need to destroy certain documents are serious, of course — but having an association for destroying information sounded like an arm of the KGB or a militant anti-intellectual organization or something. 😀

I have to “brag on” my husband today. I mentioned earlier this week that we have a school-sponsored yard sale coming up this Saturday and we’re having the junior high part of the youth group from church coming over for a fellowship Sunday night. He took Thursday off to help me with some of those tasks that are hard for me to do. For instance, since TM, I can’t be on my knees for more than a few seconds. I can physically get on my knees, but then an odd sensation sort of like hitting your funny bone shoots through my knees. It’s hard to describe it — it’s not painful — but it’s disturbing, and every instinct is screaming, “Make it stop!!” So, I can sweep and mop, but sometimes the floors just need a hands-and-knees scrubbing. Jim did the kitchen floors, then cleaned the floor and everything in the half-bathroom except the toilet, getting one area around the faucet of the sink cleaner than I have been able to even with straight bleach. Then he went to the other bathroom — that one, for some reason, particularly attracts mold even though we have an outlet fan that we use during showers to reduce the humidity in there. The shower comes clean easily with Tilex, but there were areas around the tops of the door frames that weren’t coming clean for me. Jim tried to clean it, but decided it needed to be repainted. Some of the paint had been blistering and all of the woodwork just needed freshening up. So he ended up painting the doors, frames, baseboards, and cabinet — not something on the to-do list, but it has been needing attention and look so nice!! There’s nothing like a fresh coat of paint.

At one point when he was on his hands and knees scrubbing, he asked me if I was going to take his picture and post it for a Works-For-Me Wednesday. 😀

Overall, conquering the to-do list is going well. It really did help to make a master list and look for things that could be done ahead of time. Maybe after about 30 years of being an adult I am finally learning how to do this kind of thing. 🙂 I just know that these days I can’t stay up til two in the morning in a cleaning frenzy the night before an event.

This has reminded me of a funny story from our early married days. We were having the youth group over after church — this was probably our first time ever doing so — and, of course, the usual furious cleaning had occurred the day before. During the fellowship while they were singing, I noticed I had accidentally left my can of Pledge and dustcloth on top of the bookshelf, which wasn’t that bad in itself, but my dustrag had been an old pair of my husband’s underwear with the Fruit-of-the-Loom stripe very visible. I was mortified. But to go to it and remove it at that point would have drawn attention to it, so I left it and hoped no one would notice. No one said anything. 🙂 It’s funny but now it grosses me out to even think about using old underwear to dust or clean — that stuff gets tossed when it outlives it usefulness nowadays.

I’ve also learned through the years that I usually don’t get everything on my list done, so I’ve learned to prioritize. It doesn’t look like I am going to get my curtains up, unfortunately. The fabric I ordered just arrived two days ago. I usually wash fabrics before cutting or sewing them, but the recommended care for this is dry cleaning — will they dry clean fabric on a roll? I don’t know.

I don’t think I’ll be doing the Friday Feast today. It wouldn’t take long to do, but these interactive memes are supposed to be….well…interactive. I really can’t take the time today to go visit around the other participants, so I’d probably better sit this one out. It’s funny how you sort of get to know different people who participate in the different weekly memes — I’ll miss my regular stops and the wave hello. Maybe if my day goes well and I get a lot done, I’ll be able to do it later on.

I’m off to peruse my Bloglines list, then it’s back to work. Have a good day!

Booking Through Thursday: Where Does the Time Go?

Posted on April 13, 2007 by Barbara Harper

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is:

Have you ever missed an important appointment because you have become so engrossed in a book you forgot the time or were up so late reading that you didn’t wake up in time? Been late to work because you couldn’t resist the temptation and left the house too late?

I don’t think I have ever missed an appointment completely because of reading, but I have made myself run late a few times because I was reluctant to put a book down. I’ve also stayed up too late reading, then was tired the next day, then needed a nap and so wasn’t as productive as I should have been. I try to avoid doing that — but for some books it is just worth it. 😀

Thursday Thirteen: More One-Liners

Posted on April 12, 2007 by Barbara Harper

1. One good turn gets all the blankets.

2. Write all complaints legibly in this space –> [ ]

3. My friend got the Amish flu. First she got a little hoarse…then she got a little buggy.

4. If a book about failure doesn’t sell, is it a success?

5. For every action here is an equal and opposite criticism.

6. Two of the biggest problems in America are making ends meet and making meetings end.

7. It’s becoming more and more difficult to support the government in the style to which it has become accustomed.

8. Warning: Dates in calendar are closer than they appear.

9. A closed mouth gathers no foot.

10. Don’t judge a book by its movie.

11. TV news people have the hardest job in the world — trying to cram 10 minutes of news into an hour long show.

12. I misplaced my dictionary. Now I’m at a loss for words.

13. Here at First National, you’re not just a number: you’re two numbers, a dash, three more numbers, another dash, and another number.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Prayer request

Posted on April 11, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I just read this afternoon that Heather, mother of the Emma Grace whose “Pray for Emma Grace” buttons you may have seen around, has just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. I know the whole family would appreciate your prayers.

A question for those with eye problems

Posted on April 11, 2007 by Barbara Harper

A few years ago at an annual eye exam I was told I was just on the verge of needing reading glasses. Before my next yearly check-up, I experienced two days of sudden double vision. I was told after having transverse myelitis that there was a 20% chance of it turning into multiple sclerosis, so I was really concerned about this vision problem having to do with the optic nerve. Dashed off to the eye dr., and he said the optic nerve was fine, I just needed trifocals. Trifocals? When less than a year before I was only on the verge of needing reading glasses? I kept trying to stress that this wasn’t something that crept up but rather happened suddenly. He was convinced it probably was happening all along but I had just noticed it. 🙄

I didn’t have a lot of confidence in that diagnosis, so I didn’t get the glasses. I’m not opposed to getting glasses, I just didn’t think this diagnosis was accurate. The blurry double vision lasted for a couple of days, went away for a couple of weeks, then returned. I had seen my personal family dr. in the meantime for something else but mentioned this. My eye dr. happened to be someone he knew and had confidence in, so he trusted his diagnosis, but sent me to an ophthalmologist. That dr. told me I had an astigmatism. I wasn’t sure that was right, either. I didn’t want to get prescription glasses for a problem that only occurred occasionally, and I wondered why no one considered there might be other non-glasses related problems that might be occurring.

I saw the ophthalmologist again less than a year ago for a regular check-up. My eyes weren’t blurry then, and I had 20/20 vision.

But the double vision and blurriness come and go. My eyesight in general had gotten worse — I use little Wal-Mart reading glasses generally to read but can’t wear them all the time because everything else is blurry when I have them on.

The double vision is occurring again today. It’s good I wasn’t planning to do much blogging today!!

So I guess my question is — does this happen to anyone else? I know that after passing the mid-40s eyesight begins to wane anyway. And it does seem to occur more when I am tired or haven’t had enough sleep, but I haven’t really kept track enough to say that always affects it.

Works For Me Wednesday: Shower Curtain Repair

Posted on April 10, 2007 by Barbara Harper

When your shower curtain develops a little tear like this:

You can take a few inches of clear plastic packaging tape, put the first few inches over the tear on one side like this:

Then fold the tape over to the other side and smooth out. Use a hole punch to make a hole for the shower curtain holder-upper, insert said holder-upper, and — voila!

Almost good as new.

See Rocks In My Dryer for more tips or to share yours.

Easter Day

Posted on April 8, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Hope you had a blessed Easter Day! Ours was very nice.

A few days ago I posted a recipe for Resurrection Rolls, but didn’t have a picture. I thought I’d post a picture of one from today. They didn’t get as “poofy” as usual, and this picture turned out blurrier than I thought when I took it, but you get the idea.

My husband played around with it and took some photos on black fabric. I like the way the light behind it looks like it’s coming from inside.

I think young kids would particularly like these, but our guys still like them, too, so they’ve become an Easter tradition.

We have another tradition that didn’t exactly start out as a tradition. No one likes hard-cooked eggs (except maybe for a deviled egg or two), so we never did the egg-dyeing. I kind of hate that my kids never did that, but it seemed a waste to do all of that when no one liked to eat them. I think I used to put candy in the little plastic eggs, but later just dumped it in the Easter basket. One years my husband decided to do an Easter Egg hunt with money in the eggs, mostly coins. I’m not sure why — maybe it was just spontaneous. But the kids have asked for it every year since. It was funny this morning — Jeremy and Jason (22 and 19) asked if we were doing that again this year, saying things like, “Well, of course, we really do it for Jesse.” 🙂

We traditionally do the hunt after Sunday afternoon dinner — though I think sometimes we’ve done it after Sunday evening church. It was in the 30s this morning, but warmed up a little in the afternoon, so it was a pleasant day. Here are a few pictures from “the hunt.”

Starting point:

Some are hidden on the ground, under leaves, in the drainspout, etc., but Jim does put some in unusual places:

By the way — that’s a scenic view of my neighbor’s junk pile, isn’t it? That’s what I see from my place at the dining room table. I’d like to plant a tree in the line of vision.

One year we were running short of plastic eggs, and Jim dashed out to the store at the last minute. The regular pastel ones were all out, but he found these:

Seems a little strange to see Spiderman on Easter! 🙂

Here’s part of Jeremy’s collection. At some point they stop and count so Jim can tell them how many are left. He’s actually started keeping a list of where he put them because in previous years he’s have a hard time remembering the last few.

Jason finds the last one:

Everyone counting up their finds:

Jeremy’s shirt, in case you’re wondering, says, “Maybe if this shirt is witty enough, someone will finally love me.” 🙂

When we were first married, I was pretty anti-everything related to holidays that wasn’t directly related spiritually. But one year I heard someone whom I highly respected explain the Christian versions of the symbols like the egg. So I realized that Christians could use those things in good conscience. I didn’t agree, necessarily, that it was right for us to do, at first, but I realized it was one of those things Christians could differ on and still love each other. 😀 Then one year when the kids were small, I thought about Easter baskets and decided there was nothing in the world wrong with them. And somewhere along the way, I began to realize that all of springtime is a picture of the resurrection, as the Martin Luther quote I posted a few days ago mentioned. So I relaxed about it all a lot. 🙂

We still don’t do the Easter bunny, though. That never quite made sense to me. And I don’t like how people in public will ask kids, “What’s the Easter Bunny bringing you?” as if it were a springtime version of Santa Claus. We don’t exchange gifts — I think I used to put little toys, pencils, and stuffed animals in the boys baskets, but overall it was pretty simple.

On that note, I had a laugh his morning. Jim had put the coins in the eggs before the kids got up. When I went upstairs after breakfast, I saw an egg on my dresser in front of the jewelry box. I thought, “Oh, how sweet — he left me a little something.” We don’t usually do anything for each other for Easter. I thought maybe it was a little piece of candy or something. I picked it up and it rattled! I opened it — and there was a smaller plastic egg inside. I opened that, and there was….nothing. I laughed and told everyone about it later. Jason said, “Now you have to give her something, Dad!” No, I just thought it was funny. Come to find out Jesse had unearthed it when he was cleaning his room yesterday, and asked Jim where to put it, and Jim told him just to put it in our room. But I didn’t notice it til this morning.

One of the best parts of Easter, to me, is the reflection on Christ’s death and resurrection all through the week. Though as Christians we commemorate the resurrection every Sunday, and the resurrection is why we meet on Sundays, there’s a sense in which it is nice to have this time to really focus on it (just like we should be thankful every day, but Thanksgiving is a special time to especially remember all we have to be thankful for).

Another of the best parts of Easter is the music. We always have special music at Easter time, and it is so beautiful and uplifting. The choir tonight didn’t do a cantata, but rather a number of songs with one of our men reading selected Scripture passages in between.

I’ve posted a lot of quotes, poetry, and hymns related to Easter, and I have a few still in my files, but didn’t want to overdo it. But I think I’ll leave you with one last one.

The strife is o’er, the battle done;
The victory of life is won;
The song of triumph has begun:
Alleluia!

The powers of death have done their worst;
But Christ their legions hath dispersed;
Let shouts of holy joy outburst:
Alleluia!

The three sad days are quickly sped;
He rises glorious from the dead;
All glory to our risen Head!
Alleluia!

He closed the yawning gates of hell;
The bars from heaven’s high portals fell;
Let hymns of praise His triumphs tell!
Alleluia!

Lord, by the stripes which wounded Thee,
From death’s dread sting Thy servants free,
That we may live, and sing to Thee:
Alleluia!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Author of the words is unknown
Author of the music is Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

And for a very moving story about the power of the resurrection, see My Son, My Son! My Only Son! from The Jungle Hut, a great blog I just discovered.