Monday Morning Memories: Twenty-five

Twenty-five can seem like a big number.  Once upon a time it felt like forever.

When some things hit twenty-five they become an antique. 

Earlier in June some of us noted the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.  I remember when that happened.  I was in the hospital trying to NOT go all the way into labor. 

I could go into great detail here about the ensuing few weeks (I almost did).  If you are a Mom, you have your own stories.  If you are not a Mom, you probably are not interested in the "Mom" stories.  I'll just sum it up.

Twenty-five years ago Mr. Marvelous and I were blessed with Mr. Marvelous Jr. 

He was the biggest baby born into my family and no one is interested in beating his record of 10 pounds 9 ounces. 

He was the light of his Grandpa and Grandma's lives as he was their first and only grandchild. 

He is incredibly talented musically.

He is an avid historian, especially of western Europe.  His Grandaddy loves that about him and they can talk history for hours.

He has a gift for languages. 

He understands grace.

I am so flawed as a mother but he is very forgiving.  God has used him to teach me some very, very important lessons. 

Here is one of my favorite pictures (and the one that will get me in the least amount of trouble).

Happy Birthday son!  Thanks for giving me the gift of a life-time; that of being a mother.  Better yet, of being your mother.

Happy Friday!

Bury your face, take a nap, and have a great weekend!

Or else grab a cat, a cup of coffee, your favorite book or magazine, some Chinese chocolates, and relax.  Either way, Happy Friday!!

Rabbits

We have rabbits.  White New Zealand rabbits, to be exact.

We breed our rabbits and raise baby rabbits. 

It's a lot of fun!

 

We had a rabbit catastrophe back in the early spring and as a result we had to put down most of our rabbits, including the buck ~ Edgar ~ who was our breeder, and all the young rabbits in the grow-out hutch.  Not a pleasant task.

We still had George (she is curious about everything, that's why she is named George) and her youngest crop of babies.  They all survived and no one showed any signs of illness, so we were able to raise them and eventually *ahem* "harvest" them (or as my Dad says, give them a free ticket to the North Pole).

I worked to socialize these babies while they were still in with George because we knew we would be keeping three of them to replace the other breeders.  The day came to separate them from Mama and we chose three to go into the breeder cages and the rest went into the grow-out hutch.

We kept Woolly-Booger who is VERY fluffy.

We kept Smoochie who is rather sweet and gives me kisses (and who is named for a VERY special baby but I'm not allowed to tell you who he is or that he lives in Utah).

We kept Nellie.  Who is very nervous.

When the time came to harvest the others, I had decided that Nellie needed to be exchanged with someone in the grow-out hutch.  Nellie's disposition was frankly getting on my nerves.

We decided to check the breeders to make sure we had at least one male and one female.

Turns out they were all females!

So we went to the grow-out hutch to try and find a male.  I told Mr. Marvelous to grab a particular one who was larger than the others and sure enough, he was a he.  So he got put into Nellie's cage and Nellie.....went to the North Pole.

I thought and thought and thought about what to name that male.

Suddenly it dawned on me.

 

His name is Barabbas!

Names

It has been a while since I have shared any of my Names/Descriptions of God with you.

I am working through the book of Isaiah right now which is packed with names of God the Father as well as God the Son (look at Isaiah 53, for instance).

Here is a verse for you today:

The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, 'I will gather yet others to Him besides those already gathered'"  Isaiah 56:8

He is the Lord God.
He is the gatherer of outcasts.
And we are told two more times, He is the gatherer.

God seeks the outcasts and those considered unacceptable ~ He particularly mentions the foreigners earlier in the chapter ~ and He gathers them into His arms and into His family.

Be comforted by that Truth today!

Kitchen Window June 15, 2014

I got up early Sunday morning and when I saw my kitchen window view, I grabbed my camera.

"And God saw that the light was good."  Genesis 1:4

Monday Memories: About Okra

A number of years ago Mr. Marvelous, Mr. Marvelous Jr. and I moved to a wonderful community in the low-country of South Carolina.  The community is so small that when we moved there we caused a population gain of 10%.  It was a great place to live. 

We rented a very old farm-house from one of the most wonderful families we have ever met.  The house had been built in the early 1800's.  It had a few quirks but we enjoyed most of those quirks.  Those were the days of my wheelchair, aka The Beast.  Another wonderful family helped Mr. Marvelous construct a ramp to get me up the few front steps and into the door.  The boys would push me up the ramp and into the door and let go.  I would roll through the living room and into the dining room.  If I leaned ever-so-slightly to the left, I would roll on into the kitchen and end up at the kitchen sink.  If I leaned a bit more to the right when I hit the dining room, I would roll into the den/office/computer room and wind up right in front of the computer.  It was better than a roller-coaster!

There are so many wonderful things about a small community, and that particular community is among the best.  My parents have moved back there and we go as often as we can to visit, although that is not nearly often enough.  A number of our heroes still live there (I mean heroes besides my parents), like Mr. Ralph and Mr. Billy and many, many others. 

But lets get back to that wonderful house.  No one had lived there for a year or two, and no one had done anything with the back gardening area for even longer.  The rains had fallen, the grass had been mowed, the leaves had composted and that was Black River Swamp dirt.  Mr. Marvelous was in hog heaven!  The first time he got out there to till, he came in so happy; the dirt was so rich and black he just knew he could grow anything there....and he did!  We grew some whopper pumpkins that year, and some of the best crops of everything he could imagine. 

There was just one problem.  At the time, Mr. Marvelous was working for a company repairing machines.  The territory he had been assigned when we moved to South Carolina from Tennessee was the Savannah territory.  That is a 2 1/2 hour drive from the little farm-house.  He covered the area mostly north of Savannah, but there were times when he had to drive all the way to Jacksonville, Florida (a 4 1/2 hour drive).  So he was on the road a LOT that year.  That meant that he did not have quite as much time to maintain the garden and keep it tidy as we all would have liked.  So one day in a fit of disgust over the untidiness of the garden, I went out back and WEEDED.  I was yanking up weeds and casting them dramatically to the side.  I meant business with those weeds!  When Mr. Marvelous came home that evening, I proclaimed to him (somewhat self-righteously and probably using a martyr's tone of voice) that I had weeded his garden.

Mr. Marvelous went out back to check things out.  He was gone for a little longer than I thought necessary since after all, I had weeded the garden for him.  He finally came back to the house shaking his head and trying (unsuccessfully) not to laugh.  I waited for him to tell me how much he appreciated me weeding for him in spite of my frail condition.  I waited.  He did not say anything.  I waited some more.  He just kept shaking his head and trying not to laugh.  Finally I asked him what was so funny and why he had taken so long when I had already done all the weeding for him.

"Well", he replied, "I had to put the okra that you 'weeded' back into the ground!"

It survived.

                          But I will never live that one down!

Nor will I dare to complain that I don't care that much about okra!

Happy Friday!

I don't know quite what got me started down this rabbit trail, but yesterday evening I started searching Google for the Toccata by Charles-Marie Widor.  It is one of my favorite pieces of classical organ music. 

That's a little out of the ordinary for me because M. Widor lived from 1844 to 1937.  Normally my cut-off date for really fine music is the early 1700s (what can I say, my baroquer is G. F. Handel.....).  However when I was in college I got to be friends with the young man who was the official organist/accompanist for the school.  Robert was incredibly talented.  As I watched and listended to him play this, it became my favorite organ piece (next to Albinoni's Adagio in G minor) (and this one is happier than the Albinoni.  You're welcome).  Due to the mix of pedaling (feet) with manuals (hands), it is quite a showy piece.  Watching a good organist play this (and Robert was excellent) is entertaining.

As I mentioned, yesterday evening I got started down the rabbit trail of finding some information about this piece of music.  Like most rabbit trails, I have no idea how I started but it took me over to Youtube (which isn't really that surprising).  I found this piece by a master organist who performed the Widor at a cathedral in Newark.  It's a good one and they even show his feet periodically, which gives you a better feel for the whole of the music. 

As I was listening, I glanced over to the side panel and made a discovery.  Youtube has a recording of the composer performing this piece at the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris in April of 1932!  Not only do they have this recording, it is a pretty good recording. 

So happy Friday and here is some wonderful classical music to get the day off to a good start.

Just so you know, I really don't know much about the person who posted this, so I can not recommend their channel as something that is or is not wonderful.  I just like that he has this recording.

The Garden After Pictures

A week or so ago I confessed to the state of our garden here.  It was weedy and not very tidy (I like a tidy garden.  Mr. Marvelous thinks I'm a little obsessed)

Here are some pictures of how the garden looks after totin' and spreading out the wood chips.  Thanks again to my amazing brother The Tree Doc.

It always surprises me how quickly beans grow

These pole beans are coming along nicely too, don't you think?

Sweet potatoes!

Our favorite zephyr squash.  I've already cooked up a huge mess and shared with both my sister and the UPS driver!

We are trying melons again this year.  Every year we try.  Every year Mr. Marvelous says, "If I can't make it work this year I'm giving up on melons!"  Every year we try again.  I love his persistence!

I didn't know how much I love peas until this past winter.

Okra.  One day I'll tell you a story about me and okra.
 

We have been trying to grow artichokes for five years and it looks like this just might be the year we are successful.  I'm very excited about this!

Here is an over all view of the front with wood chips and some healthy plants.  We'll be digging up potatoes pretty soon. 

There now.  Isn't that a prettier, tidier garden?!

My Kitchen Window June 9, 2014

"Zed, we have a bug"

That's what it looks like to me anyway.  

I'm not a big fan of bugs.

Light falling on trees however, makes my day

That is not a reflection from anything in the kitchen, that's just how God made the sun shine that evening.  Lovely, isn't it?

Monday Memories: When Is My Birthday??

The summer I turned five my mother went to register me for kindergarten.  I am sure she did it with a sigh of relief; I am the youngest of five and I imagine there was a sense of impending freedom.  As I understand it, the conversation with the nice teacher at the registration desk went something like this:

Nice Teacher: Good morning Mrs. Reed, I see you are ready to bring us your last one.  What is her date of birth?

Mother: Good morning.  Her birthday is June the sixth.

Nice Teacher: Thank you.  Now, let's get this paperwork filled out.  Did you bring a copy of her birth certificate for us?

Mother:  Yes, here it is.

Nice Teacher: Very good.  Thank you. 


Nice Teacher:  Uhm.  Mrs. Reed, when did you say her birthday is?

Mother:  June the sixth.

Nice Teacher:  You mean June the eighth.

Mother:  No, it is June the sixth.

Nice Teacher:  No, it is June the eighth.


Mother: I think I know when my children's birthdays are; it is June the sixth.

Nice Teacher: Mrs. Reed, according to this birth certificate, it seems to be June the eighth.

Mother: Red-faced silence.


Over the years we have celebrated it sometimes on the sixth, sometimes on the eighth, and once on the tenth (or was that the twelfth?).

Then there was the dreadful eighteenth birthday.  No one said anything, so I assumed that everyone was planning a big surprise party for me.  My boyfriend at the time (not Mr. Marvelous) (Thank you, Lord, for delivering me from that one!) (and all my family just said a loud, hearty, "AMEN").  Where were we?  Oh yes, my boyfriend at the time was traveling, but he sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  Mother and one of my sisters came home from shopping and we had this conversation:

Mother: Oh, what beautiful flowers!

Me (smiling): yes, they are, aren't they?!

Mother (looking through them and smelling them): Is there a card?  Who sent me these??

Me (not smiling): My boyfriend sent them.

Mother (confused): He sent me flowers??

Me (not smiling at all): No, he sent me flowers.

Mother (really confused): Oh, well, why did he send you flowers??

Me (REALLY not smiling): Maybe because it is my birthday and I turned eighteen today?!

Mother: red-faced silence

I don't think that really qualified as a slammed door to my bedroom, I think I just closed it a little harder than usual.

She did hurry to the store at that point to get a watermelon (that's another story).

Ah, birthdays!

It's a family joke now, and I don't worry about offending Mother by telling this story because Mother and computers....well, let's just leave it at I don't worry.

But whenever it may happen to be (and I think it was the eighth), thanks Mom!  Thanks for putting up with carrying me for nine long months when you had four other monkeys to deal with.  Thanks for the long nights during those early years.  Thanks for putting up with me when the hormones hit (and boy did they ever!).  Thanks for the years of patience, the kindness, the love, and the heritage of faith.  Thanks for persevering in teaching me the Word of God, teaching me to pray, teaching me my catechism (painful process though it was!).  Thanks for teaching me to be a lady, a wife and a mother.  Thanks for all of it.  Whether you remember my birthday on the actual day or not, you are the world's greatest Mom!

Yeah, that's me at five. 

Happy Friday!

What's on your agenda for the weekend?

A little work?

Enjoying the fruits of that work?

Maybe some time to stop and enjoy these?

 Perhaps a relaxing time cooling off in the "Porch Pool"?

  Whatever it may look like for you, enjoy it!              

God's peace to your homes.          

About Lettuce

It was a challenging winter for Mr. Marvelous.

1. There was the back injury (a dislocated rib) that had him down for six weeks in November and December.  
2. That was followed by a bout of mycoplasma pneumoniae.
3. Let's not forget the knee injury on the ladder.
4. Interspersed between all this was his regular and routine bouts of sinusitis which usually turns into either bronchitis or pneumonia (it's a toss-up each time). 
5. He had to go to Wisconsin on two separate occasions for work
6. Oh yeah, it was one of the hardest, longest, coldest winters that this area has had in quite a while.

Normally winters are hard for him because he can't get out and work in his garden.  This year, even if he had wanted to, he wasn't in very good physical shape to do much.

I did ask him to start some lettuce for me under the grow-lights in the basement.  I figured that would accomplish two things.  It would let me have some lettuce for salad, and it would let him get his hands in the dirt a little bit.

So one January evening when he was feeling moderately healthy, he went down in the basement, got out the aluminum pans and the potting soil, and planted some lettuce seed for me.

See? These really are not just for lasagna

We turned on the grow-lights and waited.

We faithfully watered the pans and waited.

We waited.  And waited.  And waited!  And nothing happened.

Finally in late February, Mr. Marvelous gave up on the lettuce and started some other seeds.

By the way, have you priced potting soil lately?  It's ridiculous!  We can't afford to waste it, so when seeds don't germinate, we dump the dirt back into the bag and re-use it for other pots.

By April we were noticing something peculiar in amongst some of the seedlings. We giggled a bit.

We even started finding some in the bag of potting soil!

Then we looked around the garden where we had transplanted some things from the pots.

I guess it finally germinated.  We have a lovely crop now!

Now if the tomatoes and cucumbers and carrots would just hurry along.....

Walkabout Wednesday: May Totals and Stargazing

I am pleasantly surprised to be able to tell you that I had NO pedometer glitches in the month of May.  My grand total for May was one hundred thirty-six and ninety-eight one hundredths of a mile.  That's 136.98, but as usual it feels like more when I write it out.

That takes me to two thousand four hundred six and ninety-nine hundredths (2406.99) documented miles so far for this trip, which puts me right about at the Palomar Observatory (link to Wikipedia article).

Given my propensity for star-gazing, are you really surprised that I stopped there?! 

Photo from UCSD.edu

Have you ever wondered where Steven Spielberg got his idea for R2-D2?  I'm pretty sure it came from this telescope!

The Palomar Observatory (link to CalTech website) is operated by CalTech University.  Construction was started in 1938 and it took ten years to complete since a World War happened right after it was started.  The web page to the CalTech article has a wonderful feature here for star-gazing nerds like myself to be able to "use" the telescope from home.  Very nice of them, and VERY much appreciated by me.

Here are a few pictures of the view from the telescope.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Photo Courtesy of NSF.gov

Photo of the Andromeda Galaxy courtesy of Scriptphd.com

The Pleiades Constellation  Photo: NASA and Palomar

There are a lot more images available here if you are as fascinated by them as I am. 

The View From My Kitchen Window: June 2, 2014

My dishwasher is on it's last few washes.  I don't want to pay for a new one, so I only use it to wash my jars before canning.  That means that everything else (and I do mean everything) gets washed in the sink by hand. 

It is not really a big deal to me to wash my dishes by hand.  Most of the time.

My mother used to do the same thing.  I remember how she would prop a hymn book in the kitchen window above the sink and sing her way through doing dishes.

Last Wednesday I was getting ready to wash dishes and remembered my Mom doing this.  Then I remembered that the pastor was teaching the book of Ephesians that evening at church.  I had wanted to re-read the book before going to church.  So I did this.

Thanks Mom!

We're moving on to Philippians this week. 

I'm looking forward to washing dishes this summer!

Monday Memories: A Shooting Star

I had four wonderful Grandparents and I treasure the heritage they have passed on to my siblings and my cousins and me.

One year my sisters and I got to go spend several days with my Granny and Grandaddy (my Dad's parents) in Weaverville, North Carolina.  It was a fun place to go stay.  Their home was so close to one of my Aunt Janet that we could walk down the street and around the corner and be there.  Between Aunt Janet (the "fun" aunt) and Granny and Grandaddy, we were spoiled rotten that week.  Even better, there were cousins to play with ~ as long as Scott didn't get too close with that snake he had!

One evening Granny needed to check on a friend and take her a meal, so we all piled in the car to ride with them.  It was late at night ~ probably after 6:00 pm! ~ and I was sleepy.  Grandaddy told us to watch out the window and we might see a shooting star.  Right on cue, one went streaking across the sky.  It was the first shooting star I ever saw, and I have never forgotten that moment.  I'm not sure whether I was more excited about really getting to see one, or if my Grandparents were more excited that they got to show me the first one I ever saw.

Now every time I go out at night to look at the stars and hope to see a meteor, I think about my Grandparents and what a gift from God they continue to be to me and all their grandchildren.  I hope and pray that I will be that kind of grandparent to my own one-day grandchildren.