Extra Hours

I am the typical winter gardener: devour garden books, order seeds, sketch out [un]realistic garden plans. One entire shelf on our bookshelf is garden books, most of which I re-read each year - at least parts of them. This year, I have a new favorite, The Four Season Farm Gardener's Cookbook, by Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman. The first half is how-to garden basics, the second half, how to cook what you grow. Lots of yummy photos of recipes I look forward to cooking. Remember that post I wrote about eating a daily rainbow? Lots of colorful ideas toward that in this book.

This weekend we switch to Daylight Saving Time (did you know it is Daylight Saving not Daylight Savings? I didn't).

Did you know a big impetus behind it was lobbied by gardeners? In March of 1918, during World War I and facing shortages of food, the National War Garden Commission worked to extend the clocks ahead every spring to allow for more food production in home gardens, as it gave gardeners an extra hour of sunlight when they got home from work. "In materials published after the war, the commission proudly stressed how effective that extra hour of light during the gardening season had been. By multiplying all those extra hours over the course of a year by the number of war gardeners (more than five million by their estimate), they came up with the stupendous total of 900 million hours of gardening gained every year thanks to daylight saving time." The Four Season Gardener's Cookbook, Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman. The Victory Gardens of World War II were even more successful, estimated at 20 million gardens planted.

"So, if you set aside a small plot of your land [or patio or balcony] and spend an hour at the end of those long summer days growing food, you can feel a kinship with the many patriotic gardeners of years past."

                                                                                  - Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman

There is a lot of debate as to the value of Daylight Saving Time. Many do not like the upheaval it creates in schedules: farmers, the travel industry, equipment with scheduled operations, and many others experience complications and confusion.

For the home gardener, it is a blessing. More time to work outside creating and enjoying the process of a productive, beautiful garden. We do not have the shortages of wartime, but producing our own food is an important skill to have, for health reasons, especially.

It is too early to plant outside here and in many other parts of the country. We had a low of seven degrees a couple nights ago, and snow yesterday. In a couple of weeks I can start seedlings in the basement under fluorescent lights, and a few weeks after that, plant frost tolerant seeds outside.

For now, those longer evening hours of sunlight will be for yard clean-up and walks with the dogs. Come the baking hot days of summer, in those extra late evening hours, it will be a relief to work outside in the garden, in the cooler air and the peach golden sunset glow.

(photos from last year's garden)

1,000 Gifts, Page Two

Somewhere along last October, I stopped counting.

Those months, all those wonderful, delightful, surprising, sometimes ridiculously ordinary things I could have jotted down in my One Thousand Gifts list slipped under the bridge and away on the current of never ending ripples. Gone.

Did you ever play Pooh Sticks? Two buddies each drop a stick off the upstream edge of a bridge, then run to the other side to see whose stick crosses by first. We still do it as adults (or adult sized bodies, anyway) whenever we're on a walk and cross a bridge over a stream. Grab sticks, toss them in. Debate whether it was the current or the weight of the stick or a superior toss that created the fastest stick. While the sticks float on downstream, beyond us.

In January, starting up the list again was my number one to-do. My mom gave me a slim little journal for Christmas, and I decided it was perfect for a fresh start with my list. A fresh start, with an open heart, a hands-out welcome of life's events and beauty and emotions floating by.

My goal is to write at least three each day. Normally, once I start, more ideas come, the gratefulness flows.

In hindsight, it is with great effort that I attempt to remember. I think part of the reason I let it go for so long,  I felt I had to catch up. To remember all that I forgot to remember. That did not happen, of course. I finally realized (yes, I am slow) that I needed to start today - that day. To write down the day's gifts, to pay attention today, to unwrap the blessings and joy and moments, small and great that reveal the Lord's love for me, for those in our home and family. Today.

"There are a hundred touches of kindness that come to us every day to tell us that we are not orphans or outcasts upon the earth. Every trace of order, every gleam of beauty, every provision of bounty in the natural world is an evidence that  it is God's house."

                                                                                    The Friendly Year, Henry Van Dyke

I want to feel and understand and see the moment before it slips under the bridge, downstream, out of sight, beyond memory. This is how I want to live.

For Christmas, our daughter made me a gratefulness scarf. She took a lightweight white scarf, pulled up my list from the tab at the top of this blog, and with a Sharpie, copied items from my list.

When I put it on, it is like wrapping myself in a prayer shawl, in a visual reminder to see and listen and understand and pay attention. A reminder of all the wonder in my life. And I need those reminders.

To see my new list click on the tab at the top, 1000 Gifts - Page Two. If you notice a discrepancy in the numbers between the two lists, I have not updated the first list from the first book I used. But I am putting it out there anyway. One of these days I will finish typing those on to the computer. I needed, this time, to start where I was and move forward from here without procrastinating any longer, waiting until things were perfect and complete. Not going to happen in the near future around here. This moment, now, it is good to be writing the list again.


Pooh drawing from The World of Pooh, by A.A. Milne, illustrations by E.H. Shepard - a much used, worn out family classic.
The concept of a gifts list is from Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts, A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, aholyexperience.com. Thank you, Ann!

Psalms, Illuminated

The Psalms are my favorite book of the Bible. I read them three or four times a year, in a variety of versions, each time learning and listening to the expressions of love to the Lord. This book, The Psalms of David, With illuminations by James S. Freemantle, is a favorite. This may be an overload of photos, but I couldn't pick just a few of the best. Actually, this is just a few of the best. If you want to read the Psalms with a fresh, new-life-giving perspective, pick up this book.

James Freemantle was an artist who lived his whole life in India. Many of the flowers, wildlife and art reflect scenes from his home in India and his travels. He worked on this, from about 1906 until 1934, a labor of love for his wife, Clara. The forward, written by his son, said he wasn't a religious man, but Clara must have deeply loved the Psalms for him to give the hours and years he devoted to this work. I quote from the forward: "I remember my father seated at a desk by the window with his paints, specially ordered from Winsor and Newton, spread out before him. He only used those paints and India ink, often taking many hours to do just a couple of lines of his fine wealth of decoration. Sometimes he would do the lettering with a paint brush, making the bodies of the letters first and then adding the tails painstakingly so that no join would show. Thus, half a page a night represented good progress."

There are tiny mistakes, which I love to see. A forgotten word, inserted with a carrot, a repeated word, smudges in the ink. To me, these give the pages a life, a presence, a touch of reality.

The art and wide variety of scripts can be distracting, absorbing the reader's attention on their own merit. Again, for me, these gave the reading a refreshing perspective of beauty and life and joy.












Deuteronomy 17:18 tells the future kings of Israel to copy the words of the law in their own handwriting. This book gives us an example of how beautiful and inspiring this work could be. I love how his efforts were devoted to his wife, a way to share his love for her.

Amazon has this book available.
(not an affiliate link)

Footpath to Peace

"To be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to be contented with your possessions, but not satisfied with yourself until you have made the best of them; to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your admirations rather than your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of Christ; and to spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit, in God's out-of-doors--these are little guide-posts on the foot-path to peace."

-Henry Van Dyke, The Friendly Year

Word Love Ornaments

Do you have any Scrabble lovers or word lovers on your gift list?

We picked up an old Scrabble set at the thrift store. It was missing an "i" and an "n," but that didn't matter for our project. We spread out the letters and made up as many words as we could related to Christmas. We had a set of the stands left over from a different craft project (coasters out of letters for another daughter). We divided them up, deciding how to fit them on the stands.

 I used hot glue to stick them on. You will see I am no expert with the glue gun. I quickly learned I had to work very fast to get the letters on straight.

Our son cut the stands on his scroll saw, then sprayed them with a varnish.
I attached the cord with the glue gun, making them into ornaments.
We will hang them on our tree, then let the kids pick which one they want to keep. (spoiler alert...)

Old Scrabble games are great to pick up at the thrift store - lots of uses for the wooden tiles. We will keep an eye out for more Scrabble sets whenever we are at the thrift store.  There are so many more good words we could use to tell stories of Christmas.

The Light Shines

"And God said, 'Let there be light,'...

"In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Genesis 1: 3
John 1: 4 - 5

The Sunday Community

A New Word

Two dentist appointments gave me my word for 2014.

I was not even looking for it - yet - this early, weeks away from 2014. Tell me it is still a long time until the New Year, right?

Quiet was my word for 2013. I am not a perfectly accomplished expert on "quiet." But it helped. I learned.

*****

Our son went in for his dental cleaning and evaluation for those last six baby teeth that are causing double rows and misalignment. The diagnosis: wiggle wiggle wiggle those babies out.

The hygienist, Lisa, worked with him with patience and calm. As she concluded with his all-around x-ray, she mentioned she has an autistic son, and I understood her patience and gentleness.

The next morning, it was my turn. A deep cleaning, those pointy metal tools digging in under my gums, scraping. Lovely.

We had a pleasant conversation, probably taking more of her time than we should have because we connected, deeply. Lisa told me of her son, his struggles at school, scenarios with him in public, challenges at home with his attitudes. Although our son's situations are quite different, she recognized similarities and expressed her sensitivity (except on my gums - but that was her job).

And there was the word, with a quiet, "Ta-dah!"

WELCOME

Above all, she wants her son to know that he is welcome. No matter how others react to him, no matter what happens, he is welcome with her, a part of their family, in their home. She saw in us, our son and me, a similar attitude of welcome.

I think of, and work toward acceptance, but welcome has deeper levels. As I thought of the meanings of welcome, I sketched out this list:

• invitation
• listen
• greet
• hospitality
• accept
• honor
• open the door
• prepare a place
• open heart
• willing
• focus on the people
• time together
• not too busy
• flexibility
• receive
• give

The more I thought of it, there is another list. To welcome these, too:

• inconveniences
• interruptions
• disappointment
• discouragement
• pain
• challenges
• criticism
• imperfections
• inconsistencies
• frustrations
• inadequacies
• blame
• shame

When I want to close the door - or rather (to be honest), to slam this door on uncomfortable things, my first response should be to welcome them. Ouch. Tough to do. I have much to learn.

I'm sure you could add your own ideas to these lists. What else do you think of?

*****

I grabbed one of the refrigerator magnets to stick on the grocery list. In my hand was a cross-stitched house, underneath, the word, "Welcome." Our daughter made it years and years ago. I saw it with new eyes, new heart, and I had to smile. How many years have I seen and used that magnet, thinking only of hospitality? 

Now, it will be a reminder to welcome the good and the uncomfortable in my days and in the people and relationships around me. Our dental hygienist opened a door for me. A door with a wider perspective, a fresh view of what it means to welcome the gifts of each day. Even when those gifts are challenging and I would rather slam that door. Welcome them. Welcome the work of each day. Welcome those in my home. Welcome - throw my arms wide and say, "Welcome, come on in. Let's talk."

Thank you, Lisa. 

Emily Freeman, Chatting at the Sky, is hosting a link up, Tuesdays Unwrapped. "To write about an ordinary day and the miracle secret it holds."

Have you considered a theme word for 2014 yet?