Rock House

There was no pecan harvesting yesterday because the orchard owners had a medical emergency. We will go in January. So instead we went to the ranch (saw the horses below and our son got to ride one) and then we ventured out to a place I've never been before called Rock House.

There's not much out there except the endless miles of the very striking Chihuahuan desert. You know, I thought we were in the Sonoran desert until I watched a ranger presentation a couple weeks ago and I found out I'm not in the Sonoran desert. I'm in the Chihuahuan desert. Hhmmph.

My friend said he wants to camp out there a couple nights when it warms up, but I tell ya, I'm a fraidy cat. Maybe if I'm with a ranger or someone who has a weapon for protection, but I don't know about staying out there alone. My friend the journalist, he's up for it though. He's got a wild side.

So can you see Rock House? It's that leetle, tiny, house made of, um, rocks, on the left, that blends in with the desert. It was hard for us to see and we were driving there. It's 17 miles off the interstate. No one knows who owned it. Even the historical society doesn't know who built it or who lived in it. That's a bit peculiar. The desert can be a peculiar place.

And here's a shot of the house. This is its best side. The inside was no great shakes. I can't imagine who could have lived out there.

Here's a silhouette of a pecan tree. It was a cloudy morning in the 40s. Shiver-me-burrrsky cold! I had on a big warm coat. My husband picks good coats. Although it was cold at Rock House too, at least it was mostly sunny.

Meow

Kitty cat face. I love kitty cat faces. She's the friendliest little thing.

The nerve

Is he sticking his tongue out? Well, I never!

Divot in my head

Ooooh, so I worked out yesterday and practiced with my scimitar. I didn't drop it. I haven't dropped it yet. I just move soooo slowly with it. I put a cork from a bottle of wine on the end of it so if, that is to say when, I drop it it should be a little safer. Logically speaking.

And I noticed after ten minutes I had a pretty big divot on the top of my head where the sword sat. Haha! That could be good, right? Long as it's not permanent!

Tomorrow I get to go with a journalist to see pecans being harvested. That should be pretty neat. I guess they use a machine that shakes the trees a lot.

Is anybody up

Well, I am. I'd like to go to sleep, but same old, same old.

I hit 40.5 this week. Not bad. It means I'm on track and that's good. I'm really content with the length. I've been wearing it in a French twist the last two days. I like that when I take it down I can smell the shampoo still and it has a nice fragrance. The new shampoo (Garnier Fructis) and V05 creme rinse are super slick. They even make the bathtub slick. Giovanni has cones but not that much! My hair was a dream to comb out. Practically effortless. Guess I'll just keep an eye on it and see how it fares. Maybe I'll go make up some nice hair dreams and put myself to sleep.

I haven't been working out for a week. Gotta get back on track with working out tomorrow.

Tags

I got another email about how popular the blankets were and how everybody enjoyed the tags! These were the tags.

I hope everyone had a loverly day today!

Merry Christmas to you!

That's what my husband just said to me and I pass it on. I was awake so I got out of bed. Went to the hiding place which must remain unnamed and got the two gifts from Santa. Son is dead asleep. A bomb could drop on the trailie and he'd sleep through it. He's been so excited today that he tired himself out. He did the dinner dishes for me tonight. He did the morning dishes too, and vacuumed. Crazy kid.

As I walked to the truck I looked up and what did I see - a constellation I'm always looking for and can never find - the Big Dipper. It is glorious. So clear out tonight. Saw Mars earlier too.

Jesus is the light of the world.

Dad called me. Everyone is over there. The mothers liked the blankies I made for their babies. My sister said they looked perfect. She exaggerates though. One baby is sick at home though so he wasn't there. He was home with his daddy. The hat fit the new baby girl. I feel happy that I did handmade gifts for them.

At this time of year and at Easter, these are the two times I feel a deep and abiding affection and connection with all the world. It's like a glow within and without.

Fifteen years ago the holiday was quite a big 'to do.' I don't want to say how much money we spent. Oh how I could have spent it better! How much of that stuff is at the dump now, returned to Mother Earth? The boxes, the bows, the tape, the tissue, the gift wrap, the shoes, the special outfits, the many mall purchased objects. I don't know. As a child, for me the celebration was strictly secular. Much is lost if you celebrate in a secular way. It's like an awesome shuffle of material goods with the most shuffling among the wealthy, a middle amount in the middle class, and a wee bit or none among the poor. These are things which do not satisfy. Makes the heart ache when people are alone after the celebrating. It's too much, too big, all wrong.

So now we do it small. I will miss Advent. It was fun this year. We tried to sing "Hark the Herald Angels" tonight but we can't hold the melody after the first stanza. I quit singing, but my husband went with it the whole way through. It was pretty bad. Haha!

Two thousand and seven years ago, well, thereabouts anyways, a baby boy was born... Even the people who have no faith agree He was here. It's been established and was written about by the historian, Josephus.

Next comes the New Year.

(P.S. - My sister emailed that the blankets were a SMASH, so now I'm even happier!)

It's Christmas Eve

Son has been antsy all day. He's excited about opening presents tomorrow. He completed almost ten pages of vocabulary independently before I even got out of bed. I was up late, so I slept till ten. Yesterday he peeled an orange for himself and at dinner he insisted on serving himself his own soup. He's sure growing up.

My sewing machine is in for repair, so I couldn't finish our son's blanket. I'm bummed, but happy that it will be fixed. I will just have to finish the blanket when it's back from the repair shop. It started skipping stitches. Maybe next year, if I sew much, I can get a computerized machine. They're supposed to have very even, consistent stitches, moreso than a mechanical machine. I loved my mom's Singer machine. But Singers of today are not the same as those of yesteryear. I learned to sew on it when I was in eighth grade. I sewed a really pretty halter dress and a gorgeous spring dress from my friend's wedding. My machine is a Brother and I'm not crazy about it. It's frustrating that little things go wrong and I have to fight with it a lot.

Guess I'll go get cleaned up and wash my hair so it'll be fresh for Christmas Day. It's 4:05pm. Shall I get out of my pajamas?

Calendar nearly done

I've spent the week-end at my computer...working on my 2008 calendar at Shutterfly. It should be pretty good if it turns out like it's supposed to.

dailycoyote.net

Are you needing some good pictures to look at today?

http://www.dailycoyote.net/

Parenting is good

Sometimes I want to throttle him - like right now - as he purposely drags in feet through vocabulary. But Wednesday was different. He received an award. We didn't know it was coming. Nobody told us!

We were at the Christmas potluck. The first award went to two men, a ranger and a volunteer, who saved seven people from drowning in the lake last summer. The superintendent read the official report which was rather dry. He then shared with us the details that weren't included in the report. The boat had overturned. One adult and a child were still in the boat though it was barely above water and sinking quickly. The rest were in the water. The winds were blowing the tiny vessel and the people onto dangerous rocks that are in that area. It was during a storm. The lake can be mean during a storm. Did I mention it was at night? It was dark. Dark night. Have you walked along the beach in the dark of night? Even though you're safe onshore it's scary when you can hear the water, but you can't see it. It strikes a chord of preternatural fear in the human heart.

By the grace of God, the boating officer on duty had only minutes before taken on a long time volunteer on board who offered to patrol the lake with him. Without this volunteer who was highly experienced on the water, a single man would have had great difficulty doing the rescue and maneuvering the boat at the same time. So the call came in, S.O.S, precise location, and they rode full speed to that place on the lake. The eight year old girl was screaming hysterically. The others, those in the water, this is not in the report, were giving each other last rites in the water. They thought they were checking out of this world.

Our New Mexico Boating Officer and the other a long time volunteer, saved all seven people one at a time. That's a story with an awesome ending and that's what their award was for. Sometimes the rangers pull dead people out of the water which as you can imagine is traumatic. The rangers have to deal with it in their mind and heart afterwards and it's not an easy thing. It happens in a lake this big. Last year a 15 year old boy drowned in the lake. The rangers save lives when they can. They're trained to do so. But when they can't save a life the repercussions are real.

The second award went to our ten year old son. The badge in the frame is an official one. Normally, men and women must graduate from the police academy and work in law enforcement to receive this badge. It is an true honor to have this badge! Our son is not allowed to wear it, it would be unlawful, but he can display it. The super went all the way to the top to get approval for this. As far as we know he is the youngest volunteer in New Mexico, and the only Honorary Ranger in the state. He was bustin' with pride. We were too.

Yesterday at the school where he takes a class he gave a presentation about his award. It's his first presentation in front of anyone other than family. He did pretty well! This I love about home education.

Me, as a kid I dreaded "Sharing Time" or "Current Events" at school. I still get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach about Newsweek magazine because my mom had it delivered to our house so I could pick out news items for school sharing. Our son on the other hand informed me he was doing a presentation about his award the next day at school. Just like that. He practiced on us that evening and did it Thursday. Wow. And he showed off the plaque, a letter they wrote him last year selecting him as a volunteer, his official volunteer card, and he defined the word 'honorary' (that was his idea) and showed off the flyers and spreadsheets he created on his computer as part of his job.

I'm kind of proud of him.

Picked a gift

I was stressing out about what to get a little girl. Naturally, but naturally, I've left it to the last minute. We got her a coat that I absolutely loved last year, but found out later it was a size too big. It took me all of three minutes to select that coat. It's like from the '70s, a very cute coat. Anywho, this year I picked for her a ballerina jewelry box from Nordstrom. Why didn't I just go to Nordstrom's in the first place? Every little girl should have a ballerina jewelry box. My grama gave one each to my sister and me when I was ten and my sis was six. I really liked it. Here it is:

I searched high and low online for genie pajamas but genie pajamas could not be found. I got a a pair for Christmas when I was a kid and they were really pretty. I also had some fancy lacy pajamas that were a gift so I also just searched for feminine pj's. Man, there are a lot of flannel, cotton, utilitarian fugly plain pj's to be had, but not much on the luxurious side. There should be. Dora the Explorer and cartoon pajamas? I don't think so. A girl deserves some genuine wholesome girly loungewear.

My mom finished a genealogy book about my grandmother's life and sent me a copy. It's awesome. She must have spent a few hundred hours compiling information. My people are from Ireland. Came over during the potato famine. Pioneers they were. Real pioneers in the mid-west. Back then there was right and there was wrong and not much in between. You didn't get coddled for having anxiety attacks or wanting everyone to support your alternative lifestyle. Time was not allotted for things that don't matter. Life is so precious. Too precious to be frittered away on self. I must remind myself of that next time I can't sleep.

I miss my grama

GRAMA! I miss you tonight.

America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. -Alexis de Tocqueville

It's been rumbling around in my mind. I think it's true.

My husband came to church today and remarked on how good the pastor is. This pastor should be in a metropolitan area. I can't believe I found him in a town of 7,000.

I don't know if he'll come to church again. I can't nag him. There's a line between nagging and asking. The pastor is so articulate I don't know how he can not want to go back. But I always get to church late (at least I'm consistent?) and my husband is a very timely person. He even wants to go to parties, well, actually nowadays I'd say "get-togethers" on time and I tell him it's very uncool to be right on time. So since he came today we were on time and the talking, it's called fellowship, is too much for me. Now I can't sleep. Guess I should go read something.

For evening study, this is the first time in awhile that I was completely lost. I didn't follow much of the teaching. It was about Jesus and David and the lineage. Quite confusing if you don't get it. And a guy whose name starts with M who was Jesus incarnate or something. I need my notes, but it's dark right now so I'm just blathering. I'm fascinated by what I didn't understand though. Can't wait to read through my notes.

My hair. My husband ran into one that was across the doorway somehow and he thought it was a spiderweb. Then he sat in the chair and pulled a long one off of the chair. I might need to vacuum this place. More frequently it's getting caught in a screw that is in the wall behind me in the bathroom. I'm needing more elbow room lately.

Which reminds me. Tonight I saw a group photo of my graduating class (1977) from the reunion in October. Talk about disillusioned. Thought I was going to have a heart attack. Does 48 look that old? It does. Sadly, it does. You can't stay young forever. And I recall that at the Luminaria a kid about 17 years old called me Ma'am. Brutal. I am so crying in my soup tonight. Not that I want to be 17. Far from it. But I wouldn't mind 27. Shoot, I wouldn't mind 37. I wouldn't mind 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, or 46. Sigh.

The other day I was looking for a word. I hate it when I need a word and I can't think of it. It's like I can feel the word but I can't find it. I have to settle for some one or two syllable word that's not as descriptive. Anyway, it was anecdotal. What was it I was writing that I needed it for now? Hmmmm. Can't remember. Ha! Small annoyances never end.

Ready to mail

Finished the tags (that only took three and a half hours due to printer challenges), attached them to blankets, gift wrapped three blankets, made chicken soup. That was my day. And it was a long day.

We fasted, but it wasn't difficult. Next time we're going to do water only fasting from sun up to sun down.

My sewing machine isn't working very well and I have two rice bags to make. The stitch length regulator is messed up. Then after dinner I guess I was too tired and I forgot to turn the seams to the INside. Duh. Had to toss it and will try again tomorrow. Fresh.

I am hoping my husband will come to church tomorrow morning. Only our son can convince him to come. This week-end and next he's not working. Those are our two chances.

Girl's blanket done

It's sweet! Of the three I made I'm the least happy with how the binding came out on this one, but I'm packaging her up and sending tomorrow. I even got wild and made a little matching tie top cap to go with it. The satin feels wonnnnderful. I washed it because it's flannel backed for extra warmth and I expected the flannel might shrink. I ironed the satin to make it look brand new, but it came out of the wash nicely enough and I'm glad about that. I was a little worried it would wrinkle terribly, but it didn't.

I get an achy back from cutting on the floor, so my back hurts. I took a couple ibu but they don't work fast enough for me!

Have a good week-end my friend!

My dear ballet teacher

I asked her why she was so stressed. Being the Christmas season I fully expected she'd let loose with a litany of Christmas errands; shopping, wrapping, cooking, crafting, etcetera. But no. She said only a few people know...two weeks ago her husband called her on the phone at work and asked for a divorce. He left her, as in went away. She is a good woman I think. She's petite and blonde haired, blue-eyed. We talked for about 20 minutes. I almost cried full on twice and she didn't. She has too much to deal with to have time for tears. Her vehicle insurance lapsed because he didn't pay it. She didn't know how to open the top on the truck to put in the anti-freeze. She told me what happened to her water well and I didn't understand what she said (as I nodded my head) but she had to turn off the water. She has no water in her home. She's living my nightmare. Every woman's nightmare, yes? Life as we know it is tenuous.

I gave her my phone number. She works during the day and teaches dance at night. Some days she doesn't return home till 10:00pm. There but for the grace of God go I.

She apologized for sharing all her troubles and I told her, don't be, I have strong shoulders. It was a little bit of a lie, but I want it to be true. I pray the Lord will give me half a brain to be a good friend she can lean on if she needs.

Gotta git in gear

I want to mail off the baby gifts on the 15th. I still have the girl blanket to sew though. I have all the stuff out. Here it is right beside me; I just have to DO it. I did sew a fleece baby hat this evening that's cute to look at but I need a test baby to see if it will really stay on. I used the pattern from here. It's a tie top baby hat and I've always liked that style. The other online pattern I found that I'm going to attempt to go along with the horsie blankie is this fleece stocking hat.

All three of us got our flu shots for free today. They didn't even hurt.

Son and I are going to the eye doctor next Wednesday. He says his sight goes blurry in one eye sometimes so we need to see what that's about. As for me, I need a glaucoma check. My dad has it, his mom had it, and all five of his siblings have it so I need to be careful. Glaucoma kind of sneaks up on people because of the way it quietly takes your peripheral vision, but you don't notice it till it's too late. If you pray, please pray that I may have no signs of it. I also made an appointment for a rash that our son has on his hands. He has my super sensitive skin, plus the air is so dry, plus he plays with the dogs even though he's allergic. I know that's what the rash is. I hope a doctor can prescribe something to control it.

Husband read in the news that Mormons are healthy because they fast, so we're going to fast on Saturday. I'm doing the spiritual part, but he's not. We've never fasted before. I told him he better have lots of drinks in the fridge cause I'm gonna need alotta drinks. Ha! I asked him to buy some Gatorade too because it contains electrolytes. I need electrolytes.

It's the 12th. Where has the year gone?

I stopped cussin'

Once you delve into The Word, you'll never be the same.

I've ended a lifelong habit of using foul language. I'll have to check my blog to see when I decided to stop cussin' and cursin' but I know it's been over a year. At first I just wanted to challenge myself to exercise mindfulness on a daily basis. But after the first day I realized it was gonna be a leetle bit harder than I thought it would be.

Try not to use any foul language for 24 hours. Next, extend it to 48 hours, then go for seven days in a row. It'll fry your brain.

I set this goal for myself on a whim, but it changed me. I know it sounds like such a minor undertaking but it turned out to be so much more. I used to spew forth four letter words right and left right in front of my eldest son when he was a tot. I didn't give it a second thought and little did I realize how awful it sounded. But I sounded like everyone else I knew. My mother and father both use foul language. Everyone I knew used foul language. I never gave it a thought. It is an outer expression of an inward state of mind.

I didn't see anything wrong with pornography either. I told my oldest son when he was 15 that I didn't want it in the house, but such a hypocrite I was. Question is, why did I figure it was okay for me but not for him? Seventy-five percent of Americans call themselves Christians and yet pornography is a 6.3 billion dollar industry. I considered myself a Christian when I got a survey from our internet service provider that asked what type of subjects we wanted more access to and I clicked several options, including pornography. Well! I was being an honest Christian consumer!

Doesn't look like I'll be running for office any time soon. They'd wipe up the floors with the Liliana. But a worldly Christian looks just like the world.

Now when I hear profanity it's ten times uglier than it used to be. When the human ear is constantly exposed to vulgar language the mind grows desensitized. The nose becomes accustom to the stink. Habitual cussers no longer smell the putrid stench and it flows out of them unabated.

At first I'd get by a couple days. Every time I let loose, I'd say "Okay, I'm starting over...starting...NOW!" I had lots of new starts and lots of prayer time. I admit, I still think bad words sometimes. Sometimes a good cursing just seems like the best thing to make a problem, an irritation, a hurt, smaller. I suppose it releases some energy, but is it what I want to release into my world. Words matter. Words are powerful. People, as Fox once said, remember words.

We have a neighbor who says that she and her husband are cussing a lot less because our son reminds them that they shouldn't. She was smiling when she told me about it and then she said our son is a good kid. I think she felt good about cussin' less. They were successful truck drivers before retirement. Sometimes my husband tries to cut back on his cussing. He's an ex-sailor.

For Bible study today I did a drama with my son. I acted like a truck driver spewing forth the Lord's name in vain (he got a hearty laugh from my acting) and I asked him, "What should you do when you hear someone use our Lord's name in vain?" We are so weary of hearing Christian and non-Christian alike say "Oh my God." It is the most worn out, overused, tired phrase, eveh. We discussed it and I told him this. Say, "Hey, I know God's son, Jesus! He lived. He died. He said in three days He would Rise. And He did." I'm going to do this too. We're sick of hearing the Lord's name used in vain. People need to get a life.

Anyway, I challenge you today to stop cussin'. Go for it. It's the road less traveled. It's a worthy endeavor.

Now if I can just be more thoughtful of others every day. That ought to revolutionize my life.

That's a big whoops

Last night I was feeling for the light switch but I hit the switch to pull in the slideouts. My husband came flying out of the bedroom. He'd gone to bed early and when he heard the room folding in he jumped up from a dead sleep quicker than lightning. The thing is, I only tapped the switch, but the automatic slideout wouldn't stop rolling in. It was pretty exciting all right. I was calling my son and was almost crying because I thought I messed up the trailie. I thought there were jacks under the slideout, but there aren't. It was okay. Now there's duct tape over the switch so no one inadvertently does that again. Yeah right, duct tape looks real nice on the wall. Great stuff, duct tape is.

My dispute with eBay is closed. My money order officially lost. My bad luck.

I might possibly dance in El Paso next week. We'll see. I don't have all the info yet. I told my teacher I'm interested if it's a family venue. My husband said it's okay if I go.

It might snow a bit tonight but there are no clouds right now. Snow would be neato!

I want to write about cussing and cursing. Should I do it here or make a separate post?