My One Little Word for 2013

I came across this post and thought for a while about what word I wanted for 2013.  I made a list.  They included look, light, grace, open, create, calm, soar, simplify, hope, present, play, and open.  Then I thought of grow. 

I have a beautiful little granddaughter who was born on the first of November.  Her name is Violet.  And she is growing. It reminded me of that that old saying, something I often said when my children were small:  they grow up so fast!  I made another list of sayings I like which included the word grow:

How does your garden grow?
Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be.
Grow deep roots
Love grows
Growing old is not for sissies
Grow where you're planted

One can grow physically, socially, intellectually, and spiritually.  One can grow kinder and calmer, more playful and more open. 

I like this word grow.

Distracted....Again

It's December 2nd and I am on vacation until January 7th.  I have an entire month to do what I want but, like when my sons were small and I unexpectedly had a few hours or even an entire afternoon to myself, I end up wandering around what to do first.  I have to do some house cleaning and decorate for Christmas, make Christmas cookies, get presents and wrap them, and put up the tree.  I did get John to put the six boxes of Christmas ornaments and decorations down and into the spare room and there they sit. 

 

I'm working on a Fair Isle knit stocking for my new granddaughter Violet, but I'm it finding it hard and I'm worried about the after thought heel.  Will I get it done in time?  Maybe.  Or perhaps I'll sew her a Santa bag instead.

I'm knitting two scarves for myself.  Scarves are boring.  Maybe I'll put them aside until January.




Then there's quilting.  I thought about making this quilt:

 

and pieced six of the star blocks.

 

While looking for fabrics, I came across the blocks I'd made last winter for a quilt I'd called Homecoming. I posted photos of these blocks then and here's the link. 

Now I've decided to re-purpose them, along with the six star blocks, into a Winter quilt.  This way I can add snowmen, more stars, animals, people, and sheep.  Yep.  Just what I need.  Another project to add to the list. 

Books Read -- December, 2012

1. At Ease with the Dead by Walter Satterthwait
2. Aftermath by Peter Turnbull
3. Backlash by Sally Spencer
4. The Killing Floor by Peter Turnbull
5. The Cruise of a Deathtime by Marion Babson
6. Sweet Humphrey by Peter Turnbull
7. And Did Murder Him by Peter Turnbull
8. Deep Cover by Peter Turnbull
9. Fire Burn by Peter Turnbull
10. Accustomed to the Dark by Walter Satterthwait
11. Harry Lipkin, Private Eye by Barry Fantoni
12. Paradise City by Archer Mayor
13. Bones are Forever by Kathy Reichs
14. Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich
15. Death Comes Silently by Carolyn Hart
16. Faithful Place by Tana French
17. The Round House by Louise Erdrich
18. Broken Harbor by Tana French

Books Read -November, 2012

1. The Racketeer by John Grisham
2. Death's Little Helpers by Peter Spiegelman
3. Black Maps by Peter Spiegelman
4. Red Cat by Peter Spiegelman
5. The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham
6. Shatter by Michael Robotham
7. Suspect by Michael Robotham
8. Say You're Sorry by Michael Robotham
9. A Flower in the Desert by Walter Satterthwait
10. Wall of Glass by Walter Satterthwait
11. The Walnut Tree by Charles Todd
12. Deathtrap by Peter Turnbull
13. A Christmas Garland by Anne Perry
14. The Hanged Man by Walter Satterthwait

Books Read -- October, 2012

1. The Hanging Tree by Bryan Gruley
2. Chelsea Smile by Peter Turnbull
3. Deliver Us from Evil by Peter Turnbull
4. The Dance Master by Peter Turnbull
5. Lambs to the Slaughter by Sally Spencer
6. Once a Biker by Peter Turnbull
7. Chill Factor by Peter Turnbull
8. Improving the Silence by Peter Turnbull
9. Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham
10. Lost : A Novel by Michael Robotham

September 10 - What I Carry

Often posts with this title are lists of what someone carries in their purse or in their car.  But we carry things so much more important--memories.  I am grateful for the material things I have, but also  for memories of my childhood, of my own children growing up, people I've known, places I've seen.

September 8 - Birds

I am grateful for the small black birds sitting on telephone wires, like scattered notes on lines of music.

September 7 - Time

Soon it will be the end of Daylight Savings Time and we'll receive a gift.  An hour. Sixty full minutes. All ours. All free. I know it's just the hour we lost a few months ago, but it feels as if it's free. Now I know the purist would say that the hour actually came at 2 a.m. and that we all slept it away but who wants to accept that? Not me! You've got it, but you don't even know you've got it? I don't think so.

I plan to spend my extra hour early in the morning,  picking out fabrics for some quilt blocks, drinking a cup of tea, and listening to the birds welcoming the dawn.

I'm grateful for the time I've had and for any time still remaining to me.

September 6- Morning Routine

My morning routine is rather boring.  I get up, get dressed, brush my hair, use the stationary bike, eat breakfast--always the same breakfast-- brush my teeth, and begin the essential household chores which need to be done every day.  It's routine.  It's nothing special.

And I'm grateful I can do it every single morning.

September 5 - Water

The word for today was "hydrate", but I'm not quite sure what to make of that.  I'm starting to think that the list I posted had to do with taking photographs, not writing posts, but never mind.  Today  I'm going to write about the more simple word: water.

To have running water is a luxury I take for granted until I don't have it.  When we lived in the country we had a well which ran on an electric pump which meant if the electric went out there was no water.  No water to wash with, drink, flush toilets, water gardens, give to the animals, do laundry.  I learned early on to have water stored away for these emergencies, but I was careful to ration it and it was never enough.  When the electric came back and the water flowed again I breathed a sign of thanks. 

I live in town now and when the electric goes off we still have water because the town has an emergency generator.  Every month we get our water bill I think it's too high until I remember what it's like to not have water.

And then there's rain. In The Probable Future, Alice Hoffman writes of a taxonomy of rain:  fish rain, rose rain, daffodil rain, glorious rain, red clover rain, boot polish rain, swamp rain, and the fearsome stone rain.  I live in Oregon.  I know all those rains.

Water is so important and so common that it's easily taken for granted.  I am grateful for it always, no matter if it comes from the earth or the sky, even when I complain about winter rains.

September 4 - New School Year

The year begins when school begins. Then the big orange-colored school bus scurries like a beetle along all the country roads, pauses long enough to gulp down the children, and is gone. ~ Rural Free: A Farmwife's Almanac of Country Living, Rachel Peden

Today is the first day of the new school year.  I woke up at 4 am this morning and it's still dark now, but soon I'll hear children talking and giggling past my open doors and windows as they walk to the elementary school, two blocks away. 

I remember every year my Dad would wake us up on the first day of school singing "School days, school days, dear old golden rule days" and would make us a special breakfast to celebrate.   His birthday was September 5th which often coincided with that first day of school.  Tomorrow he would have been 90 years old.  Happy birthday, Dad.

And then there were all those years I was up early to make John's breakfast and lunch and then waking up little boys to get them ready for school.  New clothes, new lunch boxes, new back packs filled with new pencils and notebooks.  

I am grateful for schools and children and teachers.  And memories.  And new beginnings.

September 3 - Family

One of the best things I've done in my life is to marry John and have children.  We have four sons--all of them different and all of them wonderful. We also have three terrific daughters-in-law, one of whom is expecting her first child and our first grandchild in November. We are truly blessed.

And that brings me to an aside--grandmothers, a subject which has, not surprisingly, been on my mind.

I was born in northern Ontario and lived with my grandmother, my mother's mother, from the time I was three until we moved to the United States when I was five. I'd see my parents and brother on occasion but it was my grandmother I lived with. I'm not sure why this was; whenever I asked my parents why I was rebuffed. Even as an adult, I've asked my aunts but no one has ever given me any answers. I have some guesses, but I don't know. I'm not really complaining as I loved my grandmother very much and feel very fortunate to have had the chance to know her.  Except for a e few elderly aunts, I think there are few alive who remember her.  But, oh, I do! I do!

She was a grandmother who would patiently answer all my questions and sing me songs and tell me stories she made up. She'd bake little pies, just for me. She loved flowers, especially roses, and was a talented and dedicated gardener known in her small town for her "French" (raised bed) garden. She always had the first ripe tomatoes, no small feat in a place where a heat wave was 80 degrees!

In the summers, she'd let me stay up late to see shooting stars and the Northern lights and make brown bread and butter sandwiches for picnics at the lake. She'd wrap me up in so many woolen clothes and scarves when I'd go out to play in the winter snow I could barely walk. She could enter my child-like world without any effort. When her friends came in the afternoons for tea, which weren't formal affairs at all, I was always welcome and everyone would make a fuss over me. She loved to play the piano and she sang all the time.  She was always smiling.

Early on a dark, snowy winter morning, my mother, my brother and I boarded a train to leave for California to join my father who'd left before us to find a job and a place for us to live. We were entering the country illegally (something which was straightened out years later) so my mother only told me we were going to visit him, not that we we were going and never coming back; she was afraid I might say something about going to live with my father at the wrong moment (we were entering using visitor visas) and be prevented from entering the country.

I can still see my grandmother standing outside the train window smiling, with tears running down her face, blowing kisses as the train began leaving the station.  I couldn't understand all the tears then; I believed we'd only be gone a few weeks, but it was years before I saw her again and then it was only briefly.  In the intervening years we wrote to each other and I've kept and treasured her letters.  She died in 1967.  I still miss her.

I am grateful for my husband, my sons, and their wives, and the little one who is coming.  And I'm grateful I had a kind and loving grandmother who showed me how I want to be when I, too, become a grandmother. 

Quilt for the Little One

This is the quilt I'm working on for my first grandchild, due in early November.  It's a Kaffe Fassett pattern, made from his fabrics.  It's very colorful and bright, but not pastels, just as my son and daughter-in-law requested. 

September 2 - Reading Material

I do love books.  Well, that shouldn't be much of a surprise.  I'm a librarian, after all.  And, I'll admit it, it's physical books I love. 

I have little interest in e-books.  Oh, I can see how their portability has advantages, but I can throw a paperback in my purse and go and that's enough for me.  I like the look of ink on paper and the weight and feel of a physical book.  There's no maintenance  required; I don’t have to turn it on, charge it up, or update the software. I just pick it up and read it . Then there's the expense of an e-reader.  Because it's pricey, I'd  worry about how I stored it and where I kept it and about losing it or dropping it. Not so with a physical book.

When our sons were small, John and I bought three used eight-shelf wooden bookshelves from a university book store as they were "upgrading" to metal shelves. Th photo above shows two of the shelves with a few of the many vintage children's books I've bought throughout the years.  A second bookshelf  is in our bedroom and holds a portion of the knitting and quilting books I've collected.  The third one is in John's office and holds his collection of vintage vinyl records.

I'm not even going to talk about all the books in smaller bookshelves in the spare room and in the sewing room or the books stacked on tables and desks and chairs throughout the house or the boxes and boxes of books stored in the shop.  In fact, I get many of the books I read now from the library.  This is a very good thing as I often read ten or more books a month and when I get them from the library I don't have to buy them or figure out how to store them or sell them.  I just have to remember to return by their due dates.

As far as magazines go, I only read a few knitting and quilting magazines I get from the library. Sometimes John finds used Smithsonian and Popular Mechanics and I might glance through those.  I read a lot on the Internet--e-mail, blogs, skimming through news sites, and yes, Facebook and Twitter, but if I'm not careful I could spend all day on that so I try to limit it.

There are many kinds of reading material  and ways to read and I'm grateful for them all, even those I don't use.  I'm also grateful I have good eyesight and the intelligence to comprehend and analyze what I do read.

Books Read - September, 2012

1.Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Asa Larsson
2. First the Dead by Tim Downs
3. Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum
4.  Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum
5. The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum
6. The Skeleton Box by Bryan Gruley
7. Robert B. Parker's Fool Me Twice by Michael Brandman