Ice Storm

This morning I stepped outside, surprised
to see the trees embellished
in frosty finery -- all ready
for a winter ball. Each blade of grass
bedecked, bejewelled, the stubble 
of last year's corn transformed, limbs
heavy with sparkling sprigs and gemmed berries.

A lone pair of chattering birds discuss
the decor, bending their heads in search
of refreshment. The orchestra starts with
breeze as conductor, the delicate clacking
of crystalline leaves, like dowagers
snapping their fans in rebuke.

It is the deepest part of Winter, the pitch
black bottom of February, the world
reflecting the current gray despair...

Then, this! A delight! A gentle nudge
from our Mother, a sweet reminiscence
that in every season, in each unlikely moment,
there can be dazzling impossibility.

MFS 2/21/2018
#ilovemymother

Hooray for Light! And Magic!

I am going to take a risk here and proclaim that Winter Solstice is my favorite day of the year!  It may not be completely true, but it feels like it.  The dark and cold feel so oppressive sometimes, but simply knowing that even though the worst of Winter is still ahead, at least the days will be getting longer and longer and longer -- taking us straight into the heart of Spring and Summer!  Big happy sigh.



Tonight is the women's circle that I attend and I cannot think of a single thing I would rather be doing than communing and chanting with my fellow witches on this mystical night.  I made some Sun cookies -- I only had a flower cookie cutter, but it was close enough.  There is orange flavor in the cookie dough and then orange zest in the frosting as well -- citrus is the flavor of sunlight.  We were asked to come with an intention for the new year so I started thinking about my new word of the year.  I had a few things rattling around my head, but nothing felt right.  I have been reading Eckhart Tolle's, The Power of Now so the idea of time -- chronological vs. psychological -- has been forefront.  I also recently heard a podcast with Richard Rohr -- on OnBeing my favorite! -- and he mentioned that in Greek there are two words for time: Chronos which is chronological time, and Kairos which is God's time, or the right moment.  This afternoon I suddenly realized that my word should be Kairos.  There is so much loaded into that word -- that I need to have patience for things to come to pass -- not when I want it, but when (or if!) it's supposed to happen, that I need to stop and just BE in every moment instead of regretting or fantasizing about the past, or longing and yearning for the future.  I find myself often wanting things to be over so I can have done them, not be doing them, haha!  It's no way to live!  So, I was so excited to finally have a word picked out, but I decided to do a tiny test to see if it was the right one.  I went into our little library and randomly plucked a book of poetry off of the book shelf -- it was Mary Oliver's Evidence.  I flipped it open and read the poem that was on that page.  

Deep Summer

The mockingbird
opens his throat
among the thorns
for his own reasons

but doesn't mind 
if we pause
to listen
and learn something

for ourselves;
he doesn't stop,
he nods
his gray head

with the frightfully bright eyes,
he flirts 
his supple tail,
he says:

listen, if you would listen.
There's no end
to good talk,
to passion songs,

to the melodies
that say
this branch, 
this tree is mine,

to the wholesome
happiness
of being alive
on a patch

of this green earth
in the deep
pleasures of summer.
What a bird!

Your clocks, he says plainly,
which are always ticking,
do not have to be listened to.
The spirit of his every word.

What??? Are you kidding me?  First of all, Deep Summer is a little ironic with it being deep winter, right?  And then I was already fully recognizing that the Universe was affirming my word with the instructions for pausing and listening, to the reminder to be happy and content, but then the clocks!  Always ticking!  Do not have to be listened to!  It was like being hit over the head with a hammer, haha!  I gasped and then let out a jubilant little scream.  It was too perfect.  Too magical.  I accept it.

Magic 8

Happy Groundhog Day!  Did the groundhog see his shadow where you are?  It is very sunny here today with a balmy temperature of 7˚!!!  So we have six week left of winter.  Which is how it usually is.  It is 7 weeks until the Spring Equinox so that sounds about right. Often it is still chilly in April, and Matthew always always always complains, but it is like in the 40's and I patiently explain that that is Spring weather!  Silly man.  It snowed all Saturday night and all day yesterday so they declared a snow day from church and we enjoyed the beautiful falling snow.  It was also the superbowl, but we didn't watch it because we don't have t.v. AND we don't really care.  

This morning Phin found a magic 8 ball in Lucy's room so he came down to ask me how it worked.  I told him that you ask it a question, but he couldn't think of one so I suggested asking if it would snow tomorrow.  It answered with a simple yes.  Then he looked at it and asked, "Is Jesus real?"  That's the only question he could think of?  So I hoped for a good outcome as he shook, and then looked and it said, "It is certain."  So great!  I then explained that, of course, it is just a toy and that we shouldn't take it too seriously.

I've been studying Spanish every day with an app on my phone.  I guess I'm getting pretty good, because Lucy did a trivia challenge (another app) all in Spanish and I got all of the questions right and totally won!  Whoop!

Piano Recital

It is gray and snowy here today.  And I am soooooo tired!  I've been getting up at 5:45 to take Lucy to seminary and it is wearing on me.  And even if I am tired all day, I am rarely tired at night.  My hormones are all out of whack!  So I can't go to sleep very early and the cycle starts again the next day. 

Yesterday the girls had their piano recital and Matthew joined Lucy for a duet!  It was really fun and was the last piece of the recital.  It was a hit!  And Lucy played a lovely Debussy piece right before that and did really well.  If she just put her mind to it, she could be really really good!  But she keeps talking about quitting piano lessons.  I know that she doesn't necessarily want to become a concert pianist, but she could at least study it in college and teach piano to other people.  How nice would it be to have a natural talent like that?  Ibby did really well, too, but she gets so nervous!  She just hates recitals so much!  I could see the dread on her face the entire time!  Poor Ibby.  The boys were really good, but towards the end, Archie was whispering loudly about how long it was taking and when I said there were only two more people, Phin practically shouted, Yay!   And then promptly assured me that it was his crocodile saying yay, not him.  Andrea Ringer came because she is the YW pres. and super nice.  And Rachelle Simpson came because she is thinking of having her girls take lessons from Pam.  She is also the Primary Pres.  Matthew told them that if he hadn't been at the ward council meeting he might suspect that our family was some sort of project, haha!  It looked that way for sure.

There really isn't much going on here.  Lucy has had some friends over to watch movies a couple of times.  I guess rearranging the basement really made a difference!  So that is fun to have fun and laughter going on.  I've been drawing and crocheting.  I'm almost done with Phin's blanket.  It is funny how they're turning out to be all different sizes.  Ella's and Ibby's are more lap blankets, but Phin's and Charles' are humongous!!!  I just finished the 108th square for Phin's and need to start binding them together today.

Unearthed

I am sitting here with Archie feeding me fake strawberries -- they are delicious!  And the sun is streaming through the windows, but it is still freezing!!!  Right now it is 16˚ feels like 9.  I guess that is about 50˚ warmer than last Monday so we are good!  Tomorrow the chance of snow is 100% so that should be fun!  It snowed all day on Saturday, too!  I actually really like snow as long as I don't have to drive in it!  It is so cozy to be sitting inside and watching it fall so prettily.  And there is nothing like the muted stillness of an unplowed street.

Sorry that I was complaining last time!  My life really isn't hard.  It was totally just my period.  I bought an essential oil blend called, "Serenity" to help me with that, but it worked so well that I sent it to Janis to help her feel serene and haven't ordered any more for myself!  I bet Matthew wouldn't mind me spending that money, right?  So the girl came over to take my picture on Thursday and it really wasn't so bad!  I don't know why I get myself so worked up.  You just never know with those artistic types, though.  They could be the artist who thinks they are super cool and are a little patronizing to the uncreative peon masses, but she wasn't like that at all!  The second she came through the door we were friends, so that was really nice.  She told me that she has a lot of ideas for projects, but then doesn't do them and later sees other people do the same idea.  So now, even though she isn't quite sure where the project is headed, she just decided to do it!  I told her that I agree that if you ignore inspiration (the holy ghost) too many times, he will stop coming around, for sure!  She had me get all ready for the day with make-up on, hair done, etc.   She took a few pics and then took pictures while I washed off the make-up, took down my hair (I had it in a bun), and I changed into some comfortable.  And yes, I have yoga pants.  Then she took some more pics.  The boys kept coming around to see what she was doing and she took some shots of them, too.  She has four kids: an 18 year old named Lydia, and triplets that are 6 years old.  So she was very nice to the boys.  It was nice doing something I wasn't comfortable doing, but that wasn't too painful either.  I hate posing for pictures so she just had me talk while she took the pictures.  I filled out a questionnaire the night before, too.  What is an overarching theme of your life?  Um, dieting (lame!) Who is your role model?  My mom, aaaah.  What are your dreams? To be a night club singer and fifty million other things.  It was pretty fun.

I finally started the children's service club I've been talking about for four years!  I just went onto facebook and invited a bunch of people to my house and it took about two minutes.  Now, that wasn't so difficult, was it?  This month we are going to crank out a ton of Valentine's for lonely people in our ward and neighborhood.  I hope that it goes well.  We are just going to meet once a month so it shouldn't be too painful.

Archie keeps us safe at all times.

#942

It is 21˚ outside. Reason #942 for being a teensy bit tired of winter:

Not seeing nearly enough of these beauties! (the legs, not the diapers as lovely as they may be)

And I think they are the cat's meow!

And another pic just because he is gorgeous.

Floridaaaah

I have often wondered why people would want to live in Florida. Particularly when the weather gods seem to want to wipe it off of the face of the earth or when one experiences the horrible humidity firsthand, I think that people who choose to live there are a little bit loopy. I am here today to tell you that I take it all back. Oh Florida, you taunt me with your white sandy beaches and your 70˚ days, the palm trees swaying with the ocean breezes. Please forgive me. I am sure that you will with your warmhearted ways. The kids and I could jump in the car and be there by Wednesday. What is behind this change of tune? Can you say -10˚!?! It is quite chilly here. Last week we were walking from the parking lot to a building (and we got a good parking space!) and I thought the freezing rain pelting my face was going to kill me. I was outside for less than a minute! These moments always make me reflect on the Martin Handcart Company. How did they do it? This is not the first time I have thought about them. Last winter we went on a cruise. We had timed things down to the wire -- leave the house to get to the airport in Chicago to arrive in San Diego to leave the port on time. We didn't have much wiggle room so it was quite alarming to wake up to a horrible blizzard here. We normally wouldn't drive at all in such weather, but a cruise was on the line. So off we go, unable to see the roads at all and I am praying, praying, prayi... wait a minute! Is this really important? Oh, please help us get to the airport on time to make our flight that will take us across the country in two hours so that we can make it on our cruise to Mexico. We want to eat ice cream cones at any given moment and order cold soup and the cheese plate for dinner. We want to sit in the hot tub while listening to reggae, attend the midnight buffet, play bingo on the Lido Deck, and there are shows to attend every night! I am sure the members of the Martin Handcart company were praying. So I decided I needed to get some perspective and relax.






As you can see from the pictures, it is very icy here. Can you see the poor little birdies? Click on the photo for a closer look. It is sparkly and lovely and when the wind blows all the branches crinkle and crackle like thousands of tiny bells. Occasionally there is a louder rumble as a glacier slides off the roof generating momentary panic, but not enough to cause us to actually expose ourselves to the weather and investigate.

We are busy with the finishing touches of Christmas. We heard about some girls that just arrived with a foster family with no toys or clothes so the girls are busily engaged getting some things ready for them. We are also trying to get the record label all squared away for a few days so that we can take a break. We were cleaning some things out in the basement the other day and found about 80 addressed envelopes for orders from June!!! I looked them up and only four of them had written to us asking where their orders were. So we sent them out last week. Won't they be surprised? It will be like a little Christmas miracle and I feel honored to have been a part of it. Yep, we are running a tight ship around here.

First snow and tree full of green leaves!