The Curse

           I couldn’t decide, this week, what I wanted to talk about first. I took a bunch of pictures of hawks. I could title this Hawks and start with five pictures of hawks and tell you about the one I missed.

          Alternately, this one could also be called Finally! because I can finally tell you about the project I mailed.

          While writing the date I realize it’s the end of the first month of a new year. I was just complaining to my morning peeps that the days are passing too quickly. I could add that the weeks are passing equally as quickly, too.       

When you’re young, the school year seems endless and the summers long. But now...

It’s a curse, I thought to myself. The curse of age.

          So, on with it.

          I saw quite a few hawks this week. I think it was just last year — or was it the year before? — I complained about not seeing any hawks.

          I knew this shot wouldn’t be any good. He was too far away and with the blue sky behind him, all I got was a silhouette.

          This one was pretty far away, too.

        I cropped the photo. 

          Another hawk silhouette. I should stop showing you the ones that aren’t so good.

          This one was closer to the road and I saw him in time to get the camera up. 

          This one also wasn’t far from the road.

          The one I missed was perched on a branch nearly hanging over the road. I didn’t see him in time to take his picture. As with anything else you miss, you think, and in my case, say to your husband, “It would’ve been the best one!”

>>>*<<<

          My best old friend in West Virginia finally got her Christmas package. I sent a box chock-full of goodies. Nestled among it were two loaves of homemade bread and two big pieces of pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting. Unfortunately, because of weather, the box spent six days everyplace but with Trish. Six days is a long time when you’re homemade bread without preservatives.

          “It was starting to get stale,” Trish said, “but I buttered it and toasted it and it was good.”

          The cake fared better. “The cake is delicious!” she told me the next day.

          But the real surprise in the box was the sheet music sign I made for her.

          “What’s your favorite hymn?” I asked her before Christmas but didn’t tell her why.

          “If I had to pick, I think it’d be Amazing Grace,” she replied.

          Do y’all know the story behind that hymn?

I’ve been playing around a lot with artificial intelligence this week. Rather than sift through stories and write something myself, I asked AI to write me a short story about it.

          John Newton was a slave trader who had no regard for God or human dignity. He sailed across the Atlantic, buying and selling human lives for profit. He was cruel, greedy, and hardened by his sin.

One day, as he was returning from a voyage, a fierce storm struck his ship. The waves were towering, the wind was howling, and the ship was cracking. John feared for his life and realized that he had no hope of salvation. He remembered the Bible verses his mother had taught him as a child, and he cried out to God for mercy.

To his surprise, the storm subsided and the ship was spared. John felt a strange peace in his heart and wondered if God had heard his prayer. He decided to read the Bible and learn more about the God who had saved him from the storm.

As he read, he discovered the amazing grace of God, who loved him and gave his Son to die for his sins. He realized that he was a wretch who needed forgiveness and a new life. He repented of his sins and trusted in Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

He left the slave trade and became a preacher of the gospel. He wrote many hymns to praise God and share his faith with others. One of his most famous hymns was "Amazing Grace", which he wrote to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. He wanted to tell the world how God had changed his life and given him hope.

"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see."

Those words can be taken to heart and bring tears to your eyes.

In my stash of stuff, I have two rolls of wallpaper backing. I didn’t know what it was when I bought it at a yard sale, all I knew was it was thick and would make good pages for a sketch book I wanted to make someday.

I got the backing out and cut a page-size piece. It kept rolling so I ironed it. I found a free printable copy of Amazing Grace and ran the backing through my printer.

I have a lot of leftover printer ink from when I used to refill cartridges. I was hoping it would work on this paper. I got out the ink and a quill pen and set to work. I was thrilled at how well it was working and stopped to take a picture for you.

           I’d planned to switch to watercolors to paint the image, but the ink was working so well I decided to keep using it.

A printer uses only a few colors to make all the colors. I had to figure out how to mix them to get the colors I wanted. My cute little redhaired sister was a great help to me in this department.

The only part of this not painted with leftover printer ink is the white of the church. I used acrylic paint for that.

I had another plan for this project that didn’t come to fruition. I’d planned to mount it on a piece of wood. How I was going to do that was rattling around in my head. What wood would I use? Should I chippy paint it? Then it occurred to me that wood would be heavy to mail.

“How about framing it?” Mike suggested.

I was considering that, thinking about how to keep the glass from getting broken and still thinking about wood, when I heard the Kipps in my head. I’d made a keychain holder for them and I made the cardboard look like wood.

“I thought it was wood,” Miss Rosie said.

I cut several thicknesses of cardboard and painted them green, thinking Trish’s favorite color is green. Maybe not this shade but green’s green, right?

I was pleased with the result. I could only hope that Trish would like it, too.

“OH MYLANTA!!!!!!” she told me when she got her box. “That sign is awesome! I showed it to Ben (her son) and he said, ‘I like that piece of wood.’ I told him it wasn't wood. He had to take it and examine it before he believed it. He was impressed.”

I smiled.

Trish went on. “I hung my sign on the wall between the windows in my bedroom and hung the stained-glass Christmas tree in the window so it sparkles in the light.”

          I was thinking maybe I’d make a few more song sheets along this vein to hang in the entryway of my church.

>>>*<<<

          My beautiful Minnesota sister is taking care of Jim’s mom, Jean. Phyllis and Jim have been together 30 years this June. That’s longer than most marriages last. Jean is in a nursing home and Phyllis goes every day and spends hours with Jean, making sure she’s getting the care she needs, the foods she likes, and keeping her entertained playing cards with her. I so admire Phyllis for her devotion.

          Then I got a call from Phyllis. “I have a favor to ask and you are free to say no.”

          “Okay. Shoot.”

          “Jean has a friend that sends her cards with little notes in them. You should see how she lights up when she gets one.”

          I knew where this was going, but I didn’t interrupt.

          “Would you consider sending her a card once in a while?”

          I didn’t even have to think about it. “Sure! I’d be happy to!”

          I love that my sister thought of me for this project. I love that she knows I love making things. And I love that something I make will bring joy to someone else.

          I think I turned right from hanging up the phone to my collection of images. I found a pretty bird drinking from a pool and printed it. Then I got my card making supplies out and made a card.

          Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying attention to orientation and put the bird on upside down. Well, it wasn’t upside down when I put it on, but it’s upside down when you open the card! I carefully peeled it off and glued it back on the right way. The lace had to stay where it was because I used super glue to affix that and it didn’t matter which side of the image it was on anyway.

          Then I turned back to my computer and used AI to write a short poem. AI is cool. I just told it what I wanted. “A short poem about a thirsty bird who wanted to say hello.”

A thirsty little bird flew in my window today,

Followed by two little bees.

“There’s a pretty little lady in Minnesota we need to see?”

“Whatever for?” I asked.

“Why, just to say hello and we think of thee!”

          Okay! Okay! It’s kinda corny, I agree. But I don’t think she’ll mind. Inside the card I added a couple of little bees and a daisy or two, plus a short-handwritten note.

          Since then, I’ve made three more cards. Two for Rachel, Phyllis’ daughter, and another for Jean. I used AI to create the images as well as the corny poems, and words of encouragement for Rachel.

          Something else I made this week was a recipe from our old friend in Missouri. When Margaret was still working, her department got together, submitted recipes and made a cookbook. Margaret contributed Hamburger Stroganoff, a recipe she liked and made often. Her recipe called for it to be put over rice but I used wide egg noodles.

          There’s nothing like comfort food for these cold winter days.

          I also made homemade bread, Mounds Brownies, and Lemon Bars this week. Only the bread was for me. I have a weakness for homemade bread toast and the bread recipe I use is ridiculously easy. So easy that I don’t mind making it. Toasted, it’s a good base for a little cream cheese, or peanut butter and jelly, or just plain butter. But I have to watch my butter consumption as it’ll make my belly hurt if I eat too much of it, and believe me, when it comes to homemade bread toast, it’s easy to go overboard and ‘slather it on’ as Trish says.

          “What were the other things for?” you wanna know.

          I made the brownies and lemon bars for movie night at the church. We watched a movie called God’s Not Dead. It’s a really good movie and even though the end is a little graphic, it shows God’s great love. If you wanna see it, message me and I’ll hook you up.

>>>*<<<

          In crafts this week, I made the symbol for Alcoholics Anonymous into suns for my cute little redhaired sister, Diane.

          “Everyone can use a little sunshine in their life,” she told me.

          I’d originally sent her these four stained-glass symbols without points on them. Since they were extras and not part of her order, I didn’t go through the trouble of putting points on them. Diane liked them with points so much that she sent the plain ones back and asked me to put points on them as well.

          I love her so I did.

I won’t mention that she paid me to do that for her so I sorta had to. But I love that she values my work and resources and didn’t presume on my love — although I totally would’ve done it for her even if she hadn’t paid me.

          I have one more to make for Diane. This one will have a diamond in the middle instead of the triangle, which is the symbol for Narcotics Anonymous. I expect I’ll have it done Monday and have the box back in the mail to her on Tuesday.

          Speaking of love...

          I got a box in the mail from someone who loves me and gifts me things from time to time. I always get a little excited when a box I didn’t order shows up at my door. Gifts not asked for nor expected are always the best gifts and encapsulate the true meaning of love.

I opened the box to a pair of fur-lined winter boots. I slipped my feet into the comfy warm yumminess and haven’t taken them off since!

          Okay, okay! I took them off before I went to bed, but I put them right back on the next day. I considered wearing them in the shower but I don’t think they’re waterproof.

          Okay, okay! That part’s a lie.

          >>>*<<<

           Our internet is really bad. I know I’ve told you that before. I play 3003 Crystal Mazes while I’m waiting for it to reconnect. This puzzle took me a while to figure out. I’m talking weeks. Once I saw the answer I thought, how simple was that‽ My computer marks it as solved and moves on to the next puzzle. I know I played two or three more puzzles before I closed the game.

          Imagine my surprise when I opened the game this week and this puzzle opened as not yet solved.

          I could kick myself.

          Sometimes, when I finally figure out an especially tough puzzle, I’ll play it several more times. This time I didn’t and now I can’t remember the answer and I’ve been playing it all week, because, like I said, my internet sucks and drops out A LOT!

          “You should do something about your internet,” you say.

          I know, right!

          There was a repair crew from the internet company working on the lines at the neighbor’s house. When he pulled into our back driveway to check the lines, Mike went out and talked to him. Turns out our neighbor gets 12 mbps and we only get 1! And we’re on the line before him! We should have at least as much service as he has.

          We called the internet company and told them this. We talked to three people before one of the technicians told us we could get an eero box and that would fix our problems but it will cost us ten dollars more a month.

          “Let’s do it!” We’d gladly pay an extra fee to have better service. Do you think they had it planned that way so we’d upgrade our service?

          Two eero boxes arrived the next day and someone is supposed to be here Monday to install them for us. Keep your fingers crossed that it fixes our problems.

>>>*<<<

          Guess what?

          I know you can’t guess so I’ll just tell you. I’ve lost some of my reusable shopping bags. I have a bag I keep all my bags in and normally it’s kept in the car but sometimes, if we need the extra room in the car, we take the bags out and leave them in the garage. Once the groceries are unpacked, I fold the bags and take them right out to the car. I know if I don’t, I’ll forget them. This last time I didn’t do that though. I got busy with other stuff and it was a couple of days before I picked up the stack and took them out to put them away. My bag of bags wasn’t in the car. I looked around the garage and couldn’t see them. I came back in and looked around the house. They weren’t there either. I checked the garage a second and a third time and Mike looked, too. We can’t find them anywhere.

          “Did we pack our groceries and leave the rest of the bags at the store?” I asked Mike.

          “Seems like we must’ve,” he said.

          That was weeks ago.

          This week we went to Walmart and I asked at the service desk if anyone turned them in. She told me no without even looking. Whatever.

At Aldi I asked the manager if anyone had turned my bags in and got another no. To be fair, if I saw reusable bags left at the bagging stations, I’d think they were extras someone left on purpose, so I didn’t really think anyone would turn them in.

          “That’s okay,” I told the gal at Aldi. “I just hope whoever has them uses them.”

          “Can I buy you a bag?” she asked. “I’d like to buy you a bag.”

          I thought about it for a second. I didn’t really need another bag. I have the five or six we carried into the house with groceries and we seldom use more than that, but how could I refuse such a kind and generous offer?

          “Okay,” I said.

          “Just pick one out,” and she gestured to where they hung near the registers. I took one in the size that Mike and I prefer and I thanked her for it.

          Sometimes people still surprise me.

          I took some road pictures and I’d like to end this week with those.

          Frosted trees. 

          An ice jam on our creek.        

          Let’s call this one done.

Garage Goes Up

           Our church never built a garage for the parsonage. Mostly because none of the other pastors wanted one. Pastor Jay wanted one. He brought it up in a business meeting and it was voted on to build one.

          At first, it was going to be built by volunteers and donated materials. The church would purchase whatever couldn’t be or wouldn’t be donated.

Pastor Jay asked only for a modest-sized garage — something to get two cars in out of the snow and have a little room for his tools.

“It won’t be big enough,” Mike said. “I recommend we build at least a 30 by 30.”

The size was approved.

It was decided to set a budget rather than approve every little detail and a committee was appointed to oversee the project.

          My handsome mountain man was on the committee.

          No moss grows under Mike’s feet, let me tell ya! When he’s got something to do, he gets it done. He was right on this task and during research, discovered we could have a steel building put up, materials and labor included for less than a wood structure. Not only that, steel has a longer life than wood. It won’t rot and galvanized, it won’t rust. And as an added bonus, we wouldn’t be at the mercy of the volunteers’ schedules. You know how it is when you’re trying to get something done. Some people can't make it no matter what day you set for a work day.

          Mike spent days on the phone. He told the design planner at the company what we wanted and as things came up, Mike had to get with Pastor. What color steel do you want? Do you want windows? How many windows do you want and where do you want them? Do you want a walk-in door? Where do you want the walk-in door?

          “It sounds like the church is building it just for the pastor,” you say.

          And you would be right. Someone had to make those decisions and since Pastor would be using the garage, he might just as well say what he’d like to have. After all, I don’t think anyone in the congregation cares if the siding is white or blue. However, we went with a beige color to match the parsonage.

          We originally planned for three overhead garage doors and for volunteers to put them in. As the plans progressed, it was decided to go with two larger garage doors and a walk-in door in the front of the garage. Instead of the overhead doors and volunteers to install them, we went with a roll-up style the company offers.

          Bailey, the rep, sent the completed drawings to us. We printed them and presented them to the congregation even though we probably didn’t have to. We were given a budget to work with and we were under budget. Lamar, Pastor, and Mike decided it was prudent to make them aware of the changes and give them a chance to object.  

          No one did.

          Approval in hand, the garage was ordered, and the down payment made.

“Let me know when you have the pad poured,” Bailey said, “and I’ll put the order in. Then it’s usually two to six weeks.”

          One of our parishioners, David J., brought his equipment out and cleared the land.

          Luke, Pastor and Mary’s son, loves working with wood. He was in his glory using a chainsaw and clearing away the debris.

          The site was cleared and graded. Then David J. dug the footers. 

          Rain came but that didn’t stop this crew. They formed up the pad and got it ready for concrete.  

   

         I love that the little girlies were allowed to play in the mud as much as they wanted.

          “It’ll wash off,” Mary said.

           A little wash station was set up to get the worst of the mud off before they went into the house.

Playing in the mud is a rite of passage. I know that my siblings and I spent many happy hours playing in the dirt and mud, trees and creeks. I won’t say anything about the barns and outbuildings that we played in and weren’t supposed to. 

Once the concrete was ordered, a group of men from the church showed up to help.

The concrete trucks were heavy and left a heck of a mess! 

          When the site was ready, Mike called for the garage to be built.

          That was at the end of September. We expected them in the two to six-week time frame we were quoted.

          That came and went.

          To say that Mike was chomping at the bit is an understatement. He felt he was responsible since it was his idea to have a steel building built and he was extremely frustrated. He may have suggested it, but the congregation voted on it. It was on all of us. Mike made several calls to the company. They assured him it would be up before Christmas.

          Christmas came and went. Bad weather set in.

          “They won’t build it if it’s snowing,” Mike muttered.

          “I don’t care if it doesn’t get built until spring,” Pastor Jay tried to ease Mike’s guilt.

          At one point, Mike began to wonder if it was all a scam and the down payment was lost. Oh my goodness! How this man fretted!

          Monday, we got a call. “They’ll be there tomorrow,” she said.

          “It’s supposed to snow tomorrow,” Mike said.

          “They’ll work in the snow. They’ll do as much as they can, then come back the next day. They should be done in two to three days.”

          I bet you can guess where we were the next day.

          We arrived just as the Lull lift had been delivered. That’s a forklift on steroids.

          The snow had started in the night and we had a few inches by morning. The crew to put the building up wasn’t there yet so Mike and I went on into town to run some errands. I had a goodie box to put in the mail and we needed a gallon of milk.

          The roads were snow-covered. It’s the first time we had our car out on roads like that and it performed better than Mike thought it would. 

           It was late in the afternoon when the crew showed up.

Pastor Jay and Luke started clearing the snow from the pad.

          At the end of the first day they not only had the truck unloaded and the various parts staged, they had a few pieces up.

          The next morning, Mike and I went to watch and to take pictures.

          The sun coming up over our pretty little creek. 

          I spotted this tree across from the parsonage. It’s got a bend at least ten feet from the ground. It reminded me of the system the Indians used. They would take a sapling, cut the top, bend it over, and secure it with a strip of rawhide. The tree would grow like that and serve as a pointer to show where food, water, or shelter could be obtained.

          This was a three-man crew with the boss leaving for periods of time. The other two guys kept working right along and knew what to do without the boss standing over them. 

          As we stood chatting with Pastor and taking photos, color started appearing in the sky.

          “Am I seeing things?” I asked.

          “Nope,” Pastor Jay said. “I see it, too. I forget what that’s called.”

          “The only thing I know is sundog,” I said. “But that’s usually just little pieces of a rainbow and not as much as this.”

          I Googled it and I believe this is called a rainbow halo around the sun or an icebow.  

I had hoped to get a better view of it when we left but it was gone by the time we were ready to leave. I could kick myself for not walking over to where I could get a better view but I’d forgotten to put my boots on and I wasn’t traipsing through the snow in my slides.

          At the end of the second day they had all the studs up and the siding part way down. The doors and windows were temporarily put in place.

The next day we went to see the progress. This guy impressed me as he hefted a roofing sheet, climbed the ladder, and slid it up on the roof.

“Look honey! It’s not a two-person job!” I said.

“It is for me,” Mike said.

“You can do that kinda stuff when you’re young like these guys,” Pastor Jay said.

          Mike and I left about 4:30.

          “It’ll go fast now,” Mike said.

          And he was right. They finished it that night.    

   

          I can’t tell you how impressed we were with this crew. They worked from 8 o’clock in the morning until after dark. And they worked in the cold. One day wasn’t too bad because the sun was shining, but the next day was not sunny and was bitter cold!

          Pastor and Mary kept them supplied with hot food and coffee but they never took long breaks from the job.

          “When they were all done, I convinced them to go sledding,” Pastor Jay told us.

          Two of these guys were from Honduras and the boss was from Mexico. The boss was the only one who spoke any English and it was very broken English at that. Pastor had Spanish in school and managed to remember enough to communicate on a basic level.

          “They’ve never played in the snow, never been sledding,” Pastor said. “The boss wouldn’t go but the other two guys had a blast!”

          We have got such a good church here and a good Bible-teaching pastor. I am truly thankful for both of those things.

          Watching the progression on the building wasn’t the only thing I did this week.

          “Peg, you said you’d show us your new projects,” you say.

          That’s right. I did. But I can only show you one of them. The box destined for West Virigina got held up in the snow and Trish won’t be able to get it until Monday. So I can’t tell you about that one. But I can tell you about the other one.

          My beautiful daughter-in-law, Kandyce had a birthday coming up. I made her a card using watercolors.

          “She really liked it,” Kevin told me when next I talked to him. “You did a good job.”

          “Thank you!” I said. “It was my first thing making with watercolors.” But that’s a lie — sort of. I messed up my first attempt at this card so technically this one was the second.

          “Yeah, it was really nice. We took it outside and set it on fire and it burned so well!”

          I laughed and I could hear Kandyce laughing, too. “Kevin!” she exclaimed.

          Kevin laughed. “No, we didn’t do that.”

          Seriously, what’s there to do with cards once you’ve seen them and maybe hung them on the refrigerator for a few days? Nothing! Go ahead and burn it or throw it away. It won’t hurt my feelings. My joy was in making it and hoping you would get joy from receiving it.

Mission accomplished.

“You better be careful what you say,” I told Kevin. “Your birthday’s coming up and I might paint you a card, too.”

“I’d love that,” he said. He loves me.

Another job I did this week was to refresh our redwood sign. We had this sign made more than twenty years ago. The varnish was peeling and the colors had yellowed.

I sanded it and repainted it. I haven’t varnished it, only sprayed it with a sealant.

          I have a bunch of snow road pictures for you. We had planned to go to the big town of Tunkhannock for shopping, but considering the condition of roads, we opted just to go to the local grocery for the few things we really needed.

We had a couple of snow-free days, then more snow. This time we went out for haircuts.

          “I can reschedule them,” I offered.

          “No. It’s okay. I’m not afraid of driving in the snow,” Mike said.

          So here are more snow road pictures.

          We rounded a corner. “Look at those big birds,” Mike said.

          I raised my camera and started snapping pictures before I even knew what I was taking pictures of.

          “That one’s an eagle!” I was so excited! It’s a juvenile and not yet got his colors but there’s no mistaking that he’s an eagle!

I was hoping he’d still be feeding on the deer carcass when we went back that way after our haircuts but he wasn’t. I’m thankful I got these shots.

 

       

          I read the most interesting book! Lamar Kipp recommended Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. There is a story line and I wasn’t all that thrilled with the ending but some of the things she talked about were educational.

          “Like what?” you ask.

          Like she talked about organic farming and the problem with pesticides. It kills the good and the bad bugs. The problem is the bad bugs reproduce much faster than the beneficial bugs so by spraying pesticides you’re doing more harm than good. She talked about other things too but that’s the one that sticks in my mind.

          Something else that stuck in my mind is the old geezer in the story suffered from bouts of vertigo. Dizziness. The neighbor, and organic farm-stress, had him do the Epley Maneuver. Sometimes you get a crystal in an ear canal that causes you to be dizzy. This maneuver moves the crystals out of the canal to where they won’t bother you anymore.

          I Googled it. It says one of the symptoms of BPPV, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, is eye movements called nystagmus.

          Guess what?

          My oldest son had this when he was young. Five, maybe seven years old. I don’t remember anymore. It scared him so bad he’d scream and fall to the floor. If you looked at his eyes, they’d look like they were spinning in circles. I took him to the doctor but they never did anything for it. I guess he outgrew it. I only remember it happening a half dozen times or so. I’d forgotten all about it until I saw this and now I know what it was.

          And with that, let’s call this one done.