a thin line moment

such a thin narrow slippery little line

separating light from dark

good from evil

how many walk

carefully along this line

step by step

one foot

deliberately placed

directly in front of the other foot

toe to heel

toe to heel

doesn’t take much

just a little puff of the winds of life

to cause a stumble

a little slip

an off balance moment

with an immediate plunge deep into darkness

this thin narrow slippery little line

get off it!

don’t even try to walk it

move over

well over

miles over

into the light

author unknown

My favorite magazines

My two favorite magazines came in the mail today.  Ahh for simple pleasures and links to the outside world :)  I so enjoyed my time in the rocking chair, in the bay window, Christmas lights twinkling... scanning them!  Do you care which two magazines they are?  They reveal a little about me... they are Golf for Women and Sunset. 

Why did I not notice this before?

I was thinking, as L & J left this evening, how wonderful it is for these 20 yr old girls to have a DOG ! (Zink) .. and my next thought was yes, every girl needs a d-o-g, but first of all, and most of all, she needs g-o-d, GOD ! I guess I was fascinated by the spelling done front and backwards and how these are both such vital things in my life. It is a part of me I know I need to pass along. My prayer is for them to have a relationship and seek God, now - not when they are 30 like I was.

Holiday dilemma . . .

I have such a problem at Christmas, somewhere along the line in my adult life, I started dreading Christmas, dreading shopping, disliking the whole hoop-la. I haven't yet purchased any gifts or bought cards to send.  I love giving gifts to my children and loved ones, I guess I just want to do it on my own terms and not be forced.   In my mind I know it's all a matter of perspective.  Here's a line from my online devotional from today....

 

"There’s no law against sanctifying the secularization of Christmas in your own heart and mind. It’s what we make of all this in our hearts that counts. Every single light can represent another soul secured in eternity as the result of what Christ has accomplished."

 

So, I get it in my heart, but I still don't want to go shopping!

 

I made a wreath today :)

The frame is grapevine, the greenery Blue Spruce and Juniper and the red is dried peppers.

She renders me speechless

It really is rare that someone does "render me speechless" but my daughter has done it twice recently and as I was mopping the kitchen floor I realized that she loves doing it and, it is probably pre-meditated.  I guess being speechless is better than a blubbering idiot. :)

Winter Sunset

 

 

Simple Satisfaction...

I think "simple satisfaction" is a term something like the one I love for a golf swing, "effortless power"... I did a lot of little things today and the end result is that all my simple little tasks came together and I have crossed everything off my dry erase board for tomorrow's open house. .. that's the satisfaction part!  There was no schedule I just plodded along at my own pace.  I had one hiccup... going into the grocery store without a list.  It was crowded and I got the high speed wobbles... raced through, got maybe 8 items.. only to have one without a price at the checkout  - which took an additional 5 minutes, okay not long, but I was amping nevertheless!  I wonder if store anxiety has a phobia name? 

 

A picture is worth....

Too warm to snow

Why does that happen? It is freezing for days and days and finally when moisture is on its way it warms up t 33' - just a little too warm for snow but not warm enough to "hang out" outside... unless you are Mike, he golfed today... again :) Debbie and I played gift shop, rearranging and making it look presentable for an open house this Saturday. Wouldn't it be nice if I had something to say besides the weather?

Frozen Fish

I cannot get my house warm! Snow is on the way - Lyndee called and said it started right after we left Bend and headed home. It feels like an ice cube here already or should I say "still". I am sitting here, in the house, wearing long underwear, fleece pants, wind pants, a shirt, an angora sweater, down coat and socks and Uugs. I have the bathroom wall heater on and put chicken in the oven so I could crank it up to 400'... and the oil stove in the middle of the house is on high and gosh darn it I feel cold coming up through the floors. . . so, need I say more? This little desert fish is frozen!

Lazy in Bend

I complain when I am home because there is no shopping or anything to do when it is cold out. Well, here I am in the big city of Bend and instead of getting out and about, I am in on the computer.... kids are at work, Mike is golfing, - golf when it is in the upper 30's is just not appealing to me. I guess neither is shopping on the busiest shopping weekend of the year. I took Zink and Zander for a walk and that felt good... hmm what now?

Warm hearts, cold day

Thanksgiving Day 2005

Dayville, Oregon

It is well

I imagine that there are hundreds, thousands of people venting, through their writing, about their Thanksgiving Day experience... right at this moment... frustrated, peaceful, a mixture... that seems to be what blogs are really all about... just putting words to it... life...stereotypes, etc, etc...

It is "all well" from my perspective tonight. Maybe I drink too much and a clouded vision makes it all well, but nevertheless, I am Thankful on this Thanksgiving Day... I follow directions, play by the rules, we are supposed to be thankful today ,,, and I am.

Thanksgiving . . .

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts....

          .....and be thankful."  Colossians 3:15

 

Coming into JD Valley November 2005 

Zander and Zoe, 11/11.05. 

View from my hilltop of fresh mountain snow. It was sunny and the high 38' today! 

No one reads my blog spot anyway!

So, it is Saturday night, I have been home and house-bound all day. It has been raining and the temp only in the 30's, wha, wha, typical me whining at the weather and my lack of a life. It is so dang far to go anywhere from here. I have a big shopping list for Bend but it is 2 hours over the mountains and in the snow in my little BMW sportscar, I don't think so! Mike invited me to go golfing, like I would in this weather, he has a cover on the cart and a heater inside and had already invited a friend. so I decide I will stay home and craft, make stuff to sell in my shop for the Christmas "Shop 'til you Drop" on Dec 5th... I started a rag basket using demim and my old arthritic hands gimped on me, so did my motivation. I ended up watching "The Thorn Birds", and crying in my beer. Zander pee'd on my wood floors three times today. He has a bell by the back door to ring to let him out and I always go quickly so he knows that is the signal to open the door... problem is he just loves ringing it... who is training whom here? After I open the door, he likes to just lay down half in and half out of the house... never mind it is 35' out. So I end up pushing him out and shut the door, go back to my movie and hear him scratching to get back in, so up I go (and he probably didn't even pee outside! obviously by the number of times he pee's in here) This may be a long winter of dog training. It's pretty easy to take 'em out when the sun's out, but I make a big ordeal about going out to the office when it's cold! I yi, yi, yi... Hey, if you were bored enough to read this..........................

Thought for today....

It is obedience to God,

not only knowledge of Him,

that reveals

that He is in our lives.

Fish mama and the real desert fish!

When I lived in Tucson for 10 months a few years ago, I bought an aquarium at a yard sale for $10.  I cleaned it and bought a bunch of goldfish and they all died, one by one... guess Tucson city water isn't real fish friendly... anyway there were two survivors when it was time to pack up and move back to Oregon... "Goldie" and "Spot"... they rode in a white plastic bucket in the very back of our Rider truck all the way home and made it!  They resided happily here for a few years and just a few weeks ago, "Spot" was history.  So, "Goldie" had the tank to itself...  Last week Mike left our ditch water lines open to drain them and found  tons of baby fish on the ground in the morning... guess they escaped the fish screens put up by Fish and Wildlife.  We rescued a bunch and Mike put them back in the river.  I took six of them and put them in with "Goldie".  It was fun to watch them and try to figure out if they are steelhead or suckers or what...?  Then "Goldie" started lying on the bottom and I put it (her?) in a big one gallon jar away from the intruders.. and yesterday she was floating! The wild fish are interesting, but the gold fish was old and had a history!  So, now I have 4 river fish in my aquarium...... maybe one day I will blog what happens to them!............. Do you care?

 

Thought for today:

 

"Let me not whine and whimper over things I have  no control over".

 

                                         .....Like the weather!

 

 

 

*SALSA TIME*

I wish it was salsa dancing, but it is the chop, chop, don't rub your eyes, kind of salsa. Featuring bountiful jalepenos and anaheims from Barry's garden and cilantro from Ginny's, and tomatillos, they are strange to work with. My hands are still fragrant from the cilantro :)

I just wanted to prove that I figured out how to post my photos.

Thought for the day...

Embrace an attitude of gratitude !

 

This is "Asa" at eleven weeks old. He is the brother of my pup "Zander" and I puppy-sit him 4 days/week. 

Golf .... it's a four letter word.... kinda like love... :)
This is an old photo, taken last March on our 21st wedding anniversary while playing golf at Wolf Creek in Mesquite, NV. It is probably a good thing our faces are shadowed... we are getting old. Mike turned 49 two days ago. He is thinking senior tour when he turns 50... ha ha! However, he is our club champion once again.

Piper and Loren Stout's barn at the east end of Dayville. 

John Day River 

Ya gotta try new stuff

It is a beautiful day here in Eastern Oregon, sunny, leaves blowing everywhere. Why am I in here at the computer? I want to figure out how to reduce the size of my photos so I can upload them onto here. I know it's not too hard. This is when I wish my computer-literate son was still living at home!

My evolving journal........

I once started a journal.."This book is to me, by me, for me, I guess you could call this My Book." That was at least thirty years ago and silly me, I still have the book. I have always kept it hidden, never wanting my husband or kids to discover it. There have been many other journals over the years and a fondness of putting my thoughts down on paper. It has a two-fold purpose for me. One is that I have to actually complete the thought to put it onto paper, it isn't a fragment but a complete sentance. Two is re-reading my ideas, and many times frustrations, I understand myself and usually have a better insight into how I grew through the experience expressed. I graduated into what I call prayer journals. Although I wish I could say this has been a consistant practice (I am sporatic) it is by talking to God through my pencil that I have grown the most. Nothing is sweeter than re-reading a desperate prayer for your child- written years before - and realize that it was answered in just the right time, in just the right way. Enough for today...............