The Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window... a squirrel is climbing the stucco wall of the garage.

I am thinking... that I need to become a more frequent rider.

I am thankful for... the kind words of others and the beauty of my children's voices. Check this out.

We sang the indroit and anthem yesterday. Alice sings to her own tune, but that's why we love her. Throughout one song she repeated the chorus ("Jesus, Lammer God") regardless of what the rest of us did. Everyone loved it and we even got applause. In our Baptist church!

From the kitchen... I can look forward to soy-less veal cutlets. I love the Dutch deli and their knowledge of the products they make and sell.

I am wearing... Cheeto-orange tints on two fingertips, and the reason I need to ride the bike more often.

I am reading... Crow Lake by Mary Lawson again. The book club has been voting unintentionally for a lot of Canadiana.

I am hoping... that this scene:

will look like this again:

I am creating... nothing right now. I'm helping Laura make her own poodle skirt though.

I am hearing... the last few minutes of silence before the kids burst through the door, returning from school.

Around the house... there is so much to do that I avoid it altogether. I really need to move the clothes line this week.

One of my favorite things... hearing them yell out about the awesome things that happened at school. One of my least favourie things is to push them out the door in the morning while Alice complains about hating school. I have to videotape her happiness coming home and replay it to her in the morning.

A few plans for the rest of the week... work more hours than last month, set up the mini greenhouse, and join the community league.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

Veggie Tales

Yesterday we were asked at our Bible study what our favourite vegetables were. And then to tell a story about that vegetable.

There was some discussion about whether tomatoes counted. We allowed it for this purpose.

The most disturbing story for me was about brocolli. I grew brocolli for the first time last year. It didn't taste like grocery-store brocolli and I loved the little trees that grew after the first head. I ate them almost daily from our three plants.

The story was this. One woman had carefully cleaned the brocolli from the garden and served it for supper to her husband. He was happily munching until he saw...HALF a worm as his next bite approached his mouth! Half a worm is much worse than a whole worm.

Gross.

Here's my question then. Look at how much brocolli I was planning for this year. Do I plant them? How careful do I have to be when eating them? Or how do I keep the worms away?

I am thankful for...

... chocolate raspberry truffle velvet cheesecake

... 53 tulips so far

... hugs from sleepy children

... the sound of five beautiful girls' voices

... friendship

... the promise of spring every year

... date nights

How We Spent our Easter Weekend...

Puddle splashing and...


hearing glorious music by Pro Coro and...

learning to be a rock star and...

walking through the bull pen and...

mooing at cows and...

sewing Alice's Easter frock and ...

loving the little calf and ...

admiring the calf some more and ...

eating and...


welcoming the cello back and...

watching the sun go down on Easter.

Good Friday

Abba (click to listen)

Abba, Abba, like a whisper on the wind
I hear my name.
In a sound so like a sigh, again it came,
Your disciples gathered with You do not hear, Abba, Abba,
Yet the whisper of my name has reached my ear.

I am here, my Son, here in the upper room.
I hear the water gently splash,
I see the Servant King attending to His friends.
Here I am, here in the upper room.
But as You serve the bread and wine,
The broken body and the blood are Yours alone.

Abba, Abba, like a whisper on the wind I hear my name.
Abba, Abba, in a sound so like a sigh,
Again it came, Abba, Abba,
With a whisper that is heard by God alone,
Abba, Abba, my only Son begins His painful journey home.

Music by Craig Courtney
Lyrics by Susan Bentall Boersma

New Look

I've been playing with the blogger templates and ended up designing my own (based on a simple old template).

Everything you read about blogger says it's all so easy, but just adjusting the font sizes is hard, let alone finding the right margins to adjust or altering colors and stuff.

I've also lost some things I liked. I only had a few followers, but I liked that widget and will have to find out how to put it back. And I can label my posts, but haven't found the HTML code to allow you to choose posts by label. It's rumoured that not all of my faithful readers care one sausage about sewing. This allows them to skip the sewing posts.

For now, I'm happier with the look and I'm learning more about HTML than I thought I ever wanted to learn.

Can anyone help with the widgets and labels?

White/Domestic Manual

I love this manual. This is the reason I bought my second old sewing machine and it's a lovely example of pre-computer publishing. It's full of typos and graphic images that are so representative of ... of... well, they must represent someone.

Every lady wears an apron, as if they've happily interupted their baking to sew a quick little dress. Maybe for the upcoming tea social.

And they are all so expressive. Look how happy this one is to have solved the problem with her skipped stiches.

And this one has either hit a home run or is taking up golf in her sewing room. I think she has higher dreams than what's going on at home. She should consider taking off her heels.

I'm not quite sure what this one is doing. The text says something about "relearing the pressure on the rheostat control". That doesn't help me at all. It looks like she's lost her tape measure or reaching to pick up a bassinet from the floor.

Besides their tiny waists and curvy figures, they all have one thing in common. They are all thrilled to be members of "the growing family of happy owners of the new E-Z-Adjust Stitch Regulator sewing machines".

And so am I.