In Dark December

Ralph Murre

Whatever you believe,
whatever you do not,
there are sacred rites
you must perform
in dark December.
Do this for me:
Pull together
the kitchen table,
the folding table,
and that odd half-oval
usually covered
with bills and broken pencils
and red ink.
Pull together family and friends,
cool cats and stray dogs alike.
Turn off everything
except colored lights,
the roaster,
the toaster, the stove.
Cook. Bake. Eat.
Yes, even the fruitcake.
Eat, crowded around
those assembled tables
with mismatched chairs.
Reach so far
in your sharing
that you hold the sun
in one hand,
the stars in the other,
and no one between is hungry.
Now walk together,
talk together,
be together
on these darkest nights.
Give and forgive.
Light candles and ring bells.
Sing the old songs.
Tell the old stories
one more time,
leaving nothing out,
leaving no one out
in the long night,
leaving nothing wrong

that you can make right.

Thanksgiving Memories and Crafty Stuff

We hosted our first Thanksgiving in our new home this year. I realized after everyone left that I hadn't taken one photo of any of us.  I did take a couple snaps of the food. Yikes. Like I said, it's been on of those years, and I'm off balance in so many ways.

It was wonderful having people to the house and we had such a nice time and a huge over abundance of food.  I truly am thankful for so many things, but there have been great losses as well, and I'm trying hard not to let them overshadow what I DO have and what I AM thankful for!

So, first some food.

Line up everybody!

Turkey was perfection

Home Made Mac-n-Cheese

Pineapple Fluff Salad

Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Deviled Eggs

We were all so stuffed!  That's the whole point I guess, right?   It all turned out great and we had nice conversation around the table (put both leaves in!). Just loved it. I was still full the next day.

One thing I'm always thankful for is my mother teaching me various crafts and always indulging my interest in them from the time I was just a little girl. Keeping your hands busy crafting means you you are less able to throttle people. That's probably why I always have something to do.  This is a sweet little cowl I made one night recently while trying to de-stress!

 

My mom and I went to The 29th Annual Fall Fiber Festival in Montpelier Station VA back in early October. It was fun, a bit warmer than we expected, but overall, just a lovely time. Petting lots of yarn has become a favorite pastime for us.  And the animals were a bonus! Love me a good llama.

My little Jenny has transitioned well to our new home. She brings me lots of comfort and happiness. Don't know what I'd do without her.

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes about handwork and a couple projects I'm working on.

Be good to one another and happy stitching!

Hello. Is there anybody out there?

Well, it's been a long time. Again. My lovely stepfather passed away this past Feb 2nd. I learned more about the medical system than I ever wanted to. Our lives for 15 months consisted of one situation after another. Too many to go into here. Jim worked so very hard to recover, and he did everything he was told to. His attitude throughout his ordeal was just incredible. I feel I got to know him so much more than I already did. We shared many conversations, many laughs and we shed many tears at his bedside this long time just wanting something we were never going to get - him back. We will always miss this man. He arrived in our lives about 35 years ago, and never left. He was not bound by blood or any other obligation. He stayed because he loved us. And that was that.

One more thing. My mother is a warrior in every sense of the word. She is a simply amazing human being and a beautiful woman. She was there at Jim's side every single day. Every.Single.Day. And I love her. SO much.

The past year and 9 months have been a blur. This summer has been pretty stressful for a number of reasons. There will be a time and place to talk about that, but it isn't here and it isn't now.

I had a couple major goals at the beginning of the year.  One was to continue helping Jim.  The other one was to find a new house and move.  What seemed for so long to be an impossible dream finally happened.  I threw caution to the wind and stopped listening to excuses and just did it.  We are SO very happy in our new home!  This is our dream home, in a lovely and wonderful neighborhood and I have a gorgeous porch now to do a Halloween display!

We have scaled back BIG time!  And I love it. Halloween at our new neighborhood was amazing. Kids and their parents (and their dogs!) dressed up and flooding the streets. Everyone was so nice and friendly. The kids were great.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.

My husband and I went on our first "alone time" vacation in over 20 years. My son began an internship and had to work, so we went alone. Last year, we all went and my son's lovely girlfriend joined us. We missed them this year, but we had fun. We went to OC MD in early June and it was actually very chilly. The place was practically empty and we loved it.

I managed to start a bit of stitching. It's The Giving Sisters by Notforgotten Farm.

And don't you know I was so unsatisfied with it that I didn't do any more than that. Disappointing. However, when we came back, we were occupied with work, preparing to move, and as I mentioned above, a good deal of crap that I'll be talking about later. UGH.

I've also been doing quite a bit of crocheting. I'll get around to that later. I also might put some tabs at the top of the blog for separate things, like crochet, embroidery, or Project Life. I have not kept up with Project Life since Jim passed away. Sometimes it seems like too much. I do love it though. Maybe I will spend some time soon getting back up to speed. Ah well.

Don't even know if any reads this blog anymore. I keep it for myself however, so no matter. If you are reading, then Thank You.  Thank you for stopping by and taking your precious time to read these ramblings. Once more, I vow to myself to get better at blogging. As I've said many times, it's helps me keep up with and continue the things that are important to me. I think Facebook has stolen lots of "our" time away, and while I enjoy it, I also find it bloated with lots of things I don't care about, and I wind up reading things I never wish I had. You know? There are some of the most awful things on facebook. I try to block those pages as they show up, but geez.

Well, take care of yourselves and eachother. I hope all are doing well, and hopefully I will get around to catching up with some blogs and finding others. I do like blogging better than facebook. Where your attention goes, your energy flows, and I don't really like that my energy goes into facebook. At least, not as much of it.

I will be back very soon with more updates, and look forward to catching up with some of my favorite blogs soon.  Happy stitching!