HeartRocksHome

Take five to stay alive.

Dad was a great dancer.
Especially a square dancer.
Alamand left - and he'd lean back and kick above his head.
We kidlets would lay on the floor along the sides under the chairs and watch them dance.
Dad was the best dancer.

Always a live caller.
During a square dance the caller would need a break.
The dancers would need a break.

So...
It was:
"Take five to stay alive."
"Take eight to recuperate."
"Take four and no more."
At home we worked hard.
Sometimes after supper - sitting at the table, after a big day of work but before the night time milking and chores Dad would say, "Take five to stay alive."
I loved: "Eight to recuperate".
Sometimes we'd be so tired we'd all fall dead asleep in: "Take four and no more."
I still think "take five to stay alive" when I sit down to rest a bit.
Reminds me of this little story.
I'm sure you're familiar with it.

A man was struggling in the woods to saw down a tree. An old farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see?” the man impatiently replied, “I’m sawing down this tree.”

“You look exhausted,” said the farmer. “How long have you been at it?”

“Over five hours, and I’m beat,” replied the man. “This is hard work.”

“That saw looks pretty dull,” said the farmer. “Why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen it? I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”

"I don't have time to take a break I'm too busy sawing." He replied.

Sometimes we need a break. Take five to stay alive. Sit back,  close your eyes, break deeply, sigh.  Ah. That's better.

When you get up, who knows, maybe you'll even be the best dancer.

Time

Time flies on wings of lightening, you cannot call it back.
Every feel like you are in a 'lightening storm'?
Me, too.

...like a head with my chicken cut off

Yes, you read that right. I am running about like a head with my chicken cut off. I am going to be a vendor for the BarnBarnBaby Show in September. Rolane is just an incredible girl. She is my kind of girl. She puts on the nicest show...Just d.e.l.i.g.h.t.f.u.l. Plan to come...you won't be disappointed.

There are a few other tentative plans developing there and so....the reason for my head/chicken predicament. Country Living magazine will have Rolanes Barn Show featured in an upcoming issue. Watch for that, also.
I am busy turning rumpled flour sacks in to nice neatly ironed piles ready for creation into totes, etc.

I actually quite like ironing. It is very satisfying to apply the heat and steam and pressure and see the  instant reward.

I learned to iron as a little girl beginning with handkerchiefs, and progressing to Dad's work shirts. I am still amazed that we ironed all those blue chambray work shirts. Every week. How did we find the time to homestead a farm, run a dairy, and iron work shirts? Did the cows care if Dad's shirts were ironed? Apparently.
Smells have the longest memory.
Dads work shirts...perspiration - HARD work, even when freshly washed.
Sometimes we would use the soda bottle sprinkler and roll and repack the clothes into the laundry  basket- letting them sit for an hour or so before the ironing began.  At times life would get in the way, and the freshly sprinkled and rolled clothes were destined to sit longer - much longer than an hour or so.  Mom was fearful the damp clothes would get mildewy and so we would put those clothes, basket and all into the freezer. Seemed so logically and ordinary then, but foreign and extraordinary now.
Times like this I have to remember that saying from John Lennon, was it part of a song?
Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.
Isn't that the truth?
Therefore even though I have the head/chicken feeling going on  I will enjoy the ride. I will. I will.

“There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and [beautiful] wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear the divorce courts are jammed. …

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.

“[The fact is] most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …

“Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.

“The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride”

(“Big Rock Candy Mountains,”  Jenkins Lloyd Jones Deseret News, 12 June 1973, A4).

Thank you, Dear Lord. Thank you.

"Tucked" words at random

OH look, how fun is this?
I found this fun site...my last post, can be viewed above.
Isn't that fun? I love all those words.
I love words, have I mentioned that?
Try it - and share your link with me.

Are you thinking like I am...posters, scrapbook pages, flyers, even a template for a 'stitchy'. Great little site and place to play. Like we all need to spend more time playing on the computer?

"tucked"

Last night whilst I was in that dreamy, cloud-floaty state it became a bit chilly. My RR got up and pulled up the earlier tossed-off-it-is-too-hot-in-here blankets,

and he then covered 'us' up. Felt good.
Then I was sort of dream-i-ly astonished when he 'tucked' them around me. Felt REALLY good. As a matter of fact, it made my heart melt, and I still feel the warmth of that melty heart this morning.
When is the last time you were 'tucked'?
I have a great idea...think of someone to 'tuck'. Trust me on this - it feels great.
Kind of like a big blankety warm all fuzzy I really love you a lot HUG. Who is someone in your life that needs to be 'tucked'.
Shhhhhh surprise them.
Plan it all out.
Sneak up on them.
Tuck.

Remember these raggedy dolls?
Who is that someone in your life with a raggedy soul that could use a 'tuck'?  YOUR tuck. The tuck only you can give?
I am already planning my big blankety (or lap robey) tuck.
Here is a hint.

Picasa is Miraculous

Well - to me anyway.
I use the program Picasa as a picture organizer thing-a-ma-bob.
I didn't really know how to use it but stumbled about and made a really big mess of things. I am pre-disposed to do that sort of thing. (Pre-disposed as in - I have made a really big mess of things many times and have become really really good at it.)
I've finally had assistance from our much-smarter-than-I-am-and-they-are-over-twenty-so-can-admit-to that-sort-of-thing-children. (Don't really know what all those dashes mean, but I just like that run on sentence, one big word feeling - can you hear me saying it really fast?)
I have spent many hours organizing and reorganizing and now I have IT. "IT" being, I can find a picture when I want it. What an amazing thing! Don't ya think?

First let me share what I like about Picasa. I have not tried other programs and perhaps this is common to the masses,  but -  this is what we like:

1. You can see your picture in thumbprint form

2. You can view them in a variety of ways by name or date etc

3. The original picture is always there - crop, tint, make black and white, add highlights and lowlights with no fear because you can always go back to THE original.

4. To rename your picture in Picasa press F2 and rename it - save it. It is renamed everywhere.

5. AND there is a great online help, if you will  just take a few minutes and learn the program. (No comments to me about this, please - remember -be nice.)
So let's practice:
You want a picture of the  aprons to put on a show application? No problem they are right here....

Simple as that.
Oh, want to email a cute picture of the grands to share with your Mom or sissies..okay...let me find a cute one, they are easy to find, ya know.

Oh you don't believe me, yet, now do you...well all righty then, how about a picture is needed of those cute wristlets you made and they sold like hotcakes, do you have any of those, Miss SmartyPants?

Well, as a matter of fact, I do.

Okay you have almost persuaded me to be a believer...what about...hummm..those  bags hanging all together, you know the ones.....

Well, dearie, are these the ones?
Or where you thinking of these?

I canNOT even begin to share how good it feels. 

I am right near unto spellbound by the beauty of this organization thing.
Let's be honest here, don't we just wish we could organize the junk drawer this way? All tidy and out of the way until you need it and then a few clicks and there it is.
Is there a program like this for the garage?
How many times have I been out there rooting about looking for something and had the thought  cross my befuddled mind, I'll just "google" it - to find it.

Now go to work Mr Google, you have taken a picture and made the ENTIRE Earth search-able...you can surely do my garage.

We need more miraculous. Always need more.

In the Good Old Summertime...

(Mom, if you click on the pictures they become a bit bigger and easier to see...love you Gma)

It was a fill-your-camera-card-storage-capacity-kind of reunion. Cars were packed (to the gills)

Full moon observed - enjoyed

Trees climbed

Brave "polar bears" took a dip

Shells were gathered

China babies loved

And loved

And helped

Obstacles overcome...mostly... "We can do Hard Things!"

Boondoggles awarded

Even to the bashful one...

Cousies connected

Kisses given

Our family is a circle of strength and  love.
With every birth (adoption) and union , the circle grows.
Every joy shared adds more love.
Every crisis faced together makes the circle stronger.

A good time was had by all....miss you Amy and family. SO much.

A blank mind

Oh golly Miss Molly. I am a blank head today.  I love these words: beholden, laughed so wide, summation, peculiar, incredulous, conundrum, influx, effervescence, but for the life of me can't think of one silly little sentence to use them in.
Ever have that happen?
Oh, I could talk about how I am trying to justify buying a Flip Video,

or how much work it is to go camping. or  how sad I am that my friends cancer has returned, or our book club last night (it was great, by the way, I will report when my brain returns), or how much I miss living by my Mom and Sissies, or how we should just bite the bullet and have a big family reunion and why aren't we (?) except gas cost a bloody fortune - now maybe I could really go off on my feelings about that and off shore drilling and global warming and not being able to buy dishwashing detergent in Washington state - but....or, perhaps I could just wander around talking about how much I love my garden - our first zucchini for supper tonight (WHOOT), or how fun it is to live with my RR. (one of my favorite pictures of him)

(He is a delight, lucky lucky me),
or the wonder of life and living and the hand of God in our lives

(thank goodness our Miss B is okay after a frightening fall from the swings).
Oh, I could talk about all those things, if I wasn't a blank head today.

But alas and alack, I am - and so perhaps this little you tube video my son shared with me will do.
It is very creative.

FASC-I-NATE-ING - a magic touch

Saturday we went to the Vintage Barn Sale. (Crossing my fingers and toes I can be a vendor at the September show).
At the show Virginia was selling bird nests. I thought, what the heck? And then on closer inspection and chatting with Virginia...SHE MAKES THEM.

I carefully handled and touched and marveled at every one.

I finally decided on one. Silly me, why didn't I buy more than one?

They look like they belong in every corner of my house.

You know how some people no matter when or where you take their picture it turns out cute, even if they are eating a mouth full of cookies and sticking out their tongue?
 
That is the same with this amazing hand made nest..it could go in any place in my home. It is amazing.

AND SHE MADE IT.

Like I told Virginia..she is as good as a bird.
Just lovely.

I think I will keep it safe inside this china cup for a bit - where every time I walk by, I can stop and marvel at Virginias' magic touch.

I  believe we all have a magic touch. What is yours? The magic can be a wide range of things, is it the way you listen to someone's heart, sooth a crying child, hum a tune, nurture a seed, write a computer program, freely give hugs? What is your Magic Touch?

Thanks Virginia. Thanks for reminding us magic comes in many ways...I love your magic touch, with grass and stems. Who would have imagined, a magic touch could be so simple yet, so stunning?

Real magic lives in our hearts

With the recent fire here in our neighborhood, thirteen homes were burned quite literally to the ground, and hundreds of homes evacuated, it has caused some thinking.  If we were to evacuate not knowing for sure we would have a house to come home to...what would we try and stuff in our vehicle?
After wandering about from room to room and thinking, I am sure I'm not much different than most,  my thoughts turn to trying to pack those memories recorded, in pictures or journals, genealogy research.
Those things.

My Mom and sister have both lost homes to fire. My Mom when a young girl. My sister when she had a combined family of fourteen children all still living at home. I remember my sister saying, that the things that are hard to replace are the little things, not the couch or refrigerator, those you can get at Sears in an afternoon. It's the sewing box with all those little sewing notions. The box in the hallway closet  with all the first aid supplies that have accumulated there.
I naturally thought of all my tools for creating in the Magic Room.
I love my  Magic Room.

But even all those things are still just things, the real magic of creating lives in our hearts.

Perhaps today,  remember that gift, the gift - to dream and think,  plan and imagine. And it is stored Inside where we live - not in a box of glitter or a jar of buttons or a yard of fabric that needs to be hastily stuffed and carried with us. It's all just stuff.
No.
The real Magic Room is safe and sound right inside our hearts.