Crocheting

It was truly a merry Christmas. All the scarves went over very well. I didn't take the opportunity to photograph them before giving them. I have a few requests,so I will make sure I photo those and post them here. The scarf I made with lion suede yarn was the most difficult and I did not finish it in time. It's too difficult to see the pattern in the scarf and I keep losing count. The scarves with the midnight mohair and trellis (ribbon) yarn came out very nice and I have had the most request for those.

Which Way Do They Go?

Okay, what comes first, sunblock or bug repellent? My thought is that the sunblock comes first and the bug repellent goes last, but will that lessen the effectiveness of the sunblock?

Fun and Interesting Places to Visit

After this missions trip I'm going to need to go on or at least be planning a relaxing international trip. Any suggestions? Some of the places I've thought of include a trip to France or Italy.

A Christmas Poem

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem
By Dr. Maya Angelou

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.
Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.
We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there?
Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?
Into this climate of fear and apprehension,
Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.
It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.
Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth.
Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.
In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft.
Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now.
It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.
We tremble at the sound.
We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war.
But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.
We clap hands and welcome the
Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.
It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.
On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.
At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth's tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of
Peace.
We, Angels and Mortal's, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace.
We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace.
We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.
Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.

The Home Front

The drainage disaster had a happy ending. The work is done and it looks good (to me anyway). My next task is to get rid of the brown spots in the lawn where the crabgrass I didn't have (okay, so maybe I was in denial) has died. I'll get to it after Christmas, but before the new year.

Merry Christmas 

Gotta Love the Holidays

It's that time year again! The glorious holiday season. I love sitting by the fireplace, enjoying old Christmas movies (especially the musical version of A Christmas Carol starring Albert Finney - - simply the best!), and drinking hot apple cider. I don't see how or why people get so depressed during this time of year. Perhaps, the people who get depressed are the same ones who buy into all the false expectations and hype society passes out all year long. If you live by that stuff your bound to be discourage when you get to the part of the year thats about being thankful for the things and people that have been a blessing to you throughout the year. You feel that you are still bring up the rear of the pack, despite all of your efforts over the past 365 days. HINT, HINT - - the system is not designed for you to catch up. You will never catch up with the Jones' because they are in a hideous cycle of refinance, spend, refinance spend... they do not care about the ever increasing debt they are getting into. You don't want to go there.


Here are just a few of the things that I am thankful for:

1. Friends
2. A supportive family
3. Students that are interested in and enjoying reading
4. An awesome, growing relationship with the Lord
5. Salvation
6. All the positive, wonder experiences awaiting me
7. Good food
8. Good books
9. Good neighbors
10. Knowing who I am and what I want out of life
11. Pajama Days!!!

Ghana and the Home Front

I expressed, to the group I am traveling with, my concerns about releasing a copy of my bank statement. VOILA! I no longer need to submit one. The group we will be working with in Ghana is putting together financial responsibility cover letters for us.

On the home front, I am having a better drainage system put in on the side of the house and it has been an interesting journey. Several companies refused to send anyone out to even give an estimate because the job was "too small". Have things gotten so good in America that we can refuse jobs that are an honest, legal days work merely because they are "too small"? One company admitted it wasn't that they were too busy to do the job, they just wouldn't make that much doing it, so why bother. I appreciated their honesty and the fact that they didn't try to just charge me a higher price to make up for potential lost revenue. That was very nice, but I still needed to get my drainage problem fixed before the rainy season. (Yes, California has a rainy season!)

I finally found someone advertising in one of the bulk mail envelopes I received last week. I think what caught my attention was the advertisement included the phrase "No job too big or too small". He did the estimate today and will do the work tomorrow. Hopefully, all will go well and I won't regret hiring him.

Sometimes, I miss apartment living.

 

Current Read

I am currently reading Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisia. I started it months ago, laid it aside, and now I am getting back to it. I think timing is everything with this one. It's more interested at this point in my life.

There are lots of great lines in the book. For example, "In retrospect, when historical events are gathered up, analyzed, and categorized in articles and books, their messiness disappears and they gain a certain logic and clarity that one never feels at the time". I wonder if that will be the case when we look back on the U.S. "war on terrorism".

Trip to Ghana

I'm getting more and more information and developing more and more questions. Does anyone know why a copy of my bank statement would be required for a visa application? I am extremely leery of allowing my bank account number to pass through strange hands.

Yellow Fever

November 13, 2005

Okay, I'm going to give this blog thing a chance. I have been working with this all day. I opened an account, closed it, had it reopened, couldn't get it to work, and finally started a new one. After all this effort, I'm going to really give this a sincere effort.
I will be leaving for a short trip to Ghana in February. That is another thing I have been apprehensive about, but now I'm going for it (the trip that is, I am still undecided about teaching during two days of my trip).

December 3rd, 2005

I got my yellow fever shot and a prescription for malaria tablets. Whew! Things are rolling right along. We have our first group meeting on December 3rd. I'll get more information on what to pack at that time.

Alaska

This picture is from my trip to Alaska. I went during the summer of '03 and had a great time. I left the day after the university signed off on my thesis. What a way to relax!