Gabby's Mama Sews!

Mama's first attempt at sewing resulted in this adorable little outfit. She did a great job!

Evensong

I sit on my deck this evening, on my wooden glider that I love. Beautiful and bountiful trees grace my yard as it slopes toward the stream at the base of the mountain. A truly spectacular view!

Callie is beside me, her head rests in my hand while I stroke the sweet spot between her eye and ear. Oh, she does enjoy that.

The rain is falling softly. A tree frog has taken up residence in the reeds below the deck. He sings loudly; I imagine he calls his lady love to come and share the evening.

The fireflies are just coming out, twinkling through the rain in the waning light.

It is a good evening, a peaceful evening. And I am reminded of the words of the prayer I heard at Liturgy this morning:

For a day that in all things will be perfect, holy, peaceful and without sin, let us pray to the Lord.

Amen.

New Authoress

I wanted to tell you all about a new author I discovered through through the blogging world: Claudia Mair Burney. She has been furiously writing this year and has had several books published. I had read an excerpt of one of them on her blog and I was hooked. Her writing is sassy, fun and oh-so-enjoyable. I think my favorite so far is Zora and Nicky, which is more serious and beautifully written.

She's categorized as a "Christian Fiction" author, but don't let that fool you. Normally, I would rather have a root canal than be forced to read anything from that genre, but she takes it up quite a few notches from the norm and it's barely recognizable as such. Here's her author blog.

I first met her through comments she left on other blogs I read. Claudia has an interesting faith journey which she documents on ragamuffindiva: pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic, with a few stops in between. I relate to much of what she has written regarding her journey.

If you're looking for some light and entertaining summer reading with a twist, this might be it.

Cutie!!

Weapon of Mass Destruction

Yes, folks. This is, indeed, such a weapon. But oh, I do love it! It's a custom chromatic autoharp made by a luthier, Buck Lumbert. It has a spruce top, walnut chord bars, maple chord buttons and a maple back. I bought it used, but it's not even a year old. Beautiful sound!

Unfortunately, I have some chronic elbow and shoulder problems which were set aflame playing this bad boy. So, now I'm in physical therapy and being extremely cautious of how I'm using both arms. And if that isn't enough, I did something to my ankle tendon, too, causing a flare there. So as of Monday, I'll be in PT for three different areas of tendonitis. I might as well set up a sleeping bag and camp out at the therapist's office!

This will be a challenging weekend! Hubster is gone sailing for a few days and I'm here trying to rest these aggravated tendons, but still putting them through some stretches so they don't tighten up. Callie can't figure out why we aren't doing her normal walking routine and is a bit restless, and my youngest will be pushing little River out any day now.

Lord, have mercy! (40x, even!!)

How to End Theological Discussions According to the Corleone Family

"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

We could learn a lot from those guys. For those that may be Godfather-challenged, it means, leave the bad, take the good. Simple, yes ... but after many years of theological volleyball, it works for me.

Lord, have mercy!

Gabby Girl

Here's our little Gabby at five months now. We took her to the local Music Fest last weekend. She and I are dancing to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." We had a great time, she and I!!


Mama is singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Another big hit!

Evening Walk

We ventured out on an evening walk on the Appalachian Trail a few days ago. Lush beauty that just dazzles the senses! So much rain has made everything very green and beautiful. There's a pic of Callie on the trail and a view from the power line right-of-way, looking out over a village along the Susquehanna River. Bucolic bliss!

And Now For Something Completely Different

"And Now For Something Completely Different" Does anyone remember that line? It was the usual segue from one sketch to another on Monty Python. Loved that show!

After I came to Christ many years ago, I wanted very much to sing and play hymns in worship of Jesus. I had no formal training, but was able to pick up piano by ear very quickly. I very much enjoyed playing; it was my gift of worship to Jesus and it was very personal. At some point, I was asked to use this gift to lead worship for my church. Intially, this was a good thing and very enjoyable, but that all changed when the church leaders decided they wanted to go in a newer style and be the first on the block to debut new songs put out by a certain ministry that shall not be named. For three years, I accommodated and worked hard to learn the new songs. When hubby took a job in another area, it was a relief to be able to stop, but the damage had been done ... I lost that love of playing for the Lord. It had become a job and the pressure killed my love for music. Or so I thought.

I've been looking at other instruments for some time now, primarily a dulcimer and autoharp. Lo and behold, there is a major autoharp festival this week in our area. All connections have been made and there's a rental harp with my name on it waiting for me at the beginners' workshop tomorrow. I think my love of music isn't dead, the wound suffered is healed and I'm ready to move on, with great excitement! Simple hymns are swirling in my head again, along with lovely little folk tunes, ready to be sung when I get this harp in my hands.

Blessed be the Lord.

Callie Update

I'm worred about my dog, again. She has been stable with the EPI since winter, but is dropping weight again. This is not a good sign. In every other way, she seems healthy, happy and energetic and that is a good sign. We may have to have the dreaded blood tests again and see what's going on; she hates that, hence, I hate it ... moms are like that.

**UPDATE (again)** She is picking up weight again, just that fast! Methinks I may worry too much about this little yellow creature. Ups and downs are just part of the whole ugly EPI condition.

Discrimination

Before I moved to this area, I held the position of a director of a crisis pregnancy center. I liked what I was doing and knew I had done a good job for the center. This small-town center was supported by all the local churches, regardless of denominations. Sure, there were the occasional conflicts over doctrine, but it was always able to be worked out for the greater good of helping women in crisis pregnancies.

When I came here, I wanted a break and took a position as an office manager for a non-profit. During the last year, I thought I'd look around and try to get back into CPC work, but what I found disappointed me greatly. CPC's in this area can't seem to 'play nice' with each other; specifically, the evangelicals don't want any type of support from the Catholic and Orthodox. I find this so sad and so detrimental to the pro-life cause. I don't really think the baby saved from a gruesome murder gives a rat's a$$ whether the person helping was from a Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc. background. Once again, the schism's ongoing affect rears it's ugly head.

Lord, have mercy!

So I'm looking outside of CPC work now for something a bit more meaningful that that of an office manager. But I find there may be another type of discrimination at play ... age discrimination. I'm 54 now and it's really easy to find a person's age online, even without paying for an internet search. As long as you have a phone that is listed, a person can use 411.com, put in a name and the phone, address and age bracket (within 5 years) comes up. Makes it easy for a company to practice this type of discrimination without asking the unlawful question.

In the end, I will never know if, indeed, age is a factor, but the bottom line is this: I trust that God our heavenly Father knows what we need before we even ask and He will be the one to supply what He wants me to have. Amen!

Gabby Girl

Here's some recent pics of my little granddaughter. She's four months old now and has started "lounging" whilst sleeping. My daughter sends me pics just about every morning of her in this position - pretty funny! I've never seen a baby sleep like this before!


Here's one of her after dipping her hand into a bowl of icing her mom made yesterday. She had it up to her face before mom could do anything to stop her. Doesn't the look on her face seem to say, "Whaddaya gonna do bout it?"


And in a few more weeks, there will be a new grandbaby born to my youngest daughter, a boy named River.

Whew!!

"Anonymity can be a good thing for a blogger unless the aim is to report all the news that is the news."

But I do have news ... good news! Last month I had my routine mammogram. Something didn't look quite right so an ultrasound was performed, which revealed a solid looking lump. Docs recommended an appointment with a breast surgeon for a possible biopsy. I made the appointment for one month after the initial tests. The surgeon was preparing to do the biopsy and had to perform another ultrasound to pinpoint exact location for needle place and found that the lump was gone ... not there ... nothing to biopsy! She wants to follow up in a few months, but for now, I'm fine and praising God for His mercy.