Home sweet home!

The Lord is good!

Don't listen to the voice of the enemy who wants to spread fear and anxiety.

Stay home as much as possible, wash your hands, 

read and watch things that uplift

and turn your eyes to God.

Trust Him to bring us through. 

Turn off the other stuff.

Yesterday, this was me in my favorite reading spot. I have a view out of my south window. The snow's melting. We may have a minor flood in the driveway, but I think the ground will soon thaw and soak that up. 

 In the foreground you see our flooding driveway, 

and beyond the trees the puddles from melting

snow in the pasture. Swans and geese have been

landing in that thin strip of puddle halfway up 

the hillside. I guess the lakes are still iced over.

I tend to pile everything I might possibly need

on the couch next to me when I'm reading.

 This shot is from yesterday. See the thin strip

of water halfway up the hill? To the right of

the tree you can see a couple of swans. Lots of them

came later. Today we had quite a few geese.

Everyone's coming home! Many of the swans

overwintered here.

 My back bedroom has been taken over by art

supplies. I put a drop cloth on the floor and put

all the grands art stuff back there and let them 

go to town. 

 If we run out of canvases we're not above painting on 

cardboard or old book covers!

 My daughter Micah and her family lost her 15 year old

dog, Homer, on Thursday. He'd been sick for a while.

So, the girls did a little art therapy.

I just finished this book. It's pretty hilarious and witty.

Though she makes a few racy remarks now and then, on the 

whole it's a delightful read for bookworms like

most of us. 

I was halfway through the book before I realized

that her husband, George, was George Howe Colt

who wrote The Big House! Remember that book, Glenn? 

Small world!

Yesterday my son-in-law, Adam, made a 10 hour round trip 

down to southern Minnesota pulling a trailer. 

When he came home the grandkids found that he'd

brought them home a black and white spotted pony!

There will be a settling in period to get

the pony acquainted with her new home and

with Micah's other horse. They're separated at present.

She seems to be a decent little pony.

Micah's a pretty good horse woman, though 

she's been in semi-retirement for the last 8 years 

while having lots of little babies to care for.

Now she's looking forward to working with the 

horses. Mom will try not to worry. :)

I trust you're all making the best of this 

unavoidable time of rest. As I drive into

my little town to check my mail I see people

riding bikes and horses, and taking walks with family.

I need to follow their example!

God bless all, and shalom!

A beautiful day!

These photos were actually taken yesterday, but I love how the clouds looked like spilled milk.

Today the three grandgirls next door were out racing around, enjoying the sunny day! Audrey's wearing the uniform of the day. A t-shirt with mud boots and gloves. The gloves are so they can make snowballs to throw at each other and the boots are because the driveway is muddy. Hey, it must be 40 degrees (F) out there. Who needs a coat?

I felt a little cabin fever coming on today, but Micah and I didn't really want to drive all the way to Park Rapids (12 miles) and she really didn't need to go to the store. I had a list, so I headed 5 miles in the opposite direction of Park Rapids to a neighboring small town (even smaller than Nevis!) that has a Dollar General. Our Walmart has been out of a lot of things, but this little Dollar General even had toilet paper! I have plenty of TP, not because I bought huge amounts when this started, but I did buy one extra package. I bought what I needed and thought this is probably a great boon for these little small town grocery stores who are now getting some business. I'll give them mine! Next time I need anything I'll probably just drive into Nevis and check the two grocery store/convenience stores we have. It was nice to just get out and drive for a bit. I took a nap when I got home, which also made me feel better. :)

Here is a little group of "inchies" I made in the last couple of days. I'm not sure who will get them. They're for a PIF (Pay-It-Forward) Blind Inchie swap where you just post and ask who wants them, and the receiver doesn't know what they look like until they get them. I like these swaps because I can make any theme I like.

I'm planning to watch my church's online service from yesterday. Whoops! I forgot to tune in! I also watch Open Door Church in Burleson, Texas.  On another uplifting front, I might subscribe to PureFlix. I have no TV and this having-no-movies-to-watch thing is getting old!

I still have plenty of books and artwork, but it's nice to have something with sound now and then. I listened to lots of music on YouTube this morning, but I can only take so much of that and I need some calm again. So, I'm back and forth. :)

Thanks, everyone, for your blogs! It's good to keep in touch with folks from around the country and the world! Gretchen, I'm having some problems commenting on your blog but, hopefully, that will work itself out. ;)

Stay safe and well-occupied! It's a good time for prayer and contemplating on the things of God. I need to keep that foremost in my thoughts.

Love you all!
Shalom!

Little things...

Have you ever seen a cat being sucked up into an alien spaceship? Hazel and Audrey wanted to show you what it looks like! :)

Hazel's version...

Audrey's version. 

I thought they were kind of cute. :)

Oh, just a note: the header photo was one I took quite a while back. The snow is melting, though we still have quite a bit. But not as much as in the photo! :)

I haven't always been posting the collage cards I've been making because I'm not sure they're really art...I mean like drawing, ha ha. But I seem to be doing a lot of them, so I may post some.

These were for a swap called "Postage Stamp ATC-People". We had to include a stamp with a person on it. The main rule.

 These were for another swap by the same lady called "Postage Stamp ATC-Transport". We just had to have a stamp showing some sort of transportation. (Some of us have a lot of stamps and this gives us a chance to use some of them.)

 A good word from Andrew Murray that popped up in my Streams in the Desert reading this morning.

 I just started this book today and I'm loving it right off the bat. 

Book Five in the series. Jan Karon has mastered the hygge novel!

Audrey and Hazel are giggling and doing some sort of alchemy experiment at the kitchen table. It involves mixing watercolors in a bowl of water, hoping to create a bowl full of gold! Maybe I'd better check on them...

I really don't have a lot of new news. We're keeping close to home, except for my occasional jaunts to the post office to mail ATCs. That reminds me of a quote I saw this morning. Actually, it was in the book above!

"As long as there are postmen, life will have zest!"

~William James~

Shalom, my friends and family!

Hellooooo!

How are y'all doing? Staying calm? Good!

I'm here. Just lazy about blogging. :)

Hazel made me a tri-fold card the other day. They had seen me making my little artist trading cards and wanted to try for themselves. She loves the gold acrylic pen and uses it for most of her cards. It's hard to read, but I wanted to show you the "sentiment" she put on the card. :)

Very hard to translate. It says: "No matter what, life is short. So stay awake for it!" I asked if she made that up herself. She said, "No. I got it off of a coffee cup." (Oh yeah. I should've known that...)

I'm listening to a little Honeytree (Lovely Jesus, Pioneer) and Phillips, Craig and Dean (Revelation Song) and others on my antiquated YouTube worship list. :)

Adam and his fellow stone mason colleagues are working as usual. The current situation hasn't effected anything they're doing. Micah is already homeschooling, so the school closure isn't effecting her either. We got groceries (even some TP) and will stay close to home. Micah and I made a very necessary trip to Walmart today to buy a 20# kettlebell and a couple of 10# hand weights. (I stayed in the van with the kiddos.) Her gym will be closed for a while, so she's hoping to get in some working out at home. We may even have nice enough weather to go walking!

Praying for those whose jobs are effected by all of this. That's going to be the hard part for many. Trust in the Lord. He's not afraid and doesn't want us to be.

Love you guys out there!
Shalom!

Have you seen this lady on YouTube?

I know many of you ladies out there are fans of Beatrix Potter and Tasha Tudor. I just came across this lady on YouTube who reminds me of a mix of these two artist/authors. She calls her channel
Jeri Landers of Hopalong Hollow. (You'll need to type this channel name into the search box on YouTube. I can't get the link to work.) She makes felted animal characters and is also an illustrator. Her house is filled with cool, old stuff a la Tasha Tudor. And she likes to make tea and scones and such during the videos. Really fun to watch!

I took a few photos of my computer screen. They sure don't do the subject justice. This lady has lots of collections of old books, natural things like butterflies, bugs, bones, feathers, etc. And her felted creations are amazing! She also does a lot of herb gardening. She's just one of those folks that work/play ceaselessly to keep all of these things going. I wouldn't want to try to keep up, but it's fun to watch someone else do it! :)

Just thought I'd pop in and let you know about this. I'm loving it!

Oh, and a few of my latest ATCs. We were supposed to draw pictures inspired by favorite artists.

Shalom to all!