Aftermath

Just checking in with all of you folks...some of you have emailed me directly, some have called, some have just prayed for us. Thank you to everyone! We live about an hour east of Joplin, Missouri, along the I-44. While we had horrendous winds, vicious rains, and large hail, we had no damage. This is what I encountered on my way to work on Monday.
Wicked black low clouds. Rain and wind. And that's what we've had each day this week. Today, Thursday, we have low clouds still but no rain. Hopefully by the weekend, we will see that blazing yellow ball in the sky once more.

Shortly after the news of the Joplin tornado, I looked outside and saw this.

Right off the back deck, a double rainbow. While the tornadoes this week are reminders that we are not in charge, this double rainbow reminds us of exactly Who is in charge.

Thanks for checking on us, praying for us, and caring about us. And thanks for stopping by.

Two of My Favorite Men and a Sock

I cast on and finished this Wee Tiny Sock on Sunday nite. "Orla is Stressed" is a lovely and fast little knit. It's a bit scary to drop stitches at first but once you get over the initial fear, it is fun to release all your stress by dropping stitches deliberately.

John called me last evening, as he usually does around 5:00, to tell me that he was on his way home from work. He also said that he'd gotten a phone call from our son. It seems our son was on a business trip in Kansas City (3 1/2 hours north of us) and wondered if we would like to drive north and meet him halfway. We left home at 6:00 last evening and got to our meeting point at 10 minutes till 8:00. Young John arrived about 5 minutes behind us. We hadn't eaten dinner so our meeting took place at a Chinese buffet. We hadn't seen John since Christmas and that hour and a quarter we got to spend with him was a true gift! Thanks, Son, for thinking of this lovely treat for us. We love you!
Sorry there's not much content to this posting...I just wanted to share a bit of the joy we felt yesterday at getting to see our son....Utah is so very far away from Missouri....

Thanks for stopping by.

May 2011

Wow, it's been so long since I last posted. Saying I was busy sounds so lame, but I swear it's true. I've been knitting up a storm...nothing to show for it right now...am working on a test knit for my friend in New York. She has designed a lovely series of shawls to commemorate historical women. Rosie the Riveter, Rosa Parks, Emma Pankhurst, and the Unsinkable Molly Brown. I'm testing Molly Brown for her. It's my very first shawl and I must say, it's quite lovely. I'm knitting it in a Wollmeise fingering weight yarn in Lila Ludmilla (violet). I promise I'll take a picture once it's done and post it here. Promise!

In the meantime, here's a Wee Tiny Sock I knit last night. My friend in New York comes from a really large family - 26 children in all (no adoptions, one set of twins!) and they all knit, even the men! There are several doctors in the family and they all work with Doctors Without Borders. This family is involved with a lot of charities, and they encourage all their friends to help when they can. My friend designs socks and shawls and hats and wee tiny socks and sells them with all the proceeds going to charity. Recently, 3 of the brothers, all doctors, heard that the Doctors Without Borders group was still working in Haiti but was running out of money for that area. They decided to tap in to their sister's network and designed a set of 3 Wee Tiny Socks, placed them in kits with yarns and patterns, and sold them thru their sister's Ravelry Shop online with the understanding that all proceeds would go to DWB and used toward Haiti relief. I bought the

set and it has sat here awaiting me for several weeks. Last night I had some time, not enough to work on the shawl but enough to devote to a WTS...I cast on the first sock in the Healer series. This one is called Let Them Be Children. I love how it came out...

Missouri in Spring is quite lovely. So green and fresh. It won't be long before the humidity sets in and then it will get miserable. Until then, John is taking advantage of the nice weather and putting in a second garden bed. Last year he only had one bed...we had 11 tomato plants and several herb plants. Last week I went with him to the Marshfield Greenhouse and we picked up some basil, rosemary, chives, oregano, and sage. We also go 3 roma tomato plants, 2 Brandywine tomatoes for cutting tomatoes, a broccoli plant, and 4 pepper plants (yellow, orange, green, and red). One of the girls at work gave us some small brussels sprouts plants and 4 Carolina Gold tomatoes along with 4 Cherokee purple tomato plants. John wants the tomatoes in a different bed from last year so he is building a new bed. He planted all the herbs and the other vegetables last weekend. This weekend he hopes to get the new bed done so he can get the tomato plants in the ground. He is racing against the rain....clouds are building up as I write this.

Some sad news to report...we lost our 2 year old cow, Dolly, a couple of weeks ago...she was unable to give birth to the calf she was carrying and both she and the calf died. While they say that you can't have livestock without occasionally losing some, and it is part of nature, it still is a sad thing to happen. And life goes on!

I will try to post more often in future. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.