It’s not so hard to find beauty around you if you set your mind to it. Just to the right of this picturesque field is a busy intersection overlooking a major freeway. I suppose there’s something beautiful about that, too, but my eyes were drawn to the tranquility and order of this field with the morning sun lighting up the clouds overhead.

In the morning, O Lord,
Thou wilt hear my voice.
In the morning I will order my prayer to you
And eagerly watch.
Psalm 5:3

Everybody ought to know what to do when you see ice formations like this in the street. All together now: “You stomp on it to break the ice bubble!” I love coming across these as much now as I did when I was a child. This one is a little small, but still stomp-worthy.

And lastly, I wanted to show you the Breakfast Ninja who showed up every morning while we were in Idaho to make our breakfast for us. I miss that nice Ninja and his family very much…

This has been Thursday Thoughts with Lynniebee.

I’ll probably delete this tomorrow morning unless the Ninja shows up and distracts me.

I appreciate the phrase “travel stained.” It really describes quite well how you feel when you’ve spent any amount of time traveling, whether it’s in a car or in an airplane (or some other mode of transportation). You get home and feel like there are miles of food crumbs, sweat and weariness on you that need to be washed away.

Now that we are back home after being away to celebrate our granddaughter’s first birthday, I can reveal the project that kept me busy for that last couple of weeks: the Tilda Sweetheart Doll with a matching outfit for the darling girl.

I know what you’re thinking and it’s true: a one-year-old is not old enough to appreciate playing with dolls. But it was so fun to work on, even though I made lots of mistakes and had to use the seam ripper so many times I almost despaired I’d get ever get it all done in time. It’s the kind of thing I would have enjoyed doing for my own daughter if I’d had the time.

Worth it! I hope she learns to love playing with dolls as much as I did when I was little. And as she gets bigger I can make another set of matching outfits when she’s old enough to be delighted by it. At this point, the delight was entirely for the adults. 🙂

Time to put away the sewing machine for awhile. Maybe there will be actual watercolors to share on the next Watercolor (Crafty) Wednesday.

I will probably (not) delete this in the morning.

If you went for a walk and saw a horse, how close would you get for a photo? I tend to assume that a large animal like this could look so sweet but then open its mouth and chomp. So I didn’t get very close, but I wished I could have rubbed its neck. When I was a little girl I thought having my own horse would be fabulous – I assumed that I would ride a horse naturally well like the boy in The Black Stallion. When I actually had a chance to ride a horse it was a lot of uncomfortable bouncing in the saddle. It wasn’t as much fun as I’d imagined.

I also used to think that living on a farm would be the perfect kind of existence. Yes, that’s the life for me: cows, horses, chickens and their eggs, a few barn cats, living out in the country breathing all that fresh country air. When I was in third grade, our class went on a field trip to a farm, which cured me of my romantic notions. Farms are stinky places. And then one of my classmates threw up in the bus. That field trip is seared into my memory in all the worst ways.

Played peek-a-boo with this black cat today, too. We didn’t get close enough to worry about claws and teeth, though. The general rule of thumb about cats is if they are hiding under a car, they do not want to be fetched out by friend or stranger. You may quote me on this.

Monday Musings has been brought to you by me, but has been read by you. It’s a group effort!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

We have established that a man named Martin is writing emails to his older brother, Bucky, who has a wife named Suzanne and a manly little tyke named Bucky Junior. Martin works at a secretive organization that he refers to jokingly as Hotel California (or HC) for short. Let’s see what happens next:

Dear Bucky,
Sorry to have alarmed you with all the cloak and dagger stuff from the last email. No, I don’t think you’ll have to start dredging the river for me if you don’t hear from me for awhile (but it’s nice to think that you would – that’s what family is for, right?).

But I do have an update on the situation at HC. You’ll never believe this, but I have now been “contacted.” I got an untraceable email from a sender named “Bureau of II” with the subject line “Interesting Ideas.” I’m going to copy it to you below so you can read it for yourself and tell me what you think:

Martin,
We have established two things about you:
1. That you knowingly and willingly disobeyed company policy by opening up a file that was not germane to your assigned work here.
2. That you have an interest in Interesting Ideas.

Please submit an Interesting Idea in the aforementioned file and we will consider it.

Thank you.
Bureau of II

I’m telling you, Bucky, I think someone at HC is finally pulling a prank on me. I have no objections to that – I applaud the effort. With a work atmosphere as oppressive as it can be there sometimes, this lightens things up a bit. I’m a little surprised that I haven’t been directed to delete the email, but maybe that would be laying it on too thick. I’m going to hide it on my computer anyway to protect the guilty. And me. At least my emails to you are on my personal computer – shouldn’t have to cover my tracks here. Listen to me – I’m already talking like this is a covert operation requiring the highest security clearance possible. Looks like you made the cut.

To answer the question that I know you’re thinking: yes, I am planning to submit an “Interesting Idea.” I’ve got plenty of those – shouldn’t be too hard to extract one from the prodigious gray matter that will satisfy the BOII. Here’s a few that come to mind with little effort:

1. Society took a downturn when we stopped requiring men to learn proper swordplay.
2. What would the state of political governance be like if vegetarians were not allowed to vote?
3. All things considered, “water closet” is a term that we ought to bring back.

What do you think? Too random? It does betray a certain longing for the past – might mark me as a “Luddite” or something worse. I’ll keep working on it; effort will be expended after all. I’ll let you know what happens next.

Martin
P.S. I hope to visit soon – I want to make sure somebody is teaching BJ how to say my name.

Artwork by …well, I’m not sure. Sam?

I’ll probably delete
I might delete,
I should delete…
I’m undecided

At the end of a busy day yesterday, I lay in bed drifting off to sleep and realized I hadn’t done my blog post o’ day. And then these two words came to mind: “Oh well.”

I didn’t have anything to share for Watercolor/Crafty Wednesday, anyway. I was going to look through some of my art work of yore and post that, but I didn’t even get that far. Again, oh, well. Next week, perhaps!

I took my mom to see her eye doctor again today. As we waited in the office, I thought she might enjoy listening to an old favorite album: “Songs of the Sea” by the Norman Luboff Choir; it only took a moment to find it on Spotify. She had been sitting somewhat listlessly, but as I played the opening song, she perked up considerably.

Oh Shenandoah…I long to hear you
Away, you rolling river
Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you
Away, we’re bound away, ‘cross the wide Missouri

She told me once that she always remembered the first time she heard the Norman Luboff choir singing something on the radio. She had been coming downstairs and was so moved by it, she sat down on the stairs and listened, completely mesmerized. She’s always loved men’s choirs and after hearing this, she bought a couple of their albums and I grew up listening to them: “Songs of the West” and “Songs of the Sea.”

Oh, have you heard the news, my Johnny
One more day
We’re homeward bound tomorrow
One more day
Only one more day, my Johnny, one more day
Oh, rock and roll me over
One more day.

When the appointment was over, we got in the car and the album was still playing. She finds it very hard to remember anything these days, but as we sang those songs together on the way home, she sang the words with confidence. We harmonized at times and hardly spoke a word.

Rolling home, rolling home
Rolling home across the sea
Rolling home to dear old England
Rolling home dear land to thee.

The album goes back and forth between slow, contemplative songs and energetic, foot-tapping songs. Pretty soon, she was slapping her knee and I was slapping the steering wheel to the beat.

O say was you ever in Rio Grande?
Way, you Rio
It’s there that the river runs down golden sand
For we’re bound for the Rio Grande.

And then we’d slow down and croon during songs like this one:

The ship goes sailing down the bay
Goodbye, my lover, goodbye.
We may not meet for many a day
Goodbye my lover, goodbye.

I realized I was driving quite slowly so it would take longer to get back to where I’d be dropping her off. Time for another fast one.

I’ll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
A roving, a roving, since roving’s been my ru-i-in,
I’ll go no more a roving with you, fair maid!

As we were pulling into the parking lot, “Lowlands” was playing. I told her we were not going to leave the car until that song was over, so we just sat in the car and finished it out.

I dreamed a dream the other night
Lowlands, lowlands away, my John
My love she came, all dressed in white
Lowlands, lowlands, away.

Time to go. I’ll never be able to listen to those songs now without thinking of our sweet little concert in the car. And the memory itself will be sweet. I gave her a big hug and said goodbye.

Goodbye, my mother, goodbye.

I’ll probably delete this after one more day, my Johnny, one more day…

Time’s a wasting, so let’s get right down to it:

Proverbs 12:1
Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.

Every time I read that verse, I remember what happened when our kids were young and we eventually forbade them to use the word “stupid,” because they were using it to insult each other. My mother was visiting once and used the word in a perfectly reasonable context and little Ruthie (about 3 years old at the time) told her solemnly “You can’t say that word, Grandma – it’s a bad word.” Uh oh. Context is everything, I guess. We had a good laugh over that.

Proverbs 12:24
The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor.

As I used to tell my children, “Govern yourself or you will be governed!”

And now for some words of wisdom and inspiration from a magazine we get called “WORLD.” It’s a news magazine which strives to present “Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.” I don’t usually underline things in a magazine, but appreciated and wanted to share a few things from the February 13, 2021 issue.

Benny Tai is a Christian legal scholar in Hong Kong and has been involved in various protests there, such as Occupy Central. He has been sentenced to serve time in prison for his efforts. He said in his closing argument at the trial in 2018:

“If we are truly guilty, then our crime is daring to sow hope even in this difficult time in Hong Kong. I’m not afraid or ashamed to go to prison. If this cup of suffering cannot be taken away, I will drink it without regret.”

Speaking of the gospel, Andree Sue Peterson wrote:

“God is always looking to enfold more people into the secret. A secret that, once a man has buried it in his heart, sets him free from envy of those who seem to be luckier (Psalm 73). It renders him able to forgive; to love; to be honest; to be uncontrolled by his issues, by other people’s issues, by fear of death, fear of man, fear of rejection, past wounds, bad memories… Winter comes, and its chill is felt throughout our land.But keep the secret in your heart, and I will too. And we will make it through.”

And in reference to fleeing ideological addictions, Marvin Olasky wrote:

“Remember that our deeper problems are theological, not political. Elephant-riding Republicans eventually get stomped. Democrats who worship worldly wise-men are betting on the wrong donkey. Biblical objectivity exists. God is sovereign. Praise His plan, not mine or yours.”

Hope you found something of interest or at least through-provoking in the Reading Roundup this week!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning. Maybe?

Monday Meanderings:

Lazy, Moi?
I haven’t been out on a walk in about two weeks. A bad habit is becoming ingrained. It’s hard to get motivated when it’s so cold out.

Valentine’s Day Math
1 dozen roses
+ 2 boxes of chocolates
+ 1 wonderful letter
= 1 very grateful wife.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got the best husband in the world! ❤️

The Dog Whisperer
I’ve been on a Dog Whisperer kick lately. I think Cesar Millan is a genius, but I’m always amazed by how many people are willing to invite the cameras and publicity into their homes when everyone knows that the problem usually isn’t the dog, it’s the dog owner. I’m ashamed to think what he would have said to me when we had a dog.

Chronicles of Narnia
I devoted an entire blog post to the defense of the Harry Potter books, but I need to point out that if my love of the Potter books was a grain of sand, my love of the Narnia books would be a universe of beaches (yet another time when a phrase from The Princess Bride comes in handy). I’m pretty sure I’ll have to devote an entire blog post to that subject, too.

Ode to Leftovers
O thou food leftover in the fridge,
How do I love thee?
Thou art the soft pillow under my head,
Thou art the warmth of a heater on a cold day,
Thou art a good book in my hand
And a cup of hot tea by my side.
Bless thee for thy good service
In sparing me from travail in the kitchen.

I’m not sure anything else needs to be said. Monday Meanderings and Musings has been Manufactured for you by Many Marvelous Moments in the Mind of Lynniebee.

I’ll probably meander off in the morning and forget about deleting this…

Lydia purchased a new hat. She almost didn’t see it at the thrift store – what a fortunate thing that she had gone to the very bottom of the hat barrel. It positively called to her and she clasped it happily to her chest. “What a find!” she marveled. It was hard to imagine that somebody had given it away.

Lydia fancied herself to be quite fashionable, but in a one-of-a-kind way. Not for her were the clothes at stores that had rack after rack of whatever happened to be the latest “thing.” No, she wouldn’t follow trends, she would set them.

Poor Lydia. Nobody could figure out a kind way to tell her that her sense of fashion was deplorable. Or was it?

Fashions don’t just grow on trees – somebody has to make them!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I’m short on time today, so that’s all I’ve got. The drawing is one of our “Squiggly” collection. Someone draws a squiggly line and the next person has to try to make it into a drawing of some sort.

Still trying to decide whether or not to continue on with the “Dear Bucky” letters from Martin. Vote early, vote often!

This has been Friday Fiction with Lynniebee. Somebody has to write these things!

I’ll probably be setting trends or deleting them in the morning. Hard to say for sure.

This is a picture of an old photo of me and my little sister. It’s clear that we’re the subject of the photo – look at those smiling faces munching on saltines and peanut butter! The older I get, though, the more I appreciate all the other details. I remember those bowls and cups, but I sure don’t remember that wallpaper, and if you’d have asked me, I would have told you that we didn’t get a dishwasher until our youngest sister was born when I was about 11 years old.

As an aside, the reason for connecting my littlest sister with a dishwasher was this: we were sitting around in the kitchen one fall day and our parents told us we were going to be getting something new in the spring. It sounded really exciting and they let us guess what it could be. “A dishwasher?” “A color TV?” I’ll admit it was a bit of a letdown after that when we found out it was going to be a baby, but she turned out to be pretty special – way better than appliances. Somehow I connected that memory with us not having a dishwasher at the time, which we clearly did.

Anyway, when I started doing photo albums for our family, I learned how to crop photos and crop them I did. I cut off all sorts of unimportant background things – snip, snip, snip – into the wastebasket you shall go. I could fit more photos on the page that way, and after all, the people are usually the most important part of the photo, right?

But when I was looking through our old photo albums, I realized how precious to me those other details were. They presented a more full and rich history of those growing up years, reminders of the things that made up the tapestry of our lives. I won’t say I quit cropping photos altogether after that, but I made it a priority to save as much of the photo as I could. Our children will want to see those chairs in the background, the old toys they played with that are gone now, the cars we were driving at the time, the dishes we used…

When I look at the photo above, I love everything about it – the crumbs on the table, the Sue-Bee honey in the background, the cookbooks all higglety-pigglety on the shelf over the dishwasher, the nasty old chairs, our bibs (bibs, for Pete’s sake!) – everything. And I love the moment with my sister that was captured and those sweet, happy faces full of saltines.

Thursday thoughts with Lynniebee…

I’ll probably crop this in the morning…ha ha!

I’ve been pretty crafty lately – working on a really fun project – but it’s for an upcoming birthday, so I’m not posting any photos yet.

I’m always kind of surprised that a week goes by and I haven’t gotten around to doing any painting. I have great intentions, really I do!

So the artsiest thing I’ve got to post today is a drawing I did on the Paper App. I’ve been enjoying rediscovering that app after giving it a rest for the last 4-5 years. I’ll show you what the tools look like:

From left to right:

Eraser, blending tool, ink pen, pencil, fat marker, sketching tool, paintbrush, thin marker, scissors, thingamabob (can’t remember the name of it) and then the round blending area for if you want to blend two colors to create one that isn’t shown. The color dots above are just one “page” of them – you actually get about 5 pages of those. If you look at what kind of work people are doing using Paper, it’s amazing. I use a stylus for drawing and printing, but it’s still kind of “messy” looking, which is exactly the look I want (ha ha!). The app is free, but you can purchase all the extras for a pretty reasonable price. I might do that at some point.

This turned into an ad for Paper – sorry! (But not sorry enough to go back and delete things).

Here’s my latest Paper Caper:

Five points to the first person that can remind me what the thingamabob is!

And that’s all she wrote.

I’ll probably delete…a thingamabob.

My mom, an inveterate reader, has come to the place with her eyesight when she can no longer read. I have many memories of her sitting on the couch reading at night, reading aloud the things she found funny or interesting. She introduced me to authors and books that I still love and return to regularly. Reading has enriched my life in so many ways and there’s a very real sense in which I have my mother to thank for that. A teacher at school taught me how to read, but it was my mom who taught me, by example, to love it.

I waited patiently upon the LORD;
He stooped to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and clay;
he set my feet upon a high cliff and made my footing sure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God;
many shall see, and stand in awe,
and put their trust in the LORD.
Psalm 40: 1-3

Wonderful words. I love the agency of God in that passage – He stoops, he hears, he lifts, he makes footing sure, he puts songs in our mouths – songs of praise! And what is our part? To wait patiently, see, stand in awe and put our trust in Him. Amen!

I finished another Lord Peter Wimsey mystery by Dorothy Sayers this week. While her writing isn’t as howlingly funny as Wodehouse, she definitely channels him at times with the things that Lord Peter says or thinks.

Wimsey, reflecting that the ability to swallow insult is a necessary part of the detective’s make-up, restrained the temptation to connect his toe with Mr. Weldon’s rather massive hinder-end…Have His Carcase, p. 148

And to Harriet (who has refused his marriage proposals many times) when she finds an important piece of evidence, he says,

And I could kiss you for it. You need not shrink and tremble. I am not going to do it. When I kiss you, it will be an important event – one of those things which stand out among their surroundings like the first time you tasted li-chee. It will not be an unimportant sideshow attached to a detective investigation.Have His Carcase, p. 203

And just for fun, here are the first lines of four books that I got from the library in the last week. I think first lines are interesting – sometimes the whole measure of the book can be taken from the first sentence.

“Not to disappoint you, but my troubles are nothing – not for an author, at least.”
Leif Enger, So Brave, Young and Handsome

“I can still see her, our Liz, sitting on a plank, dangling over that well.
Amy Weisgarber – The Personal History of Rachel DuPree

“Like most small children, I learned my home address so that if I got lost, I could tell a grown-up where to take me.”
J.D. Vance – Hillbilly Elegy

“They told me you want to know my story, why I ended up in this place?”
Liz Trenow – The Forgotten Seamstress

Thank you for taking the time to read these posts. It means a lot to me!

I’ll probably read some more in the morning. And maybe delete this if the mood strikes me.