Monkey Bars a Few Years Ago

Here’s a fun memory.

This was in the early days of freedom, when we were still kinda in shock, and very much enjoying how lovely it was to have a normal life.

We had some rules right away for saving money. One is “that engine doesn’t start for anything less than two miles”, so we walked to most errands. There were playgrounds nearby that we passed.

I watched the kids playing on the monkey bars, and remembered that I had loved to do that, long ago. Who says I can’t try? By age 45 my hands were pretty out of it.

It wasn’t even so much a grip strength thing as that the soft skin on my hands just couldn’t bear it. I gave a try, and had to stop within moments. I went home with hurting palms. A few days later they were okay again, and I tried again. 

A dozen times of that and I had callus again like I did when I was young.

Not much. How about the sheets I bought lately?

I have been making a pile of underdresses quick while I still have electricity! Oh sure, I don't need electricity and they can't make me want it, but the electric sewing machine is definitely faster 🙄

The stripey one is LINEN. It's hard to find linen for any decent price these days. I got that chunk on ebay. The advertised length would be just barely enough to make something, then it was a few inches short. The seller was a snot, offered a percentage of the total price less than two dollars by way of compensation, so I left bad feedback and used a triangle cut from a giveaway linen skirt to fill in. 

And this red and white check was my darling husband Jeff's grandma's old tablecloth! 

EMBROIDERED tablecloth I got for 50c at an estate sale because it had a stain right in the center, becomes "priceless heirloom folkish blouse" - right? 

There wasn't enough fabric so I filled in the lower part of the body with other random white cotton. 

This is my new style for a new freezing home. I actually hate wearing clothing to bed, but a little less so when the bedroom is 20 degrees. Haha it's going to get less than twenty but that's the lowest I've woken up and experienced up there so far! 
So this is a wrap nightgown. It's the same deal as the most ancient tunic garments that cross in front and tie. I put two big snaps on the two front flaps under the armholes which are really long. It's NO FUN getting naked to get dressed when it's c-c-c-cold! So I can get dressed inside that big baggy flannel garment which retains at least a little of my body heat, or just wrap some other warm outer layers around it for a while and change into real clothes later when (if) it gets warmer. And IF the bed gets nice and warm to the point that I'm back to disliking jammies, I can easily squiggle out of it or at least one half of it so I don't have to feel it any more. I've tried it and very pleased with my "invention" (what humanity's been wearing for aeons until recently). 

Remember the blue linen I posted about long ago that I bought for medieval dress-up but never cut because it was so pretty and I couldn't decide what to make it into? (This picture does NOT do that sky /robin's egg blue justice) 

Well, it's cut, because my cold new home requires clothing. Staying warm is important. I learned it in the excellent book: 

"98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive" but my own personal donkey also appreciates the need to be warm. So the linen was cut into any random shape that made it so I could wear it. 

Life is much better in linen!  Cool in summer, warm in winter! 

That's not linen but I couldn't resist a set of cotton bedsheets in the most glorious, vivid, rose shade of deep pink. Those will become clothing. 

And now a word about my personal style. Got to thinking about it the other day. The year of birth matters slightly less to me than to those who were raised in the stream of civilization, since I was isolated by both force and preference. But there was some current time influence and the mid 70s loved this stuff: 

That one's a bit earlier, but there I am, right up to date with the cottage look before it was invented (long after it existed hahaha) 

A Sense of Awe

I just read a good article about the "sense of awe", 

https://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/prayer-fasting-and-meditation/how-to-pray/praise-god/sense-of-awe/

If we're just going for that feeling of WHOA - funny thing is,  I easily remember the last time I had it. 

It doesn't include the feeling of standing on the edge of something which, for me, is more like NOPE  :-D  

Last time I had the distinct physical reaction of awe wasn't even the rather large waterfall I walked beneath a few days ago, or any sunsets, gorges, bridges or stars. It was the Rainier Building in Seattle, which I just found again by putting "building with narrower base". 

It was probably twenty years ago that I last wandered beneath that, looking up, and out again because I had shivers, and under again because it was just so awesome, five or six times. 

And that is awesome. (It really does BUG me when people yell "AWESOME" to show approval over the most non-awe-inspiring things, like "You remembered the ketchup! Awesome!!!") 

Would you like a bowl of mud?

Darling says at once, "Yes!" 

He's been around here a while, he knows what's up, hehe. It's going to be some form of not very thrilling chocolate dessert. 

This is GOOD FOR YOU. 

He says, "That's what you do - make dessert taste like dinner." 

But here I sit, eating a bowl of chocolate pudding and I feel happy. 

This is: 

4 c almond milk 

1/4 c coconut sugar 

1/2 c cocoa powder 

1/4 c beef gelatin  

and 1/4 c melted coconut oil 

I mix the powdered gelatin with the dry ingredients then dump into the almond milk, because that's easier than the usual methods. 

Cook it to scalding, then add some vanilla and put it in the fridge a while, and stir occasionally. 

YUM! 

It has more gelatin than strictly needed because I was reading about how good that stuff is for you. 

This is "Life by chocolate"  :-) 

Thoughts from Today's Message

The speaker shared a cool quote, which, when I looked it up, led to another just as insightful.

I made that from a phrase from the sermon, with a background from Freepik, and words added using Android app "Collage Maker: Grid Art"

Using a phrase from the sermon: 

https://www.youtube.com/live/ANRSn-mETyc

There were a couple other thoughts that helped. What about talking about "what great things God has done for you"? 

I've been suffering somewhat after the post about miracles. It was in Drafts for a year. I'm self-conscious about it. Isn't it kinda silly to say, "God spoke to me"? Won't I be scoffed at? Doesn't that imply that I think I'm somebody really special? Or maybe a little soft in the head? Maybe I should keep that to myself. 

But as I've explained to a few people, after all these years inside my own head I'm familiar with what my own thoughts sound like. Some of em are smart, others are horrible and cause pain, some are weird and make a mess it's hard to clean up. I have some really great random ideas sometimes that came from way down in my subconscious mind rather than conscious, but here's the thing-- I know what all of those sound like.  

When God put a word into my mind it was completely different. No mistaking that for anything that came from me. I didn't wake myself up at five in the morning. I didn't suddenly make myself humble and teachable. I didn't suddenly decide to study the other side's point of view. That word REST did not come from me. 

And I simply MUST talk about it. I've put off talking about it too long. It's a tiny just-for-me miracle that I get to talk about even in my normal, unworthy voice. It happened. Don't know why. I can't explain it. But it happened to me and thank God for it.