Church was starting 25 minutes early today and it was Blood Pressure Clinic day and a Pumpkin Contest, and the remnants of the pork dinner sale. I set the alarm for plenty of time but 5 snooze button minutes later I finally dragged myself out of bed to - no water pressure - so much for a Sunday Morning Shower. FB told me it was village wide so I did a spit and polish and high tailed it north - without a button or my cel phone.
I scurried home 3 hours later. There was a text waiting saying that the tenant was coming a day early - ok??? 45 pounds of dog hair later, I made the bed with fresh linens, swabbed the deck in the powder room and took a quick pre shopping inventory for the menu for Ghouls Day.
At 1 o'clock I was going to sit with a new widow and let her weep . Weeping can be good. Especially if someone is witnessing your pain and willing to let laughter bubble up in the middle of tears. I took a strong cup of coffee and a handkerchief with me . No button, but the critical supplies. It was a good visit. FOr both of us I think.
Back home for more furious cleaning then I decided to swing by the farm where the granddarlings were doing an impromtu pumpkin carving blitz before I headed north for my Sunday Evening visit with my mom. 45 minutes into the trip I realized that still, no button no cel phone.
After a visit with Mom, a great piece of Stuffed Crust Pizza thanks to my nephew Philip, my day was finally drawing to a close. I sat at the computer table and noticed the button jar. For fun, I reached in and pulled one out. it is a Cherokee shirt button. Gray Green Sturdy. Well, button, this is the story of your day. Night now.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Buttons in the Wash
Today's button must be in the washing machine - in the pocket still of the pants that I spilled a bucket of muddy water on about midday. It is a tan and gray button. Stormy like the morning but the morning gave way to a beautiful fall afternoon.
I have a tenant coming in two days and of course, so is Halloween. That is a lot of pressure for one 24 hour Saturday. I had to clean out the yellow room, which meant that everything that was in there had to go somewhere else. Which meant that I had to move stuff. AND I am doing A YEAR TO CLEAR, sooooo, it really meant clearing not Fluff and Stuff. I wanted to paint the room but that is simply unrealistic. I am TERRIBLE at painting and everyone else is B U S Y. better old paint than my brushstokes looking for all the world to see like a fingerpainting on the wall. I also am hosting the younguns for the spooky trick or treating and need to shop and chop.
In the middle of the day I grabbed 40 pounds of beans from the freezer to run up to the church supper only to discover that they were freezer burned. I tried soaking them - no go. So I carried them to the compost pile and in the process took a bath. You can see why the button in my pocket was forgotten. Good fortune was on my side and I had dry britches to put on as I carried on with my errands and the day.
Now, the yellow room is empty. Not clean yet, but empty. Everything has found a home or at least a resting place until it undergoes the "Keep, Go, or Give" test of A YEAR TO CLEAR. The button will stay in the keep pile. I hope it is enjoying a good wash. I will put it in the "done" jar tomorrow. If I can find it.
I have a tenant coming in two days and of course, so is Halloween. That is a lot of pressure for one 24 hour Saturday. I had to clean out the yellow room, which meant that everything that was in there had to go somewhere else. Which meant that I had to move stuff. AND I am doing A YEAR TO CLEAR, sooooo, it really meant clearing not Fluff and Stuff. I wanted to paint the room but that is simply unrealistic. I am TERRIBLE at painting and everyone else is B U S Y. better old paint than my brushstokes looking for all the world to see like a fingerpainting on the wall. I also am hosting the younguns for the spooky trick or treating and need to shop and chop.
In the middle of the day I grabbed 40 pounds of beans from the freezer to run up to the church supper only to discover that they were freezer burned. I tried soaking them - no go. So I carried them to the compost pile and in the process took a bath. You can see why the button in my pocket was forgotten. Good fortune was on my side and I had dry britches to put on as I carried on with my errands and the day.
Now, the yellow room is empty. Not clean yet, but empty. Everything has found a home or at least a resting place until it undergoes the "Keep, Go, or Give" test of A YEAR TO CLEAR. The button will stay in the keep pile. I hope it is enjoying a good wash. I will put it in the "done" jar tomorrow. If I can find it.
A Simple Gold Button
I chose from the button jar quickly without much thought to it and pulled out a silly little gold button. It would have been on a paisley dress or a nautical shirt I think It is small and bright and I slid it into my corduroys. I headed down for a day with a to do list longer than my arm but it was starting with joy personified. I was meeting a friend that I rarely see and would get to have a warm hug from her, a meal together and, I knew, laughter over coffee. What is better than a friend, bacon and a button?
We shared some old history catch up, some NOW conversation, and some "what is next?" envisioning.
As always, my golden "next" seems to clarify in her presence and I thought about that as we parted and I realized I had not shown her my today's button.
My life is in a kaleidoscope of changing patterns as my seasonal job comes to an end just as the balance in my checkbook drops to a new low. The fax machine has become my constant companion as I send form after form to potential new employers. I think how much I wish that gold button was a pound of gold not a trinket.
I wanted to help a friend today and offered to pick up a roll of burgundy table cloth for a church dinner. I did not take into account that it is the weekend before Halloween and every store would be filled with ghosts and goblins and W I T C H E S!!!! in line and in the parking lots!!! YIKES. Three "wasted" hours later though, success and back across the river button and I traveled.
By days end I had shopped, chopped, faxed, printed, swept, baked, snipped, mopped and laundered and taken a drug screening test!.On my way toward home I noticed that another friend was still at a task with a morning deadline and stopped in. She was cold and tired. I decided the golden thread of friendship was greater than the tug to sleep and went home to make hot chocolate and deliver it with whipped cream and home made bread and butter sandwiches.
Friendship is golden -warm hugs, gathering over coffee and bacon, lending a helping hand, delivering treats at midnight.
I guess this button isn't so silly after all.
We shared some old history catch up, some NOW conversation, and some "what is next?" envisioning.
As always, my golden "next" seems to clarify in her presence and I thought about that as we parted and I realized I had not shown her my today's button.
My life is in a kaleidoscope of changing patterns as my seasonal job comes to an end just as the balance in my checkbook drops to a new low. The fax machine has become my constant companion as I send form after form to potential new employers. I think how much I wish that gold button was a pound of gold not a trinket.
I wanted to help a friend today and offered to pick up a roll of burgundy table cloth for a church dinner. I did not take into account that it is the weekend before Halloween and every store would be filled with ghosts and goblins and W I T C H E S!!!! in line and in the parking lots!!! YIKES. Three "wasted" hours later though, success and back across the river button and I traveled.
By days end I had shopped, chopped, faxed, printed, swept, baked, snipped, mopped and laundered and taken a drug screening test!.On my way toward home I noticed that another friend was still at a task with a morning deadline and stopped in. She was cold and tired. I decided the golden thread of friendship was greater than the tug to sleep and went home to make hot chocolate and deliver it with whipped cream and home made bread and butter sandwiches.
Friendship is golden -warm hugs, gathering over coffee and bacon, lending a helping hand, delivering treats at midnight.
I guess this button isn't so silly after all.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
The Abandoned Button Jar
The abandoned button jar.
Hah, 137 days. 137 buttons in one jar ready to be chosen day by day. Natalie Bird, the diamond in my gramma bevy crown and Lauren Evangeline the princess in my queens crown have surely treasured the choosing. But, life happens. Three weddings and two funerals in three weeks, fall - falling with a yard overrun from a summer of neglect and snow in the forecast. A house that has to go on the market so repair lists being made if not started yet and so the buttons fell tooo, to the bottom of the to do list.
But, alas, they call each day and are carried if not storied.
An ivory button on one wedding day and a bright green one on the other. A gray drab button on a burial day and a bright pink one on another. Two matching buttons chosen randomly by the girls on a day I had forgotten the day before - to many hoorays.
My favorite button days are always the greenhouse days when I settle into a rhythm in sync with the natural world not the rat race that can sweep me up sometimes. Those buttons get fingered and hold my attention.
Oddly on my ministry days I am so busy ministering I have not time to ponder buttons with my hands flying and my mouth cueing volunteers to shop, chop, peel, pare and prepare soup and bread and corn muffins and simple suppers. Those buttons get pulled out of pants pockets in front of the washing machine and carried to a jar with a count that is always off by one or two or.......
But I miss the button stories. I miss summing up, giving thanks, sharing joys and insights and treasures of the day. So, tonight I counted out the buttons and moved the jar from the bedroom to the office next to this computer where I start my day and end my day checking on pics of the kids making their way home after three plus years in Italy, the biggest grand darling who will be 18 soon and his doings the missives that tell me if I have forgotten something or must tend to it in a timely fashion and the endless emails from the people who are trying to help me get a job that will mean more changes. There is no making time or finding time there is only spending time and so I will spend time each day again writing button stories. It is a nice feeling to come back to it. See you tomorrow night.
Hah, 137 days. 137 buttons in one jar ready to be chosen day by day. Natalie Bird, the diamond in my gramma bevy crown and Lauren Evangeline the princess in my queens crown have surely treasured the choosing. But, life happens. Three weddings and two funerals in three weeks, fall - falling with a yard overrun from a summer of neglect and snow in the forecast. A house that has to go on the market so repair lists being made if not started yet and so the buttons fell tooo, to the bottom of the to do list.
But, alas, they call each day and are carried if not storied.
An ivory button on one wedding day and a bright green one on the other. A gray drab button on a burial day and a bright pink one on another. Two matching buttons chosen randomly by the girls on a day I had forgotten the day before - to many hoorays.
My favorite button days are always the greenhouse days when I settle into a rhythm in sync with the natural world not the rat race that can sweep me up sometimes. Those buttons get fingered and hold my attention.
Oddly on my ministry days I am so busy ministering I have not time to ponder buttons with my hands flying and my mouth cueing volunteers to shop, chop, peel, pare and prepare soup and bread and corn muffins and simple suppers. Those buttons get pulled out of pants pockets in front of the washing machine and carried to a jar with a count that is always off by one or two or.......
But I miss the button stories. I miss summing up, giving thanks, sharing joys and insights and treasures of the day. So, tonight I counted out the buttons and moved the jar from the bedroom to the office next to this computer where I start my day and end my day checking on pics of the kids making their way home after three plus years in Italy, the biggest grand darling who will be 18 soon and his doings the missives that tell me if I have forgotten something or must tend to it in a timely fashion and the endless emails from the people who are trying to help me get a job that will mean more changes. There is no making time or finding time there is only spending time and so I will spend time each day again writing button stories. It is a nice feeling to come back to it. See you tomorrow night.
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