My Beautiful Morning

I woke this morning feeling, awake. Which is a wonderful thing in itself. But I also awoke, aware, which is a blessed thing.

It started with coffee (doesn't everything good start with coffee?) Breathing in the purifying aroma of fresh ground beans...for coffee lovers, nuff said.

Then, slippers on, coffee at my side, I sat in the hushed quiet of my still sleeping house and spent time with my God. My God. Because in those moments of solitary communion that is exactly what he is. He is mine, and I am his. I belong to him completely and he is available to me with an infinite exclusion. What an amazing and beautiful gift we have been given. I am filled with thick emotion in just remembering. Awesome.

And then I just sat. Listened. Listened to the waking world outside my door. Listened to the quiet inside. I was aware. It seems like such a simple state to be in. Strangely and to my detriment, I am not in it enough. I am so hurried, worried, rushed and busy that I forget to be still, to listen, to feel, to breathe.

And so, with new awareness, I filled my dishpan with water so hot the steam curled up into the cool air of the kitchen bringing with it the soft scent of lavender and clean. I washed up the few dishes left over from last nights snacks, looking out my kitchen window to my little urban farmyard. A thick sleepy fog muted the world, but my chickens paid no attention. They were busy about their work, scratching and pecking along the little path of hay I had made for them the day before. There is just something so whole and natural about chickens. Something peaceful and real that comforts and grounds me.

I'm sure it's partly because of their simplicity. Their unplugged, non-CNN, off the grid loveliness. I think it's also something borrowed from yesterday. That retro comfort that I find wrapped up in the strings of vintage aprons.

Now morning is turning to noon, and with each hour, the intensity of the day increases. I am going to try to carry with me, everywhere I go, the peace I found this morning.

Autumn makes me smile

Here's a few of my favorite things. Knitting, eggs from my girls and a coffee pot. Of course I don't make my dark drink of love in THAT pot...but someone did... some time.

When I was knitting this yarn, I was amazed at the perfect replica of fall it became as I knitted the scarf together. I could hold it up to the street that I live on, and it was the exact color of the world around me! Awesome! I was SO in love with the airy feel of the spun wool, and amazed with the scarf when I finished it, that I had to give it away : ) It was a birthday present for my awesome employer, Julie, at Julie's Center Street Cafe.

Spring and Chickens, but I'm not a Spring Chicken.

Wow. Four months. Which makes it seem as if winter were just a few days long, just a small thing, coming in to blow beautfiul snow around my world and then leaving on tiptoes so as not to wake me.
Wrong.
These past four months have been WINTER. Snow and cold, biting winds and temperatures so cold and brutal we thought it would never.ever.end.

But today is April. It is 60 degrees out and the sun is shining in promise of warmer days to come. Thanks be to God.

Its been a long winter in more than just weather. It seems as if the cold wormed its way into my bones and aggravated every inch of my Lupus. Aching, tired, weary and weak...one thing after another.

It was a long winter in the chicken coop too. We lost Lucy, or black Bantam Silkie to frozen feet : ( Poor little Luce. It was awful beyond words and thanks goes to my dear husband who put her down for me, what would I have done without him.

But spring is here. So I slather on the sunscreen and head out doors. Just to breath in the sap and soil is a gift. Mike is building a new coop for the girls. Elsie, Polly and Mae are laying away and enjoying new freedom in a run he has added on to the old coop in the meantime.

Seven weeks ago Mike brought his sad aching sick wife home a present. A box full of peeping noises. When opened, I found the peeping noises connected directly to three day old baby chicks. Oh my mothers heart! What a blessing they were. Tiny little cotton balls with beaks!

I've been raising them in an appliance box in my kitchen. Its been a true delight to watch them grow. As soon as the weather is temperate enough, out they go! Its almost time for these babies to truly fly the coop.

I really hope that I update more often. What with my memory, its the only way I am going to remember having done anything at all!