AWOL

AWOL=Absent WithOut Leave

Actually, God gave me Leave, and now I've been called back!

The LORD is always at work, and sometimes it is abundantly clear when He shows up in NEON colors!  For example, a bit over 2 weeks ago my Dear Husband and I watched a video on a Friday evening, as we are wont to do quite often as a transition from very busy days to a bit of paperwork before bed.

Jay looked very pensive, as he had been for a couple weeks.  It seemed as if he had checked out a bit and was distant, so I had left him alone with his thoughts.  He's a big thinker and doesn't enjoy being prodded about what's going on in his brilliant mind.  However, I felt led to ask what he was thinking about.  That was Friday, September 23, 2016.  The shock of what he told me sent me reeling, not that God spoke to him, but what God told him to do.  He said, "I think God wants us to move to Orcas Island."

Orcas Island is where his oldest daughter lives and she needs help with her two children...teaching them academic subjects as they near high school age...which IS my husband's forte.  He also loves mowing and landscaping, so he could work for his son-in-law at a resort where Steve is the head landscaper.

We discussed the move on Saturday...about selling his ranch and our house here.  We prayed.  On Sunday he called his daughter to tell her we'd made a decision, led by God, to begin the process of moving.  She and her husband went on line and began looking for places for us because the inventory is pretty slim and VERY expensive.  On Monday she called to tell him they discovered a place we could afford.  My Dear Husband sent me on a flight on Wednesday.  I looked at the house on Thursday.  I made an offer on Friday, and we signed via email on Monday evening before I flew back home to Grangeville on Tuesday (a week ago today!).

God gave me a Word, an impression as I got on the plane.  I love how God 'orchestrates' events and relationships.  Often I mention this as I tell people what's going on in my life.  He impressed upon me a straight line from me (on the plane) to this place we are buying.  So I was at complete peace when the realtor told us she was showing the same house to others who were making an offer.  But the straight-line visions kept me at peace.  He 'Orcas Straighted' the offer and purchase!

Anyway, when I came home we began going about the selling of our home.  Levi and Klarey have often told us that they would love to have our house if we ever sold.  They came to look at all the nooks and crannies of this old house.  They made an offer which we accepted on Sunday.

Isn't God magnificent?  Of course He is all the time, and I love it when He shows up in NEON colors like this for us!  My husband is NOT a mover.  He has lived in this house for 30 years and in this town for most of his 68 years.  Only God could say, "MOVE!" and expect Jay to obey.

Although I've had a longing to live closer to my children, I will be just as far away.  But, because Jay will be near his family, I can travel to mine more often and for longer periods.  The LORD has blessed me and I can still say, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, surely I have a goodly inheritance."

The Last Battle

I'm working with a great little crew of students this year: Naomi, Rose, Baeli, and Dayne.  It feels like a last battle in that I' fighting FOR these kids.  They really don't understand the value of what they're getting, what their parents pay me to do, or how to invest in themselves at this point in their lives.  How do you teach a young one to 'get it'? AND!!!! it is my last year of doing this kind of work.  I'll take up the task of creating and teaching workshops for parents how home-schooling their children and need ideas of how to create projects and make learning REALLY fun!


They are so very dear to me right now, especially as I am grieving the loss of a former student to cancer.  He has fought his last battle.  He was so dear to me, Tony Barajas was, as was his dear wife, Mariah. 


Long ago (in the 90's) I taught in Wasco, Oregon, in Sherman County...a K-8 school with a bit over 100 kids at the time.  I love the area which is almost all wheat growing from the north border of the Columbia River, the west border of the Deschutes River, and the east border of the John Day River.  I recall watching a small herd of antelope dance away from my car into the short green wheat fields which, when the wind blew, looked like they were dancing themselves.  I called them little Wheaties because they seemed alive.


Tony was one in a class of 5th graders I was given as a reward for serving well as the creator/teacher/counselor of a bunch of woolly-bully boys who needed an alternative education.  I chose to take the 5th graders home with me in small groups on Friday afternoons to do a project.  Tony chose the 'weaving group'.  I had a loom at the time, and the small group wove, played hide and seek, played 'slide' in my hand-knitted socks on my hardwood floors before I ordered pizza for them...a non-existent way to eat out in the hinterlands of Wasco.


Good-bye, Tony, may God welcome you with open arms into the halls of heaven.

Snow Day and a Conversation with God

This morning, after receiving news of a couple of sick kids not able to attend class today, I made an executive decision to cancel school.  I'd been in prayer about a day off for myself to settle the disquiet in my spirit, to get anchored to the One Who Provides.


In the quiet I became aware of the Lord speaking about the end of this career of teaching, and I realized that fear is the source of the unsettling, the disquiet.  What will I do with my time?  How will I remain focused and not end up puttering away at not much of anything, leading a life lacking purpose? When the gnawing begins with, "What shall I do today?  What shall I eat today?  Who will I spend time with today?"  I can trust that there ARE things to do; I don't have to eat my way through the day; and God will provide activities, events, and people.  He will continue to have a purpose for me.  And what's wrong with some down time anyway...in order to ponder these questions?


God has led me well this past year in focusing on exercise and weight loss, in teaching a crew of fine Christian kids, in giving me women who desire a Spiritual Life Coach so that we can all Live Like We Mean It! 


So, I got a Word (or Words) this morning.  "YES! I am calling you to retirement, not right away, but soon. And I want you to continue coaching, and I want you to consult with home-school mothers about teaching methods, and I want you to lead students from time to time in some projects...those things you love so much."  End of conversation!


God talks to me; does He talk to you?


The feeling of relief and genuine longing for retirement is free to grow now.  There is no fear or reluctance.  And I'm excited.


I get excited easily, so I'll make a small pot of tea right now, and I'll contemplate the future; I'll ponder these things in my heart while I am home on this frigid day by myself!

Philippine Aprons

LongLong, our driver did carving of the pig for our farewell feast at the orphanage on Friday night. He borrowed the apron I'd presented one of our cooks. He is the big brother to LickLick, LinLin, and DipDip...I know, try to keep THOSE names straight!!!

Breaking spring

Great-grandson,Mason Adam True, now 4 lbs 9 oz and home. He's not suppose to be born for another two weeks! His Mama, Mandi is an awesome mother!

I'm posting this from my new IPod that my friend Margaret gave me and my daughter Kimber has set up for me and taught me to use.

I'm truly blessed!!

TearAlong, ----- the Dotted Lion---

Somewhere in the recesses of my mind there lives a memory of some program, perhaps on TV or radio about a Lion whose name is Tearalong...a play on words, of course. And today as I was praying for a more 'abiding' faith that produces fruit...rather than expecting fruit just by pressing in and pressing forward I was reminded of the dotted lion.

In meditating on the 'abiding' quality I saw myself connected to God, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit by a dotted line rather than a thick and full connection line. I wax and wane in my faithfulness to prayer and being in the word. I'm ashamed to admit this, but it is the truth. And somehow I think I'm not that extraordinary in this pattern. I think we are all challenged in our walk by a waxing and waning.

So, today I imagine myself riding that Lion, that Dotted Lion, wanting more and realizing that to have more, to be more annointed, I must get off the Dotted Lion and fill in the blanks...again, and over and over. I want to ride the Lion, the complete and full Lion, that connects me fully to God. I want to fill in the blank as I go rather than looking back to see a dotted line. I want that full, filled in life that relies on prayer and the Word every day, all the time. No more ---------, but this instead____________________.

So, I'm back at it, in the Word, in a study, and in prayer that isn't merely popcorn prayer, thrown up to a God Who loves popcorn as much as I do, but Who prefers a full meal deal from me. May God bless you richly this day!

We Can Do It!

If I knew how to do it I'd put a picture of Rosie the Riveter on here to show my muscle and my 'can do' attitude.

I testified that on January 1st I felt God telling me that He was going to accomplish something BIG with/in me in the first 3 months of the new year.

Since January 1st I've not only been called to The Philippines, but I've been on the treadmill at least 6 days a week, going from 20 minutes the first month, and up to 30 minutes now. I can burn 256 calories at a pop too.

I raise my hands in praise to God Who is accomplishing this with/in me when I waver.

No one could have told me that I'd love the treadmill, or running for two minutes some mornings on it. No one could have told me that I'd look forward to the gruesome task of doing this in the O'Dark-Thirty hours of the morning.

I began on January 1 at 142 pounds, down some from when I'd first begun after Christmas doing Weight Watchers from home with all the old books and slide rule.

On February 5, a Sunday morning, I weighed in at 135, my first goal.

And it has taken 5 weeks to accomplish the next 1 pound loss!

Never, when getting on the scale, did I forsake the program of diet and exercise.

Only God could have accomplished this in me.

I admit, I was disappointed, and I whined about it to my beloved sister.

I complained to my husband too.

He assured me I was building muscle...which weighs more than fat.

I pressed on...only through the Strength that come from the LORD Himself.

Today, the scale showed the number 134...that one more pound!

I'm not in this for numbers. I'm in this for my health.

I'm so small...really I am!

4 feet 10.5 inches

It isn't big enough to carry the weight I've been carrying. There are three weeks left of the promise I felt from the LORD to do something BIG in/with me in the first 3 months of the year.

I've had help too.

I text my friend Margaret every morning when I finish on the treadmill.

I text my daughter with my 'points' or pounds.
It will be nice to be in a very hot climate carry less weight and wearing loose-fitting clothes.

I wonder what the Creator will do with me next!

I'm ready for the adventure whatever it is because He sustains me, He fulfills me.

He is Faithful!

Happy Birthday to Us!

My son Kelly and I celebrate our birthdays together...usually.

This year, before I take off for a mission trip to the Philippines, Kelly and I are celebrating together at the Oregon Coast. He is the master of final touches...like this one. He picked me up at PDX in this red convertible! I'm wearing the pashmina he picked out for me when serving in the military in Afghanistan last year.

He will be 42 on February 28, and I'll be 66 on February 27. He took me to my daugher's home for a quick visit and where my sister Margy met us, presenting me with this apron gift. I twirled and felt SO feminine! It is a darling apron!

And!

I got to have lunch with Dante, my grandson, Kimber and her hubby Chris.

Then we sped off to the coast.

The weather has cooperated beautifully with mild temperatures and sunny days.

We walked about four miles yesterday morning picking up shells, and inspecting dead Puffins before having lunch at The Crab Shack.
The sunset last evening was simply Divine!

The tide pools this morning were full of anemones like the green one below.

And Kelly found a Starfish before our lunch today...back at the Crab Shack where we had scallops, shrimp, and halibut.

We'll go for Clam Chowder tonight.

The weather has turned and is rainy and windy, so we are tucked up inside now as he works with his IPod and I write this. We are very happy, thank you very much!

Be End

Apron Mania Part 1

I'm selling aprons hand over fist in order to raise money for my misson trip to the Philippines, and one of the benefits in signing up for this mission is that I've learned how to spell the name of the country!

The ones below have not sold yet, so let me know if you want one (or more) and I'll take it out of the collection.

These are the 'twins' (on right and left) I believe I blogged earlier and have added another to the 'leafy' collection.

The reverse side is lavender with an intricate sage green stitching displayed on it.The reverse 'leafy' has some ribbon for the sake of interest which, unfortunatley cannot be seen well here.
Below is the Spring Flower Collection

Above, again, you cannot see the festive buttery embriodered tablecloth I used on one side of the apron on the left. The two on the right have a rosey pink watercolor batik pattern. Reverse sides are shown below.

Some of these have intricate stitching for embellishments along with unique buttons.

Be sure to look at the next blog for the other aprons. I'm not great at figuring out how to get more than five pictures on a blog. DUH!

Lady's aprons sell for $20 plus shipping, child's for $10 plus shipping.

The Latest Aprons Hot off the Press!

More Aprons! You cannot really tell the precious buttery yellow fabric with tiny blue dots all over. The reverse side is a buttery yellow/lavender plaid with a hint of green stitching shown above.

I love this watercolor batik red and black, Mother/Daughter set; it has distinctive stitching and black buttons. Mother's apron is reversible (same on both sides), and Daughter's apron is not.

This next one is a sage paisley pattern on one sied with vintage rose red flowery on the other. I gave you a close-up picture of the combination with the pocket showing.

You can see the softly scallopped edge of the feminizing statement in the picture below. Most of the latest aprons are this patternMore aprons are created almost every day because I just can't stop myself; they are so endearing and fun and flirty!

Write me if you're interested in buying something:

cathaybrown@yahoo.com

Happy Wife/Happy Life Survival Kit

This is the best Christmas gift I have given to my husband who wants NO gift at all!

So, I took a recipe box that I'd want sitting around all year long and put cards in it in two catagories: Free and It'll Cost You

Below you see the instructions. Our lives a pretty ordinary (for me) and I find it tiresome to do the SAME thing EVERY Saturday night (watch a movie and eat popcorn). So, I made cards to include some activities to spice up our lives.
Here is a list of the Free ones:
Make hash browns on Saturday or Sunday morning for your wife who thinks you make THE best ones!
Dance with your sweet wife before your movie date: slow, up-beat #9 on The Help CD.
Dance with your sweet wife before your movie date: slow dance #2 Joe Cocker CD.
Plan a picnic and take your wife on one. Be sure to ask for this date ahead of time; she LOVES "the old hwy pond" where she can observe birds.
Dance with your wife before your movie date: up-beat #5 The Help.
Suggest a discussion about a vacation together for next summer.
Slow dance to #5 on the Don Juan de Marco CD.
Suggest a time of deep prayer together before the movie on Saturday.
Dance with your wife before the movie: up-beat #8 The Help.
Ask Catherine to choose 2 hymns or praise songs to sing before you watch your Saturday night movie.
Dance with your wife the Samba #4 Putumayo Presents An Afro~.
Dance with your wife the cha-cha-cha #7 Armik Isla Del Sol

My Dear Husband doesn't dance, but I have suggested we go to the kitchen and pretend he is dancing while I dance around him, especially on the more active ones. He CAN slow dance.
Hey! If you have more ideas, tell me!!!

Here are the ones that will cost him:
Drive to Riggins for sight-seeing, hiking, and dinner or lunch with Ernie and his wife.
Suggest (ahead of time) going to Super 8 to swim and hot tub before your movie date.
Ask your wife on a coffee date at her favorite coffee shop. You could have a hot chocolate!
Ask Catherine out for lunch sometime this week.
Buy your wife her favorite candy bar; you KNOW the one she loves!
Ask your wife out on a BIG date: dinner and a movie (in a theater) in town or LWS.

Again, tell me if you think of more because there are plenty of blank cards in the box!

We have had GREAT success with this. We have NEVER had a discussion about a vacation, and last year we got one day together. We have already planned in August to go to the Oregon Coast. I call that Spicey!!!!

Don't Waste Your Life!

My Dear Husband and I visited in The Dalles for Thanksgiving.

That may seem like old news to some, but Jay had never done that, and I love him for stepping out of his comfort zone to travel. He is a 'stay-at-home' kind of guy.

We've since celebrated Christmas and New Year's Eve, and I confess to y'all that I've been in a struggle all this time. Remember when Jacob wrestled with God in Genesis 32? Well I didn't want my hip to be injured like Jacob's, so today I relented. Every time I questioned God about this He deflected my reasoning. So...

I'm going to the Philippines on a mission trip to an orphanage called Nehemiah House.

I've wanted to make a difference, which I DO!...already, but the Lord has something more for me. I'm reading a book by John Piper called Don't Waste Your Life, and it backs up the call for me to go. I teach and present workshops on Living Like You Mean It, so why I've been so reluctant is curious.

My excuses this morning:

*this morning at the crack of dawn after my prayer time I felt compelled to give all my money away to someone in GREAT need

* there's a wedding in April that my grandson will expect me to attend

*When I asked about the team (hoping they were full), I was told 3 people had just dropped out

God's responses this morning and this afternoon:

**The sermon this morning was about 'embracing the call'!

**The team needs someone to present a Bible study to women, and the one Monique (the leader) has been praying about is one I've been leading for several months! She needs me to present this.

**The team needs someone to lead morning songs for the girls in the orphanage, and I sing!

**I'd been afraid to bring up 'the call' to my husband because he is not a 'go-er', and when I confessed my struggle and perceived 'call' he told me that if I'm called I'd better go AND he'd help with finances!

**Last year if felt a need to renew my passport!

My life is not a waste unless I don't answer the calls on it! I want to live big this year. One of the women I coach told me that in her prayer time she was given that God was going to do something big in the next three months. Since He will do for all what he does for one, I took that and ran with it. My Resolution Chart is made, but it is all about the physical (food, weight, exercise). Now I have even more reason to believe He is calling me for more, for something BIG.

Has He called you for more? Are you reluctant too? Get on the train!

Let's go somewhere BIG for God.

I'll be making aprons madly to raise money for the trip. Also I'll take four with me as gifts to the women who cook for us...lots of white rice, fruits, veggies.

I covet your prayers, your warriors out there.

Answer my call for prayers; answer God's call to live a bigger life for Him this year.

He may not be calling to an overseas mission, but He IS calling you to something!

Don't waste your life!

Recycled Thrift Store Finds!!!!!

I make a B-Line to the 'linens' department at my tiny thrift store usually once a week. Last week a Battenburg Lace tablecloth (a BIG rectangular one) appeared, so I brought it home, cut the square corners off, and mounted one of the corners on a rosie watercolor fabric. I cut the lace away from the top corner so it is shaped like a heart.

And, voila!

The pieces I cut away I mounted on two little girl aprons.


And then...
I picked up a small kitchen curtain, cut the corners off, and mounted them on some green and purple leafy fabric for the next two aprons.

The Battenburg Lace Lady's Apron is already sold, so I'll make three more today and tomorrow.

The pleasure of creating and sewing beautiful aprons that others want gives me such satisfaction!!!

Seed Time/Harvest Time

No one offered up any cheese with my whine about the lack of produce in my garden, so I've sucked it up and waited for something to happen. Shockingly, the tomatoes have produced 30 pounds of fruit already. The Zinnias that failed to show earlier are blossoming beautifully. The Buckwheat that volunteers has flowered and begun to turn seedy. I'm grateful for this turn of events!

I no longer can tomatoes because the frozen ones taste more like fresh when they are thawed.

I just 'chunk' them up for use in sauce and salsa later.

Yesterday morning in the cool 44 degree and breezy weather I pruned the tomatoes so that no more flowers are left, just the vines with tomatoes so that their energy can go to ripening.

And, last of all, these plums are amazing!

It is time to get stared on seeding some flats of lettuce to grow in the sunroom for winter.

Seed time/harvest time...is this my favorite time????? Hm, let me get back to you on that.

S'up in the Garden?

Thanks to my little Sisty, Barb, for the idea of attaching cd's to the fencing for deer repellents. They swing and shine in the sun keeping away predators...maybe even birds; I'm not sure. We will not turn on the electric fence this year. Everything is producing now, although nothing is ripening all that well. Our nights are already cooling down to as low as 48 degrees, and the days this last week haven't been all that warm... in the low 70's. The watering system didn't work well in my absence this summer, so the potatoes and tomatoes didn't get their fair share with the broken line. Blossom end rot has taken a few tomatoes, and the potatoes began dying earlier than should have been expected.
The greens have FINALLY taken off and produced great quantities. Lettuce is finished, and the chard and kale are wonderful!

There IS a blossom on this eggplant, not that it will ever ripen and be harvestable.

When I lived in The Dalles I had three plants from which I harvested 18 large eggplants! The recipe in Laurel's Kitchen for Eggplant Pasta Sauce is my favorite, and I made a lot of it that year for the freezer...none this year, sadly.

There are only a few of these Amish Paste Tomatoes.

And I have many of these lovely "Connie's Dad's" Winter Squashes.

Only 36 pounds of potatoes were harvested from my 25 plants. I expected at least 50 pounds, and we had great potato-growing weather. Crop failure due to watering issues is heart-breaking.

What to do with those Zucchini Boats?

I grind them into relish using a pickle relish recipe. We like this in tuna for sandwiches, in home-made Thousand Island dressing, and in potato salad. Cucumbers are always an issue to get for me, but zucchinis are not!

That's S'up in the garden!

Little time is left here in the mountains of wild Idaho for anything to happen, and the wet and cool spring made warming the soil an issue. This is the third year in a row for very challenging gardening weather. I'm grateful for the lack of bugs!

Sold...at G'ville Farmers' Market!

I made aprons while I visited my Little Mither in B'ham. Below is one I made from a tiny set of kitchen window curtains purchased at the Goodwill in Vancouver. My friend Margaret was selling garlic at the Farmers' Market near my booth. She 'HAD' to have this one. It is/was my favorite, and I didn't expect it to really sell. It went first!The aqua/brown one below went next, my second favorite.

Below are the Little Sister aprons I had for sale too.

Big Sister/Little Sister aprons...and some of my favorites.

There are still some left. I sold 3 ladies' aprons and one child's.

I have some vintage table cloths in my stash, so I'll leave you now and get started on more aprons out of that fabric. It should be very delightful to create/view what's next!

Tour de notFrance

This is a mini-tour of some places I've been lately.

Yesterday it was a rare sunny day up here near Canada while I am with MamaPajama. We decided to take a tour of the Mount Baker area.

This is in front of Picture Lake which is still mostly covered over with snow. There were small floating iceburgs within the lake too. Mom said she'd walked around this lake in the past, but not so yesterday. It was a warm 70 degrees and brilliantly sunny.
These next pics are for you, Elaine!
Margy came up several weekends ago, and we toured an historic mansion that houses a quilt museum. The one below incorporated many men's ties.
I loved the brilliant and colorful spash of a quilt this was.This next one was a 3-D with the quilting done in chickwire-style to match the chicken theme.

The one below was also three-demensional...a cutie!

Below is the Peace Arch on the Canadian border with Washington.

The park was truly lovely with sculptures, gardens, and slow people...like us.

Mama looks a little worried, but she was very happy to have been to the border to see the arch. The Olympic Torch was passed through the arch during the pre-games run through countries.

My sister, Barb, with whom mom lives is an extraordinary gardener. I've picked gallons of raspberries for her freezer while she is away and I am here to take care of Mama.

I decided with part of the pickin' I'd make jam to take home with me. I LOVE raspberries!!!

One of my favorite get-aways is at a darling little knitting shop.

I'll spare you all the pictures of the darling houses on Lummi Island where Mom and I toured last week on another sunny (finally!) day. You can see the northern Cascades on the right in the background and Mount Baker on the left...they are obscured somewhat by the clouds that enveloped us earlier in the morning.

In the center of the picture below is a glacier getting ready to fall over the cliff. We were entranced by the stunning beauty of this place yesterday.

This is Galena Creek Falls fed by the melting glacier in the top of the picture.

I have only 2 days left here before packing up and trekking on home.

I've spent only 10 days at home this summer, and I'm ready to be there for awhile!

It has been a lovely 'visiting' summer this year.

And I needn't have worried about my garden.

Jay filled the new boxes with rich composted manure from the ranch last fall.

The 'soil' was too rich for the plants, and we have no tomatoes. Gardening is always an experiment; sometimes is works, and sometimes it doesn't.

That's life!