Amidst the knitting projects...

I've been doing lots of knitting lately. This funny little hat is for a co-worker who is adopting a baby from Korea! Little Max, who is about 8 or 9 months old, is supposed to arrive any day. I knew I wanted to make a little something for them, but couldn't figure out what. When I found this pattern on Knitty.com, I knew it was the perfect thing as his adoptive mom loves sock monkeys! The hat did come out rather cute, even to me who really isn't terribly fond of them!

Spinning

Mollie Kitty thinks my spinning basket makes a fine bed! So much for all that soft fleece I had prepared for spinning!

Thomas had to get into the act too as I was carding rolags for the next spinning project.
Lets see, there is the normal process of hand felting, machine felting, needle felting, the kind they do in Nepal and Mongolia with feet ~ how about kitty felting?! A little water and a some kitty kneading and voila ~ Kitty Felt! Could be a new trend! LOL! Would keep me from having to recard all this fleece I worked so hard to prepare before they decided to take naps on it!

Autumn Baking

There is something about autumn that makes me want to bake and inspires me towards creative pursuits. Maybe it is that age old desire to prepare for the coming winter. Regardless, I find myself more productive on these sunny, chilly, blue-skied days that at any other time of the year.

Today was baking day. Years ago, when the kids were small, I baked all our bread. A favorite recipe was one for whole wheat bread that made 5 or 6 loaves. We lost that recipe in the fire, but recently I found a similar one, so today I gave it a try. It made 4 loaves of lovely nutty bread! Yum!

Spice cake is another favorite. Usually I make this with a caramel frosting, but as I ran out of brown sugar, I made a simple butter frosting and used some Halloween sprinkles for decor! This cake is a yummy buttery cake filled with nutmeg and allspice. Best way to eat this is with a steaming mug of hot tea or coffee at hand!


The real treat of today's baking was a double batch of gingersnaps! The whole apartment smells like ginger and spice from these! They have a perfectly crispy crunchy exterior and a soft chewy inside and just the right amount of ginger zing! Here is the recipe.

GINGER SNAPS

Yield: 4 dozen cookies
375 degrees F
8 - 10 minutes

Lightly grease cookies sheets.
In a large bowl, combine:
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. shortening
1/4 c. molasses
1 large egg
Cream mixture until well blended. Stir in:
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
Mix until well blended. Chill dough for easier handling, 1 - 2 hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Shape dough into 1" balls.
Roll balls in:
granulated sugar
Place 2" apart on greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are set. Cool 1 to 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

This recipe doubles well!

Holly's Tomatoes

Yesterday, my sister gave me a bag of lovely Brandywine tomatoes that she grew. Not only are they yummy and have that lovely homegrown tomato smell, but I love their character, so today I did a small oil sketch of them.

For my dinner, I chopped the tomatoes up (they are nice and beefy!) and added them to a nice salad of mixed greens with a little grated cheese, mixed olives and garlic-cheese croutons and topped it with my favorite dressing.

Tangy Dressing
In a half pint jar, mix together:
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/4 c olive oil
1 Tbls chopped fresh parsley or 1 rounded tsp dry parsley
2 Tbls sugar
2 Tbls wine vinegar
dash of Tobasco sauce.

Shake jar well and chill for a couple of hours for best flavor. Shake before drizzling over salad.

Dutch Supper Cake

Lately, I have been missing the things I used to love to do back in the days when I was a housewife. It struck me that just because I am single and live alone, that shouldn't keep me from doing the things I love. Baking was one of my favorite things, so yesterday I made this cake, a family favorite, easy to make and not too sweet and not to big for someone who lives alone.



Dutch Supper Cake
Heat oven to 350F. Spray bottom only of an 8x8" square pan with Pam.
In a bowl, combine:
1 c flour
1 c sugar
1/2 c chopped nuts (I like almonds or hazelnuts)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
2 oz (2 squares) melted baking chocolate (I used semi-sweet, but you may use unsweetened for a richer chocolate flavor)
1/3 c oil (I use canola)
2/3 c applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs.
Stir by hand until all ingredients are mixed well.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake at 350F for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Sprinkle top with sifted powdered sugar.

Early Morning

I am up early this morning, a common occurrence since I started working nights. The ever so faint glimmer of light in the sky drew me outside to sit on the bench on the patio and watch the morning come.

Such stillness at that time. The only sounds being those made by the ventilation systems of nearby buildings and the sound of water being forced through the apartment complex irrigation system.

In my white cotton nightgown, I wrapped a soft woolen shawl around my shoulders and sat watching the sky lighten imperceptibly moment by moment. Until a faint gray haze of cloud could be seen, then gradually, a hint of palest pink that turned apricot as the first rays of the sun kissed it.

A deep breath and I can smell the damp earth, the faint scent of pine in the air, the damp smell of summer worn grasses.

A lean stray cat wanders by, pricking his ears at sounds I cannot hear. As I sit silent and still, he passes by, unaware of my presence.

As the light grows, the shapes of trees, previously dark umber blue shadows in the night take shape and shift color to blue greens.

Out of the dark, a hummingbird startles me, buzzing to the feeder over my head, then having drunk his fill, flies to a nearby branch and sits for a moment, a small gray spot on the end of a branch, until suddenly, he is back again.

The first birdsong of morning ~ a lonely trill in the trees on the hillside above. The short bark of a fox. The call of a raven and then another as they fly overhead, dark shapes against a pewter blue sky.

In the Celtic tradition of Christianity, I sit, open to the stillness of God and sense his handiwork in all that is around me. And he is there. Peace, deep and endless, soothing and reassuring is there too. It fills me up.

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

And the lord was not in the earthquake or the wind or the fire, but in the small still voice he came. (1 Kings 19:11, 12 ~ my paraphrase)

He didn’t come in grand visions, with big prophecies or earth shattering revelations. But in that stillness, He said, I am here. I always am, all you have to do is stop and pay attention, for I am with you always (Matthew 28:20). And I am comforted, soothed, reassured.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, my savior, have mercy on me.

And he did.

Dive Deep, Swim Far

Time for an update! Today was my “intro evaluation”, which means that I have now completed not only 3 months of orientation but 3 months of working on my own on the job! I do love my job. Working with the moms and babies has been truly gratifying. In a few weeks, I start training to become a certified lactation (breastfeeding) counselor. At the moment, I am debating whether or not to also start teaching all day Saturday childbirth classes at the hospital. I am a bit reluctant as I don’t want to lose the time to paint and do other things that I’ve fought so hard to get.

At long last, I’ve picked up the oil paints again and have been doing some small sketches to get back into it. Have been doing lots of pen and watercolor sketches as well. In addition, I’ve been spinning and knitting up a storm and really loving having the time to do it. Then there are the stacks and stacks of photos that I’ve been trying to get organized and have started scrap-booking a few of them.

Downsizing my belongings has been much on my mind lately. This move accentuated the fact that I have far too much stuff. After downsizing by roughly 1/3, I still have more than comfortably fits in the apartment, so am working on downsizing still more. After all, how many dishes does someone need who lives alone with 2 cats? I think I have something like 5 sets of dishes, enough to seat well over 30 people at a formal dinner! And then there are the books. I have hundreds if not thousands of books. While I love having them, I have come to the realization that there is a large proportion of them that I have read but never referred to again and so those will go. This will hopefully decrease my “stash” by about ½! I do long to live a simple, less cluttered life and downsizing is but one hurdle on the path to doing so. I’ve also chosen to live without TV and find that I read more, spend more time painting, spinning and knitting as well as more time spent watching the birds and wildife, all things that enhance life for me. I do still watch a lot of movies but even that is decreasing somewhat as I focus on other more productive things.


“Be not the slave of your own past—plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blessings and peace dear friends!

Recommended from my reading and movie watching this month.
Books:
"The Big Beautiful" by Pamela Duncan
"Around the Next Corner" by Elizabeth Wrenn (a schoolmate of mine from Elementary through HS)
Movies:
"Evelyn"
"The Snow Walker"

Springtime in Flagstaff

Note: I wrote this a month ago, but didn't have the opportunity to post it. Thought you all might like to hear more about some of the places I've been visiting here and my thoughts about some of the changes in my life recently.

It is hard to compare springtime in Flagstaff with springtime in Iowa. By now (March/early April) in Iowa, the fields would be hazed with brilliant green, the redbud and magnolia trees would be blooming in the woods, crabapple trees would be in full riotous blossom and the tulips would be out. Here in Flagstaff, the cool of early mountain spring slows things way down. In the old part of town brilliant forsythia glows in neon profusion against the dark basalt that many of the older buildings are made of. It is one of the few signs of spring. Here and there, daffodils struggle to bloom and the aspen quiver with dangling catkins. To see real signs of spring, one must go down Oak Creek Canyon where the altitude drops sharply and the temperatures rise accordingly. There the trees are already well hazed with the new green of young leaves and crabapple trees bloom in profusion near dwellings.


While I miss the lush green brilliance of Iowa, I am learning to enjoy the beauties of Arizona too. While hiking in Boynton Canyon near Sedona, I saw the manzanita in bloom with clusters of tiny white fairy bells edged in pink dangling from the tips of orange-red branches so smooth they feel like a new dipped candle.








(This isn't the clearest of pictures, but you can get the idea of the waxy looking smooth red bark and the small clusters of tiny bell like flowers.



The contrast of deep red rocks against a brilliant spring blue sky is magnificent.



The perfectly checkered bark of the alligator juniper makes one wonder if someone came along and scored the bark with a ruler and knife.


The ponderosa plateau from Flagstaff to the rim of the Grand Canyon is filled with bluebirds, both Mountain and Western varieties, bright blue jewels amongst the red and green of the trees. What a joyful sight they are!




Other treasures of Arizona are the many geologic features and a wealth of ruins of earlier inhabitants. The Flagstaff area is home to over 600 volcanic features. Even the peaks that rise above the city are the remains of a once massive volcano that may have erupted in a manner similar to Mount St. Helens, though thousands of years earlier. This is my watercolor sketch of the peaks from the Kachina Wetlands south of Flagstaff.





The latest eruption in the area, 1000 years ago, was at Sunset Crater where a cinder cone rises 1000 feet. The cinders at the top oxidized into reds and ochre’s while the lower cinders from earlier in the eruption are a deep blue/black color.
Even now, 1000 years later, vegetation still struggles to grow in much of the cinder covered area surrounding the cone. At its base, a lava field of sharp jagged jumbled rock lays catastrophically across the landscape. The few trees that gain a foothold here grow twisted and tortured as they struggle to survive. In spots, brilliant yellow clusters appear like flowers, but in reality, these are the slow thousand-year growth of lichens. Pristine black cinder dunes sport sand dune like ripples across their surface.
Around the same time that Sunset Crater Volcano erupted, the Sinagua, ancestors to the modern Hopi, lived in pueblos north of here in what is now Wupatki National Monument. Driving across the flat plain at the eastern front of the volcano field, arroyos of red rock begin to appear. Riding on an outcropping in the middle of one of these is the Wukoki Pueblo. Built of deep red rock and clay mortar, its sharply rectangular form catches the evening sun, making it standout sharply in an otherwise weather rounded terrain. Viewed from below, its walls remind one of medieval fortifications in Europe in the same time frame. From the road, one can spot many small ruins. A wall here, a mound of fallen rock that marks a long tumbled building there.



The Wupatki Pueblo is large, complete with ceremonial court, a large ball field and a natural wonder ~ a blow hole. At this spot, one can experience the earth breathing as air rushes in or out of some cavern deep below the surface at the rate of 35 miles an hour.

Driving on, one crosses a Pinion/juniper plain with pale ochre grasses and comes to a small butte. At first it appears non-descript, a black mound rising above a small pueblo. But as one walks the trail up and around it, red stonewalls that follow the serpentine contours of the black basalt become apparent. Rising higher, one sees that the walls here are not the ordinary red walls of the other pueblos, but these have patterns made in the walls with dark basalt. The contrast of deep red and black is stunning. Behind the mound, a limestone sinkhole comes into view with massive perpendicular walls soaring above a vast space. And then the path curves around the top of the mound and stepping through the door in the wall, one sees that the entire top of the mound was once built upon. From here one looks out of the pinion/juniper plain and a vast expanse of bleached grass to the seemingly endless vista of the Painted Desert. Turning, the sharp peaks of the snow capped San Francisco Peaks loom in the west. With a careful eye and a good pair of binoculars one can see eight other ruins from here. It is a lofty perch and for me, more moving than the Grand Canyon. It is utterly silent the day I am there. Not a person or car in sight in any direction. Just a vast silence that reaches back through the eons of time. The sound of my heart beating is the loudest sound there is.

On another outing, I drive east to Walnut Canyon National Monument. Here one climbs down many steps into Walnut Canyon and traverses a narrow ridge to an “island” in the canyon. The canyon walls descend sharply down through the upper layers of creamy limestone to the gray convoluted layers of coconino sandstone. Horizontal scourings from water long ago eroded softer layers out from between harder layers leaving large sheltering ledges at several levels within the canyon. Here the people of the time, Sinagua of an earlier time than those of Wupatki built walls of golden limestone under these protective overhangs and lived in this lush valley. Gamble oak, Arizona walnut and other trees cling to the canyon sides along with berries and numerous plants with many edible and medicinal uses. Compared to the dry land on top of the canyon, it was and is a veritable paradise. The inhabitants must have been masters at climbing and I find myself wondering how mother’s kept their young children from plummeting over the edges. But these homes would have been snug and protected from many of the elements and surrounded with views that even people today envy.

But, I didn’t come to Arizona just for the ruins and rugged beauty of the landscape. Rather, it was the opportunity to start my nursing career in a place that would teach and train me to be the best nurse that I can be. I’m grateful to say that this is exactly what I am experiencing! The people I work with have been wonderful, encouraging and ever so helpful as I make this transition from newly graduated nurse to a well functioning RN. By mid April, I will be off orientation and working on my own and at long last, feeling ready to do so! At this point, I can truly say that everything I hoped for as I went to nursing school has come to pass. I am working in the field of my choice, loving it and finding the satisfaction that I hoped for in my day-to-day working life. Members of the hospital have expressed hope that I will soon join the Childbirth education team and while the time is not yet right, I anticipate it with a happy heart in the near future. I’m working nights now and have found the transition to nights an easy one for me. I always was a night owl!

When I look back upon all that has occurred in my life since our house fire in 1999, I can see God’s hand at work. He took what could have been an overwhelming tragedy and brought challenge and blessings from it. It has been an amazing journey. As I have traveled from Colorado to Iowa to Arizona, God has touched my life in tangible ways and I have learned first hand what he said in Psalm 139.

If I take the wings of the morning
And settle at the furthest limits of the sea
Even there your hand shall lead me
And your right hand shall hold me fast. ~ Psalm 139: 9-10

God’s hand has led me, his hand has held me fast, even when I doubted and despaired, he did not give up on me, He held me fast and continues to show me grace. He was with me when I breathed in the lush verdant air of springtime in Iowa, when I struggled through the ups and downs of nursing school. He was there when I stood on the continental divide in Colorado surrounded by my children and the times I was surrounded by family and friends in Colorado. He was there when I stood alone in a desolate landscape in communion with 1000 years of human history in Arizona. I have much to be thankful for and so I leave you with a prayer of thanksgiving:

I am bending my knee
In the eye of the God who created me
In the eye of the Son who died for me
In the eye of the Spirit who moves me
In love and in desire
For the many gifts you have bestowed on me
Each day and night, each sea and land
Each weather fair, each calm each wild
Thanks be to you O God.
From Celtic Prayers from Iona by J. Philip Newell

New Apartment!

Greetings dear friends!

The days are warming up here in Flagstaff and winter appears to be a thing of the past, though I am told that snow can happen as late as June. It feels like I've been in Flagstaff for ages and ages, though it has only been 4 1/2 months. I'm slowly adapting to the area and getting to see many of the sights in the area.

I'm loving my job! Working with Moms and babies has turned out to be everything I thought it would! Working nights has been great too! I was a little anxious at first, but my nightowl tendencies have made it a fairly easy transition. I work with great people and overall, this has turned out to be a fantastic place to work! As part of my training, I've completed my NRP (Neonatal Resusitave Program) and ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) certifications in addition to things like cardiac monitoring, fetal heart monitoring and lots of OB training!

Living near my sister has been lots of fun. So nice to get to spend time together every week after years of only seeing each other for a few days a year.

The past couple weeks have been spent moving into my new apartment! I'm a short 15 minute walk from the hospital yet it feels like it's out in the country. I have a nice view of a wooded hillside. It's a perfect spot to sit and watch the birds, very peaceful and relaxing! Getting this apartment has been yet another episode of God's hand working in my life. I was sitting in the apartment complex office trying to decide if I wanted to put down a deposit to get on the waiting list for an apartment. No choice which one, as this complex has quite the waiting list. As I was sitting there, the phone rang, and the person who was originally going to rent it back out. They turned to me and said, we just had a two bedroom apartment become available and since you are sitting here, it's yours if you want it. We walked over and looked at it and I went back to the office and signed the paperwork. After looking at lots and lots of apartments in Flagstaff, I think I got one of the nicest ones and it feels so wonderfully private and quiet ~ I don't think there is any other in Flagstaff situated so perfectly for me! Here are a couple of pics.


Welcome to my apartment!


The view from my patio to the hillside above.

I'm still unpacking boxes and trying to decide where to put everything! After living with my parents for several months and then living in temporary digs for the past 4 months, it is blissful to be in my own space once again! Next step is to get my painting stuff set up so I can start painting again!

Peace and blessings to all!

A month in Arizona

It's hard to believe that I've been nearly a month here in Arizona! I'm getting to know the area and finding my way around. Flagstaff is both a larger and smaller community than I remembered. It has the feel of a small mountain community and yet has the ammenities of a larger city like Boulder, with the university, stores, hospital and open attitudes.

The hospital sits like a grand lady on the hill with its copper roof shining in the sun. The facility serves all of northern Arizona. After two weeks of hospital and new grad orientation, I feel that the decision to come here was a great one. I've recieved superb training so far and am impressed with the hospital's focus on education and training for staff. Everyone I've met has been helpful and nice, the facility superb and the unit I will be working on, Mothers and Infants, looks to be fantastic. The next two weeks will be focused training in OB nursing and then I begin working on the floor with my preceptor! I can't wait!

Between winter weather ~ snow! ~ and starting at the hospital, I haven't had a lot of opportunity to explore the area, but I did get to drive to Phoenix one day and spent an afternoon in Sedona, which is 20 miles or so south of Flagstaff. For those of you who haven't been here, Flagstaff sitsat 7,000 feet elevation at the base of the San Francisico Peaks, of which Mount Humphries at 12,000+ feet is the highest point in Arizona. Flagstaff sits in the largest contiguous Ponderosa Pine forest in the world, a fact they make much of here. This ponderosa plateau continues for about 15 to 20 miles south where it drops a level ~ probably a thousand feet or more as well. On this next plateau, it continues with a mountainuous type terrain, but the trees are now juniper and pinon pine, rabbit brush and enormous prickly pear cactus with little else. Upon dropping another thousand feet or two, the terrain changes and becomes steep and sharp, looking very dry. Few trees here, but even in the winter,those that are here still have leaves. Lots of cholla (pronounced hoy-ya) cactus that have such an abundance of cream colored spines that at first one mistakes them for blooms of some kind. Now there are saguarro cactus that reach for the sky with their angular arms, scruffy rabbit brush and sage at their feet. Dropping another thousand or two feet, one enters the exceedingly flat plain that Phoenix sits on. Sparse vegetaion ~ more saguarro and cholla, ocassional agave, and others. Here, short, sharp, dark peaks rise from the flat desert floor in an landscape that looks like what I'd imagine the moon to look like if it had vegetation. Upon entering Phoenix, one is startled by the palm trees, orange trees bowing under the weight of fruit laden branches, the blooms of bouganvilla and other plants and the warmth. After all, Flagstaff was snowy and cold, but here it feels like summer. Amazing that all this can take place within the span of a two hour drive.

Sedona too, is a whole other world. I visited on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The road from Flagstaff to Sedona winds steeply down Oak Creek Canyon. Even in winter, one can tell that this is a lush green canyon, an oasis in a desert land. Enormous sycamore trees and oak, mostly scrub, line the creek. The closer one gets to Sedona, the redder the rocks and the more the rocks predominate the landscape. As the vista of Sedona opens up, the rocks take on majestic proportions and color. It isn't hard to understand why people feel that Sedona is a special place. All the same, it makes me glad that the Navaho have protected Monument Valley and preserved the sense of sacred space there. Sedona has built up and the area is full of ostentatious homes, some tasteful, while others simply flaunt their wealth and bad taste. The town itself has done it's best to preserve the feel of the place with architecture and preventing for the most part, the building of houses right up to the base of the rocks, but it is still crowded and heavily built. While there, I felt like it was a challenge to see the rocks despite the houses and wished it had the purity of Monument Valley. It is a place where one has the potential to see the greatness of God in creation and the smallness of humankind. It strikes me that people, wanting to be "great" superimpose themselves on the great landscape, not realizing how trivial they look in the process.

That said, I hope that I have the opportunity to do some painting there and to capture some of my thoughts on canvas in the future.

This is going to be a good year ~ a great year! I can feel it in my bones and in every breath I take! My deepest thanks to each of you who have helped me get here, from the smallest bit of encouragement, to the enourmous amount of support and assistance you have given. It all has been a tremendous blessing in my life. My prayer is that it be returned to you 100 fold in this coming year.

Blessings and peace,
Lisa