The Joy of Resurrection!

 This year, more than ever before on Easter weekend, I felt the nervous anticipation, the heavy waiting, and the exuberance of the morning of resurrection. He is risen!

Adam made two large batches of hot cross buns this year, one for his students at school and one for our parishioners at church. 

We had lovely Easter lilies in the sanctuary, with the last of the daffodils and a bunch of Spanish bluebells from our yard.

Adam was quite busy during the Easter season this year: a program at school where he was a narrator, Easter sunrise service, and then our usual services at church, along with a song from our handchime choir (I direct; he plays). After church we took hot cross buns and lilies to two of our shut-ins. It was lovely to visit with them.

Sunrise services are too early for me. I joke that I'd love to attend them if they were later! But I took a picture of the sunrise from our front porch. Adam says the service by the riverfront in Oriental was very well attended. 

I'm still painting a little, not as much as I used to. The photo at the end is a little one I did recently that I do like.

May you, dear friend, continue to feel the wonderful inner glow of joy that comes from knowing that our best friend, rescuer, Lord and brother, Jesus Christ, overcame death Himself, and for us also. That means -- eternity! All the joys of heaven are ours. Amen.

Looking Down

My earliest memory is deep leaves

and my feet, kicking and walking,

holding someone's left hand.

Somehow I always knew it was

my grandparents' farm, although

there is nothing else, only

deep leaves, dry and crunching

leaves all around my feet,

I'm looking down because

that's what children do.

Then, it seems only moments later,

he is walking on my left,

my son's little son,

holding my hand as we walk

along a gravel road to the farm.

He kicks the rocks and studies them.

He grasps my fingers firmly.

I watch him and turn my face

up to the blue above.

The forsythia glows like sun.

Look at my shadow! he says.

It's so big!

He is looking down, because

that's what children do.

Copyright by the author

Renick WV, 2024

Fern

  

This year for Valentine's, Adam and I agreed to buy ourselves what we wanted instead of flowers or chocolate. He bought fabric. I bought a ceramic pot and a fern. It finally put up two little shoots.

I've been indulging in my love of wool -- cleaning, carding, spinning, plying, and knitting it. Currently on the needles is a brown sweater made from wool I bought last year at a nearby farm. 

The deep golden/orange yarn is dyed with lichen from our yard.

The daffodils are past now, and overnight it seemed all the Bradford pears in the county burst into bloom. They look so pretty in front of our church.

Awakened

The soft glow behind the curtains

must be morning at last.

The moon is long set.

I am in my mother's house.

She finishes one more sleep

in the room beneath mine.

I am old,

and she is ancient,

Yet still the mother bond

pulls firm as ever --

The body that encased me,

The voice that whispered

the mother secrets that

no infant can remember,

no woman can forget.

She is here yet.

The soft glow of morning,

The deep green fescue growing,

The distant lowing of cows

in a neighbor's field, calling,

Come, my love, my baby,

Come home to me again.

copyright, M.K. Christiansen

August, 2023

Just Sitting Here --

 Hi, friends -

Since I'm just sitting here on the reclining loveseat with Adam on a slow Sunday afternoon, I might as well write a blog post, right? Sorry to be so absent. I'm definitely slowing down these days. Adam is done with school for the year, and since he's home, he's the cook for the summer. Hooray! I'm glad to get that daily chore off my shoulders for a few months. I don't mind cooking, but not everyday!

So what's going on? I'm enjoying being at home with the two dogs and the kitty cat. It's a pleasant, slow life. Most days my back gradually hurts more as the day wears on, and I take pain meds, use a heating pad, and rest a good bit. Thus: slowing down.

Still, I try to keep painting and spinning/knitting. Let's see if I can find some photos on my phone:

Here are some cards I have for sale at the Saturday farmers market.

This 9x12" piece is fairy children going into a forest. It feels magical. I very nearly achieved what I was hoping for, which can be hard with art!

Our huge gardenia bush is blooming now! I have a blossom tucked in my blouse as I'm typing now.

Painting bookmarks:

This is the "wildflower blanket" that I crocheted for my sweet granddaughter who is two years old.

Leo, my companion in the studio. He's so sweet.

Lately I've been spinning up this fleece from a local farm. It's a Shetland/Black Welsh Mtn. cross. I'm planning a cardigan sweater!

This pile of yarn went into a rug I wove. I love the mix of the dark (seen in the above photo), and the light-colored Cheviot fleece.

For those who recall that my husband Adam has been sick for several years with a severe auto-immune illness, he is getting better. He had 2 chemo infusions (the aggressive and preferred treatment), and he is definitely improving, has more energy, and will hopefully be able to go off some of his meds soon. We are very thankful. 

Much love to all of you friends in blogland!

Hello, Friends!

 Well, everyone, I've been gone a while. I've struggled to keep up with both my blog and my Youtube channel. Sorry! But I'll try to catch you up on the highlights of the last few months.

Christmas was not what we expected! Just before leaving on our long-awaited trip to Mississippi for Christmas with our kids and grandkids, Adam tested positive for Covid. He was not very ill, but he couldn't travel. Then, on Christmas Day, I had to make a "mad dash" trip to visit another of our children to help, and Adam stayed home. I traveled quite a bit, ended up in Chattanooga for a late family Christmas. Chaos ... but it all worked out!

Adam visited a new doctor for his auto-immune illness and was approved for two Rituxan infusions in March. They've already made him feel so much better! We're very thankful for his improvement. He has much more energy and hopes to be in remission soon. 

I'm still making soaps and lotions and working with yarn a lot. I bought two fleeces at a local farm, and then my brother gave me a large bag of fleece from his sheep in West Virginia. Those fleeces have been so fun to clean and work with! I love working with fleece more than I expected, even the feeling of lanolin on my hands and the smell of the barnyard in my studio. I used the old alpaca fleece to make a rug -- a trial run on rug weaving.

The farmers market has started up again. I've been doing it for nearly 11 years. I still enjoy it, but it's quite tiring. I'm slowing down a bit on making some of my wares. But I'm still enjoying my chickens and my spinning and knitting.

I've had a little medical problem, esophageal spasms, that keeps me from being as active and productive as I like to be, so it's been a more "restful" year than usual. REST is my word this year, I think. I don't mind slowing down and realizing I can't do all I used to do. And as we get older, of course we want to use the energy we have for other people, especially family. Adam is still pastoring and teaching middle school, so that keeps him very busy.

If for some reason you'd enjoy watching my Youtube videos, here's a link to my channel. A lot of the things I mentioned here have dedicated videos there. Wishing you all the best, blog friends!

And Now It's November --

 It's been over a month since I last posted. What a whirlwind! October was lovely, but it sped by. The main thing that happened is that my daughter, son-in-law, and two adorable grandchildren came for a visit! The grown-ups quickly left for a much-deserved vacation, and the little ones stayed with Nana and Poppi for 7 days. Wow! I haven't done that before in my own house. (I usually go to theirs.) We had loads of fun, were very relaxed and mostly played inside and outside, and watched lots of Clifford the Big Red Dog and Beatrix Potter's World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. I missed them so much when they left to go home, but I was wiped out! I think it took me about 5 days to recover, haha.

At last I finished knitting the sweater vest that I made from my handspun yarn. It's a bit large, but that's better than too small. It's an extra layer for winter, to wear around the house.

I've been picking up so many pecans; this is a great pecan year! Today a friend is coming to pick some too. There are far too many for me. As you see in the photo above, the pecan leaves are covering the ground. We crush pecans when we drive out the driveway -- crunch, crunch -- and the chickens eagerly eat the meat inside. The baby chicks are babies no longer! They're nearly as big as the smallest hen, Bibby. I don't have a recent photo of them. And shockingly, I think they are all females! It doesn't seem possible, but I'm hopeful.

I'm slowly working on yet another children's picture book, this time a bedtime book full of sleeping woodland animals (well, except for the cat). Yesterday I finished the foxes.

I'm starting to write the text, which I want to be a poem, and yesterday I think I decided on its meter. I'm really enjoying this project. 

The farmers market is picking up speed as of last Saturday, and I must paint lots of cards this week, make Healing Herb Ointment today, and make a batch of soap. Phew! I also ordered more of my printed cards from the printer in New Bern. My packs of prints are selling faster than the hand-painted cards. 

I can tell Adam and I are getting older because we spend more time at the doctors' offices, and we talk about illnesses and medications. Ah well, that's what's important to you as you age, right? We are both doing fine. I've made some changes to my eating habits, and I'm feeling better than I have in the past 5 years. I cut out all sugar/desserts about 6 months ago. Then this fall I decided to begin intermittent fasting each day. It's not very radical, really. I try to eat supper about 5:00, and I don't have anything but water until breakfast the next morning, at about 9:00. It just gives my body a good fast, and gets my insulin levels down. It's a way to reverse pre-diabetes and (hopefully) avoid the awful medications for that disease. We shall see! I get blood work done next month, but for now, I feel really good -- less body pain, more energy. Hmm. See what I mean about talking about health issues? 

We have so many activities coming up with church friends and community events. It's a busy month. Enjoy the lovely autumn weather, dear friends, and remember to be thankful each day!