I live on a farm ... — Habitat for Humanity
The finer points of fellowship
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Yesterday my husband and I went out on a drive in the afternoon to visit with some friends, Andy and Mabel, an older couple from our church. They just adopted a thirteen year old dog named Jenny from a local non-profit group dedicated to finding homes for pets in need. The non-profit was founded by a woman who won one million dollars in the New York lottery. She was a waitress at the time, driving a beat up old Chevy or something. To this day she is still a waitress driving that same old beat up car. She uses income...
Gracious Parcels in the News
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Yesterday afternoon a neighbor phoned, asking me if I had read the local paper for the day. I had not read or seen it, but I knew why he was phoning. Recently the Habitat for Humanity board I am a member of decided to send out press releases to local and regional newspapers, telling them about Project Gracious Parcels, a charity knitting project I started via my blog last fall. If you aren't familiar with Gracious Parcels, it is a project inviting knitters who read my blog to knit and donate seven-inch squares as pieces of blankets I put together...
Every little bit and piece of nature
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Until a couple of days ago, I had never seen branches and berries encased in ice ... not that I can remember. I recall icicles from when I was a child, but I don't ever remember seeing the magical somewhat lonely looking encasement of nature the way I did a couple of days ago. That day, we had freezing rain and ice off and on all day long; the ice formed over snow where it could. But it froze all of the little branches and berries and what few leaves remained on a tree or shrub here or there. Every...
How he came to be my husband
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Winter, this winter, has been a temporary visitor here and there. She would stop by briefly, tease us a bit, then leave. Her snow and the cozy promises it presented would melt quickly each time and disappears altogether. She was ethereal and mysterious. We loved her and never scorned her visits, but did long for her to stay a bit longer, maybe settle in for a while and work her magic on the earth and roots and various other essential elements of the eco-system here. We also selfishly, I admit, wanted her presence with us for our own enjoyment and...
Look at what you've gone and done now
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Well folks, our little project is working out pretty well. Grab a cup of coffee, tea, or hot cocoa and join me in my favorite spot for a quick chat, won't you? This is the first Gracious Parcels blanket, completed. The blanket is beautiful and warm, just as we all wanted it to be. The tags on the individual squares bring life to this special blanket that will make it particularly dear (I believe) to the recipient, a local Habitat for Humanity homeowner who has been through a very rough time in the past several months. In addition to...