Quiet Times

It's been a little busy lately so I am seeking quieter times......like knitting.....

or my garden....

Or flowers on Dog Mountain.....

Or the best soft serve in the Gorge.......

Or my all time favorite....spending time with my sweetie....

Sammy

The rains fell last night after 3 days of beautiful, heartwarming sun. As I was falling asleep, it came on strong, the windows were open and rain started falling. It sounded lovely, putting softley me to sleep. I took joy in that moment of feeling the wind come up, blowing in the clouds and hearing the hard drops of rain hit the ground.

Sunday morning we took a short hike in Hoyt Arboretum and met Gail and Pete at the Zoo. You'll have to see her blog for the photo's of little Sam the Elephant. All my photo's somehow were lost.....I don't really know how that happened. But that's okay, more importanly than photo's was the time spent with people I love. A few photo's from the hike magically made it through whatever I did.

A sweet "Wilson Magnolia". Karl dubbed it the "umbrella magnolia".

Grace and peace to you,

Sammy

Living with Joy

Joy is kind of a loaded word. What does it really mean? Dictionary.com says "a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated." I like the last part the best, something or someone greatly valued or appreciated. Lately, I've been trying to think of joy as not all out elation (although sometimes it is), but more simply pleasure of simple things. Like peanut butter toast in the morning, slipping under crisp clean sheets at night, putting my face up to the sun, coffee with a friend. If we try to "pin" too much happiness on BIG joy, we will be disappointed. Let's en-joy the more ordinary things in our lives. Join Sheri and Shari for the joy+ride for the month of May.

Sammy's find joy list:

1. Have dinner on the patio and catch up with Karl.

2. See friends for coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner.....whatever, wherever.

3. Practice yoga every week and soak in the silence.

The first iris bloom of the season.

Grace and peace to you,

Sammy

Sunday Grace

Busy, busy weekend.....but now it's Sunday evening....one of my favorite times of the week. The busyness has settled down and the chores for the coming week are done. It means a time of quiet, reading, knitting......getting my head around the week ahead.

We hosted Mother's Day at our house and had a wonderful patio lunch....the weather cooperated. This picture is so my sister and her fun loving self and I love her all the more for it! Mom (Katy), Sister (Tabitha) and me.

Oh, here's the right one....


I love lilacs....this is one I planted last year.....the white tipping is so soft and delicate.

While Earth herself is adorning

This sweet May morning,

And the children are culling

On every side

In a thousand valleys far and wide,

Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm

And the Babe leaps up on it's mother's arm-

Then sing ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song

And let the young lambs bound as to the Tabor's sound

We in thought will join your throng

Ye that pipe and ye that play

Ye that through your hearts today

Feel the gladness of the May

W.Wordsworth

Grace and peace to you,

Sammy

Coal Creek Farm

Oh my, what a charming and funny blog. The video's of the family dancing are just the end!

















Enjoy, Sammy

Sunday Grace

I marveled at my garden this weekend, watching the seeds poke out of the earth. Every day they look different. Creation is a wonderous and beautiful thing.

Beans

Spinach

The last sermon in the series on grace was this morning. I'm still unpacking all that I'm learning about grace and I suspect I will continue to throughout my life. I know one thing without a doubt, the grace that God extends to us is so vast and immeasurable that we cannot comprehend it's full measure. I know that I am loved without limits; that I am worthy of His love and free because of it.

"Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of Your universe".

Joshua Abraham Heschel

Sammy

Sunday Grace

Hmmm, I'm a bit tired tonight. It was a good weekend, but long on physical exhaustion.....a 10.5 mile run on Saturday with a bunch of gardening thrown in besides. My 40 year old body doesn't recover like it used to.

Karl worked on extending our fense on the East side of the house, so we would have more storage area for my gardening tools of the trade. He also built me a raised bed for a strawberry patch. I LOVE my handyman!

My folks took us out to dinner on Friday night, kind of a late birthday dinner. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, The Rose and Thistle Pub. They have a great outside patio that you would never know was there from the outside. Had a great Scottish meal and a pint o' cider.

Did you know that every life is a beautiful mess? We talked about that in church today. No one is perfect and we all sin, but the grace of God saves us from guilt and shame. He calls us to come along side others gently and humbly, to carry each others burdens, to love like he does. We are not our sin......we are made in the image of God. That makes me thankful that my life is a beautiful mess.

May God's grace touch your life in a special way this week,

Sammy

3191 Miles Apart

I LOVE the concept of this blog......at the heart it's a precious story of a lovely friendship. They just published their first book, A Year of Mornings and the current blog is working on a year of evenings. Love it, love it, love it!

Here's my own little photo of the week.

Oh, how this spring of love resembleth

The uncertain glory of an April day!

Which now shows all the beauty of the sun

And by and by a cloud takes all away.

Shakespeare

Sammy

Living with Your Whole Heart

I've been chewing lately on what it means to live with your whole heart. I do believe it is completely connected to living authentically. When I am living authentically, it means I'm loving and living who I am. If I am able to do that, then my heart can really live, it can take in and give love with no boundaries, it can be limitless. It can be courageous.

I saw this youtube on another post and I fell in love with it. It speaks to living with your whole heart in a tangible way that blew me away.

Click here. Go Susan Boyle!

Sammy

Sunday Grace on Monday

So I'm one day late on my Sunday Grace post, but I know that we need grace all day, every day, not just on Sunday's. I am thankful that God's grace knows no bounds, does not respect time or space and is always given freely to us.

I spent this weekend doing all sorts of fun things with friends. It started out with a surprise birthday party for moi on Friday night......so fun, so surprised and blessed by my friends.

On Saturday I picked up my dear friend, Christy, and we went to Edgefield to luxuriate at the spa and enjoy an evening away. Christy is one awesome friend, wife and mother. She turned 40 a week before I did, so this was our celebration time. It was a super enjoyable time and the weather couldn't have been better.

The amazing Ruby Spa at Edgefield......massage, facial, pedicure....

Celebrate.....

A lovely dinner.....

It was truly a refreshing and restful time.

Sammy

I Thought It Was Just Me

If you are a woman interested in learning about shame, what it means in our lives and how to become shame resilient......here's a book and an online read-through with the author. It is very insightful, very hard at times, but worth the work. If anyone is interesting in working through it together, I'm up for it.



Sammy

Sunday Grace

I really do try to post every Sunday for Sunday Grace......but sometimes time gets away from me. I know you know what I mean.

Today is a special day.....Easter Sunday. For me, Easter means redemption, all things beginning new. How fitting that Easter falls in Spring, when it's so green that it almost looks dreamlike, when the first flowers begin their bloom. Yes, it rains, but with rain comes a beautiful iridesence that is magical.

Vase of Spring....

Dogwood bud....

Pear tree bud....

Gail, can you see that I'm learning????

I have to admit, this excited me most this week (other than my birthday).......we rebuilt our composting area. I feel like a grown up urban farmer now........

I also turned 40 on Friday.....it really has been a lovely weekend.......good friends.......good food. I LOVE that I'm 40 now. My body creaks a little, I don't jump out of bed like I used too.....but I know more about who I am than ever before and accept where I am in my journey. What more could I really ask for?

Special friends, Pete, Laurie and Gail.....at the best Gelato place in Portland!

My most awesome and beautiful sister, Tabitha....

See you soon, Sammy

Dream assingment: picture hope

Shutter Sisters Dream Assignment: Picture Hope from LittlePurpleCow Productions on Vimeo.

Jen Lemen is on a mission to capture the faces and stories of hope all over the world. Check out her blog here to find out why she did this. Watch this beautiful video, then register here, then vote here. It's a great way to support a fellow dreamer..........

Sunday Grace

Today in church our pastor continued on the theme of grace. He likened how we view God's grace to a legal pad.....I know it sounds strange, but here is a short synopsis (with my own intrepretation and creative license). Many of us don't feel that we qualify for God's gift of grace and we struggle with being good enough. We feel as if God is holding a legal pad and he writes down all of our bad stuff and when we are sorry he rips that page off and throws it away, but then he starts all over again. God's grace is not like that legal pad at all. When He sent His Son, he threw away the whole entire legal pad stash in the world. Just gone. He sees us through the lens of His Son, justified and loved. Amazing and lovely. So let's not be so hard on ourselves shall we?

On to knitting (quite a segway huh?), this week I finished a knitted kerchief and I love it. In fact, I'm going to knit madly for a few weeks to make more. I had to adjust the pattern a bit, which was quite scary because I have never done that. But I had the encouragement of my friend Gail which I so appreciated and it worked out beautifully. Here is it.....don't cha just love the cute little button?

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.

--e.e. cummings

Sammy

The Whispers of our Heart

Kelly Rae is one of my favorite bloggers......she has a wonderful heart and is so creative. She has an insightful post today about the whispers of our heart that so many times we ignore. Read it and then come back.....

http://kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/

How many times have I not listened to the whispers of my heart, whether they are large or small dreams. It really made me stop and think......a few weeks ago I had a small dream about becoming a yoga instructor, just something that I would do in my off time. A time when I could nurture others, encourage them to take a step a side for one hour and breath, be silent. I've been disappointed with many yoga instructors and how they approach the instruction. My favorite instructors are the ones that don't talk a lot, they allow the class to connect to themselves, to ground themselves. Those are the classes I love the most and I find those instructors are hard to find......so there, I've thrown my little dream out into the world.

Thanks Kelly Rae for pointing me there,

Sammy

Smile

These rain boots make me smile.........

Sunday Grace

Another lovely rainy spring day in the Pacific Northwest. It rains, the suns, then rains, then suns......I keep trying to go outside to work in the yard, but then I get fooled. No dirt work today. Instead I've been working and practicing with my camera. I spent Saturday afternoon with my friend, Gail, and was inspired by her and her SLR camera. She posts amazing photos on her knitting blog www.weheartyarn.com. Thank you, Gail, for giving me some tips. I will be asking you soon for another "class". Next time it's my treat!

I love spring. Watching things grow is an amazing feeling.....it makes my heart happy.

THE air was full of sun and birds,
The fresh air sparkled clearly.
Remembrance wakened in my heart
And I knew I loved her dearly.

The fallows and the leafless trees
And all my spirit tingled.
My earliest thought of love, and Spring's
First puff of perfume mingled.

In my still heart the thoughts awoke,
Came lone by lone together -
Say, birds and Sun and Spring, is Love
A mere affair of weather?

Spring Song by Robert Louis Stevenson

Grace and peace to you,

Sammy

Everyone is Beautiful

For all my friends.....you are beautiful.........

Sunday Grace

Well.....I've been away from blogging for a bit. Life has been busy, but with lovely things. I spent last weekend in Sunriver, Or with a group of amazing women for Dawn's 50th birthday. It couldn't have been better.




This weekend I started getting my hands in the dirt. I planted my seedlings..........seeing things grow by my own hand is a wonderful and beautiful thing. It grounds me in the chaos of this world.



I've been reorganizing our bedroom and office the last few weeks.....swapping furniture around, making the bedroom a true place of rest and the office more functional. Today I'm working on drapes for our bedroom. I absolutely love this blue and can't wait to see the change it will bring to the room. The color makes me happy.



May you find grace and peace this week,

Sammy

Sunday Grace

Last weekend, we were out of town so I missed posting my Sunday Grace. In Seattle, we hooked up with some old friends for dinner and also had a blast re-discovering Seattle.

I'm beginning to get a little ansy for Spring. I've dragged out my bike and have been riding to work on nice days. I've been going to Portland Nursery more often. For valentine's, we bought two espalier fruit trees, apple and pear. I'll blog about them later because they are so cool and deserve a posting of their own. I have my seed packets and they are bursting to become real live plants. We've begun the re-design of our backyard to make room for chickens, which makes me giddy (yippee!).

Today in church, the series on grace continued. The pastor talked about grace as being unmerited and unlimited. In other words, God gives us His grace through His Son and there is nothing we can do to earn it and He does it freely and abundantly. This is a hard concept for our culture. We are always striving (that's me), we have do something, we have to be "better", we have to "do" better to earn His favor. There is always a strong pull toward thinking this will get us into God's good graces and earn His love. Because we fail at being perfect, this leads to shame and disappointment. The beauty is that God is not asking for perfection. He wants to be with us in our brokeness and show us how to live without shame or striving or doing. I'm working on allowing myself to sit in his grace, to soak it up and relish it. Hopefully, He will begin to transform my heart and mind along the way. I'm still workin' on it.

Sammy

Sunday Grace

Grace is limitless in it's power to transform lives.

My pastor said that statement this morning and it really stuck with me. I LOVE grace, what would we do without grace? We wouldn't be able to function, we could never be transformed. I know that I am being transformed by God's grace, but I also see the imperative to reflect His grace back out of my life into others. I am so imperfect and people extend grace to me every day, people I don't even know. Karl extends grace to my cranky, imperfect self ALL the time. What does it mean to really show and exhibit grace? I'm workin' on it. Hope you are too.

Confession to make: I have been so un"gracefilled" the last few days. Apologies to my sister and to my husband. Sometimes I don't know how you can stand me.

Sammy

First Hat

Yippee! I finally knit my first ever hat. I probably shouldn't have knitted the "first ever hat" for my favorite person (Karl). It's not perfect, not even close. The pressure was getting to me a little bit; but he loves it and it looks smashing on him.

Now that I have the pattern down and know a little more something about knitting hats, I'll try this pattern again. But first I'm tackling a different hat pattern today. It's a perfect activity for watching the super bowl (well, really just the commercials).

Knitting Rocks!

Sammy

Sunday Grace

Woke up to beautiful, silent beauty this morning. Snow.

Today in church, we talked about grace. I love the word grace. It's lyrical to me, music to my ears. I'm continuing to learn that grace is not something I can "get" or buy by being good, moral or right. It's a gift that is freely given by the giver and freely accepted by the recipient. It's given out of selfless love and many times great sacrifice. There are no strings attached. It is quite simply a gift. Do you have any concepts of grace?


On another note, a dear friend of mine's daughter is a movie producer. Last year, Gina produced a short film that was just nominated at the Sundance Film Festival. The short is really cool.....I think it's about strength, persistence and the underdog. I hope you like it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbfLXVI-OMQ

Sammy

A New Day

Today marked a new day......a chance to breath again.......a chance to hope again.

I love this photo!

I also loved the poem that Elizabeth Alexander wrote and read at today's inauguration.

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other,

catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise.

All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform,

patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons

on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky;

A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed;

words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said,

"I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe;

We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day.

Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then

keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day.

Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national.

Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

by Elizabeth Alexander

In the words of President Barack Obama,

"Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

Sammy

A Call To Serve

Tomorrow is Dr. Martin Luther King Day. It comes at a time of enormous significance preceding by one day the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. “I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States,” Obama said.

Coretta Scott King wrote, "Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we "will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. Life's most persistent and nagging question, he said, is `what are you doing for others?'" he would quote Mark 9:35, the scripture in which Jesus of Nazareth tells James and John "...whosoever will be great among you shall be your servant; and whosoever among you will be the first shall be the servant of all." And when Martin talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of a full life. "I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others," he said. "I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life...to love and serve humanity."

We are the only ones that can bring change to our communities. In my own personal life, I have grown the most and have found the most meaning to life when I am in the service of others. It humbles me and keeps my own issues and troubles in perspective. I have also been tremendously blessed when I have allowed others to help me in my time of need.

If you get a chance tomorrow, go out of your way to serve someone, however small it be seem to you, it will not be small to them.

Sammy

16 Things About Me

1. My big toe nail has fallen off and I don't know that I'll be able to wear sandals this summer. Poop.
2. I have had a head cold all week and I am not happy about it.
3. I get up at 5am every morning to kill myself at the gym (not this week).
4. I actually love getting up early every day to kill myself at the gym.
5. I love to read sappy love stories.
6. I love to watch sappy love movies.
7. I can't read/watch scary things at night or I will have nightmares. (Karl doesn't like that.)
8. My favorite day is Sunday. Run with the girls, then church, then nothin' all day long.
9. I'm a perfectionist who is in recovery.
10. I need my quiet personal time or I tend to crack.
11. I prefer smaller, get together's at home with friends, talking for hours around the dining table.
12. I'm trying to live more authentically, with grace and humbleness.
13. I feel safest when I am with Karl.
14. I know that God loves me, but I'm working on what that really means.
15. I can spend hours/days at Powells Books.
16. I want to have my own chickens, named Mabel and Aunt Bee.

Consider yourself tagged. Leave a note in the comments or direct us to your blog so we can find out more about you.

Sammy

Amazing Women

Check out this link "The Little House that Love Built". It's a beautiful story of love.

Sammy

New Beginnings

In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer.

Albert Camus

The new year began in the midst of winter rain (or more like a monsoon), cold, wet and a bit dreary. But I feel that I have an invincible summer within me. I do not begin to know what this year will hold, but I feel hopeful and expectant......not for something great to happen, but that LIFE will happen and I will embrace whatever may come.

Today is a new day, a day of rebirth, a chance to refocus and renew. So here's a little lovely......

My amazing friend, Sherrie, is an Oma (grandmother) again. Her baby Charrise had a second child, a precious little girl. Congratulations Charisse and Dan.

Riley Marie Treuko

Welcome to the world, little one.

You are loved.

Hmm, that picture just makes me smile. There is no more beautiful picture than that of a mother and her child.

Happy New Year,

Sammy