The Simple Woman's Daybook

The Simple Woman’s Daybook – March

Posted on by Joy / 6 Comments

Hello Friend,

Here we are at March already! Snow has been sifting down for a few days now, returning the tired and dingy outdoors to pristine white. It’s so pretty!

I’ve been rather silent here, due to preparations for moving to our new home, and selling the present one. The Cowboy and I have been working HARD and my aching body proves it. Now we are living in a staged home, without personality. Realtors suggest that a home should be staged in order to show it off to best advantage, which, to my understanding, means lots of blank space. People want to see how much room there is, I guess. Well, I hope that as people listen to their footsteps echo off these empty walls, they will think this home cavernous, and convert from viewers to buyers, and quickly.

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Ylanite from Pixabay

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Thanks for dropping in to share the March edition of my Simple Woman’s Daybook. Let me pour you a cup of coffee. Sugar and my favourite flavoured cream are just there if you want it. And please, help yourself to a cookie!

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For Today

the simple woman

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Looking out my window …

Was a delight to add to my Book of Delights this morning. Skies were clear and the glowing sunrise transformed the pale yellow walls of my little study into a golden glory.

I am thinking …

So many things. Heartbreaking things, tiresome things, annoying things, house-moving things… beautiful things. All so overwhelming.

Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.

Frederick Buechner

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I am wearing …

Jeans, white long sleeve T with grey flecks, and gold earrings.

I am thankful …

For delicious afternoon naps. The kind that sink you deep into soft blankets to rest on a cloud, and from which you wake gently, breathing deeply.

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Photo by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

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I am creating …

Photo books. Remember I mentioned the cupboard with all the photos? Well, I have tackled it at last. The cupboard is cleared out. All physical photos and albums are packed and ready to move. Now I’m dealing with all the photos on my phone. Recently, Peaches transferred all of her digital photos to photo books, created online, one for each year. A brilliant idea that I am working on – backwards. That is, I’m starting with 2021. As always, the hardest part is deciding which ones to keep in and which ones to let go.

I have been reading …

Garden Maker by Christie Purifoy. Christie’s words always encourage and uplift me, and this book is no different. Lately, in my world of clutter and packing boxes, to stop for a few moments and immerse myself in the beautiful words and breathtaking photos of this book has been a sanity-saver. And it is making me so excited to plant flower gardens out at our new home, The Cleft.

Growing flowers is a way of giving and receiving love. This means that successful gardeners are successful not because they know what they’re doing but because their garden making is inspired by love. They yearn for beauty, and the price exacted by a thorn seems a very small price to pay.”

Christie Purifoy

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I’m still watching …

Miss Marple episodes on BritBox. There is something about a little English village that is so comforting.

The world is changing, and we must change with it.

Miss Marple

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I am listening to …

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In my kitchen …

Most of my utensils are packed away. I tried to leave out just the things I would absolutely need for the next six weeks or so, but twice already I’ve gone searching for a spaghetti server and couldn’t find it.

In my garden …

All is resting under a blanket of snow. The wonderful tulips will come up, but I won’t be planting anything at all in this yard this year. Instead, I’m dreaming about growing flowers at The Cleft.

Shared Quote …

Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush alive with God. But only he who sees takes off his shoes.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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A moment from my day …

I keep this photo of Little Man near me when I’m writing, to remind me to never lose my wonder. It’s wonder that thrills to the trill of a chickadee or notices how the sunrise turns a room to gold. I never want to lose that, no matter what is going on in the world around me.

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Closing Notes …

Thanks so much for stopping in today. I hope you will find wonder in your own big little world this week. Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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Featured Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

The Simple Woman's Daybook

The Simple Woman’s Daybook – January

Posted on by Joy / 2 Comments

On the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take interest in the things that are and are to be, and not in the things that were and are past.

Henry Ward Beecher

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Hello Friend,

I’ve come down to my couch on this early morning to sit facing the bay window looking out on the quiet neighbourhood. Twinkle lights are twinkling, and the remaining candle lanterns from Babe’s summer wedding add a golden glimmer that reflects in the window. Though it’s dark outside, it’s cozy in here.

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Image by Sabrap59 from Pixabay

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For Today

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Looking out my window …

It’s early-morning-dark. And cloudy. But the streetlight casts a warm glow through the bare branches of the ash tree onto the mounds of snow in our yard, making sparkles and spidery shadows. A light is on in an upstairs room across the cul-de-sac. Another early morning riser.

I’ve just watched the newspaper person deliver our newspaper, which puzzles me since I cancelled our subscription in December. This has been happening more often than not. I guess I’ll have to phone the paper.

I am wearing …

A flannel nightshirt, and slouchy socks knitted by my mom. Covering my legs, a buttery yellow afghan that I began making long before we moved to this house. The beginnings sat in a cloth bag with all its balls of wool for years until Mom finished it for me. There are hints of Mom all over the house. Afghans, quilts, tablecloths, a door stopper that looks like a rag doll.

I am learning again …

That I work well with deadlines.

I am thinking …

That I’ve procrastinated too long on, spent too much time thinking about, the cupboard with all the photos. A lifetime of albums and boxes and loose photographs. It’s going to be a huge job because I refuse to transfer it all to the new house in the form it is in now. It must be culled, gathered, organized, stored. Once I get into it I know I’ll enjoy it, but I wince at the thought of the huge task ahead of me.

However, since I work well with deadlines, that is the secret. The deadline is the key.

I am thankful …

For deep breath and fresh air … every time I take off my mask.

One of my favourite things …

Bookstores. Any bookstores, really, but especially the kind with hidden corners and creaky floors.

Leaving any bookstore is hard … especially on a day in January, when the wind is blowing, the ice is treacherous, and the books inside seem to gather together in colorful warmth.

Jane Smiley

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mkupiec7 from Pixabay

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I am reading …

Amy Tan’s memoir, Where the Past Begins.

If my curiosity is innate, it has been greatly enhanced by involuntary apprenticeship to my mother and her school of wonderment. She questioned everything, from fishy odors to fishy explanations, both of which pointed to faulty character.

Amy Tan

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I am watching …

Miss Marple episodes. There are several Miss Marple series, of which I’ve watched many. But right now I’m watching the series starring Joan Hickson, for the very reason that apparently Agatha Christie was heard to say, “I hope one day [she] will play my dear Miss Marple.”

I am listening to …

The theme from Howl’s Moving Castle. I heard this piece on a Spotify playlist, and was so swept up in it that I kept putting it on repeat. I’d never heard of Howl’s Moving Castle so of course I had to look it up, and now I’ll have to watch the animated movie for which this music is the theme.

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In my garden …

All is quiet except for Stevie’s busy scampering. Every squirrel since we moved here fifteen years ago has been named Stevie. Yesterday, Stevie sat perfectly still on a branch just outside our kitchen window watching The Cowboy and me enjoy our breakfast. He sat there on his fat little haunches, front paws almost crossed on his belly, watching and watching. I wonder, could he have been trying to figure out a way to break in and steal our crumbs?

Shared Quote …

To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June.

Jean Paul

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Closing Notes …

As I come to the end of this Daybook post, the sky has erupted in sweeping corals and apricots, giving the snow a soft pink sheen.

There’s always a sunrise and always a sunset and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it.

Cheryl Strayed

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Thanks for visiting today, friend. Stay safe out there and see you next time.

Joy

Post Script …

http://thesimplewoman.blogspot.com/

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Feature Image by wdietz of Pixabay

Christmas

Snow

Posted on by Joy / 0 Comment

When snow falls, nature listens.

Antoinette Van Kleef

Hello Friend

Snow, snow, snow, snow, SNOW. If you’ve ever watched White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, those five words should trigger a harmonic tune in your head. Although, I’m pretty sure only people who live where palm trees grow could sing about snow so dreamily.

Snow has been filtering down these last several days and my little corner of the world is a picture perfect winter scene. The full moon on these wintry nights has been exquisite, making the snow on dark silhouetted branches glimmer. It really is too lovely for words.

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Snow falling soundlessly in the middle of the night will always fill my heart with sweet clarity.

Novala Takemoto

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It is Christmas around here despite painting paraphernalia and packing boxes around the edges. The Cowboy and I have been so busy that Winter Solstice has come and gone, and we hardly noticed. Suddenly we’ve reached the time when days are getting longer instead of shorter. We made it this far and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Dark days don’t last forever.

Being busy preparing for a move meant Christmas preparations came late. If you remember Jubal (find out about him here), you will know how much he loves Christmas. Well, when he arrived this year he sat staring at an empty Christmas tree stand. He asked where Christmas was and I knew it was time to push some boxes out of the way and bring in the festive decorations.

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For these next few days we will put the painting and packing away. We’ll indulge in some Christmas treats and Christmas movies. We’ll give thanks – for the Baby whose birth we celebrate, and for His presence with us always, through the good and the bad. Always.

And I’m thankful for the beauty of snow. Snow piled on fenceposts. Snow dusting pine trees. Snow imprinted with tiny footprints. It reminds me that even in hard times there is beauty to be found.

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To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold.

Aristotle

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Merry Christmas everyone. Wherever you are, may its beauty enchant you.

Joy

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Featured Image and Final Image by Pixabay

Sanctuarium

Sanctuarium

Posted on by Joy / 5 Comments

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will never be shaken.

Psalm 62:2

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Hello Friend.

It’s been a while since our last visit.

Life has been a little busy around here, but I always love when you drop by. Here in my little corner of the world, the snow has begun. First, specks so tiny you wondered where the white on the ground was coming from. Then big flakes, like crumbs of sticky cake floating and falling.

Now, the ground lies under a heavy mantle that whiffs and whirls in the white wind. It’s the perfect cozy afternoon for tea and apple pie. I’ll pour while you choose a slice, or two.

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Image from Pixabay

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You know that little piece of property I told you about? I’ve been writing about our journey with it. Would you be interested in following along?

Get comfortable and let me read you what I’ve got so far.

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Image from Pixabay

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On this visit, we turn into the approach and immediately my eyes go to the new driveway. It inclines and wraps around … what? That pile of dirt there that’s the foundation for the garage? Anyway, the driveway is new on this visit.

We snap photos and videos that pan the length of our property while Excavator Ben delicately picks up rocks the size of my dining room table with his bucket, and places them precisely – oh so precisely – one on top of another to build a retaining wall. He uses that bucket like fingers and thumb, gingerly lifting rocks as though they were mere pebbles and not thousand-pound boulders. I stand mesmerized and watch him work. This is an exceptional skill, I realize, and as I look at Ben’s face through the large windows of the cab enclosure I see … he loves his job.

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The rocks have come from The Land itself, dug up to make room for a walk-out basement. There are hundreds of these boulders, and even more below the dig level. One of the excavators tells us we will have a solid foundation; that once built, this house won’t move. We are building on rock.

My mind turns to the Sunday School song I learned as a child … The wise man built his house upon a rock … and the house on the rock stood firm. As a child, I didn’t know that the rock in the song is symbolic: God, the solid rock on which to anchor a life.

That day in 2013, when we first set eyes on the place, there were hints of what lay below the rolling green that covered almost three acres. They were stacked at the door of the big shop built by the previous owner, and walled up to make a flowerbed. There were flat, shale-like crests here and there, skimming the lawn.

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But we didn’t really pay attention to that at the time. We only wanted to know, was this The Land that God had asked us to purchase? I went for a walk in the little wood on the property, and when I emerged I knew, with the same certainty I’d known on November 4, 2008 that I’d heard the whisper, We need to buy land.

Yes, after months of searching, this was it.

So we bought it, not knowing if we were meant to live there or just hold onto it. Because when the faithful Rock to whom you’ve anchored your life asks something of you, you do it.

We took care of it and enjoyed it; we shared it and prayed over it. We loved it. One day, we sensed we’d been given permission to build a home. And not just a home, but a sanctuary; a safe place for weary and wounded souls to breathe before continuing on their personal journeys.

This has always been the dream.

Only, we didn’t know that the rocks would be part of it.

What to do with all those rocks! Excavator Ben built a retaining wall. And The Cowboy had ideas for the rest of them: rock gardens and strategically placed barriers around the perimeter of the property. Slowly it began to dawn on us that rocks have a significant meaning for this place. This is not coincidental. It’s a beautiful interweaving design of symbolism and safety.

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For He will conceal me in His shelter in the day of adversity; He will hide me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high on a rock.

Psalm 27:5

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The Cowboy was telling friends about this momentous realization one day when they visited the skeleton of the house soon to be a home; how we’ve been drawn to the story of Moses being placed in the cleft of the rock and covered by God’s hand while God passed by. Imagine, he said, what it must have been like to be covered by God’s hand, there, in the safety of the rock. So warm and safe. The safest you’ve ever felt. He told them about how our dream for this place is Sanctuary for all who enter. Built on rock, surrounded by rock – a safe place.

That’s when I knew we’d found the name we’d been searching for. The name for this sanctuary. It’s The Cleft. And if those who come to it find a little bit of the warmth and safety that Moses must have felt in the shelter of God’s hand, our dream for this place will have been realized.

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Thanks for coming along on this journey today. Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.

Exodus 33:21-22

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Featured Image by Karl Egger from Pixabay