The Negro Spiritual

This subject is burning in me to blog about. The end of January my friend, Terry, said to me, “February is Black History Month. We need to do dome spirituals.” I actually started it out today. In church I can only tell a little of the story, but here, I can tell all!
I am pretty sure I have always been aware of the Negro spiritual, but it did not hit me with any kind of force until about 15 years ago. I was in the Cedar rapids, Iowa library settling down in a cozy chair under some headphones with a Jessye Norman CD of spirituals.  I think the first song was ‘Great Day” and I was pulled out of my seat and swept through the air! I remember looking around to see if anyone else noticed, but the library was going on as usual! As I listened, I read the liner notes and what impressed me was the note made that Negro Spirituals were typically songs of hope and deliverance. They can be my song, too, as I understand that sin is slavery and Jesus has come to be our Hope and Deliverer. The other thing that impresses me about this legacy is that these people are not known for sitting around and discussing how there could be a good God when their lives are so miserable. Their theme is. “This world is not my home, I ‘m just a passin’ through; If Heaven’s not my home, then Lord, what will I do?”.
I’m also reminded of a young friend serving on a Mercy Ship and writing about all the music around him where they were docked in an African country. The jist of what he said  was , ‘No matter the misery around them, there is always singing.’ And then there were Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail, beaten and locked up, singing the night away. And then there was my sister, who planned to sing a hymn on the way home after dropping her Navy husband at the ship to go on a cruise weeks short of their first anniversary. We have got choices. We can cry or we can sing. Steal away to Jesus. That is the legacy of the Negro Spiritual.

My Weekend at Covenant, written two weeks ago

So last week my friend calls and wants know if it is worth it to let your child go to college 700 mikes away. I said ‘Yes!’. Her daughter has applied for a big scholarship and you have to go for interviews and present yourself well to get this scholarship and it’s a really big deal, so I told her she had to go. Plus, I  thought if she went she would have a better feel of whether she could let her go that distance or not. But I told her not to go alone, I would go along! So a few days later she called me back and they were for sure going to make the trek. So I rode along and got in a good visit with Luisa. We were on the road by 5:00 in the morning and had pretty smooth sailing.  A little way up Lookout Mtn. it started to rain, pour, and get foggy. We missed the first driveway and crept to the second so we wouldn’t drive past it. They registered and went to a banquet. I ate with the college kids, meeting lots of Luisa’s friends. Luisa knitted while I read aloud, giving her eyes a break. When we went to lunch we met more old friends and the Belz gang was all in a tizzy about the new layout of the Bagpipe. Sam felt gratified his Uncle Nat liked it. I said I feel like I’ve scored points if I can pick put a poinsettia a bunch of ex-poinsettia growers like. Mindy replied, “With the Belzes, it’s all about type-face!” I went to an American literature class with her where I surprisingly kept my mouth shut. and in the evening we had a pizza party at her friends apartment where the pizza was homemade, the apple pie was homemade and the dishes  were homemade! I made sure I met Pat Ralston, who lived with my family when she was 16 and we were all little squirts! I asked her if that was hard, because she had to share a room with us. She said she was so thankful because it gave her the opportunity to go to Cono, which she wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. Sometimes I think I haven’t much to share, but often sharing the little we have completely blesses someone else. I reminded her how she made me taste vanilla, because it smells so good, but all by itself, it doesn’t taste so good!
We had breakfast and met more friends, got to catch up with Sam Belz before leaving around noon on Saturday.
Tiredly, I went to church today, which was good, but we didn’t linger. We went to an amazing jazz concert in the evening. A friend of ours had an open recording session, where we listened while they recorded.

Family funnies

Joel and I went errand running this evening. We came out of the mall and gripped each other’s hands hard as we faced the wind. He unlocked my door and turned to go to his side without letting go! We had gone to Pearle Vision and were a bit daunted by the price of a new pair of glasses. So we went to Costco and got a Costco membership for 50 bucks and saved ourselves over$100. by getting the glasses through Costco! So they are on their way. Plus she gave joel a new screw to mend his old pair  till the new ones are ready. When she measured him with that gray box they tell you to peer into he said the last time he got the giggles and blushes becuase a pretty girl had said , “Look into my eyes.”  We found a place next to the fireplace at Panera’s. Our house has been pretty cold. We have a heater and electric matress pad and warm jammies for the night, but I think the computer spot is the draftiest!

The Joys of Facebook, et al.

I think of a hundred things to blog about in a day and never have time to sir and write, That’s boloney! Of course, if I have time to read and eat, I have to write! Well, I was just thinking that even though Facebook can seem more like Face Crack and consume inordinate amounts of time and totally distract from the real tasks at hand (like blogging!) there is the thought that there are dear people that we almost never get to talk to that are on FB and we can somewhat keep up with their lives, as they can ours, where there was pretty much nothing before. So that is the Joy of FB to me at the moment. I also like to see people of various ages communicating via this medium.

Another item; Keeping track of things. Sometimes I think this consumes my life. It seems that if you watch things like a hawk, you can save ourself a bundle of trouble (like your Comcast bill). But all that time spent watching seems so drearisome. Someone might tell me I need an iPhone. I hate my cell phone bill. Don’t suggest it. And I am not going to put ALL my information on one thing so easily misplaced. Nota Bene. my  FB pleas for someone to call me so I can find my phone!!!! I have often made my grocery list and added up what I thought the items cost and usually I have pretty good estimate, and I am not spending outside the realm of the budget and we eat well. I often use a timer, since I have no sense of time. Where dd that timer go that was by the computer????

And then there is the shoveling of snow. I don’t know what people in the South do to socialize with their neighbors, but shoveling snow can catch us up on what is happening in the neighborhood. If we had a blower we wouldn’t be able to hear each other talk, so Yay! for shoveling. I hate it when strong young bucks walk past me and smash the snow down, making it harder to shovel. I told them to stay off, can you believe it! It was better than saying , “Get a shovel!”

And we went to the library’s used book store this week. I got some Dr. Suess, one of our favorite books called Bread and Honey , My MIL’s missing Jan Karon book and a biography of C.S. Lewis called The Narnian. I have my nose in that particular one. Then I went to the B&N and got my Audubon calendar book because Keeping Track of Things seems so much easier if you can look at beautiful photographs while you are at it. Don’t worry, Nick, I always get it half off, They ain’t makin’ no money on me, just clearing out.

And then I love enjoying a book over again. I have a book called Little House in the Ozarks by Laura Ingalls Wilder. They are articles that she wrote for local papers and magazines in Missouri and they are like reading a really good blog. So here is an excerpt of one article I read this morning.

“As the years passs I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness- just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breathe it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day and a cool breeze when the day is warm. Oh, we have so much to be thankful for that we seldom think of it in that way. I wish we might think more about these things the we are so much inclined to over  look and live more in the spirit ot the old Scotch blessing.

“Some hae meat wha canna eat/ And some some can eat that lack it/ But I hae meat and I can eat/ And sae the laird be thankit.” Robert Burns, the Selkirk Grace

Happy New Year!

December 22

Joel and I both got sick on Sunday so things have been a little slo-mo around here. I finally got out to do some shopping, coming home with the necessary ingredient of flour! Made gingerbread house dough and pizzelles with my friend, Danielle, this evening. She was so thrilled! So here she is, posing for me so I can get in my photo project of the day! I think it’s been 5 years or so since I have made them and I don’t think they were great then, but they’re pretty good and we had fun figuring it out together!

By the way , her middle name is Jeannette!

Buone notte, (i am sure someone will correct my spelling!)

December 18th

I think I am getting a little behind here. sometimes I just have to stay OFF the computer. One little thing leads to a dozen more! But here is the finsiohed mantle project. The latch hook rug below it was made by Joel’s grandmother. Fits right in, eh?

December 12th

We bagged a deer for the DPP!

The Monday after Thanksgiving is a ’state holiday’ in PA. State colleges aren’t in session. It is the first day of rifle deer season, No this guy wasn’t caught. He is sonmeone’s Christmas decoration I have been enamored with. He  looks quite big as you come upon him when going down the street!.

December 8th and 9th

Who says it has to be in order/

So here is little squirt who does not have to be told what ladders are for and if you provideone, it is a matter of a few seconds till she is to the top!

One thing I love about Christmas is the decorations!!

The greens are from a friend, and a couple of things from my back yard.

December 10th

I am thankful for my warm house on this blustery winter morning! We had a brand new furnace put in our house before we moved in and we were still freezing cold and paying astronomical heating bills! And it wasn’t just that the air was cold, everything we touched was cold. So there were the furnace installers, and a couple more companies giving estimates. Three companies dealing with the heating of a house. NONE of them looked down or up the chimney. In March we heard crumbling in the chimney. we had the chimney cleaned and relined. He got a heaping wheelbarrow of soot out of it, plus some bricks. The furnace works like a charm with no additional radiators, which is what everyone else was trying to sell us. To me it’s like putting a new engine in the car and never looking at the muffler. I don’t know much about physics, but I do know that moving air doesn’t come from nowhere! so it was my smart husband who got up and looked down the chimney, just so you know. We are amazed at the difference.

Last year I wanted a mantle. When you have a fireplace you have this wonderful thing called a mantle. But just because you don’t have a fireplace doesn’t mean you can’t have mantle. So I bought a nice piece of shelving, a couple of trim boards , but I wasn’t excited about it. One day I said to Joel, “You know what I’m picturing?” And he knew it was the one we had in Toughkenamon. It was a rough piece of barn board about two inches thick and we sanded it down and rubbed boiled linseed oil/turpentine combination into it and that was it. so I started looking around on craigslist. Found something for no less than $75. and no more than $300. I called a carpenter friend and he said, he was interested but a two inch board would be very expensive, but to come over and we’d chat. That evening I had some plans fall through and I had to go past Lowe’s on my way home so I thought I would just look. For $9. bucks I hauled home an 8 foot piece of 10 inch decking, 2 inches thick! There was nicer wood, but this had beautiful lines with some streaks of yellow. So The Man hauled out his belt sander and gave it good sanding, softened up the edges and rounded the corners for me. I found some stain that I think I bought almost 20 years ago and slapped it on. Here are the results.

The raw board

and the finsihed board

When we get up and ‘Christmas ized’, I’ll take another picture!

December 7th

Ooooooooo and I think I’ve got some snowflakes in a dictionary waiting to be re-hung! Why am I wasting time here? To keep up with the DPP!