Friday Fortius

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Glorious Sunrise

(affiliate links to my designs)

We've had some spectacular early morning and late afternoon color the last few weeks. Lizard typically is sleeping peacefully, so I step out into the backyard and shoot over the fence.

Yes, I'd rather be shooting at a body of water, getting a great reflection, or shooting silhouettes in my summer garden, or shooting the pink or lavender glow on a fresh blanket of snow!!!

Yet, it is such a big blessing when Lizard is able to sleep peacefully. We're hoping, in time, better sleep might relieve some of his symptoms.

Regardless, colorful skies are among the best Christmas presents in my life!

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Friday Fortius

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Friday Fortius on Thursday

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Friday Fortius

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Love One Another

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Sunday's Coming

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Good Friday

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Friday Fortius

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Friday Fortius

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Glowing Hope and Peace

I got the eyes sewed onto my white, glow-in-the-dark fox two hours before church on Sunday. I'm not so sure it looks more like a fox than a bear with a funky tail, but the recipient seemed very pleased. I can always make her a unicorn next year... She's the only one in my class not turning eight this year; she turned seven today, so she'll be in my class again next year!

There are things I'd do differently if I had time to make this fox again. I'd make the ears wider, the face and snout more fox-shaped, and I might even make the limbs jointed. But there wasn't time to do a second prototype in time for gifting last Sunday.

I finally ran out of the first skein of glow-in-the-dark yarn while crafting the fox tail. So, one 114-yard skein is enough for a tiny snowflake and nearly three little amigurumi; two if one of the amigurumi is bigger and more complex than a snake. I have three more skeins (all of which I paid for myself) and four more kidlets to craft for later this year, so I felt confident to use up a bit of the yarn for a selfish and personal amigurumi - a replica origami crane such as the Zero Gravity Indicator on the Crew 10 flight to the International Space Station last weekend. I love cranes, and I didn't get to see the sandhills in Monte Vista again this year. But now I have my own. Thank you, Dennis, for the free pattern!

"This is a hand-crocheted origami crane. His name is 'Droog,' which is the Russian name for friend," said Crew 10 commander Anne McClain. "Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper. This is a nod to the unique and deep cultural traditions from which each of us come. While all from different parts of the world, we are brought together in this bold endeavor, and we represent all of humanity."

One of the Crew 10 astronauts, Nichole Ayers, is from Colorado, which makes this particular mission more poignant for me. I also absolutely love the reason the crew chose an origami crane as their ZGI. Three of the seven astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station are from Russia, three are from the US, and one is from Japan. In Japan, the paper crane is a symbol of peace, love, hope and healing. Man, does our country and our world ever need all of that every single day!

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Sweetness

Got a text the day before Valentine's Day informing me my friend's husband would be picking Lizard up the next day for an "undisclosed mission". I wish I'd snapped a photo of my sweetheart's face!

They had not planned this in advance. It was just spur-of-the-moment thoughtfulness.

The next day, Lizard got ready as if he was going on a date. Two hours later, he came home with the perfect Valentine's treat for his sweetheart.

Who could ask for better friends?!?

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Light the World

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Procrastination Station

I really put off repairing the winter coat an elderly neighbor asked me to fix (along with three laundry baskets of other complicated mending) because I really didn't think the jacket could be salvaged. She had a deadline, too. She needed it by Wednesday. I wouldn't have done a repair like this for me. I would have just bought a new coat.

I found a similar coat on Amazon and prayed about buying that for her instead of fixing the old one. It could have been delivered the next day. My answer was that buying a new coat would be okay, but I should try to repair the old one first. That answer was a pretty hard pill for me to swallow because so many time sacrifices would be required in order to finish on time, but I understood. This neighbor had a house fire several years ago and lost almost everything. Much of the mending in the laundry baskets still has that smoky smell that just never washes away.

I understand there is sentimental value that just can't be replaced, especially after such devastating loss. I sat down to pin and smooth, pin and smooth, pin and smooth, then pin and smooth some more, before hand-stitching the extensive patching and seam repairing on the inside and then carefully machine-stitching the damage to the outside pocket. When the hours-long project was finally done, I had more than just a huge sigh of relief. I felt so good for doing what she'd asked, and she was thrilled with the results. She thinks I can fix anything. I know it's not me. I had some Heavenly Help. Even if it was just my attitude that needed all the help I could get, this was not a task I could have pulled off on my own.

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Instead of Ornaments

The sister missionaries from my church joined me again, this time to write love letters to Hawaii. The sisters will return tomorrow to help me string, label and package snowflakes that also will be sent for this year's Operation Ornaments. (And I hope to remember to take photos of us packaging this time around!) But for now, we wrote a bunch of love letters for Maui fire survivors. We are so excited to be able to help with this show of love and support!

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New Attitude

I joined this Facebook group because I want to believe Parkinson's does have a silver lining. There are many days when it sure doesn’t feel like anything good could ever come from Parkinson’s. Thank goodness for people like the author of this post, who help me put things in proper perspective! (shared with permission)

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Operation Ornaments

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