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December 10, 2018

“Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding. ‘Christ is nigh,’ it seems to say…”*

by chuckofish

Well, we are well into Advent and it was good to be back at my home church yesterday. Last Sunday we pilgrims were celebrating the first Sunday in Advent at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem. Established in 1899, it is the seat of the Bishop of Jerusalem of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. The Bishop gave the sermon (in English and in Arabic) and we sang good old hymns. It was a lovely service.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, daughter #1 was home and she helped me a lot getting out more Christmas stuff…

putting up the outside lights and buying and setting up our small tree in the dining room.

We also went to the church bazaar and to a couple of estate sales where we picked up some books, including the hard-to-find St. Louis Then and Now. She spotted it, grabbed my arm and stage-whispered, “Pick it up! Pick it up!” I knew then and there that daughter #1 has become a true estate sale-er with an eagle eye for the rare find!

We watched the 1951 A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim (the best version) and The Bishop’s Wife (1947).

Screen Shot 2018-12-09 at 5.29.53 PM.png The wee babes and their parents came over for tacos on Saturday night. In 2 1/2 weeks the babes have apparently made huge leaps and bounds in the talking department.

The switch really flipped in the little guy and he is so verbal now! When you pick him up, he says, “Down!” Amazing.After daughter #1 left on Sunday, the OM and I girded our loins, donned our mittens and went to the Optimist lot to buy a big tree. We were successful and carted it home to the garage. Setting it up and decorating it will be a task for next weekend.

It’s good to be home.

*Hymns Ancient and Modern

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November 21, 2018

Open for business

by chuckofish

“Gorgeous, amazing things come into our lives when we are paying attention: mangoes, grandnieces, Bach, ponds. This happens more often when we have as little expectation as possible. If you say, “Well, that’s pretty much what I thought I’d see,” you are in trouble. At that point you have to ask yourself why you are even here. […] Astonishing material and revelation appear in our lives all the time. Let it be. Unto us, so much is given. We just have to be open for business.”
― Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

We Americans as a whole have high expectations. We expect a lot, because we have so much and are not especially grateful for what we do have. But I have learned over the years that contentment comes with lowering my expectations and being grateful for what I have.

I am grateful for: Text threads with my children…

Screen Shot 2018-11-20 at 9.58.29 AM.png I am grateful that my children appreciate re-upholstered furniture and estate-sale finds…

Screen Shot 2018-11-20 at 9.57.45 AM.png …and hand-me-down holiday decor…

Screen Shot 2018-11-20 at 9.59.31 AM.png I am grateful for these two guys*…

Screen Shot 2018-11-14 at 2.00.39 PM.png and these two guys**…

Screen Shot 2018-11-20 at 10.12.20 AM.png I am grateful for old friends and new friends, old books and new books,

old vintage clothes and new clothes, Friday night take-out, grocery-store flowers, an aging but fit body, and a mind that is still curious.

I am grateful for my family–past, present and future.

Hallelujah, life is good. “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” (Master Eckhart)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. (Galatians 5: 22-23)

Lots of people are driving today–so take it easy out there!

*C’mon…John Wayne and Steve McQueen/**John Piper and Tim Keller

5 Comments

September 19, 2018

A-tisket, A-tasket

by chuckofish

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We just celebrated our 7th anniversary writing this blog. Isn’t that something?

If you read our blog regularly (or even semi-regularly) and enjoy it, please click on “comment” below and then hit the “Like” button today. Our readers are very dear to us and we’d like to know you’re out there!

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”

― Maya Angelou, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

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August 20, 2018

Come, holy Comforter

by chuckofish

…thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour:

thou, who almighty art, now rule in every heart,

and n’er from us depart,

Spirit of power

(Hymn #365)

I got a lot done at home this weekend. And you know, after such a busy week at work, it was nice to stay home and vacuum and put things away and gab on the phone. After church, I went to two estate sales (batting zero) and returned something at the mall.

We watched My Darling Clementine (1947) on Friday night

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(Henry Fonda was never better and is still the best Wyatt Earp in movies.)

and Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) on Saturday night.

Nobody says, “Dive! Dive!” better than Clark Gable.

I finished re-reading The Searchers by Alan Le May, poked around in the Memoirs of William Tecumseh Sherman, and started Glass Houses by Louise Penny.

The wee babes came over for dinner Sunday night. We hadn’t seen them in over two weeks!

As you can see, they were both obsessed with this antique chair, and vied to sit in it all night. After two days in pre-school/daycare, they are reading fluently.

All’s well in the world.

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July 2, 2018

“Gave it my best and then I left it alone”*

by chuckofish

The tiger lilies are still blooming at home

How was your weekend? Mine was quite delightful, especially since daughter #1 was in town unexpectedly. She had to be in St. Louis for work on Friday so she stayed over Friday night. On Saturday we estate-saled, lunched out at our favorite lunch place (and my mother’s favorite), the Women’s Exchange, went to the Sign of the Arrow (needlepoint store) and generally did our old-lady thing. It was great. It was too darn hot to do anything outside, so we stayed inside and went through some stuff in the basement, looking for other stuff in the basement, which we never found.

That evening we got the OM to take us out to dinner at our local Mexican restaurant at the old-lady hour of 5:00 pm–the place to our surprise was hoppin’! I guess everyone in town wanted a margarita! In the evening we chilled and listened to 1990s country music.

In the morning, daughter #1 headed back to mid-MO bright and early and I set about doing what I had planned to do, i.e. clean the house, do laundry and change sheets in preparation for visitors during the week.

Daughter #2 called and told me all about her weekend with my friend Harriet in Norfolk, Virginia. She had so much fun visiting in March that she went back with DN!

Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 10.28.45 AM.png Sunday was the first anniversary of her marriage to DN. We reminisced a little and were grateful that it wasn’t as hot last year as it is this year!

Screen Shot 2017-07-29 at 8.54.30 AM.png The wee babes came over on Sunday night and messed up a lot of what I had put right during the day. But, truly, life is too short to care about that.

Screen Shot 2018-07-01 at 9.51.22 PM.png They weren’t terribly interested in the like-new, handmade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls I bought at an estate sale on Saturday.

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But that’s okay too.

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Lottie liked her cherry hat and would have worn it all night if the wee laddie hadn’t insisted on trying it on. (He took it right off.) We go with the flow.

So remember, it’s a great day to be alive…Have a good one!

*Travis Tritt

6 Comments

June 18, 2018

“See! the streams of living waters, springing from eternal love”*

by chuckofish

It’s tiger lily time in flyover country. They are everywhere! I do love these heat-loving beauties. And, boy, this weekend was a hot one!

I went to three estate sales (no luck) and did a little shopping of the home-store variety. I went to church. Other than that, it was strictly inside for me this weekend: I yakked on the phone and worked on some inside projects. It warmed my heart that daughter #1 in Mid-MO went estate-saleing and was more successful than I.

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I finished reading The Bondwoman’s Narrative, a 19th century novel by Hannah Craft and possibly the first novel written by an African-American woman. (Daughter #2 had left it at home for me.) In 2013 Crafts’ identity was documented as Hannah Bond, an enslaved African-American woman on the plantation of John Wheeler and his wife Ellen in Murfreeboro, North Carolina. Bond served there as a lady’s maid to Ellen Wheeler, and escaped about 1857, settling finally in New Jersey. Here’s a review of this very interesting and well-written book by the great Hilary Mantel in the London Review of Books.

I should mention that yesterday, besides being Father’s Day, was also Bunker Hill Day, which commemorates the battle of Bunker Hill on June 17. It is also the birthday of our maternal grandfather, who was always known as Bunker because he was born on Bunker Hill Day in 1900.

Here’s an appropriate word from old Henry David Thoreau in honor of Bunker:

The fishermen sit by their damp fire of rotten pine wood, so wet and chilly that even smoke in their eyes is a kind of comfort. There they sit, ever and anon scanning their reels to see if any have fallen, and, if not catching many fish, still getting what they went for, though they may not be aware of it, i.e. a wilder experience than the town affords.

(December 26, 1856)

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Today is a busy day for me and I have to pick up the wee babes and their parents at the airport tonight at 9:00 pm–way past my bedtime!

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All in a day’s work.

Have a good one.

*Hymn 522, John Newton; the painting is by N.C. Wyeth, “Thoreau Fishing”

5 Comments

April 27, 2018

Keep your eyes open

by chuckofish

First of all, a hearty happy birthday to one of our favorites, U.S. Grant–or Cousin Lyss as we like to call him. Born in 1822, he would be 196 today. I think his 200th birthday in 2022 calls for a big blow-out party. Let’s put that one on the calendar!

I have to say, I was struck once again, when my DP posted a picture of our dear brother a few days ago,

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how much he resembles our old cousin.

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I mean really. Personally I think the wee laddie is headed in that genetic direction as well.

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Time will tell…

And it’s Friday again. The weekend looms; the weather forecast is promising. Although it has been delayed several weeks, I think spring is finally here in flyover-land. The signs are everywhere!

My weekend plans have not jelled yet, and that’s okay. After last weekend’s full schedule, I am ready for some down time. It is really just a matter of choosing the wine and the movie to match, right?

And I love these guys:

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They get it.

9 Comments

January 17, 2018

“If you want to be neutral, move to Switzerland.”

by chuckofish

I have been following the Madcap Cottage gents for years it seems, long before they were even on Instagram.

I love their vibe. They like elephants and needlepoint and chinoiserie. They like to reupholster vintage furniture with good bones in jazzy fabric. They love a good estate sale or flea market find. They like collections.

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Last week I finally bought their book which was released last fall.

I like wiling away an hour or two looking at a decorating book full of lovely photographs of beautiful rooms, don’t you?

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This book is full of good advice as well as pretty pictures, advice from the gents and from their style icons: Sister Parrish, Dorothy Draper, David Hicks, etc.

Dip your toe into the world of pattern mixing and throw caution to the wind by setting your dining table with mismatched china. Not only is this an easy way to explore the power of pattern, it also will give your dining room a fresh look without a makeover.

Haven’t I been saying this for years?

Anyway, I think the gents would approve of my recent decorating choices, especially my dining room wallpaper:

and my newest estate sale renovation:

So take this as a reminder to do what pleases you when it comes to decorating your home. You live there. Outside of work, it is where you spend most of your time, right?

Right. Have fun feathering your nest. “Be brave, be bold, be gutsy!” The gents would approve.

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December 28, 2017

A few postcards from Christmas

by chuckofish

All the feels…

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And, remarkably, no one got sick!

The diet starts next week.

“Out of all the things you could not have there were some that you could have and one of those was to know when you were happy and to enjoy all of it while it was there and it was good.”

–Ernest Hemingway, Islands in the Stream

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