Valerie – Page 40 – Valerie's Voice

Mother’s Day

My mother’s hand, my hand, my son’s hand.
Missing my mom who died in 2009.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mother’s during this unusual time during the pandemic.

May God bless the work of your hands and your loving touch…(however possible these days.)

Nature’s Art

Nature’s art is everywhere…unique and beautiful!

This particular “tree stump art” took me by surprise. While riding my bike I rode past a friend’s house and she was out in her driveway so I stopped and we chatted for a few minutes (6’ apart). She told me to take a look at her tree stump in her backyard so I did. I asked her who created the design and she said “bugs”!

I thought a pattern was burned into the stump to create art…but bugs created the artwork all by themselves. It was striking.

Trails in the stump made by bugs. Photo by cb

That week we took a hike at Cannon Valley Wilderness Park near Faribault and saw the creative work of eagles. There in the treetops were two giant nests and an eagle was sitting in one of them.

Of course spring flowers are nature’s art…Wilderness Park was full of Spring Beauty, a tiny pink spring flower carpeting the ground in many places throughout the park. Unfortunately my photo didn’t turn out.

Nature’s art is in clouds…

and tulips…

and tree bark…

Our pair of resident cardinals eating at the bird feeder attached to our window. It looks like they are perching on the back of our chair!

and birds. It’s all around us. God’s handiwork.

Look and see that the Lord is good…the beauty of the Lord is all around us.

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon and stars of light,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above,
Pleasures pure and undefiled,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

Hi Tech – Lo Tech

The Zoom App has been a great tool for connecting with others and I’m grateful for it. It uses modern technology to deliver its capabilities.

The other day I gathered some stationery and a pen and used the old fashioned technology of letter writing to keep in touch.

Recently my writing buddy and I challenged each other to write a couple of letters, long-hand, to someone (no typing it on the computer and printing it out). This extra time we find ourselves with at home lends itself to doing just that and I did. I have written two letters now and plan to do more. It is therapeutic. My handwriting isn’t what it used to be and I hope the recipients can read it. It was interesting to note my hand got tired after writing cursive. The letters were two and three pages long.

They say cursive is the secret language of the elderly because it is being eliminated from school curriculum and so kids in the next generations will not be able to read it. HA

I had some nice stationery given to me by a friend and it was fun to finally use it. I sat on our deck one nice day last week and found it very pleasant to write down my thoughts. The paper was extra nice…and it made the writing flow easier, at least in my mind, and it was a delight to be writing on extra fine paper.

When done writing I address the envelope, pick out a stamp (I like to buy the different themed stamps), apply a return label from the multitude I get free from different organizations, and finally, I add a sticker to the back of the envelope for fun. I then walk out to our mailbox, insert the letters, put the flag up and the postal carrier takes them away and they somehow end up at the correct address, miles away, a few days later. That’s impressive.

The two letters will be a surprise to the people who receive them which adds to the enjoyment of writing them. I plan to do more letter writing, at least for the time-being, during this pandemic.

Zoom-ing

I had not heard of the communication app called Zoom until this pandemic took over our lives. Then Zoom quickly became a part of everyday language, like email and texting. So we downloaded Zoom and started using the “user-friendly” app to stay in touch with others.

We have used Zoom to connect with both our sons and their families at the same time. It’s so nice to see everyone: Gary and me in Northfield, our oldest son and his family in Minneapolis, and our youngest son and his family in Colorado.

We have used Zoom to connect with other groups too. I meet weekly with my book club.

I’ve participated in a church ministry meeting using Zoom, and small group. We connected with out-of-state friends over a “social hour” one evening.

I have also started a story time with my two grandchildren in Colorado…I set up the meeting and their parents get them situated on their end and then I start reading children’s books to them and they stay focused and seem to enjoy it as much as I do. It feels good to me to be able to connect with them this way.

Reading to my grandchildren on the other side of the screen…in Colorado.

We even had an Easter egg hunt over Zoom. On Easter Sunday Gary and I hid Easter eggs around our house.

An Easter egg hidden in our Christmas cactus.

Gary took his phone using Zoom and walked around the house letting the grandchildren find the eggs as he scanned the rooms. When the kids spotted an egg they’d call it out and tell us the color. It turned out well…it was fun to see all three grandkids engaged in this activity (the fourth grandson is a newborn). They may not remember this Easter egg hunt but we sure will. It helped me overcome my sense of sadness at not being able to gather together in person to celebrate Easter, my favorite holiday.

We collected the empty eggs into an Easter basket I made many years ago.

And so, the beat goes on…and we will continue to use Zoom to connect with family and friends. This pandemic would be a lot more difficult without the technology we have these days to stay in touch. I’m grateful for it.

One Pandemic Pastime

The live trap was delivered to our front porch. We have had enough with the squirrels in our yard. Squirrels are cute critters with fluffy tails, and it can be fun to watch their antics, but enough is enough. We have several in our yard and we don’t want them there anymore. In particular, I like to feed the birds. Several years ago a friend told me to use safflower seeds…the birds like them but the squirrels do not. So I bought safflower seeds and it seemed to work for years – squirrels kept away from the feeder. But recently the squirrels must have developed a taste for the safflower seeds because now I am feeding more squirrels than birds.

The snow was falling this morning…the trap was tripped

So, we bought a trap. It works well and does not harm the animal, Gary says. He puts peanut butter and sunflower seeds in a ball in the trap and we wait for the critter to go in for this tasty treat. We’ve captured four squirrels already. We could get more in one day but each time we have to drive the squirrel at least ten miles away from our house to let it go. That’s what the research says…if you let the squirrel free any closer than ten miles it will find its way back to you.

We look for a nice clump of trees and let the squirrel out of the cage. It’s darts out so fast. I wonder what it’s thinking.

One of the new homes for the squirrels – out in the country.

At first we just took the squirrels away and let them go. With the fourth squirrel we decided to spray a bit of fluorescent paint on it’s tail to monitor the critter…to see if any of the squirrels we take away actually find their way back to our house. We hope not.

A little spray paint on it’s tail to monitor the critter.

During this pandemic is an interesting time to be doing this…our pandemic pastime. We’re taking drives into the country often for “squirrel transfers” and it’s been kind of fun.

This activity happened last week, before the 6″ of snow came falling down on Easter Sunday, snd stayed on the ground…

Happy Easter

Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

Alleluia!

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38-39

Snippets from this Past Week

Here are a few photos depicting life these days…

This scene captured my heart…I feel it shows the essence of this pandemic…isolation. This young man sitting alone under the tree…contemplating these crazy times I’m sure.

Our online church services, including taking communion at home.

Learning to use new technologies…Zoom became a popular connection tool. These are my wonderful bookclub friends meeting on Zoom. We use Zoom to connect with our two sons and their families too.

Sadly, this fresh milk is going down the drain on my sister-in-law’s dairy farm in Pennsylvania. Evidently there is an over supply of milk due to the massive closings of schools and restaurants. Photo by sh

Picnic areas, playgrounds, and gathering spaces fenced off.

Cool Blue and his babe Lil’ Oaty sit on our deck railing watching children walk by on the sidewalk that leads to walking paths and ponds in our neighborhood. The Teddy Bear movement is making a bear or stuffed animal visible for children to hunt for while going for a walk.

Signs of spring and hope!…daffodils recently seen on my daily walk.

…and some bright color crocus’ too.
Photo by ba

Be still and know that I am God.     Psalm 46:10

As March Ends…

Each year I have a book printed of my blog postings as a birthday present to myself. March 31^stis my cut off for the previous twelve months so I wanted to record a little of what’s been happening in our world with this global pandemic.

An example of “social distancing.” I watched these two friends keep their distance as they chatted after putting their groceries in their cars. They walked toward each other but stopped to keep at least 6″ distance and visited for several minutes.

Life as we knew it changed dramatically this month (March 2020). About March 13 the WHO (World Health Organization) declared a Pandemic. Within two weeks we went from normal, busy activities to being ordered, on March 27 (State of Minnesota), to “stay at home” to keep the COVID-19 virus from spreading. Restaurants have closed and non-essential businesses have closed. People have been asked to work from home. Schools have gone to online teaching…no children are meeting in schools. Our church services have been cancelled and services are online now.

We’ve learned new terms such as “social distancing” – keeping six feet away from others when talking with or meeting a person, and “flattening the curve” – trying to slow down the number of people who are getting infected with the virus to avoid overloading the medical system. We are learning how to use online video applications such as Zoom to stay connected with others.

Some activities in our personal world right now…jigsaw puzzles, the game Bananagrams. And see “Cool Blue” the blue kangaroo in the window? People are putting stuffed animals in their windows so children can have stuffed animals to look for when they go for walks. I love that idea.

I’m grateful we are allowed to get outside and walk and bike. I walk daily. Gary continues to either bike or walk.

Many of us are experiencing grief…the loss of control in so many areas of our lives. No one knows what comes next. And no one has the answers. This is unprecedented.

There will be many financial repercussions too. This is a difficult story.

I lean on one of my favorite scripture verses:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
Lean not on your own understanding
Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways 
And he will direct your paths.
Proverbs 3: 5-6

Coloring is another calming activity for me.

An article I read recently labeled the next generation as “Gen C’s”… C for coronavirus… since the world will never be the same from now on. Gen C’s will only know life after the coronavirus… life after the ”new normal” sets in.

Our world has turned upside down! I wonder what the new normal will be…

A New Grandson is Here!

“A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.” Carl Sandburg

Our son and his wife had their baby boy yesterday and everyone is healthy and doing fine. This is good news!

The spring equinox was at 10:59pm on March 19 but some places were still calling March 20 as the first day of spring but I still think our newest grandson gets to have the honor of being born the first day of spring in 2020.

His name Luca means “bringer of light” and it seems so appropriate during these difficult days. He is 8 lb 3 oz and 20.5 inches long.

We are so excited to welcome Luca Abram to our family. What joy!