Work In Progress ~ Just do what you can do today

It is one of those months

in which

I have random pieces

all over my house

in various stages of completion.

Sometimes

I like them incomplete.

I especially love

the morning sunshine

that casts shadows and gold

through the windows.

Everything looks its best in that light.

Our calendar swells with activity.

Our life is full.

Our life is good.

I find myself saying "no" to lots of great and wonderful things

so that I can just be in the presence

of my family

in the precious few hours each week that we have together.

If I don't keep my head and heart in check,

I get overwhelmed.

You too?

So, to beat the overwhelms,

this morning, I started to work on this piece:

Just do what you can do today.

My kids always joke that I need to keep one of these for myself.

Yes, they know me best.

They know that the things I make are not things I have mastered

but things I need to remember.

I ruffled through my stash of papers and happened upon

some prints my mom had made of my grandma's diaries for reunion decorations.

I randomly selected one to fit in the theme of just today.

I didn't even read it.

But as I began to adhere it to the board,

I read:

Chilly day warmer this afternoon.

Ground white with snow this morning

all gone by noon.

Tommy did the chores and feeding.

Had to get a cow in tonight and sew her up.

Had the whole thing out.

Oh yes, indeed, Grandma Edna and Grandpa Tommy, just doing what you can do today.

If you have not raised cattle, you might know about cattle that hemorrhage their entire uterus.

It is by far one of the most difficult, messy, frustrating, yucky jobs on the ranch...

and sometimes the mama cow just can't make it after that kind of trauma.

That was Grandpa Tommy's "just do what you can do today".

I continued to read the part I had cut off

learning that my grandma had gone to town, cleaned house except for the kitchen

and to top the day off,

one of my uncle's got shot in the mouth with a BB gun

"fooling around"

as she put it.

My uncle was fine.

Just spit the BB out.

Friday, April 19, 1963.

Just doing what they could do that day.

~ * ~

Find me here this fall:

and here:

Note To Self Mixed Media Art Class

Saturday October 11 from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

at Create!Studio in Rapid City

Click the link above for all of the details and to register.

And soon to be announced,

but mark your calendars...

a class at Sturgis Photo and Gifts, Sturgis, SD, 

on Thursday, October 23 from 6-9 p.m.

Here's a clue:

I will also be at the Wink Ranch at Howes, SD on October 25.  

Official details coming tomorrow!

Mother's Encouragement

Every so often my mom has read my blog or facebook posts

and does not comment online

but waits for a face-to-face word to share.

And so her words of wisdom came to me this weekend

at, of all places, Chuck E. Cheese.

"You're too hard on yourself," she told me.

"Grandma Edna always said about her house,

'Clean enough to be healthy.  Dirty enough to be happy.'

Some days when Marlene and I would come home from school,

she would be quilting or doing an upholstry project,

the lunch dishes would still be in the sink and on the counter,

and her project was all over the dining room.

We would look around the house at the mess,

and she'd say, 'Why don't you girls do those dishes?'"

My mom's story about my Grandma Edna

makes me laugh with relief.

I was glad to know she was that way.

Because that is exactly what happens to my house

when I am shoulder deep in a project with tunnel vision for it's completion.

My Grandma Edna and Grandpa Tommy

were two of the happiest people I have ever known.

And everywhere I went with them,

people greeted them with huge smiles.

We would walk in the Senior Center in Miller, SD,

and the men would say,

"Heyyy, Tommy!"

and Grandpa Tommy would have a teasing word for them

and then sit down to play cards.

"Clean enough to be healthy.  Dirty enough to be happy."

Ok, so maybe I don't feel quite as condemned about my housekeeping.

Although, I still get a little crazy about it,

I guess that is when it is not clean enough to be healthy

and it is way too dirty to be happy . . .

Thanks, Mom.

I post pretty pictures, and art, and celebrations,

but I am a real woman that gets overwhelmed and frustrated too

with big stuff, but often with the little day-to-day stuff.

So, I have to remind myself to find beauty in the mess.

And I have respect and grace for those

trying to do this life well,

but that fall down, get in a pit, get frustrated, break,

and do their best to get back up again,

get put together again

with God's help.

Gracing myself & gracing others
flows out of the well of grace
that I receive from Jesus.
Giving what I've been given.

I heard this song by Mandisa
while I was folding laundry today
 that said,
"Can't live my whole life wastin'
 all the grace that I know You've given..."
 That's what I'm talking about.
Beating myself up is wasting His grace.
Listen to "Waiting for Tomorrow" by Mandisa here:
Waiting for Tomorrow



Linking here . . . be encouraged . . .