White as Snow

Our music group at our church sang a medley Sunday morning that included the song, “Oh the blood of Jesus.”  Tears filled my eyes as the reels in my mind took me back to another place and time.

We were missionaries in Kiev, Ukraine in the early 90s.  The time was difficult, and many of you have heard the tales.  During the Christmas Holidays we went to Germany, to the European Nazarene Bible College to spend Christmas with friends–other missionaries who also were also facing difficult days in their assignments.  We knew how life was in Ukraine and Russia, but our friends from Albania had a terrible medical crisis earlier that year, and our friends in Scandinavia faced loneliness and extreme secularism.  They were raising their young family in a very different environment.  They told us that they, in an effort to meet other families and give their young daughter opportunities to meet other children, had started to take her to a local preschool.  She, struggling with the language barrier, usually didn’t want to attend.  One day when her parents arrived to pick her up they noticed children playing in various places in the room, a small group was at a table quietly creating “art.”  There sat their little angel in the midst of them singing softly, “Oh, the blood of Jesus, oh the blood of Jesus, oh the blood of Jesus, it washes white as snow.” 

The words of that song always remind me of that story, but on Sunday the world was dealing with the shock of the bombings and the shootings at a children’s camp in the Scandinavian country of Norway.  It seems that we deal with so much violence these days, “white as snow” sounds so good.

Oh, the blood of Jesus
Oh, the blood of Jesus
Oh, the blood of Jesus
It washes white as snow.

“In My Mind I’m Going to….”

You have heard James Taylor sing, “In my mind, I’m going to Carolina.”  Too bad for me that Italy or Assisi doesn’t rhyme with “mind;” because that is where I am right now.  It is 9:30 at night there now (according to my computer’s dashboard–one clock is set on Indiana time and the other is set on Italy time).  I have just finished a delicious dinner (I am sure I have enjoyed Umbrian Salad and Pasta Limone) at our friend Andrea’s Trattoria degli Umbria at the bottom of our ancient street steps.  The fountain in the Piazza del Commune is continuing to pump water over the ancient stone bowls while the stone lions stand guard.  I think that the modern day St. Francis is singing over on the other side.  In my mind the air is cool (though my dual weather report tells me it is 88 degrees), and we walk across the cobble stones of the piazza, then on down the street to the basilica of San Francesco.  The sun is setting behind the soft Umbrian Hills.  There is a silent moment in the midst of the noise–it is always noisy in Assisi, but it is “happy noise.”  After our walk, we will return to our 800 year old stone apartment, and I will curl up on the couch and knit while Dave reads to me.  Then we will retire to our little sleeping loft and dream about where will we go tomorrow, what pastry we will enjoy, and the yummy cappuccino that will accompany it.

OK, I love being in my shop in Nashville, with the sun shining outside, listening to Alison’s (my cousin’s) CD, the birds, and the stone cutter’s power tools, pastries and cappuccino are truly dreams right now having started on Weight Watchers again; but the memories are sweet and I will return again….and again.

Summertime

Summer is here!  It is warm, well hot actually, outside.  Bible School starts this week.  Tomorrow is the 4th of July!  Wow.

I have been so busy spring that this is a truly rare occurrence–I am sitting on the couch, Elayna is napping at the other end, the sun is shining on our torn up yard, the birds are singing, and I don’t have a thousand things hanging over my head that need to be done….I have it down to 3 right now–laundry, write bills, and decorate the stage for Bible School! I think I can manage that!

I am enjoying the challenges of my shop, it is fun meeting new people, and trying new yarns etc., it does keep me busy.  I am thankful for my sister who gives me chunks of time off like this afternoon–that nap sure felt good.

If you make it to Nashville, I am pretty easy to find.  I am usually at 90 W. Franklin Street–that is unless I am napping on the couch on a Sunday afternoon.

Catching Up

Since opening the shop last Thursday, I have been working every day, and that will likely continue until I complete my responsibilities traveling to Indianapolis on Tuesday and Wednesdays.  It is not like I am busy all the time, but I don’t have internet at the shop, so I can’t do things like blog, Facebook, e-mail, etc.  And when I am home there are things like laundry and birthday celebrations!  Beginning with Elayna’s birthday (April 24) and ending with Alyssa’s birthday (May 24) we celebrate 5 of the 8 birthdays of the hill inhabitants!  Tonight we will be celebrating Alyssa, since tomorrow will be a difficult day to get us all together (primarily since I will be working in Indy, and gas is too expensive to drive both days).

The shop is fun.  I am enjoying interacting with the people.  I am learning a lot.  And, we have been making some sales!  If you want to see pictures, check out the website:  claypurl.com.  I hope to post more soon.  I am also beginning a monthly e-mail, so if you would like to receive The Clay Purl newsletter, let me know (michelehayes79@gmail.com) and I will add you to the list.  I hope to start some knitting classes soon and some charity knitting projects too.

Yes, right now things are busy, but this morning I am enjoying the quiet of Sams Hill, the coffee, and the birds song–I think I have some left over steel cut oatmeal in the fridge, mmmmm. . . .  Oh, the washer just stopped, I better go.

Tomorrow is the Day

It seems like every hour that I am awake I think of things that need to be done, purchased, created, or printed out in order to open the store.  Most of the yarn is in, I still have some back orders and a couple of orders that haven’t made it yet.  Don (my brother-in-law) has done an amazing job building things, creating light fixtures and helping me  out.  My sister, Mariruth, has been helping me get things priced and ready to sell–Paul even came over to help one day. The shop looks great, well I think it looks great.

I am approaching tomorrow–The Clay Purl officially opens at 10:00 AM–with a great sense of excitement.  But, there is a lot of “fear” that creeps into my thinking too–I almost panic sometimes thinking that no one will come, and if they do they won’t buy anything.  I worry that I haven’t picked out anything that anyone else will want.  I worry that I have wasted a lot of money, and….  I was in such a state last night as I crawled into bed, when suddenly I thought these things:  “Remember this endeavor was committed to God in the beginning?  Remember how you were ‘led’ to this space?  Remember how perfectly the timing worked out?  Remember, you haven’t had to go into debt?  Remember how many people have had ‘words of encouragement’ regarding your shop?”

So, I am trying to trust….

….But it sure would feel good to have people in the shop buying yarn tomorrow!

Moving Along at a Fast Pace

It has been a while–I haven’t had much time to write over the past couple of weeks.  I have spent long agonizing hours pouring over yarn books, internet sites, adding up numbers in order to make the initial orders of yarn and other products.  I have set up a simple website (claypurl.com).  We have lived through another Holy Week and Easter at Parkview–there is a lot of work involved in all of these services.  Things are really picking up at my job at Wesleyan Women in anticipation of the Women’s Ministries Summit this June.  I have gotten approval for the shop signs.  Paul and I have had to sweep water out of the basement several times (of course David was at Olivet at meetings when it flooded).  They have given me the keys to the shop, so we have been carrying stuff in.  Don (my brother-in-law) is building some display pieces.  The shelves should be here this weekend.  Life is moving along at a fast pace right now.

Hopefully everything will come in and we will be able to open the doors on Thursday, May 12–I originally thought to open on Friday, but didn’t think opening on Friday the 13th was a good idea.

David and I had planned on a vacation this week, but as it turns out we were only able to get away for a couple of days–nothing too exciting, but good to be away and together.  We had to come to Ohio to purchase some clay for Paul and some items for the shop.  I did get some cool things for the shop today….come in and see me after May 12!

April 13–Almost Disneyland

They say that Disneyland is “the happiest place on earth,” I have to agree.  Some of my most “happy” family memories were made in Disneyland.  It began when I was ten with a trip to California that we took with my aunt, uncle and cousin (who was just a few years older than I was).  I loved Disneyland from the moment I stepped through the gate.  My sister and her family lived in California for most of my adult life, and whenever we would go for a visit, there was that family trip where standing in line with my goofy family was just as much fun as the attraction.  We taught those around us such wonderful games as perpetual motion (something my nephews made up), Rut-chi-cha, and Hi, my name is Joe.

We were in California for a family reunion last year at this time, we hadn’t been together for several years, but felt compelled to make this effort because my nephew Marc had been in such a fight with Multiple Myeloma—the latest battle was a hip replacement just a week before the family arrived.  We celebrated Marc’s 43^rd birthday on April 11, and he went to his doctors at Scripps on the 12^th, to get the next treatment plan.

Paul, Mariruth and I decided that a trip to Disneyland was in order, so we planned to drive up on our last day.  After waking up, Mariruth decided to stay home because Marc was not feeling as well as he had been.  Thinking he was just tired from all the happenings of the week, everyone encouraged Paul and I to go on, so I drove to Los Angeles (my first time to drive this stretch of California Freeway).  Along the way we learned they were taking Marc to the emergency room, but we were to continue on.

We arrived at the happiest place on earth, and were pulling into our parking space (that we didn’t get charged for), when David called and told me that we had better come back, they were getting very concerned about Marc.  So, Paul and I got out, went to the restroom, got back in the car, and on the freeway.  Leaving behind Disneyland and going into a hospital where my dear nephew would breathe his last breath that afternoon.  Leaving his wife, two children, parents, brothers, sister(s), aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, and many great friends to ask the questions and deal with the grief.  Everyone who knew Marc, loved him.  We were able to celebrate his life in the midst of our grief that still washes over my family in waves.  We all still love and miss Marc so much it hurts.

Naturally this week I have been thinking a lot about those events that happened this time last year, but this year those days are in the week preceding Palm Sunday and Holy Week.  This Sunday is Palm Sunday, where the people of Jerusalem think they are getting ready to go to “Disneyland”…boy, do they have another “think comin!’”   Once again we are getting ready to live a week of death, but in the end—it’s “Disneyland” for all of us.

Good Friends, Good Weekend

We have some great friends all over the country and world.  We were fortunate enough to host some of our dearest friends at our house for this past weekend.  We talked, laughed, ate, dreamed and enjoyed life together.  It was a treasured time!

I just Skyped with Gvantsa’s (our exchange student daughter) sister and was reminded of the friendships that we forged with their family during our visit to Georgia last fall.  I wish we could host them for a weekend, and I wish our friends from Kiev, Arizona, and other places could come for a visit to the Hill.

Tonight about the time the Bulldogs come on to beat the Huskies, some more friends will come for a quick visit–I do hope they like basketball!

Thank you all for enriching our lives with your friendships!

Long time….big news

I know it has been over a month since I have written.  We have been finishing up winter on the hill, and it is beginning to look like spring–flowers are blooming everywhere and the trees are starting to bud; though the temperatures have dipped back into winter territory, and it snowed a little the other night.  I thought during the few warm days last week that I would clean up the wood stove, and we would not have to use it anymore this year!  I got it sparkling clean and all the dust vacuumed, but it got so cold in here  (our pilot is out on our furnace and we don’t know how to light it) that we had to build another fire and make another wood fire mess!  Our friends are coming this weekend, so I will have another chance to clean it up.

I have big news.  For most of my adult life, I have dreamed of owning my own business (I particularly wanted to open a shop in Nashville).  I set aside some money when we sold my parent’s property in Valparaiso, and have been waiting (for what, I don’t know).  During our sabbatical, I started to feel like I should get serious about it.  So this winter we heard of several small shop spaces that came open and we started looking.  Nothing really appealed to all of my wants in a shop space, until I heard that 90 W. Franklin Street was opening up soon.  So, in May we will take over a lease on this small space and open “The Clay Purl!”

You might be thinking that is a really weird name and wondering if I have lost it!  It is going to be a yarn and pottery store (there will be a few other items that are made on Sams Hill in there too), but mostly yarn and Paul’s pottery.  So, “purl” is a knitting term, and the “clay” part is obvious!

We will be opening in mid May with primarily yarn, because Paul is finishing up a big pottery order through late June.  Sometime in July we will start putting his pottery in the shop, and we will have a “Grand Opening” in August.

I committed to Martha and Wesleyan Women that I would be there my regular days (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) until after the Summit (late June), but after that I am in Nashville full time!  Whoo hoo!

I am really excited, and I am praying that my efforts will be blessed.  I hope it can be more than just another Nashville shop, and it can be a place of community, service and learning too.  I will write more later!

Lucy and the Possum

Lucy is our German Shepherd, our “outside” dog.  She is supposed to keep certain “critters” out of our yard–sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn’t.  She has been know to cuddle with a dead rooster, bird, and fish; but to our knowledge she finds them already dead and brings them into the yard to be her friends for a while.  She usually just barks at living creatures from a safe distance.  There must be packs of animals attempting to cross the property lines at night, when the humans are attempting to sleep, because the barking can be incessant under our bedroom window.

The other day we drove home from Bloomington, and we could see that Lucy was in a stand-off at the invisible fence with an animal.  From the back and from a distance, I wasn’t sure what the animal was.  As we got closer we could see it was one ugly possum!  Eventually the possum grew tired of Lucy and her menacing looks, barks and snarls; because he walked slowly back into the woods, safely on the outside of the invisible fence.

A few days later I looked out the window, and Lucy was carrying the possum around the yard.  She dumped him in the driveway, where he laid all afternoon.  It was obvious that the possum was dead, but no one in this house was too eager to bury it.  Later that evening, David and I were walking next door, and looked over at the dead  possum as he raised his head, got up slowly, and walked back into the woods!

Life on Sams Hill!