Happiness

I am beyond happy today. Here's why:

1. The biggest and most crucial ingredient to this state of mind is that I'm not at work, and I keep remembering that I won't have to report back to that dark place until Monday. Since I suffer from a serious condition called pre-work depression, I can clearly foresee several days of impending happiness. That knowledge in itself just feeds the happiness. Yeah, I need a new job....

2. I have just completed a HUGE landmark in my sewing career which I am currently wearing as I write this. I have taken measurements, drafted a pattern on craft paper, cut out the pieces, and sewn a freakin' shirt! This shirt, the most beautifully simple shirt in existence, FITS. Since all commercial patterns are fitted for a B cup bust, I've never created a shirt that fits exactly right. For this peasant blouse, I sized the front piece about 6 inches wider than the back piece, and then I created a casing for for elastic to fit just underneath the bust and pull things in. I'm pretty sure I will use this pattern again for a sleeveless shirt, and possibly for a peasant dress.

3. I finished a quilt for Baby Reese...and if there are any mistakes to be seen on it, they were all intentional. Yeah, I'm sticking with that story. It's still really cute, despite some uneven stitching.

4. I saved Ginger and Meg, my Buff Orp and Ameraucana from the grip of feral cat fangs this morning. I had all the chicks grouped together in their little yard, and when the chicks saw a cat lurking around, Ginger and Meg panicked and flew outside the walls and went a walkin', hoping that fate would defeat their clawed foe like in Rosie's Walk. I looked outside and saw the danger just in time, chased off the cat and plonked those feather-brained chicks back in their own yard.

5. Chicken pot pie is on the menu tonight. Not Ginger and Meg, some poor cruelly treated factory chicken...but we'll try to forget that fact.

6. I keep reflecting on the fact that I am officially freakin' CATHOLIC as of last Saturday, and it's only a few days until I can receive the body and blood of Jesus again! It just speaks to the mercy of God that someone like me, who was so negative on Christianity for so long, would come to see that joyful day! I just wish I could smell like holy chrism all the time....

7. My sweet husband gave me half of his sheath-making money, so now I have $20 which will be spent on some jersey knit so I can make this comfy looking dress.

Mexican Coke - A benefit of living close to the border. Made
with real sugar.

I'm am feeling truly lighthearted today. I want to write a thousand pages, and yet I'm afraid to write one. Fear of jinxes. Instead I will make a vague list about the things that have me all a-flutter and a-whirl. What's on my mind:

1. Clothesline
2. Chicken coop
3. Fig tree
4. Vegetable garden
5. Bird house
6. Paint colors
7. Mourning doves
8. Sunspot kitties
9. Climbing confederate jasmine
10. Christmas wreaths
11. New hanging knit hand-towels
12. I should finish my half-square triangles quilt
13. Picnic table
14. Cigarette-free air
15. Freedom
16. Family
17. Small town roots
18. Medina County, Texas

Blessed are the Peacemakers

I took the opportunity today to make a little peace with summer, and indeed found myself blessed.  When I stepped out on my porch this midday I noticed that the day seemed promising and happy with its warm breeze to break up the otherwise oppressive 100* heat.  I got it into my head to walk to Subway with the Finches, Cold Mountain, and my sunhat.

The first step to this adventure was to prettify my sunhat.  Vain?  Possibly.  But any inducement to make someone agreeable to walking around in the Texas sun is a solution worth trying.  So I took some of my fabric yo-yos from last summer and let them perch on the side of my hat.

I donned my shortest jean skirt (knee length) and packed away my Simplicity 2206 jersey knit cardigan in preparation for the air conditioning to come, and set out before I could come to my senses.

You can't help but have a cheerful walk while listening to the Finches Human Like a House album, especially while migrating from shade patch to shade patch along the sidewalk and admiring magnificent residential shrubberies.  A number of times I wished I'd brought my camera, but also remembered that my eyes are kinder to the sights than the lens of my cheap-o camera.  I saw a vine with pink flowers full of honeybees, a tree with half-ripe pomegranates, tidy front porches fit to make a renting girl slightly jealous, fields which still housed some fighting sunflowers and some vines with cottony tufts, mourning doves sitting in the branches of a bleached white dead tree.  I passed an area beneath a mesquite tree that was strewn with dried beans and thought of the mesquite bean preserves I sampled at the Texas Folklife Festival last Saturday.

It's only too easy to get caught up feeling hopeless and distraught when things aren't quite going your way.  I suppose the remedy is to step back and survey the things and experiences that you can truly be thankful for.  I wouldn't have been able to enjoy such a wonderful day if I would have been working at the job I have been coveting.  Plus, Ollie and I are still able to pay our bills, hug-n-squeeze our pets, eat at restaurants, enjoy sweet air conditioning, practice all kinds of hobbies.  Things could definitely get worse.  And that thought is quite consoling!