Sunday, February 15, 1998 - Wood Burning

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Last week we went for a ride through the hilly ranch and farm country northeast of town. Down in a wooded valley along Shell Creek, we saw what we thought was a snowy owl. Several crows were diving at it, cawing loudly. Finally, the big bird flew off along the tree line, making strange little high-pitched noises and sounding distinctly un-owl-like. Then it turned, and we saw that its back was dark brown, and the underside of its tail had a reddish cast to it--it was a red-tailed hawk. All this, we saw through our binoculars. Larry has a new set of auto-focus binoculars, and they really work neat. The focus changes smoothly and quickly as you pan across the countryside.

Hannah put together a photograph album of reprints of pictures of herself from the age of one day to about age twelve, I think, for Bobby for Valentine’s Day. She’d planned to go through every last one of our albums, picking out all her favorite pictures up to now, but reprints, you see, are not cheap. She saved the last few empty pages in the album, and will put more pictures in them and give them to him for his birthday, which will be in July.

The card she gave him was made with pressed roses--the roses he’d given her the day of their first date. It was really neat; it had lace sewn around the oval opening for the roses, and the flowers, along with baby’s breath and a small ribbon bow, were laminated.

And guess what Bobby gave Hannah!--an amethyst ring with two diamond chips. It’s beautiful and delicate, and Hannah was enchanted. Bethany, Bobby’s mother, gave Hannah an amethyst necklace--an early birthday present--to go with the ring.

Hester’s and Victoria’s dresses are all done now, with oodles and caboodles of ruffles and rows of lace. They turned out positively adorable, if I do say so myself. Now I am working on Lydia’s.

My nephew, David Walker, bought the school two more computers! Also, he told his mother (my sister, and our principal) to keep the one in her office especially for herself, since it has hundreds of Bible concordances, reference books, and commentaries on it. The school children (particularly two by name of Teddy and Joseph) are tickled pink.

Tuesday night Lawrence and Norma came visiting. We were just trying to make a batch of cornbread, and finding ourselves short of all sorts of things--flour, for one thing. But we did have whole wheat flour, so we decided to go ahead and make it with that, adding an extra egg to make it a little bit lighter. I threw in a handful of Italian seasoning for good measure. Having no Crisco, we used butter instead. And you know what? It was good.

Lawrence and Norma wound up with their cupboard doors looking a wee bit different than they had intended: somebody mistakenly told them they should use water-based paint. When they put the varnish on, the paint bubbled and lifted, and that’s when they learned they should’ve used oil-based paint. Feeling queasy from all that paint and varnish, to say nothing of all the hard work they’d gone to, they went off and bought some white marbleized contact paper and covered all the cupboard doors and drawers. Their kitchen looks bright and new and quite fashionable now, especially with the freshly shined brass hinges and handles, which are probably valuable antiques.

Joseph decided he wanted to make a wood-burned picture for Keith’s birthday. Since his board was tall and narrow, he concluded that it was just right for a lighthouse; and Keith’s room has a nautical motif anyway. He launched confidently into his project, taking advantage of neither ruler nor copy paper; and the lighthouse was soon closely resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa, to his immense dismay. He went off to bed, all prepared to discard of it and begin again the next day. But rather than waste the wood, to say nothing of all Joseph’s time and effort, I thought I’d see if I could overhaul it and set it to rights, although I truly am no artist. But by making the outlines wider, and by use of much shading, I came up with an acceptable picture of a lighthouse. An almost-straight lighthouse.

Joseph, finding it the next morning, was pleased as punch. He promptly took up wood-burning tool, wrote on the back, “To my favorite oldest brother, Keith, from Joseph with love”, wrapped it, and affixed card and bow.

Meanwhile, Larry was trying to breathe new life into a small heart box which Teddy had begun for my mother; he’d quit, the box not turning out to his liking. After taking it to his shop and using his belt grinder on it, Larry sanded it to silky smoothness with fine-grade sandpaper. Then, using one of Teddy’s fancy wood-burning tips, he made a pattern all around the sides. When he was done with that, I took over, etching a tiny hummingbird on the top, with lily of the valley, bleeding heart, and clematis along the edges.

And after that, I wanted it. Fortunately, I’d already scrolled “To Grandma Swiney. Love, Teddy” on the bottom, so greedily keeping it was out of the question. Teddy gave it to Mama for Valentine’s Day. He was so tickled over that box that he made another one for my sister, this time making the top hinged, and gluing two tiny gold hinges on it. I drew a little picture of two Canada geese swimming among some rushes, and this time Teddy did the wood-burning. This wood was softer, and easier to burn.

Now we are working on a leaf-and-vine-rimmed plaque for my brother and his wife, reading “30^th Anniversary”.

Mary Clarice is home again! My brother went to Minneapolis to help the family come home, planning to let the little girl lay on the bed in the motor home. Well, she did take a two-hour nap on it; after that, she had a jolly time bouncing on it. She has a little walker with wheels on it; two days after the surgery, she was not just walking with it, she was running. The child is two inches taller than she was before the operation!

She just has the sweetest disposition you ever did see. One day she was talking with her nurses: “I help Mama fold clothes!” she told them happily. “I fold Daddy’s jeans,” she continued, then added “and I fold Timmy’s jeans, too!”

The nurses were duly impressed. “How old are you?” one asked the child.

“Two!” she replied.

“My goodness!” exclaimed another nurse, “You’re a big helper!”

Mary Clarice nodded her head in agreement. “I throw clothes at Mama!” she concluded.

Ruth came in about then to find the nurses all in stitches, with Mary smiling at them, well pleased with herself.

Thursday evening when I arrived at church for Jr. Choir, lo and behold, there was Penny, who, you’ll remember, had surgery last week, too. Her mother, aunt, and uncle from Chicago had come to visit, and they had brought Penny to the school to see her classroom and the rest of the school. I turned the mike on, and we gave them a short, impromptu concert. Penny was soon getting tired, so they took her back home.

Penny’s family are Russian Jews, and Penny, I think, is the only one who has converted to Christianity. They all remain on good terms, however, and Penny was overjoyed that her mother finally came to visit her. Penny has lived in Columbus for about 25 years, and has gone to Chicago to see her mother once each year; but this is the first time her mother has come here.

When Penny was eleven, her well-beloved father was killed in a fire in the clothing store he owned. He’d gotten out safely, but kept going back in for more clothes. He went back in one too many times: the floor collapsed, he fell into the basement, and was trapped in the flames. The family, meanwhile, had seen the newscast on television, and were all watching in horror, wondering if the father was safe.

Then an uncle called and told them all was well, everyone was fine. And he knew all along everything was not fine! Why in the world do people do that?! I suppose they’re trying to do the right thing; but good grief! The people are going to have to know eventually! Penny and her mother and sisters and brothers were really hurt that the uncle would tell them such a thing, knowing otherwise.

Friday evening we went to Lawrence and Norma’s to give them an anniversary (their seventh) present: a ‘Taste of Home’ cookbook, published by Reimann Publications. Any recipes from Reimann Publications have got to be good. They have a large kitchen at their office in which some first-rate cooks try the recipes readers send them.

Larry helped Lawrence put together a dresser they had just bought for Norma to store some of her crafts and supplies. That done, and big bowls of ice cream down the hatch, I played the organ and everybody gathered ’round and sang. It’s a fine and dandy way to spend an evening, we all think.

Yesterday the girls made jelly jewel cookies for Caleb to pass out to his little friends for Valentine’s Day. Victoria was given several balloons, one of her favorite toys.

“BuhWOOON!!” she exclaims.

Every now and then I ask Larry if he can check Victoria’s diaper. He pats her on the bottom and informs me, “It’s still on.”

Today for dinner we had our famous Supah-Dupah Tacos, homemade Italian bread, and cherry cheesecake, done in a couple of heart-shaped pans, which I’ve wanted for a long time, and which I bought myself for Valentine’s Day yesterday (at least, I think that’s why I bought them). They taste better in heart shapes; did you know that?

Hester has had an earache for the last few days; if she isn’t better by tomorrow, I’d better call the doctor.

Victoria just sprouted her fifth tooth. This one is on the top front, and she’s discovered she can grind her teeth together. Aaaaarrrggghhh! That sounds awful!

I yell, “Heeeyyyy! Don’t do that!”

She wrinkles her nose, grins at me, and quits--for a little while.

And that’s this week’s news.