A Break in the Action

Kinley has had a little break in her action. Literally. She has a thigh-high purple cast to prove it.

Two weeks ago today, Jill was carrying Kinley down the stairs and tripped down the last three or so. Accidents like that happen so quickly, but evidently, Jill hit Kinley's ankle during the fall. She called us that night, saying that Kinley wouldn't walk on it, but there was no bruising and no evident break. We advised her to see if it was better the next morning. It wasn't. So they took Kinley to get an X-ray on that Saturday morning.

"No," that doctor said. "It must just be a deep bruise or a sprain." But, when she still wasn't walking on it on Monday, they took her to her regular doctor.

And this time, they got a different X-ray and a different diagnosis. Miss Kinley had a broken ankle. Her doctor put it in a brace, and they headed to an orthopedic doctor the following day.

We were all surprised when the cast ended up thigh-high. Since yellow wasn't an option for a cast color at that doctor's office, none of us were too surprised that she chose K-State purple. (Brainwashing begins early in our family, but Kinley did the choosing.)

It doesn't slow her down much, especially now that they've figured out some friction for the bottom of a sock covering the cast. Who knew Eric was such an artist? For a daycare program this week, Kinley's fancy Christmas dress was accessorized with a purple cast and a sock with a Christmas tree painted on the bottom, courtesy of her Daddy.

We stopped and saw her on our way back from Kentucky. Girls with casts just might get a book to read and a Minnie Mouse figurine to dress up.

The cast doesn't keep her from helping Mommy in the kitchen.

 

She is still quite the cook - whether she's helping make beef and broccoli for supper or trying out a new white whole wheat muffin recipe for Mommy's work.

Another major issue has been trying to figure out how to keep the cast dry during bathing. They covered the top of the cast with a washrag, then wrapped it in plastic wrap, before inserting the whole kit-and-kaboodle in a trash bag fastened with duct tape. Quite a production just to take a shower.

She will be in the cast 4 to 5 weeks, so she'll probably still be wearing it during Christmas gatherings. Her Mommy is really hoping she'll get the cast off as a birthday present. Kinley turns 2 on December 30. It would be great to unwrap the cast before she unwraps her presents.

Morning at Eagle Lake

The camera button got jostled and I didn't notice it as I clicked away that morning at Eagle Lake on the Morehead State University campus. The setting was "soft." It wasn't what I intended, but it was a happy accident, I suppose, since it offered a dreamy, soft focus.

That was my second trip to the lake that morning. The first time, the sun was hidden behind a steel gray sky ...

... and fog lingered in the snow-tipped trees.

Eagle Lake is always on my list of places to visit when we're in Morehead. It never disappoints. Created in 1950 on the northern edge of the campus, the 30-acre lake was named for the majestic symbol of the University, the American Bald Eagle.

Whether reflecting the cloud-dotted blue sky of September ...

Created in 1950 with the impoundment of Evans Branch on the northern edge of the campus, this pristine, 30-acre lake was named for the majestic symbol of the University, the American Bald Eagle. Except for a small portion at the north end where Evans Branch empties into the lake, the shoreline property is owned by the University. - See more at: http://www.moreheadstate.edu/content_template.aspx?id=6707#sthash.bXlZKJis.dpuf Whether reflecting the August sky ...

... the icy waters of January ...

 

.... or the crisp cold of a November morning ...

... it never disappoints. 

Eagle Lake is part of the Daniel Boone National Forest. The Eagle Lake Trail starts on the Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail, but the majority of the trail is owned by MSU. So far, our visits to Morehead have not been conducive to hiking the trail. The first time, we were moving Brent from South Carolina to Kentucky, and our exercise was carrying boxes from the moving truck into the house and unloading them. During our other two trips to Morehead (the most recent during Thanksgiving week), we have brought unseasonably cold weather and snow.

So, instead of exploring the trail on foot, I stood at the start and took a few photos.

 

I would have liked to have seen the lake in the fall. Brent just might have made fun of my long-distance obsession with the leaves in Kentucky. But a fall trip didn't fit on the calendar of a Kansas farm family, what with fall harvest and moving cattle home from summer pastures.

So, I will have to be happy with another cold-weather view. And I am.

Earth and sky, woods and fields,

lakes and rivers,

the mountains and the sea, 

are excellent schoolmasters.

John Lubbock

Love Came Down at Christmas

My house still doesn't reflect any Christmas spirit after our trip.  (I did get all the Thanksgiving "stuff" gathered up yesterday.) But even though our tree is still in the cardboard box and the Nativity sets are likewise cushioned safely in their plastic tubs, I've been thinking about Christmas ever since our visit to Morehead (KY) State University last week. 

The bell tower in the center of the campus was decorated for Christmas. When I saw the tower and the snow-dusted world on Thanksgiving Eve, a song kept going through my head:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

It's the only thing that there's just too little of.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

No, not just for some, but for everyone.

The bell tower was presented to Morehead State University in April 1997 as a tribute to Kentucky horse breeder William Paul Little by his wife, Mary Caudill Little, who was an advocate of education through the creativity of the arts. Each of the tower's four sides feature a virtue important to the Littles:

WISDOM

You can barely see WISDOM through the eagle's wing from this angle.

SERVICE  (and love) ...

JUSTICE (and love). 

When I got back home, I realized that LOVE kept showing up in my shots of the bell tower. How fitting was that! (The greatest of these is LOVE. I Corinthians 13:13)

As the carol says,

Love came down at Christmas

Love all lovely, love divine

Love was born at Christmas

Star and angels gave the sign. 

 

Maybe if we incorporated a little more love into our daily lives, we, too, could fly like eagles in the face of our too-busy lives. Worth a try, right?

Those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40: 31

That's a message I need to hear during this busy holiday season.

***

Today, I'm linked to Jennifer Dukes Lee's Tell His Story and to Emily P. Freeman's Chatting at the Sky. 

***

Another interesting fact about the bell tower:  The bell came from the Littles' Palmeadow Farm. Cast in 1886 by the C.S. Bell Company of Hillsboro, Ohio, the iron bell is one year older than Morehead State University.

Santa Claus and Turkeys

The calendar says December, but my dining room still says November. We just got back yesterday afternoon after spending Thanksgiving in Kentucky with Brent. I've gotten some of the Thanksgiving decorations transferred to the dining room table, but it definitely looks more like fall at my house than the stop-you-in-your-tracks fact that Christmas is only 3 weeks away.

The closest thing to a Christmas tree at my house are the cedar trees in a neighbor's pasture, providing texture to a December sunrise sky this morning. 

I guess it's good we got a dose of Christmas cheer on a stop we made on our 1,890-mile journey to Morehead, Kentucky, and back, since it may be a few days before there is any visible evidence of Christmas here on the County Line. On the way, we stopped at Santa Claus, Indiana. It began snowing lightly as we drove a few miles off the interstate and into the small community of Santa Claus. (They must have an "in" with the weatherman, don't you think?)

We spent some time in the Christmas shop there, and someone put my name on the "Nice" list in Santa's workshop. (I wish I'd taken a photo of the list, but I didn't think about it until we were down the road.)

We bought and addressed a postcard for Kinley, and I took some photos of Randy and Santa in front of the post office. Then one of Santa's helpers (just some local guy visiting the post office) stopped and offered to take our photo together. He said it's just part and parcel to take photos of strangers when you live in a place called Santa Claus.

  

I consented, even though I'd much rather be on the other side of the lens. Randy did, after all, put me on the nice list, so I thought I'd better follow through.

We seem to take cold and snowy weather with us when we visit Morehead, which dampens enthusiasm for outdoor tourist activities.

But it sure made Eagle Lake on the Morehead State University campus pretty. (It's my favorite place in Morehead, though Coffeetree Books and the Fuzzy Duck Coffee Shop are in contention, too.)

More to come from our trip (once I dig out from the pile of laundry, etc.)!

86,400 Seconds

As I slipped my mug under the coffee maker's spout, the clouds caught my eye. The sun had not yet risen above the horizon. But the tops of the clouds were already catching the promise of the sun.

Sunrise, November 20, 2013

Isn't it ironic that a sky filled with clouds makes for the most spectacular sunrises and sunsets?

You'd think that the clouds would mar the scene. Instead, they are like diamonds, catching the varied facets of light from the different angles.

When life doesn't go as you'd hoped, it can be hard to see the light through the clouds.

But, a morning like this reminds me to keep looking for the wonder, even in disappointment.

 

The geese's call punctuates the cold air and they make commas in the sky near the barn's cupola. Another day has begun ... another day to look for Light despite the clouds.

Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song. Psalm 95:2

***

We will spend Thanksgiving in Kentucky with Brent. More on our trip when we get back to the County Line.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Frost on the Pumpkin

The leaves fall, the wind blows,

and the farm country slowly changes

 from the summer cotton into its winter wools.

Henry Beston, Northern Farm

Friday's sleet and dusting of snow wasn't our first foray into winter this year. In fact, it was more than a month ago that we had snow fall while the leaves were still green and the summer annuals were still in bloom.

October 18, 2013 - The first snow this fall/winter

This time, the temperature felt more like winter.

If you stand still outside you can hear it... Winter's footsteps.

From Animal Crossing: Wild World

Like the flag on the mailbox signals a delivery, the snow heralds the season to come.

Ready or not!

Nature Lesson

The sun touched the leaves, making them shimmer like gold against a blue sky. It was almost as if God was decorating his Creation for worship on that November 10 Sunday dawn. 

Like a real-life Thomas Kincaid painting, the scene seemed to glow from inside out.

And, yet, just 10 days later, the leaves have lost their luster. A hard freeze stole the gold from the trees just as assuredly as a thief robs a bank of its treasure.

The wind was its accomplice. Only a few hardy leaves hold on for dear life, gripping the barren limbs like a screaming teenage girl grips the armrest on a roller coaster ride.

This fall has been an oasis of autumn color after two years of drought.  It's amazing what a little rain can do to the fall foliage show, not to mention farm crops.

 

But maybe the leaves that crunch underneath my feet and flutter down from the canopy of cottonwoods that welcome me home are a reminder. Sometimes, we have to let the old fall away so that we can be ready for something new.

November 6, 2013

November 18, 2013

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ... Remain in me, as I also remain in You. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from Me, you can do nothing. ... If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples."

Selected verses from John 15: 1-8

I will seek beauty in the barrenness as the winter wind howls and snow decorates brown branches. And then I'll celebrate the spring and return to green. Thank you, God, for the four seasons and the reminders they bring!

February 2013

It's not what we say about our blessings, 
but how we use them,
 that is the true measure of our thanksgiving.
 –W.T. Purkiser, preacher and author