A Visit to the Iowa State Fair Today!

Due to Generous Friends, with whom we attended the Fair,

We Drove In Style! :-)

 

 

 

 

Home Again, Home Again...
We had a Great Day!
:-)

I'd Like You to Meet My Dad

My Dad
(All the photos below were taken within the past year)

I’d like you to meet my Dad. He was born at home, on a farm, July 15, 1921. The eldest of seven children, six of whom reached adulthood, he remained on the farm after high school graduation, assisting in the livelihood of his family. In 1945, my grandparents purchased a farm and moved their family to northern Iowa. My parents were married June 28, 1947, continued to farm, and raised five children of their own.

Being raised during the Great Depression gave Dad a keen sense of economy and management. He was a consummate reader, and enjoyed learning about and discussing numerous subjects. He and mom loved playing games such as Scrabble, Phase II, and Boggle. If you chose to participate in a game of Boggle, you would soon learn they did not record three-letter words. Their vocabularies were immense and they wore the letters off the dice on four games over the years.

Dad was 5’9,” muscular and fit, due to the amount of physical labor he performed on the farm. As an illustration, in 1960, after having moved to a farm north of Clear Lake, he climbed the hanging rope, without the use of his legs, to the ceiling and back down again, in our domed gymnasium! He raised hogs, cattle, sheep, chickens and the normal corn, beans, oats/straw and hay. He tore down buildings and built buildings. Yes, he was hard-working. He never expressed displeasure with his life, worked tirelessly and very hard, all the while whistling as he went about his chores.

Yes, Dad was 89 years old at his death; nearly 90. However, had you met him even months prior to the onset of the cancer and its complications, you’d never have believed it. He possessed the energy and looks of a man in his mid- to late- 70s. Many people guessed this and he considered this a source of amusement and pride.

You would have liked my dad. He was fun, kind, considerate, and a gentleman; a man of integrity. He rarely criticized – more often stating simply “He/she does the best they can.” He respected the authority of special training; and he expected the honesty and conscientiousness that he, himself, offered. He was trustworthy and was “as good as his word.” If he said he would do something, it was finished to his best ability and in a timely manner.

Dad possessed a gregarious nature, a love of people, and a fine sense of humor. Dad laugh was infectious; often helping me, as a youngster, to locate him in a crowd. My dad was not perfect. But he was fun, interesting, fair, and a gentleman. He had a strong personality. He and each of his brothers employed a firm handshake and would often offer others a hearty clap on the back.

My dad was a family man. His family (and mom’s) was our extended family. There were family reunions and softball games. As a father, he was strict but fair. He was a very considerate husband, and he worked very hard to provide for his family.

My father was very artistic, but had little time, as I was growing up, to indulge interests of that sort. He once or twice mentioned that it might have been fun to work as a cartoonist for Walt Disney. It was after his retirement, that he began to enjoy many artistic endeavors. Many years ago (30?) he took one calligraphy class, purchased a book and taught himself to perfect the art. He practiced diligently; filling notebooks with many of his favorite sayings. He painted signs for many people, businesses and special occasions in the area.

For a few years, he enjoyed creating and painting Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs. He took painting and ceramics classes at McNeider Art Museum. While he didn’t pursue the ceramics, he continued to paint pictures for awhile.

He loved both wood-working and whittling. He made many intricate items such as model cars, plate hangers, fancy folding doll-sized rocking chairs, etc. from a variety of woods including oak and walnut. He graduated to intarsia; a form of woodworking picture-puzzle creations using several types of wood in each project – usually incorporating hand-carving alongside his various tools. One of his personal favorite creations was a hand-carved (including the bill, legs and claws) wren that he attached to a twig. It hangs on a wall at home.

Dad loved researching and recording our families’ genealogies. At nearly 80 years of age, he began working with, and becoming fairly proficient on the computer. Dad finished the book on his paternal family several years ago, including photographs and a few stories. He possessed a wealth of stories and information. He and Mom traveled around Iowa and several other states to visit cemeteries and photograph headstones. A few years ago, he began his mother’s as well as my mom’s families.

Dad was once a member of a local school board; a member of a local community club; faithful church-goer and long-time (from the early 1960’s until the present) member of their adult Sunday School class from Manly; a Mason City Men’s Garden Club member for several years – putting in many hours in East Park; a member of the First United Methodist Church of Clear Lake for many years; and for the last several years, a volunteer in the “fix-it” department of the Opportunity Village store (where you could hear him whistling as he worked).

Advice I passed to children in my second grade classrooms included something he told me when I was young: “Watch your behavior. Every girl grows up to be a woman but not every girl grows up to be a lady. Every boy grows up to be a man, but not every boy grows up to be a gentleman.”

My father died Friday, April 29, 2011 of advanced pancreatic cancer that had metastasized in his liver and lungs. Although we thought he might yet have a couple of months’ time left, and had begun arranging for Hospice-home care, by Tuesday, April 26, the cancer (and more pain, despite the medication) had taken its toll. He was transferred to the Hospice House and rapidly declined.

You must know one more thing about my father. Although these past several months were so very difficult, my father retained his dignity. Throughout his stay in the hospital, he endeared himself to the doctors and nurses. On the day before he died, while in pain and distress, he was able to sit on the edge of the bed (with help) to address the doctor frankly. When the doctor asked him, “Howard, do you want me to be direct?” My father answered, “Yes, Doctor.” When he was told, “Howard, death is very near. Are you afraid?” My father answered, “No. Death follows life. Death is a natural occurrence. Death is the next step. It is the next step in life.”

My father was my hero. He taught me about life. And he has taught me about death and dying. And he did it all with dignity.

Photo was taken January 8, 2011

A Gift of Pysanky is a Sincere Wish for Your "Best!I

Easter Blessings!

These are for you.* Check out meanings at the close of the post.

*(The reason I own these pysanky is that I dropped them prior to being able to give them away. If you look closely, you'll see a crack on each)

Bible verse 1 John 1:7 tells us that "The blood of Jesus (his death), God's son, cleanses us..." In the words of Max Lucado, Christian pastor and author, writes "Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, "I can clean that if you want." And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes away our sin."

I held three Pysanky workshops prior to Easter this year. A Pysanka is a decorated egg following the traditional Ukranian style and tradition. (plural: pysanky) A basket of pysanky is said to offer protection from evil.

Traditionally, you decorate, and give away to someone special in time for Easter, an unblown egg. The unbroken egg represents absolute perfection and purity with regard to the gift of life. However, I usually give away decorated, empty egg shell. It is much easier to preserve, as it takes a number of years (kept in a cool place) before the egg white and yolk dries out inside an un-blown egg.

You first segment the egg by lightly drawing with a pencil.
Never erase.
The pencil lines "disappear" between the dying and the removal of wax.

The colors, designs and symbols each significant meanings which you chose to use as you create an egg to give away. After you determine your basic design, heat a taper candle and using melted beeswax and a hot kistka, draw the design on the egg.

If you desire to incorporate the color white (meaning purity) in the design, first draw on the white egg.

Then you dye your egg with special dyes purchased from a Ukranian store.

The colors progress from light to dark, with the exception that light green and light blue are first used before orange. The orange dye will wash these colors out before progressing to red, brown, dark green or blue, or purple. Very often the final dye is black.

Upon completion of your design (this is a simple one), the beeswax is carefully heated, melted, and wiped off a small section of the egg at a time.

The final color on this egg was red; meaning we used the white of the egg, and yellow, a spot of green, orange and red dyes.

The last class I taught used the very same basic design but added other elements, symbols and dye colors. Their eggs looked like the one below when they finished dying them black.

Again, using the side of the flame and one small part of the egg at a time, the wax is heated and wiped off. Heating the wax at the top of the flame runs the risk of ruining the design by the soot of the flame (which is what we Wanted when we heated our beeswax!).
This is done slowly and carefully -
but is one of the most delightful, exciting parts of creating
a pysanka.

You will notice triangles, a star, pine needles, ladders, dots, crosses, narrow, never-ending lines (belts) that encircle the egg, and the colors white, yellow, light green, light blue, orange, scarlet, and black.

You might wish (or pray) for the person receiving an egg (depending upon the designs and colors used): triangle (geometric symbol for groups of three: holy trinity; father, mother, and child; birth, life and death), stars (represents God's love toward man, purity, and life), pine needles (health, stamina and eternal youth), ladders (prayers and journey or ascent into heaven), dots (can be stars and/or constellations), cross (represent Christian faith), never-ending lines (eternal life). Colors: white (purity, light, rejoicing), yellow (sun, stars, moon, harvest, warmth, perpetuation of the family), gold (spirituality, wisdom), orange (endurance, everlasting sun, ambition), red (happiness, hope, passion, blood, fire, ministry of the church), red and white (respect, protection from evil powers), blue (sky, air, good health, truth, fidelity), green (spring, hope, freshness, wealth), pink (success, contentment), purple (royalty, faith, trust, patience, fasting), brown (earth, harvest, generosity), black (center of the earth, eternity, darkest time before dawn, absolute), 4 or more colors (family happiness, peace and love).

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Our Anniversary!

We spent our Anniversary weekend in Cedar Rapids at the Ceramic Center!

This is our instructor, Jeff.
What a patient person he was! :-)

He's centered his clay and is now creating a cylinder.

Up it goes!

Here's a bit of clay for me to work with.

A good lot of tools.

These are some of our pots.

Jeff has to finish them for us...
and we'll be picking up the final product soon.
(I'll show you later!)

Thanks for a great time, Jeff!