Goodbye, 2010!  Thank you for such a challenging and beautiful year.  You gave me the will to rise early.  You brought ten thousand pounds of grains into our neighbors kitchens, and local bread onto the shelf at Wheatberry.  You brought a drought that walked us out to the Three Sisters Field each day carrying gallons of water to tender seedlings, and then you brought us incredible bounty.  You took my grandmother back to the earth, and you brought beautiful babies to friends we love dearly.  You brought a love of dancing to Ella.  You brought handknits and clothes washed by hand.  You brought a new field to work with, and new depth to Ben’s work with Cole.  You brought us our first shearing and our first lambs.  You nearly brought us to our knees, and you lifted us up.  Goodbye and thank you, and welcome 2011!  And thank you to all of you, for sharing the journey with us.

* * *

P.S. There won’t be any Whole Grain Weekend today, due to the holiday.  Happy New Year’s friends!

Grateful for my first food other than miso and chicken broth – I craved cabbage soup.

Grateful for family visiting, warm fires, and these brave little candles in the window.

Grateful that this vest is almost done!  (I took this photo for Yarn Along, but our power was out Wednesday.)  Happy Hannukah, Happy December – may your inner lights be bright as the days grow shorter.

I’m grateful for the new cat in our life, a sweet grey fluffy girl named Jasper.

I’m grateful for the arrival of a very dear old friend, who is here for Thanksgiving!

I’m grateful for our customers, and our community, which helps us do the work we love.

I’m grateful for successful homemade tortillas (recipe soon!) for dinner last night, and a gathering of friends for dinner tonight.

I’m grateful for my sweet three year old – three and a half next week!  Whose favorite game right now is that she is the dancer, and I am the audience.  Have I mentioned that the audience gets to knit?  I hope it never ends.

I’m grateful, always, for those moments in the day when my hands find their work and know what to do.  When I do not need to enter elaborate mental negotiations, do not need to reign in my temper, my own crankiness, or figure out how to get someone’s shoes on without outright coercion or force.  When I can simply haul a bale of hay, shape loaves, knit a few stitches, make some small beauty.

I’m grateful for this space, and for my camera, which reminds me that there is some beauty in each day, and that where we put our focus is where our hearts and minds follow.  May some beauty and peace find you in this busy season.

I’m grateful for the fall, which lays bare the bones of the land again, showing us her curves and beauty.  The mountains appear sometimes as we drive up and down these hills, the stones walls peek out from beneath the fallen leaves.

Grateful for these healthy lambs, which are getting so big!  Someone else is getting big, too, but not too big to have a silly photo shoot with her daddy, and for that I am very grateful indeed.

Blessings on your weekend, friends.

Some days, I do not get to start my morning on my mat.

Some days we seem to wake up attached to our difficulties.

Some days feel like walking up a steep hill, sliding on thousands of tiny pebbles.

Some days, thousands of pounds of grain appear and get loaded into your horse stall, ready to be distributed to CSA members tomorrow, and you walk outside to greet your farmers, then realize you have paint smeared all over your face.

Some days, you give in and give yourself and your child a nap.  Some days, your daughter, the one who has spent the morning wicked crabby, wakes up and says, Mommy, I really really like you.

Some days go on and on, but somehow dinner gets made, and the table gets set, and everyone does sit down together.  Candles are lit, a blessing is said, and we are, indeed, blessed.

Blessing on your weekend, friends.  For those of you who are members, we’ll see you tomorrow, and joyfully give you the first half of your shares!

This past week, when Ella wasn’t deep in some sort of developmental craziness, we talked about sheep and wool.  We made some felted rocks for our nephews’ first birthdays, and we did this sheep, which I’m totally in love with.  I just drew an outline on paper, gave her some fleece and glue, and she did the rest.

Sometimes, it seems that everyone in blogland has the same idea at the same time.  I’ve seen several posts about books lately, and I had been thinking of one for weeks myself.  So here we go!

Some for littles:

(Quick note – I am very picky about books for Ella at this age.  So many picture books are actually written for the adults, not the children, and are either too scary, or model totally inappropriate behavior.  Sarah just talked about this, too.)

Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep by Teri Sloat  (seriously, can you see the naked sheep tushie in this photo?  This book is hilarious and sweet.)

When the Sun Rose and Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Berger

The Apple Pip Princess by Jane Ray (love, love, love this story – an ordinary princess restores the gardens of her kingdom!)

Mouse Cleaning by Rose-Marie Provencher

Red Berry Wool by Robyn Eversole

Digby and Kate by Barbara Baker (yes, this is an “easy read” book, but no, I’m not teaching Ella to read with it, it’s just a very sweet simple set of stories)

And some for the big people:

Sink Reflections by Martha Cilley (yes, the Flylady - this book is amazing!!)

The Naturally Clean Home by  Karyn Siegel-Mayer (a really neat book for using essential oils and herbs for cleaning)

Kingdom of Childhood by Rudolf Steiner

Doodlestitching by Aimee Ray

The Petit Appetit Cookbook by Lisa Barnes

Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health by Rosemary Gladstar

Have a great weekend, everyone.  I’m grateful for my sweet girl, great books, good work together, and good food, as always.  Plus, getting to share it with you.

*What wonderful comments from all of you, dear readers, on yesterday’s posts.  Replies are on the way – I would be delighted to make some chicken stock together, and some bread.  Let’s talk about nourishing your family (and yourself!) without driving yourself nuts.  Let’s walk this path together.*

The best antidote to feeling frightened at the state of the world – feeling gratitude for this world.

Gratitude for an incredible, perfect fall day – crisp, breezy, still warmed by the sun.

Gratitude for the incredible autumnal light, bending low across the skies.

Gratitude for the stars in the black night, and the Milky Way spilling across it all.

Gratitude for family – my dad visiting, my own sweet ones I share my days with.

Gratitude to be here, and be part of it all.  Thinking of this:

Labore est Orare

I have hoped, yes, to become
prayer in work.

Before sunrise,
when the bears and birds
are still sleeping, I do not
say matins.  I light the ovens.
Lord, I do not know
where to find you, or how
to do your work.
I raise these loaves,
I labor, arms laden
with sacks of flour,
for a heart scrubbed clean
of these trespasses.

It has not worked yet.
Perhaps a garden,
rock grit and bloom.
The digging, the heavy
earth, the harvest
like a blessing.

(c) Adrie Lester 2005

]]> http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/2010/10/08/gratitude-friday-20/feed/ 1 http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/2010/09/30/gratitude-friday-19/ http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/2010/09/30/gratitude-friday-19/#comments Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:48:24 +0000 adrie http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/?p=1998 Sometimes, after making hundreds of tomato sandwiches and salads, and putting up dozens of quarts of tomatoes for the winter, you come home to kitchen counters filled with this.

And this.

Over 100 pounds of tomatoes, some to be used right away (there’s Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup at Wheatberry, folks!), the rest to be sorted into flats, and stacked up at the top of the basement stairs to slowly ripen (I hope).

Other than the work itself, the only thing to do is to be grateful.  Grateful for a hot dry season that brings a crazy amount of tomatoes to us, grateful for the skills old and new to make sure those tomatoes are not wasted, grateful for all the hands that help make it possible.

Oh yes, and this bushel basket of carrots, too.

Have a wonderful weekend folks – see you at the Garlic and Arts Fest, I hope.  And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot of veggies calling my name.

Edited to add: Stop whatever you’re going to do next, and read Kyce’s post on renewal – you’ll be so glad you did.

Today, we erected the frame while Cole looked on in amusement and nervousness,

and finished putting the roof on just minutes before the rains came pouring down onto the new dried bean harvest.  Hooray!

So much gratitude for all the crew who helped, the incredible Seth who surprised us all when he lept onto the bent like a monkey, for Ella who rode in the Ergo on my back while we raced to finish, and especially for Ben, who visioned it all and makes it all possible.

Head on over to localgrain.org to see what we’re grateful for this week – the beginning of the bean harvest!