My Blessings

The last two weeks have been busy. Hosting bon voyage parties for Emily and Ryan, seeing Amy's volleyball team be inducted into George Fox's Hall of Fame ( I am sure Al was grinning his big smile) and traveling to Forrest and Amy's to help prepare Ephraim's and the new baby's rooms for their new arrival. It is good to be busy.

I titled my blog Blossoms and Blessings because I was starting a new adventure with flowers and because I really wanted to be aware of the blessings God provides me daily. Being busy is a blessing - especially when I am able to serve others. I am thankful that my daughter requested some help readying their little ones rooms - it was good to be with them and work along side each other and thoroughly enjoy the wonder of Ephraim as he "helped" us. God certainly has covered my life with blessings with each of my children.

As I read Colleen's message on her blog, regarding Erik's trip to Kenya, I am in awe of their faithfulness to God's direction in their lives. I have so much to learn from them as I venture on my path. Learning and leaning on the faithfulness of my Father.

Michelle continues to warm my heart with her unselfish desire to reach out to young people and opening her heart to the young girls in the youth group that they too may be filled with Christ's love to truly know and follow Him. Listening to her tender voice sing God's praises is soothing to my soul and fills me with His contentment.

Ryan, even though thousands of miles away, I feel his love for his family through his voice during our phone calls. I miss him very much and yet how wonderful to hear his voice and know of his adventures and when I figure out Skype - to see his smiling face! The blessing of technology!

Each continues to bless me and shows me through their lives how I should be a blessing to them and to others.

The past few weeks at work have been filled with the opportunity to create a lot of floral bouquets...all with different reasons.
Twin bouquets for a new brother and sister duet, lots of corsages and boutonnieres for young, excited teens heading to their first dances, graceful roses for birthdays and just because, but also for so many families who have lost a loved one - some who have lived a long life - yet still so hard to say good-bye and some so very young and so unexpected. Each time I am asked to make a floral arrangement for these families, I am reminded of all the love that was bestowed on us when Alvis died so suddenly. I am trying to be so careful and thoughtful to these families, and my desire is to offer each of them a prayer for comfort as they travel this unknowing road. I pray that I will be a blessing to them.

Letting go

In a few days, Ryan will be heading off to Germany for his new job and new adventures - 13 months. I am trying hard to be uplifting and excited for he and Emily. There is a part of me that is excited for them -remembering all the trips Al and I made together and the wonderful history you felt you were almost stepping back into. It is hard to really believe that there can be cities as old as they are, buildings in their magnificent architectural splendor mixed with families simply living every day as we do. I know they will do well exploring and soaking in the culture yet I would be in denial if I didn't acknowledge how much I already miss them and the opportunities to interact with them daily.

There has never been a job I enjoyed more than being a wife and mother and even though we raised our children to be confident adults, letting go is never easy for me. Auf Wiedersehen!

Christmas Wonder

So I have been a little preoccupied with flowers at the flower shop this holiday season. But I was determined to have some fresh flowers in the house before my family arrived - well at least before Christmas dinner! Our home was filled with the voices and song of all our children and grandchildren, my father and my sister, Peg and her family. Wow! It was wonderful. So much wrapping paper and Poteca (our traditional Christmas morning bread - my daughters actually made three while I was at work on Christmas eve!) and hot chocolate!

Watching little ones open gifts and simply being together was perfect for me. My dad said several times how it was a little like heaven to be surrounded by family. I look forward to the time when we will be together in Heaven as family.

There were a few special memories made - Ryan arranging a guided tour of antique cars owned by the Austins (owners of the Allison Inn) for his Grandpa. We would catch my Dad reminiscing during the next few days about the experience. Amy getting bonked by her son and his new plastic bat as soon as it was out of the wrapper (totally an accident) - he has quite a swing for a 19 month old, little girls twirling in their delightful tutus made by Alie and of course the second swan dives into the Willamette by members of my family. Ryan pulled a fast one - leading them to believe he had acquiesced but he fooled us all!

Another first - not having roast turkey for dinner - instead we had a pork loin roast stuffed with apricots and prunes along with some of our family's favorite traditions: Broccoli Puff and Sweet Potato casserole. We turned into the stuffed pigs.

We did have flowers for the table though - simple cubes with a few roses and Christmas greens and ribbon - a Christmas gift, sort of.






Enough about flowers - my family is the most important part of my life. Thank you all for being here. I love you.

An Unruly Choir!

While I was visiting my Dad, I wanted to do something with flowers for him. He has wonderful "Birds of Paradise" blooming in his yard and a variety of berries or blossoms on his palm trees - so my plan was to create something contemporary and whimsical.
Well the only vase Dad had which was tall enough was a beautiful cut glass piece but it was an oval shape which soon became my nemesis!

Collecting the "birds" was not a problem but gathering the berries from the palm trees was -to say the least - ridiculous! I never knew that the palm fronds had short spiky thorns that were really sharp and trying to stay on the ladder and saw through the stem was not an easy task! My sister, Cathy, was great at encouraging and steadying the ladder and keeping me laughing.

We nicknamed the flowers, "The unruly choir" because they really didn't work well in the shape of vase I had and continued to move around no matter how many leaves I tried to stuff in.....

So in this picture I really do think they are laughing at me and singing their own version of "I'll do it my way!"

Giving Thanks

This past week has been a very busy one for me. To begin, just before I embarked on a little trip to see my Dad and two of my sisters in sunny and warm San Diego - I was offered a part time job in a flower and gift shop in Newberg. It has been delightful and scary at the same time. I love arranging the flowers and having so many options to choose from but also scary when I think that I am using someone else's money to make an arrangement and it needs to say "professional and beautiful" at the same time.

I am learning a lot quickly on managing flowers - keeping them fresh and marketable, having bouquets and arrangements ready for customers to walk and pick or helping people choose something - for their table or as a gift.

Yet even though my feet and legs are definitely tired - I am so thankful for the opportunity and for the blessings I have received from the women that I get to work with - they are both fun and encouraging.

Thanksgiving was bittersweet - waking and feeling very lost without Al, yet I enjoyed my day together with Michelle, my niece, Paige and Ryan (who was working until 6:30). Another college friend joined us for dinner, too. Not having dinner until later, gave me plenty of time to prepare and still help with the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle! God continues to show me blessings in little ways - for which I am truly thankful.

Amy, Forrest and Ephraim joined us for part of the weekend which was of course - Wonderful! Ephraim is so much fun - playing soccer and baseball in the living room - how many 19 month olds do you know that understands running the bases and kicking!
Time with him are treasured memories.

Sunday was Alvis' birthday and God blessed us with a gorgeous sunny afternoon. We visited the cemetery and shared memories and watched Ephraim run in the grass. It was wonderful to be together and just think of Al and the role he played in each of our lives. I am grateful to my children for allowing me to spend time with them and their Dad.

I know your day was glorious, Sunshine. I miss you and dream of the time we will be together again.

Practicing

Yesterday I was blessed to receive a request for an interview at one of Newberg's flower shops. It will be tomorrow morning- I am already a little nervous- but also excited for the opportunity. So I headed to the store and purchased a couple bunches of flowers to practice, practice, practice! I made a small corsage - nothing too fancy - I wanted to practice wiring and taping flowers. I also made one larger bouquet - to be viewed from the front and a small bud vase design. The pictures aren't the best but I think the flowers turned out ok. I will have to do a design for Erma tomorrow so I needed to put in some time ..... thinking about the vase, style and shape. I would like to do one more hand tied bouquet before tomorrow! I do love playing with flowers and actually I like the bud vase design - I tied the flowers together with some bear grass, letting the ends act as a ribbon. Ok................ well we'll just wait and see!

Collections

Sometimes it is all about the container. I have always loved pitchers. I am not sure why but I love the fact that they can exude a warm country feeling or elegance to a table setting. Collecting started with a wedding gift from my college roommate - a beautiful cut crystal pitcher that was so elegant to me - something I would have liked to display in our "married student housing" bungalow but it was really much too regal and we had absolutely no place to put it. Thus, it stayed in a box with a lot of other pretties until we had a home of our own. While living in Germany, we travelled to many wonderful towns and cities and I collected a few more - a favorite blue pottery piece from Southern France and of course another crystal piece from Germany near the Polish border. Al enjoyed gathering beer steins so we have a few of those on shelves also.



Part of my fascination with pitchers is that they are not required to hold a beverage - although I use them almost daily for that but because I can envision them clustered together on a shelf or most often filled with flowers - either with a whimsical display of dancing daisies or overflowing with tulips bending in all directions. They are uniquely beautiful in their design and as with many flower arrangements - will help set the mood of an arrangement.


This weekend I chose one of my daughter's pitchers - a milky white round bellied type - and filled it with a gathered arrangement again from the yard. Who knew that I would still be able to play with flowers from outside my door in October? I have learned that the graceful blossoms outside my bedroom door are Japanese Anemone (so of course I bought a few more plants to scatter near our new retaining wall). Along with the anemone, I included a few hydrangeas, dahlias and tendrils of jasmine. It looks very similar to the flowers I did a few weeks ago - but is much more relaxed - a gathered bouquet.

I should be outside taking care of a new crop of weeds but it is fall and shouldn't they be hibernating now? Instead of being annoyed with weeds completely this time, I find myself enjoying the dried varieties and think they will look nice in a "fall" arrangement. Who would have thought with all my complaining about weeds that I would now consider them a blessing!