Summer is Coming!, Quilting, Church, and Bee Thoughts
Today was finally warm enough (about 40 degrees) for our ice and snow to turn slushy and begin to melt. When I took Houdini (my pup) for a walk I could actually feel the warmth on my skin, despite only partially sunny skies. It felt wonderful to be able to stroll along the dirt roads and actually be able to see the dirt, and to not be shivering uncontrollably. Granted, it could still be another month or two before all the snow is gone and the garden can be planted. But today has given me hope that this year we will in fact have a summer.
Today I also began my first attempt at a baby quilt. We had a good amount of fabric left over from the curtains we made for the baby room. Not wanting to waste a scrap of it, I already made a pillow cover for when the baby is big enough for pillows, and have now begun to do more than plot about the matching quilt. It has been probably thirteen years since I last worked on a quilt, and I was mostly an observer. So this is an ambitious endeavor, that may come out looking more like a sorry excuse for a pin cushion, but I am optimistic. If nothing else, I am enjoying the act of physically doing something for my baby. It has been a long 26 weeks, and with about 14 more to go, I find that I just want to do something, anything to make this experience more than just an internal one.
My hubby and I were able to go to church over the weekend for vigil and liturgy. I think we were both just so happy to finally be in church after over a month of one or the other of us being too sick to make the journey. It was so comforting to be able to stand with my eyes closed, listening to the choir, smelling the incense and beeswax candles, and to just be there. On top of that, it was Palm Sunday, which means liturgically it has been one year since I was chrismated. This was the most beautiful Palm Sunday I have ever spent in church, a real tribute to the effort put in by the parishioners and priest to make sure that everything was just right. For maybe twenty minutes at a time I would just stand there mesmorized by how beautiful the church was, how nicely the palm and willow branches were prepared, how much the priest enjoyed blessing everyone with copious amounts of holy water, and how much practice the choir must have put in for that weekend. It was very moving.
On a different note, I am worried about my husband's business future. He makes hand dipped beeswax candles and votives. More than half of his business is with the OCA in Alaska. He loves to make the candles, our entire family loves the aroma that fills the house, and I enjoy that he is able to work from home. But it seems like everyday there is bad news about the bees in this and other countries. This winter had many cold and warm spells across the US, that fooled many bees into leaving the hives too early, only to freeze and starve before they could return. In addition, many beekeepers looking to make more profit at the expense of moral and environmental consciousness, have been engaging in a practice where they remove too much of the honey the bees create, leaving them too little for nutrition, and then "supplementing" with sugar water, corn syrup, etc. So even bees that are not wondering out of the hives during the winter, are dying, or are not producing normal quantities of honey and wax. At first I did not pay too much attention to the reports about the bees. And then it hit me, that as the bees die, so does our family's way of life. My husband works hard to make the most beautiful dripless beeswax candles I have ever seen. For him it is an art that he has been perfecting for longer than I have known him (more than six years). He does not make a lot of money from it, as who can charge full price to churches that can barely feed their priests? But he makes enough to support us, and to keep me from having to work outside the home. If this problem with the bees continues, wax will be in very short supply, and he may end up closing up shop. He can always finish his accounting degree or work construction like he has in the past. But what will happen in the churches? What candles will they use then? Toxic paraffin? It is a sad and scary thing to contemplate.
Today I also began my first attempt at a baby quilt. We had a good amount of fabric left over from the curtains we made for the baby room. Not wanting to waste a scrap of it, I already made a pillow cover for when the baby is big enough for pillows, and have now begun to do more than plot about the matching quilt. It has been probably thirteen years since I last worked on a quilt, and I was mostly an observer. So this is an ambitious endeavor, that may come out looking more like a sorry excuse for a pin cushion, but I am optimistic. If nothing else, I am enjoying the act of physically doing something for my baby. It has been a long 26 weeks, and with about 14 more to go, I find that I just want to do something, anything to make this experience more than just an internal one.
My hubby and I were able to go to church over the weekend for vigil and liturgy. I think we were both just so happy to finally be in church after over a month of one or the other of us being too sick to make the journey. It was so comforting to be able to stand with my eyes closed, listening to the choir, smelling the incense and beeswax candles, and to just be there. On top of that, it was Palm Sunday, which means liturgically it has been one year since I was chrismated. This was the most beautiful Palm Sunday I have ever spent in church, a real tribute to the effort put in by the parishioners and priest to make sure that everything was just right. For maybe twenty minutes at a time I would just stand there mesmorized by how beautiful the church was, how nicely the palm and willow branches were prepared, how much the priest enjoyed blessing everyone with copious amounts of holy water, and how much practice the choir must have put in for that weekend. It was very moving.
On a different note, I am worried about my husband's business future. He makes hand dipped beeswax candles and votives. More than half of his business is with the OCA in Alaska. He loves to make the candles, our entire family loves the aroma that fills the house, and I enjoy that he is able to work from home. But it seems like everyday there is bad news about the bees in this and other countries. This winter had many cold and warm spells across the US, that fooled many bees into leaving the hives too early, only to freeze and starve before they could return. In addition, many beekeepers looking to make more profit at the expense of moral and environmental consciousness, have been engaging in a practice where they remove too much of the honey the bees create, leaving them too little for nutrition, and then "supplementing" with sugar water, corn syrup, etc. So even bees that are not wondering out of the hives during the winter, are dying, or are not producing normal quantities of honey and wax. At first I did not pay too much attention to the reports about the bees. And then it hit me, that as the bees die, so does our family's way of life. My husband works hard to make the most beautiful dripless beeswax candles I have ever seen. For him it is an art that he has been perfecting for longer than I have known him (more than six years). He does not make a lot of money from it, as who can charge full price to churches that can barely feed their priests? But he makes enough to support us, and to keep me from having to work outside the home. If this problem with the bees continues, wax will be in very short supply, and he may end up closing up shop. He can always finish his accounting degree or work construction like he has in the past. But what will happen in the churches? What candles will they use then? Toxic paraffin? It is a sad and scary thing to contemplate.