The Event ~ Dreamin'

More appropriately, I should title this "Nightmares".  I'm sure everyone has at one time or another wondered why they dream the things they dream?  Why certain people come in and out of our dreams?  People who are mere aquaintences, people who really have nothing to do with our own lives?  How do these people with such vivid clear faces enter into our dreams?  Why do dreams appear to be so real?  What triggers certain dreams?  Where do we find the answers to these questions?  Maybe a little research on line.

I had another tornado dream the other night.  This one was so real and so vivid, I awoke feeling like I knew exactly what it is like to be in a house blown away by a tornado and flying through the air.  My cat literally looked like it had been jolted by severe shocks of electricity.  What a sight!

I've had dreams (nightmares) of tornadoes several times in past years.  One time I remember I was trying to make friends with the tornado, talking to it through a basement window at a mechanics shop on mainstreet in Bayard!  The tornado had a face with eyes and a mouth and talked to me.

At a recent family gathering Alexis shared that she also dreams of tornados and our dreams are very similar. 

I also have recurring dreams of plane crashes.  I am never in the plane.  I am always on the ground watching a plane spin, fall and crash.  Often the big planes crash in fields close to our house.  I'm usually the one that calls 911.  Sometimes I help rescue survivors.  Sometimes they are really gory!  I'm not afraid of flying, but in reality, when a plane flys over, I keep my eye on it for a long time, making sure it doesn't go into a tailspin and lose altitude. 

I don't chew gum because I've had numerous dreams of not being able to get rid of the gum.  The gum never ends in my mouth and I'm digging all around the inside of my mouth with my fingers trying to get all the gum out of my mouth.  How can there be that much gum in my mouth?  It's really a yucky dream. 

Another recurring dream that I've had several times in the past but not in recent years is losing all my teeth ~ that my teeth would just start falling out for no reason.  I would feel something in my mouth and ~ oops ~ here's another tooth laying on my tongue.  They would just keep falling out, one at a time!

Of course there are always the dreams of being chased.  I think everyone has dreams of being chased, of having to run away from something, frantically.  Those can be really scary.

And then there are the really stupid dreams that put me in all kinds of weird places with all kinds of people from the past or people I don't even know.  When my kids are in my dreams, they are usually little kids again.    Some are just funny, some very weird, some very scary. 

Where does all this come from?  I guess I will have to do some research about dreams!

The Event ~ Puzzleing

Puzzleing - the act of putting puzzles together!

At family gatherings during my childhood years ~ and beyond ~ I remember there always was a puzzle in progress.  I spent many hours with cousins bent over a puzzle scattered on a table.  It was a social activity.

We still do that today, especially on the Corneliusen side of the family.  I recall the last three reunions of this family, there was always a puzzle or two or three in progress.  Family members would casually participate in the puzzle for minutes at a time or hours at a time.  One couldn't walk by without stopping to try and add one more piece to the puzzle.

This puzzle was put together at the 2012 reunion in Montana.  Working on the puzzle are Alexis, Connie, and Evelyn.

I have always enjoyed puzzles and occasionally would have one out to work on when family was around.  But I never had a good place to lay out a puzzle for an extended period of time.  And I didn't like having a wobbly card table taking up space.

At our last auction we worked, I bought a really nice drop leaf occasional table that looks nice wherever I put it.  With the leaves up, it's big enough for a puzzle.  Now I have a puzzle scattered out on it and enjoy spending a few moments here and there to connect a piece or two.  I find it a mental challenge as well.  It's a good brain activity.  Perhaps guests that come and go may also feel drawn into this activity.  How long will this eventful project take?  I thought this would probably take me several months to finish when I started it last week, but I only have about 40 pieces left to place.  I predict I will finish it tonite!

Then I will put it all back into the box and get out another one!  What an eventful challenge!

Finished first puzzle and then finished second puzzle.  It's an addicting event!       10/8/12

The Event ~ Gifting

I have three very small items (gifts) in my home that I have recently realized bring a smile to my face when I happenstance come face to face with them.  That said, I will elaborate a bit on  "gifting".

We gift to those we love, or friends we are close to, because we are following in the example of our Lord God who loved us so much he gave us His son as a gift to us. 

God gave us the gift of his Son that first Christmas; and people ever since have celebrated Christmas by giving people they love gifts at Christmas.  Even little children get caught up in the spirit of giving gifts to people in their family whom they love.   Children give simply and from their heart with enormous joy. 

OK, that said, back to my original train of thought. . . I have three specific items in my home today that could easily have been tossed out,  added to a garage sale box, or lost in the moves. However, these items have managed to stay the course and resurface from time to time and currently hold not only a safe place in my home, but also a special place in my heart.    They are just 3 crazy little things that have gained a spot of honor among my "treasures".

These items are gifts from my children in their younger years.  Two of the items were carefully selected for me for Christmas by Janel and Alexis when they went shopping with Dad at Western Auto store on main street Bayard years ago ~ they must have been maybe 6 and 4 years old ~ I don't even remember the year. But I do remember how pleased and proud they were of the gifts they each had selected. 

Through the years, they were probably packed away, lost, but always resurfaced.  I think its a miracle that I actually still have them.  Through the years I actually forgot who gave what.  I always remembered the majorette was from one of the girls, but which one?  And the lady pin cushion I had actually forgotten it was gifted at the same time as the majorette.  The majorette is in my display hutch with my Americana collection.  And the pin cushion is kept close at hand and in use in my sewing hutch.  But it wasn't until recently during a conversation with Alexis that she reminded me she gave me the pin cushion and Janel gave me the majorette and that they bought them at Western Auto when they went shopping with Dad.  I have no idea the course of our conversation to cause these items to surface in our discussion.  But her remembrance of the occasion, and jogging my memory has made me cherish these two items immensely.  My two special gifts from my two special girls! 

The third item is a special gift from my son.  The gift hangs on the wall amidst more Americana collections.  It is a counted cross stitch flag ~ an unfinished project ~ that Cash made about 1992-1993 when he was 11-12 years old. 

The country quilt shop had recently opened across the street and he went over and asked Donna Considine, the owner, if there was something he could make for his mom.   The counted cross stitch flag was the end result.  She showed him how, and Cash worked diligently on the project, but in the end didn't finish it, leaving it undone with a row of white stripes to finish.  The needle and white thread remains with the unfinished project.  I just placed the remaining thread in the shape of the USA around the flag and stuck the needle in the fabric.  Then I framed the piece.  It is a gift of Cash's love and diligent handiwork at a young age. 

Through the years I have received numerous gifts from my children and my husband.  Today I can't tell what they were and probably most of them I don't even have anymore.  I do know that they were always given out of love. 

I wish I would have kept a journal from the beginning of our married life noting simple little things like what we did each Christmas, the meaningful gifts we were blessed with, etc.  It would be fun to recollect some of those memories.

My grandfather kept a journal for many, many years.  Just a sentence to note something about each day.  Be it the weather, the amount he sold eggs for that day, the price of something he bought, etc.  I remember reading through some of its pages.  That journal still exists and is kept safely by some family member somewhere. 

It's not that we need to put alot of memory and importance on material possessions, but its the memories and love that are part of certain possessions that make them treasures.    And my pin cushion, my majorette, and my unfinished flag are three treasures that I cherish.  They are not tucked away.  They are placed prominently where I can daily enjoy, see and feel the love that was put into each gift.  They are events in my life, my past.  They are eventful memories.