Battle of the Bobbin

The battle of the bobbin is over and I won! I actually sat down at "the machine" yesterday and read the instructions and created my first bobbin (in over 40 years).  I went on to mend a pair of my husband's athletic shorts with rather mediocre results.  I realized that it isn't using the sewing machine that intimidates me or makes me prefer to do many other things rather than sew.  What frustrates me is all the precision prep work. I now have a rekindled and even greater appreciation for the true seamstresses in my life.  I see the qualities that make them good seamstresses spill over into other things they do: patience, persistence,  commitment, generosity, vision. I don't have any ambition to so anything beyond simple mending, but who knows.  It certainly would do me good to develop more patience and persistence and a number of other qualities.

Boomer Sooner

The Oklahoma Women's Basketball team plays at Colorado tonight.  I will be at the game.  I have been looking forward to the game since October when I checked the Colorado schedule and saw the date.  It will be a historic game in at least a couple of ways.  It will be the last time the two teams meet during the regular season as Colorado is moving to the Pac 10 (or Pac 12 or whatever it will be called) beginning next year.  It may be the last time I get to see the Oklahoma team play in person.  Although I will be cheering for Oklahoma, I must admit I have split loyalties.  I taught Army ROTC at both universities over the years.  I was a season ticket holder at both schools. I was at Colorado when they missed advancing to the Final Four by three points.  My first year at Oklahoma they did advance to the Final Four at San Antonio and I was there. Oklahoma has been back to the Final Four two times since then, while Colorado has struggled over the same time period to be competitive in the Big 12. My experience at both universities was positive, yet I know I will be cheering for the Sooners come tip off tonight.  Perhaps it is a human tendency to go with a winner. Oklahoma is a winner.  Colorado can be again, but I don't think it will be tonight, or even this season. And I will cheer for them in the future. But tonight is my night to be a Sooner in Colorado country.  Boomer Sooner, GO OU!

Post Script:  I was wrong in my prediction.  The CU women upset the OU women in a great game last night.  Could be the beginning of great things for the Buffs and first year coach, Linda Lappe.  It would be wonderful to see the CU women turn things around and return to the top 25 themselves in another year or two.

Grandad's Lap

one of the best memories
that i hold
is as a three year old
climbing up on Grandad's lap
while he sat in the rocking chair

he'd wrap me up
in my favorite beach towel -
the pink one with seahorses on it -
and we'd rock

i don't remember
whether we talked or not
it really isn't important

what i do remember
is the security and love
and well being with the world
i felt as i sat there
with my Grandad
and we rocked

even now
it's that picture in my mind
sustaining me
as i bring my hurts
as well as my joys
to You
and climb up on Your lap
and from that perspective
learn what real security
and love are




(C) 1978 Kathy Jo Schramm

The Rocking Chair

One of my fondest memories of childhood is that of being rocked by my Grandad in a wooden rocker.  He would wrap me up in a beach towel, a pink one with seahorses on it and we would rock.  Somehow that made everything all right.  I think I was 3 or 4 years old, and it was a time of significant turmoil in our family, but the rocking chair with Grandad helped me feel safe and secure.  It was that perspective that helped me many years later, only it was God the Father's Lap, where I needed to spend time.  If I ever figure out how to post poetry here, I will share the poem I wrote that captures the essence and connection, of those two experiences. It is interesting to me that my two year old daughter also gravitates to the rocking chair when she needs comfort, be it hurt feelings or a physical "boo boo". She asks one of us to "sit in the rocking chair" meaning hold her and rock in the rocking chair.  So we hold her and reassure her and talk and listen.  When she is ready (sometimes ten seconds, sometimes ten minutes) she gets down and goes on with her life. It really isn't much different than my Grandad and me or my Father and me.  He always has time to hold me and rock and listen and talk and reassure me that He is with me and always will be. He lets me get down when I am ready and go about my life, knowing He is there waiting in the rocking chair.

The Sewing Machine

The sewing machine sets on the dining room table, where I pass by several times a day.  We are getting acquainted.  I have had "the machine" for several years, but have yet to sew a stitch on it.  My sister, an expert seamstress and quilter, gave it to me as kind of a long term loan many years ago.  I hauled it from her house in Texas to mine in Oklahoma, then moved it to Colorado, to Virginia and now back to Colorado.  The last time I sewed on any machine was probably 40+ years ago - maybe 7th grade or maybe earlier.  I sewed so I could earn my sewing badge in Girl Scouts.  I know one of my projects was a three arm-hole dress.  Does anyone remember those? Tells you a lot about my fashion sense (or lack thereof).  As soon as I earned the badge, I was done with sewing and back outside playing basketball. I have done hand mending and sewn on a few buttons since then, but absolutely nothing with a machine.  It seems like now it would be handy to be able to do some bigger mending jobs.  I have no higher sewing aspirations than that.  I did buy thread over the weekend.  Now I have to actually sit down at "the machine" and figure out the bobbin thing and do some sewing.  My mind wanders back to my childhood and memories of my Mom.  She too was an expert seamstress.  She made clothes for us and did all the mending.  As with many things, I have a much greater appreciation of all that she did for us, now, when it is too late to tell her.  She worked full-time much of my childhood and yet did all the laundry, cooking and a lot of sewing for us.  I can remember getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and there she was in the laundry/sewing room, folding clothes or working on some sewing project. I am glad those type of expectations have not been placed on me.  I will make "the machine" my friend and I will relearn how to sew well enough to handle our mending.  I will pay Aunt Julie to make Emma's Halloween costume this year.  I would still rather be outside playing basketball.  And I am okay with that.

Small Beginnings

I survived my teen years by writing. I used to write daily and then life got busy and busier and I don't write much anymore. My mind still composes things and sees life in interesting perspectives, but those thoughts rarely make it to paper these days. I want to change that. So here is my small beginning. I am excited about the journey.