In the waiting room...

I've been absent here for a few weeks...not intentionally, but more a matter of circumstances. You'd think I'd have MORE time on my hands with the shop only opened on weekends...and in some ways, that's true, but I think both my sister and I are just trying to find some order in our otherwise hectic lives. I must say, as much as I love being in the shop, I cherish the slower pace of the winter months and the ability to spend a whole day in silence and regroup!

I think we're doing alot of regrouping these days. Not just us, but the country as a whole. The economy is hitting small businesses hard and without some serious regrouping there is danger of losing many of them. We'd be lying to say that we're not touched by the slow economy...it's hitting Strasburg as hard as anywhere else, causing us to have to do alot of soul-searching and questioning. We've learned from life experience that until you hear a word to "MOVE ON", you stay where you are and continue to wait. While I risk being quite transparent here, the reality is we are in the waiting room. We pray things will be on an upswing soon...and at the same time need to be smart about moving forward from here. SO we wait!

While we wait, I thought I'd do a little post about something totally random. Aprons. I found this post on a blog called "The Dust Will Wait". It says 'Author Unknown", but whoever wrote it did a great job conjuring up memories and great thoughts of the past...

The History of Aprons I don't think our kids know what an apron is.The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinnerIt will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes. Author Unknown