It's Tuesday

For quite sometime my first born has been calling on Tuesday morning and announcing, "It's Tuesday". She doesn't do it quite so much any more, since I would answer rudely BY saying, "WHAT?", quite loudly. I think she was put off by it. I just meant it to be an endearing thing I said in a sort of Kathryn Hepburn sort of way. I don't think she thinks it so endearing.

My first born SS is the wife of a pastor and lives in a tiny town in Pennsylvania. They have two sons, whom I usually describe as little boys. However, as I was telling someone that last week I realized that two boys aged 14, almost 15, and 12 are no longer little boys. They are quite big boys, both in size and spirit.
SS home schools her sons every day. She tends to another young man on Tuesdays so his homeschooling mom can go to her part time job.

I think a very deep regret of both mine and my husband's is that we don't get to be with these two very much. They are kept quite busy by their church activities and we are not as able to travel as we once were.
But I do love the Tuesdays, the IM and the phone calls on non Tuesdays.

It's hard to maintain long distance relationships, it requires effort, and when one doesn't put forth the effort, the relationship suffers, wilts, withers, and fades away. I would not want that to happen. I cherish all of my children as well as any time I have with them.

I realize that most of the time, the problem is with me, but then I am the mom, and it's always your mother's fault. It's ok to blame us, we did it to our moms, and besides, we're strong and we can take it.

Good morning

Well, I never got around to posting after Sew and Share day at church. I finished the top of my table top quilt. Now I have to decide on how to back it, and get the batting for the middle. I am very pleased with my first actual quilt. It's only 32" x 32", but to me it's quite an accomplishment. I have always wanted to quilt, as evidenced by my collection of quilting books, but I never had someone to teach me how to go about it, now that I have Jan and Barbara, I can make a boat load of quilts, starting now. I have a good idea of what I want to do next, but I need a little help deicphering the pattern. Nothing too crazy just now, let's keep it simple. I want to use up a lot of scrap fabric, so they'll be crazy quilts for now.

We are having quite a storm here today, I love when it rains and the wind blows and the thunder rattles the windows. I don't like it when the sirens go off and you have to head for the basement. We have only done that once in the five years we've lived here. Probably should have gone a few other times, but we lucked out and it missed us.

I am waiting to hear about the newest addition to our church family. Our friend Rebekah is having her baby Nataly as I type. I am praying for you both that it is over quickly and everyone is fine, strong and healthy.

I am going to lay out the fabric for my quilt backing today. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

To any moms that may read this today. I hope your day was blessed.
This is our first mother's day without a mom. My mother passed away on June 4, last year and Bill's mom died in November, so it's a little strange this year.
Our family celebrated Mother's day last night at our son's house, it was very nice, except that our oldest daughter couldn't be there. We had a nice cake and meal, and celebrated my birthday, which is today as well.
This morning I had the mothers of the 2 and 3 year olds, at church, in for "Muffins with Moms".
The kids seemed pretty excited about it, and one of the little boys, Zachary, had a birthday today, too. So we did a birthday party, too. He and I are birthday twins. We had juice, confetti cupcakes and mini muffins, those kids were wound up when I left them.
Wahoooooooooo. what a day.

Quilt Day

What a great day this is already. My friend Heather posted pictures of her new son's 100 Good Wishes quilt on her blog. and this is my day to go to meet my friends for quilt day.
Heather's quilt, for her son Jake, is just gorgeous, many people, who know the family, sent 9" quilt squares along with a good wish for Jake, the little one they adopted from China. The quilt lady did all the quilting in red to go along with the Chinese proverb about the invisible red thread that joins people who are destined to be in each other's lives. This always makes me think of the red cord that Rahab, in the Old Testament, place in the window of her home in Jericho, so she and her family would be saved. It represents the red cord that has run down through history symbolizing our salvation in Jesus Christ.
I really love that quilt, it's huge and she posted pics of Jake all wrapped up in it. Cute!

Today is my quilt day, several of the women from my church get together to sew/ share and work on their craft projects, but actually Jan and Barbara are teaching most of us to quilt.

I am so excited, that really seems a little silly, doesn't it? But I love working on my little table topper quilt. It's a Christmas theme and very cute. I started by hand piecing, but I quickly realized that if I have to spend that much time doing this little quilt, I will never finish it, because I bore quickly. So I changed the plan after piecing about one row and some trim by hand, I switched to the good old sewing machine. It's moving along much faster now, even though I only work on it on quilt days.

I guess I enjoy the fellowship of the other women, chatting, going to lunch and just seeing what every one else is working on, it's pretty inspiring.

There is a plan for another scrapbooking/ quilting weekend get-away in the fall. Late September or the first weekend in October is the idea. I think that sounds great. 24 hours (for our group only stays one night) of non-stop scrapbooking. Well OK, we do stop and sleep, and of course we eat, but there is no one asking for meals or any of that junk, we just scrapbook our little brains out. Some ladies bring all their quilting stuff and work on that. I love spending the time scrapbooking.

Well, I am off to work on my Christmas table topper. Oh, I think we are going to go to lunch and JoAnn fabrics too, what a great day.

Last night

Well it was an interesting night. We had just gotten into bed, when I heard a beeping sound. We looked out side, and there were several police cars in the street. Seems one of our neighbors, made a "run for the border", and on his way home from the taco store ran into a couple of autos on the street, tore up his car, which he continued to drive, and landed in the neighbor's yard.

As you may have guessed, he was pretty drunk. I was told that when the car landed he bailed and was chased down the street by another neighbor. He ran into someone's dark back yard.

Cops were searching the area for him, and other cops were searching his car and the street. I guess he tossed something out the window on his way down the street, maybe a taco.

They called a tow truck and hauled the car away, and the street got quiet again.

It was all over in about an hour, it was a lovely evening outside, very windy, though. Too bad the neighbors only get out to see one another when someone has trouble.

Long time, what?

Well I thought some how, I was going to get cracking on this blogging, like some other people I know, but alas, I just have not been at it. I really want to be a writer, but at my age I feel that is just another of those many things I was always going to do.
I have been having a lot of fun getting together with some of the women from my church for the purpose of scrap booking. I love scrap booking and feel a real sense of urgency to get things together and organized. I want my family to know how much I have always loved them and cared about them, and it's easy to see that everyone is growing up and older at an alarming rate. Where has all the time gone?
I miss my friends, my true friends, not just some acquaintances, the girls. We have not had the opportunities for get togethers as much as we would like, but that's life.
I have recently started quilting with some of the gals at church, this has been a life long goal, don't know how it will end, but I'm on my way.
I realize I have been just rambling along here, but I can't get a train of thought to go in one direction.
We are heading to Ankany, Iowa tomorrow for a Camp counselor training weekend. This is going to be interesting, never been a camp counselor before, so why not start at 61?
Not much going on with the kitchen, we ran out of cash, and ideas. The laundry room has been painted, needs to be touched up, and the floor will be laid this weekend, while we're gone. But then (I have been saying this for two months) it may be usable next week. Wahoo, what a great day that will be. I am so ready to get this mess cleaned up and get my life back. I know it sounds like a real great idea, but I am tired of having the microwave and the refrigerator in my living room.
Have a great day.