A Spring Mix

Daughter Gabby over at Sweetest Pea used "Wintry Mix" for her label so I took her idea and changed it to Spring Mix. (Aren't I the clever soul? Don't answer that!)

Let's see what have I been up to since the Shop Hop Saturday?

Well, funerals, and visitations seem to be coming a lot more often these days. I think it has something to do with getting older ourselves. Duh!

Dear friend, Jennie Byrd, went to heaven last Sunday at age 96. She was a member of our former church and one of the two "cafeteria" ladies at our community elementary school. She loved my children and me! At school her mac and cheese was the best I ever ate; and her raisin cinnamon rolls were to die for. At home, her chocolate pie was a favorite at all church functions. She was a knitter par excellance. The last six years or so she had lost most of her sight and hearing so she didn't get out much. Hubs and I did go visit her a few months ago; and I wrote about it here.

Hubs was a part of a group called "The Big Four Plus One" during his Coker Days. (Don't tell him but I think they had delusions of grandeur.) One of the members', Mike McGee, mother died (age 99) the other day and they had a visitation yesterday. Hubs had not seen Mike in 44 years. Neither recognized the other. Mike was a lot fatter; Curtis a lot thinner.

On other fronts, Kathy Baxley called and asked me to PLEASE come to the clinic early yesterday and help her with Walk With the Docs, the Free Medical Clinic's Spring Fund Raiser. As I sang into her voice mail, "I'll do anything for you, anything for you......" I gave her a heads up and a laugh.

It is dangerous to tell that to Kathy Baxley. This woman has more irons in the fire than a posse of cattle branders at a round up. Therefore, she needed help to pull off Walk With the Docs. Fortunately she invited two other more social and savvy ladies to the pow wow. We got it planned and delegated and hopefully the walk will come off without Kathy having to do it all.

Kathy's husband is dying of a rare brain disease. He has been dying since I met her six years ago. He has wasted away to a skeleton and even that is twisted. We don't understand why God doesn't take him home. She has heard all the platitudes.....it is killing her to watch her beloved husband suffer. Her children are past understand. Please pray for mercy.

And yes, I've been quilting on my new quilt.....I love it and getting to steadily sew. Once Bible Study is over today....I am all about sewing.

Oh, I left out Scrabble Club! I brought my dear long time friend, Nena to play with us. I did not tell the group that Nena is a United Methodist Minister. Discussions during the game were very forthright as usual. Peggy, who had interviewed Nena when she first arrived, knew about her being a minister but kept that fact close to her chest. At the end of the night, Peggy took great pleasure in announcing the fact. You could see Elizabeth and Eleanor mentally rewinding their tape screening for what they might have said that was inappropriate in front of a minister.
Funnnnnnneeee!

It is funny, that we are all concerned about what people think of us but pretty unconcerned about what God and Jesus think. Selah.

Stop Shop and Hop

Today was the annual Quilters' Shop Hop in Lancaster, SC. Vendors from North and South Carolina filled the USC Lancaster Auditorium Building. As these shots show there was no lack of consumers.

Sometimes I think quilters print money on the side. They spend like the proverbial drunken sailors; only they are Sober Stitchers. I was a woman on a mission with a very limited amount of cash to spend thanks to the revised budget.

I selected a pattern from a magazine back in the Fall that required 24 Fat Quarters. Translated as 24 Fourths of a yard. It was a scrappy look that called for 8 different red patterned materials, 8 different black prints, 6 different tans, and 2 golds. All of these needed to go together. I couldn't find but two fabrics around home that met the criterion so I have been waiting for this event where there would be an ample selection.

Armed with my pattern I went booth to booth selecting fat quarters, lying them beside the ones I'd already bought and so on. I came home with the requisite number we will see how well they go together when I start constructing the blocks.

Guess What? This quilt will go on the bed in the "boys guest room" irregardless. But I do hope it is a success after all the time, effort and money invested in it.

Yesterday was our dog Scout's 8th birthday and she was extremely happy with her gifts as you can see. Hubs cooked her a steak (well actually shared his steak with her.....I ate a salad) and she had one of her chocolate candies from her box. We do know dogs are NOT SUPPOSED to eat chocolate but our dogs never seem to have read their manuals....they do eat chocolate and they don't get sick or die....Scout has 8 years of eating chocolate behind her....and look Ma...no cavities!

Quilting, Budgeting and More

This is my latest creation prior to squaring it up and binding it. I call it Psychedelic for obvious reasons. Those blocks around the outside are called pineapple blocks and they are done by paper piecing. The panel in the middle is my attempt at folk art. The whole composition makes me happy to look at; I hope it gives you a smile as well.

Yesterday, Hubs and I embarked on a budget update. We had last done this in 2008 so it was in need of revision. Most categories had increased.....ie cable, medicine, propane....and some did not exist.

Last year, our banker had advised us to put everything on Discover rather than use a debit card. He said it was safer; a statement I question. At any rate we found it VERY EASY to put any and everything on ye old Discover Card. We did get $100 back from them in the last year under their cash back rewards plan BUT we probably spent way over $100 in undesignated buying. So we have decided to only use the DC on trips or "approved" Internet purchases. (Approved means there is money in the budget envelopes to cover the purchase.)

I am reading the biography of Betty Smith.....author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (and loaned to me by fellow blogger Mary Bailey). She was the daughter of Irish Immigrants and grew up in the tenements of Brooklyn and so far she has not had financial stability and she is in her forties. I might mention she has worked hard all her life to stay solvent.

Yesterday Hubs picked up the library book I requested called The Fence My Father Built. The narrator's father was an American Indian and the family suffered financial deprivation as well. I heard the author on Chris Fabry Live and was interested in her story. I am reading it as well.

On Wednesday nights there is a PBS program called The American Experience hosted by Louis Gates, Jr. Promo's showed Merel Streep, Steven Colbert, Kristi Yamaguchi and other public figures whose family roots have been researched as far back as possible. All of these people come from immigrant roots (duh, unless you are an American Indian yours do too).

It is so heartening and amazing what our ancestors went through to

• get to America
• leave family and security behind
• be treated like second class citizens (if allowed to become a citizen which was not allowed for any one other than Caucasian or Negro.....go figure)
• overcome tremendous odds (lack of health care...poverty etc..)

I didn't really realize any of this. It is very similar to today's situation regarding immigrants...they are NOT welcomed but they do the work no one else wants to do, they prosper and send money to their families back home.

Those are my "thoughts for today". What are yours?

SC Snowstorm Brings Valentines

Here is a Nana's eye view of my two Grandies who were here for the fabulous February snowstorm of 2010. Todd, Rose and the kids arrived at 6PM Friday just as the snow started here. By bedtime there was a hefty white blanket covering every thing and more coming down. We sat by the breakfast room window playing Scrabble and looking out the huge sliding glass door "window" as the courtyard filled up with snow. It was a Hallmark scene inside and out. I couldn't have been happier to have part of my family with me for this winter wonderland.

Of course as soon as we could eat breakfast we were out in it. I don't know who was more anxious to get out.....me or the kids! We did throw snowballs at each other and attempt a snowman. Mostly we ooohed and ahhhed over how beautiful it was.

By five o'clock it was gone with the sun! The perfect snow storm.....it didn't outwear it's welcome :)

I am SURE all you faithful readers remember my Valentine's post from last year. Sad to say this 65 year old grown woman whined a lot about not getting a valentine from her children or grandchildren. Well, they got the message and remembered it big time this year. Now the flowers and the brown box of truffles are from hubs but the rest are from family. I feel very loved this year.....thank you family for taking the time to honor your childish old Mom. I really do appreciate your humoring me.

This little darling, Caitlin, went above and beyond the call of duty. She made us a card AND this wonderful Handmade box of candy and treasures! For those who don't know....I am THE PJ QUEEN.....who established Pajama Day as a day of rest for women. No makeup, stay in your pj's and treat yourself right!

Hubs is the King Cook! That man can mess with those pots and pan. There is nothing he can't make and nothing he makes doesn't make you want to slap your Mama!

Sadly, I made the Valentines for our Children and Grands. He bought the one for his Mom and picked up some to send to friends we thought might be forgotten and need a lift. But I did not make or buy one for him. I know.....a thousand lashes with a wet noodle as he would say. I did cook him a hamburger for lunch Friday.....and tell him how wonderful he is.....but no tangible gift did I give him. And he said it didn't matter.

So here it is for him and all the world to see:

Honey, you are the best husband a girl could have;

We have so much fun together....

I love it when you ride around me on your pretend horse

And make silly faces in the mirror that make us both laugh

And hold me in your lap although I am Not light as a million feathers

And dry my tears.....And pray for me.....

You are My Knight In Shining Armor, Curtis,

And I will Always Love You!

Mother Teresa/ Pussycat/ Doodle Snoop/ Nancy Neat

Duchess of Hazard/ Mom Dog/Donna/ Nana

Your Wife/ Me!

Mother Teresa Hits the Wall???

My dear MIL (Mother-in-Law) brought me this antique gadget when she came to dinner last night. Any guesses what it is?Okay....time is up.....as you can see it is a thread holder. Pretty cool.....I like antiques (she has certified it was over 50 years ago when she stored it in her old sewing machine cabinet). AND I sew so it is perfect! Sometime I will have to show that bowl behind it with the "beaters" in it...it is an antique hand mixer. I use it to put threads and scraps in while sewing.

This is my MIL who will be 94 on March 24th of this year. She has been such a blessing to me. When I married her only child....she took me as the daughter she lost as a baby. And she has treated me as well or better than a daughter. She buys me clothes....and I usually like them. Honey, she babysat my kids for days and weeks....even when I had my three and three foster kids and her elderly mother living with her. SHE is a saint.....there are not enough superlatives in my vocabulary to describe her....but I think you get the gist.

Recently she has begun to slow down....and I do mean recently. She has an eye disease that requires a shot in her eye once a month with a chemo medicine. Fortunately, it IS working and some of her vision in that eye has returned. But she wondered aloud the other night if she should stop driving. She also talked about how she had looked at the seed and bulb catalogs that have come in the mail and put them aside wistfully realizing she was really not able to plant them and care for them like she used to.

I tried to empathize without saying, "I know" because I DON"T know and I won't know until and unless I am almost 94 and cannot do the things I want to do and used to be able to do.

Since my preacher's sermon last Sunday on honoring your father and mother, Hubs and I have been trying to do better where Edith is concerned. We had her to dinner. He took her to the eye appointment and picked up the groceries she needed. She called this morning and asked him to take her to run a few errands today......I can see down the road she is going to need more and more care and we are going to need to be less and less selfish and impatient.

This makes the nunnery look ever more appetizing to me. I am a lousy servant or care giver. (Children keep your traps shut if you want to stay in my will.) I am only telling you dear reader so you can see when and if God manages to make me obedient and submissive. Since I made my plans to become a nun, Hubs has started calling me "Mother Teresa" which makes us both laugh. (I couldn't be less like Mother Teresa if I was a Howard Stern.) While we laugh, we know it means I am having to act unselfishly like she would. Ouch! I am now calling him Father Abraham.....and he is looking into monasteries. Anything to get out of being patient caregivers :)

Today our Bible Study met. We are doing The Prayer of Jabez.....Enlarge my territory....Make me a blessing....we all have aged people we are married to and/or caring for....we look with askance at asking God to do that. God is going to have to move mightily in us......but you know we have already seen him do a lot......He Could Just be In All This.....Stay Tuned.....for Donnamo and The Real Deal.

Hie Me to a Nunney!

Yesterday Oprah's program was about nuns in a convent near Chicago. Reporter Lisa Ling was allowed inside with Oprah's camera crew to interview and document convent life. Then some of the nuns and The Mother Superior appeared live on Oprah to talk candidly about the vocation that they have chosen.

I have decided to become a nun. Knowing my spiritual diligence I know you are not surprised. Nor is my husband. He who knows me best, next to God is all for it. (I am waiting for God to weigh in.)

Things you may not know about nuns in 2010.

• The average age at this convent is 26
• They take a vow of poverty...no personal possessions to clean, insure, or take care of.
• They take a vow of chastity....not a biggie at age 66 nor obviously at 26.
• They sing a lot starting at 5:30AM....I am a morning person and a big fan of worship music
• Some other nuns make the meals.....just like home with a Mom
• They play field hockey in their gym.....I played field hockey in high school and college
• THEY PLAY SCRABBLE
• They have tv but don't watch it much (I am sure Oprah is allowed and Jeopardy...my only tv shows)
• The Mother Superior has a Blackberry which she keeps with her at all times (along with her prayer book) if it is an emergency my family can contact me through her.
• Everyone wears the same outfit and no makeup.....I am all about being REAL....especially if everyone else is....no fashion decisions....hair dye.....worry over double chin, fat or aging!
• Quiet from 8PM til 5 AM.....no talking at all.....I love me some quiet and I already go to bed at 8. Not a problem.
• My own room.......enuf said.... I need me some alone time EVERY day.
• You get to pick your own name.....I am toying with Nancy Neater Nun and Lucy Laughing Nun

I am wearing the habit as in the picture above to try this out. I forgot and put on lipstick...I will do better tomorrow.

Any body want to go to the convent with me? The Lord knows.....I am NOT kidding....it truly sounds great to me.......but then so did three foster children added to my own three.

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Inside THE Beltway

Just got back from our nation's capitol....my home town. Son, Wayne, had a conference in Alexandria, Va, and took me and his family along so I could give daughter, Hannah, a tour of Washington. The first night there, we rode the trolley down King Street to and from dinner. Gates loved the trolley, which he nicknamed "the School bus". Daughter-in-law Niki, learned to navigate on the metro :)

This is what King Street looks like at night. It has many little eclectic shops and restaurants. It reminds me of Georgetown in Washington, Annapolis, Md, and Downtown Charleston, SC. Old, historic, quaint, chic and expensive.

This photo is out of chronological order.....go figure. It is Hannah in the capitol with the statue of Helen Keller.

Actually, our first stop on our "tour" was the Museum of Natural History. Gates was looking forward to the dinosaurs, not realizing they would not be alive! Still he was pretty impressed by the triceratops skeleton head.

It just so happens I have an old boyfriend who is a US Representative. We dropped by his office and he assigned his assistant, Joe, to take us on a personal guided tour of the capitol. Joe wangled us a ride in the congressional train that runs underground from the house office building to the capitol. Very cool!

This our new best friend Joe. He was a great guide; he knew just what to show us that a fifth grader would enjoy and appreciate! Thank you again Joe! I think Representative Stearns should promote you POST HASTE!

We left Washington as the STORM OF THE CENTURY hit. They were expecting 24" as we skedaddled out of DC. We drove in heavy snow flurries until we hit the North Carolina line.

All in all it was an action packed trip. My grandchildren behaved admirably well; I got to spend 16 hours in the car with my son and his family. We talked a lot and the children got to see a little bit of my hometown. It doesn't get any better than that for a mother and grandmother :)

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