Arrrgh!!!

Dear Husband hears oddly. It's difficult to describe his condition, but he will hear something and his mind immediately seeks the pun or the homonym that might grow out of it. I should add that he usually goes for the quickest, easiest, least polished pun that he can find.

Tonight, as we were getting dinner, I mentioned that Elegante Mother and I had gotten our flu shots today. He asked if that made us floozies.

He had the temerity to repeat the question to Elegante Mother.

He's still living. It's just amazing....

I was chatting with my youngest sis yesterday, and discovered that my blog has become a visual aid. She's teaching English, among other things, and this summer she decided that she would use blogs in her classroom to promote writing skills and communication. One of the techs in the school system found a blog site that allows the kids to venture out to see the world of blogs, but prevents that world from coming in to visit them. I applaud protecting them from spam and unsupervised adults as they learn their way around blogging!

At any rate, Sis showed the class MY BLOG!! She used it to show links, and layout, and possibilities. I'm delighted that I've become a visual aid! Go to it kids!

When you tell someone that you blog, do you get funny looks? Do they sidle away from you, or put a little distance between you?

Until very recently, I have been the only person in my family who blogs. I'm not sure what they think I'm doing, but none of them, when faced with the fact that I blog, has ever asked me about it. It's rather like they are trying to spare me; the less they know about it, the less they can be forced to disclose. I think they assume it's something illicit, or dirty. At best, they wonder how I can possibly waste my time this way. And, some of them believe that it's inappropriate to put personal thoughts where anyone can read them.

I suspect that if I had told them I was journaling, they wouldn't think there was anything wrong with it. At any rate, I'm certainly glad that my youngest sister is joining me in the blogging world. I'll let you know where to find her when her blog is up and running. Welcome aboard, Sissy.

Why is it that blogging ideas only come to me when I can't write them down???

I draft wonderful opening lines when I'm in the shower. Sentences roll out of my mind when I am driving, or when I have gone out of the house without a notebook or pad of paper. The perfect idea for a blog entry bursts into my brain just as my pen goes dry.

Last year, as I drove through central Illinois and Indiana, I had a hand-held tape recorder with me. Everything I saw on that trip was grist for the blog when I returned, and I managed not to tape over any of the information.

But, it's hard to keep the tape recorder to hand. I need to make a fanny pack for it, or an Amish pocket. I wonder if Dear Husband will object to me murmuring into the recorder in the middle of the night?

Wouldn't a tape recorder/digital camera be the perfect gift for a blogger?

How do you all keep those ideas in your mind until it's time to write???

Yeah...I know the Sox won the World Series last week. I've been meaning to write about it every day. Eighty-seven years. Do you believe that the White Sox had to wait 87 years to win another World Series?

I watched all four games. The second one, the one that went fourteen innings was amazing. How could a game be SO slow, and SO dull, and have SO much tension?? After midnight, it was a fight to keep my eyes open. The fourth game, they won by the only run batted in the entire night.

Lest you think I'm complaining, I'm not. Congratulations, guys! You earned those wins, and the right to bask in the sunshine of long awaited success.

I've been watching the light the last few days. We're trying to adjust to being back to Central Standard Time, and I've used the time change to make an adjustment to my sleeping hours.

Dear Husband goes to bed at 9:00 (barring long World Series games!), and I'll align my sleeping times to his. But, I'll stay up a night or two to read, and then blogging calls to me one night and office work the next, and gradually I find that I am off schedule by as much as three or four hours. Morning becomes an agony rather than the pleasure it should be, and I rush to make it to exercise. It's particularly hard on Elegante Mother, who needs a regular schedule, and plenty of time to get where she's going.

I have developed some habits that might be so bad as to be classified as an eating disorder, and I'm trying to make some changes.

I have forgotten what an appropriate portion is. Rather than serve myself some potato chips when I have a sandwich, I'll take the entire bag with me to the table.

I have taken to wolfing down my meals. Rather than leisurely enjoying each bite, I chomp and swallow with the goal of getting to a clean plate. I finish dinner and I'm still hungry because my stomach hasn't had the chance to recognize that it is full.

I am addicted to salty food. I really need to make a change here because I can see the effect on my circulation.

I've been skipping breakfast and eating between meals.

Now that I'm thoroughly embarrassed, I'll tell you what changes I've made.

Thanksgiving is coming. I've already started making lists of what needs to be done. Twelve of my family have said they would be here, and there's the potential for up to 18 more. I know for sure that the rest won't be able to attend due to distance or other commitments.

This morning I was pondering the subject of flowers. When you set a table with china, I feel you need to finish the table with some sort of floral arrangement. I have this brochure from a local greenhouse that is advertising Thanksgiving arrangements. The prices for what I could use range from $39.95 to 69.95. I definitely have two tables, and am likely to have a third, and I want an arrangement for the foyer table.

Somehow, it just seems WRONG to spend that much money on flowers when so many people are doing without this year. It would be lovely to just be able to pick up the phone and order, and have one more thing taken care of, but I don't think I can do it.

When I was a teenager, I took classes in flower arranging. I know the basics, and I know that I can put together simple arrangements and bouquets. I think we will still have flowers, but we won't be ordering them. I plan to use ceramic pumpkins, and ornamental gourds, candles, and a few flowers.

What I save is going to be given to the local mission so that people who would otherwise do without, will be treated to a full Thanksgiving dinner. It's not a hardship, and I'll feel a lot better about it.

As you well know, it's November. We've had another mild, warm October, so my gardens still have things growing, when in past years, it would be chilly, damp, perhaps even frosty out there, and the growing season would be over.

I got to play in the herb garden today.

TODAY'S THE DAY! WE'RE GETTING A NEW ROOF!

Pardon me, I didn't mean to shout, but I can't hear. There are at least a dozen, perhaps a lot more, men working on my roof. The boss said there would be about 20 men, if they could find their way to our house. They began showing up at 8:00 this morning and have been working at a furious pace. I took a picture at 9:30 when we left to run errands. They were working on the tear off of the east face of the house.

We returned from errands to find the shingles were being unloaded from a long truck that carries it's own conveyor. The packets of shingles are all sitting on the roof ridges. Parts of the roof have black tar paper down, but you can still see huge expanses of bare wood. I took more pictures when the guys had their lunch break. And, I suckered the cat into the house. The noise has kept him away. I suspect he will choose to spend the afternoon in the basement.

SO...in a few minutes, lunch will be over and the banging will resume. There's been a virtual orchestra of sounds going on: the scrape of a spading fork across the wood, the screech of the nails being pulled out, the hammering, and the sound of shingles sliding down the face of the roof. I think we'll be treated to some new sounds shortly, as the guys resume their work.

I'm sure glad this will only take two days! Pictures later.

I've talked about the length of days recently, and the time of day the sun comes and goes, but I haven't said a lot about the quality of light.

We have a stand of trees that form a crescent around our house from the south west to the northwest. At one time, the land belonged to a landscaper, so there's considerable variety in that grove. The layer of trees that are closest to the house hold their leaves late into fall, and at this time of year, they turn a beautiful gold. It's an old gold, overlaid with the lightest hint of blush.

During the day when the sun shines on those leaves, they reflect the most beautiful color into my living room. The west wall of the living room has twelve large panes of glass, six high, six low, that let the world in. The view is gorgeous when trees are just beginning to leaf out, or in the middle of summer with the great variety of greens, or in the fall when the leaves are burnished. It's even stunning when the trees are bare and you see just the black trunks and branches against the sky.

The past few days the sun has shared that golden color as though it's a parting gift before winter is on us. Mother Nature helped out on the ground. I was working in the herb garden on Saturday, pleased as punch to be able to get things almost cleaned up. Then, Saturday night it rained, hard! Sunday morning, you could hardly see the garden for all the leaves that had fallen.
Dear Husband refuses to rake until all the leaves are down. I'd rather do it in small bunches (easier on the arms, ya know?) and he'd rather do it all at once on a really cold day.

We're supposed to have more mild weather this week, so I'm sure that we'll be working on the grounds. I hope we'll have a few more days to see the rooms overlaid with golden light.

Decompressing....is that the term people use when you need to relax from a difficult day??

My day wasn't hard, but the NOISE....my god...the noise.....

I found it exceedingly difficult to concentrate. I was becoming short-tempered and churlish by the time the roofers were ready to go home. I've had about 30 minutes to recover, and I left the T.V. and radio off, and quietly blogged at my desk.

I think we'll be having wine with dinner tonight.

There's nothing I can do to avoid the situation. We need to get the roof done. I'll just arm myself with a list of things to do that don't require concentration and go at them full speed ahead. I think it's going to take them about two and a half days to finish.

The good thing is....they quit at 3:30!

Pike....

I noticed that the word of the day is "pike," and my first thought was....I wonder which definition? A LOT of them!

I thought of:
1. A freshwater game and food fish
2. A long spear formerly used by the infantry
3. A mid-air position in sports such as gymnastics or diving in which the
athlete bends to touch the feet or grab the calves or back of thighs
while keeping the legs straight
4. A turnpike, or a toll gate
5. Zebulon Montgomery Pike for whom "Pike's Peak" is named

These are the ones which weren't familiar:

6. A hill with a pointed summit (chiefly British)
7. A spike, or a pointed head
8. A hay fork
9. A pick
10. A haycock
11. A toll bar

I also read a definition of pike that suggested it was a broad road intended for ultra fast travel. I tend to think of the pikes that were around in the 1700s in Pennsylvania, although I've ridden on the Pennsylvania turnpike. So, the definition must have evolved as the roads did.

That's a pretty amazing group of definitions for a small word.

I'm more than a bit concerned. The weather forecast for our area is scattered severe thunderstorms from six this evening to midnight or later.

I wonder if the roofer will put more men on the roof today, or work later to get the roof done. Yesterday they tore off shingles and tar papered at least two thirds of the roof. We figure they will tear off the rest as they begin laying the shingles this morning.

I hope we beat the storms.

This morning, one of my nieces is coming to help me with my Spring cleaning. Maybe I should be honest about that. SHE is going to organize MY life. I'm going to push papers around and she will take them out of my hands and throw them away.

We'll bring up the storage bins with winter clothes, and half of the clothes will go to Good Will or the Salvation Army or the wastebasket.

She will force me to deal with 15 years of magazines that no one is reading, and two months of catalogs that need to be thrown away.

My kitchen will be so clean that no one will ever be allowed to cook again!

Everyone should have a lovely person like this in their family, especially if you tend to be a "collector."

I realized that things were so bad that I needed more than one day's help. She'll be here Thursday, too! I think my house is going to look like a showcase!

Yes!!!

I believe I like Dictionary.com's definition of "avid" much better, especially when the term is used to describe my relationship with quilting:

"Marked by keen interest and enthusiasm"

Even a "fierce devouring affection" seems preferable to Google's definition of the word: "Longing eagerly for; eager; greedy. "

Truth be told, I dislike the idea of being called greedy, but it's possible the shoe fits where quilting is concerned. Quilters have what they call "stashes" of fabric, so that you have the piece you need at 3:00 in the morning when the stores are closed and you can't sleep. Actually, I've never pieced or quilted at 3:00, but I AM a fabriholic. One hundred per cent cotton is a beautiful fabric, and the colors and patterns available today are astonishing! I have the fabric to make at least eight quilt tops, and probably many more.

If only I had the time.

So...maybe I am greedy, but couldn't we put a nicer face on it??

Last month Dear Husband and I purchased a half bushel of apples at the Farmer's Market. I've used them in a variety of ways: chunky applesauce, apple pie, apple crisp, pork and apples. I have some left, and I still hope to get to the apple butter.

The apple butter is done. I had some on toast this morning. Have I told you I'm addicted to cinnamon?? This was sweet and thick and full of cinnamon.

I have a few more thoughts to share with you about apple butter before we move on to other subjects. When my links are up, you'll find "Simply Recipes" listed among them. Elise has a recipe that is almost identical to the one I gave for apple butter, with one exception. Her recipe calls for apple cider vinegar. I thought that maybe it was an error, but according to Elise it's just a variant on the recipe. I prefer my apple butter sweet and spicy, so I use apple cider instead.

When Spring comes, I'm so busy getting gardens ready for the blooming season that I frequently don't have the chance to get all the heavy cleaning done. So, rather than fight it, I do my Spring cleaning in November. In the 16 years we have been in this house, we've hosted my family's Thanksgiving dinner 12 or 13 times. Before they come, the entire house is cleaned. We wash windows and carpets, curtains, and the linens for the tables. We wash all the china and crystal, and clean all the decorations in the house. Everything is dusted, and the lampshades are vacuumed. We wash the quilts (or at least those which aren't antiques.) Furniture is moved, and closets and drawers are cleaned and reorganized. We even change the wreaths, so that the appropriate season is represented.

I've talked about it before. I dislike seeing the promotion of Christmas prior to Thanksgiving. For those of you who may read this blog who are not from the USA, Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, which is the 24th, this year.

I know that a lot of people are so heavily into Christmas as a decorating/cooking/gift giving/party season that they need more time to prepare than I do, but it bothers me to see us commercialize Christmas. With that in mind, I refrain from decorating or starting my shopping until after Thanksgiving.

Usually.

I did a quick search to see if I'd given this recipe in the past, but I don't find anything. I love the smell of cinnamon when the house is closed up. I associate it with Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I can't bake using cinnamon, I have candles scented with vanilla and cinnamon or pumpkin and cinnamon.

A number of years ago a friend shared the recipe for a simple dough made of applesauce and cinnamon for Christmas ornaments. I made several batches and we cut out angels, and gingerbread men, and rocking horses. Let me share it with you.

Thank you for hot showers, Lord! A hot shower has to be one of the all time great inventions. How can you contemplate facing the day without a hot shower to help you make the transition from horizontal to vertical, from dead to the world to up and running?

Just to head off the comments, a hot shower to me is probably a lukewarm shower for most of the rest of you, but it serves the same purpose, and I can always increase the temperature for those mornings when muscles need more help.

I was in the shower on Thursday morning thinking about a blog entry I had made that mourned the fact that great blogging ideas always come when you can't write them down. It struck a chord with Bogie, and she blogged about it.

I had six ideas I was juggling, and I hurried to dry off and get to my tape recorder. I wasn't going to let them get away from me this time, no sir! I clicked on the record button, and it wouldn't go down. I tried again. No luck. I opened the recorder, thinking that the tape was hung up in the works, and discovered the problem. NO TAPE!

I just laughed. What else was there to do??

See? A hot shower can even help you through the first snag of the day!

Ta DAAAAAH! I'd like to invite one and all to welcome my youngest sister to the blogging world. You'll find her blog a bit edgier (is that a word??) than mine. She cuts to the heart of an issue while I tap dance around it. If you don't agree with her opinions, you'll find her open to dialog, and she'll do her darnedest to persuade you to her side! *G*

So, go on over and welcome the Looie, at Just My Opinion.

Welcome to the group, sis!

I received a call at 2:30 this afternoon, and it was my niece....the one you all want to come clean for you. She was on her way to pick up her sons after school, when a 17 year old girl broadsided her car. The paramedics had to cut her out of the car, and she was taken by ambulance to the local hospital.

She's going to be okay. Her sister and I and a friend spent about five hours with her in the ER, making sure that nothing was broken. Her car was totaled, and she hurts from her neck to her hip, and maybe her foot, but it seems that she will recover from the ordeal. The doc requires her to be off work for at least four days, and she's already fretting about who will do her job.

So, if I'm a little more absent that usual, you'll know that I am caring for my niece. Keep her in your prayers, please.

Today I was casting around for blogging subjects. I'd pretty much decided what I wanted to say when I went to visit my sister's blog, and discovered that she had beaten me to it.

October and early November were warm, and the colors in the trees quite spectacular despite the drought. We became lulled into the idea that winter would never come. WRONG!! It hit today with a vengeance! We had snow flying sideways. It was surprisingly cold, without enough warning. The humidity and the wind speed made the cold seem worse.

My mittens and gloves and mufflers and hats are all in a bin, waiting to be moved into the closet next to the door. Of course, I went out without them. Luckily, I wasn't out in the cold too long.

Fall is still my favorite time of year. I miss the colors and scents. I miss the freedom of walking out the door without having to stop to add layer after layer to stay warm and dry. It's much harder to slip into the car with all the extra clothes.

Whining? Yeah. It's obligatory. Winter is here.

Thank you, for the kind messages for my niece. She's doing better than I expected She is able to move under her own steam, but she's bruised, and battered. I was concerned that she would need assistance for the next week, but she seems to be able to do enough to care for herself.

She's staying with us again tonight, and I think that's about all I can get her to do without hog-tying her.

In a week or so, she should be over the worst of this and on the mend.

Thanks for the very kind messages, both for her, and for me.

I wanted to share a list of suggestions that came in an e-mail on stress management. They seem like a great collection of ways to deal with the burdens in your life. I hope that something here makes your holidays a little lighter.

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
(EWWWWWWWWWW)

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
(Good advice. I hope I'm not the only one who needs it.)

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
(This hit just too close to home.)

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
(IF you can't compliment a woman on her dress, tell her how pretty the buttons are!)

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it .

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others. (Hm......all of you who think I'm crazy to wash and iron the garage curtains just hush up.)

* Never buy a car you can't push.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on. (NOW you tell me!)

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane. (Uh huh. I invariably choose the longest line in any store, too.)

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once. (Name one!)

* We could learn a lot from crayons...
Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box. (This one's my favorite. *S*)

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

It almost feels like the night before Christmas tonight. When my family decides to celebrate Thanksgiving here I pull out all the stops. My house is cleaned, and the china is washed, seating is planned, and the menu drawn up. Today I was doing some last minute garden cleaning, before the threatened rain/snow arrives tonight. In the last two weeks we've had the carpets and windows cleaned and the roof re-shingled. (That was a joke, guys. We DID get the roof re-shingled, but not just because the family is coming to dinner.....chill out! *G*)

Today, I spent the day returning things to their rightful places. Quilt frame poles to the guest bedroom closet, the laundry basket to the bathroom, out of season wreaths and decorations to the basement.....you know the kind of day I'm talking about. We took the time to make a great salad for dinner, and watched the news, and then we finished the last of the organizational chores.

Tomorrow we start cooking for Thanksgiving. We're doing the backbone of the menu, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and rolls, but there are a few other things I want to do, just for fun. I have a pesto/pignole/sun dried tomato/cream cheese spread I want to make, and an apple cranberry pie. I'd also like to try a Kentucky bourbon sweet potato recipe, and a to-die-for chocolate cookie with chunks of chocolate mint. I may be over ambitious. I usually am.

I'll probably make things in the order listed, and if I don't get to them all, it's okay. I'll do just as much as I can, and not regret that I couldn't do it all, if that's the way it falls.

Thursday, I'll have lots of help. My oldest sister, her youngest daughter, and that daughter's son will join Dear Husband and me to do the last of the preparation. We'll set tables and peel potatoes, and resume relationships that have been put on hold for a bit.

So.....tonight feels rather like the night before Christmas, when all is ready, and waiting for the next day to dawn. I know that I'm a day off, but that may be a good sign. It's given me a moment to sit down to blog, and enjoy the peace.

Should I not have the chance to get back to you before Thanksgiving, my family and I hope that you all have a wonderful day, and that your life is filled with blessings, both large and small.

Happy Thanksgiving!

...sitting back.....wiggling my toes....enjoying the first cup of tea in the day.....

Thanksgiving is over. We had a LOVELY day. About half of my family was present and it seems that everyone had a good time. There was the usual embarrassment of riches, the true "groaning table" that the PR firms show as the ideal Thanksgiving meal. Thanks to waves of help on dish duty there's not an overwhelming amount of clean-up left to do. I have two loads of linens to run through the wash, and the last of the glasses and silverware, and a turkey roasting pan to wash. The floors need a good sweeping, and maybe a little wiping here and there, and we're back to normal.

Collectively and individually we have a lot to be thankful for. I'm sure that message gets lost now and then in the living of life, but it was very obvious seeing the family gathered together. We have lovely, well-mannered children who are healthy. We have loving spouses, and we share concern for each other's families. My brother-in-law is walking (unaided, no less) after his serious accident in July. My niece, who still hurts from her accident last week, is on the mend. My mother, who will be 89 in just a few days, was there to celebrate with us. We are blessed, so blessed, and I wish the same for all of you.

I've been so busy the last couple of weeks that I haven't had much time to blog. I'm sure that from the entries I did get to post that you think I was just cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, but I actually had the chance to get out and enjoy myself a bit.

Sunday, the thirteenth, a group of ladies from my exercises class and I went into Chicago to see "Wicked," the story of Oz at the time of Dorothy, from the Wicked Witch's point of view. The book was fascinating; the musical is wonderful!

The musical departs from the book on which it is based in a number of ways, but the story is similar. You see Elphaba entering the University of Shiz and meeting Galinda. It's difficult to show that Elphaba is labeled "wicked" by others, because she is green, because she has contrary ideas, and simply because she is different, but the musical pulls it off.

There are several incredible songs. Pop-u-u-lar, and Flying High (Defying Gravity) keep running through my head, but I suspect that the final duet the women sing will become my favorite. "For Good" is the title. Glinda sings:

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led to those who help us most to grow
if we let them and we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today because I knew you...

The last two lines of the song, sung by both Elphaba and Glinda are:

Because I knew you....
I've been changed for good."

Although the lyrics imply that there is some question as to whether the changes are good, the audience has no doubt that each woman has benefited from knowing the other.

Music and lyrics for "Wicked" are by Stephen Schwartz. He has a deft hand with both. Glinda, in "Popular" tells Elphaba that she needs a little "personality dialysis." I hope this musical gets credit for the weighty issues it tackles, and has a long run. This may be the story of Oz, but there are lessons here for all humanity.

Dear Husband and I had our annual date last Sunday. In the midst of all the preparations for Thanksgiving, he took me off to see the newest Harry Potter movie. The break in the preparations was a relief, the one-on-one time with DH a joy, and the movie was well worth going to see.

I've read the Harry Potter series, so it came as no surprise that each movie would be a little darker than the one before it. The kids are maturing, and the story line is focusing on Valdemort's attempts to kill off Harry Potter. The good witches are realizing their world is in peril; we won't see them begin to fight back until the next movie.

I won't do a recap of the story here. You can get that information at hundreds of sites, with more detail than I have time to share. Let me just say that I enjoyed it, despite the two-and-a-half hour length, and recommend it to all.

I think I heard that the first weekend ticket sales for this movie were $104,000,000! I'm betting that most of the people who saw the movie, enjoyed it, except for my niece, who was ticked that they couldn't cram the entire book into 150 minutes! *G* Go see it.

I am NOT silly enough to be out in the mad crush of shoppers. I don't find anything about the idea appealing. If I had my way, I wouldn't go out at ALL today, but I have library books to return. I can't imagine why anyone would want to go out and stand in line after line, with harried clerks trying to move shoppers through, with little or no staff on the floor to help answer questions, and not enough asphalt in the world to hold all the cars that need to park.

Do you get the idea that I'm not much of a shopper? You'd be right. My concession to the day will be to drag out some of the MILLION catalogs that have flooded in over the last two months, and browse for ideas for gifts.

I plan to have a relaxed day. I'll ask DH to build us a nice little fire, and I'll wrap up in a quilt, and have a mug of tea within reach. I'll play CDs and blog and read and generally do nothing! There is NO sale so important that I would participate in that madhouse.

Now, if you were going to go out, rethink your position. It's not worth your life to be out there! I bid you a sane day.

I have been quietly accumulating pictures of things I have blogged about. Because I am not yet into the digital age, my pictures lag behind my thoughts and blogs, and occasionally I forget that I have things to share.

I have a very dear friend on-line who's mother has taken up quilting. Quilting Mom lives in Scotland. I sent her a subscription to Quilter's Newsletter Magazine for Christmas, knowing the magazine was most likely not available there. I wanted her to see the range of cottons available here, and to see some of the techniques American quilters use. I hoped it would encourage her to continue to take lessons.

It turns out the magazines have been a great hit. QM shares them with her classmates, and her quilting teacher and her daughter. I have it on good authority that each issue is well thumbed through. I can't begin to tell you how happy I was to be able to share them.

Quilting Mom enjoyed them so much, that she very quietly set about making two appliquéd pillow cases for me. Here's the first:

If you compare the pictures you'll see that the second pillow is a bit different. What you can't see are the fine lines of quilting that set off the design. The hand work is lovely.

I was astounded when the package came. Even the card, which was hand made, was beautiful! Gifts like that let us know how truly blessed we are to have friends.

I'll have to keep an eye on Elegante Mother. When I opened the package, she said they were just to her taste! If they go missing, I'll know where to look.

Thank you, so much, my friend!

I woke this morning (Monday) to hear a hard rain drumming on the skylights. If you've been reading my blog through the summer, you'll know that my part of Illinois has been in deep drought. I've welcomed the rain each time it came, because it came so rarely.

I didn't mind hearing the rain striking the glass. I've missed all the sounds that rain can bring. I rose early, and then snoozed after my first cup of tea. When we went to do the grocery shopping, the storm had passed for a bit, and we were treated to a day that reminded us of early spring.

I've been trying to beat back a cold. It seems to have settled into my eyes, and they ache and itch and weep, so I enjoyed the brief bit of warmth that came in the middle of the day.

Now the clouds have come back, and with it dropping temperatures. We may have snow by morning. They say that if you don't like the weather in Chicago, wait ten minutes. That about describes our day.

I wrote about my niece being in a car accident the week before Thanksgiving. This is a picture of her car, after it had been towed. She described being sheltered by a tarp, with a paramedic checking her vital signs, while the firemen used the "Jaws of Life" to open her car door. I was rattled when I learned she had been in an accident. The next day, when I took her to collect her belongings from the car, I was afraid I would cry when I saw it. It wasn't as bad as I had feared. Still...you hate to know that someone precious to you was wrapped up in something that looks like this.

On Thanksgiving we had a LOT to be thankful for!

Have you ever had one of those days when everything looks fine on paper, but the reality misses the mark by a mile??

That would describe today.

I just wrapped my first Christmas gift. Well, actually, it's Dear Husband's gift. He has a haircut tomorrow night, and wanted to take a gift to his stylist. We all recognize that wrapping gifts is not DH's forte, so I lend a hand where I can.

While I wallowed in misery today (due to my cold), I spent some time ordering Christmas gifts on-line. I took care of three women who help me in my capacity at the office for our masonry company. One woman is our CPA's assistant, and the other two are employed by supply companies. Dear Husband takes care of the gift certificates for our general contractors, and I take care of the support staff.

We had to make a trip today to pick up two lap quilts Elegante Mother had machine quilted. While we were out, I stopped for gift certificates at Panera Bread for our postal carrier and UPS man.

I found two gifts for one of my nieces, three for Dear Husband, and one for one of my sisters. I was really booking, despite the cold.

We had left overs for dinner tonight. I put the disaster potatoes back into the oven to see if heating them longer would help. It didn't. DH thinks that there must have been something wrong with one or more of the potatoes that I used. The sauce was really tasty, but the potatoes still seemed half cooked.

Tomorrow, I'll be mailing one of the Quilt Rooms in a Bag that I talked about in an earlier blog. We found a woman who had been sent to the Chicago area when so many were evacuated after Hurricane Katrina. I'm still looking for a recipient for the second bag. They showed part of an 80 mile stretch of the Gulf coast in Mississippi and Louisiana, and it looks like they've hardly made a dent on what needs to be done. I can't believe the Federal government has not stepped up to help get them back on their feet.

Christmas decorations are very slowly starting to appear here. I took down the Thanksgiving wreath and put up one of fresh greens. I bought wreaths with burgundy bows to slip over the carriage lights. I need to decide whether I want to decorate the mailbox pillar, and if so...how.

Office work, laundry, dishes...you know the drill. I'll be glad when I feel better.

I was approached after Katrina hit our shores by a woman who had read my blog, and knew I am a quilter. She had developed the idea of pulling together things for quilters who had lost everything in the hurricane, including the material to make a quilt.

I got started on the project, and then asked my Friday Night Quilt Bee if they wanted to participate. We've pulled together a variety of items the average quilter has in her quilt room: pins, needles, a magnetic pin holder, fabric and paper scissors, thread, needle threaders, marking pens, colored pencils, a Pigma pen for signing quilts, a pin cushion, safety pins, a bag of embellishments (buttons, beads, Yo-Yos, floss), two quilting books, a quilting hoop, template material, an Olfa rotary cutter, a mat and a ruler. We also added a package of comfort items like tissues, hand cream, Advil, playing cards, stationary and stamps.

Elegante Mother and I searched our stashes of fabric to find the material for a red, white and blue quilt top that is 68 inches wide and 88 inches long. I cut the blocks, sashing and setting blocks. We supplied fabric for the outer border, and yesterday I bought a wonderful fabric in shades of blue to white in a hydrangea pattern for the quilt backing. (I wish I had purchased a bit o that for my stash!)
We added our favorite batt to the collection, and I gathered scraps for the hearts that are to be appliquéd on the blocks. The only thing missing was a sewing machine.

Everything but the scraps have been packaged up in a wonderful canvas bag, and tomorrow I'll take the canvas bag, and the bag of scraps off to be boxed and mailed. I found a recipient among the people who had been evacuated to the Chicago area, and I'm still looking for one more woman who needs assistance. We want to target women who already quilt, who lost everything.

It would have been even better if we had been able to accomplish this right after the evacuation process had begun, but this way it will seem like an unexpected Christmas gift.

If you have any suggestions as to how I might make contact with a quilter who needs a hand replacing her quilt room, I'd be happy to hear them.

I had to move the lamp that usually sits on the table, to take this picture. This quilt took me several years to piece. I had about a third of it done when I ran into difficulty getting the piecing right at the points. One evening I sewed the row five times and STILL didn't get it right.

A trip to the optometrist helped, and I resumed work a couple of months later. I think I played with it for a year or so before I was willing to send it off to be quilted. The quilt on the wall is a Friendship Star quilt. You can see that I love stars. The quilt thrown over the back of the chair is a star quilt, too.