Yet Livin’

I just can’t believe that it’s been more than a month since I last posted. Usually by now my youngest sister nags me to post, so that she can find out what I’ve been doing, but I saw her and her family just this past weekend and managed to avoid the nagging! lol
Frankie, her husband, her two college age daughters and two dogs came to visit last Saturday. They made the trip up on Saturday morning, thinking about the Portillo’s Italian beef that we planned to have when they arrived. I talked with my sister while they were en route, and took their orders, so that we could keep the delay to a minimum. As it was, I thought i might loose an arm to hungry people when they arrived. The dogs were pretty well behaved! *S*
The “girls” took a short shopping trip in the afternoon. We visited Sur La Table and picked up odds and ends. Dear Husband informed me that I needed to replace the pasta spoon that I’d thrown away. It was plastic, and it looked like we might have been eating little pieces of it as it shredded it’s layers.
From there we strolled through town, stopping at Adagio Teas, Penzy’s spices, and Starbucks. The weather was gorgeous! Not quite spring, but definitely not winter. i noticed that Frankie just declared that winter was over (on Facebook). I agree! My daffodils are about three, maybe four inches high, and they were covered with snow on Friday. I hope they didn’t mind the cold for a day.
We did Kitchen Sink Salad for dinner, and spent the evening chatting. Sunday, I tried to kill everyone with a groaning board of food. We did waffles, bacon, fruit, and an egg casserole for breakfast, and just before everyone had to make a dash for the car and the trip home, we made chicken fajitas. One of the best parts of the visit, well, after all the hugs, was the table conversation, although my youngest niece may want us to find more socially acceptable things to talk about at the table. (No more body function comments! lol)
The visit was just great! I SO miss spending time with them now that the girls have grown up. I suppose it’s an Empty Nester kind of thing, getting used to them beginning their own lives,
Sunday morning, between meals, my youngest niece asked to work with me on one of the tops for the Scraps on a Mission charity. We have been given a lovely run of red, white and black, and black and white fabrics, and I thought the material would make a striking quilt in 5-inch squares. We cut out the squares (the Olfa cutters were flashing!) and I let my niece design the top. I suggested diagonals of red, and then she echoed the red with the darker fabrics, and filled in the rest with the lighter fabrics. It’s a striking 40″ x 40″ quilt that I’m itching to quilt and bind. Thank you, sweetie, for the time spent with me, and for your generosity for my cause. I promise to post a picture when the quilt is finished!
And….by 2:30…they had to leave. Thank you all, right down to the littlest dog, for having visited. I loved having you here, and hope to visit with you soon. Love you!!

Charity

I have been incredibly busy with three charitable projects in the past couple of months. Let me tell you about them, briefly, I hope.
A dozen women in my exercise group wanted to sing for the vets at Hines VA hospital, and at a local nursing home. We met two times a week to learn the songs, and prepared a 20-25 minute program. I had a tiny solo in one song. The most difficult part of the rehearsal was learning simple movements. I tended to be the one going the wrong direction a good part of the time. The day of the performance at Hines, several of the men in class, and husbands of some of the performers drove us to Hines, and helped us with our presentation. We stayed to talk with the men, and that was the best part of our visit. We raised $205 in cash, and another $500 in personal products and books for the men. IT was a very satisfying experience. I’m so very glad I did it.
I also crocheted 50 six-inch squares for Share a Square. Shelly Tucker is working on assembling the last of 150 afghans for kids who are attending cancer care camps this summer. This will be the last season of this charity, and like many others, I’ll miss it. My crocheting knowledge grew this year. I’ve really enjoyed sitting with Dear Husband while I crochet in the evening. I’m looking forward to being able to see the delivery of the afghans to Camp Quality this summer. Thanks, Shelly, for providing such a lovely experience for us!
And……I have been working on lap sized quilts for kids in cancer care, and for adults at a local nursing home. Unfortunately, the wonderful woman who started Scraps on a Mission passed away a week before Christmas. I miss her terribly. I know the ladies want to continue the work she started, so I’ve been making tops and getting ready for a season of quilting. There will be pictures to follow, probably in a month or so. When my heart is heavy, piecing is a comfort, so these past two years I’ve made a LOT of quilted items!
I believe we all need to pay back our good fortune. I’ve been blessed with a good life and feel that I need to use my talents to do something for those in need. How lucky I am to be able to help others! Yea!!