…we have rain!
It’s been promised for several days, and never panned out. It was gray and the clouds promised rain this morning, but it didn’t finally come until 1:30 or so. The air outside is COOL! I’d forgotten just how lovely air cooled by Mother Nature can feel. I’m tired of the need to be indoors most of the day just to deal with the heat. I’m ready for Fall!

Almost all my family qualifies to be called “Clothes Horses.” Most of them also qualify to be called “Fashionistas,” too. My youngest niece, who will be 17 in just two months, may now be the leader of the pack!
This weekend the ladies of the family decided that they would do a little shopping. We all got ready and headed for the car, and I was amazed at what she chose to wear. I SO wish I had a picture, because she was beautiful, and trendy, while still having a very personal look.
Her astonishingly curly long hair was piled up on top of her head. She had boutique sun glasses that made quite a statement. She was wearing a plum ribbed knit skinny top, and stovepipe jeans that looked like they were painted on her size 2, five-foot nine or ten-inched frame. I think there was a fashion belt and a jacket, too, but I’ve forgotten what they looked like. She wore a long strand of turquoise beads with two tight wraps around her neck and one long drop of beads.
But what blew me away were the shoes. These shoes had high heels, perhaps three inches, spike heels, not the platform kind. The toes were pointed, and there was a little decorative strap-like piece across the opening over the top of her foot. And the shoes were turquoise to match the beads!
I have given up heels. Since Dear Husband is shorter than I am, it was a kindness at first to him that I gave them up. But, as time passed, it became a kindness to me that I no longer had to squeeze my feet into fashionable shoes and hobble around painfully. Yes, there are times when my outfit cries out for heels, but I no longer care. The ability to walk is more important than the need to be fashionable. So, when I looked at her feet, the first thing that came to mind was, “You’re going SHOPPING in those shoes???”
She smiled at me, and acknowledged that it might hurt, but she really needed to have that pulled together look. Heck….she’s not even 17 yet. She’ll learn in time, and she’ll enjoy herself along the way.
I can’t wait to see what she’s wearing the next time I see her! *G*

Too often, we get wrapped up in our lives, trying to deal with all the appointments, and chores and surprises that come our way, and I think we forget about the simple things in life.
Here are some of the simple things that have brightened my day, today.
There is a German-style bakery/restaurant in a small town in Indiana that is on the way to my sister’s house. We feel compelled to stop there whether going to visit, or returning home. They have the most amazing loaf of cinnamon bread! The night shift baker must roll the bread out to paper thickness, about five feet long. Then he spreads it with this wonderful cinnamon-sugar mixture, and rolls it up to make a loaf that will eventually be six or seven inches high. Each bite of the bread is filled with that lovely cinnamon taste. Nan and her family brought us a loaf of that bread, and we finished it off this morning. What a lovely way to start the day!
Speaking of sisters, I suspect that she, or one of her family members, picked up the weeds for me. I was weeding the front beds last week, and got to the point of gathering them up when I ran out of steam, and time. So there they sat as my guests arrived. I tried to ignore them, hoping that Dear Husband would save me and take the weeds to the back. Uh-uh. As I left for exercise yesterday, I noticed the weeds and the wheelbarrow had disappeared! Someone……was VERY good to me. Thank you, Secret Santa!
It’s been a pleasure to wake up to an overcast day, with the promise of more RAIN!! YEA!!! WE GOT RAIN!!! We seem to have broken the pattern of only one rainy day a month, at the very end of the month, and the plants are thrilled! I’m not good about hooking up the hoses and letting them run. We are only allowed to use sprinklers on even days, and I can never keep in mind when it’s my turn. I can, and do, water with a hand-held hose and watering wand, to keep the gardens going until Mother Nature comes through. We really needed the kind of soaking rain that goes into the soil, rather than running off, and I think we’ve had at least two sessions like that in the past four days. We’re hoping for more, today, so that the trees get the drink they need.
What simple things please you, today? A baby’s kiss, a child’s hug, help around the house, patient drivers? We just need to think about the simple things to brighten our days.

This is just to remind you that Shelly at “This Eclectic Life” is looking for people to crochet 6″ granny squares for afghans for kids going to cancer camp next summer. If you know how to crochet, or know someone who crochets, won’t you please stitch a square and send it on?
There’s a button somewhere on this page that says “Share a Square.” Click on it, and it will take you to Shelly’s blog for all the information you need.
Shelly, I have perhaps fifty more squares from my exercise group to send. I have to count them all. I’ll try to get them into the mail on Monday morning.
And, I bought more yarn, so I’ll be sending a few more of my own. Good luck with your project!

I’m pressed for time today. My sister, Nancy, and her family are coming to visit for the weekend. YEA!!! The house is clean, most of my weeding is done. I have some office work to finish and shopping to do before they arrive. Would it be too, too mean to have the scent of chocolate cupcakes wafting through the house as they walk in the door?? *G*
We have two silo type feeders hanging from a flower “crook” at the back door of the garage. I can see the feeders if I am at the kitchen sink, or if I’m working on laundry. These feeders carry the medium chipped sunflower hearts that just about all our visitors (feathered or furred!) like. This morning I saw two house finches at those feeders, and realized that the house finches have been missing for the better part of two months. Usually we are inundated with them, but they have been conspicuously absent. I wonder if they went further north to try to find a cooler, wetter habitat?
I have been piecing blocks for two Birds in the Air Quilts. There are pictures of the blocks in the late July archives. I started out making 70 blocks with red, green and a range of neutrals for what I hope will be a quilt I can use to decorate the couch this Christmas. True to form, I cut enough patches for probably three quilts, so I cut MORE patches, this time in a range of mid to dark blue, to make a lap quilt for the church bazaar. All the blocks (110 in all) are finished and ironed open. Now, I need to lay them out on the floor so that I can decide how to assemble the quilts. I may put my visitors to work on this. As soon as the larger top is done, I can send it off to be quilted. AND, I have the outer border and backing for the Halloween quilt, and I could finish the border and send that, too! I LOVE it when a plan comes together!
I’ve been reading about how to keep day lilies blooming. It seems that there are varieties, like “Stella d’Oro” that will bloom all season. The trick to keeping them blooming is to dead head every other day, and to clip off the spent stalks. This may work for some of my other day lilies, so I need to get out into the gardens again to do some pruning. I think the perennial salvia would re-bloom, too, so it’s going to be snip, snip, snip!
I get to go out to lunch on Saturday with the ladies of my family, and again with my favorite CPA on Tuesday. When it rains, it pours (so you know how often I get to go out to lunch)!
Speaking of rain…..we SO need the rain! I know there are lots of places where you’re praying for dry. Please send that rain our way. August is going to be hell if the drought keeps up like this. (You can check, but I think I’ve had the same complaint for the past three Augusts.)
Did I mention that we saw one of my nephews perform in “The Fantastiks?” I am SO impressed at what high school kids are doing these days. This was an amazingly polished performance. All nine actors (incoming Freshman thru incoming Senior) did a fine job, well above what I might have expected. This particular school is only four years old, and it has an exceptional theater department. We’re lucky that my nephew lives in that school district. He has been in every single performance that has been staged since the school opened.
Sooooooooo….I need to do some accounting, clear off my desk, shop, and get those cupcakes in the oven. I hope all of you have a great weekend, doing whatever makes your heart happy!

(checking the chin…..tsking at the eyelids…) Yeah, I could use one, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about.
I’ve asked my host at RedEagleSpirit about making some changes. I know that the photos I want to post don’t come through well over my beloved Lone Star Quilt background, so I’ve been thinking about making some changes. Actually, there are a couple of options. We could do a photo blog, or we can change the background of the blog, or we can do both.
Since I put my blogging life in ~T~’s hands, I can’t tell you exactly what we will be doing, but you want to be ready for some changes. Variety is the spice of life. I’m glad that ~T~ is open to the work needed to make changes now and then. I need all the help I can get to keep from becoming a stick in the mud.
So…..don’t be surprised, it will still be me “talkin” to ya!

Do you see the button to the right, at the top of the sidebar? It has the power to take you to a blog where wonderful things are happening.
Sherry at This Eclectic Life has a goal she is trying to reach, and she needs our help. She would like to make an afghan made of crocheted Granny Squares for every child who will be attending Cancer Camp in Ft. Worth, Texas next summer. To accomplish this, she needs thousands of granny squares, and that’s where you come in.
Would you click on the button, and go read what she hopes to accomplish and then send her at least one granny square? The squares should be five rounds, six inches, and made of whatever washable yarn you have to donate. Patterns for the squares and instructions for the simple stitches can be found on-line.
I’ve asked the members of my exercise class to help, and Elegante Mother’s Empty Nester sewing group. I’ve asked family members to contribute. If you can’t crochet, Sherry will accept a six inch knitted square. If you share the word, then many hands will make the work light.
Mailing information is given on Sherry’s blog. Perhaps you can spread the word for your contacts and be the collector and mailer of the squares. Our goal is to get them to Sherry in August. She’s received 634 of the 6720 she needs.
I have seven made from two kinds of variegated yarn.

I hope to make several more in the more traditional pattern with a different color for each round. This type of work is very portable. You can carry it with you and work on it anywhere you have to wait for a bit.
Won’t you please help?

I dream of an old “B” movie, set out in the desert, where a colony of gigantic ants is nesting…..
“Them” is a 1954 movie that warned of the dangers of atomic bomb testing.
Unfortunately, after a hiatus, we are once again inundated by ants. It’s Dear Husband’s job to deal with them. He has his ant-killing dowel rod. He humanely squashes them flat, and then leaves them for the other ants to get the message that this is not a safe place to visit. Frankly, I don’t care to have piles of ant carcases littering my floor. Luckily, other ants will come and collect those bodies. We assume there is a little ant cemetery somewhere in the basement.
Probably the only good aspect of this invasion is that I have help cleaning up after dinner. We don’t leave food out to tempt visitors, and anything found with an ant in it gets pitched. There was one in my iced tea the other day. YUCK!!!!
There’s an ant crawling on my monitor. What could be there to interest it?? I’d hope that it somehow gets fried in the computer, but with my luck that would make the computer crash. Go AWAY, Ant!
NOW HEAR THIS! I want all ants, and all spiders…for that matter, ALL BUGS to be off the premises by 5:00 tonight! Pack yer bags guys and GIT!

Do you consider yourself to be a “High Maintenance” type of person?
I’ve been pondering this subject the past few days. I’m not sure I understand the complete scope of “high maintenance.”
Of course, there are women who expect lots of BLING, and clothing and cars to maintain that image. I consider that to be HM.
But, there has to be an aspect to high maintenance that doesn’t involve material things. For instance, is the expectation that one’s husband will be nice to his in-laws high maintenance?
Is expecting to be given coffee in bed before you start the day HM?
Is hogging the conversation, or jabbering away HM?
What about assuming that your spouse will share the household duties?
Does a partner pursuing their own interests, taking time away from your relationship and your family constitute HM?
What about the high-powered businessman who comes home to sleep, and turns around and goes back to work…..is HE HM?
I’m not really sure I know the definition, and I’d like a little help. From your perspective, what makes a high maintenance partner?

I’d never heard the term “high maintenance” used in reference to a wife or girl friend until I started chatting on-line what feels like centuries ago, but must be about seven or eight years past. I have a friend from that era who would proudly tell you that she’s high maintenance. Dear Husband and I traveled to visit this lady and her family, as well as some of our other on-line friends one year, and we had the chance to hear first hand her moan of CAWWWWWWWFEEEEEEEEEEE from her bed, mid-morning after entertaining us the previous evening.
I have to be careful here (hiding a grin), because she’s likely to stumble over this post, so I’m not going to give a laundry list of what it takes to maintain her. She’s proud of her status, and she’s still married, so that says to me that she’s worth it! *G*
The phrase “High Maintenance” has continued to rumble around in my head over the years, and last night I asked Dear Husband if he considered me to be high maintenance. Let’s face it, I was fishing for a compliment. I am one of the lowest maintenance women you will ever meet, at least I THINK I am. I expected Dear Husband to immediately say, “No Way!”
There was a pregnant pause….and my hackles rose a tiny bit.
Then he said, “Yes.”
You’d have to know DH. He’s not a wordy kinda guy. I suppose it comes from years of living with me. I don’t tend to let him get many words in edgewise, one of my biggest failings. WHEN he has something to say, he says it. Otherwise, I fill up the spaces.
“Yes,” was not what I wanted OR expected to hear.
So, I asked him to give me some idea of what makes me high maintenance, so that I might be able to work on it.
Another pregnant pause. (I’m starting to worry at this point. Who stole my husband’s body and replaced it with this alien???)
“Weeding.”
“WHAT??”
Dear Husband mows the lawn. I am responsible for the gardens. When my back is in bad shape, DH and Second Son will give me a hand moving compost and mulch. When I have wheelbarrows worth of weeds, I collect them in one spot, and HOPE the guys will take them to the back forty for me.
“Well……MOVING the weeds.”
I didn’t kill him. I didn’t scream at him. I didn’t chide him for his lack of help with the house and grounds. I restrained myself.
But I did suggest to him that I wasn’t high maintenance, but that the WEEDS WERE!
And I went off to play at my sewing machine.