Monday, it’s supposed to be 38 and breezy.
Tuesday, it’s supposed to be 37 and mostly sunny.
Wednesday, it’s supposed to be 42, with a chance of drizzle.
Thursday, it’s supposed to be 54 with a slight chance of drizzle! The low on Thursday will be higher than the high temps for Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday: 46 degrees!
I think this may be the spring teaser that we usually get toward the end of January.
I’m ready for March, with the spring winds and things turning green. It’s not so far away, now.

Mother and I shared little things throughout our days together. One of the highlights of Spring was the race to see who would be the first to see a robin. Although we’ve recently been told that robins do not migrate during the winter, WE have never seen a robin while there is snow on the ground. So, imagine our amazement this morning, when Dear Husband and I both saw two robins in one of our trees! Either there was a little “Do you think we might…?” going on, or there was some gentle claiming of territory. This is the earliest either of us has ever seen a robin, and the only time we have seen them when there has been so much snow on the ground. I wonder what they heck they are eating in place of worms!?
Our snow is melting! I don’t know what the high for the day was, but it was very pleasant outside after a week of frigid temps. I think it might have been 40 or so degrees. There was water on the pavement in places, and the ice on our driveway has started to melt off.
I’ve been searching on-line for a source for a special pasta shape. Years ago DH and I went to a restaurant in Lake Forest, Illinois, where his daughter was working as a waiter. DH ordered a casserole that had Italian sausage, eggplant, perhaps a Bolognese sauce and a pasta that I had never seen before. It was long, narrow and had a ruffle on one long side. It looked like a lasagna noodle that had been cut down the center. I’ve found a smaller version with ruffles on both long edges called “mafaldine.” At one website I found a description of the pasta I want, under the name “tripoline,” but I can’t find a source for it. Maybe I’ll just cook lasagna noodles and then cut them apart!
Today I boxed up 94 granny squares to be sent off to Share a Square. Twenty seven of them are mine. Four other women have contributed to this group. I’ve found it very satisfying to sit with DH at night and crank out one or two of these squares. It doesn’t take many of them before you learn what kind of yarn you prefer to use. I have some yarn that feels like steel wool, that is going to find another home.
For some reason our house is so dusty that it’s a trial to keep up with it. I noticed today that the spiky palm-tree-like plant in my bathroom had an obvious layer of dust on the leaves, so one of my chores was to wash the leaves. I just used water and a soft cloth, but it made quite a difference. The ivy is next, but I’m going to use the shower on it.
I spent yesterday sewing together a pieced border for a small whole-cloth quilt I want to make for Scraps on a Mission. Unfortunately, I’m beginning to think that it might be inappropriate…too busy…not enough contrast…. It just feels wrong. I’m going to finish assembling the four strips, pin them on my design wall, and then audition them with two border strips to see if the extra borders will make it work. If not, I’ve got borders made for some other quilt, and I’ll make something different for the original project. I don’t know how I ever did without a design wall! Other than having all my quilting things in one place, that wall is the best thing about having a studio.
As you can see, things are quiet, as usual. This week I need to start working on the tax planners for Mother’s taxes and ours. Oh, joy……

It’s time once again for our February “Souper Supper.” My quilting bee is very fond of dessert, and three times a year we add dinner to the menu. In July we have an indoor “picnic” to celebrate the Fourth of July, and in December we go out to dinner in place of a meeting.
I have the honor of making two soups for dinner, and each member will bring something to share. I have a wide variety of soup recipes but the one they always ask for is a Cheddar and ham chowder. They left the second soup up to me, so I’m going to make a pot of Minestrone. We’ll have Spinach dip, breads, salad, fruit, cheese and dessert to round out the meal. I’ll send leftovers home with the ladies.
I want to talk with my bee members about how to determine the appropriate height for a. my sewing machine, and b. the chair I sit on at the sewing machine. I can’t decide if I need to sit lower, or raise the sewing machine. If I’m going to run a quilting sweatshop for my charity group (Scraps on a Mission), I need to be able to have good back health, and these are just the ladies to ask about this!
So….Soup’s on!

January is an organizing month. I started by clearing off the long table in my studio so that I’d have plenty of working space. Then, I moved the bin that I use to collect personal receipts and bills into the studio, and began sorting them. I was surprised at how comparatively little time it took me to get papers and reciepts and bills organized. I also found two portable CD players I had ordered!

Of course, the purpose for that organization is two-fold. I now have papers I need to be able to fill in a tax planner, and the bin has been cleaned out for this year’s collection of “stuff.”

Once the table had been cleared off, I was able to use the space for stacks of fabric. I have been using a Swedish shelving system for close to 20 years for my fabrics and quilting projects. Unfortunately, when I bought the system, I didn’t buy enough shelves, so each time I want a piece of fabric, I have to lift fifteen pounds of fabric to get to it. On my Christmas wish list, I provided the information on where to find the shelves and my step-daugher bought me two. What a wonderful gift!

With Dear Husband’s assistance, I got those two shelves in right away, and knew that I was going to have to add at least four more. That was the project this past weekend. Because of the weight of fabric on the units, and lack of space for all the fabric involved, it wasn’t wise to empty off all the shelves that were to be moved at one time. I shifted the fabric for one third of it to start, moved their shelves and got the fabric settled into place before starting the center section of the job.

That section didn’t go smoothly. I had to loosen rods on both the left and right units to be able to move the existing shelving. I dropped the allen wrenches behind the unit, as well as one of the screw-caps that holds a rod in place. I got a wooden shelf stuck at an improbable angle.

I walked away from it for the day.

When I returned to it the next day, things went better, and I had the good sense to call for DH’s help when I got stuck again. He makes things seem so easy.

All the fabric is in place now, and I’m reassessing batting storage, to see if I can free up more shelves. I’m at the point now where I can’t buy more fabric until I use more up in quilts! I wonder if that might be called “critical mass?”

So, my next project is to start scanning family pictures. We have a family member who is willing to work on collecting pictures to disk, so I need to scan what I have and e-mail it to him.

No doubt there will be more work coming my way, but it’s wonderful to have accomplished two major projects that will smooth the way for things I need to do later this year. Yea, January!!!

To all our friends who visit here, Dear Husband and I wish you health and good fortune in the coming year. We’ve come through several trying years, and it’s our hope that all our lives will begin to see some improvement. So, we raise our cups and bid you…
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It doesn’t really matter which day of Christmas this is. They’ve all been very pleasant.
Dear Husband and I were Empty Nesters on Christmas Eve, and chose to have dinner at Mother’s church, followed by the traditional candlelight service. Christmas Day we traveled to celebrate with his children and our grandchildren. I swear, the girls could open a toy store!!! *S*
This year has been very laid back, and low key, and comfortable. I didn’t get the tree decorated, but we’ve really enjoyed the lights. I was battling with two fake trees that had light problems, and decided to quit fussing with the smallest one. We have a fake Sitka spruce tree that is up year ’round with ornaments that my quilting bee has given to me. Dear Husband felt that tree was enough! And you know…..I think it was, too, but it was in the foyer so that everyone would see it as people came into the house. As we wrapped gifts, we put them under that tree. Perhaps next year it will have a more prominent place in our living room.
The last few days before Christmas I made non-Christmas cookies. With the exception of Russian Tea Cakes and Sugar Crisp which I only make at Christmas, the rest were cookies I might have made through out the year. DH asked for Spicy Nut Slices. I used a store-bought peanut butter cookie mix as the base for fudge tarts. I tried an apricot/walnut/coconut bar cookie that wasn’t “much of a much” as my Mother would have said. I tried a pumpkin cookie that made SEVENTY-TWO COOKIES!!! I have them with nuts, and without, with icing, and without, and some with nuts AND icing! lol I guess this was the year of the pumpkin cookie!
I boxed a lot of those cookies to give away, but there are all together too many of them left. DH has more restraint than I do. I’m getting a lot more sugar in my diet than I usually do.
I did get decorations up around the house. I started with wreaths, swags and garland outside, and then put up two fresh evergreen wreaths inside. I love the scent that I can smell from my recliner. Stockings, mistletoe, the elf that Mother made, scented candles, a candlewick angel my oldest sister made, and other odds and ends that are always a part of our decorations made it up. I have the quilted wallhanging that Mother and I collaborated on hanging in the hallway with a paper-pieced wallhanging that features Christmas fabrics.
We didn’t ignore the traditions, we were just making a few new ones. *S*
I hope your Christmas has been as lovely as mine, and I wish the best for you this coming year!

I knew that weird weather was on it’s way. By the middle of the week I knew it was headed this way, and I hadn’t put up the outdoor decorations yet. Thursday, I said to myself, “I better get it done today while it’s still clear outside.” Friday, I thought, “It’s going to be awful tomorrow, I should really get the wreaths and swags up before it RAINS.”
Well, this morning, I brought in three fresh evergreen wreaths from the garage, added bows, and then hung one on the brick wall perpendicular to the front door, one on the back side of the fireplace, facing the foyer, and the last went up on the face of the fireplace. I love the scent, I chose to go with total simplicity this year, and just added burgundy bows to the greens. In the past I’ve decorated them with dried natural plants, like milkweed pods, lotus pods or teasle. Some years I’ve decorated with silk poinsettias. Other years I’ve used branches of silk berries, but this year I went for simple.
I wasn’t going to decorate the carrage lights this year. What I’d really like to do is buy oversized wreaths made of fresh evergreen, add a bow to the bottom of the wreath, and then slip it over the light but I really feel that’s prohibitively expensive. This year my grocery store was selling really lovely swags with a variety of greens for an exceptionally low price, so I bought three of them, and added bows at the top where everything was wired together. Then I wired them to the bottom of the lights.
The last thing I did was to loop a garland of holly across the top of the door, letting the ends hang down to outline the door. I used burgundy bows at the upper corners to hold the garland in place.
Best of all…..I finished before the rain came in! YEA!!!!
I spent some time today crocheting squares for Share A Square, and I worked on the smaller of the two fake Christmas trees. Last night I took off the string on the top third of the tree. Today, I put on a new strand. I plugged the lights in, and darned if only half of the bulbs lit up! I managed to discover a loose bulb and get the new strand going, but now there’s another old strand that is out. I haven’t been able to find the bad bulb, even using my new handy dandy toy. I finally stopped working on it because it was just too frustrating! Reminds me of a conversation that Joy and I have had before…..”…..those darned lights!”
I feel good about what I got done, but I hope to do more tomorrow. There’s still two weeks to Christmas! *G*

I was very busy today, finishing up paperwork, clearing the decks so that I can focus on decorating the house for Christmas, but after dinner, I just couldn’t avoid the thought that today would have been my mother’s 94th birthday.
It was just incredible that she lived to be 93. She didn’t like the fact that she had outlived most of her friends, and that she was the last of her generation. She told me one day that she didn’t want to live to be 100. I immediately chastised her, focusing on how amazing it would be to have lived an entire century. It took me a while to understand that she was lonely, and she missed those who had lived through the same experiences that had shaped her.
In a way, I understand. I no longer bother to look at “People” magazine. I haven’t a clue who those people are, and don’t care for their fashions. I’m disappointed that WGN 720 AM radio is changing, for the worse. I’ve listened to it for my lifetime, and now someone has decided that they need to take one of the most amazing stations in the nation and make it just like every other faceless station. How very sad to loose a good friend. I’m seriously thinking about deleting all the movie channels from our cable package. I just don’t enjoy the movies they are showing, and again, I have no idea who most of the actors are.
Mother went through that. Even though she and I shared interests, I hadn’t lived through the Depression or World War II. I enjoyed jazz with her, but I didn’t live through the era when it developed. Although I thought I understood, our experiences simply weren’t the same.
Mother was lonely. She wanted to be needed, and we were all busy trying to make life easier for her. Hindsight is very enlightening.
I hope that my mother is with her family and friends, and is at peace.

Thanksgiving is just five days away now. I’ve been taking my time cleaning the house. Almost all of the interior windows have been washed, all the exterior windows, the chandelier and one other high light have been cleaned. The grounds have been raked and cleaned, and are ready for me to mulch and lay down straw.
I’ve cleaned out all but two closets, and there is still hope that one of them might get done. My sewing room has been reorganized, and I plan to box up all the tools so that we can use the sewing table to seat eight of our guests.
I spent several hours replacing the shelf liners in the lower kitchen cabinets, and the foil liners in the ovens. I’ve washed all the dish towels, and plan to box up the things on the mud room counter, to make room for two roasters.
I’ve ironed napkins and quilting fabric and one shirt. I may iron two more table cloths, and four napkins, but I’m close to being able to put the ironing board away.
I still need to go through boxes of things from Mother that I want to share with my family on Thursday. That will allow me to wash and iron the table cloth in the dining room.
I’m ready to fine tune my shopping list for Tuesday, when I pick up the turkey. At that point, we will do some early meal preparation, and I will begin focusing on the tables, and the table decorations.
We have it under control, and I expect to have a wonderful holiday. I wish you could all be here, so that we could share the holiday!

It doesn’t look like it, but I’m making progress. As usual, my fall cleaning coincides with Thanksgiving. If I was sensible, I’d get this done sooner, but this year there were other things to see to. Actually, I’m a procrastinator, especially when it’s something that I don’t like to do. Do you know ANYONE who likes to do fall cleaning?? (Probably my niece does. There’s no one who cleans as well as she does!)
I started by sorting out the closets in the two guest rooms, and then began on MY closet. It took me several days, but I culled out all the clothes that I needed to give away, and pulled the summer clothes out of the closet. Then, I went through all my winter clothing and tried things on to be sure they still fit. I’ve asked Dear Husband to go through the spare jeans to decide which to keep and which to throw out, and that closet will be DONE!! YEA! Oh, and I also cleaned and reorganized the things on the shelves,and vacuumed up some of the dust! *G*
So, I have just one closet, the one in the office, to clean out. If I run out of time, I’ll just CLOSE THE DOOR! Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it???
I have a chart of what needs to be done, parceled out over the next ten days. It’s the only way I can keep track of how much time I have left to accomplish everything. The nice thing about Excel is that I can move thing around when I find I’ve put too much on one day, or I have more time than I thought I would.