A first birthday, thankfullness and joy

My daughter asked me, what do I think of when it is her birthday. After reflecting on this...I can say that when I think of my children on their birthdays that:

I am thankful for them, for the joy they have brought and bring me, for their individual strengths and weaknesses. Joy is too tame a word for the feeling that they evoke in me.

But I remember wonderful moments in pregnancy, in delivery, in their development that enhance the of love and fulfillment that each brought to me. I look at them now as adults and am thankful they chose spouses who complement their gifts and reflect their love for my child by their devotion to them.

Family Docs

The following paragraphs are about my health and looking for a good doc. You are welcome not to read them. But I have been encouraged by the field of medical practices finding out that a long time friend's son is in a family practice in the middle of the nation, and that my ride-share commuting partner is about to finish his first year in school, and plans to open a family practice here in Southwest VA.




I am experimenting with a new doc. for me. Ron has been going to him for some time. And was referred to the doc after it was determined that the old ceiling tiles Ron took out of his office, were really asbestos containing and he was required to have a check up. You know Ron, he liked the doc and told them he would not put his clothes on and leave until the doc agreed to take him as a new patient. This doc had closed his practice to new comers...but gauging Ron's determination decided to take him with the caveat no kids, no wife! Ron sees the doc maybe once a year.

For myself, I have been happy with my blood specialist from the beginning. I schedule my appointments at the end of the day. Once my blood counts stabilized, I have been an easy keeper for the doc. We spend more time finding out how his kids are doing and what project I am working on after going through my blood work.

Just before I quit working in Giles, my family practitioner's husband was relocated for a job and she closed her practice, so I floated through numerous local clinics. In my disgust over another year of rushing in and out of a dr's office and no one listening -I asked Ron if he thought there was anyway I could get in to see his doc. So while I was in Baton Rouge visiting Erica, Kent, Dean and Jack the call came. " When you get home, call and make an appointment."

So a week ago Friday I did the blood work, Monday I did some of the tests...I made a list of all the complaints...and with the suggestions and recommendations, and prescription provided I think I may have found someone I feel is listening. There were a number of suggestions outside areas that I had considered, there were confirmations of things I had researched and believed to be true and needing to be addressed. I cannot tell you how relieved I am to have finally found someone who is listening to me, valued my observations, and made suggestions that seem sensible.

Spring and sundry

I took the dogs to the Vet this morning...and came home to a house with open windows. It is 74 degrees with lovely breezes flowing through. The birds are busy singing.

Floors are clean, thank you micro fleece dusting and wet mopping. Rugs are vacuumed.
And all this to be able to walk barefooted, what a luxury.

I have been able to watch the play of shadows across the area that is to become the front drive and lawn. Azaleas are definitely a must for that front...but I think we have some good areas for grass! Of course three weeks from now and once all the trees are leaved out...maybe there will be larger pools of azaleas and swirls of daffodils.

As much as I love tulips, the seven I have in the yard have never bloomed, the blooms are nipped by the deer before they mature..maybe if I surround them in daffodils?

A quilting challenge?

This winter my daughter said, "if I posted on my blog an opportunity to make some quilt blocks, would you like to participate?" And I surprised my self with a yes. I don't know where it came from, I said count me in. I have a new Brother Machine, and made an applique quilt for my oldest grandson this winter, "Oma" grandma designed.

So Anilia's challenge was answered by nine other women. And once a month, her husband John gives us a theme, we have the addresses of the participants, a fancy spreadsheet to show who we are sewing for each month and the colors they have requested...and after that it is up to the seamstress/creator in us to make the block and get it sent off to the recipient.

The block above is my first piece.

But truth be told, it was the dickens getting there. I have a rotary cutter, my Mom's cutting table and cutting mat, but a very reduced stash and my first assignment was for something in greens, and somehow incorporate "HOME". So I made a trip to School House Fabrics in Floyd, VA and chose green fat quarters...and a few pieces that are more than fat quarters, then I had to select a pattern or design one...I surfed the net and found the McCall's quilting sitehttp://www.mccallsquilting.com/patterns/index.html and http://www.quilterscache.com/P/ProvidenceQuilt.html, selected the pattern Providence. I downloaded instructions, cut material and began to assemble the pieces. But shortly into assembly, I heard my husband say..."maybe you need to take a break", either the air was blue, or he could smell the smoke as I flamed at the mistakes I had made. Had I cut on the wrong side of the line, did I not measure right? Let me say here that I am learning disabled, try as I might, I could not assemble two of the rows correctly.

And so it sat...then on a Sunday at church I saw my friend Judy, and asked her for help. So one evening with material in hand, the rotary cutter, the seam ripper,and the written directions, I arrived at Judy's home. Judy is a mathematician. She has taught college math and home schooled her youngest daughter. She has probably tutored countless children and young adults...so we looked at her current project a double Irish Chain quilt, looked at my project, had supper and returned to the sewing room to salvage the project.

Judy found graph paper with 1/4 inch squares, her square block measuring tool, and began to build the block based on the internal square and the outside dimensions. We both agreed, that one small square and triangle could become a single piece of cloth...and so there are little fat "houses" and little skinny "houses" in the new pattern. Who knew! Bless her heart, she cut the new pieces. I was the recipient of extra tips...like how to press each seam, and after reviewing two separate ways of assembling the block Judy suggested the one she felt would be easiest. So I brought the block home and assembled it. I have Judy's hand drawn pattern, and I plan to put to use some of those other green fat quarters. Thanks Judy...thanks Anilia for sparking the work. And thanks Grace for choosing green. I love green!

Quilting and sewing

I learned to love to sew from my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Through my youth, my mother made most of my cloths. When I was old enough, she taught me how to place the patterns and cut the material. I was the cutter, at least that is how I remember it. Mom did not teach me to sew, I learned at Girl Scouts -Brownies and a whole lot more in high school, but once I learned, I loved choosing the materials and patterns.


When I had children of my own, I bought a treadle machine and began making clothes for them and myself. A friend taught me to bead, and the children did not leave the house with out some bead embellishment on their home made outfits.

When we moved back to the States my first sewing machine was an "Elnita", made not in Europe but Japan. For years this machine sewed the quilts, bed coverlets, curtains, outfits for my daughter. I have had a large material stash..and two Christmases ago I asked my daughters, Anilia and Erica, to choose what they wanted. Then that spring began stone carving...and somehow I didn't think I would be sewing much any longer. I gave away material that the girls did not want...but I still have a stash of linen and muslin and dungaree material.

This year as I helped my folks downsize, my sisters told me I was to take my mother's material collection. It never dawned on me to say no. And I agreed with them that we would never get a fair price for the material Mom had collected. But along with the material came the treadle machines, which I will lovingly use but they are still in the middle of the country at my younger sister's home waiting to come east. And it will this spring.

At Christmas my husband asked me - would I like a new sewing machine? I said yes. And cried like a baby at so wonderful a gift. Yes to creating for my daughters and grandchildren and my sisters and their children and grand children from that precious gift of my mothers and her mothers, and her mother.

Waiting for Dean and Spring

It's February 2nd, and the ground hog made his showing. According to legend we have six more weeks of winter. We have lived near the Blue Ridge over 20 years and know all about 30 inch snows in March. But this winter is different, our son and daughter-in-law are expecting their second son. I will have a welcome reprieve from winter the last weeks of February as I travel to Baton Rouge where spring has arrived and fresh strawberries are in the marketplace. I can hardly wait to see what is in bloom- Kent our 2 year old grandson and baby Dean as he will have arrived in advance of my visit. I will get to celebrate a belated birthday with my son. I will be warmed by the southern sun and loving family, sweet little boy smiles and frustrations, that I will share this late winter with so sweet a young family. And I hope on my return, I can patiently await the red bud, the dogwoods and forsythia.

About those closets

Truely I am not complaining. I just want to state, I didn't realize the new heating system was going to take the whole of the biggest "catchall" closet. I know this is a blessing...but I am wondering where I am going to put the 5 x 8 U-haul trailer of things from Mom's house, now living in Patty's garage. By the way, thanks Patty and Tom for letting the things over"night" winter at your house. The Christmas closet lost about a fifth of its size, the utility closet is definateley less than 50% of what it was...and that big closet...the good news is we will be warm for many years to come. And now I will have to address what was stored in that closet and continue to downsize.