Well, how is everyone doing? I have been visiting quite a few blogs and see that everyone is well into their fall, Christmas quilting and stitching. I bought the first of what is usually many Chrismas Recipe magazines. She who must be obeyed and my dear daughter-in-law and I pour over them quite a bit and then we start in on the baking. Some goes to my work, some goes with she-who-must-be-obey to her work and of course miss N takes some home to the kiddies. The rest we dole out here and there. Some goes in the mail to friends and family who don't bake, some goes to people we wish to show our appreciation for - like the police department, the fire deparment and the hospital emergency room. To me without these hard working people our lives would be much different. Yes, I know there are others out there who work hard and change our lives, but these ones are special to me. My kids know quite a few police officers and firefighters/paramedics and I am always so thankful for the way Glenn was taken care of at the local hospital. I think lots of times these professions take a bum rap for things they had no way of controling or knowing. Soon, probably once I move, our hands will be busy.

I have found a new abode. It isn't the one I mentioned in the last post, but it is a very good choice for me and I feel so blessed that God has provided it. It is a townhouse condo, 2000 sq. ft. open concept on the main floor with the bedrooms being upstairs. It has two and a half baths and it has not one but TWO sunrooms. One is a four season and one is a three season. I look forward to decorating them and being able to have my coffee out there every morning and watch the sun come up and do my praying and bible reading out there. It also has a double attached garage and a deck. I often have neices and nephews staying, some from close in that need a place to sleep when the highways get bad in the winter and some are from another province. It will be nice for them to have a nice bed and bath all to themselves. Without seeing it yet, the grandkids have decided which rooms will be theirs when they stay over. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out once I get in there - will the one grandaughter be more vocal than the two boys?  Somehow I think she may win as the two boys are such gentlemen.

My oldest grandson has just been diagnosed with ADD, and a slow processor. He also has all the characteristics of Asperger's Syndrom but has not been formally diagnosed with it. It took a very long time to get this far, but now I can say it is good it took this long. My son and my grandson's mom don't see eye-to-eye on anything. There has been a lot of hurt through the years and with this diagnosis, I can see the loving God we have and all that he has done to prepare our hearts for true forgiveness and true love for each other. It has been one amazing miracle after another and I am certain there are more to come as time unfolds. My son did give his heart to Jesus when he was young, but has not been walking with Jesus for quite a few years. My grandson's mom has not given her heart to Jesus but I believe we will see changes in the next while. It has also been suggested that this grandson attend a private school to the tune of 15,000 per year. As a family we cannot come up with that kind of money, definately some of it, but not all, so the school has put out a request for a very near full bursary for him and I believe God has been working on this for some time and this too will come about. I am excited to see how God will provide, whether it is through this private school or some other way.

I have been so busy getting rid of stuff and packing that there is still nill done in the quilting and stitching department. I will be happy to move and have a whole room dedicated to my creativity. I did unpack a stitchery project as I really need to do something creative, so one day soon I will put up pictures. Yes, I did get a new camera, but now where is the darn thing????

Have a great weekend.

Blessing,
Jean

A Lost Summer

As it is now almost the end of August, I have officially lost all of this summer. If you were to ask what I did, I can't remember. I certainly didn't go anywhere. It took me till the end of July just to clean up from winter. I do remember the blistering hot days with humidty that did more than curl my hair. I will really be glad when it cools down and stays that way! This week we are to get back up to +35 with humidex of +40 so hot again.

Mostly, I've been thinking about changing my life and what that entails. I know that I want to move by the end of October. Will it happen? I sure hope so because usually halloween night winter starts. It is so weird. During the day of halloween it is usually a very mild day with temps. up in the 18 to 20 range (around 68 F) and then once the kids hit the streets, the wind comes up and by the end of the night it is snowing. Yes there have been a few years where that did not happen, but they are few and far between. Anyway, back to moving! I really would like to move before the snow falls. I have my eye on a couple of places and hope to have it all sorted out this week. Then I can get my house up for sale. I am told it will take a week at most to sell. Before I can list though there are a couple of things that need doing. The people who renovated my house did not know to tape the drywall (or maybe just skipped a step) - hence in my sewing room (a.k.a. the spare bedroom), the ceiling looks like it could fall at any time. You can also see where they put up the metal on the corners, but again did not tape. In the living room, my dear departed darling decided to see how they made the bay window, so out came a bit of drywall and boy I don't know what planet he was on when he fixed it - what a mess. His dad was a carpenter and painter and the apple really fell far from the tree in this case. I also need to put some new carpet in the basement and paint down there. You would think that I would know a drywaller but no, no, no, not a one to be had. I need to find one this week. Hopefully will be able to find a painter too. In my dream world they would be one and the same. The carpeting, I am hoping both sons and my daughter will do that, but that too may be only a fading dream. If only some other relatives lived closer, but they are all at least 900 miles away.

I am wading through my life and finding it very interesting to see the things I wasted good money on and know within my heart, I will never get to creating or using them. I know at some time Glenn must have warned my about this, but did I listen? Never, and now I am really sorry I didn't. I really had to have a good confession and prayer time with that. In fact, God has been dealing with a lot of things big and little that I probably wouldn't have let him in to deal with if Glenn was alive. I know it sounds bad that Glenn had to die so I would smarten up, but it really isn't like that at all. God's timing is perfect and so his time to take Glenn was then and now it is time to deal with things and move on.
Moving on is hard too. Some days I miss Glenn so much, I too want to go home, but in my heart I know now isn't the time. As I go through all our things deciding what goes and what stays, it really shows me how unimportant things here on earth are and how important prayer, obedience, trust and relationships are. I am praying now very differently than in the past and God has given me different burdens than before. What a wonderful God we have. As for the things, I also realize how little I need on a day to day basis. After I get through them mess in my sewing room, (why oh why did I keep all those scraps and patterns from the internet) I will just have a few things to get rid of in the basement and a whole lot of old paperwork. Glenn believed with all his heart that if he threw out one scrap of paper it would come back to bite him. So we will be having a few fires once it gets a bit cooler. I have so much furniture to get rid of also. Though I am only in a 1180 sq. ft. place, there were areas that needed larger furniture i.e. who wants three sofas? I am really hoping to get this condo that is a little way out of town. It is an apartment type with 1320 sq.ft. and has just been totally remodelled. It is gorgeous I tell you. If I get it I will post pics. Two bedrooms, one is set up for an office and has a murphy bed. That one will make a great sewing room. It has a large laundry room where I plan to keep all my fabric and stitching gear. It has a great kitchen, dining room, living room that is open concept. The bedrooms are not side by side and have their own bathrooms. It has a very nice balcony that has an attached terrace. I swear the terrace is so big I could fit my current house on it. I am really looking forward to being able to entertain out there. It overlooks the river and the lock. I would be on the second story and underneath my terrace is the indoor parking. I like this one so much but if it gets sold before I am ready, then I know God has something even better, so am not worried at all. All I can say is that if this falls through, I will be very excited to see what God does provide. My daughter would like me to move to a town closer to her. I am hesitant though winter driving here is really bad sometimes. The vehicles are good for the weather, it usually is the blowing snow that makes the drive so bad.

Roscoe went to a new groomer last week. She did an awesome job. She did a short show cut and he knew it! As we strolled around the block you could see him smile and hold his head up high and oh my when he saw the "missus" well she really hurried her walk to keep up to Roscoe. Usually the missus is very slow and stops to have three or four good rolls in the grass or snow. Her "dad" could hardly keep up to the pace that day. By the way he is a Bichon and she is a large golden retriever. The neighbours have such a laugh over the two of them. Just a few days ago, the neighbours across were walking their little shitzu cross. A few of us were standing there talking when they came up, so I introduced their little lady as the "mistress". We all had a good laugh over that. Roscoe will miss the girls, but hey I'm sure there are more out there for the little gigolo.

Got a new camera so maybe one day soon there will be pics. Have been working still on my stash with a couple of quilts. Got a new Phaff so am slowly getting use to it. In the needlework area I am working on one Hardanger piece and one cross stitch. I normally don't do much cross stitch, but in this case I will make an exception.

Have a blessed week all!
Jean

Boy, this is Bad

I haven't blogged in what seems like forever. I would start and then either my mind would go blank or something would come up. Sorry, I hope to do better in the future. My UFO progress this week does not include pictures cause She Who Must Be Obeyed borrowed my camera for a memorial service and a wedding last weekend and I don't think I will see it again until we go to Calgary next weekend.Anyway, I have finished a Halloween quilt, I finished the little pink quilt, I have been working on the Caterpillar quilt and on some hardanger objects. I will put pictures up but probably not before we go to Calgary.

Has been a ride here during the last month. First it was near 30 degrees Celsius that would be about 90 degrees Fahrenheit then this past week we had three days with frost and we have had so much rain, we can hardly get time to mow the lawn. It is raining again today and the city is telling us to watch for sewer backup as both rivers are so high. I haven't got any of my pretties out for the summer yet, but did do a good job on the dandelions. I bought one of those Fiskars weed removal tools and boy does it ever work. It took me the better part of two days, but both my front and back lawns are done. I only have the boulevard to do and that is a real mess. For those who think the holes left behind by the removal are too big and unsightly, I just take some potting soil and a bit of seed and fill in each hole. Generally I leave them for a week before I do this as it is a free way of aerating the lawn. I don't think I will do too many pots this year and I must say the first mowing of the year went well...except I had to move the snow blower to get at the lawnmower and I dropped the snow blower on my foot and broke a toe in the process. On Wednesday, my second disaster day, I was filling the dishwasher and went to put some cutlery in, scraped my finger on a knife, jumped (yelled too) and then the darn door slammed shut on my finger. Good thing it's on the left hand. I went to the Dr. yesterday and she figured it was broken, but I shouldn't go to the sport injury hospital as they were full up. I should go this morning. Well, going by past experience, there is only so much time you have until the bone starts to set. I figure I am past that and at this point they would have to re-brake it. I think I will just leave it. It really doesn't look too bad, just a bit crooked and my knuckle is a bit bigger and since some of my other knuckles are already bigger from arthritis, and it seems to be a bit better this morning, I will leave it. For those of you who are not Canadian a usual wait to be seen in an emergency is usually 2-4 hours if it isn't busy and 6-12 hours or more if they get backed up. With it being sport season, I figure I wouldn't be out of their until 7 or 8 tonight. I am sure that it is like this all over the world as it depends on the triage methods. As I am not in danger of dying any time soon, I will wait. I am very thankful though that when you really need to be seen i.e. heart, stroke, accident you are seen very fast and I truly believe that is how it should be. I think far too many people use the emergency as a regular doctor and puts too much stress on the system. I am aware that there is a shortage of doctors, but there are walk in clinics that are just as good if not better for most health issues that arise. I am very thankful for healthlinks that is for when you really are not sure where to go. I think the system works well for the most part.

Anyway, that wasn't what I was going to blog about, but some days that is what happens.

Blessing to all and have a good weekend and long weekend for those in the US
Jean

It's been a long long time

Guess I got back in the grieving mode again. Did not feel like working on anything or doing anything other than cry, read or sleep. But thanks to some much appreciated visitors in the form of my sister, BIL, my niece and my great niece, we had a lovely time together for Easter. My sister and I went to the new Wingfield performance which was wonderful. It was the first time she got to see him live. For those of you not in Canada, Wingfield is a one man play whereby in each play, he acts five or six parts. It has been on TV here for the past few years and usually before the new TV season begins, he goes on the road and does the plays live. During the summer he also acts at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. Beautiful weather while they were here and then last week. We even hit 20C (68F) and then tada - a blizzard hit this weekend. In the city we are fortunate to only have 3 or 4 inches of snow, but further west they got 50 cm which is about 20 inches. With this years flood being the largest we have ever had area wise (covers the most area of the province), this recent rain - yes we got rain also about 3inches and the snow, they say that parts of the province will be covered in water until July. So, I believe many more farmers will be quiting their much needed profession. So many have left over the last few years because of wet years and also bad markets for some grains etc., that I would hate to even guess how many small farms are still being farmed. We need the farmers and so I am praying that somehow they will be able to survive another year. Hope to get some stitching done this week and a bit more blogging. I also need to get going on the Family reunion, I am coordinating for July.

Have a blessed week!  J

When will that dog learn!

Roscoe ripped his ligaments in his hind knee last Tuesday. I was at work at the time, but from the look of the clothes hamper, I think that is what he had the fight with. Needless to say, he had to have Surgery on Thursday, by Sunday he had broken his stitches and had to go back in for new stitches. He is starting to do better, but I get to do some fun things to help him. I get to feed him his kibble by hand - can't get at his bowl with his cone head, then I get to shove three different meds down his gullet three times a day, and everytime we come to stairs, I have to carry him. He has the habit of sleeping on the bed, so which means that I lift him up, he settles down, decides he needs a drink, whines at me, I lift him down, he gets a drink, then I lift him back up again. This scenario goes on at least three times each night. I have tried to get him to sleep on his own bed, but nothing doing! Because his stitches had to be put back in, he will now be cone head for ten more days. On the plus side, he can now put a little weight on his foot.

I am going to pick up my new vehicle tomorrow and along with that, I will be picking it up in --you guessed it -- the snow. The snow was just nicely starting to go, we can even see a bit of bare spots, but after the next couple of days we will just see snow again. When oh when is this winter ever going to end. The geese are slowly coming back but no Robins as yet. Hopefully soon it will change. I have this "thing" that says once we have +10C (50F) the back of winter is broken. We haven't even been close yet.

On the creative front, I have almost finished a halloween wall hanging I found in the back of the closet and the blue scrap quilt is layered, so hopefully tomorrow or Thursday I will actually finish them. It would be nice to actually get a kink up on Sue's blog. For me that would be a big accomplishment. I have also been working on a cross stitch fairy picture for my granddaughters new room. The knitting also continues, however slowly. Wish I was retired and had a bit more time, though I shouldn't complain, I only work 5 hours a day and only Monday to Thursay.

Well, the dog is calling my name, which I assume has been changed from Jean to Whine. Wonder what he wants this time. LOL

Blessing Whine!

It's been a bad bad week!

My poor old Roscoe ripped his ligaments in his knee. I have no clue how he did it, but the vet figured that in August when I brought him in, he had slightly injured it then and now we figure he did one of three things, jumped off the bed or couch and landed the wrong way, or he was having a "fight" with the clothes hamper. He loves shewing on dirty clothes and I have a mesh clothes hamper that is on a PVC frame. If he tugs at it hard enough, he can usually get it down and away he goes into dirty laundry heaven. Normally I keep the closet door closed, but he managed to get it open or I forgot to close it. So for Tuesday and Wednesday he hobbled around and then off to surgery yesterday. He came home today and so far has only drank water. I guess he doesn't feel like eating just yet. His back is shaved as they gave him the anesthetic or epidural through there and then his leg is shaved right from the top down to his foot. With his licking job on his other foot, I am sure he is embarrassed to be seen outside. Recovery will be long - six months. With lots of therapy, which will be done by me. He looks like one of those poodles that have almost everything shaved except for the feet and a bit on top. He may become cone-head by tomorrow as by then he will start to get itchy.

I did have a bunch of projects out to work on and did get some stuff done on Monday. After that the week went downhill. I am hoping to get back to sewing tomorrow. I think my interest is coming back a bit and I would certainly like to get some things done before all the summer garden work starts.

That is about all for now. Have a blessed weekend. Jean

Sorry....

I wanted the top post to be below the other post - haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Sue's link is http://www.blackberrycreek.typepad.com/ Sue has a wonderful blog about sewing, life, being a widow, her family and the antics of her dogs. If you haven't visited her blog, well it's high time you did! In the picture above is the blue scrap quilt and the little pink scrap quilt the other stuff at the bottom is my granddaughter's. When my Niece Ca. was down last summer, she and DGD took most of my scraps and covered my "design" wall in them. Now every time she comes over she needs some space of her own. She told mama that she is going to make a quilt for her. And, yes my design wall is a picnic tablecloth that has the fuzzy side out. I can take it down when I need to, but so far it has been up for a couple of years - hey it works!

So have a great Thursday, and don't drink too much of that green beer (Yuck)!

Blessing
Jean

What a Week....

That DD won't walk through puddles, and now that it is melting a bit, there is lots of water and ice around. Needless to say, I have had to clean up a couple of messes this week - not a job I especially care for LoL. In the next wee bit, it will start raining so I can just imagine what the next walk will be like! I have tried using my big golf umbrella to cover us both, but he looks at it like it's from outer space and continues to walk wherever that embrella ain't!

I am happy though to see some warm weather. It has been a long winter for us with far too much snow, after a summer that was far too rainy... for the last few years this has been our cycle. Hopefully this year will be a bit dryer - actually a lot drier would be better (less mosquitoes)! The people I feel for are all those that have to move this month. March has to be the sloppiest month of the year. I may be joining the ranks of those moving as I have started scoping out Condos. On the rental market we have a 0.08% vacancy rate and with the first baby boomers turning 65 this year, there is a shortage of both rental and purchase units. I have found a couple that I like, one is right next to my church and has a very nice enclosed balcony, but only has one big bedroom, the other one is about half-way from where I live now to where two of my children live. It is really nice and it is with in a stones throw of the golfer at work. Maybe he would come for lunch sometime - hey a mother can dream can't she. What is with the boys in our families, it is like pulling teeth to get them to come over, however, our daughters gladly come any old time.

My sister, her husband, one of her daughters and one of her granddaughters is coming for Easter. I had bought Glenn tickets for Christmas, to see Wingfield. For those of you who have no clue who he is, well, he is an actor that puts on plays and plays all the characters. They have made a TV series out of his plays and this is his new play. My sister has never seen him live and Glenn offered his ticket to her, which she was very happy to accept. So we will go to the play, have Easter dinner here (along with my kids, and possibly Glenn's sister and her family, and generally have a good visit. Of course her granddaughter C. will go stay with Her Who Must Be Obeyed. They get along famously and it sure would be nice if C. could stay a bit longer.

On the stitiching side of things, I am so slow. Some days are good days and other days the grief is overwhelming. But I did finish the top of a blue quilt using my "leftovers" and I am hoping I will have it quilted and bound by the time Friday rolls around and it is time for our UFO update over at Sue's blog

Snow, Snow Go Away.....

We had a blizzard go through last night. Where I am it was better than north of here, but still -18C is too much to take at this time of year. Our snowbanks have been so high that it is hard to get out of Tim Horton's as you can't see on-coming traffic. However, yesterday for the first time, I noticed that the sun is starting to take a toll on the snow banks and I could actually see over the tops. Maybe we will get spring and summer yet.

She Who Must Be Obeyed and myself went to the local RV show yesterday. The plan is to get a "family" trailer so we can all go camping together or use it individually. Found one or two in particular that we like. Both of them being pull along trailers that sleep 6 to 8. With this option, I will need to get a new truck. It would only need be something like a Ford 150, but when you add the cost up of both it would come to around $50,000. We would probably have good use out of this for 10 to 15 years. The other option that I like better is a small Class C motorhome. It would be easier to get around. It still would sleep 5 - 6, but the cost is $60,000. This option would mean that I would need to keep my 2002 Honda going for a few more years. Something to think about. May go back to the show tomorrow with the Geek and see what his take is on the scenarios.

|Today I am not going out at all except to take that Darn Dog for a walk. Hopefully, next walk, the wind will be less and he will do his business. He is a quirky dog who doesn't like rain and will not go to the bathroom on our property unless he is in dire straits. This means that we walk four to five times a day. I am also going to have grandson 2 here this afternoon while mom and She Who Must Be Obeyed go shopping for their houses. She Who Must Be Obeyed has my dining room table and my DD-in-law is going to take that to their new house along with the china cabinet from my house. So, now She Who Must Be Obeyed is looking for a new smaller dining room table. Her dining room was a former bedroom where they opened up the wall between that and the kitchen and then put in a lovely patio door. However, the seating area is small. They are taking DGD with them so I think this may mean a new bed for her new room. I will be most excited to see what they get. Later in the day the Golfer and the Geek are going to take the sofa and chair from my sitting room to use in the golfer's sun room for staging their house for selling. Not sure, but I think this may mean I'm on tap for supper. Better get my head going on that front - always a challenge, now that I am on my own as to what to make when the troups all come.

On the widow front, it was Dear Hearts birthday this past week as well as the two month mark, so not a good week all around. So many first to go through. The first RV show without him, the first birthday with out him (we did sing happy birthday to him) and the list will go on as this year progresses.

Hope you enjoy the spring like weather, if you have it - if not we're Canadians and will continue to persevere till spring finally rolls in ..... maybe around June 1st. LOL

Blessings to all
Jean

My Mess

Picture of my mess with my bins. I really like the post that Sue did on sewing your scraps together as you go. Maybe I will adopt that.

My Favourite Quilt and that DD



Canvas Work that I finished a while back, but will go to the framers maybe tomorrow.

I promised pictures and so here are a couple. The top one was a mystery class I took a few years back. It is probably one of the few that I actually finished. There always seems to be something more interesting in the next project. LoL. The following picture is of a quilt I made using all the scraps from a log cabin quilt I made using the heart layout. I was very pleased I got a two-fer. All of a sudden that DD decided he had to be in the picture, usually he is quite camera shy.

 

It has been almost two months since my hubby passed away and to boot his birthday would be coming up, so I hit the wall this week and it took an incident at work to finally get me out of the fog. For that I am thankful. So, to end the week, I did/will be doing some "firsts" - went to see his sister in his hometown, tomorrow I will be going with friends for breakfast and next week I will be looking for a new vehicle on my own. Progress is being made and so far, so good. I had a really good time with C. today. We had some awesome salads, awesomer dessert and even better conversation. Tomorrow, She Who Must Be Obeyed aka the daughter will be joining us for breakfast. I am happy she will be able to join us as her and our friend Henry have a lot in common. Later tomorrow we get to finally get a peek at my oldest son and wife's new house. They were given the keys to have a little lookie see. I think there may be a small crowd there. They bought this house a year ago and were supposed to take possession in March, which got moved to April which now is May. We have a huge shortage of trades people in Canada and everytime there is a disaster, the trades people have to do the fix-up for that which puts the new housing behind. Flood season is coming up and for most of Canada there will be some type of flooding, so who knows what the eventual move date will be.

I have been doing a bit of study on missions this week and I think my perspective is changing a bit. I always believed that not everyone goes somewhere on missions and I always believed that each person has a mission field, whether it be family, extended family, work, neighbourhood whatever. But, what I don't think I realized is that if you aren't called to go somewhere, then you are called to give to those going. This is of course in addition to prayers for them. I tended to pick and chose and be not very disciplined in this area, but now the light bulb went on - Thank you Father, and so from now on I will be more generous.

Hope you all have a great sunny, warm, spring-like weekend.

Blessing - Jean

I Must Be In Kansas!

As our English ancestors would say - it's blowing a hoolie out there. When I was walking that DD earlier, I could finally - in spite of the wind and cold - sense the warmth in the sun and boy did it ever feel good. I can hardly wait for the snow to melt and get some green goin'. Unfortunately for those of us in certain parts of Canada - we may be waiting till May. Oh, well, I can dream can't I.

Today I continued to work on my hand quilting and on my knitting project. Tomorrow is going to be show and tell day - if I remember to get batteries for my camera. I am excited about finishing some projects and this morning as I continued to go through my scrap bins, I wondered how long is too long to keep scraps. I have some that are definitely very early 90s, if not before. There aren't many so, should I chuck them or try to do something with them. I don't usually chuck things very easily - no I'm not a hoarder - but if I can get another quilt or whatever out of it, then I figure I get more bang for the buck.  I can't believe how much dark teal green, dark maroon, and dark burgundy was around back then. I for one am glad that color combination has changed or maybe it's the prints that have changed, but I certainly like what is out there better now.

I purchased the 2009 Bali Wedding Star set of foundation papers and directions. It is one of Judy Niemeyer's designs. The Quilter's Cottage had it in and since I also purchased all the Bali Pops and yardage there, they asked if I should try to have it completed for their quilt show in June. Now, I have never entered anything in any show, but you never know with this one. My mindset has changed from thinking that quilt shows are for those who are perfect at the skill, to one of hey I made it, I'm proud of what I accomplished, It's not perfect, and maybe it will encourage someone to either learn how to sew/quilt, or encourage others to put something in a show even if they feel it isn't up to those high standards we set in our own minds.

Tomorrow is hump day - even though it is a short work week here, I look forward to it as it is the day I plan for the second half of the week and what I would like to do. It kind of gets me excited for the weekend. The last few years my hubby did not feel up to going out too much. We took that opportunity to enjoy each other and develop a different relationship than at any other time of our life. It was good, but now it is a challenge to make myself go out and do things. I got too comfortable in my own home. It's like I was having such a great time enjoying our time together that I forgot what awaits in the world outside our house. So, on Wednesdays, I look through the paper and go online to see what's happening in our area and plan what I think I might like to do. So far I've made a trip out of town to my favourite quilt shop, gone over to the town where my daughter lives and did some shopping (do I ever like the Co-op in Beausejour), and gone to visit my grandkids in yet another town. So who knows what I'll find for this weekend. I think I feel another road trip coming on though!

Enjoy the middle of the week and don't forget to take time to stitch!

Blessings - Jean

I Know I Can... I Know I Can....

get through this greiving process. Today is one of those days where something reminds you of your loss. Today it was Toby Keith's song "I'm not crying for you". It sure set me to crying, which I know I needed.  It started with the song and then went on to feeling very overwhelmed. I believe part of the grieving process is being overwhelmed. Ovewhelmed by what we ought to do, what we feel like we should be doing, and feeling like we should be further along this journey than we are and all those darn grief books don't seem to touch too much on being overwhelmed. Well, fellow widow(er)s, it is part of grief and it usually comes because we expect to be further along our journey than we are. No one else expects us to do things we aren't capable of doing right now, so why are we so hard on ourselves. It's because most of us want to please others, or be there for our families who are also grieving. We think we have to be strong for others. We think that others expect us to be "over" it by now. Grieving is a long journey of loss, of memories, of leaving behind, of moving forward and of re-inventing ourselves and we need to allow ourselves time to go through it in a safe, healthy way. And so... I know I can, because God will see me through and re-invent me into what he wants me to be for the next stage of my life. It doesn't mean there will be no more bad days, it just means that I will allow myself time to go through this journey and not feel guilty or bad for not feeling like doing things. I am more peaceful and feeling gentle this evening and am thankful for what I learned today.

On the stitching front, I started to "finish" (operative word here) an afghan I started about a year ago. One which is done in patches, with each block being knit in a different stitch. So far I have two squares done - one of them being done today. The other thing I did was set up the "bones" and continued to hand quilt one of my UFOs. I also took one bin and finished sorting, ironing and generally just enjoying the process of getting ready to get some of my scraps into quilts. I really like Sue's UFO challenge as so far no one has given me the what for, for only finishing two things and not showing pictures of anything else. You never know when the pictures might show up - I'll just surprise you all.

We had a Holdiay here today, so was nice to have a four day weekend. Enjoyed some time with my daughter-in-law. We went shopping for items to stage their present house and then use in the new house. It was fun and found some wonderful items for the next Grandmom, granddaughter tea. Every few months my granddaughter and I have a tea. I send an invitation to her in the mail (sometimes this includes other guests) and I tell her how to dress i.e. we will be wearing hats and gloves this time, or wear your dancing shoes. She is four and gets a hoot out of our teas. She use to like it when granddad would come and bug us for some goodies, so when we have our next one, we will set out an extra place for granddad. Hope he is enjoying his tea and goodies in heaven!

Blessings - Jean

That Darn Dog....

....is depressed and stressed so his Colitis is acting up. After him throwing up and pooping numerous times it was off to the Vet, back with new meds and out $250. Poor boy is missing the man of the house as is little guy a.k.a GS2. Little guy came tearing in after church running all over the place calling "tools - tools", when he wanted to go downstairs, we realized he was looking for granddad. So how do you tell an almost two year old that Granddad isn't here anymore? We have yet to figure that out. We want to do it in a way, so that hopefully he will still have a few memories when he is older. When he and his older sister went up to look for the "bones" (the parts to my quilt frame), they saw Granddad's picture and gave him a big kiss though and it was very sweet to see them do that.

I have not done any thing needle related this weekend, but with tomorrow being a Stat Holiday here and the temperature going to be in the -20C range, I plan on drinking lots of tea and sewing all day....or as long as that DD will let me. I did though, finish off some more of my spring cleaning and so have finished, my bedroom, two bathrooms, my workroom, and the kitchen. I did the living and dining rooms a few weeks back when the new sofa arrived. Now I only have the most dreaded place of all to clean ---- the basement. I despise basements! I grew up with out one and find them dark, dingy and even to a 50 something woman a little scary. Not sure why I find them scary, probably because they are usually dark, and filled with junk. Really it is not in too bad a shape as far as cleaning, as the rec room was just cleaned to accomodate the funeral visitors who stayed with me, so it will only be what we affectionately call "the back 40" that needs to be straightened up. We need to return some baby things we borrowed and vacuum up in the rafters. So all in all until window cleaning season I'm done and can concentrate on more enjoyable things such as sewing, stitiching and maybe getting ready for the garden...which I may or may not put in this year, but always find it fun to dream about the seeds, and all the bounty I will get. I do become somewhat of a hoarder with all the fresh veggies and fruit and usually won't let anyone into the canned goods until we can't get another meal out of what is left in the garden. I do though on occasion, notice a few holes in my neatly sorted hoard and can only assume that some mouse, or child thought they needed it more than me.

Now, I do need to go and give that DD Roscoe his third round of meds for the day. If I get anything worth taking a picture done tomorrow, I am going to try to post my first inserted picture.

Blessings - Jean

It's Back!

Thank you Colorado for the low you are sending our way. We will be endowed with yet more snow, more wind and more cold. I DO NOT LIKE THIS, so please don't send anymore our way. Thank You!

Didn't get a blasted thing done today. Spent the day discussing future wealth or lack thereof, running around getting yet more forms signed - gee can't the powers that be just let it go already! Dear Husband is gone, there is nothing them or I can do about it, so lets get things settled already. I knew that government wheels move slow, but this is ridiculous. Sorry for the rant - I'll try not to do it again.

We are having a long weekend up here, so after 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, I will be leisurely stitching away for four lovely days. Hey maybe this storm coming isn't so bad after all - gives me time to play and we all like to play don't we. Hope to learn a bit more about blogging this weekend i.e. learning how to centre the picture at the top, and inserting pictures. At this point it looks like I'll be brushing up on my HTML a bit. Good luck with that!

Hope you all have a great evening and day tomorrow.
Blessings - Jean

Some Days are Diamonds

What a beautiful day! We are hitting plus 4C about 38F and so took the Darn Dog (herein after known as THAT DD) for a well deserved long walk. Roscoe is getting older - eleven, but for a Bichon that's not too old. He like me, has arthritis and he suffers from colitis, so today was a Diamond Day and we had fun.... sort of. Roscoe never likes walking in water. If you are older and you ever saw those Peppi-La-Pew cartoons where he walks on his tonails, well Roscoe walks just like that in the water. Of course he just has to give me that woe is me look - what a dog! He is good company these days as I adjust to being a widow.

Strange how that word hits you within days of your mates death. I think it was the first thing that hit me, next was "How will I make it on my own," then I just fell apart for awhile. Now I am back to what my oldest son called the New Normal. I thank God every day for the "New" Truths he is giving me. You know the ones... the words we've known for a long time, but only become reality when we hit a tough spot. I can hardly believe what I've missed in his word. Thank God he is patient and understanding and gives us time to "get it".

I had earlier in the year decided I would do the UFO Challenge that Sue from Blackberry Creek Home Arts is sponsoring. The rules are really lax - gotta love that and now that my life is starting to settle down, and I feel like being creative again I am on a roll. I have completed two items (shown on the side bar) and am now working through my scraps.

I had started about a year ago thinking I would diminish my stash somewhat by using up what I had. To get myself organized, I took out all of my material, sorted it and then decided which ones would go to together. I then bundled them up and they are now ready for whatever project I choose to start. Of course like every other quilter, sticher, knitter etc. out there I did not get very far into the year before I started buying, but that is as always another story. Back to the scraps, I have plastic containers that stack on top if one another and slowly I am cutting all the scraps in the bins into various sizes and when they are all done, they will be sewn into quilts. On the other side of the coin (stitching) I have so many little bits, I have decided to make a bunch of book marks and donate them to either one of my teacher neices or to an inner city school. Up here February is Love to Read month, so I figure maybe I can get 30 to 35 done by next February. I hope to get a list up soon,of what I want to finish this year.  THAT DD is calling for dinner dear! So I better go. Enjoy the day!
Jean

A Day for Red

Today being Valentine's day is usually a day for red- roses, clothes, candies wrapped up in cute little red tinfoil, but today let's remember all those ladies in our families that suffer from heart disease. Let's help them get active and not just sitting at their sewing machines!

My husband recently passed away at what to me is a young age. It was semi expected in that we knew that at some point he would either have a massive stroke or a massive heart attack. Most of his heart problems, he was born with. However, it was just an ordinary operation he went in for and God ordained that it was G's time to go home. This morning while I was thinking about Valentine's day and how we would very often celebrate very simply by me cooking his favourite meal, setting the coffee table up with a nice table topper, candles, one flower and then we would sit on the floor with our backs against the sofa, eating, talking, joking and truly enjoying each other, it dawned on me that today I would use this day to remind each person I met to never take their significant other for granted. Do something special or say something special every day and as Mary did in the Bible, keep these things in your heart always so they can become a treasure later.

Enjoy this beautiful day for love in a unique way.

Jean