Random Musings

Sunday morning during choir practice I became fixated on my notebook's name label. Our director's son had used his very best handwriting (print) and neatly labeled everyone's books at the beginning of the year. I love the way he looped the top part of the M, and I wondered why I never ever made my "m"s that way.  But I know why. My teachers demanded pointed Ms; that was the proper way to write. In fourth grade, a friend of mine started adding nice curls to her cursive letters, and I decided to make up my own cursive Q and F.  I never liked the book's version of those two letters. The following year I started at a Christian school, and creativity was not encouraged. I acqueised for the sake of my grade and started writing ugly letters again. Until high school, where I rebelled and would print Es, Fs and Qs before writing the rest of the word in print. But for some reason my print Ms always stayed pointed, even though I think the curved humps are much less auste...

Many years ago at a banquet, I had a strange salad that tasted delicious. It had these dark green, roundish-shaped leaves, strawberries, craisins (which I had also never had), sugared walnuts, with a drizzle of vinagrette dressing. I knew the caterer, and she told me the "leaves" were spinach. Spinach.  The only thing I knew about spinach is that it always looked pureed. I had never seen it fresh. Since that night, Spinach leaves is one of the greens I love to eat in a salad. You can pair almost any fruit with it; it has more vitamins than iceberg lettuce, and it's low calorie. While I'm not a huge fan of pomegranates nor oranges, I have tried this with pineapples, as well as apples and both are marvelous. This is one of the few vegetable/fruit combos I have tried that is both healthy & filling (and it doesn't taste like cardboard).

It never ceases to amaze me how when life jerks a rug out from under you, it seems as if you're living in two time/reality zones. On the one hand, you're going about life as if nothing happened. Washing dishes, folding clothes, sweeping floors, ironing shirts, gathering eggs, watering plants, making a grocery list...those mundane, ordinary, drive-you-out-of-your-mind-with-boredom tasks. Nothing has changed. These things must be done. On the other hand, your heart and your mind stops. There are no answers, just questions. Future plans can't really be made, because you don't have the answers for what the future holds. You feel as if time has stopped, except everything all around you continues on at routine speed. I'm a Martha (yeah, the one who wanted her sister to help out with housework instead of loafing with the boys) type personality. I seek to serve, to do, to have a plan of action, and I'd like those around me to pitch in and do their part. As I was pond...

Smoothies (the healthy ones) will sometime in the far-away future get a third and final chance. If I gag or heave or even slightly grimace, they will go alongside my mental list of things to stay away from (like coffee). My cousin Rachel, while sick from chemo and losing her hair, is remaining positive and focused, and we're rejoicing that the edges of one tumor are "softer" and it appears to be getting smaller, even though she's only 1/3 through the many treatments ahead.  So thankful and relieved! Now if God will help everyone involved restore a relationship or two, we can rejoice for the beginning of another miracle. Mom's test came back with answers we wanted to hear. :) Happy, happy dance! No further scar tissue development from the last "surgery mishap", no bulging mesh creating pockets of infection, and no cancer lesions. The repeated infection is most likely coming from her sjrogen's (an auto-immune disorder) and the doc has some potentia...

I am SO disgusted with our media and liberal comedians right now. In case you don't follow politics, part of the Obama Health Care plan that is to take affect next year violates the exercise of religious freedom. If a business person believes that birth control is wrong (as do Catholics and a few Protestants), he/she will be REQUIRED by law to purchase health care that includes the cost of contraceptives to your employees. The simple thing would be to make it like a dental or vision plan where the employee can have the option of purchasing it on their own, at their own expense, but NO. According to Obamacare, the employer MUST provide it with the portion of healthcare they partially pay for. Failure to provide such healthcare will result in a daily, substantial fine (until the business either agrees or is bankrupt.) This past week at a hearing in front of a Congressional Committee, a group of religious leaders who would be impacted by this ruling, presented their cases. They were...

While I like cut flowers, I think they're a waste of money. Plus, they often make me sneeze. My husband works with a bunch of women, who drive him crazy asking, "What are you getting Monica for Valentine's Day?"  They don't seem to grasp that A) I'm not a normal female.  B) Bobby and I tend to think alike. and C) Valentine's, while cool, is not our favorite holiday. We tried the going out to eat thing a few years, but we don't do well with crowds (have you ever tried getting a wheelchair parking spot or table when a restaurant is crowded?) so this year we went out last weekend to celebrate. And I somewhat jokingly told him (since he says he buys me flowers to make the girls at work shut up) if he had to buy me flowers, I wanted them in the form of blueberry bushes, and that Sam's Club had them in a box. He came home with TWO boxes.  As in 8 plants total.  EIGHT plants. There are only two people in this family. I can never complain the man doesn...

 Being the mature, responsible, and sane adult that I am, instead of completing the quilt I needed to finish, I finished step 2 of a totally different quilt. :) Above are 3/4 of the appliqued hearts I started as a result of a class I took a few years ago. While putting something away, I realized I had enough to do a quilt top without making any more. So I did. The above is the finished result. (Now it just needs to be quilted. But that's a different pile and a different project.)  AND, as if that wasn't enough, I had enough hearts left over that if I added strips and squares I could make another quilt top. And so I did. Meanwhile, there's still the Solstice Star tutorials taking place (6 squares in 6 weeks).  Today is Week Four, and above is Square Two.  But who's counting? So after completing adjustments on a top for a friend and making one more top, I hope to get back to work on the Solstice Stars, my block of the month with Bernina, and the what-was-su...

One of my strange idiosyncracies is that even though I'm not a big fan of secular music, I do like to watch the Grammy's and Country Music awards. My nieces introduced me to a British singer named Adele last year. While I'm not overly crazy about heartbreak songs, I love her voice. If you watched the Grammys, you probably noticed this, but British singers sing. They don't go for the big props, elaborate costuming, pornagraphic dance numbers, or fireworks. They sing. And they do well.  There were quite a few British singers, past and present, at the Grammys.  It's almost as if our super-sized nation has so much bling around it that we forget what really matters...the song itself. So while mulling on that, I left the news on the next morning a little longer than usual, and this just made me laugh. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7398460n&tag=re1.galleries She doesn't call anyone out by name, but she hits the nail on the head. I would much rather...

After my morning gym class, I'll be heading to Duke University to visit Little Miss Emma (she should be finishing up surgery/in recovery by the time I get there...see the Feb 1 post for surgery details) and spend some time with her parents.  Prayers have been going up for her doctors, her parents, and her the last few weeks, and will continue to do so as she will be in an extensive cast these next 2 months. Meanwhile, in my home state, my cousin's daughter Rachel is heading in for round 2 of chemo today. A 29 year old mother of 2, she lost her own Mom to breast cancer not quite a year ago, and her grandmother (my aunt of whom I am just a very stockier, shorter version) to breast cancer several years ago. Prayers going up for her, her husband, her kids, and her Dad and Grandad...so many hurts, fears, and memories right now, on top of the sickness. Praise going up that Mom has a doctor who isn't happy with simply diagnosing yet another infection, but wants to get to the...

That children's song always makes me laugh (because all the kids get tickled and shocked about singing "P-P" together).  But today, it fits! Last year was a difficult year. Through all the different things we faced, I re-gained every pound I had lost over the last year and a half, and then some. The second week in December, I had a wake-up call of sorts. With my husband's support and encouragement, we made some adjustments to our diet. I thought I would never get through the holidays, but I did, and didn't gain a pound. The weight is not coming off as easy as before, but my blood pressure is slowly coming back down (110/82 today!) and I have to keep my mind focused on the road ahead and not the path behind. I do not enjoy exercise. Never have, and probably never will. But then, I also don't enjoy cleaning the bathroom, but it still has to be done. Monday I got a phone call from one of my doctors. I was expecting part of the news, but was quite upset to hea...

I'm not a fan of roller coasters. I don't like the way they make my stomach lurch. In my book, that's not excitement. Emotionally, these last few weeks have been a roller coaster. It reminds me of that song from Audio Adrenaline (which I've never really liked until now): But unlike roller coasters, he leaves us up. And that's quite cool, even if I don't like heights. :)

For those of you who weren't aware of this historical tidbit, we are now in year two of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War (or the War Between the States as my husband calls it). Since he's an avid history lover and this is one of the many time periods he enjoys reading about it, I visited the www.nccivilwar150.com website for a list of upcoming events that we might be able to attend. And I found one that I would interesting, for this next Monday. During all my quilt show forays, I've found a newly released book that has not only quilt patterns but also historical information on how quilts were used in the Underground Railroad.  If you like spy stories, you'll definitely find this intriguing. And while Monday's lecture is not about quilts, it is about a slave escape. An author will be giving a guest lecture at the History Museum (and of course selling and signing her book) based on the story of Mary Walker (who the American girl doll Addy comes from)....

With all the warm weather, I'm pruning a little early this year. (You can click here for pics on what that looks like.) Every year when I do this, I can't help but think of the many passages that deal with pruning and vines. But both yesterday and today, this verse kept running through my head: John 15:4 Abide in me , and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abide s in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me . a·bide [ uh - bahyd ] , a·bode or a·bid·ed, a·bid·ing. verb (used without object) 1. to remain; continue; stay: Abide with me . 2. to have one's abode; dwell; reside: to abide in a small Scottish village . 3. to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship, etc.; last.   So  many times I have focused on the latter part of the verse, the reference to fruit bearing. But the abiding...it's so simple, but so necessary. I just need to hang out with Jesu...