a crazy, insane challenge

I guess I'm officially in. I recieved the first e-mail today, and the next one should arrive on January 1st. I'm a little giddy with excitement, a little horrified at the mere thought, and a tad bit relieved after reading posts from last year's quilters.

It's from Australia, and it's called the 365 challenge. For the entire year of 2018, there will be a pattern sent for either a 3" or 6" block. At the end of the year, the blocks are placed together to form a queen size quilt.

Insane.

And yet, I've put my name on the list.

http://www.365challenge.com.au

As long as I can keep up with downloading the patterns every day, then it's okay if I miss a day or two of quilting. Previous quilters cut out the fabric pieces each day and placed them with the pattern in a ziplock bag with the day's number on it so they could easily access it and keep up with what had been completed or not. And that seems somewhat manageable. So even if I don't have time to sew, what I need for that day's block will be ready to go.

Meanwhile, I've moved another tab from the "Piecing" pile of quilts in progress to the "Quilt" pile.  Another project nearing completion. Hopefully I'll be updating my quilt page with at least one finished project before the year is out.

openings and closings

• Tuesday night, December 19th - Jr Church Caroling Not the most promoted of our year's activities, but we pulled it off nonetheless. We narrowed our road map this year and attempted to sing to all the widows plus two other families in the church. One wasn't home; one was a little bittersweet as her husband was barely hanging on this time last year (and the kids clearly remembered she had made them cookies last year!), but the funniest was when we visited the home of a younger widow who has recently started attending our church. The sidewalk to her front door was a little narrow, and when the leader got beside her car and started walking, he jumped back in shock. There was a HUGE cat sitting on the trunk, and it was at the same level as his face! Once the initial shock was gone everyone was laughing.
  
• Wednesday, Dec 20th - Packing Day Bobby got up early to take a friend to the hospital to have a pacemaker put in, and I headed out in the rain towards Washington, NC. There were plenty of men from the church helping load things into the truck, so I headed inside to help my sister. We pulled the remaining things from the attic, cleaned the bottom kitchen cabinets, cleaned out the laundry closet once the machines were loaded, and I swept floors while she mopped. Then we swapped out and I mopped a floor while she cleaned a bathroom. By that point the truck was back from loading up Todd's office, and it was time for me to head home and them to finish and freshen up for church.
  
• Thursday, Dec 21st- heading to TN. Stopped at a quilt shop on the way and met a girl whose entire family had attended BJU. Checked into our hotel and rested a bit before meeting Susan and David at a neat restaurant for supper. Bobby gets sick once we returned to the hotel.
  
• Friday, Dec 22 - TN & AL Bobby is still very sick on his stomach, but drops me off at the house Todd and Mindy are renting in Gallatin then heads to be with Susan's crowd in Hendersonville. Still raining. We get the truck unloaded, met some really neat people, including two young boys named Larry and Steve. After lunch at 2pm my brother dropped me off at Susan's before heading back to AL. We had Christmas with the Moffitts, then headed to AL as they finished packing to head to NC. Stopped to eat supper at Cracker Barrel so Bobby could hopefully settle his stomach and take meds. He ate 3 bites of his dumplings, but felt well enough to drive on in (that was being debated prior to stopping). Got him in bed and started washing clothes as soon as we made it to Mom & Dads. My sister-in-law has the flu. My Dad, brother, and nephew had rebuilt the ramp at the house, and I was SO thankful. I don't have to help Bobby in the house now!
• Saturday, Dec 23 -my birthday Bobby was able to eat a little that day. My younger sister made lasagna for supper that was incredible. My older sister and her husband made it in from TN. A good evening with family, though we missed Amie who was still running a fever and the oldest nieces who spent this Christmas with their new spouse's families.
• Sunday, Dec 24 - Christmas Eve. Church in the am, family time in the afternoon/evening.
• Monday, Dec 25th - we didn't open presents until the evening, and our family really scaled things back this year, but it was a great time of laughter and memories.
• Tuesday, Dec 26th - took Mom to the Jasper Pickers. It was her first time. It's an interesting mix of booths that vary from thrift store to antique to flea market type stuff. We got home to learn that they were predicting sleet through the night, so we decided to head home early and left AL at 7pm and drove through Atlanta.
• Wednesday, Dec 27th - While the stomach bug is gone for Bobby, the lingering side effects/problems are still there. He had a long, rough drive home. Mom and Dad's 55th anniversary.
• Thursday, Dec 28th - After another rough night we slept in this morning (or I did and Bobby was just stuck resting). Was able to get a lot of laundry done as well as some needed cleaning.
  
  And tomorrow the round of dr appointments and meetings that have been scheduled for a while start. I'm amazed at how quickly January is filling up before it even gets here. But we are blessed, and I'm thankful we had some great time with family, even if the health issues were unpleasant.

a fun day

We drove to meet up with one of Bobby's nieces today. It was amazing to see how much the littlest ones have grown. Natalie is actually talking and wasn't scared of Bobby today (actually set across from us at the table and laughed at his faces and told him he was silly). I think her favorite food is ketchup. She not only dipped her chicken pieces and french fries in it, she mostly dipped her finger in it and licked the ketchup off. At one point she even lifted the little cup holding the ketchup and attempted to drink it. I couldn't help but think about two people in my church who have t-shirts about ketchup, one which reads "I eat ketchup with my ketchup."
We had a small rocking horse for the youngest, who is not quite two. It has plastic runners on the bottom, and stuffed horse on the top. She was terrified of it. Natalie showed her how to ride it, but she was still having no part of it. We couldn't help but laugh.
The older siblings seemed excited by their cartoon character sheets, but the two oldest were most excited by the $5 McDonald's gift cards  - "credit cards" one of them called them. The parents took the cards to hold so they didn't get lost, but Charlie took the little cardboard cover and put his "wallet" in his pocket. He also wanted to know if it was Thursday. Evidently their McDonalds has a special on Thursdays where Happy Meals are $2, and that's when they get to go.
I don't think there's ever been a time when we've met with this family when we haven't left encouraged and uplifted. I pray we can be the same encouragement to them.

the craziness countdown

Tuesday night we met with some friends and had a good time. They stayed later than I anticipated, but they helped clean up the kitchen and it felt a lot like being with family.

Tonight we made our yearly trip to Meadow Restaurant and Meadow Lights. A lot of memories; a lot of wishes. I'll leave it at that.

Tomorrow we'll visit with one of Bobby's nieces and her family. We don't get to see them often, but we've never had time with them that wasn't a joy.

Saturday morning is housework and some baking followed by a wedding Sunday evening.
Monday is hopefully our Star Wars day, followed by a night of more family time with Bobby's nephew.
Tuesday is packing and laundry day, followed by a night of caroling with kids from church.
Wednesday is loading/moving day for my sister.
Thursday we head to Gallatin and help unload the moving truck.
Friday is helping them unpack a little then heading to AL...and then it's crazy work/rest/play time. We'll cram my birthday, Christmas celebrations, and as many family visits in as we can before leaving to head back on my parents' anniversary.
and then the appointments start...

There are some days I have to remind myself that joy is an attitude and not a feeling. The Christmas holidays are an emotional roller coaster the older I get, and this year has been no exception.

God is with us.

December

Instead of rushing to the holiday season and then relaxing, as I thought we would, we've only seemed to pick up steam. But we are getting things done and enjoying a lot of activities as well.

Our Pastor turned 50 the first Sunday in December, and we've been planning for many weeks a surprise birthday party on Dec 3, his actual birthday. Except the night before, all of our plans got tossed out the window the week before when he e-mailed the deacons and informed them we were having a business meeting that night and as a prelude to it he was going to dedicate the entire service into sharing his heart about some decisions and changes. They encouraged him to wait a week and let people pray about it. He was concerned enough time had passed and there was no need to wait, and began to wonder if the deacons weren't really behind the decisions that had been made. After a lot of e-mails, they finally made the call to postpone the party a week and proceed with the business meeting as he planned. So the party was this past Sunday night, and I think it went well. One of the things we had planned didn't pan out, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. He was surprised with the activities and seemed pleased. I know his wife was.

Tonight we had some friends over for supper. And of course as I was planning to spend part of the day cleaning house we got a call that the last parts for Bobby's new chair was in, so I spent 3 hrs. driving to Raleigh and waiting for them to change out the back of the chair (it was the wrong height, causing balance issues) and drive back. It was done, and we are officially finished with replacing the chair and making sure the van is driveable from the new chair. It's taken nine months, but I was hoping it would all be over before Christmas, and it is!!

We have a few things we need finish taking care of before the holidays. We'll meet with family, help my sister empty the house into a moving truck and move to TN, then spend time with family in AL before heading back. I'm hoping the last week of the month to get caught up on some things and get things prepared for the next year.

I will hopefully post pictures before the week is out!