Random Musings

After Christmas, we found out my niece was unexpectedly (to her anyway!) expecting. And for her, things have been rough. Very rough. So as the time approached, it's safe to say she has been more than ready for Lucy to come on out and join the family. Two weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, as they were driving to church, she got sick. That is the normal part of this story. Her husband, who is a youth pastor, pulled over to the side of the road. Two of their teens came up on their pulled off car, and pulled over to see if they could be of assistance. Except, they thought Ellen was actually having the baby, so wouldn't look in that direction - at all. It was sweet, but also a little funny. So this past Sunday night, I thought about texting her and asking what crazy thing happened that day. But I didn't. And then Monday morning I got the text from Mom saying that Ellen was having some semi-normal complications Sunday night and they had admitted her to the hospital. So by Tuesday,

It does not matter that our hummingbird feeder has at least 6 slots so multiple birds can feed at one time. If more than one bird arrives, it will be chased away. We've seen as many as three at one time (one darting in to sip while the other two go in circles) but they move so fast I've yet to capture it. But we love the feeder, and love observing these tiny creatures and their differences. They usually stay on the opposite side of the feeder so we only get glimpses of them during a chase, but today this one actually spent some time in our direct line of sight. They are such amazing creatures!

A friend posted this on FB the other day, and I couldn't help but think of it yesterday. At church I was speaking with a young girl who had just returned home from working at camp all summer, and she asked what I did with my summer. I paused. Answering questions about how I spend my time has never been easy. I'm a caregiver, and most people have no clue as to what that entails. For various reasons, I've never felt the need to enlighten people on that. But the rest of my day, I'll share that. So I told her I've been doing a lot of yardwork and gardening. She responded, "Oh! So you've had a relaxing summer." I honestly couldn't think of a way to respond. I have a love/hate relationship with gardening and yardwork. Since I don't work, I see no reason why I can't do as much of the yardwork as I can, and I do enjoy seeing the tangible results of what I've done. But it is buggy, and hot, and sweatty, and buggy, and sometimes downright frus

My garden, while beautiful foliage, has suddenly decided to start producing. That is both very exciting and very irritating at the same time. I'm thankful to finally have something to put up, but also a little aggravated that it chose an off-season time to do it when other things are starting to begin. On the flip side, as Canadian geese have begun their migration and landing in our yard/pond almost daily on their winter trip south, I also know it won't be long until the garden stops completely. At least, that's what I'm counting on. We're also seeing an increase in spiders and spider webs, which is another crazy reminder that even though the temps are still hot (though lower than normal), they won't be for long. Pecans and grapes are still filling out, on schedule, and the nights are coming faster. When last night's quilt group left the store everyone commented on the fact that it was dark, whereas last month the dusk was just beginning as we left. 2018 is

I'm attempting to design a quilt top around a panel (fabric that has a printed picture on it). I have a block pattern I wanted to use around the top and bottom of the panel, but it is 3" square. I need 12" block. So it stands to reason that you simply multiply all your measurements by 4, right?  I thought that made perfect sense - until it didn't. I'm not sure how, but my blocks are NOT coming out right. I wasted a lot of material cutting them down to size so I could make an enlarged 16.5" block. On the plus side, I won't have to make as many blocks. So one block is made, and we'll see what will become of the others. I would see live and learn, except I've not figured out where I went wrong yet so I'm not sure I've learned anything.

Because we were gone for a few days, then came home to several days of rain, our yard was in desperate need of attention. In the past when our grass has gotten that high, we've found we have three options: cut it high and then cut it lower a 2nd time, cut it at the normal height and have glass clumps all over the yard which ultimately kill the grass (and get tracked in the house), or cut it at normal height and either go over all the clumps with the pusher mower  to bag it or rake it all up. None are thrilling options. We were leaning for the first choice - cutting it 2x. While it seems like a waste of time and money, it actually is fast to do that than options 2 or 3. So some teen boys were coming over to help, and I was going to start earlier and get as much of the first cut done as I could before they came...and the riding mower would not start. We replaced the battery and a few other parts last month, so I was more than a bit exasperated. I went to the nearby mini mart to get

Luray Caverns in Luray, Virginia, while not accessible, does have a lot of museums AND a garden maze. We went through the maze (that is wheelchair accessible), got lost more than we found our way, but mostly enjoyed it. I was fascinated by the layout, disappointed by the "hidden" things (places to stamp a message on a sheet of paper so you could get a $1 off a tshirt in the gift shop where the maze ended...no thanks), and flabbergasted by the "clues" that basically said "go 15 steps and turn right, then..." Yep. Seriously. The clue is - exactly where you need to go. That's not quite my idea of a clue. Bobby was amazed at the number of families doing it with small children; I was amazed at the number of small kids running into you and screaming "IT's a DEAD END!!! It's not the way!!! Go BACK!" as if the world was coming to an end. By the halfway point it was almost comical. They did have a lot of neat statuary and metal art with flowe

We were able to visit quite a few museums on our trip. The Virginia Quilt museum was nice, though it didn't quite live up to its billing of having exhibits covering the history of quilting. It did have two very nice and interesting exhibits, though. I did take some pictures of the upper floor exhibit so Bobby could see a few pieces (old houses don't have elevators), but nothing can be photographed and posted electronically due to copyright restrictions. We visited two different civil war museums (both within a few miles of each other but on the same battleground area). One was a private collection from a man and covered a very wide time period (Indian artifacts, Civil War, WWI and WWII). The timeline was jumbled (you'd be reading a row of civil war info and suddenly be at a case of WWI), but the amount of items and the detailed information was overwhelming, incredible, and a historian's delight. Almost all of their information came from home firsthand sources. While i

While in Virginia last week, we visited the Shenandoah Caverns . It's one of three caverns in the area, but this one clearly specifies on the website that it has an elevator and people with disabilities can see 95% of the tour. And it was impressive. Leah, our amazing tour guide, pointing out the natural bridge (above her head) and the "levels" of the cave. a close up of the "2nd floor"...and this pic doesn't do it justice! I had a hard time getting the display behind us with both of us in the shot. This was an area that had all the kids in our group amazed. They really liked the colored lights. One of the many areas with water. Some were clear;some reflected. the 'bacon" strips...some of them really do have the color of bacon strips! A bolder that had fallen from above (years ago). I think this sight made some in our group a little uneasy. I heard Thailand mentioned more than once. This was one of the few places

We've had the best crop of pears that we've ever had this year. The storm we had last week blew quite a few down, and we went ahead and picked almost a bushel so we could have some before the squirrels got them. I was afraid they'd go bad while we were gone, but they didn't. So at least 3 days this week have been spent making pear salsa. I have used up all my small jars so I am officially DONE. We'll just have to eat a lot of pear salad and give pears away with the remainder.  Bobby bought me an electric canner for Christmas and I LOVE it. Since our stove stop is one of those ceramic flat pieces, you're not supposed to put heavy canning pots on it. I've done it anyway, but I've talked to too many people who've had them crack. Because the pot is so big, it takes forever for the water to heat, much less process, and it heats the whole house up. While storing the electric canner can be a challenge, it heats up fairly fast, is easy to clean, doesn

Goodbye Christopher Robin - this one actually came out last year, but it deals with how the 100 Acre Woods came to be, and I've been intrigued by that ever since taking a children's lit class in college and learning that Christoper Robin wanted nothing to do with his toys or stories after his father made them famous. Little Women - coming Sept 28th!!! In celebration of Alcott's novel being published 150 years ago, we have a modernized telling of the movie, and I can't wait to see it! Christopher Robin - coming this fall, it's Christopher Robin grown up, and his old animated buddies come to visit. Wings of Eagles - a remake of Eric Lidell's story. I Can Only Imagine - I both love/hate the song, but I'm intrigued by a film about how the song came to be. I've still not seen the latest Wonder Woman or Beauty and the Beast and would like to see those as well at some point, but they don't rate as high on my desire list! Wouldn't it be awesom