Random Musings

I've rearranged my sewing room, and in the process of trying to make a very big decision, we've ordered a new table for my large Janome sewing machine and my Bernina serger. We placed the order the evening of the 26th; it was processed on the 27th from Maryland, and the next listing was around noon on the 28th...in GEORGIA!!!  Not just GA, but south of Atlanta.  I think whoever is in charge of this company's shipping department needs to learn some geography.  So it leaves Maryland by truck, passes through VA, then NC, then SC, and arrives in GA.  We could have had this table yesterday!!! As my husband reminds me, it may be that everything has to be processed through Home Depot's warehouse or something, but it makes absolutely no sense. Sometimes I think modern technology that is supposed to track our packages makes things worse because we see things that make no sense whatsoever.  And for the record, Home Depot said from the getgo that my package would arriv...

Bobby mentioned tonight at supper that a local paper had published the 50 best restaurants in our area. He said we had only eaten at one of them. They were ranked by category and not number. Somehow I think if I published my list of our favorite restaurants, most people wouldn't be too impressed. But I'm going to do it anyway. :) Best chicken sandwich: Zaxby's TLC  ...hands down. Best chocolate chip cookie: Chik-fil-A Best chicken biscuit: Hardee's Best country-style steak: Toot-N-Tell Most convenient/choices: Bojangles Best breakfast: Angie's Best afterhours/oddhours/travel place: Waffle House (This one is our election night supper staple since I don't get off until after 9pm or later; my faves on their menu are hashbrown bowl, BLT, ham and cheese sandwich, waffle with pecans and chocolate chips. When our church met at KidsRKids Daycare on Hwy 70 in Clayton we ate there quite a bit. Due to sugar levels we now only eat there when traveling on holidays and ele...

It seems like yesterday we were celebrating Bobby's birthday and I was thinking how the middle of the month wasn't too far away, and tonight I finally get to sit down and see the calendar and realize it has already passed!  (If I were typing this on Facebook, I would insert the face emojy with the mouth wide open here.) Taught my third class this afternoon. While I'm feeling more comfortable with the material and I think I did a better job tonight in fitting most of the talking points in, I'm still struggling to get everything in time wise. So before my next class I need to go through and evaluate what examples and such I can omit. As my assistant and fellow trainer reminded me tonight, we did have twelve people who were totally new to Help Table so it was a little more important to explain every little thing. But it still makes me laugh that people will come in 2-3 minutes before class starts and be surprised that there are no aisle seats available. Back row and aisl...

Bobby told me to surprise him for his birthday. So I tried. Not only did we manage to get one of his nieces and her kids and one nephew and his family over for supper with his Mom (with a Bryan family staple...hot dogs, with chili and slaw, and Grandma Jean's chocolate cake recipe), but the same kids plus 4 more came over for play time this afternoon. I am tired.  I am tired of hearing my name. I do not know how my sister-in-law does it day in day out five-six days a week. But we had fun. We made memories. We had an outdoor scavenger hunt. We made a mess inside. We cleaned up. One or two of the kids pouted when it was time to leave. And I think Uncle Bobby was not only surprised, but enjoyed his time with his family. And "Dillie" blew out the candles before Uncle Bobby could lean over far enough to the cake...HA!  I had the wrong lens on my camera so the pictures were blurry, which is a bit of a disappointment since we don't get to be with them that often. h...

I belong to two quilt groups. One of them meets at a quilt shop once a month and pieces for 3.5 hours. This year we chose the book Extraordinary Log Cabins and everyone is making a quilt from one of the patterns in the book. Log cabin blocks are created with a square, then the rest of the block is created by sewing rectangles to that square. It sounds bland, but if you have a pattern it can produce stunning results. Since all the rectangles for this book are 1.5" in width, to say there is a lot of cutting is an understatement. A group of us met for a cutting party. Two of the ladies have machines called acuquilt go that will cut multiple layers of fabric at one time. (Think die cuts).  I was amazed at how quickly the machines cut the strips (and accurately, too!).  In less than 2 hours, all my fabric was cut into 1.5 inch strips and I had already started subcutting into the rectangles. They also introduced me to a Creative Grids ruler that allows you to cut multiple strips ...

For years, the children's section of our church was boy heavy. As in the boys outnumbered the girls at least two to one. Some years it was more than that. And I learned that 4th-6th grade boys, much like American high school boys, love to talk. A lot. One classroom management strategy that seemed to work like a charm was making them sit boy-girl. Unlike high schoolers, at that age boys and girls don't interact except to pester each other, and the thought of sitting beside a member of the opposite sex is true punishment. It worked great, so much so that when they started begging for a trial Sunday of sitting beside their friends, we decided to let them try it, with the understanding that they would get one reminder and the second offense was to be moved beside a girl. The first Sunday they were as good as gold. The second Sunday they needed one reminder. The third Sunday was the same. The last Sunday of the month I moved one of the talkers beside a girl who was very quiet. She l...

 I've enjoyed the tree lights the past few nights. Power was off and on from 7:30 last night through ten this morning, so I didn't have the lights on as long as I had planned last night. And I could have done without the 7 phone calls throughout the night from Duke Energy telling us every time the power went out and when they thought it might be restored. If next week wasn't busy, I think I might leave the decorations out another week. But the census is over, and Bethlehem looks like a ghost town. Even the streets have rolled up!  My husband likes for Christmas to go up after Thanksgiving, but sometimes I'm sorely tempted to decorate November 1st. Either way, it's all heading back to the closet for another 11 months.

The Southern Wake Quilter's Guild meets once a month from August - May. During our meetings we have a guest speaker, hear updates from the charities we support, have a show and tell of what members have currently completed, and then discuss any business. Every year the President has a challenge. Last year's challenge was to submit a list of unfinished projects and see who could complete the most. I didn't participate in that one, as my schedule was a bit crazy. This year we are supposed to complete something for each of the charities our guild supports. Ryan's Case for Smiles - 2 pillowcases Scrap Happy Quilters - 1 full quilt Quilts for Kids - one crib size quilt Quilts of Valor - one twin size quilt Ryan's Case for Smiles makes pillowcases for the childrens oncology ward of local hospitals. There is a pillowcase method called "hot dog" or "burrito" that is very simple. Videos can be found on youtube and patterns can be downloaded at v...

January 2020 Bible study... Lifeway Christian Bookstores closed all their brick and mortar stores, so I stocked up on several Bible studies. I have a few books that our women's group at church have done over the years that I never totally finished, so I'm going to start with one in January. Many of them have 6-8 weeks worth of lessons, so I'm hoping to do 6-8 studies this year. Up first is Fight Back with Joy by Margaret Feinberg.   Quilting... Yesterday I showed  how out of control my craft room has become. My goal is to quilt at least one quilt top a month, as well as bind and label it. For January I'm going to tackle a Christmas quilt I pieced a year ago.   Hobby... The Southern Wake Quilters Guild has a president's challenge every year. This year the challenge is to do something for each of the 4 charities the guild supports. I've already completed the one for Ryan's Case for Smiles (hope to show those tomorrow). For this month, my goal is to...