A BIrthday Good Thing for your 31

 Today you would be 31 years old.  31 years old at 8:15 pm.  It is a beautiful sunny day today finally, after all the crazy storms we have had it is nice to have your day be so beautiful.

The friends of the dead have come out in force to support us and have called, messaged, and sent hugs from near and far - some even coming right to us to try to hug a cactus today!  We have had notes given with love and support to help us keep going, and to try to give us a little love and remind of that the love stays, as we manage the day.

Today I am doing a good thing to honor you and to give a dear friend a good thing too, some who loves you and whom you love.  It required me to leave the house today and to go out into the world and be present with people and especially this friend who will be travelling soon to have cancer treatment.  I know you will be with us today and I know you will have her in your angel wings as she travels for this hard thing.  This is the first birthday since you died that I have left the house I think, and it was exhausting but good.

Today I delivered this quilt to my dear friend Dana - the only thing I can do to make her life a little easier as she goes to have cancer treatment out of state.  We had lunch together and visited and talked about all of our kids and some of the hard things we are both dealing with right now......

We remembered you and we laughed and cried a little, and right there in the restaurant, she prayed with me and for me and for us and I for her.  

I thanked her for giving me her time today, your birthday, and one of my hardest days of the year, and she said she was honored to spend the time with me and to have the gift that was made with love and magic, and a little bit of angel too.

Blessed be - do good things both large and small, and if you are a believer in any higher power, throw up some prayers for my Dana and her family, for me and my family, and for all of us struggling right now with the world, and always, always love your people!

We March!

Naughty Ike Makes A Friend!!!

 This week Naughty Ike turned two!  And he really is two!!!  Any of you who have had a two year old even as a baby sitting candidate knows the terrors of two!

The snow has been really deep, and the weather has been cold lately - and both my boys have to go poop where no one can see them - most of the time even cars going by!  Especially Brix - our older dog who was trained at a young age to not poop in the yard - but if the snow is touching his butt all bets are off and you can expect a pacing event until he just can't not go anymore!

So when a neighbor made a few runs to the lake on a snowmachine, and Reed and the Hubby had made a few runs earlier in the Winter, it made for a trail right to the neighbors in a roundabout way through the dark woods between our properties!  Ike just thought it was the best thing ever!  SO every time the neighbor started his truck and we were outside, Ike would run over and give him a huge barking helloo!  Yeah - laugh it up - damn dog kids!

Luckily we have nice (dog people) neighbors and his wife came over to meet this Naughty dog who kept coming to their house!  "Your dogs are always so good and they never come to our house -I thought you must have got a new dog!"  I had to say - he's not new - he's just two!

Then we laughed and laughed because we both know!

Blessed Be and may the worst of your two year old problems be just Ike naughty!

Every Baby Deserves A Blanket!

 

Early last week I was interviewed by some of the kids from our Yearbook class about some of the things I like about the school and working with the kids, and they also asked what I do to relax or have fun!  I always have a few answers for that but right at the top of my list along with gardening, is quilting!  I know you have all seen some of the quilts I have made in other posts, but the kids asked me how many quilts I have made - and I had to tihink about it!  I have made over 100 quilts!

I keep track of them in a couple of "Quilters Journal" books that I have been given or have just converted a blank book into, and now there is even an app on the I-Phone that lets me keep track!

This was the first Quilters Journal I got - from my mom in 1999!  It doesn't have all the quilts in it - one has to remember to take pictures before the quilts get given or sent!

I have made a wide variety of quilts in a myriad of colors and for all different reasons!  Hockey, Basketball, Homeless kids, weddings, babies and the list goes on!

 Here is the second book resting on the open pages of the first - I have lots of pages to fill still in this 2020 start book!

I was asked one time also why I make quilts for people I dont know,  or for people who might not use it or treat it well....  and the most simple answer is....because every baby deserves a blanket!  

This is my moms Nativity set that she gets out every Christmas and it has s special place in the living room for the whole of the Christmas Season.  Long ago when I was a kid we spent a lot of time at a Ceramics shop (Knik Knack Mud Shack) and I remember her carefully painting each piece of this nativity set!  It is a treasure.  Can you see the bright green square in the middle of the manger scene?

Look close..... that little square is covering up the baby Jesus.  It is a square of fleece that is the same as the teddy bear Rye had - that my mom made him.  I didnt remember the story until my mom reminded me this year that every time Rye was at her house during the Christmas season, he would cover the baby Jesus with a little square of fabric.  She tried to take it off and he would find something to put right back on it.....a square of felt, a peice of quilt batting, whatever he found that resembled a blanket.  In his words - even as a youngster- "every baby deserves a blanket!"  This year, mom was fussing that the baby's blanket was dusty and she wanted to wash it and I said "Why don't you just cut a new one?"  She said, "Because its the last one that Rye cut and covered that baby Jesus with......because every baby deserves a blanket."

 Blessed be and may you and all your babies have blankets!