Today In My Life... May 8, 2011

Today is:  Mother's Day... May 8, 2011

I got up this morning:  at 4:30am, made coffee and emptied the dishwasher.  Normal stuff.  Turn on the computers, listen to the clock tick.  The peace of the morning makes me wish for an all day early morning... ;o)  Just normal stuff... a gift.

As I look out my window:  the sun is just lifting over the horizon.  It's 6:10am.  I look out over the backyard and the meadow and think of how I have loved just gazing down there...the trees, the flowers, the squirrels, the birds.  I'm glad I've taken pictures over the years....

I am hearing: very little traffic this morning.  It's Sunday.  An occasional car or truck.  But mostly just sounds of the thoughts rolling around in my head.  Some good, some bad....  just normal stuff.. ;o)

I am thinking:  that it's very nice to have a friend who knows that she is cared about even when things become hectic in life and there is not always the time or frame of mind for a call... or a visit...

The one thing I've learned over the past week:   is this.... If you pack all of your dishes, pots and pans there will ALWAYS be a snag and instead of a couple of days...it will be another 2 weeks before you can move...

Creatively:  I have been at a stand still... My creativity is just buried so far behind thoughts of my children and the move that I found myself back to knitting garter stitch dishcloths last night.  Could not concentrate on any pattern enough to make it work, so the dishcloths were a life saver.. ;o)

Plans for the rest of the week:  include 3 days of chiropractic visits.. and here I have to give a plug to Dr. Ryan Knight of Denison, TX..  The pain in my back and shoulders is so much less that I can actually breathe now and make it through the day.
Note to self:  Must buy shelf paper by the mile... and soon...

A shout out and huge THANK YOU... to Amber DeHay  for all the help packing and carrying boxes.  And speaking of Amber.. pop over to her blog Knit My World  and take a look at her new pattern for a knitted scarf to match the lovely wrist warmers I had the pleasure of test knitting..









Today is Mother's Day.  I cannot think of any mother I know that is perfect.. or even the perfect mom.  But the thing about Moms is this... They have a perfect love ... Happy Mother's Day!

Rockport, Massachusetts et.al.

My children's grandfather came from Rockport. There were many stories told and talked about over the years. There was a small oil painting that was kept hanging on the wall for years of a bright red building sitting on a pier... and here it is. I was amazed when this picture showed up in the photos that son Phil emailed to me of his and Loretta's trip to Rockport. The perspective is a little off and the colors are a lot brighter than the very old painting...but there is no doubt that this is the same building. (Well...there may be some doubt. It has been about 35 years since I saw that painting..lol But this is how I remember it.)

It seems that Loretta had to do a genealogical study for a college course she was taking. Voila'... new obsession...lol (I laugh because those of us who have been bitten by that bug totally understand... kinda like the knitting bug!) There was much information found on this trip...even the house the family lived in.. and they found the natives to be wonderfully friendly and helpful.

This trip was made before the tourist season started. It seems that once the season begins a person can hardly walk down the sidewalk for the wall-to-wall people. Of course, it was a little on the cold side. Notice the cap... polishing lapels here... That is the hand spun merino, hand knitted fair isle cap that I made for him... and this one even fits..lol

This is one of my favorite photos. It makes me want to go... and maybe stay...lol I think I will try to either paint or pastel this picture.. We'll see...

The movie The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds was made here. There are some photos shown here of some of the movie props that were around town. I have to admit that I have not seen this movie...but I will now...lol And I adore Sandra Bullock.

As for life in general... the trip to Tulsa this week went well. My shoulder actually seems to be feeling some better. I seem to stay a bit tired, but I think that is because for the first time in years he has me doing some exercises to strengthen my neck. And the vitamins and supplements.... Lawzee... what a mess of them to try to swallow. But will continue... I'm ready to try anything and for as long as it takes. Seems it's either that or give up knitting. I really think that I am holding the knitting needles not only wrong, but too tightly and that is exaserbating the problem. Oh well... either way... must be fixed.

We are again in the woodworking aka shop mode. Yesterday and the day before was spent re-setting the routers. That sounds bad..lol It did not take that long to set the routers...but had to try several to get the one that made the look we wanted. Then had to buy some things..so that meant trips to Lowe's... etc...etc.. The first picture frame has been cut and will be sanded and put together today. We are working on a quilt holder/shelf that will fit one of my small quilts to be put up on the wall. Can't wait to see how that will work out!

The baby wrens gave me a scare a couple of days ago... I checked the nest and they looked dead. So I checked it again later and they still looked the same. I checked again later and they had moved, but still couldn't tell if they were breathing or had been moved about by the mom. About an hour later we emerged from the shop to see the mother flit away and heard them cheeping... phew... I worry that they are so close to the ground and accessible to cats, snakes and anything else that may want to harm them. We'll see if they make it to the fledging stage... Fingers crossed.

Have a good day...

Four Year Anniversary... I Missed It

On August 13, 2005 I made my first ever blogging post. I never dreamed that I would still be posting 4 years later. The customary thing is to link back to that first post on your anniversary... however... we were out of town. So I will do it here... Sharon B's Bags of Fun That was a fun undertaking. As the pages clicked by while I was looking for that first post there were several that stood out as places that turned out to be kinda important. Here's one...

The Joy of Handspinning Anyone who has been around my house lately can vouch for the fact that this site definitely changed my life...lol I am now surrounded by hand made spindles, a spinning wheel and a rigid heddle loom. I teach anyone who will stand still for a minute and doesn't fight back...lol

This site gives step by step instructions for making your first spindle and how to use it. Somehow it never left the back of my mind, but nothing happened until August of 2007. That was when I had been back to the site multitudes of times and finally decided that I would give it a try. That would be 2 years ago this month.

Much has happened in the 10 days since my last post. A trip to see my sister, on to Tulsa for a trip to the chiropractor (none near us uses our insurance .. bummer), and back home just in time for our son and daughter in law to arrive from Michigan. Busy time.. ;o) What a wonderful visit!

I hope all are having a good Sunday... It's a lovely, sunshiny day here and we have tiny baby wrens just hatched out in the back yard. It will be fun to watch them grow...