American values

"I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. That’s what I stand for…I also believe in dance.” - Ellen

I listen to all this campaign rhetoric.....all the personal attacks...all the biased twisting of the facts.  So many people seem to be afraid.....of people of a different race....of people of a different religion...even of people who are unemployed or in need of government assistance for one thing or another.   The people that scare me the most are the ones that buy into some of these fears or some of these political statements without any thought or investigation of their own.

Just saying.....

Accomplish....my word for 2012

Here we are in a new year...and I have a new word....ACCOMPLISH

This year I want to stick to my plans and finish some of my mountain of projects.  I'm not saying that I can't start anything new, I just want to temper my enthusiasm for new projects and promote the joy of completing some that have been around for awhile.

My list of things to work on includes...
exercise..I've rejoined the Y and Paige is going to help me with this
piano...Leann is going to help me with this
quilts...of which the above clover top is only one.....
and of course, playing...It's so much fun that the kids are getting a little older and we can actually "play".  I love games and they are so great at imaginative play, and it's still cool for them to play with me, so I better enjoy it while I can.

Here's to a great 2012 where lots of things get accomplished throughout the year!

Busy season...So why not do more?

November-December is such a busy time.  All the holiday hustle and bustle, at work and at home, should tell me not to take on more projects.  But no....I'm knee deep in projects right now. These are my curved rail batik blocks.  Pretty, aren't they.  I actually won these from Block Lotto in September.  I'm still waiting on the last of my "winnings" but then I'll be able to play with setting these.  They are what is up on my design wall right now.  I imagine it will be awhile before I actually sew them.  It's actually kind of relaxing to experiment with rearranging these gorgeous blocks. 

This one, you may remember from a while ago.  It is also made from Block Lotto winnings.  I am finally in the process of quilting it.  I'm hand quilting it, just because if feels like it should be hand quilted.  I have some embellishments planned too. It's now on my quilt frame in the living room, so it's easy to do watching television, whenever I have time for that.

I also am still working on my log cabin quilt from Lyn Brown.  It's fabulous, but I can only work on log cabin blocks for a little bit and then I have to go do something different.

The something different is a mystery quilt from my friend, Cindy.  I'm only at the cutting stage, but it's fun to not know where it's going.

Throw in Thanksgiving plans and Christmas plans, and playing with the kids...and I love love love this season...but it can be rather exhausting.  So why shouldn't I take on another quilt along?  Thanks, Jennifer, at That Girl That Quilt, for coming up with a chevron design I just adore.  I'll make copies of all the steps, but I imagine I won't actually start this one until after Christmas.  In fact, I don't expect any of these projects to be finished by Christmas... I just plan to enjoy the process..and the diversity of them for now.

It's a sad sad day.....Goodbye Texas University....

I know college football is a business.
I know college football is all about money and politics.
I understand that money and politics led Texas to its television deal.
I understand that it was difficult for Texas A&M to recruit given what Texas had to offer kids.
I understand that is one of the main reasons A&M wanted to switch to the SEC

but.....

That being said, I think college football is also about tradition and rivalries.  With all the conference swapping, a lot a traditional rivalries are falling by the wayside.  That's sad...but none quite as sad as Texas announcing that they do not have room in their schedule for the Texas-Texas A&M game.

What?????

Texas and Texas A&M have been playing the traditional rivalry game on or near Thanksgiving day forever.  I know my family has personally followed that rivalry for close to 100 years, sometimes quite heatedly with people supported both schools.  I'm sure I have relatives rolling over in their graves with this announcement. Why would that game not have already been penciled in on everyone's schedule on or near Thanksgiving day well into the future?

The timing of Texas sudden "full schedule" looks like sour grapes and political games to me.  I guess the A&M fight song is just becoming more and more literal.  After all, it starts out "Goodbye to Texas University...."

It's too bad college football has come to this point.  What next?...no Army-Navy game?

Can you believe Christmas is only 73 days away?

I saw that number and panic set in...but wait...no need to panic.  I've been buying things, taking advantage of sales and what ever since last Christmas.  The problem is now, I don't know what I've bought or made, and who for.  I need to go dig the stuff out, sort it, and take stock.  There are several gifts I want to make.  I still have time, right?

Deep cleansing breaths.  That's what's called for right now.  The next 73 days are going to be crazy, with a major remodel at work thrown in to all the regular Holiday hustle and bustle.  I love holidays, but I think the big trick now, is to make them fun, but not to overdo at the same time.

My geese are dressed for Halloween.  So I'm off to a good start.

May the Spirit be with you!!!!

A Reflection On Time

I read an interesting article by Anne Lamott the other day, that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. (If you don't know who Anne Lamott is, she's a writer and she teaches classes in creative writing as well.)  It was all about time and how it is so hard to find the time to do things we want to do.  How crazy is that?  If we really want to do something, we should be able to find the time.  Right?

Well, I have to admit, I have a huge "to do" list that only seems to grow longer and longer.  I was on vacation last week, with a goal of accomplishing all those little things that have been on my list for way too long.  I'll admit, I caught a cold in the middle of my week and it set me back.  I don't know about you, but I really don't want to do much of anything when I don't feel good.  I did, however, manage to get some of the things crossed off my list. Most of them didn't really take much time either. But then it dawned on me, that I had found it necessary to use my vacation to get these things done....and some of them were "wants" not "have tos".  That's just plain crazy.

What has happened to us that we are so caught up in the day to day that we have trouble stopping to smell the roses?  My daughter found a sign she wants for her kitchen.  It says something like: 'Pardon the mess, memories are being made'.  I want to go shout that message from all the rooftops.

The article that started all this thinking asked some key questions to help us find time such as:  Do we really need to watch 30 minutes of news ever day? As a former news producer I first found this to be an horrendous idea.  But then I thought, is it really necessary to be caught up on all the robberies and fires?  Would we be okay if instead of watching the news, we worked on a creative project, or played with our kids?  How about what time we get up in the morning?  If we get up 10 minutes earlier, will we really notice the difference other than have10 minutes to for instance pack our lunch, instead of hitting the snack machine during our lunch break.  I know many people find facebook and twitter fun, but do we really need to post and check status updates several times throughout the day?

The Flylady website starts people organizing their messy houses by using bits of 15 minutes at a time.  It works.  So why can't we use the same 15 minutes to be creative, do projects, or just have fun?

August is just about over.  Perhaps the Dog Days of Summer add to our lack of productivity at times, or is "it's too hot" just another excuse.  As for me, I'm ready to manage my time better.  Wish me luck.

31 days of change

It is said that to give a habit a month, and you can keep it forever.  I don't know if I believe that, as I've started many things and stuck with them for a month only to have them fizzle after awhile longer.  But I think it's a worthwhile endeavor, none the less.

 Last year a group of bloggers got together to do 31 days of blogging.  Here are some of the topics/bloggers that committed to writing for the month of October:

:: 31 Days to Stress-Free Entertaining from Sandy at The Reluctant Entertainer

 :: 31 Days to a Better Photo from Darcy at Life With My 3 Boybarians

 :: 31 Days to More with Less from Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

 :: 31 Days of Autumn Bliss from Melissa at The Inspired Room

 :: 31 Days of Living Simply from Emily at Remodeling This Life

 :: 31 Days of Grace from Emily at Chatting at the Sky

 :: 31 Days to an Inspired Table from Kendra at My First Kitchen 

Some of the topics were of interest to me and I followed along with Jen, Melissa and Emily.  The others I admit I never read.  Well, the group is doing it again this October, with the overall theme being 31 days of change.  There is an interesting caveat they've offered this time, and that is to allow other bloggers to link to this party.

I'm seriously considering doing this.  I think a commitment of a blog a day for a month would be good for me. I've thought about topics, and in doing so, I've thought about what I personally would like to work on.  Afterall, I don't have very many readers (mostly just friends and family) and I blog primarily for my own creative/emotional outlet, whatever that means.  Anyway, the topic I'm considering is something that I know very well,  but it is also always elusive...and that is creativity and ways to expand our creative souls. What do you think?  Should I do it?  I suppose you'll find out if my courage, time and patience matches by ideas and desires come October 1 when you will or won't see my first post of 31 days.