While Mom's Away.....

While Mom's away...the kids will play...and play...and play.

Paige is at a conference for TOT for three days, so I get to play with the girls.  We have:
Drawn with chalk all over the patio
Played dress up (Mallory especially likes the women's shoes)
The big girls and I drove to Silver Dollar City for breakfast with Tom and Jerry.  That was an exceptionally big deal for Mackenzie as she is obsessed with the cartoons.  The girls got lots of personal attention from the big mouse and cat and did a lot of dancing.  Who knew Tom and Jerry were dancers?
While at Silver Dollar City, we weren't going to do any rides or anything, but we couldn't resist stopping to see the animals, drawing on the slate at the school, or playing with the giant building blocks.  On the way out, the cloggers were starting their performance.  You can't pass cloggers!  Morgan got to go up on stage and dance with the cloggers too.
Today we have our cousin camp with the boys.  We're painting fairy houses and going on a scavenger hunt and jumping on a trampoline....and who knows what else.

I'll have to go back to work to rest up from my vacation.  I don't remember playing as being so exhausting....but it's been loads of fun and the kids have been great.

Lazy hazy summer...not!!!

Summer is by far my favorite season of the year.  It always has been.  I'm sure not having school was a big factor in creating this feeling when I was a kid.  I love the hot weather, wearing shorts and flip flops.  The problem is there is soooo much to do in the summer.  And that doesn't include my every-lengthening to-do list for things around the house.

But then I saw Morgan and Mackenzie after their t-ball game.  To see them chatting, sitting on the grass, enjoying their juice drinks made me realize what summer is all about.  It also made me see that we busy adults need to take the time to enjoy little bits of relaxation when we can.  As they say "every little bit helps".

I think I'll go sit outside with my coffee and just watch the dogs play and listen to the waterfall for a few minutes.

Quilting tidbits

First of all, I have to tell you, that I am incredibly lucky.  I actually won the Block Lotto again this month.  Two months in a row!  That is amazing. In April, 50 quilters made 372 Modern Clover blocks–enough for eight winners and one of those winners was me!  Aren't these little flower blocks cute?  The block was designed by one of my cyber-quilting friends, Kate.  She plays Block Lotto but she also is the brains behind my Stay-at-home-Robin.  I will be setting these on point, and I think I'll space them with small borders.  Very exciting.
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This is the block for May.  They're calling it pineapple blossom.  It's scrappy but if you look closely, every block has two grey squares and two yellow or gold squares.  Those are the unifying colors that every quilter will be using.  They make for a subtle and warm constant that I think will be great.  I'll be donating my blocks this month as I have both the disappearing 4 patch and now the modern clover quilts to finish.

Oh boy!

I won!!!!

While reading through e-mails, I shout out "Oh boy, I won!!!"  My husband comes around the corner quickly to see what the excitement is about.  I won the Block Lotto! for March.  He was not nearly as thrilled as I was.  OK, it's not money, but it's almost as good.

We made disappearing four patch blocks in red and white and I love this block.  It will make a gorgeous quilt.  I also feel so honored to be getting blocks from so many other sewers.  I could not duplicate this scrappy quilt on my own. There's no way I could accumulate that many different fabrics.  I'll be getting  43 blocks, plus the 6 I made myself.  Isn't that exciting?

This is the second time I've won, so I really didn't expect it.  I'm so happy.  Thank you all you Block Lotto quilters.

Life Thoughts

We so underestimate the value of life at times.  I have been reminded of how precious our time is this week.

One of my grandkids just celebrated his third birthday.  It was a great time and seeing all 5 grandkids playing is pure joy.  The oldest is going to be 5 soon.  My own kids don't remember my parents at all.  My mother was gone before either of them were born, and my father died when my oldest was only 3.  I am so thankful that I have made it past those anniversaries of death.  I intend to see lots more birthdays, and I want to try to appreciate every little moment I spend with any of them.

One of my friends' mother ended up in the hospital last week.  She's having some problems and will require extra help from her family.  She is fortunate to have her family near to help her, and they are blessed to have her still in their lives.

Then the sister of one of my friends lost her boyfriend suddenly in an accident.  They were looking forward to a lifetime of memories that now will never happen.  My heart goes out to her and their families.  Anytime someone dies young, it seems that we are all cheated out of what could be.

Then, in between these events that I consider major in people's lives, I have stumbled upon various bits of drama over nothing.  Why do we spend so much time and energy on unimportant trivia?

Look around at your family and friends.  They deserve your best attention.

Warning...Political Rant....

I am so disappointed at the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Fred Phelps, I could just cry.

 For those of you not familiar with Mr. Phelps' clan and the Westboro Baptist Church, let me offer a brief explanation.  Phelps' group belies that gays are a sin against humanity.  They think the Americans being killed in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq are dying because of God's wrath against gays in America.  So, they have chosen to speak out about this issue.  Where do they take their protest?  They picket funerals of servicemen who died in combat in these wars.  The idea is preposterous.

First of all, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have nothing to do with gays.  These soldiers whose graves are being picketed are not known to be gay.

The Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 that the Phelps clan has the constitutional right to freedom of speech and can picket.  OK...I get free speech.  But there is also the inherent right, no responsibility, to respect another person.  The poor families of these servicemen are grieving.  They have lost their love ones, often very young people to a horrible death.  Why degrade these young people and their ultimate service to their country?

Pick some other place to protest.  One's rights to protest should not infringe on another person's rights to a dignified funeral.  Why can't we show a little respect, courtesy, and empathy to people in their time of sorrow?

It's all you...

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?  It seems the going thing is to blame somebody or something for just about everything.  Are we truly just becoming cogs in a wheel that is turned by another hand? I hope not.

When my kids were little, I had a no tolerance policy (or so I thought) about lying.  Lying really makes me angry.  I told them that if they did something wrong, they would get in trouble for it.  But if I found out they lied about it, they would get in much more trouble.  So they might as well fess up from the start, as "moms always find out...and moms do...sooner or later".

I have to admit I am too often guilty of lying by omission.  I don't like to hurt people's feelings so I have always tried to live by the rule "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all."  I've come to believe that's not always a best practice even though it has good intentions.  It's a difficult habit to break, however.

Many people seem to want to believe the worst in others.  That's why gossip (and political commentators) are so powerful. The quickness to blame is seldom balanced with the same speed to credit.

How have people developed this fear of admitting they might not know something?  I suppose they think it makes them look stupid, but the real question is why they don't know it.  Have they not been exposed to it?  Have they not had enough practice with it?  Did their own laziness attribute to the lack of knowledge?  Did they not ask?   Do they think we all learn by osmosis?  No, too often they are hoping to slide their ignorance under the radar of observation.  I've got news for them.  It doesn't work as "moms always find out...and moms do...sooner or later".

The worst to me is when one is caught in error, they seek to blame everyone but themselves. Do they really think that?  Do they really not understand the concept of personal responsibility, or are they lacking the integrity to admit when they don't know something or do something wrong.  Maybe they are just higher on human scale than I am, as I seem to do things wrong all the time.

Do yourself and our society a favor.  Teach your children that lying won't get them anywhere.  Teach them the joy of learning new things, but that sometimes it is hard to learn those new things, and that's okay.  Teach them that it's okay to not know something, that that is an opportunity to learn.  Teach them there are no stupid questions. Teach them that it is not necessary to put someone else down, in order to build themselves up. Teach them personal responsibilty.