Easter

Here's our Charlie with his I Spy quilt! He really loved it and we spent a lot of time looking for things. He would spot something, then I would and then he would, and after awhile he would ask " I spy something that begins with a....." and name a letter. He found the two patches I used from the very first quilt I made when he was only 2 months old..."Grandma! This is from my snowman quilt! I love that!" We found trains, fruit, moons, snowmen, dogs, airplanes, boats, beaches, flowers. It was worth every minute it took to stitch that quilt.


Cecilia is growing like a little girl should. She has two teeth and this pixie face she makes when she lowers her head, purses her tiny mouth and looks up through her eyelashes. That child has the biggest eyes I've ever seen on a baby. Bald as an egg! And is a happy, happy, happy baby.

Easter at my house included my brother and sister-in-law, mother, nieces and their families, my daughter and son-in-law and their chicklets and Patient Husband and me. The weather was nice, sun was shining, rain wasn't happening, warm enough for light jackets or sweaters.

Easter at my house was a ham, spinach pie, asparagus, potato and leek casserole, macaroni and cheese (for the little ones), rolls, rhubarb crisp, and for the little ones, cupcakes.

Easter at my house included an egg hunt for the little ones. We had six under the age of six. We had plenty of plastic eggs filled with chocolate. Each child was given a certain color to search for.

Adelaide, as you can see, was looking for yellow eggs. There were plenty for everyone and after all that chocolate I'm glad I didn't have to put those chicks to bed last night! Is Easter the candiest holiday next to Halloween?

My mom with some of her great-grandchildren (half of them.) I've learned long ago that a big part of photographing children is capturing the moment for time. I don't try to make anyone smile and if one is very upset, like Adelaide, or wiggly, like Kristie just snap the photo anyway. It's a moment, THE moment as it happened and one to be savored.

It was a good day. I hope yours was, too.

Eggs

It's spring and almost Easter and all thoughts turn to eggs be they from the refrigerator and dyed in rainbow colors or earthy. Each year one of our Kindergarten teachers brings eggs and incubator into the classroom to show the kids the process while they study birds. This little darlin' was the first out on Monday morning. Looks exhausted, doesn't she? While we were standing there talking about how darned cute they were this one, the first born, wiggled completely out of the egg.

Then, later in the week the kids found a kildeer nest on the playground. Kildeer build on the ground and I'm sure when this momma came shopping for a suitable hole she didn't realize she moved in during spring break when there wasn't a soul around. Imagine her surprise when 450 kids tumbled out the doors for recess! And there she was with three eggs in her nest and right in the middle of the playground! Another adult and I put yellow police tape around her hole to 1) alert the kids to her whereabouts so she wouldn't get stepped on and 2) give them boundaries when they watched.

As we were watching the first two hatched!

And here I thought for the Snappyfriends egg assignment for this week I would show a colorful bowl of eggs dyed for Easter! Maybe a before and after but I certainly wasn't expecting this!

I'm not quilting this week. No time to even think of it. I'm trying to finish the book Cutting for Stone. The apple trees are budding, the daffodils are up, the perennial beds needed cleaning, the grass is greening, it's coming along but there's just so little time for leisure this week. I'll pick up the needle after Easter weekend.

That's Patient Husband on the Easter Bunny's lap long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Happy Easter everyone.

spring fever

aaahhh....the sun was shining, the temperature was windows-open, bare feet warm and while it is hard to go from 55 degrees to 80 in one day, and they say we'll pay for it tonight when the storms come through bringing cooler weather back tomorrow, for today...we'll take it. I went for a long walk this morning and picked these daffodils from an abandoned yard to bring home.

We had spring break from school this week. We have a week off every first week of April so people can go to Florida and warm their bones in the sun. Some of us, though, spend the week at home, holding Michigan in its place on the map, watching the skies for some sun even if it is cold. Usually it snows this week and we didn't have that this year so lucky us!

We had a couple of sunny but cool days and my daughter brought the girls for a sleep over. They were so excited to be back after the long winter all they wanted to do was be outdoors re-exploring the yard, looking for bird nests, deer, bunnies and splash in puddles. Plenty of all.

Adelaide loves to swing and fell asleep, nose tucked in for warmth.

They have new sunglasses and brought them along to show off!

Each year I try to save the biggest and heartiest geraniums to winter over. They live in the back kitchen where there is plenty of light and the heat turned on keeps them warm all winter. They need to harden off to go back to their rightful summer places so here we are on the back porch enjoying the sun and breezes.

I worked like crazy all week to finish this I Spy quilt for Charlie. We're going to see him and Cecilia soon and I wanted this finished, and I did, at 2 p.m. today.

I used perle cottong for the quilting and while mostly I like the diversion and the fun look from quilting thread, this one was tough. My fingers bled, I yanked and yanked on the needle to get it through the fabric, and had to give myself days off in between so my fingers could heal. I don't think it's supposed to be this hard. I love the look of using the perle cotton but will need to figure out what's wrong before I go back to it anytime soon. All fabric was quilting cottons, the batting was cotton. The needle was a size 11 embroidery/redwork needle. If anyone has any ideas, I'm listening...

Next project will be quilting the two storybook quilts for the twin babies in the family. One is half finished.

Goose Named Maria.avi

This is a test to see if I can successfully send out a video. Please, someone, let me know if it works! Besides, this is a charming story.

Friends

This picture always makes us groan. And on Wednesday, it will be 37 years since it was taken. Patient Husband had no clue what he was getting into when he asked to share a life with me. Thankfully, he took those vows seriously and stuck with me (I'm not the easy one.) Oh, what changes time has wrought! He's almost bald, I'm completely gray, we've both added another dimension to our bodies, he got rid of those 70's tinted glasses and we've both had a hair cut! We both wonder how time can go so fast. Oh, and we don't look like we're 12 anymore!

Today I met with Friend Laurie for a four hour marathon talk fest. Many years ago, in another life, Laurie and I worked together in a bookstore. We became friends but after we both left the bookstore our lives took their own paths and we haven't seen each other for years. Our paths would cross occasionally and we'd stand talking in a parking lot long enough for the ice cream in our carts to melt or the flowers we just bought at the garden center to droop from exhaustion.

I always thought of Laurie as my hero. I don't think I would ever have had the courage to do what she did with her life. She did the hard thing. She found herself a single mother with three little ones, worked a job, went back to school and became a high school Language Arts teacher. She's made an amazing life for herself, married a great guy and her kids are grown into good people. ( That's all we can ask of our parenthood, isn't it? That our children grow up to be nice people? I know that's all I hoped for.) Anyway, this past winter Laurie sent a comment on my blog and after many exclamation points in response and calendar checks, we made a date for this morning. We're both on spring break from school and we both had the time. It was a good, good morning. Even if she did panic a little when she thought she messed up my blog page while trying to show me how to be creative with it. As you can see, she didn't mess it up and I'm still not creative with it. SO afraid to push those buttons!

Turn of Mind

I need to tell you about this book, Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante. I received an advance copy and immediately put aside the other two books I was reading to sink into this one. Let's begin by saying I don't read two books at once. I read one at a time and I'm a slow reader so while I am first and formost, a reader, I'm not one of those book a day people. I wish. The pile of books-to-read is high. To put aside the book I was holding and the one I was Kindling to start yet a third is unprecedented. Why then, did I do it? The first page.

This is the story of Dr. Jennifer White. She is a sixty-four year old surgeon with Alzheimer's. I don't know about the rest of you but there are only two words that strike fear into my heart. Cancer and Alzheimer. And cancer has treatments. So, while this is another book about a person in the throes of this disease, it's the first written in the patchy, disjunctive thought pattern of a patient. We feel, experience, the decline from the inside out.

Dr. White tells this story. She admits on page one she's "not that far gone, not yet." As we wander in and out of conscious reality with her the story unfolds. We learn her best friend, who lives three doors down, has been murdered, and Dr. White is the prime suspect. But in her current state of mind, what does she know? Can she be prosecuted if she doesn't even "know" her friend is dead? Why did she die the way she did?

The most frightening part of the book, for me, was its form. In part one she's pretty cogent yet. She still knew some people occasionally. She could carry on parts of a conversation on her good days. On good days she knew her son and daughter but didn't understand her friend was dead. On good days she knows what's happening to her. On bad days we start to get scared.

As the book progresses into parts 2,3 and 4, so does the disease. We are in her mind, we are in her thoughts. We know what it feels like, what is going to happen as she progressively doesn't. As the story grows and her mind degenerates, I can hardly stand thinking about it. I kept finding myself thinking, "How does the author know this is how it will be? How does medical science know? Please tell me it isn't going to be this way." The law continues to pursue her with questions about the night her friend died and we know from the circumstances it could only have been Dr. White. But there is just a tinge of doubt, just a tinge on our part. And we don't like her friend, Amanda. I couldn't figure out what Jennifer saw in her. Was it like that greeting card that says "you'll always be my friend because you know too much about me?" Amanda was not likeable, if she lived three doors from me I'd have moved.

I know, this is just as disjunctive a 'review' or reaction as Jennifer's thoughts. Maybe because I just finished it last night and it truly scared me.

This is one of those unforgettable books. This one tells you what it's like from the deep inside. One you'll read, you'll tell friends to read and buttonhole people to buy. God love them.

The back of the book places publication date in July of this year. Mark your calendars. There are certain authors who, when there is a new book coming from them, I am at the bookstore first thing in the morning, drumming my fingers on the counter waiting for them to unpack the boxes. This is one of those books.

On a lighter note: Snappyfriends

For this week the challenge was doors. Well, I couldn't resist the front door of this birdhouse outside the door of school. Are those sparrrows moving in or what? Perhaps they shouldn't have downsized? I stuck my finger into the front door and that house is packed to the rafters. I don't know if they'll fit one more twig inside but boy, they are trying hard! Very fun to watch them.

Last week's challenge was hard. It was light. I kept my eyes open but nothing came along till yesterday.

Last evening we got Patient Husband out of the house for some airing out. He had a little knee surgery on Thursday and was feeling like he needed an ice cream from our local dairy. So we drove first down to the beach to see if it was still there (!!!) after the long winter. Well, as we approached the sun was just brilliant and the reflection on the channel actually hurt our eyes. Light! This was one of those God moments of beauty that don't photograph well. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. Maybe we're just supposed to stop and enjoy it while it's there.

something new

Last night we were going to take our turn with the neighbors and host 'the gathering' (I don't call them parties anymore.) I called for March last New Year's Eve and ... well, it's March and we're home from our stay in the city and oh, what to fix. Everyone brings something and we just graze and talk all evening. There were 15 of us.
I decided to fix one of the turkeys Patient Husband bought at Thanksgiving, slice it up and have breads and spreads for sandwiches. Definitely something different.
How about brining? This was the perfect chance to do something I've never done to a piece of meat. The neighbors could be my testers.
I was a bit afraid of it so chose a recipe that looked innocent enough and didn't ask for 24 hours of soaking - oops - brining. Salt, I threw in a handful of brown sugar, bottle of white wine, water, oranges, rosemary. All good things.

I know, I know, it's supposed to completely cover the meat. But remember, I was a little afraid of having to run out to the deli at the last minute.
I decided to turn the bird breast side down so the white meat was the part soaking really well. This recipe called for 5 hours of brining. I could do that. Sure smelled good. A really good tip one of the recipes noted was the use of one of those oven turkey bags to put the bird in. That way you didn't have to go to the hardware store and buy a multi-gallon bucket or clean out the meat drawer in the fridge. Put it in the bag, submerge the bird, put the bag in the fridge drawer. I was afraid of leakage so I put it in a pan first. Lots of fears going on here.

When it was time to bake I drained and dried the bird, massaged in a little olive oil and poultry seasoning, as an afterthought I tossed the orange pieces into the stuffing cavity along with the rosemary and put it in the oven.

Beauty on a plate! It sure smelled good. Turkey always smells good. There should be a scented candle called "Turkey in the oven for 3 hours."

You know the best part? The drippings were to die for. I didn't use them last night because I carved this up for sandwiches, but today Patient Husband and I had a turkey dinner and let me tell you those drippings made the most delicious gravy I've ever had. Even more so than Martha's turkey recipe (a bottle of wine and a pound of butter.) Lick the fingers good.

Next time I won't be afraid of brining, will do it the way they say (submerge the bird!) and will vouch for this recipe.

Today I claimed as my "DO NOTHING" day. I told Patient Husband this morning I didn't intend to leave the house, not even as far as the trash can, and I had a whole list of nothing things to do. Quilt. Nap. Read. Watch Social Network. Not necessarily in that order. It's now 5 p.m. and we still have the movie to watch and reading to do. I had so many nothings to do I didn't have time to do them all. But the nap felt good.