Merely writing ‘I
have closets to clean!’ at the tail end of last week’s letter must’ve inspired
me, because no sooner had I signed off than I trotted downstairs for something
– and wound up cleaning out the bathroom cupboard, entirely without meaning to. Been needing to do that for two years. In doing so, I filled another bag full of
things for the Goodwill. As soon as I
give this large-barreled curling iron to the Goodwill, will Victoria come
asking for it, ’spoze?
Probably not. Her hair was nearly to her waist back then,
and only to her shoulders now.
Larry has had a bad
cold, though it’s getting better now. He
worked on his shop for a few hours each night throughout the week, as he did the
previous week, too. He’d thought to have
most of the evenings last week to get it done before bad weather hit on the
weekend – but last Monday the weatherman announced (wrongly, as it turned out) that
we were going to get a rain-and-snow mixture Wednesday. So Larry redoubled
his efforts, and got to the halfway point Monday night.
He has some
eNORmous lights out there that light up the entire back yard like daytime. Someone where he works was pitching them out
on account of getting some newer, more economical ones, and Larry rescued them. Never mind economics; he needs lights!
I went and got my
driver’s license renewed Tuesday. I remembered it all through the month
of August... now and then in September... and never again in October until
Saturday. I couldn’t do it online, because I’d done it online last time (five
years ago). For once, I wasn’t having any troubles with my eyes.
But I was thinking about it... and didn’t want to look like it
when they took my picture -----------
Thus, I ended up
looking like a bug-eyed felon. A grim bug-eyed felon.
But it’s me!
I think.
Anyway, at least I
made it safely to town and into the courthouse without getting tossed in the hoosegow.
😅
I
think the people who take the pictures for our drivers’ licenses are told, “If
you ever, ever tell someone to smile, you will be sent directly to the
guillotine.” Because they never tell
you... and they never smile at you... and they wait until just that precise
moment when you look your worst... and then, FLASH!
I dropped off the
bag at the Goodwill, paid the electric bill, and returned home to do some photo-editing.
Victoria sent
pictures of Baby Violet. She's such a pretty little baby. And aren’t babies full of love and total
trust? I wrote to Victoria, “Just look
into the bright eyes of your babies... Isn’t
it unimaginable what potential there is in those little lives?”
“Yes!”
responded Victoria with her usual enthusiasm. “They’re absolute little treasures. It sure does make you realize what wickedness
it is that people will kill unborn babies.”
Isn’t that the truth.
Wednesday morning, Hester sent pictures of Keira in the pajama outfit – or at least part
of it – that I made her, writing, “This is such a cute cozy outfit! She wore the whole thing to bed last night,
but I took the pants off because they’re just a little long and she was
crawling out of them 😄 lol. Thank you!”
(The baby doesn’t
actually crawl yet, but she’s very active, rolling and scooting.)
When Keira smiles,
she reminds me of Hester at that age.
She was a smiley little baby. Sweet
little Keira is doing very well, growing quickly, a happy baby, and she seems
very bright. Makes us so happy... she was even smaller than she should’ve
been when she was born three months early, because she hadn’t been getting the
nutrition she needed for the previous couple of weeks or more, on account of
Hester’s as-yet-undiagnosed physical problems (acronym, HELLP).
I’m really happy
that the baby outfits fit all three babies, or will fit them, soon.
I received my quilt
appraisals in the mail that day. This lady, Jennifer Perkins, of Harlan, Iowa,
does a very detailed job, and embosses it with her raised seal from AQS.
The Sunbonnet Sue
quilt appraised for $2,300.00, and the Americana Eagle quilt appraised for
$3,000.00. I’m pleased that in the four ‘graded’ categories, both quilts
rated as ‘Excellent’ in each category: workmanship construction,
workmanship quilting, condition of quilting, quilt condition/restoration.
She only made two
mistakes, one on each appraisal: She listed the binding as 3/8”, machine
front, hand back. But it’s machine back! The stitch was so
close to the edge, she didn’t even notice it. So that’s a compliment, don’t
you think? 😃
Someone asked me,
“Why would you get your quilts appraised?”
Appraisals are for
insurance purposes. Without an
appraisal, a $5,000 quilt might only get you $30-$50 – so you can replace it
with a ‘blanket’ from Wal-Mart.
I would’ve loved
having this $3,000 appraisal for the Americana Eagle quilt in hand when someone
on Facebook offered me $100 for it! I politely declined, saying I had
made it for my husband. She then offered me $200 – “I’m doubling
my offer!” she said, “And you can always make your husband another one!” And once wasn’t enough; she did this not only
on my personal Facebook page, but also on a Facebook quilting group.
At that point I
lost my patience and gave her an itemized list of the cost of the quilt, right
down to the thread, and all the hours spent on it, including designing
it. I told her it was worth at least $2,500 (sold it short, didn’t I?!
heh), and that I wouldn’t even sell it for $10,000.
Never heard from
her again. But gobs (definition: oodles and caboodles) of people
cheered for me. 😄
Larry stayed home
from church Wednesday night, as his cold wasn’t improving much. When I got home, I fixed a late supper... and
then uploaded more vacation pictures:
When looking at
Google maps to see where some of those pictures were taken, exactly, I switched
to Satellite View – and discovered there were at least two waterfalls within
walking distance of places we stopped, and we never knew it! There are so many beautiful things everywhere
one could ever explore. Too many to
count!
When we were in
Canada, passing through Yoho National Park, we were near several of Canada’s
tallest waterfalls ------ but each one was a hike of some distance. Caleb
was 9 months, Lydia was 2, Hester was 4... and it would’ve probably been a
difficult climb even for Joseph, who was 7 ½. So we passed them by.
I hope we can go back someday before I’m too decrepit to hike! 😏
It’s truly a beautiful place: Yoho National Park
Thursday, I took
Victoria something for their 2nd anniversary – enough food to make a
good supper: Black Angus burgers,
ciabatta rolls, corn on the cob, spicy baby bakers, and peach parfait cups. All but the parfait cups were from Schwan’s.
Here’s Larry
looking at that pretty little bi-wing plane at the Creede, Colorado, airport. I told him he looked like Teddy, when Teddy was a
wee little guy: if he thought he shouldn’t
touch something, but really, really wanted
to, he’d put his thumbs in his pockets. 😄
I was listening to the song Pull for the Shore a few minutes ago, sung by the Old Fashioned Revival Hour Quartet and written by
Philip P. Bliss, who wrote many of our most beloved hymns. In a biography about Dwight L. Moody, Ira
Sankey (his singer and also a songwriter; we sing many of his hymns), and
Philip Bliss were rowing across a lake near Chicago, tethered to a rope across
the waters so they could make straight for the opposite side. Ira and Philip were singing as they rowed. Belatedly, they wondered why they were making
such poor time across the lake. Looking
around, they discovered Mr. Moody hanging onto the rope, seriously hindering
their progress........ because he was loving their singing so much, he didn’t
want it to stop!
Friday after he got
off work, Larry finished tarpapering the west side of the shop roof. Just in time, too – Saturday, Sunday, and
today have been damp and rainy.
Saturday was
Larry’s birthday – and now he’s 58, same as me.
I’m four weeks older than he is. Loren
and Norma brought him a card and $$$$$. Shortly
after they left, Hannah and Levi
(he’s 8) arrived with a gift for Larry, too – spices for use with his Traeger
grill.
Before bedtime that night, I finished editing and uploading photos taken at Blue Mesa Reservoir and Black Canyon of the
Gunnison. The water in the reservoir is very low. The people are
all hoping for a lot of snow this winter.
Blue
Mesa and Black Canyon of the Gunnison
The next day, we
did a bit of shopping in Creede, then went to see North Clear Creek Falls: Shopping
in Creede, and North Clear Creek Falls
I like rocks. When I was little, I collected rocks
everywhere we went. Daddy said I was
going to break an axle on our trailer, with all my rocks! 😆 He called me his ‘little rockhound’. Mama got me a shoebox to fill with my rocks, and
that was my allotment for each trip. If
the box got full and I found a new rock I absolutely had to have, I pitched out
a lesser one. Every now and then, they’d
stop at a rock store and let me buy several really nice rocks.
For a while, I used to paint rocks. Then I decided to sell them. I was, oh, about
8 or so. I set up a table in our kitchen,
right smack-dab in everyone’s way as they came in from the front door, so they’d
be sure to notice me, you see. We had
lots of visitors, since our home was the parsonage.
Everything went
along okay for a few days... and then I got greedy and priced my favorite rock
at $1.00. Dear old Mr. Wright (Bobby’s
grandfather) bought it, just because he loved me. And he loved Daddy and Mama, too.
My parents shut
down my enterprise and gave me a talking to about being covetousness and taking
advantage of people. It was quite a
revelation. And, as you can see, I have
not yet forgotten it.
The other
day, I was telling a friend about the time we went to Branson, Missouri. We didn’t go there on purpose. It was business, back when Larry still had
his auto-rebuilding shop – we were collecting some friends’ van back home again
after it went kaput there. Except for
getting some groceries, we steered clear of the town with its 20 people per
square foot, country and western singers on every light pole, and amusement
parks galore. Instead, we went and
camped in our tents beside Tablerock Reservoir.
Our big Siberian Husky, Aleutia, was with us... and I have no clue how
many kids we had at the time; I can’t remember who the baby was. We had two tents, and the three older boys
slept in the smaller tent.
A raccoon
came through during the night, and with an enormous clatter, he took the lid
off of a great big pan and extracted the last of the loaf of bread. I’d put it in that pot, because I thought it
would then be safe from just such food thieves.
I underestimated him!
Upon
hearing all that racket, I quietly zipped open a window in the tent and peered
out. There was the raccoon, perched atop
the picnic table, happily chowing down on one slice of bread after the
other.
Then I
noticed something else: Aleutia was
tethered by the boys’ tent – and she was wide awake, eyes glittering in the
bright moonlight. She was near the door
of the tent, well back from the end of her tether. That smart dog knew that if she stayed clear
back and left herself a whole lot of slack, the raccoon would come sashaying
over to her food dish, and she’d have plenty of rope to get him.
And in
fact, the raccoon was just finishing the bread, and gazing over at the dog’s
dish.
I hissed
loudly out the tent window, “Aleutia, you leave that raccoon alone!”
 |
| Aspen leaf dipped in gold |
Her eyes
shot over toward me, and then her ears, standing bolt upright, lost their
tension, and collapsed a bit. She lifted
her head just enough to turn it far to the side, away from the raccoon, and lay
it back down again.
The
raccoon swung his head back and forth from my tent window to that food dish...
then with a scolding chatter, he decided he really shouldn’t risk it. He’d spotted the dog as soon as she moved.
So he
wiped his muddy little paws on the nice, white towels and washcloths we’d
spread over the picnic table to dry, and into the night he went in his fast
waddling gait. He went right through
Aleutia’s territory, too, but she obeyed me and stayed put.
As soon
as the coon was gone, I whispered, “Good dog!” and her big bushy tail fanned
the breeze slowly.
Here’s a shot I
took of us in front of an antique mirror in the loft of one of the boutiques in
Creede, Colorado.
Victoria asked us to stop by after church
yesterday morning, and she gave us a couple of pumpkin bars with walnuts, and
whipped cream on top. When we got home,
Larry made himself an omelet, and I had maple oatmeal – because Saturday,
somehow, I’d gained two pounds. Well, I know how: it was because I had a ciabatta roll for
breakfast, and since there was only enough butter for one side of the roll, I
put peanut butter and honey on the other side.
I can rarely eat peanut butter without gaining weight. Or an entire ciabatta roll. For supper, I put baby bakers and corn on the
cob in a casserole dish... then, when it was almost done, I baked a couple of biscuits
and made gravy to go on everything.
There was no more butter, you’ll recall.
I was actually full
after eating the corn on the cob (small ones, from Schwan’s) ---- but I went
right ahead and ate three or four of those little potatoes and a biscuit, with
gravy. The gravy took the place of
butter on the corn on the cob, too. And
then I was too full.
So Sunday I ate frugally. I don’t eat breakfast before the morning
service. No pancakes or waffles for
lunch, like we often have. The pumpkin
bar from Victoria and the oatmeal was lunch.
No big meal after church last night.
Larry added some
sweet hot pepper sauce a friend of his made to his omelet. It all smelled delicious – but then he added Saturday
night’s leftover baby bakers and gravy.
I, against my
better judgment, tried a bite.
“Ugh!!!” I
exclaimed. “That’s awful.”
He insisted it was
mmmm, good.
I said, “So’s this”
and ate my oatmeal with vigor. Larry laughed.
After church last night,
we were standing halfway down the aisle talking with Lura Kay and John. Most everyone had already exited the
sanctuary. Out in the vestibule, we saw
Kurt and Victoria heading out, Kurt carrying Baby Violet in the car seat,
Victoria holding Carolyn’s hand. Carolyn
glanced into the sanctuary, saw us, beamed, and took a hard left, nearly
upending her Mama. Victoria looked
surprised, turned to see what the cause was, saw us, and laughed. So Larry carried Carolyn out to their
car. She’s such a happy and pleasant
little child.
Before coming home,
we went to Wal-Mart and got a cartful of fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy
products, and meat. These are the things
I can’t order online, so we don’t get them often enough.
We ate mozzarella
cheese and a banana on the way home... and after we got home, we had
raspberries with strawberry smoothie poured over them, cottage cheese, and
Larry had the last burrito. He gave me a
couple of bites.
Lydia arrived then,
bearing birthday gifts. We had a nice
visit until bedtime.
This morning, I
weighed myself: Success! – I lost those
two pounds I’d gained Saturday. The ten
pounds I’ve been wishing I could lose for the last ten years stick around,
though. Obviously, if I was as careful
every day as I was yesterday, they’d
be gone in two months or less.
I had apple oatmeal
for breakfast. But... I just ate three
of those Andes mints Lydia gave her father.
Okay, I’ll stick to fresh fruit, vegetables, and
cottage cheese the rest of the day, with some jumbo shrimp on a chef salad for
supper.
Back to the photo
editing! I’m on the home stretch.
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
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