Last Monday evening, Victoria
sent an audio clip of Carolyn and Willie playing. They were laughing... and then Willie gave a
shriek of delight that must’ve hit close to 15,000 Hz. 🤣
“Have
you ever checked Willie’s squeal on your piano, to see what note he hits?” I
asked Victoria.
She has not. I think it goes right off the end of the
keyboard! 😆
That night, Hannah sent
me a recording of the song the choir sang the night before, Heaven Holds All
to Me. I love that song.
I found the sheet music
on Hymnary.org.
Tuesday,
the day of the children’s Thanksgiving party at school, Hester sent a picture
of Keira in the Thanksgiving dress I had hemmed for her. She then sent another one with Oliver beside
Keira, writing, “Oliver usually thinks he should be in
Keira’s pics too now. 😄 If Keira’s doing something, he has to,
too!”
About the same time, Victoria
sent a picture of Carolyn and Violet, also in their Thanksgiving party
dresses. Victoria made their dresses.
She also sent a picture
of Willie, who had fallen asleep in his car seat on the way home from the
school. She managed to carry him inside
and put him into his crib without disturbing him.
“I cannot think of a
single time I ever brought home a sleeping child and transferred him or her to
a crib successfully,” I told her.
In fact, Willie was
still sound asleep when it was time for Victoria to return to school at 3:30
p.m. and pick up the girls.
Larry
stopped at the grocery store for milk before he came home from work Monday
night, and he picked up some broccoli cheddar Panera Bread soup while he was
there. We had it for supper Tuesday night.
Good stuff.
Lacking
those yummy baguettes one gets with soup or salads when one eats at Panera
Bread restaurants, we instead had Town House Pretzel FlipSides crackers with our
soup. A few spoonsful of potato salad,
applesauce, cranberry-watermelon juice... and that made supper. Oh, and I had a couple of Reese’s Sticks that
Larry gave me, for dessert. Those things
invariably give me a stomachache; but I’m a valiant person, and eat them anyway.
A
friend was telling of her studies in various books of the Old Testament.
It
reminded me of the time back when I was a teenager and taught our youngest
Sunday School class, which consisted of children ages 4-6. One Sunday, I taught them the verse, “And
there was no day like that before it or after it, ... for the LORD fought for
Israel!”
Mothers
for months thereafter told me of their children ‘playing church’ and quoting,
with much enthusiasm, “And there was no day like that before it or after it,
... for the LORD fought for Israel!”
It was the day ‘the sun
stood still, and the moon stayed.’ ...
‘So the sun
stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.’ - Joshua 10:13-14
Did you know that chronometrists (scientists
who focus on time measurement and keeping), horologists (who also focus on time
measurement), and astronomers have indeed found a day missing in the
astrological ‘calendar’?
In their studies, they
also found that the sun is 10° off – which is the exact amount God moved the
sun backwards as a sign to King Hezekiah in II Kings 20:
8 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that
the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of
the Lord the third day?
9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will
do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or
go back ten degrees?
10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to
go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.
11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which
it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
Scientists thought their
data was wrong, and set out to reconfigure and see if they could find the error
in their calculations. But one among
them who knew the Scriptures assured them that everything was correct, and
showed them those verses. They were
right properly amazed.
But... consider
this: we who believe, believed the
Biblical account before scientists ever began their time-measurement research
and study. He Who created the vast
universe can certainly do with it as He will!
That day, I got the Playful Kitties quilt top done and began putting together the quilt back.
Below are a couple of the kitten
line drawings I plan to quilt into the blank white areas with the variegated
thread I ordered.
After
supper, I put the last load of clothes into the washer, and was
gathering up laptop and coffee in preparation to heading back upstairs to my
quilting studio when I heard a cat calling and crying somewhere. I looked out the front door, but saw
nothing. I stood still in the kitchen
and listened – then hurried to the garage door, opened it quickly and turned on
the light at the same time – and discovered the cat, locked in the garage! The neighborhood cats, some of which are
probably strays, are skittish, and run as soon as they see me. But I caught enough of a glimpse of it to be
fairly sure it was the one-eyed Siamese.
I
wondered how long it had been in the garage.
Poor thing! I propped open the
walk door so it could get out. It
wouldn’t go out while I was watching, so I wasn’t sure when it actually
exited. I don’t remember Larry having
the big garage doors open since last Saturday.
That’s a long time for a kitty to be trapped! ☹ It still had a good, strong meow, though, and
was still quick on its feet. So it will
be all right.
By midnight, the Playful Kitties quilt was loaded on
the quilting frame. Now, if only I had
the thread I ordered!
Ah, well. The
next day we would have our Thanksgiving service and dinner at our church. When we got home, I would find... something
to do!
By then, the last load of clothes was finally dry. I folded and put them away, and then hit the
hay.
Thursday, our
service started at 11:00 a.m. Our
musicians played stringed and wind instruments... the congregation sang... and
Robert read several verses about Thanksgiving.
At noon, we all went to the Fellowship Hall for a scrumptious
Thanksgiving dinner.
Hannah took our picture
after the dinner, and when we got home, I ordered our Christmas cards from
Wal-Mart, using one of the photos.
It cost $59, including
tax, for 160 cards with envelopes. They were having a Black Friday deal,
and I saved $33.60.
There was one card with a
Bible verse on it that I liked better, but when I added the picture, it cut off
the top of Larry’s head. Somehow, that
didn’t seem quite right. 😆
I could’ve re-edited the
shot, adding in more background at the top; but it was a whole lot easier and
quicker to just switch cards.
Once that was done,
I began designing layouts in EQ8 for ‘Nine Puppies’ for Trevor. After coming up with more than a dozen, here’s
the one I settled on. It measures 76
½" x 76 ½".
I spent a good part
of Friday printing the thin newsprint pages I use for paper-piecing, taping
them together, and cutting fabric. It
was evening before I finally started sewing, and I only got part of a block
done before I decided it was bedtime.
We awoke to snow Saturday
morning, and it continued to snow off and on until midafternoon. Shortly before noon, it was snowing hard, with gigantic snowflakes; and
then the sun broke through the clouds and shined on all that falling snow, creating
a sparkling wonderland.
Here’s
Larry cleaning off my windshield just before I left for Omaha to visit Loren.
I found
Loren in the TV lounge on the loveseat, holding hands with a lady on his left –
let’s call her ‘Sally’, and another lady in a wheelchair on his right.
There
was no place for me to sit and visit with him, so I greeted him and then just stood
there, smiling at him. People – even
dementia patients – generally feel the need to say or do something, if
you just look at them long enough.
😄
Loren told
the ladies, “Sarah Lynn is here! I’m
going to go visit with her,” whereupon Sally let him pull his hand loose. The other woman, however, stared straight
ahead, not making eye contact with anyone, including Loren, and refused to let
go of his hand. I’m telling you, she had
a death grip on it.
Loren told
her several times, “Sarah Lynn is here!”, and something else he said made me
think he’d been telling them I was coming (but that may or may not have had any
basis in fact).
The
woman didn’t so much as glance his way. She
just ... hung on. Let’s call her ‘Grip’. Mrs. Grip.
Loren
tugged on his hand, chuckling a bit.
Mrs. Grip held her grip.
Loren
looked at me, grinning, a wee bit embarrassed.
I grinned
back. “She doesn’t want to let go!” I
said.
She did
not look my way.
I
decided it was time for me to step in.
“Need
some help?” I asked Loren, and he nodded.
I moved
over to the woman, saying, “Here, hold my hand! You can let go of Loren’s hand.”
She ignored
me and hung on to Loren’s hand.
I
gently, very gently (I sure wouldn’t want to hurt poor arthritic fingers; I
have arthritic fingers myself, after all, and I know how it feels!) slid my
fingers between hers and Loren’s, though she squeezed his hand hard in an
effort to prevent me from doing that.
Then I opened up my fingers enough to loosen her grip on Loren’s, and
told him, “There! You’re free! Get your hand out while the gettin’s good!”
He
laughed and pulled his hand away.
Mrs.
Grip, who had leaned over and stared hard at our collective hands doing their
varied acrobatics, then proceeded to get a death grip on my hand, and
she even tipped her head up and stared full into my eyes for the first time. Her face was totally blank – no, actually,
there was a hint of determination, maybe even belligerence, in her expression.
She is
still a pretty lady, with a practically unlined face. I’ll bet she was a beauty when she was young.
“We have
to go,” I said, smiling at her and sliding my fingers out of her hand, though
she hung on with all her might and main.
I got loose mainly because I was more determined than she was. Or more slippery, maybe. 😆 I braced my thumb between her thumb and
fingers, and just slllllid my fingers out.
She
leaned forward and tried to grab my hand with her other hand, too.
I
evaded, patted the top of her hand, and said, “We’ll see you later! Bye!”
I gave
her a friendly wave. She stared. Or glared, depending on your definition of
‘glare’.
Loren
had a hard time getting up, and he was somewhat wobbly on his feet, so I said, “Here,
you can hold my hand! Does it help,
if you have a hand to hold?”
“It sure
does,” he agreed.
He has
another pressure wound, and off-premises caregivers are coming in every other
day to tend to it. Physical therapists
are also working with him.
So off
we went to his room to look at the magazines (two National Geographics and a
Car & Driver) and the Messenger newspaper I’d brought him, and to visit for
a while. I showed him pictures of some
of our grandchildren on my phone... then pointed out a close-up of a giraffe face
in one of the National Geographic magazines he was paging through.
“Here’s
another cute little guy,” I said, and he really laughed.
He said that Car &
Driver is his favorite magazine (though he has at other times said it was
National Geographic).
“You will find ads for
brand-spankin’-new cars in Car & Driver,” I told him, “and ads for what are
now vintage cars in those National Geographics, as they’re both from
1993.”
He soon found an ad in
National Geographic for a Jeep Cherokee.
He was practically drooling
over that thing – and then I told him, “That vehicle, if it’s still in one
piece, would be 30 years old this year!
It’s vintage!”
He shook his head, hardly
believing me, and decided to look at Car & Driver instead. He came to a Ruby Star Porsche, and I
immediately said, “I need me one ’o those!”
He grinned. “You just want it because of the color.”
I nodded in agreement and
added, “And because it’s a Porsche!!!”
🤣
When it
was dinnertime, I walked with him to the dining room and helped him find a
seat. It wasn’t quite 5:00 p.m. yet, but
most everyone was already in there, plates of food in front of them.
I left
then, as there was a chance of more snow, and I didn’t want to get caught in
it, as there was a possibility of it being heavy at times.
I
stopped at Love’s Truck Stop in Schuyler to get gas, and decided to buy supper,
too. I picked out salads (for myself,
spinach with chicken, cranberries, walnuts, cucumber, cheese, and diced ham; for
Larry, a chef salad with boiled eggs, which he especially likes), fresh-cut pineapple,
peeled orange cuties, and strawberry/banana smoothies.
Quite
a lot of snow fell in parts of western and central Nebraska. Mullen, 215 miles to our west, got ten
inches.
After
getting home from Omaha that evening and eating supper, I played around with
EQ8. I think I have settled on the
design for Juliana’s Nine Kittens quilt, using the kitten blocks that were once
attached to the puppy blocks. It will be
a while before I start on Juliana’s, but at least the design is ready and
waiting.
The
thread for Elsie’s quilt arrived, so tomorrow I will start quilting the Playful
Kitties quilt.
I’m only going to
have 11 quilts done for Christmas, including Kurt and Victoria’s. I had too many customer quilts at the
beginning of the year! 😊
I’ve turned down every quilting request I’ve gotten since June.
After Elsie’s Playful
Kitties quilt, Trevor’s Nine Puppies is next, and then Ian’s cross-stitched
Gone Fishing. I doubt if I’ll get Ian’s
done, since I need to buy and wrap gifts, too.
I’m working from youngest to oldest – because I needed to use up the
baby/toddler/young children’s fabrics sooner, rather than later!
After
Ian’s will be Warren’s – that’s three little boys’
quilts to do before I start on Juliana’s.
And after Juliana’s, there will ten – ten! – boys’ quilts before I get
to Emma’s. Then Ethan’s, Joanna’s, and
Aaron’s. And then?? Why, I’ll need to make two baby quilts,
that’s what then! 👶👶🍼
Here’s
what happens when there are all manner of gaggle and clowder on your Facebook
page, and you post a picture of beautiful, intricate, paper-pieced star ray
blocks, as a quilting friend of mine did:
One of the Great Unwashed Rank and File men on her Friends list asked, “Are
those napkins?”
Tsk. What a barbarian.
Today I
filled the bird feeders, took some things to the Goodwill, cleaned the bathroom
and the kitchen, and took some pictures of the birds at the feeders. I wish the tower holding the feeders wasn’t
so ugly! (Larry thinks metal crossbars
and rebar are fine and dandy, of course.)
The blue jays make so many different
noises, and some are so funny. One
sounds exactly like, “Toodle-doodle-doo!” – sort of like those big Fisher Price
apple toys they used to sell that rocked back and forth and jingle-jangled. Sometimes I’ve heard them imitate the
red-tailed hawk’s high-pitched scream, in order to scare away the bigger
Eurasian collared doves at our feeders.
Here’s
an upside-down male English sparrow on the suet feeder. He’s pretending he’s a chickadee or a
nuthatch, I think.
And here
we have a right-side-up one who, with his wing tucked back like that, looks as
if he’s standing there all indignant with his hands on his hips.
Now with
a fresh pot of coffee, I’d better get in gear!
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
Quote
from the man who in the late 1800s was called ‘The Prince of Preachers’, Charles
H. Spurgeon, pastor of the great Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for 38 years: “I am told that Christians do not love each
other. I am very sorry if that be true,
but I rather doubt it, for I suspect that those who do not love each other are
not Christians.”
