Journal: Let Us Be Thankful

 

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.”