Quilt Blocks

A while back I started this block of the week project I found online. I mentioned it is here I found it. http://cre8tivequilter.blogspot.com/
I have done a few. Not as many as I want, but I am still committed to doing enough for a quilt. Here are some of my finished blocks. The colors are a little weird because I took the pictures on a very sunny day.






That is it for now. Jen has posted many more blocks, but I just have not been able to get to any more. I plan on it though. I made a wall hanging for my sister. These are some of the blocks from that.

These blocks are paper pieced. I am not sure if I ever thanked Jen, but I think she is the one that gave me the courage to try paper piecing. I had always been afraid of it. It seemed hard to me. I was looking for an alternative to it and found she had already addressed it. Her answer for those people that don't paper piece, 'Now is the time to learn a new skill' so I did and I am glad I did. So, thanks Jen.
I wish I had a picture of the whole quilt, but I forgot to take one before I sent it off with my sister. I actually did take one with my phone, but I don't know how to load pictures from my phone to my computer.

Simple Things

The girls and I went for a walk today. Nothing unusual. We walk quite a lot. I picked these flowers on the way back home. That isn't unusual either. When I have a day like today; slow, easy, no where to go; I tend to look at things that I am thankful for. Many days are like this, more than not. I have a few things that are consistently thought of as things I would never want to do without. Here they are:

Fresh flowers on the table, that I picked
Watching the many birds that come to the feeder
Hearing the kids say they love me
My husbands love
A cool fragrant breeze while I am sitting on the couch
Hearing the birds while I hang my laundry
Fresh clean laundry off the line
Watching or listening to the children play, with each other
A cup of Earl Grey on my porch swing at the end of a busy day

This list is not in any order. I am glad I have these simple things to calm me and make me happy.

I loved these flowers that I picked today. They are slightly pink and look like little bells. Very pretty. But I don't know what they are.

Strawberry Season!!!!

I took the four kids and went strawberry picking. The picking here in central Maine has not been great due to a frost we had in the Spring, but we found this farm on a hill that had lots of berries. We picked 18 quarts!! That night I froze all but two. Now we will have berries for pies and shortcakes through the winter. I will make some jam too. I made a pie last night, but it didn't last long enough for a picture. Oh well, glad they liked it.
We went last week. I have not been able to post until now because we had one of those weeks when unexpected things happen. My second oldest had to be brought to the emergency room for eye pain and sensitivity to light. The emergency room didn't really know what to tell us and gave him an antibiotic until he could see his eye doctor. That also turned into a fiasco and we had to see the on call physician on Tuesday. Turns out he has an ulcer which was probably caused by some dirt in his eye, which let bacteria enter his eye. All is well now. He has to go back in again this week for a follow up. I absolutely hate going into town more than once a week so three is making me a bit cranky. When you live in the country and it is quiet and peaceful and your a homebody like me, going even 20 minutes into town can cause a lot of stress. I am handling it pretty well though, if I don't say so myself.

Music man

Here are all the instruments my third son plays. He has always been passionate about music. Listening, playing, he even reads about it. Right now he has been really concentrating on the guitar. It is his newest purchase. I will write more about how all that came about later. He did earn and buy it himself. He can play some parts of songs and they sound just like the real thing. At least to me. He is self critical, which is normal. I like the song "Uncle Johns Band" by Grateful Dead and "Mathew and Son" by Cat Stevens and "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd. He has been playing some Doors too, but I don't 'hear' it as well as the others.
This summer son number three will be in a Jazz camp that meets twice a week. He also is involved in our local conservatory. In fact they just had a song writing contest and he is one of the winners!

Summer!!

For the first weekend of summer we went to the lake. It was a very hot and humid day but it was so nice near the water. We went home and barbecued and then relaxed. It was nice.
I looked in my flower garden and found that some new blooming had gone on. I only know the name of the lily. The red flower and the yellow I have no idea what they are, but they are very pretty.


The vegetable garden is doing well now. The tomatoes and peppers are still very small, but we will have peas soon and there are flowers on the beans, the squash and zucchini. I have blueberries too. They are green right now but we can tell they will be big and many. The girls decided to play a trick on me and told me there was some ripe blueberries. When I got out to the bushes I saw they had placed some store bought blueberries in places around the branches. It was very funny. Here is a picture of my 'ripe' blueberries.

Alaska again!

My first son is in Alaska working again this year. I was secretly hoping he would decide to come home, but he needed to work and also enjoyed Alaska so much he couldn't wait wait to go back. The friend that went with him is also back again and he is blogging again. Take a look at http://whileinalaska.com
We do miss him, but we understand he is growing up and wants to do his own thing. He had a great second year at Swarthmore.
This is a picture of us when we met in CT to all be together. We thought it may be the last time until October break, but to our surprise our oldest son decided to come home for a week before going to Alaska. Boy was this mama happy!!!

I am back, for now.

Here I am with my second son who just graduated this year! He was 6th in his class. We are very proud of him. He will work this summer and then head to Swarthmore College in PA. He will be joining his brother who will be a junior. I can't believe it all. It was very hard for me to let my first child go, and I felt it would be easier the second time around but it is not.

I have not posted in a long while. I got very busy, plus with the camera being broken I just didn't have the motivation. But now I have a new camera and more time so I will give it another shot. Also, no one even knows about this blog other than my immediate family and I guess I felt no one would miss it. I do want to post more now though because I have been thinking it is a good way to journal, and look back on things we have done, or that was said. I am thinking of sharing this with others. That would be a good way to motivate me.

As I said I have been busy. I cannot write about everything now, but it really has been a very busy time. Plus, I do not manage my time very well. I am sure there are people out there with more to do than me and can still find time to blog, and exercise, and keep a clean house, and, and, and, ......
but not me. As I said, my family is most important and our family has been very busy.

I am working now. I got a job as a personal care attendant. I am also certified too. Since I work weekends I get paid pretty well. We need some extra money right now (who doesn't) so it is work time for a while. I do like my job. I take care of older adults who cannot do the daily tasks that we all take for granted. I like old people. They have so much to offer. I do get attached easily, but I am dealing with it.

So this is it for now. I really hope and plan to visit here often.
I will leave you with a little craft we did recently. The bongo drum man was made by my son that just graduated. The others were done by the girls and me.