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Bathing suits?

We had FOUR new inches on Saturday and THREE new inches today. Between an early Easter and this late snow - my head is all mixed up.
The best thing about Spring is it comes just before Summer, and I do think Summer is coming. So get out the bathing suits.  (note the photo corners on the picture, now aren't I somethin'?)

Calling these bathing suits cracks me up. Who is going to bath with a suit on?  I love these girls, aren't they the cutest?  Being raised in a family of all sisters this just makes me giggle. I think I will be the third one in - which one do you want to be?
NONE of us (my sisters and I) like 'bathing suits'. I would venture to say, I don't even know if any of our kids have seen us in 'bathing suits'. We are just not real water people. (Imagine air quotes in the air around "water people"). We were raised on a Homestead in the middle of  a desert,  for goodness sake. The only water was in an irrigation ditch. Oh, we sat in that ditch many a times, but it was with hot sweaty work clothes on...no bathing suits.
But we have been known to be quite silly a time or two...

My sister on the far right...when she took off her jeans and put this dress on we thought she had also put on white panty hose - she is a nurse, after all...but alas and alack, no! she had not put on white panty hose, it was her lovely white legs. Oh, we laughed until we were standing in a line at the bathroom door.
Now aren't we a lovely bunch.....of chickens?

I love my Mom and sissies.

I did it! I did it! I did it!

Oh, for those computer whiz people try to refrain yourself from falling off your chair laughing. This is so like 'photoshop naugahyde'. (Oh, that is weird spell check doesn't have naugahyde.) At our house we have nauga-everything. Formica is nauga-marble or the nice wood grain is called nauga-wood. Nauga-antiques. Anything this isn't the real deal is nauga-whatever.
Okay so this is nauga-photoshop...but lookie lookie I put a flower on top of a picture, cropped it, saved it and exported it and even got it to the blog...

If I'd known I could really really do it I would probably of picked a different combination than my handsome Dad (isn't he just so handsome?) with a foo-foo flower. At least the flower if green, his favorite color.  I didn't think I could really do it and now I've done (it took a long time) I don't have the brain power to try again. Oh please. Gimmefive...jump up and down - be excited. AMY - I DID IT!?!? Can you believe it?

p. s. Dad would be excited and gimmefive, even if it is a foo-foo flower.  I remember one time riding on the tractor with Dad. Our neighbor was poorly. It was just Dad and Me. Dad and his blue work shirt, his lace up leather boots, his strong body.  I was sitting in the tractor cab with him, we had come  home for a week-end visit. He was plowing. The smell of Dad and the smell of freshly turned over dirt. It was after the milking was done, and so the long evening shadows were cast across the newly turned furrows.  We talked about death and dying. He made a comment. He said, "Arlene, you know when someone you love dies, you never get over it, you just learn to live with it." I didn't ask him how long it took to learn to live with it. I'm still missing you Handsome Papa.

It's official.

Oh, it didn't start out this way. In fact, last year when I first took Miss Pepper to the vet on the "Getting To Know You Questionnaire"  I was asked: Do you consider your animals as pets or are they members of the family? I only hesitated a moment and then checked. Pets.

Well, that was then and this is now. Miss Pepper was sick. I cannot believe the feelings I had holding her, worrying, petting and coddling. When I took her to the vet she was diagnosed as having a fragile digestive tract. (Can dogs have fragile digestive tracts?)

Oh. My. After a stay in the vet hospital and IV therapy she is now home guarding and  protecting us from all the neighborhood cats and alerting us to every robin that invades our property looking for those tasty worms.

And I might add her status has offically changed...from pet to member of the family. What can I say, "Don't worry Miss Pepper, when Daddy gets home he'll take us for a walk."
I can't believe me.

Kindness begins with me...

I don't really even remember how this began but I like putting "kindness tags' on things. Fun tea dyed tags.
HeartRocks - Kindness. I guess there is a connection. On the back of the tag is where I put the name for the bags. Yes, indeedy - flour sack bags have names. The personality develops during the creation. Today I sent of Martha and Marla Mae. It was great fun to title the email with the delivery confirmation number  - "Martha and Marla Mae are on there jolly way today."  I am easily entertained, no?

Seeker of Goodness

That describes my sissie.
She is amazing. She is good to the unlikeable, she does good things, she makes good food, she builds good relationships, she takes good care of our Momma. She IS good.
So for her birthday I decided to fiddle with altered art. I enrolled in a little online class here. Teresa McFayden's. Her tutorials and inspiration gave me the courage to just do it. I took out my collection of old things and was brave and started gluing and putting them together.

It is my first and I can see things I would do differently  but you have to start somewhere, eh?
Barb, my sister, is always saying....."Period. The end." She often gets on a phrase kick and says it so much - pretty soon we are all saying it and then it gets old and she comes up with something new and then we pile on and wear that one out. Very fun.
On the back of this I put. "I want to be good. Period. The end." Have you even been around someone who wants to be good? It is so inspiring. It has a ripple effect, just like the phrase-ology, pretty soon we are all trying to be better. Good-er. Thanks for inspiring all of us, Dear Sissie and Happy Birthday.

Seeker of Goodness. We love you!

computer issues

Oh my.
Computers are great! Aren't they?
I remember life before computers.
I remember life before 'sticky notes'.
I remember life when a notebook kept our lives in order.
Ah, then computers - to organize and keep everything at our finger tips.

Two - no three computers. Two dead. One live.
Thank goodness our baby boy our pride and joy came home for Spring Break and helped ME. (THANK YOU DEAR CODY!)
Mercy me.
He spent most of one day 'hunkered' down trying to transfer information along "this"  information highway from one computer to the 'tuther.
(Why he hunkered the entire time, is beyond me, but he sat on  his heels like this most of the day. I guess I remember when I could do that.)

Now I have good news and bad news. The good news, I have one computer with all my information on board.
The bad news,  I have one computer with all my information on board.
Ugh.
I have two adorable nieces who are organizing queens, they need to come and organize all this information. Linz?...Shay? do you want to spend a weekend with me? I would fix you yummy food to eat.
I have pictures scattered about like bread crumbs scattered so I won't get lost and can find my way home. The only problem - I can't find my way home. The birds must have eaten some of the crumbs and others are scattered from all the wing flapping.
I have folders and files and programs and pictures and folders and files...every which a way.
Where is that notebook? The one. Just one notebook to keep my life in order.
Our son suggested, I spend thirty minutes a day organizing and just do it everyday until the task is done.
And while I am at it, it looks like that bookcase under the counter could be organized, also. I am not responsible for the pile on top of the counter, that is Ranger Rick's pile who would much rather be on a 'walk about' then organizing paperwork.
So here I go........into the depths of files and folders, and files and folders, folders and files. Bye bye.
Hope to resurface in time for dinner...........
Bye Bye.................................................................................

a little glitz

After the rag balls this may come as a bit shocking...so cover you eyes and peek through your fingers if you need to.
I am working on a little glitz.

See that cute sparkle ribbon. Love it.

And some bling.
And you thought I all I knew how to do was fiddle with those fun rumbled cotton flour sacks, eh? Well....t'ain't so.

Thanks to Marichella from Heart Handmade

How fun. Marichella featured one of my aprons, on her very fun new site. If you came to visit from over that way...a big welcome. If you haven't been there - go visit - a very nice site. Love her banner. Thanks Marichella.
I first met Marichella on her other site. How in the holy guacamole she can keep up with two lovely sites is beyond me. Bravo to you Marichella!

Rag balls: in a bowl or all in a row.

These are pretty fun to make, using up all my scraps. I gathered up a hand full of bits and pieces and put them in a plastic bag and just wrapped it up tight and then began adding bigger scarp pieces (sometimes tearing them into strips sometimes just leaving them chunky) - wrapping - winding - layering.

Then the bonus round is using string that stitched the bags together and doing some final wrapping.

In the bowl or all in a row they are pretty fun.

I am sad.

My Mom has had a stroke. She actually had it about three weeks ago. She was in the hospital and then in a rehab center for two weeks and is now at home. Obviously it wasn't REAL serious, but - still hard. I know we should be grateful, and we are. BUT she has a compromised life, now. The thing that is most affected is her balance. She is so tippy.
I read the book, "A Grace Disguised"  by Gerald L Sittser. Gerald lost his wife, Mother and a young daughter in a car accident. Gerald and three other children survived.
This book is one that I read slowly. It has to be read slowly because it demands pondering and thinking with each turn of the page.
He mentioned that we can't quantify grief. So I guess I am giving myself permission to grieve with Mom about her loss. The loss of being stable on her feet. Please don't try to make me feel better with, it could have been so much worse. I know that. She knows that. We understand. I am just grieving what Mom has lost. Okay?
That said.
"If your soul aches, you may be on a journey that will stretch your faith, your understanding of the meaning of life, and your knowledge of God. If you let it, your sorrow will increase your capacity to live well, to love life, and to experience joy, not after the darkness but even in the midst if it."
So Mom...here we go...on this journey that will stretch us - on the way to experiencing joy even in the midst.
I am in.
Are you?
I love you Mom.