Monday, Monday....

Tom Sayer and Huck Finn went fishing this mornin'. They were playin' hookie (before school of course). Huck done caught himself a "dog fish". That thing done snapped his line a more than a once.

Tom Sayer retrieved it for Huck but that dog gone dog fish just a kept a comin' back for more of Hucks bait.

Then it was off to the moon! Moon walkers kiddie ride Tom and Huck thought playin' hookie and all they would go have some 'musment.

Tom left huck with a bit of a bump!


My day was spent on the floors.
By clearing all the floors of everything first it is a process that gets the job done well.

It felt so good to have clean floors.

The dining room chairs have felt pads on the legs so I clear all the dog hair and sweep it with the micro fiber mops. My floors here are mopped with just water. By using the micro fiber mop I just rence it out every so often. With asthma we avoid all harsh cleaners.

The tile was almost black from the dogs. Bar keepers friend scrub works instantly to clean the tiles with very lettle elbow grease. It has been a long month and a half that the floors had to await my ability to scrub them due to the knee injections.

With this brown ball of fur the floors might last the day:)

I love the clean floors.

Hanging the laundry on the line has become a pleasant time to me. The breeze was an excelent balm. The silence was golden. I'll do more today.
I had an extra kid yesterday so today I will have more eviening time.
The laid out earrings recieved all the head and eye pins and accenting beads. I'll have to do some tool working on them to finish them up.

Week end in review

Early Friday morning I awoke to this...

Once They were all off, no lunches made.
I took some pain killer for my implant and set out to garden.
The sky was a serenity that embraced my diligent wherry bones.
I found myself really enjoying the time.

Mushrooms have come on their own.
Not edible but very cute!

This fellow (Fred) joined me in my garden.
He is an old and worn friend.
The dogs however...

Flanked my chair!

The Lab was telling him the 'what for' talking at him then looking up at me as if to say "don't you see that guy in the garden ?"

My sweet golden came over to nudge my arm and say listen to the Lab he is showing you someone is in the garden.
The funny Lab just woowufwoogruffed at it.
then would nudge me and point at him.

I had a nice long visit with Denise "shorty bear" on the phone.

I did chores, Daddy man brought in Taco Bell to treat us.
Being in a bit of a funk I was almost going to blow off the girls night out. Mr U. STRONGLY encouraged me to go play. I came up with every excuses in the book. He confronted me saying..
"Your isolating aren't you?"..
Oh! man cant get away with it (that's what happens when your loved) I got ready at the last moment and called to get the location. I had a nice drive. The evening with two good friend was a nice break. They and I were not as able to visit due to the programming of the event but it was fun. They asked for folk to come up and sing silly songs. I did! I went up and sang a crazy.."Jingle bells Bat Man smells Robin laid an egg... and a On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese ...I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed. It was fun to see all the audience join in and finish out the course. I enjoyed myself and coming up to the power within me to lead. I sorta forced myself to overcome the timidity.
I came home and held Dove for a good 45 minutes and just enjoyed her chatter and she shared some sweet things about her journey and daily doings.
Saturday Morning
After feeding all the life that depend on me, it was still early when I left for my meeting.

Arriving home afterward I had but 25 minutes to make a pic nick lunch and three sheets or scrap book pages. We gave a page to each of the Ladies who were now out of a job. These are the women who helped so many of us to become forever families. The economy has hit the international adoption industry. The agency had to close down our local office. Three amazing women now unemployed with families of their own.

The long line to say farewell was a hard thing for the kids to do.
Dash Hawk regressed and became ill to his tummy.
Our sweet friends had to leave and without their (the kids) little buddy to play with the fun came crashing to an end.

The children were so board while we stood in the second line.
Not too happy.
Dash had to be in Daddy Mans arms.
Poor Daddy has sore arms from it.

We left shortly after and hung out at home.
The day was cozy and the children hung close by we all had down time.
We watched T.V. , rested
In the evening we set up the old movie projector.

My sister mailed me the old 8mm movies she had in her possession. The year range was form 1957 through 1972. My youth. I had never watched these and so it was rather emotional.
I was moved by what I saw. The tell tell images of confirmation and full of Oh..."it is no wonders".

I am still a bit sad from them.
I saw my childhood image in all there may only have been around 10 minutes in all of the hours and hours of film. Much of it was from before my time as my step dads kids. Those were years before they married Out of some 50 tapes only maybe 10 were in our year range (those that are just to the right of the projector). Most of the tapes were black in the center and so only a few images were visible.
I witnessed the deterioration of my Mother.
When they first married she was happy and vibrant, but year by year she grew sullen and heavy. Hurt filled her eyes where in the very early years there was a bit of a smile.
My step dad was a very violent man who had late stage syphilis untreated from all those years out to sea as a merchant marine. So many ports. It was the death of my Mothers joy when in those days they made her go to the health department where they formally told her and she had to be tested and treated. It just humiliated her so badly.
I saw the transition of it as he had retired and she had begun to destruct herself and her life.
I saw my sister grow up and harden and my brothers who became absent. So many hurtful remembrances.
I do however feel grateful to have been able to witness and see my own childhood for the first time some 40 years after the fact.
I just found myself quiet most of the evening.
Sunday Morning
Home and quiet.
In the garden I set the sprinkler on timer and came in to blog.
The bad news was my photo bucket was full on Google!
Blogger was not allowing any downloads. Well my blog is all about photographs of life.
Beloved worked on it for hours as I finished my beading and carding goal.

We had a simple lunch and then wen to go check on the tailor.
We have drug our heals so long on this project!
I think non of us want to sell it.
We just can not or choose not to go into debt to get a rig that can haul it.
We are all a bit broken heart ed.
Once it is should we will save a almost $700. a year in registration, insurance and storage lot fees.
It is our goal to be following our quest for an emergency fund. Then to continue on the financial program we are following by Dave Ramsey.
This will set us far in that goal as much as it hurt.

I love our Coleman fleet wood West lake. It sleeps eight.
This is my cabin in the woods. free from worry while I am away in the city.
We have to let it go...We choose to let it go.
All of us pain at the idea and necessity of it. Our four runner can not pull it well and it is a very old rig. We are not going into debt to buy a newer truck. So we will be letting it go. Of course this has been a torture because we get to this point and have not followed through so many many times. We must follow through!

Dash wanted to help Daddy with the dung duty, mowing and lawn care. He shut his hand in the gate, then could not move the trash barrel and just cried and was VERY frustrated. He just lost it when Daddy had to send him inside due to his asthma.
A wise Daddy latter set up this freezer box and gave Dash a big dowel and told him to have it out and just hit it. Daddy drew a face on it. I told him to give it words. So while I was in the coop Dash bellowed out...
"I hate having asthma!
I hate wearing hearing aides
I am angry!"

Laughter pursued him as he vented more and more.
Then sissy got in the act and had her turn.
It lost it's glory when the box kept falling down...
That and Dash just wore himself out.

I worked on lay outs after I put all the gold stuff away.
I set out the silver for the summer and winter color range.
I played with color and did a lot of lay out designs for assembly.

I will add all the head and eye pins at the same time.
Work assembly style to make your time more efficient.
That is often how I accomplish things.
I learn how the professionals might do it.
Time is money to them.
I find getting out one thing at a time makes sence. I worked with the glass then the plastics and tomorrow I will break out some stones.

Dash and I had some one on one time and then Dove joined me while Dash gave over the turn. She however joined me to late and she had to get called away to brush teeth and story time for bed.
I will start my day for her turn awaits tomoorow as does a new week.

Thankful Thursday

Iris is a beautiful soul...
You can find her at "sting my heart" come join us next week.

Our Dear hostess of "Thankful Thursday" is a gift to us all. Here it is her birthday and it is She who is the gift.


Yesterday I mentioned the trip I made to glean the garage of a couple. They had a friend who owned a fabric store. The man passed away and his widow turned the fabric store into a quilt shop. .
Well...
I had a $100. budget and got to go through the stuff and choose what I could make use of.
She was very generous.
We had a real nice visit. Two artist souls meeting over a common interest. We talked as I went through stuff for two hours. Very nice couple.
I had asked God for the things I found. A long time ago, after leaving my project to run to the store for another package of bias tape to finish my job (an annoyance at best), a wish for a variety of these was spoken.
Well I think I will not soon have that interruption....:)


Bias binding , Hem tape hem lace in every color that I normally use.

Enough for quilts and wide skirts so amazing! 10 for a $1. and then several more for good measure. Very generous.

I only took what I could make use of, and the bounty is so very evident!
The husband was very generous as well with some findings.
There is some drapery tape in the package.
Serger thread is new!

The cabochons too! They were a request of God when I was making the beaded cabs some time back. They are perfectly imperfect.

This is all "child size" knit collars and cuffs.
Now day clothing with cuffs and collars only sell in high end stores for they are costly for designers who don't even hem things that they might keep costs down.

Polyester satin ribbon and patterns for the kids and for myself.
Sizes to keep them in for a few years.
They are mostly all new.

This is the fabric. I was picky. There are several things that are very nice here. She would measure a yard at 1 1/2 or so very generous.

Buttons, a few zippers for coats, trims, fusible waist bands, terry cotton yarn several skeins, and so much more.
I got many necklaces for Dove and a watch for dash.
It all incorperated into the studio without too much displacemenet.

A day of delight

Hello, Yesterday I spent the day ( 9a.m.-2:30 p.m.)
Teaching four children to read more effectively.
I had a wonderful lunch with Dove and just really loved it.

The children had a recess and potty break while I delighted in the momentary silence.
This is Doves class room.

I worked one on one with each child . They had a 5 page story of letters written in 1930's by a little girl who had to go stay in the city with her Uncle. She had the gift of gardening. She lived in her beauty and made a dark city street bright with flowers and gave a man who never smiled a roof top garden.
The kids had on average a low 25% score on the comprehension tests. The first child got 90% and the other two got a 100% on the test (the other child did not finish the story for time ran out on the day).

We all had a nice lunch together as all the little girls were little fluttering butterfly's around me.
Dove was so proud to be my daughter that it warmed my heart.
Dash saw me in the cafeteria and ran to hug me and greet me. Many of the other children who knew me from last year also said hello.

At lunch break all the fourth graders played soccer and Dove's class won the game.
It was nice under the shade of the huge trees.

Dove in light pink after a goal was scored.
They all proved to be good sports.

I went on a gathering run last night. I saw on Creigs list a person who had a garage full of stuff from a fabric store that had closed down. I called on the things and made a late night scavengers hunt coming home with a great stash of tremendous bargans.

Tackle It Tuesday

Good Morning!
Well My big tackle from Saturday on has been to "Matter to myself".
I did my hair Sunday and a manicure Sunday and Last night. They are not my own nails but they did turn out very natural looking. I did it myself.
It was very nice Sunday Beloved came in and read the Dave Ramsey book while I did my Beauty treatments.

My sewing center needs to have some attention. I have the bathroom window curtain to finish, also a pillow for the sofa. Dove has been awaiting her star wars cape too.

This is a necklace of a singe mom who had no matching earrings for . I am customizing a pair for her. I need to finish this and get it to her soon.

With a show upcoming in November I have a lot of work to do.
These layouts need to get completed.

As you can see The fourth vertical row has a lot of cards on it.
These are all earrings of fall colors.

All of the work is going onto my cards for display.
Everything being uniform will make for a professional look.

After the kids are off to school the morning chores of dishes and kitchen will get done before I take off to Bible study. Homework got done and so I will be off to fellowship,prayer and class.

By getting help from Mr U. I was able to get the decorations down from the attic. I look forward to getting them set up and festive.

Loving my clothes line yesterday the clothes were cleared after dark. I was tired so they will get folded and put away.
Phone calls to be made and a roast to be put in the oven.
I may offer hospitality to a young single Mother and her three year old, or the class teacher who also wanted to come over for tea.