There's so much to be thankful for...

 it's been a wild ride to Thanksgiving from August

Covid 19 continues to run wild, so my plan to have Thanksgiving with an almost traditional dinner (chicken not turkey but otherwise really close) here at my house with my sister and her family here too was put to the way side a couple of weeks ago -- not without some unhappy muttering on both sides

It would have been nice to have our family, small though it is all together, but we're not risking that

 So there will be four of us for dinner tomorrow -- my daughter, her husband, their son and me, and that being the case it will be a very "non-traditional" dinner -- there's a large shrimp ring in the refrigerator along with pickles, peppers and olives for a relish tray as well as a sweet potato praline topped cassarole and a pumpkin pie to go with the gumbo that they are bringing, and there will be fresh, warm corn muffins -- and the traditional sparkling cider to accompany the whole "feast"

 As I was cooking today  I was thinking about the many "non-traditional" Thanksgivings when my daughter was younger.  Any family that moves seven times in four years has a good shot at hitting a Thanksgiving holiday as a move day.  That occasioned a meal in a small, mostly empty neighborhood diner where we were all so tired we didn't care what we ate.

And there was the year we were driving from Utah to California in a rental truck and I managed to lock the key inside -- and in that little town the kid working for the only AAA towing company in the area had no idea how to use a slim jim to get into the truck so we could get the key out and be on our way -- but we finally did.  That was the Thanksgiving of hamburgers from whatever fast food place was open on the highway.

Along the way on our adventure of life I learned a lesson that I think my daughter knows too.

It ends up that where the table is, or what's on it is not nearly as important as who is around that table.  Because it is the who that I am the most grateful for.

And especially this year, even though it has been a rough year, and there are fewer of us around that table than there were last year, I know that things could be so much worse.  And I am indeed grateful for the friends I have, and my own continued ability to do for myself and for others.

Been playing a song that Josh Groban sings this week -- it's called "Thankful"

Part of the lyrics are:

Even with our differences
There is a place we're all connected
Each of us can find each others light
So for tonight, we pray for
What we know can be
And on this day, we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us, to be the change
And even though this world needs so much more
There's so much to be thankful for

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving 

 

what's happening in the studio

finished!

this piece began a few months ago, created out of the t shirts I had been collecting and saving from our various athletic activities, community involvement and our daughter's school productions

these two photos were taken before it was backed and quilted, but they show just how big this quilt is

 I had finished the quilt top on August 14, at least the DH got to see it

and now it will go on the bed -- it's not really cold enough to sleep under it yet as the temperatures here are back up in the 80s, but it won't be long before I'll need it

 

this is a piece for my Women's Work series -- right now I'm calling it "Ironing Day" -- started working on the background yesterday afternoon

 

I'm spending some time almost every day doing some deep cleaning, doing some paperwork and working on some kind of art

 

working toward creating a new sense of "normal"

the upside of just doing the work

 

earlier this year I finished this piece which is titled "Out to Pasture" 

it seemed a natural to enter in a show titled "Pieces of the Past"

 this popped up in my email yesterday --- at some point in the future a picture of this piece may show up in a quilting magazine

how cool is that!?

 

 clearly I'm on a bit of a roll here --- this piece, which is titled "Caribou Porch" had been entered in a local art association's annual show

over the weekend, it was awarded an Artistic Achievement ribbon, which also included a small check

woo hoo!

 

I am always pleased when the pieces speak well at a show or competition

 

yesterday I received the annual call for entries from the Loveland Library district (where I have had several of my smaller pieces on exhibit in the past)

my plan this year is to enter several pieces from the "Women's Work" series -- maybe these three

I do have two more pieces for this series in process, and I do have until the end of October before the entry is due, I might have a couple more to enter as well

we'll see

moving along in the studio on pieces that were already in the planning is helping me find a new sense of purpose

meantime --- more tomatoes got put up

last weekend I stripped the garden because we were going from 90 degree heat to snow within about 36 hours, and I didn't spend all summer tending those plants to loose those tomatoes!!

these 8 pints bring the count for the season to 25, and there are still 3 baskets full ripening on the counter that I will either can or turn into basic pasta sauce that I can put in the freezer 

tomorrow will be a day off --- I will have my grandson here while his mother takes care of some things in her office that can't be handled from home, so I will be "supervising" his school work in the morning then we can do a project or two in the afternoon --- should be fun

the third act

 It's been a very long time between postings

For a while, I thought I might have reached the end of blogging -- so little uninterrupted time

 And now I need to (briefly) explain the absence for the last year and a half

 When I  last posted in February, 2019, I had just brought the DH home from over a month in the hospital and then rehab.  He came home needing more day to day care -- he could no longer see well enough to handle his blood sugar testing and insulin injections -- he needed higher levels of oxygen making it a lot harder for him to go anywhere -- and he took blood thinners twice a day because his heart was not beating in a regular rhythm

Despite all that we had only two choices -- assisted living, which he hated the whole idea of and refused to even discuss -- or I could take care of him at home -- so he came home and we found a new normal

We had a big family gathering for his birthday where he got to see all of his grandchildren and his great grandchildren -- and we did it again at Christmas -- and he did love Christmas -- all the planning and the decorating and the cooking and the wrapping -- it was his favorite time of year

Then in March, 2020, the world around us went crazy -- COVID 19 shut down everything -- and his already limited world became a lot more limited -- and he was slipping away into his memories about playing baseball as a young boy -- and exploring caves when he was away at school in Missouri in his teen years -- and he was sometimes angry because I wouldn't let him go out into the garage and work with the power tools unless I was right there to guide (and protect) him so he wouldn't get hurt

And of course, in the end, I couldn't protect him from the inevitable

So on August 14 we decided we were going to stay up past our usual bedtime and watch the PBS recording of "The Sound of Music", a stage production that we hadn't seen before -- and at it's end, I said "it's time to go to bed" -- he started to answer and then he was unconscious -- and I was dialing 911

The paramedics and the ambulance were here really quickly and they tried for an hour doing CPR, giving medications -- creating an emergency room in the middle of our family room -- trying everything that an emergency room would do -- but at 12:15 in the morning of August 15 he slipped away and was no longer bound by medications and leg braces and oxygen tanks -- he was free

 Parts of the last three weeks are a blur -- talking to the coroner at 3:00 a.m. -- picking a spot at the cemetery -- asking for mass with the parish priest -- being able to have only a small group standing in the cemetery to say goodbye 

And now life of a whole other kind moves on for those of us left behind -- moving forward -- moving sideways -- some days just trying to stand still -- time doesn't let us do that

On now to that third act --