February 27, 2014

Long Days and Short Nights

February 27, 2014 

This blog is important to me and I try to keep up with almost daily postings, but this week has been filled to the brim and overflowing with great activities, wonderful visits and good times,  and I have just not been able to squeeze in blogging time.  I will try to start catching up! 

Ron and I have been able to spend time with our youngest son this week.  I think my last posting was about delivering a quilt.  God’s timing is amazing.  Before we left home my plan had been to deliver the quilt to Tate about Wednesday, when we would be staying a little closer to where the quilt was going.  Then it seemed that some things were changing, so we decided we would deliver the quilt after we got out of the early church service Sunday morning.  We did that and only a few hours later we received word that Tate, the young man the quilt was for, was being taken to MD Anderson in Houston ahead of schedule due to additional problems from the aggressive, malignant brain tumor he is fighting.  In the overall scheme of things, the quilt was not the most important thing in the lives of that young family, but they took it with them to the hospital and it has been on his bed there, as someone said “covering him with God’s promises” that had been written on the quilt by some of the people who are praying for him.  His eyesight has been affected by the tumor, but hopefully the bright colors in the quilt come through as reminders of those who love him and are praying for him.

 

On Monday our son had the day off, so he and I ran a variety of errands.  I have had cell phone problems so we made a trip to check on that.  We dropped Ron off at a Half Price Bookstore that also had a coffee shop, so he was happy.  Since Stephen is assistant manager at Logos Christian Bookstore where he works, he does some of their buying and was able to take me as a guest to the World Trade Center – Dallas on a shopping trip.  Oh, my!  We only did about ½ of one of the nine floors!  I could have spent the week there!  We picked Ron up from the bookstore where he had found books for his mother to read and a couple for himself.  We got lunch at an In And Out Burger place and their burgers are pretty good!  We got a new battery for my phone and did a few more errands. 

 
We were headed back to our son’s apartment when I mentioned to him that I had not taken any photos that day from which to select my daily entry to a group called Project 365.  We each commit to take and post a photo a day for a year.  We went to the apartment complex where his girlfriend lives and walked the trails around the water features and I photographed ducks and squirrels.  Before long his girlfriend got home from work and joined us, so I took photos of them.  We had a good time, but it was getting cold.  That evening we all went to supper at Olive Garden and had a relaxing visit.  We managed to stay up late – again.

Tuesday morning as our son left for work, we left to do some shopping on our way to my sister’s home near Ft. Worth.  I found a wonderful little quilt shop in Carrolton; I think it is called The Quilt Stash.  Quilters call their fabric collection, their Stash.  The only thing I didn’t like is that they don’t carry “fat quarters” which I love to buy.  A fat quarter is a quarter yard of fabric, but it is cut, not across the yardage (which would give you a piece 9 inches by 42 inches wide – not great for cutting into assorted pieces.)  Instead, a fat quarter is cut by cutting a half yard of fabric and then cutting that in half down the middle, leaving you with a piece about 18 inches by 21 inches – almost a square, a much more “user friendly” size to work with.  I did find a couple of things, but didn’t buy much.  The thing I was really shopping for was silk flowers to decorate for the upcoming Winter Texan Banquet at our church.  After stops at many Hobby Lobby and Michael’s stores along the way, I finally found the flowers at Garden Ridge near Ft. Worth.  Of course I didn’t leave the other places empty handed in most instances.  They had all their Valentine things 80 % and 90% off!  New thick coloring books for the grandchildren at 40 cents each is a bargain these days.  We just had a nice day of shopping with no pressures of time.  Ron often sat in the car and read, which was fine except it was getting cold.  By that night it was 32 degrees.

My sister’s place is out in the country and she and her husband have done a lot to attract birds to their yard.  When I got up Wednesday morning, I had to scrape the ice out of the birdbath for the poor little birds.  My sister and her husband were lounging on a warm beach in southern Mexico, while we enjoyed their lovely home and birds.  Their youngest son was there, but he works nights and sleeps days, so we saw little of him.  Even though it was 32 degrees I sat on the patio and took photos of the blue jays, woodpeckers, cardinals, doves, and juncos, as well as the squirrels.  What a nice treat.  We went into town for lunch and a little more 90% off shopping, before returning to the private birding spot.  

On this trip, the elbow has given me no problems with the minor exception of slight pain when carrying baggage with the arm in a rotated position.  I see the orthopedic surgeon next week and I think he will be pleased.  The rotation is not perfect, but I can live with it.  As for the hearing – it is better in some settings than in others.  At the noisy, crowded restaurant last Saturday night I just couldn’t hear.  But in most places I have done fairly well.  There is a lot of “stuff” to take to properly care for the Cochlear sound processor, etc.  I would need to be a lot more organized and selective if we were flying!  Driving a Suburban, we can take anything we want to with us.