January 1, 2015

A New Year - 2015 - Wow!

January 1, 2015

Before the Sewing Room Christmas tree is taken down

Do you remember Y2K?  How can that have been 15 years ago?  I told Mom today that I have such fond memories of her mother, my grandmother Jesse Samuel.  She passed away just before Christmas 46 years ago.  How can some memories be so strong and yet I can't remember where I put my keys?  A new year is a treasure and I hope I use the time in it wisely.

This morning I got up about 8:30 and after breakfast, spent most of the morning cleaning.  I worked in 3 or 4 areas, but the majority of the work was in the sewing room.  Some of it was a matter of moving  piles from one place to another.  Some of those piles are Christmas fabrics and they go in a storage bin under the sewing table.  I think I will let one of the grandchildren crawl under there and get it out for me.  The sewing table is now cleared enough for me to do some serious sewing.  I am eager to get back to fun sewing.  Every time I pick up a fabric to move it or put it away, I seem to think of a new project that I could make from it.  I have lots more ideas than I have time to carry them out.

Mid day I invited Mom to come over and have lunch and keep me company while I took down the sewing room Christmas tree.  I picked her up at 1:30 and we stopped on the way to pick up some Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch.  They are running some specials right now that they are calling $5 Fill-Ups.  One of those is a chicken pot pie, a drink and a chocolate chip cookie.  Mom decided that was what she wanted.  I guessed that would also be Ron's choice.  They both gave great praise to their chicken pot pies, so this evening after I took her home I picked up one for Ron and me to split for supper. They were right.  If you haven't tried one, you might consider it.

KFC Chicken Pot Pie - A winner!

Mom got to look at my the wedding photos on my computer from Stephen and Kristina's wedding and the rehearsal dinner.  She was at the wedding but not at the rehearsal dinner and she had not seen all of the photos I had taken outside that day of the wedding.  She enjoyed so many of the shots and had a good time also seeing the new things I have added to the sewing room. 

One of the wedding photos Mom had not seen

Mom is pushing (encouraging) me to finish some of my in progress quilt projects (also know as UFOs - Un-Finished Objects).  I told her that Vannetta Chapman, one of my favorite authors, had suggested on her Facebook page today that we have a challenge for 2015 where when we finish one of our UFOs, we post a photo of it on her facebook page and each month she will draw the name of one of the quilters who have finished a project, to win a prize.  I need some type of challenge to get me going on them.  I have a quilting friend coming in about a month, to spend a while with me and I have already warned her that I will be working on UFOs.

Green Jay

We had a good visit and enjoyed watching the birds.  Two green jays flitted in and out of the yard for snacks surrounded by huge numbers of sparrows.  The funniest thing happened this morning.  I was watching the sparrows at a feeder I got a few months ago.  I got it to keep the ducks out of the food.  When a sparrow lands on the feeder, it can eat and eat.  If a heavier bird - grackle, duck, etc. - or a squirrel gets on it, their weight pushes down on the spring loaded cage around the food, and the holes for the food are covered.  That is a great idea and the ducks are not happy about it.  But today there were so many sparrows swarming all over the feeder their weight would close the doors not allowing them to get food.  See the two photos below.  Look at the top of the feeder and then in the second, see that the "cage like" wires surrounding the food have moved down from their weight.  Poor little birds!

 Overload of sparrows

Ron spent the day watching football games and we even let him have his lunch in front of the TV while we ate in the dining room.  He has enjoyed his day of bowl games.  I have enjoyed accomplishing some things.  Tomorrow I plan to start looking for my new camera.  I hope they have some in stock and aren't sold out of the ones I am interested in.


Mom is doing pretty well, but still has some days when the pain is worse than others.  She is not sure what brings on the bad days, but thinks the weather could be a factor.  She has decided to keep her helper for a while longer and that is good.  Her helper has gotten all of her Christmas decorations put away and that is great.

After the sewing room tree is down and boxed up.

It has been a cold, wet, misty, foggy day here.  The temperature is about 45 and the ground is well watered.  We had hoped to spend this morning watching the grandchildren at the horse riding lessons, but it was too muddy for the lessons.  It would have been a good time for Jeff and Ron to be able to watch the kids learn to ride.