Christmas Eve

A very special gift.....a baby boy born with a different set of expectations than most...arrived this morning in the wee dark hours 2:52 to be precise!  4 pounds 13 ounces and 18 inches of pure joy.  Such a strange Christmas this year with young Warrior far, far away; babyMomma with hubby and grandson Charlie in the hospital in the big city; my dad in a nursing home/rehab; and the two of us taking care of  big sister.  I'm so glad Christmas is so much more than family traditions.  Merry Christmas to all!! 

                                                               and to all a good night!!

An Almost Wordless Wednesday...on Thursday

  
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening  Beautiful illustrations!  Not on my bookshelf yet, but I think it will be soon.

Some glimpses of our home.  

My elf made snowflakes and hung them from the doorways.  She also made gingerbread people with our names and hung them.  This is something she remembers from Christmas parties that my sister's mother-in-law always had.  We did not go every year, but apparently my daughter had very fond memories of getting a gingerbread person with her name on it.  It is so very neat sharing my home with my adult daughter and her young family, to see traditions passed along as well as combined and created.

Tonight Grampa and Grammy did the bedtime routine while babyMomma is in Boston awaiting the arrival of her baby boy.  It is hard to fathom that he will be here before Christmas.  It is strange to know his diagnosis ahead of time.  I can't wait to meet him face to face.  

December Already??

I'm not exactly sure what happened to November.  My young warrior came home after 3 months overseas, so I was bustling around trying to set up a cozier guest bedroom than he had here a year ago.  He ends up in the "Music Room."  Sounds great, but after merging two households and then acquiring more and more medical supplies for the grandbaby, the room has become a very large storage closet!  It now has full length curtains that are actually hanging from decorative curtain rods!  Unfortunately, he still has to sleep on an air mattress on the floor....I'll have three months till he gets to come home again so I'll have to hunt down some sort of bed.  A murphy bed would be awesome except the best wall would be the wall the piano occupies, so we'll have to rethink that.  With another grandbaby on the way, I need a decent guest bedroom so the babies' other grammy can come visit!

My granddaughter had been enjoying a long stretch of good health.  With two adults in the kitchen (one for her, one to cook), she would sometimes even help with the baking. She had begun really moving around on the floor and had started going forward a little bit in her fancy walker!  We were enjoying "dancing" to Christmas music while making supper in the late afternoons.  Thanksgiving morning she began to be sick and by Sunday calls were made to her Palliative Care Team and Hospice.  A lot of tears these last few days and just inability to do much of anything other than pray and try to support the babyMomma!  A very tough week for young warrior to be home as we can't really do a whole lot.  He's been amazing, though, and has hired a friend of his to finish and do several home improvement projects that have been sadly neglected.

God's timing is amazing as a new day nurse began Monday and walked into the front lines of a battle for Amber.  She has been amazing and has advocated for new equipment, made calls to doctors and pharmacies and suppliers, and does everything with such confidence but with a great deal of respect for the babyMomma.  We are so glad she came when she did and that she had been out once before on a different visit to see Amber healthy so she could really understand just how sick Pale Peanut has been this week.  We would still covet prayers for a full recovery and safe arrival of her baby brother.....due mid-January but probably/possibly earlier than that. 

In the midst of all this, we are trying to lift spirits and each day add a little more Christmas.  Lights went up last night, just a few white twinklies outside on two bushes and a blanket of lights on a big rock; and candles in the windows.  Christmas dishes came out the day after Thanksgiving.  These were a gift to the babyMomma last year.  They just make us smile.

View From The Swamp

Coyote

Beaver

These photos were taken with a wildlife camera my husband gave me for Christmas last year.  I've tried it  in several places without a great deal of success.  I finally took it all the way down the hill to the edge of the swamp, next to the log I stand on to watch the swamp, and strapped it low on the tree, facing away from the swamp.  These pictures were from October 27th through November 8th.

Today is Brought to You by The Letter S

Scenic Vistas

Serenity

Sewing

Sisters

A short get-away last week to North Conway, New Hampshire.  A little hiking, a little shopping, a lot of sewing ~ my sister put most of her quilt top together, I dabbled with a stressful block and then laid out last year's quilt to ponder over what to hand quilt the borders...still haven't decided.  A lot of reminiscing ~ 24 years of memories with my parents in this place and time of year.

Grateful!!

A heart full of gratitude this morning....

for POWER restored!!!

for a supper delivery (thank you MyStory)...even though we didn't deserve it

for a four month stretch of good health for grandbaby

for parents who took me camping so I can survive with limited water

for grandbaby's giggles that remind me of my grandmother

for a gas stove

for the privilege of a boomerang situation so that I can see grandbaby's unique way of dealing with physical limitations

for a flight delay

for timely reminders from blogger friends 

Trick or Treat....I'm Thinking Trick

I don't think any words are necessary.

Power's been out since 6 pm Saturday.  Thankfully we have a generator running for heat, coffee pot, and some rooms ~ primarily the grandbaby's so the babymomma can hear the monitors for oxygen and feeding pump in the night. No running water though.

Fall?

Typical toddler in her own way!  My sweet grandbaby has discovered rolling as a way to travel across the living room floor.....especially when something looks interesting.  She can move fast when properly motivated, and "helping" grammy cut fabric for a new quilt block seemed like just the thing.  No sooner would I put her back on the far side of her blanket then I would find her on my cutting mat!!

 This is the finished block that I began with my grandbaby's help.  I was thrilled to actually get the owls all facing the same direction!  I'm thinking this might find it's way into a little something for her baby brother.

Not our typical October landscape....

These were taken Friday morning and as I write this Saturday evening, we have about a foot of snow and it's still snowing....the power went out but thankfully we have a generator running so there is heat, a few lights, and the baby's medical equipment will be ok for the night.  Sadly, no running water but we're campers so we can deal with that for a little bit.  December 2008 we had a horrific icestorm leaving us without power for two weeks.  I've never experienced battle or sounds of mortar fire, but laying in the dark listening to trees fall for hours and into the next day is not something I ever want to hear again.  Looking out, the tree limbs are bent low as they are loaded with leaves still.  I wonder what things will look like tomorrow?

Do I See a Theme?

An apron made by an Amish woman in Northern Maine (a gift from my sister), books from my hubby, tied with twine,  an amazing cake created by my daughter, and an unexpected delightful surprise .... a book for the Grammy bookshelf, on my windshield when I left church Sunday night!!...(from a very special blogger friend), Sunday dinner with my parents, daughter, granddaughter, and three out of four siblings, and a yummy Edible Arrangement from my son who is far, far away...with a card that made us HOWL!

Flashback Friday

Going through a box of slides at my parents' home, I discovered this!  I had only ever seen black and white snap shots, and most from my toddler years.  This was such a delight to come across....although, why did my mom put me in blue??

This is from my 10th birthday.  My oldest brother was married that summer. While we were in Pennsylvania for the wedding, a hurricane blew up the coast, picked up our above-ground pool and left it in a mangled heap quite a distance from where it belonged.  The spot where the pool had been became our fire-pit, so a perfect place for a brisk October night birthday.  My birthday cake was always  a "3-Holer" chocolate cake baked in a tube pan and frosted with chocolate peanut-butter frosting.  This one had jack-o'lantern peeps, licorice sticks and a small, plastic pumpkin filled with a few candy treats.  Quite a treat!  

I don't know how my mother made that frosting.  I have tried unsuccessfully for years!  I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'm going to be......(gulp)......f-f-f-f-f-............yup, can't quite say it.  I know, it's only a number.

Green Gives Way to Red

A walk down the hill to the swamp begins with an amazing fungus, partially hidden.

Looking to the right of my path, it's as though someone spilled a bucket full of these white fungi.

I encountered one more in the middle of my path.  A pristine dinner plate!                                                                             

As the hill flattens out, the path leads me beneath a canopied arch.

A small cluster of oak leaves growing at the base of the stone wall.

The views across the swamp.  Just gorgeous!!!  It was a beautiful October-blue sky, but it was high noon so all washed out with the bright sunshine.  Hooded Mergansers were back joining the Wood Ducks and Mallards.  I don't think I've ever heard anyone duck hunting back here, so perhaps they're safe.

October!

 

Taking Advantage of Some Peace and Pieces

Spent a few hours in August with a woman who knows her stuff at an amazing quilt shop in Lyndeborough, NH.  I had one bolt I loved, the red with vines, but didn't know quite where to go from there.  She went here and there all over her shop, pulling this and that, studying my pattern.  We finally had a group we were happy with, my pattern now scribbled with notes so I wouldn't forget when I started cutting, and she folded them together so beautifully it was a while before I could take them apart and get to cutting.

Pieces were cut back in August and put in baggies all labeled.  I'm not sure what's been going on, but I haven't seem to have had any peace to get piecing!!  Late yesterday I had the house to myself and no outside distractions as it was pouring.  With NPR on the radio and cats sleeping away the afternoon, I got down to business.

 I'm doing another table runner like this one.  It's amazing how different the design will look with a better contrast in materials.  And I am amazed at how peaceful this process is.