Progress Report

Well, the quilt sandwich was taped to the floor and pinned together.  (The blue is the painter's tape, not part of the quilt)  Now it waits for quilting, I'm attempting to quilt by hand, but first a knitted Christmas stocking for my son-in-law needs to be finished! 

Thirsty??

After a long hot walk on the National Mall in DC, we were happy to see a water fountain......until we got closer. (from our DC visit in September courtesy of my son)

Turning A Corner

Last week I found myself driving through the woods on a hard-packed dirt road....up a mountain.  

Yes, I have to admit, we passed a sign like this only quite small and way up high on a tree.  Proceeding ahead with doubt, a car passed by from the other direction, and so my sister said we were fine and obviously the road wasn't closed!  We soon found ourselves climbing ever higher, encountering a few ruts and more cornering.  We finally reach the top, the road flattens out a bit and I am in a panic but my sister reassures me once again as a delivery van comes our way (how he passed us is a mystery....my eyes were shut as the road had considerably narrowed by now).  I'm trying to breathe, my mom (in her 80's) is doing her big sighs.  My sister is in the back seat.  She has no clue what lies ahead.  A sheer vertical drop!  Muddy and very rutted!  And a hairpin turn for good measure!!

I stop the car and announce that I am done and I was not driving anymore.  

Thankfully my sister climbed into the driver's seat and somehow (my eyes remained closed) managed to get us down the mountain.

A week before this hair raising experience we received a diagnosis regarding my granddaughter that has been a year in coming.  Thankfully God is in the driver's seat with my daughter and her husband as they face a sheer drop and hairpin turns.  I'll be close by, probably with my eyes shut, praying for strength and peace for them as they face decisions I do not want to face.

Keeping Busy

Welcome Fall!!

A wool felt pin-cushion kit that was a Christmas gift two years ago!  A gift from my sister, the goddess of hand sewing.  It only took two years, but I actually traced and cut and ironed and embroidered and sewed and stuffed all by myself!!

Leave Was Short

I've had some issues trying to update my blog lately. We'll see if today is successful.

Leave is over. We had lots of things we wanted to do but ended up just being although we did go to Children's Hospital Boston, walked around the Public Garden and enjoyed a ride on the Swan Boats.

My two warriors overlapped at home for a few days which was a treat to all be together even if for a short time. Four years ago the Old Man came home from a 16 month deployment during which the young warrior graduated from high school and enlisted in the Marine Corps. Before he went to boot camp we hiked up Mt Monadnock together because that was my son's release during deployment. He would come home from school and just go....rain, snow, ice, didn't matter. So, even though the weather was ridiculously hot and this warrior mom has only hiked once this entire summer, we did the hike again. I survived, barely, and ate up the whole day because I'm so out of shape, but it was worth it.

Leave ended with Labor Day weekend in Washington DC to visit soldiers at Bethesda and Walter Reed. Unfortunately for us several were well enough to have passes to go home for the holiday weekend but we were able to visit two. That was encouraging! Our son is finishing up his four years of active service and relocating to Virginia so he drove us down and spent the weekend with us. Being dyed in the wool New Englanders, we left many things unsaid but just being together was priceless.