A Blustery Day

Hum, dum, dum, dee, dee, dum
Hum, dum, dum
Oh the wind is lashing lusterly
And the trees are thrashing thrusterly
And the leaves are rustling gusterly
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubteadly
Looks like a rather blustery day today
It seems that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubteadly
Looks like a rather blustery day today

 This *from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and "the rain rain rain came down down down" (also from Winnie the Pooh)  have been in my head all day today!!
 I think when daylight comes tomorrow, there won't be any leaves left on the trees!  Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, we have had bands of gusty winds all day.  I've been enjoying my dogwood which had just reached it's peak fall color, but it has been taking a beating today. (We attempted some photos on the rock under the dogwood on Friday.  Apparently, I wasn't low enough and grand babygirl was more interested in seeing what I was up to than looking at the camera!)

 The hornet nest was disappearing by chunks throughout the day and gone shortly after lunch. 

 Thanks also to Sandy, my hubby was home today so we were able to get a few things done around the house that have been low on the priority list!  Did I mention it is so very quiet around here, other than wind and rain?  We are empty nesters for a few days while our other family is on vacation.  I'm hoping they will have a great week away from nurses and appointments and us and will be able to enjoy being just the four of them.

Acorn's Promise

  

A beautiful birthday gift....two, actually.  Two quilt kits full or material that is just gorgeous.  I hate to begin the process, laying it out and making that "do or die" first cut.  Without the cutting, it will never achieve the potential it has...to be something even more beautiful.

Quite the Week...But It's Only Wednesday!

Quite the week and quite the show going on around here.  We seem to have been having more than our share of gloomy, wet and cold but for a moment Monday morning the sky was glorious and I do mean the whole sky!!  I almost missed it but looked up in time to just drop my jaw and run from window to window.  This was a sunrise that spanned the sky, it lit up my WEST facing front yard as if someone turned a spot light on!  The colors went from pink to pumpkin and eventually gray but it was just SPECTACULAR!!  I managed to snap a picture out one window, but it doesn't quite do it justice.

Tuesday was my birthday and I "felt the earth move under my feet."  A 4.0 earthquake in Maine that only lasted for a few seconds was felt throughout much of New England.  My husband and I were eating at a Rainforest Cafe and didn't think it was part of the special effects but thought maybe there was a hidden hallway behind us behind the wall and they were moving something really big and heavy.  Moments later a text message from our daughter informed us of the earthquake.  She told us our house actually shook as though a really strong wind was blowing.  I've had snow on my birthday before, but this is a first!  My hubby gets points for wishing me a happy 6th birthday and my daughter outdid herself with two very special handmade cards ~ one hand painted birch trees and the other my grandbabies' hand tracings!!

Wednesday began in Boston at a hotel near the airport with hubby catching a shuttle to the airport at 4 am.  I tried to catch a little more sleep and ventured out into traffic by 8.  It was a beautiful ride home!  I am always amazed when I work myself up into a tizzy, worried about traffic and finding my way, it seems as though the sky could not be bluer, the way more clear, traffic tolerable, and the show of foliage all the way home was just gorgeous.  The rest of the day was just full, with a funeral for a dear woman in her 90's who loved and served her Lord and Savior, then running some errands for my parents and finally settling in at home to hear from my husband that it's 75 degrees and his hotel room overlooks the bay in San Diego.

Normal

Yesterday was such an incredible day!!!  The culmination of a dream and planning and preparation and a brave leap of faith.  A birthday party for a 3 year-old attended by eight 2, 3, and 4 year-olds accompanied by moms with a few dear friends.  An Abby Cadabby themed party

 as Abby was the first character who captured my granddaughter's heart and attention through a video screen and still does.  Other than a few visits with 2nd cousins, the birthday girl has not had the privilege of play dates or Sunday School.  She has been living the life of a shut-in especially during the winter months.  This summer was just too hot and humid for her to be outside much and she was so sick the month of July.  So, yesterday really was an incredible leap of faith.  A guest list was made, invitations mailed, and then lots of praying.  Would Grandbaby girl be healthy or would we have to cancel?  Would the invited guests be healthy or would no little ones be able to come?  Would the day be too hot for the birthday girl or rainy and we'd have to be inside where her toys and air-space would be compromised??

We were just incredibly blessed!  A blue-sky, breezy, cool day!!  Outside it was with canopies for shade and plenty of open space for little ones to run. Grandbaby girl was healthy!!!  Only one little guest had to cancel due to possible illness and her other grandparents and Aunts will be coming for their own visit next week.

The other fear ~ how would the little ones respond to the birthday girl?  She looks more like a baby than their peer, she is on oxygen, she can't sit very well, can't walk without a special gait-trainer, can't "talk" understandably, can't blow out her own candles, can't eat cake.  How would the birthday girl respond to all the commotion of a party and all the little ones??

She was in her element and as I carried her around to greet her guests (down on one knee at their level), she smiled and did her special kissy greeting, and the girls got a one-on-one look, but most did wave or say hi or blow a kiss in return.  She sat in her specially decorated little booster seat on a blanket on the ground with the girls sitting around her so they were all the same height.  Candles were lit on cupcakes for the girls and they each blew out their own candle so the birthday girl could see lit candles but did not have to contend with one of her own.  While a clown was face painting, the birthday girl wanted to lay down on the blanket and gab with one of her guests.

 Pretty soon two or three were sitting around her, one brought a book she and her mom had brought for a card (we had said no gifts) and another one was trying to read it to grandbaby girl.

  When most of the guests were running around with their tutus and wings and wands, we decided to put the birthday girl in her gait trainer.  She is not strong enough to really move it well on grass, but Grampa moved her near to the action, and one of the 2 year-olds decided to push her around!!

  It was just the most precious afternoon ever!!!  Party guests seemed surprised at the no gifts request, but what they didn't realize was that they were the gift!!!  I do not have a vocabulary big enough to describe how I felt watching her face throughout the afternoon.  An afternoon to just feel normal.  Simply amazing.

Misadventures in Kayaking

The last time we went kayaking, it was Memorial Day!  This past Sunday provided an opportunity we couldn't pass up.  We headed out with friends to try a paddle in a pond attached to a large reservoir about an hour away from home.  The description in her book was enticing, no motor boats, eagles, pristine.  Following directions in a book and putting the address into two GPS, we did eventually find Gate 43, although my eyes were shut for a few miles while we went on what seemed like a toboggan ride over a dirt road through the woods!  Arriving at our destination, the ranger told us we were not allowed to use our own kayaks in an attempt to prevent the spread of invasive plants.  This information was not on the Government website nor in the paddle book.  Having kayaks on our cars, we did not want to shell out money to rent kayaks so we were directed to another pond not too far away.  This was a little disappointing, the brook leaving the pond was overgrown and not navigable.  We did spy a little thing swimming across a patch of lily pads.  My friend said snake, I said muskrat?  The men ahead of us said SQUIRREL.  It was too funny!  I wish I had had an unobstructed view to snap a picture.  The men made a valiant attempt to navigate a few channels into the marsh grass and succeeded in rousting out a heron.

Kayaking adventures continued Monday.  We dashed up the road after supper to a small pond, just to get a little time together while there was still some daylight, maybe see some beaver.  As we began to take the boats off the roof, my hubby groaned.  One of our paddles comes apart for easy packing and one is permanently stuck.  He had taken the stuck one out of the car so he wouldn't have the mud in the front seat on his commute to work.  It was still at home.  Two kayaks....one paddle.  No problem!!  It was different, but we managed with half a paddle each!  Canoe strokes were remembered and I appreciated the lighter weight of half a paddle.  So, not complete misadventures but certainly not the paddles we had visioned.