Come have Coffee with me!

Well, hello! How nice to meet you. My name is Faith. Joan's not home right now, but come on in! I'd love to have some company. Me? Oh, I've been sent to bring a smile to Joan's heart by a very generous blogger friend, Niki, from Pumpkin Country. I arrived two days ago (in the middle of all the flu hub-bub that went on around here). Oh, I was so glad to get out of that box! Trust me, it's no way to travel! Just look at my hair! Joan has gone off to IKEA for a few hours - she SAID she was going to do Christmas shopping, but I think it's more to do with the fact that she found IKEA has fabric on sale. Sssshhh.. don't tell. She keeps saying she's NOT going to buy more fabric. I've only been living here for two days and I know I've heard her say it at least two times! So come on in, sit down, get comfy. Would you like some coffee? Do you mind if I sit in Brayden's old high chair? (He's moved on to a regular chair now -- he's getting so big!) Gives me a better view from here -- plus I don't spill coffee on my pretty dress. My goodness, it's cold here in Ohio, isn't it? I saw some snowflakes yesterday. I forgot to bring my coat and warm clothes with me, but Joan has told me that I'm welcome to use any of her fabric and her sewing machine to make what I need. I do love to sew, don't you? Right now I'm just working on a little quilt to cuddle under when we watch TV. Pffffft... darn hair -- do you have a bobby pin? Well, if you don't mind, I did promise Joan I'd help out with a little housework while she was gone. Actually, I was just being nice and casually said, "Is there anything I can do to help out while you're gone?" And (harumph) what did she do? Made me a To Do List! I wasn't quite expecting that, but I guess I can get it all done. Do you mind if I work while we talk? I need to fold these clothes to start. And clean up the breakfast dishes.... Well, that's enough for now. I can do the dusting, vac the family room, scrub the kitchen floor and clean the bathrooms after you go. I'd rather visit. Let's go sit in the family room! What? The books on the table? Oh no!!!! Don't look at those. Those are a surprise for an upcoming blog giveaway!. No one is supposed to see them! Please don't look -- I was just looking through them while I drank my coffee. Please don't tell anyone you saw them! And speaking of Giveaways, Joan showed me a Giveaway for another girl almost like me! I'd love to have a friend (someone I can share this @(#$*&( To Do List with!), so enter for me, would you? It's on the Spun by Me blog for her 100th post! I think we could be great friends! Oh my, we'd better head into the family room, OK? Bring your coffee, get comfy. It's warmer in here, isn't it? I just can't get used to this cold weather. Joan knit some sweet mittens and socks for Brayden, and I was rather hoping they'd fit me, but I'm afraid they are too big. Oh, one of the things on my To Do List is to help Joan knit these socks. They're a Christmas present for someone special (but I can't say who!). Let's see -- Knit 3, Purl 1... I think I can do this. Awww, you have to go already? Let me walk you out to the door. I'll show you something funny on our way out -- here on the stairs. See this kitty sleeping in the basket on the stairs? It took me the longest time to get up the nerve to find out why this cat sleeps all the time. When I finally reached over to pet him, I found out he's a ROCK! I thought he would bite me (Joey the Killer cat does -- I have to hide when he's in the house) but he just lays there and looks cute! Jeff's sister Sandra painted him years and years ago and he's been on the stairs ever since. Now that's my kind of cat! Well, it was so nice to meet you and I will tell Joan you were here. I'd walk you out, but it's just too cold to go out without a coat. Maybe by the next time you stop by I'll have sewn a coat for myself... if I can ever get done with that darn To Do List that is... Bye bye now! See you next time!

The Flu Season hits

For the first time in ten years, my husband actually stayed home from work and called in sick. I honestly can't remember the last time any illness put him down and out, but around 1pm on Sunday, he sniffled a few times and said he felt he might be getting a cold. By 8pm that night, he was down for the count. I have never seen anything hit him this fast and this hard. Of course, we were scheduled to go get our flu shots this week! I am frantically washing my hands, chomping vitamin c, zinc, and euchanacia (or however you spell it), and.. another first... sleeping in the guest room. Brayden's other babysitter is taking him extra days so we don't expose him to it. So I'm not blogging as much because I'm making chicken soup and cups of tea with honey and lemon, and running around behind my husband (when he does get out of bed) wiping things down with Clorox wipes! Tomorrow (Thursday) I am going to try and get out of the house for at least a little while -- maybe a quick trip down to Ikea -- and get some germ-free air in me! So send good healing thoughts Jeff's way -- and germ-defensive thoughts my way :) And just FYI - I've heard NOTHING in response to my two emails to Thornton's. Not one word, no apology, nothing.

Whatever happened to social responsibility?

This is a pet peeve of mine and what happened to me on Friday is SO typical of companies today -- and their lack of social responsibility, social consciousness, whatever you want to call it. I had my grandson with me on Friday, and needed to stop and get gas. Good news, our gas prices are down to $1.72 a gallon here. I pulled into Thornton's (Cafe and Gas), hopped out of the car to pump the gas. They play music through speakers at the gas pumps, for some strange reason. But today... today... the music that was blaring was a song called Nasty Girl. I'm not going to type out the lyrics here (I try and maintain a G rated blog!), but if you want to read them and see how totally inappropriate this song was, go here and read the lyrics. I was dumbfounded. I know there are people who listen to this stuff... and I guess that's their business.. but for a BUSINESS to put this TRASH over an OVERLY LOUD speaker system where the customer has NO CHOICE but to listen to it???? And with the very real possibility of children being in the vacinity with their parents? I just think this is beyond irresponsible and unacceptable. Well, guess what, Thornton's? I most certainly do have a choice, and my choice is to not do business with you. And then... AND THEN!... I go to their web site this morning to write a letter of complaint and what do I see??? All their blah blah blah about their community outreach programs, including Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts!!! It's so much easier to just write a check these days than stand up and show some social responsibility, isn't it?

Retiring in America

OK, I needed a good giggle, and I found one. Now I'm sharing it with you. I'm a Dawn French fan. You will be too after you watch this funny video about retiring in America.

Have you ever wanted to....

Am I too old to go through a "stage"? Because I am. Going through one. A stage. At 56 years of age. Is that possible? For a few days now I have been just craving a "do over". Remember those when you were a kid? The game didn't go the way you wanted, so you asked for a "do over". Well, I want a do over! Oh, not with my life, like you're thinking. LOL I'm happily married. I adore my grown kids and my grandson is the best thing that's happened to me since... umm.... menopause! (Oh come'on - you know you were delighted when menopause came along and you didn't have deal with all that monthly aches and pains and all the trappings that came along with it!) No, my life is just fine, thank you. I love my life. But I have this really, really, REALLY strong craving to empty my house. Completely. Bye bye furniture. Bye bye dishes. Bye bye books. Bye bye art work. Bye bye linens. Bye bye a lifetime accumulation of things that suddenly feel like they should belong to someone else! And, in my head, how would I accomplish this??? Like this! Oh yeahhhh... Turn the house right upside down and SHAKE IT BABY, SHAKE IT! Empty it out! Contents on the front lawn and a big ol' post on Freecycle -- come and get it! Weird, huh?

A new blog giveaway

I have a bloggy friend, Jan, who is the most productive quilter I know, and who is having her first blog giveaway... with THREE items to give away. One is an absolutely adorable miniature quilt, next are five batik FQ's, and lastly is a book on baby quilts. Stop over and see her blog - It's the Cat's House, I Just Live Here. You enter the giveaway simply by leaving a comment. If you could, please tell her "Joan sent me" in your comment! Enter by 7pm, Nov. 21.

While you're there, do take a look at her quilt photos. She gives most of quilts away to charity. I swear, she seems to make one a week. I don't know how she does it!

Good luck everyone! (But please - could I win that miniature quilt????)

Off to a Rummage Sale I go

I hope this is not going to be a busy weekend, but I swear, I have that same hope every weekend. For me, the ideal weekend is to stay home on Saturday, get the house picked up, get laundry done, and do some reading, sewing and menu-planning. On Sunday, I do like it when we go out for at least half the day, especially in nice weather, and the flea market is lately the destination of choice. The other half of the day is usually spent watching the NASCAR races. Today, however, I'm headed out first thing to a local church that is having a "Dave Ramsey Sale". Apparently, members of the church learned the Dave Ramsey way of getting control over your bills and finances, which includes selling every non-essential thing that you own to bring in money to pay bills. Now, I know what you're thinking -- she's going to the rummage sale to buy someone else's clutter! Not so. I have a list! Here's what I'm looking for: A train table (for DGS's wooden train set). Storage unit for DGS's craft supplies 26 inch tension rod for over my sink Hats, mittens, scarves to have on hand for the winter (DGS size, of course) Thread - almost any kind, any color, just not old and brittle A set of every day kitchen dishes, service for 6-8 - mine are so mismatched! Christmas decoration for the front door Christmas decoration for the kitchen table Pretty vintage pillowcases for a purse idea I saw online That's it! I'll read the list to Jeff before we go in to the sale, and together, we should be able to find some of these. These are all items I would like to have and, with the exception of the tension rod and mittens, probably won't go out and buy because they are, indeed, non-essentials. We'll see how I do! ... TWO HOURS LATER Fairly good rummage sale but less than I expected... more like 20 small garage sales in one place rather than people trying to get rid of MOST of their non-essential "stuff". What did I buy? One frame for $1.00. That's it. And I bought that because I have a photo of the family from my son's last visit home that I need a frame for. But more importantly, what did I pass up?

• A battery operated ride-in jeep for $15.00
• Five boxes of pre-cut quilt squares
• Boxes of quilting fabric
• Many bolts of home dec fabric
• A wrought iron dress form
• A vintage dress form
• Children's books by the boatload
• A really great retro-diner-looking cafe table and matching chairs, brand new $30
• Some really cool iron decorative architectural items
• A Bob the Builder tent/tunnel combo

Two years ago, I would have bought all of these. But these days Peter Walsh's words ring in my ears every time I go to buy something... "It's not that the space you have is too small for your stuff, it's that you have too much stuff for the space you have." Paraphrased, but you get the gist of it. And, of course, you can't spend hours upon hours decluttering and not understand what the effects of bringing this "but I like it" stuff into the house when it serves no purpose. My husband, on the other hand.... bought stuff. A stamp collection. A World War II bullet. A collection of die cast Pan Am jets. A Monopoly game. Other "stuff" I can't remember. Can you tell we're not on the same page about clutter? Yet. FIVE THINGS I'M THANKFUL FOR TODAY:

1. Another rainy day (we need the rain)
2. I'm more than half-way through decluttering my office
3. I actually finished knitting a pair of socks for Brayden - they fit and he loves them*!
4. Warm cinnamon rolls and coffee on a cold morning
5. Crock pot meals -- they make the house smell good all day long!

*Brayden's sock - I had one sock finished when Brayden arrived yesterday morning. Because I haven't knit socks in four or five years, I had a tough time coming up with the right size needles to use, the right gauge, etc., and had knit two other socks that didn't fit him (but that he wanted to wear anyway!). Yesterday I wanted to try on this ONE sock to see if it fit before I started the second, and it fit -- and then he didn't want to take it off. He wore it all day. One colored sock, one white sock. To the library. Out to lunch. For his nap. He just loved his sock. It didn't matter to him that he didn't have two of them. One was just fine. Lordy, how can you not love this kid!?

1. Please feel free to comment on my blog! 2. When I use a magic marker I can't help sniffing it occasionally. 3. My favorite thing to cook is omelettes - though I don't eat eggs! 4. Time with my kids and grandson is something I can't get enough of. 5. That's the thing I love most about my husband is his offbeat sense of humor. 6. News headlines always makes me think to myself, what the heck? 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to some down time and knitting, tomorrow my plans include going to a local rummage sale and Sunday, I want to work on Christmas gifts! THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR TODAY:

1. A wonderful 60 degree day -- I'll be outside with my grandson!
2. My first cup of coffee this morning -- sitting out on my deck watching the sunrise.
3. The motivation to declutter my office today (Thanks Organising Queen!).
4. My grandson's progress with vocabulary -- it's so wonderful to hold full conversations with a two year old!
5. My son loved his birthday gifts. Happy Birthday, sweetie!