Another Trip, Part 2

As I mentioned in my previous post, Hubby and I spent about five days at our daughter and son-in-law's farm to take care of our granddaughter for a few days while they were on vacation.

We knew we would have fun with that sweet little 16 month old, but we had no idea HOW much fun! She is at such a fun age.

One thing I love about our marriage is how we tackle things together. And these five days we tackled the care of Lydia together. I love being a teammate with my hubby.

We spent time in the garden.

Notice the cool farm boots!

Green tomatoes don't taste very good.

 Played outside with a puppy who was very happy to be out of the house.

We enjoyed the bounty from the garden (and the chickens).

 Did some laundry with the cutest helper ever.

Visited Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa.

My mother-in-law

Hung out with Pops on the couch.

Gave kisses.

 Rode a rocking horse while wearing a chicken hat.

 Read books.

Played with her baby doll. (Her mommy had a little baby doll similar to this at the same age. Seeing Lydia playing with this just melts my heart.)

 This Grammy sure does love this little girl!

How is it possible that Lydia managed to wiggle her way even deeper into our hearts? We felt very privileged to be able to take care of her. We were honored that our daughter and son-in-law trusted us and asked us to watch their little sweetheart.

Another One of Those Trips

A couple of weeks ago hubby and I made a trip back to the Midwest. As we were driving along Interstate 35 somewhere in Kansas or Missouri or Iowa, I told Hubby I felt like we have two lives, one in the Midwest where our family is and another in South Carolina where people just know us as the two of us. It's weird for me to know that the people we interact with here don't know our kids and don't know us as a family.

Anyway.....back to our trip.

We flew to Wichita, Kansas late on a Thursday. Wichita is where we lived when we were first married. It's where our first born was born. While being there is quite nostalgic for us, we flew there in order to be able to visit hubby's aunt and uncle who are living about an hour from there. They have spent the last 51 years on the mission field in Peru and a few months ago retired and moved back to the USA because of health (aging) issues and to be near their two children. It had been 25 years since we last saw them. We had a really good visit with them even though Uncle was in the hospital. Thankfully, he was having a pretty good day and we were able to talk and catch up with each other for several hours. Aunt was very sweet and I got a kick out of seeing her similar mannerisms as my mother-in-law. We also enjoyed a fun dinner out with Hubby's cousins. We haven't seen them much over the years, but the family bond and the common faith in Jesus makes it easy to connect. We found out later that next week that Uncle has serious cancer and we are even more grateful we were able to spend some time with him.

We hopped in the car and headed north on Interstate 35 to spend some days with our son and daughter-in-law. On the drive, I was quite struck by the beauty and expanse of the Kansas countryside. Funny how I used to think it was a boring drive. But somehow living in South Carolina where one doesn't see the countryside when driving because of the trees and hilly terrain, I have a new appreciation for the expanse of the Midwest.

We had a great few days in Kansas City with our son and daughter-in-law. Hubby worked on painting (he's good at it -- he painted the stripes and hexagons in the nursery),

I helped sort baby clothes and played with their puppy.

I learned through Facebook that my cousin and his wife were in Kansas City, so I invited them over to my son's house the morning of the 4th. It had been a couple of years since we had seen them. She has always been one of my favorite people. She married my cousin when I was 11 years old and I remember trying to sit by her whenever the family was together. She always talked to me and made me feel important. As the youngest, that meant a lot to me.

We spent the 4th of July with another aunt and cousin of Hubby's.

Can you believe she's 84? Me neither. We always enjoy our time with this aunt.

We did a little sight-seeing at Union Station in Kansas City. The history of this place is so interesting. And it's huge.

We had such a good time with our son and daughter-in-law. It's always hard to say goodbye. But we were super anxious for our next stop.

We were headed to Iowa to spend five days taking care of our granddaughter!!! Her mommy and daddy went on a vacation to Seattle to visit friends.

Next post: lots and lots and lots of pictures of Lydia.  Wheeeeee!

A Baby Quilt

With two more grandbabies on the way, that means more baby quilts to make!

I put this 38"x44" quilt together quickly since we had planned a trip to see our son and daughter-in-law and I wanted to take it to them rather than mail it or wait until after the baby is here.

I used black and white fabrics with a splash of orange.

I will say that I enjoy the piecing part of quilting a whole lot more than the actual quilting. Once in a while I'll tackle the quilting myself and when I do, I always use some blue painters tape to help me. I thought this quilt would look good with some straight-line quilting. That sure did take a lot of tape! I think it took me 30-40 minutes to tape this all up.

 I just sewed in the space between the strips of tape.

It worked pretty well!

I found on-line a pretty gray flannel with tiny stars for the backing.

But just wait and see how it looks in the nursery of our soon-to-be grandson!

Isn't the paint on the wall awesome? My son dreamed up the idea and my hubby did the taping and painting. I love how it turned out! And the quilt looks so good in there. I am happy with my choice of the orange for the binding!

Hodgepodge Wednesday

Ooooo...blogging two days in a row!
Here's this week's Hodgepodge. Click on the button and hop over to Joyce's blog to read others answers to this week's questions.

1. Do you find yourself influencing your world, or is it more the other way around?
I don't think I'm very influenced by the world around me. I tend to be a skeptic at first. But I also don't think I influence others around me. I'd have to ask my hubby what he thinks about this. He sees me more objectively than I see myself.

2. July 14th is National Tape Measure Day...the device was patented on this date in 1868. 

When did you last use a tape measure? 

I last used a tape measure about two weeks ago to measure a baby quilt I had just made. I needed to know how much binding to make.

Do you always know where to find one in your house? 

We have a retractable tape measure in the desk drawer in the kitchen. I have two or three of them in my sewing room. It can be a little bit more of a challenge to find a tape measure in my sewing room because it can get buried under some fabric or I just don't remember where I last dropped it.

Tell us one way in which you feel blessed 'beyond measure'.

Last week Hubby and I were blessed beyond measure to take care of our 16 month old granddaughter while her mommy and daddy took a vacation. We had more fun than we could have ever imagined. She is at such a fun age! She is sweet. She is adorable.

We are blessed and honored that her mommy and daddy trusted us to take care of her.

3.The Plaza Hotel, The Land of Oz (The Wizard of Oz), Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia), The Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie the Pooh), Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), or Never Never Land (Peter Pan)...which storybook land (on this list!) would you most like to visit and why?
It's a toss up between Narnia and The Hundred Acre Wood because I love those books! Just last week we were singing the Winnie The Pooh song to our granddaughter and Hubby was reading about The Hundred Acre Wood to her. 

 4. Where and when do you get your best ideas?
Probably late at night when I can't sleep.
 

5. So what have you been watching on TV this summer? Anything good? 

I have been watching my usual... a couple of soaps. Yes, I watch soaps. No apologies. I plan on watching "The Great British Baking Show". We've been out of town and haven't been able to watch it yet but the DVR is set!

6. 'Don't swim for an hour after you eat', 'Dog days of summer', 'Knee high by the Fourth of July'...choose a summer saying from the list or share one of your own, then tell us what image or memory comes to mind when you hear it spoken.

'Knee high by the Fourth of July' doesn't really happen any more. It refers to how tall the corn has grown. Here's a picture on the 9th of July of some corn in Iowa (and a couple of my favorite people). That corn is a bit taller than knee high!

7. In a single sentence, sum up one life lesson you've learned.
Living for Christ is worth everything.

8. Insert your own random thought here.
I went swimming last night in our neighborhood pool. It was such a nice night. I enjoyed the swim and hope to do a little more. I used to swim a lot when I was younger but haven't done it in years. I'm thankful we have a nearby pool we can use.

June Highlights

Oh jeepers, I've become one of those bloggers. You know, one who only writes something every couple of months. Sigh. I did not write one single blog post in the month of June. If I want to remember these years in South Carolina, I better change my habits.

Highlights of June:

*Celebrating my dad's 85th birthday with the family in North Carolina.

*Seeing a childhood friend. I recently discovered that she lives very near my parents in North Carolina! We spent so much time together in grades 6-12. Lots of walks to school, lots of time after school, there was even that one time we thought we should jog together in the evenings. ha. We hadn't seen each other for 30ish years. I hope to be able to see her again.

*Having more dentist appointments in one month than is tolerable. (I had to get a crown which meant a temporary crown and then another temporary crown to replace that one and then the permanent crown and then some adjustments to that crown. I still have periodic mild pain and am hoping that I won't have to have a root canal.) My dentist thinks I am a really funny person because I kept cracking jokes while she was digging around in my mouth. But what she doesn't know is that I was trying to be sarcastic because it kept me from crying. After one of those appointments I sat in the car and cried for 5 minutes because I felt overwhelmed. The upside of all that dental work is I felt like I needed a chocolate malt after every time my mouth was numbed. Yum.

*Throwing a dinner party for 12 people. We invited our Community Bible Study group over for a meal. We grilled and everyone else brought side dishes. It was fun to have our dining room full. We haven't had friends over like that for probably seven years.

*Finishing two quilts, one for my daughter-in-law and one for my soon-to-be grandson.

*Having a follow-up appointment with my cardiologist. I still am feeling some mild symptoms so the nurse practitioner I was seeing made me wear an event monitor. I've worn those before and I despise them. I negotiated her down to two weeks instead of four. I don't see the cardiologist about that until August. I am so ready to be done with all this health stuff.

*Flying to the Midwest the last day of June for ten days of seeing family. More on that coming up.