Things

Hello out there.

1.  There is a birthday almost every week until September.  Sarah turned 18 May 28th.  William is June 1 and his mama, Laura, is June 7th.  The in-laws have been married 51 years June 7th.  Juliana turns 12 today.  The darling daughter will be 25 next Saturday.  My mother-in-law has a birthday on the 28th.  My sis is July 14, Jim is the 22, Kim is the 23rd, Richard is the 27th--all in July.  My father-in-law turns 75 this year.  There is a big party planned for him.  Olivia is August 6 and her dad is August 3--or it is the other way around.  Janice is the 21st.  Mine is the 30th of August and my brother-in-law is September 4 or 9--again, I forget.

2.  We finished putting the living room back together and I am cleaning my bedroom.  It has really confused me that we had all these books in the bookcase.  They came out and I have two boxes full waiting for Katie from the Wind Youth Services to call.  Somehow we can't seem to get them all back in.  I thought there would be more room.  Turns out my husband was sneaky and added in some books he got from a friend who died last year.

3.  Wednesday I spent part of the day at my friend's house with every single person from my circle of friends.  We had a lovely lunch, sewed, appliqued and laughed.  Just like a Saturday get-together.  Four of us went on to our Thimbleberries group and had a great time.  It was a quick meeting.  Maybe the heat made some of them stay home.  Nicole, one of our fearless leaders (the others being Pam and Debbie) was at quilt camp.  Debbie is still doing her one year thing for work and will be back in August or September.  I really miss her at our meetings.  Her quilts are right up my alley.......  I didn't buy one single thing!

4.  Thursday, we played cards with my mother-in-law.  We play Hand and Foot.  My team lost--as usual.

5.  Reading:  A Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy --also called The Collaborator
                    The Girl in the Blue Beret by Bobbie Ann Mason
                    Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
                    Threadbare Heart by Jennie Nash
                    Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Michaelsen

I loved A Soldier's Wife--but I love novels about World War II and the Channel Islands.  Touching Spirit Bear is written for teenagers, but the message is timeless and it is such a wonderful book.  I even have a recommendation for my niece--Seeing Cinderella by Jenny Lundquist.

6.  The next cookbook I want to buy is Celebrating the Pleasures of Cooking by Chuck Williams of William-Sonoma.

7.  I am going to start a new project:  Threads, Threads Everywhere.  It is an embroidery project.

8.  Congratulations to Erik.  He graduated from the University of California, Davis today.  A party is going on next door as I type.

9.  Movie I loved:  Keeping Mum with Kristen Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith.

I leave you with this:
            Friends, books and a cheerful heart are the most choice companions we have here.
                                                                 --William Mather