Fab Friday!

Good Morning!

I’m hoping to make a big dent in grandson Cody’s quilt today. I’m pretty excited about how it’s taking shape, these are the middle blocks:

What we have here are sixteen different dogs. The big rectangles have the nose on them, you can see the body below and the ear in the air. I’m happy to be able to create something like this, even though it’s a pattern created by someone else. This is still a creative endeavor because all of these fabrics are mine, from my stash. I find myself feeling a lot of happiness while stitching the rows, pressing the seams, arranging the blocks. It’s mesmerizing and magical, all at once.

I feel the same way after writing something I feel good about. My kid book will be short(er) and sweet. Teaching children about grief and loss is hard, but so necessary. If we don’t learn to cope with both of these, we will not have a balanced life. It isn’t all good and happy. Sometimes, it’s bad and sad to cope with. But it’s part of all of our realities. The sooner we learn this, the better.

How about you? Do you remember how old you were when you experienced loss to your family? Do you remember how your family handled it? Let’s compare notes. It will help me construct a better story. I want to tell the truth. It will help children learn. And how to learn to deal with life.

Tell me what you think. Do you need help sharing life’s hard realities with children? Kids are stronger than we think. The truth is better than no information. Thank you for reading today. Have a wonderful Friday and see you tomorrow.

Serene Saturday

I woke up early today, and the air is heavy all around. Cloudy, and kind of breezy, but not a cool breeze. I am somewhat achy after the weed pulling yesterday. Just using muscles I forgot I had! So, I’ll take a day off today and focus on straightening up the house. It might be hard, because I feel sort of . . . well, like Lexie does in the header photo. How she slept that way amazes me, and how she didn’t fall out of her chair comes a close second.

I lounged on the couch for about an hour, drinking coffee and reading the latest book I’m reading, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” I’ve read over 150 pages already, which is a lot for me lately. I chose a work of fiction because psychology and how-to-write books are a little dry right now. This one about Evelyn Hugo is anything but dry. The writing is crisp, moves along nicely. It takes place in older Hollywood, when young girls could travel West in the hopes of being discovered. I pity them for the treatment they received, then came to expect. Harvey Weinstein just perpetrated what went on forever. How disgusting.

I want to go back and read all the books I started and didn’t finish. I have several on my Kindle, and I should finish them, too. And see about putting books about writing on there, as I’m running out of room! The Babe and I still haven’t found someone to help assemble the four bookcases I bought. Hope we find someone soon! With unboxing all my books, I’ll identify many to give away. I’m hoping the library may take some.

I still need to go visit the library in Gretna. I need to become friends with them, as they have a separate children’s library, too. I hope plans continue to combine them into one big building, like a community center. I thought it would happen, but maybe plans are on the back burner now. It will be interesting to see how it develops. The way the community is growing, I would hope they build a center and merge everything soon.

When we were kids, the library held a Reading Club every year. If we read 10 books, we received a certificate stating so. There was no Pizza Hut in those days. Our kids earned pizza for reading, but we didn’t. As Frankie got older, I felt it was important for him to read. He developed a big interest in sports figures.

Bo Jackson was a dual sport athlete. He was amazing. He could run up the outfield wall to catch a near-home run. And in football, he could mow anyone down. He and Michael Jordan were the favorites. I bought a lot of books for him. Nick read anything, but lost interest in it once he got a car. He had to work to support the car, and he was more interested in those things. Becky read constantly, and is having her kids love books too. Every quarter, I send a box of books to both of her kids. So far, so good.

Going to get started on this day, and hope you have a good one, too. I may just curl up with the book all day. And that’s ok, too. Enjoy your weekend! See you tomorrow.