I did It! I made it to Z! Not sure all my previous blogs are worth anything but to me, it's challenge, I completed.
Challenges are goals we set to finish; at least, I try to achieve! The month has flown by! Our journey achieved many deadlines, accomplishments, sweeping goals and positive outcomes!
We celebrated four birthdays; a successful walk with family and friends for CDH babies, the homecoming of our great grandson from NICU, where he resided since his birth on February 17. Joyous occasions to celebrate!!
We gazed at the dark sky as we sipped delicious wine; we even finished our taxes on time!!; the most blessed event was our family gathering to welcome another Easter Day.
Indeed it was challenging April with many opportunities.
X In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the word Christos (Christ) begins with the letter "X," or chi.
Thought to be the most powerful letter in the alphabet, the letter X is used in many areas of life, from astronomy and science to algebra and spirituality.
The skull and crossbones symbol has long been associated with danger and death,
is believed that the X can ward off evil spirits
a value that is not yet known
included at the end of a message and means kisses.
The twenty-fourth letter of the English alphabet: from a western form of the Greek alphabet.
Recently, we organzied a walk through the neighborhood for a dear cause--Our great grandson,
JD, Jerry Duncan, was born with CDH (Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia) He is doing well after his surgery and finally came home from NICU after two months and two days.
Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) occurs in an unborn baby when there is a hole in, or incomplete formation of, the diaphragm (the muscle under the lungs that is responsible for breathing). This hole allows the abdominal organs (eg. spleen, liver, intestines, stomach) to move into the chest, and prevents the lungs from developing normally because of the lack of space to grow. The defect can occur on the left side, right side, or both sides. The defect is usually discovered on ultrasound before the baby is born.
We had a nice turnout for this event and will likely do this every year to support all CDH babies.
There is a great tale about the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau.
Visiting New Orleans, it is a must you go by Marie's tomb, located in Louis cemetery #1
.
A little aside here--my brother visited us in NO, driving a brand new car, which he parked right outside the gates of cemetery. As we walked through the tombstones and came to Marie's tomb.
The belief is that one must break off a piece of brick from another tomb, spin around three times, scrape three X's onto the tomb, and do some sort of knocking on the tomb. Then an offering should be left at the tomb and your wish will be granted. X's that are circled are said to mean that the wish had come true
My brother said " I don't believe in this" and he walked on; coming back to his new car--it wouldn't start! He tried and tried--it still wouldn't start. We said to him, "better go back to Marie's tomb, leave
an offering, knock three times and place your X's, spin around 3 times
Do you read books about unusual people and unusual topics?
Of course, there have been movies made about the following people; somehow, reading the books are more enjoyable. If you have ever visited Denver, you can tour the home of Margaret Brown--very interesting story tour.
Margaret Brown, posthumously known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was a passenger on the RMS Titanic which sank in 1912 and she unsuccessfully urged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field to look for survivors. Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was a passenger on the RMS Titanic which sank in 1912 and she unsuccessfully urged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field to look for survivors.
This book is so earth shaking! It's hard to believe this fellow met so many obstacles during WWII. There is also a movie. Unbroken!
Louis Silvie Zamperini was an American World War II veteran, an Olympic distance runner and a Christian Evangelist. He took up running in high school and qualified for the United States in the 5,000 m race for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing 8th while setting a new lap record in the process.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead-- There are many books about this event
Isaac Tatem Hopper was an American abolitionist who was active in Philadelphia in the anti-slavery movement and protecting fugitive slaves and free blacks from slave kidnappers.
Remember the game Trivial Pursuit? Our family enjoyed teasing each other with questions from that game. Now. It seems to be making a comeback, especially in pubs and bars. Get a group together, give yourself a cool name, make special matching t-shirts, be ready to dazzle the other groups. Prizes are small things or just the knowledge you knew all this trivial stuff!
Trivia' comes from the Latin 'trivialis,' meaning "found everywhere, commonplace." One meaning of 'trivia' is "unimportant matters." But as valuable as scholarly knowledge can be, trivia sometimes gets a bad rap.
Trivia facts can be recalled faster than important things by my mind. The old brain will come up with theme song from some 1970’s TV show But can not remember the neighbor’s kids’ names—which you hear shouted often! Trivia is useless facts—for example:
Fun Facts and Trivia
It is impossible for most people to lick their own elbow.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
A shrimp's heart is in its head.
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
Isn’t that fascinating trivia?! When does that info come up in a conversation—like, never! If you want to gain control of conversation, pop out one of those useless facts!
By answering questions and learning, you're improving your cognitive skills. Retaining information about topics you're interested in is like an exercise for your mind, allowing you to expand your intelligence and improve mental capabilities.
Soooo, there is something good that comes out of knowing trivia!
Sew much to sew, sew little time! A few new sew alongs that I plan to sew. A friend has asked me to make a quilt for her Little Sister Program. I'm thankful to have an outlet for my twin size quilts.
Walkabout is a wonderful reminder to move about at least 30 minutes a day and sew at least, 30 minutes a day. The clues are added each day but easy to do. Sew with me on this top.
Boutiful Charity is offering this top--What a perfect opportunity to serve a charity with this top!
Sew Preetiquilts is sponsoring another quilt along to benefit Mercyful Quilts--gives quilts to their terminally ill patients to bring some measure of comfort to the person and their familyas they go through the process of dying.
There are always charities that will accept your quilt donations. And it keeps me and you sewing!
I love cookbooks and recipes--maybe not so much cooking! There is something about opening a cookbook to see amazing food photos! Would my dishes look that good? Probably not! Some of my favorite recipes come from my southern books--I have a favorite in almost every book I own. Of course, I haven't tried All the recipes in the book--but wouldn't that be fun??!! Maybe later on, I'll pick one book and go from beginning to end.
Recipes come in all means—you can find a food recipe online easily. Since, I can't carry those books with me everywhere--I resort to the internet.
Several of us are dishing up a meal for the participants of a walk. What will we serve for lunch buffet? There will be brisket, smoked by son—his recipe always varies—the seasonings include salt, pepper, lemon pepper, ??, else. How long he smokes or type of wood—no idea—I just hand him the brisket and the next day we have smoked brisket! We will serve flour tortillas instead of buns.
Since food will be served over a period of time and outdoors, I wanted a recipe that didn't include mayo. You can find roasted Mexican corn frozen so I don't need to roast the ears of corn.
The other recipe I'll make is pasta salad--there are so many good ones in the cookbooks; I'm gleaming from several.
Above recipe (quick and easy pasta) includes peppers, tomatoes, zucchini (won't use that--nobody would eat it), black olives, pepperoncini, mozzarella balls, sliced scallions, curly pasta and uses no mayo--you can add almost any veggie to this recipe--will be fun to create for the walkers.
Of course, there will be sweets--brownies, cupcakes, cookies.
Quilt blocks go into making quilt tops that will sooner or later be a warm cozy comfort. I like making quilt blocks—here are the latest blocks that will become tops on their way to someone
I’m not a good puzzle person—don’t have the patience to sit and look for one tiny piece to plug into a hole! During lockdown, family members would sit for hours to work on a puzzle—even into the wee hours of the morning!
But, there they were—saying just one more piece! And then—finished! Which one to do next, they ask?
Hubby will play puzzle games on his phone at odd times—so addictive! Just turn the sound off please! He doesn’t hear it anyway!
I’ll do some other types of puzzles—
Like words with friends, more like scrabble—it goes quickly depending on how many friends that play you.
And Wordle—I can do that; usually quick and I’m done!
This word search puzzle popped up with Nomadic Knits—and I thought—I might like this type of puzzle. My friend will do books of word searches—this might be fun! It took me 15 minutes to find one word—okay, I won’t give up right away—hours later, I’m still searching for words on the list. I’d pick it up, search for few minutes, put it down—two weeks into this, I gave up—this is taking way too much out of my knitting or spinning! This isn’t for me.
Today we are ooooo so happy to write about O! I’ve never really thought about O before—you can see lots of ooooos in your daily life—like that donut we had as a snack; or the tire on your car that is an O.
How about the O on the guitar? That my husband doesn’t play!
Ooo, my bobbin even is an O!
Top of my coffee container is O tooooooo!
This thing has two ooos!
Here is a list of O words—
And animals and foods that begin with O—Oh my!!
I’m seeing O is an Object that isn’t Obscure, Obsolete; Occuring Often in Occupations, Oceans, Olympics, even Online!
Open those Senses to the OOOOOOS in your Ordinary life!
The month of April has been a blogging challenge--March 27, 2010 a challenge was sent out to all bloggers for the month of April. Can you post every day except Sundays during this month? And to up the bar, can you blog thematically from A to Z?
Although, I try to blog on occasion, this was a true challenge to me--can I find something interesting to blog about every day of the month of April?? Some bloggers have selected a theme for their writings--maybe, I'll do that next year--let me see if I can make it successfully through this year!
I'm up to N and have a good topic for N--we had the occassion to attend two, not one, but two viewing parties in a vicinity that is 'dark skies'. The county friends of the night sky were hosting the event--that it's at a winery, didn't hurt either. Our friend received a telescope for Christmas, so we’re in good company with fellow astronomy patrons.
Fingers crossed the weather held out for clear skies--no full moon either.
Night sky on this evening presented Venus floating between the small, dipper-shape Pleiades star and the bright red star Aldebaran, which is the “eye” of the constellation Taurus the Bull. Mercury will also be visible.
Anytime, you can drink wine under the starry skies, it's a good night!
I have a good memory of this day of many years ago—the birth of our first child! What I remember of that day is totally different than how my husband remembers—isn’t that interesting? Our memories don’t gel! All the same, it's a happy memory!
Every year on the day Elvis died, we try to remember where we were--as family we were all in the same car, driving on the same road, somewhere in Colorado--BUT, no one remembers exactly where we were--a different location from each of us. Sometimes, we have photos that flash into our memory, those don't always refresh our memory though.
Memory is a strange fellow! Most of us can remember historic events and where we were, what we did, how we reacted--like, Kennedy assassination, bombing of World Trade Center, terrible acts of violence==Science says it might be impossible for humans to bring a memory to mind without altering it in some way--such an interesting theory
The other day, a photo was posted on FB; it was a photo of extended family gathering--I don't remember the day so much; the kids only remember they loved the little house we were standing in front of. And then the comment who took the photo? Whose absent from the photo? We conversed with each other and decided it was Easter, 1977! Only do we know that date, because it's printed on the photo back! Our memories would never let us remember the date or the reason.
The next time you are gathered with family or friends, discuss a memory you had from years past and see if your memory gels with their memory. Then ask what is the earliest memory they have of their childhood--i know mine comes from seeing photos or hearing stories of such an event in my life. Otherwise, I have no memory!
Recently, I’ve been watching a PBS program featuring Jane Austin’s Sandition, unfinished novel begun in January, 1817, stopped in March 1817. Now on season three, it stuck me how today’s romance has lost the touch of true “wooing!”
Back to those days of Jane-No touching in public, modest clothing, fans fluttering around the face to flirt; and love letters written, secretly placed in hiding spots known only to two would be lovers or maybe a letter arriving discreetly in the mail to be whisked away, only to be read in privacy. It’s all so romantic!! At least, in Jane Austin’s world—
Brings to mind, the original movie, “Shoppe Around the Corner”, starring Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart. This movie was made in 1940. Somehow, these two became pen pals through postal service. Their letters soon turned into love letters—-ahhh! What a movie! Today’s version is “ You’ve Got Mail”— the story uses internet to bring emails to life. Is this “wooing” today? No hand written letter to unfold, to read in secret, to read over and over again—
During my courtship with hubby (over 60 years ago), we wrote letters to each other. I couldn’t believe what lovely words he could jot on paper! Made my heart swoon! How I miss those letters, which were destroyed in a house fire. I wish our children could appreciate those words of their father—they would be astonished he had an ounce of romance in his bones!
And if you happen to see an oldie but goodie movie, you might see a stack of love letters bundled up and tied with a ribbon, which are lovingly hugged by the heroine, who unties and cries as she unfolds the paper to relive a once special romance.
Yes, love letters today are not of Jane Austin’s world—sure would be nice if we could be like that again!
This day is all about the letter K. All I could think about K is knit, since my mind is geared to textiles. Digging deeper into K, I found it means so much more—putting K at the end of a number means thousand, 500K—wow that simple 500 jumped with a K to 5,000!
Then, researching the letter K further, this popped up—unbelievable! K in your name? K in history?
Right. Now, I’m K=less! Meaning keyless! To enter my home, I don’t have a physical key—just punch in some numbers to open the door. My car doesn’t need a key either to start the motor—just push a button to be off! Yes, there is a keyless fob in my pocket to make it work. I don’t need a key to start my sewing machine, washing machine, dryer, oven or any other appliances.
Easter Sunday was such a joyful day! We celebrated our belief in our risen Lord that sacrificed his life for us! The family gathered to share the day activities. We had a small egg hunt for our great grandson—what a joyful event! What a blessed day!
Later in the evening as I had time to reflect on the day and the meaning of our celebration, I opened FB page to Victoria Methodist Bristol knit along—there were photos of lovely completed Lenten scarves—
Photo from Ann Jackson—such lovely work!
Jill Jackson wears hers pridefully!
And this one!! Oh such a joy to see these and learn the story that is told in knit and purl stitches.
But—
I’m so disappointed in myself! I gave up!!
I didn’t finish! I put away the pattern and scarf—walked away—
Jesus would never walk away—HE is always there when I need him—I’m thinking that devil got into my heart and mind and said, “why do you want to finish this project? What’s in it for you? Just another scarf you’ll most likely won’t wear?”
My disappointment has turned into Joy! I’m picking up where I left off on the pattern!
