Monday, August 29, 2011

I Think I'm Supposed to Write

I enter countless giveaways. I've started following people just for the chance to win, clicked on things, jumped through hoops figuratively several times. The giveaways are just so great and I want to win so badly. I finally decided to just enter giveaways on the blogs I read regularly because I was spending way too much time trying to win things.

The two giveaways I've actually been blessed to win, both have to do with sending a written note to someone. First I won lovely notecards from Marcia. Today, I found out I won beautiful postcards from a talented artist, Becky Kelly.


 I think this means I need to push the keyboard aside, and pick up a pen....

I often wish I'd been given the kind of talent Becky has, but God chose to give me other gifts. A different kind of art talent. He knows what He's doing, but I have to admit, sometimes I don't agree with His choices. That is human nature I suppose, but I AM glad He gave me some talent.  Becky's watercolors are so sweet and colorful. I have to confess that I am a sinner in my envy.

Anyway, I am very thankful I won!!! And I hope you will take a look at her blog and see her wonderful work. Thanks to Becky, and to Marcia for brightening my days with their "art".

Art of the Day

Saw this yesterday and had to save it to my computer. I love these old paintings, and the ones about sewing always speak to my heart.  Enjoy your Monday!!!


Thursday, August 25, 2011

Micheal Abel Hunzicker

Please help me pray for this little preemie who is being transported from Albany, GA to Augusta for heart surgery. Please pray for his parents and grandparents who are very fearful. The NICU nurses say this is not uncommon, but the little thing needs as many prayers as he can get. Thank you all for your past prayers and please continue to hold this family up to the Great Physician.



Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Another Year Gone

Another sappy family post. Bear with me, and sooner or later, I'll find something fun to post about. *grin* I'm writing this today, because I don't want to start the day tomorrow in sorrow. There's no room for that when LMW is here.

Mr. BLines, LMW and me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Tomorrow would have been my father's 77th birthday.

 Photo by sister #3

I can't believe he's been gone six years.

Last year, I paid tribute to my Dad on his birthday, August 24th.  I won't repeat it all, and you can read it again if you like. But I will say that he was one of the most generous, giving, helpful men I've ever known. All I had to do, was mention I needed something, and he would immediately go out to his "shop" and begin creating it. 
I believe I've mentioned it before, but if you missed it, I created a memorial page for him on my family genealogy website.

I still cry for him. Do daughters ever stop missing their Daddy?


He is celebrating with the saints in Heaven. Happy birthday Daddy. I love you.

On a lighter note, I have finished a NICU quilt and you can see it on The Seam Rippers.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Tale of Two Grandmothers

Yesterday, LMW and I were looking at the family portraits hung in my hall. I point to each person and tell him their name. And I can ask him where someone is, and he points to them. It's a game he loves to play.  For some reason, I looked at my grandparents and became a bit emotional. This happens to me periodically, for no reason and no warning.

I looked at my grandmothers, missing one a great deal, and grieving for the other because I never knew her. So, here is my story of them. This is a long post, so feel free to stop here. *grin*

Maternal:

My Grandma was the life of the party. She loved to laugh and have everyone laugh with her. She was a Christian and loved the Lord, but was a bit irreverent and never took herself too seriously. I can remember a lot of the off color remarks she made, and her wicked sense of humor.  She would stand at the counter, making biscuits from scratch and she would mutter things to herself, sometimes uttering the "S" word. She was just a hoot.

She loved us grandkids with a great passion. I was the first one, and was treated as royalty. And that never changed as long as she and my grandfather were alive.  She washed me in a big washtub, kept me for six weeks while my Mom had my little brother and recuperated, cooked me whatever my little heart desired.

When I was grown, I would go do things for her, such as roll her hair, clean her house, or give her a bath as she got more feeble. I loved her with all of my being. I've been told, (and I believe it to be true), that I look a bit like her. And I believe I inherited her creativity. She could take anything, and make something out of it. She made a lampshade out of an old bushel basket. The base for the lamp was an old iron stove. I wish I had that picture on my computer. It was amazing. She had original art all over the house. She'd just pick up a few things here and there, and before you knew it, there they all were, hanging on the wall in a frame. Amazing.
She and my Grand Daddy were "pickers" long before it became popular. But that is another story.

After my grandfather died, she just seemed to lose her will to live. We had to move her to the local nursing home facility, and she wound up the last two or three years, living in a dream world of her own making. It was terribly hard for me to watch and listen to her, and I regret that I didn't go see her more often. She usually mistook me for my mother or someone she didn't know and would ask me if I'd seen Grand Daddy lately. It broke my heart.

She loved snow, and always sat on the enclosed front porch in the winter, willing it to come down. The day we buried her, it snowed. We were all so thankful. I really miss her.

Paternal:
This will be a much shorter story.(This is edited from the original, because I was able to take a photo of a photo)

My Dad is the younger boy.

My Dad's mother left her family when her was seven years old. No one knows the real story, or reason behind her leaving. She did go with another man, and did return for her three children, but my grandfather wouldn't allow her to see them, much less take them with her. Pity that, because my father's life after that was pretty bad. He refused to have anything to do with her the rest of their two lives.

When I was about 13, I was able to meet her. I won't go into the circumstances, but I wish so much I had realized the import of that meeting. I never saw her again. When I began my genealogy research in earnest, I contacted her second set of children, but I was about a month or so too late to see her again before she died.
I was able to connect my Dad to his half siblings and that gave me great joy. I believe if given the opportunity, he may even have been willing to see her again. Unfortunately, I was just too late. It was meant to be I suppose, but I grieve for her and what could have been. In talking with my half first cousins, I found that my "Granny" was a very sweet and loving woman. And they all told me that she would have loved me greatly. I'll see her in heaven and there will be great rejoicing.

I know this has been a long post, but it was one that I was compelled to write. Thank you for reading it.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Two Word Thursday

Fudgesicle Fun



School Days

Normally, when it's time for school to start, I don't think much about it aside from all the extra traffic that will ensue.   But yesterday, I had a different perspective.

I spent yesterday morning with Sister #1 in her classroom, helping her organize some things. She teaches high school English and is a very dedicated teacher. This year, she was promoted to head of the English department and she will and does have many more responsibilities. She will also have a new perk. An office all her own. Yippee!


We discussed how she wants to arrange her office and we had a ball with that. But mostly we unpacked books and I organized her monstrous wall shelving unit that had books crammed into it anywhere they would fit. (She moved to the previous head's classroom and this is the way she found it.) I am an organizing freak when it comes to things like that, and made sure every book was even and level, and all book titles could be read. She was amazed and very appreciative. And considering open house is tonight, very relieved. I enjoyed every minute of it.


As we stood at her desk doing some rearranging, I told her I really envy her a bit.  When I was growing up, all I wanted to do was be a teacher. I played school most of the time, planning lessons, and creating work sheets. Even when no one would play with me I did this. And up until Mr. B Lines came into the picture and talked me out of going to college, I planned to be an art teacher. 

Even though I regret not going to college, I don't regret the life God gave me. There is a reason for everything, and I believe this is the way it was meant to be. I have been able to teach little children in Sunday School and Children's Church. I've been able to teach my children, and am now free to be able to teach LMW. So in a sense, I did become a teacher, eh?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

For Your Dining Pleasure

Last month, my husband surprised me by spending money we shouldn't have spent, to buy a beautiful vintage dining table and chairs. Since our family has grown to seven now, and nine when my in-laws are with us, our little sixty inch round table just wasn't cutting the mustard any longer.  I was thrilled.

This is one of the chairs.


I researched online and found that they were manufactured between 1955 and the early 1960s. So, they are in pretty good condition considering their age. They were well used, but not abused. 


Don't you just love the harvest gold weave upholstery? We hated to lose it... *wink*...  but it just didn't go with the colors in our home. Pity that...*wink wink*... And here is what we did to them this weekend...


I thought I wanted a funky floral for them, and I looked at fabric until my eyes crossed. I made SR weary with, "Honey, come here!" when I was searching online. We both agreed on this fabric the day we spent in Hot Springs, just hanging out together. I'm so in love with this now, I'm so very glad we bought it!


SR is a wood grain kinda guy. And loves the look of old antiques, so there was no way he was going to go along with painting the furniture. I bought a can of dark mahogany stain and rubbed it over each chair until the worn places were a little darker, and the gunk was gone.

Here is my new vintage dining set, minus the leaf that came with it.


Now, if I could just talk him into replacing the builder grade light fixture, and purchasing a rug to go under the table, I could call this area "Done!"


Maybe not. I'm never really done. Are you?  I always second guess myself and want to change what's on the wall or some such nonsense. 

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Spinning My Wheels

I can't seem to get anything accomplished. I've been flitting from task to task, and completing nothing. Part of the problem is organization. I know that, but I'm not an organizing type of person. I'm just spinning my wheels, and not in a good way.

I've been trying to get some housecleaning done, and can't stick with any of it.

I've been trying to get some sewing done, and keep finding mistakes I've made and I'm dead in the water until I can get the seams ripped out so I can start over.

I've taken on a website that I have to coordinate, (what was I thinking?!) and the only free "what you see is what you get" editing programs are hard to use or just won't work on my system for some reason. 

I'm trying to change my Bible Study and quiet time to a different time of day, because I get settled in first thing in the morning, and wind up spending over an hour at my desk. I am not studying all that time either. *wink*

What's a girl to do? Well, I remember some advice some of you smart folks have offered, and I'm going to try to implement those ideas.






Make a list of what I want to accomplish for the day and check each item off.


Make a schedule of cleaning jobs in the house, a day for each particular job or room.









Figure out what time God wants me to study, so I won't be distracted, and can take my time and not worry about how much time I'm sitting at my desk.





And try, as hard as it is, to get up earlier. I had very good intentions this morning. I woke up at six, and instead of getting up, I closed my eyes. Next thing I knew it was 8:00 a.m. Not good people. 


And last but not least...and this is maybe the hardest one....stop worrying about entering all the cool giveaways on all the blogs I read, and worrying about whether I win or not. Something for nothing...or at least for a few words and wasted time. They are wonderful, and those who are offering them are so very generous. I just take too much time focusing on them.

All graphics are from bing.com

Monday, August 1, 2011

Baby Pictures

Here are some photos of Lil Man Hunzicker that his great-grandmother posted on facebook.






I think he's adorable and looks so wonderful considering his weight and early delivery!