Challenge and joy

Life is full of challenges and joys. Have you ever noticed how the joys come in the midst of the challenges? My mother is home from a skilled nursing facility. She has 24 hour help. It has been very challenging and time consuming to get her settled in and get her the things she needs. Looking after an elderly person is hard to imagine if you haven't been through it. We seem to have two good people looking after mother. There are just so many things you don't anticipate.


















Along with all of the things I have had to do for mother my daughter in law went back to work after the birth of our second grandson. The plan was for her mother to come and help out but as they say the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. Her mother got sick and could not come. So along with getting my mother settled I have had both boys. I do love keeping them. It is wonderful to have that daily interaction with your grandkids.

Quilting has taken a back seat. I have lost my focus. I would love to have it back. Quilting would be a way for me to relax. Oh well, life is always changing.

B-ball and Spring

Not getting much sewing done these days, but I sure am enjoying all the basketball. The Tarheels won today and our beloved Tyler Hansbrough became the all time leading scorer in the ACC.














You see we all love Tyler.

After 5 gray cold days with drizzly rain we finally have some beautiful weather. Don't you just love the Bradford pears this time of year. They look like they are covered with a soft fluffy snow.














I think this is called redbud and is one of the first things to bloom in the woods. It is more purple than red and very subtle but beautiful. This picture was taken in my mothers yard.

We have wonderful news. She is coming home on Monday after 3 months in skilled nursing. I have arranged around the clock help for her. We are all excited to have her home again.
















In a few weeks we will have azaleas everywhere. Don't you just love spring?

Seed Project

My daughter and I decided to do a little seed project with our grandson. We went to the local hardware store and bought several packets of seed, some flowers, basil, and pumpkins. She thought it would be fun for them to make a huge mess and paint some small flower pots so he could share his plants with his preschool teacher and maybe his mom.

Wow maybe we have a budding artist, definitely modern art.















We found these neat little peat pots to put the seeds in.













Wow! look what they have done in just one week.















Fascinating to a two year old. He has a hard time realizing that little shoot could grow his Halloween pumpkin.
















My mother is in a skilled nursing facility about 30 miles away. It is a beautiful ride through farm land. My husband has been watching a nest way up in a tree. One day there were two white heads in the nest. We think this is an eagle's nest. Unfortunately the day we saw the eagles we didn't have a camera. This is the nest. It is huge and way up in a tree. The river runs approximately parallel to the road and we read that eagles like to be near water.
There are so many amazing things around us if we just take a little time and look.

Tarheels are #1

Our beloved Tarheels beat their biggest rival Dook yesterday. If you don't follow basketball this is one of the fiercest rivalries in all of college sports. The two schools are 10 miles apart and always wanting to beat each other in everything. It was a great game . Our wonderful Tyler Hansbrough played his last home game as did Danny Green. Now it is on to the ACC tournament and then March Madness. For the next few weeks there will be 4 days of basketball. I just love it.

I stole some time on Saturday to make a name to send Tonya. Mine is a mini-autobiography. The N is on Tarheel fabric, the A is my favorite quilting colors, the second N is for all the years I spent teaching, the C is because I was a math teacher and the Y is on beach fabric because I love the beach. I will send it off to her this week.










The weather here this week is absolutely gorgeous, the 80s and beautiful blue skies. It makes you want to get outside. Hard to believe we were expecting snow last week this time. The grandson and I are going to plant some seeds this week. I think he is old enough to enjoy watching them grow. Our daughter is here today helping me with him and believe me he is in the midst of the "terrible twos". He wants things just the way he wants them right down to the cup he uses! They went to the park this morning followed by a picnic. Some times the simple things are the most fun.

Family Time

Is there anything more important in life than family? All of us spent this past Saturday afternoon together. It was a nasty rainy day outside. We had dips and wings for lunch. We watched the Carolina-Georgia Tech game. The game was great, the kids were good. We all enjoyed holding the little one and playing with the two year old. It was wonderful to have everyone together. Those times are so rare as your kids grow up and have their own families. I made twice baked potatoes Saturday afternoon and real banana pudding for dinner, you know the one where you cook the eggs and milk to make the pudding. One of my daughter-in-laws said you mean you don't get that out of a box! No I don't. We talked, we laughed, we drank some wine and beer. It was absolutely the best.