Happy Independence Day!!!

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

Hexagons

I haven’t been accomplishing much as it has been so hot here that I really don’t feel like doing much. So instead of doing I have been sitting and catching up on my Westerns that I have taped. In the winter I love to watch Westerns and hand quilt or appliqué. As I was sitting and watching my favorite guy Randolph Scott I felt the urge to work on something so I pulled my hexagon flowers out and got busy on them again. I have now made a few more flowers and covered a bunch of my cardboard hexagons with fabric. It is really mindless work and I enjoy working on them.
The past couple of weeks I have been riding my bicycle to work. I really love it and wonder why I didn’t start doing this earlier in the year. I haven’t used my old car but once this week. We live in a very small town; it has a library, very small grocery and a gas station. I have even been riding my bike to the grocery when I need just a few items. Kind of makes you smile to think you can get healthy and work on the hips at the same time.
This weekend brings more ballgames and of course mowing the yard. I don’t look forward to that in this heat.

Where flowers bloom so does hope.
- Lady Bird Johnson

Favorite Quotes

I have been keeping busy with summer stuff and work. I thought I would pass on a few of my favorite quotes today that I have collected over time to share with my children. The picture above is one my oldest son took last summer.

"The best thing to spend on your children is time"
- Arnold Glasow

"There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets
the future in" - Graham Greene


Life's up and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine your values
and goals. Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones to build the life
you want. - Marsha Sinetar

Daughters are like flowers, they fill the world with beauty, and sometimes attract pests. ~Author Unknown

Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be. – George Sheehan

By the time a women realizes her mother was right, she has a daughter who thinks she's wrong.

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk.

“Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of standing still.” - Chinese proverb

And my personal favorite of this group:

Inside every older person is a younger person -- wondering what the hell
happened. -Cora Harvey Armstrong

Thoughts on Love

I went to a wedding, a most beautiful wedding full of love and happiness. But that is what weddings are all about. It was a beautiful warm and breezy evening, perfect for the outdoor ceremony. It had a Hawaiian theme, ukulele music, fresh leis for the wedding party and gorgeous silk ones for the guests. It was almost all so perfect that you could feel the happiness of those around you fluttering around on the breeze. It was catching. I thought I might feel sad going to a wedding but instead I felt happy. Happy that love is out there, that love does conquer all and that even though you might not be sharing that love with a significant other sharing it with friends and family is just as beautiful. I have found that I am definitely in a good place in my life. Sending much happiness to the newly married couple and much love to all of you.

“What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do and crosswise to our purposes.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Graduation Day

Two down one to go! T graduated this past weekend. I am so proud of him. What a tough year we have had and through all of it he has kept his act together and not given me a bit of trouble plus he brought his GPA up! Did I say I was proud! We have had many blessings in our life and we can add another to that list. He is going to be continuing his education on a full tuition baseball scholarship.
So I am a happy mama for the moment.
We have a big weekend coming up of baseball, and a family wedding. Because of graduation parties this will be the third weekend I will be spending with my extended family. We are all having a great time with that!

“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” - Harry S. Truman

Tomato's

I finished another block from Pat Sloan’s Farmer’s Market series. I changed this one up a little. Pat’s has the words Farmer’s Market written on it but once I changed the donuts block that was in the series to my own grapes block it became my Grandpa’s Garden quilt so that is how I worded mine.
I have been busy going through pictures in an attempt to get a video made of my son through the years for his graduation party. I could sit and do this all day. What wonderful memories these pictures bring back. He always hated to have his picture taken the first day of school so he is glaring at the camera in those. Then each year we went to the cabin in the UP of Michigan for Thanksgiving and we took a picture of the kids each year. This one I am showing is from 1997. What good times those were. We are now creating more good times and I am sure 12 years from now we will look back at recent photos and think what a great life we were having!

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” - Angela Schwindt

Kitchen Re-do

I promised some before and after’s of my painting efforts. I am definitely not thrilled with my choices for my kitchen but have decided to live with them for awhile as I don’t have the energy to do it all over.
Before this little rental I lived in a house that was 120 years old. My ex only liked dark colors so that was what we had. I went a little overboard in choosing something nice and bright but it is defiantly cheery and my kids actually like it. The red and green that was in the house when we moved here was okay but I had them colors at one time in my other house and I wanted to move away from those memories as it is time to move on.
I hope you all have a nice long weekend. We are doing baseball tomorrow and a couple of graduation parties then yard work on Sunday if it doesn’t rain. Monday we have baseball again. So it will probably go quickly for me.

“In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.” – Aaron Rose