If you would like the free pattern for this quilt, please visit www.BOMquilts.com!

I had my 7 month old grand daughter, Zoey, this morning and I decided to take a ride with her in my power wheelchair, then I decided I’d go check my mail.  When I opened up my mail box there was a key inside, meaning I had a package in one of the larger locked mail boxes.  When I saw what a big and heavy package it was I thought I’d come back for it later, but I couldn’t relock the box, I guess only the mail  man can do that.  So I had to figure out a way to bring it home with me.  I had to end up standing up, putting Zoey in the seat, so that I could use both hands to get the package out of the mailbox.  I put it on the foot rest and rested my legs on it to keep it from falling off.  I can only imagine what I must have looked like.  

We came home and I opened the box it was like Christmas! There was so much fabric, large pieces, small pieces, already cut quilt pieces, BOM pieces, Christmas fabric, floral fabric, already assembled quilt blocks, way too much to mention.  I oooh’d and aaaah’d over it all, while Zoey looked at me and with her great big smile.  Wonder if she saw a new quilt in her near future? 

Zoey had her first quilting lessons today:  1-get the fabric; 2-get the fabric home any way you can; 3- Share the fabric with someone you love.

Thanks so much for helping to bless so many people, and thanks for letting me share my joy.

Blessings, Ruth

Hope you get some quilt therapy in this weekend, too!

My husband has a PhD and a strong leadership personality.  I’m not near as educated, but I did graduate from college.  Growing up the way I did has led to me being quite the person in charge of my own life.  I don’t do well with others telling me right or wrong, I rely on my faith and my joy for life to lead me in the directions I want to go.  I haven’t been a follower since I was quite young.  I’d also like to mention that both my DH and myself are scout leaders – and the main goal for those organizations is leadership.

Three of our children are leaders…who could care less what anyone else is doing, they are on a quest to live their own lives, on their terms, and obstacles are no match for their ability to press onward to their goals.  We may butt heads over their leadership qualities, but we know they learned them from us.

Yet, we have one daughter who is a follower.   She has made her whole existance based on what others think, feel, do, etc.  She does not let her individuality shine through, she chooses to be just like everyone else.  She wants to participate in the things that everyone else participates in, wants to wear the clothes they wear and wants to act like them, too.  Of course, with the latter, we’ve had to have words already – and school just started on Monday this week.  I will not tolerate sass, disrespect or poor manners.  We have taught them respect and manners their whole lives – she knows how to be good.  The sass is a hard one, because I have been known <ahem> to sass a time or two in my life – but, I can tell you that with my own parents, a good sass meant a good smack to the face.  No, we do not do that to our children.  But, talking isn’t doing much good, either.

We allow our kids to choose one thing they want to do during the school week, and we choose the other.  For instance, this daughter I speak of chooses to be in band (she’s amazingly gifted with musical instruments) and we choose for her to take piano lessons.  It worked great last year and we had no problems. 

With four kids, each of them doing 2 things a week – there goes our entire week and we rarely have a day off!

But, we now have an issue with this one daughter who is a follower.  She wants to add a third thing to her week – volleyball.  It’s not because she’s athletically talented – quite the opposite, actually.  She’s the blondest brunette you’ve ever seen!  But, all of her friends are in volleyball, so she believes she HAS to be there, too.  And she will not listen to reason, she would rather give up her already-chosen weekly “thing” to participate in volleyball – because her friends aren’t involved in her weekly choice, but they are all going to be in volleyball.

I’m having a hard time with this.  Trying to figure out how to parent a follower is difficult, in and of itself.  But, trying to reason with an emotional pre-teen who just moved up to middle school is even more difficult.  She doesn’t see what she’s doing to herself – how she’s “running with the pack” instead of being true to herself and her gifts and taking them as far as she can go. 

We don’t have any answers yet, but we’re working on it.  She knows she’s not athletic.  She knows music is her gift.  But, she also wants to be part of the “in” crowd and follow them (over a cliff) wherever they go. 

I want my child to be happy, but not at the expense of her self-esteem or her loss of time with her true gifts.  And gee, we let one do more then we have to let the other three do more – and there just isn’t enough adults to go around!

Now, we’ve already lost 6 adult guineas to some varmints - DH suspects feral cats, but it could be any number of things because they’re free range.  And the mama was under an agareta bush and not otherwise protected, so we had to move her and the keets to a special area of the coop that DH and DD#1 set up last week. 

Have you ever tried to get a guinea mama?  DH’s arms are all scratched up from the bush as those babies were near-impossible to see on the ground.  We finally got the mama away, after being attacked a half-dozen times, and picked up 4 keets and took them to the little swimming pool we had set up.  Then, we realized one hadn’t hatched yet, so DH got that egg over to the pool.  The pool has bedding in it, but it has sides that are high enough that the baby chicks or keets can’t jump out for a few weeks – great place to keep them contained.  So, there was 1 left, but DH had to get a fax from his mom’s and then go get the girls. 

DS and I finally got the mama into the pool without being attacked anymore, before DH left.  But, we could NOT find that last baby (see the pix above to see how hard they are to see in the grass) - and we were so scared to step on it that I told DS we needed to wait for DH & the girls to come home to see if we could let the mama out and see if she could get the other one. 

Of course, this being the first day of school for the girls, we had to hear all about their day and didn’t get a chance to get back out to the guineas until my men left for scouts.  When we went to the coop, we found that the lost baby had made it over to the pen and had crawled under the chicken wire and was sitting outside of the pool. 

SO, my next adventure was to get that baby into the pool where the others were, as well as feed and water.  OY.  I have a small prick on my finger where the mama attacked me.  I finally had one of the kids go get one of DH’s garden buckets and put it on top of the mama and picked that baby up and put it in the pool.  Mama calmed down and we left.  Whew. 

We still have to see if that last keet will finish hatching – will open it later this morning.  I know she originally had 14 eggs and threw a number of them out of her nest, but the girls saw the keet moving inside the egg tonight, so we’ll pray that it lives and finally hatches before morning.

So, today, I’ll celebrate in silence as I work.  And I’m ok with that, too.  Gives me time to reflect on who is missing in my life, who I wish – beyond anything else – that they could share this birthday celebration with me …. Mom, Dad, Mike, Gramma from Tramma.  And those who are still around, but who will forget or not take the time to say anything to me – Tom, Jeff, Cody, Kayla and a host of others who shall remain nameless.

I’m 46 today.  I’ve lived longer than both of my parents did and my older brother.  I celebrate every milestone, and I’ll take this one with my boots on.

Remember, if you are a quilter in need, we have a group of Quilt Therapy Angels at-the-ready to send you some fabric, patterns or notions to help out!  Just send me an email at quiltalicious@gmail.com and I’ll connect you with someone who is willing and able to share their quilted hearts!

I noticed an article that for some reason, reminded me of SOMETHING that I couldn’t place:

I asked DD#1 if she recognized the place, because that stained glass ceiling sure looked familiar!  She said, “Yeah, it does look familiar.  Hey, isn’t that the place where we ate lunch….and then, just before we finished, that nice old lady came up to you and told you that you had the nicest and best mannered children she’d ever encountered in such a nice restaurant.”

Aha, of course!  Here’s a few pix I had taken of the Geiser Grand Hotel:

And here’s the notes about our experience:

I had to have the Cowboy Reuben – just to compare it to the others I’ve had across the states!  I would probably rate it as #2 on my list thus far.  It still didn’t beat the one at The Ram in Boise!  JD had a grilled chicken Caesar salad and said it was good … but, it became MUCH better when the waitress brought out a small loaf of freshly made sourdough bread!  I love to watch him eat his meal slow, while enjoying every bite!

After we were finished eating, we were sitting at the table enjoying digestion.  A lady diner, about 70 years old, came over to our table and put her hands on JD and my shoulders.  She was there to compliment us and our children!  She said many times she’s eaten in restaurants where other people’s children just make her meal miserable.  She said she truly enjoyed her meal and she truly enjoyed the fact that our children were so well behaved during their meal!  She said when she saw children who behaved so well, she always tried to go to their table and tell them – they deserved recognition and appreciation!

We, of course, were wondering what planet she was on!  hehe