Appreciation

Sometimes, the sweetest things happen. In this crazy world we are living in right now, with angry people and horrible war, we need to stop and take the time to appreciate the sweet little things when they happen.

A little package arrived in my mail yesterday. I had no idea what it was, I hadn't ordered anything. It came all the way from Seattle. Turns out it was from a very appreciative customer of mine. She had ordered some things from me, actually she's a repeat customer many times over, through my Etsy store. I had tucked in a little extra something on my last shipment to her, just to be nice. It arrived to her on a day that she said she especially needed my thoughtful gesture.  I don't know what she was going through. But it was nice that I could make her smile. 

Appreciation.

Well, this package arrived here yesterday and it made me smile!

Inside was the most beautiful little silver handcrafted ring with a Ethiopian Opal set in the middle of it. I am October and opal is my birthstone. What an absolutely wonderful gift! She said she is taking a class in silversmithing. And she decided to send me a little something. And it fits perfectly!

This morning, as the sun was shining in, 

it just catches the light and 

sparkles so beautifully.

Appreciation.

On Saturday, another package arrived in my mail. I have a wonderful sister who manages to collect a little of this and a little of that, and puts it together into a package which just arrived out of the blue. There was a super soft skein of wool yarn, and some beautiful quilting books and magazines and a funny little note from her.  I sit back with my cup of coffee and take time to page through them, get inspiration, think of new things, or learn something from these books and magazines. All the while I smile. Because my sister thought of me and took the time to send them to me.

Appreciation.

We had a whole bunch of rain the other night. Big clapping thunderstorms and lightning! Kind of strange for the month of March in Wisconsin. Because the ground is frozen, the rain pooled up and made some ponds in the backyard. I know it will soon go down, to sink into the ground as the frost goes out. But for right now we have "waterfront property" in a beautiful view from the windows on the she shed.

Appreciation.

Our daughter Heather and son-in-law Jesse wanted to go to the gym on Sunday and work out early in the morning. They asked if we wouldn't mind having our grandchildren, Jameson and Whitney, over for a couple hours. Of course! We are always up for visit from the grandchildren, and it brings such joy to our hearts to have them come and visit. We are so glad we moved closer and we can have these impromptu visits.

Appreciation.

They were coming over at 7 a.m. so we set up a breakfast bar of all of the things they like to eat. That way they can pick and choose what they want and everybody has an enjoyable breakfast. 

The giggles and silly goose stories, the talk about school and lessons, the adventures of their pets at home and how much they interact with us is a true joy to have. Discussions around a dinner table are becoming a thing of the past in many homes. I am glad we can still have them, and the kids share spontaneously and with such energy and interest. 

Appreciation.

After breakfast, little Whitney decided she was going to get out some tools and start doing some repairs around our house. Like grandfather, like granddaughter! What is really cute is that these are the same plastic tools that her older brother bought on a trip to the hardware store with us when he was only four years old. These little tools are 9 years old now and still going strong. Many, many repairs were completed by the hands of our grandchildren with these little plastic tools. And many memories were made.

Appreciation.

Whitney decided that we needed to bake something. At first she wanted to make rice crispy bars. But we were out of rice krispies. (she and Claire made up the only box I had last week when they visited). So I dug around in the baking cupboard and found ingredients to make cupcakes! She loves the opportunity to be my little baking assistant. We each put on our aprons and got to work. The Llama Apron was a gift to me from our grandchildren, but they all seem to be the ones who want to wear it when we bake things. 

Learning lessons like counting and fractions. Learning what one quarter of a cup is on the measuring cup and then what a half a cup is. How quarters and halves are like 4 quarters to make one paper dollar. Learning about separating egg whites from the egg yolks because it was a white cake mix. Whitney drew the conclusion that realizing yellow yolks would make the cake look yellow.

This led to an interesting conversation of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Even Jameson weighed in on that one. As they argued the merits of one or the other being first, suddenly Whitney came up with the final conclusion. A CHICKEN BUTT!

Emitting gales of laughter....

Of course, one of the best parts of baking is after the cupcake tins are filled, she gets to lick out the bowl with the big "pink pig spatula". Another gift from the grandchildren. 

Appreciation.

More memories being made. I love having one on one time with my grandkids. I hope they remember these days too.  My memories of my grandmother are strong in my heart as I type this. 

Appreciation.

While we were busy in the kitchen, grandson Jameson was busy updating all of his apps on his phone. We have unlimited Wi-Fi at our house, but they have measured Wi-Fi at their home out in the country. So when he has a chance to get here and update everything or download things, it's a nice thing to let him concentrate on that and get it all done.  I am glad we can have something to offer a teenager that makes him WANT to come to our house.  LOL

Appreciation.

While we were waiting for the cupcakes to cool, little Whitney decided to pull out her Great Great Grandma Kafehl's Fisher-Price farm. Even though she's six years old, you're never too old to play with Fisher-Price toys. Lots of imagination and silliness, and fond memories of playing with this very farm myself when I was young at my Grandma's house. I'm so glad that I have been able to keep it all of these years. Now my grandchildren enjoy it. I am sure Grandma Kafehl smiles from Heaven each time it's taken out to be played with. More memories being made.

Appreciation.

The cupcakes were finally cool enough that we whipped up some frosting. Whitney wanted pink for hers and Jameson wanted green for his. Of course, each cupcake needs to get a liberal amount of sprinkles. Our grandchildren Chelsea Clayton and Claire buy me that big container of sprinkles every year to keep up the supply on hand. We put sprinkles on everything. Even applesauce.

Appreciation.

Yayyyyyy! She has such a sense of accomplishment. Plus she gets to bring some home to enjoy with their parents. After their efforts at the gym, I am not so sure they really want cupcakes. Oh well, maybe the grandkids get more that way? 

Appreciation.

Guess what?  We kept a couple for our own dessert! Made with "love".  I can taste it. 

Appreciation.

After the cupcakes were done, we took time to play some games of Candyland, and Trouble. Even big brother Jameson joined in, although he is 13 years old. Spending time at Grandma and Grandpa's house means you don't have to meet or exceed any age expectation for games. It's just spending time together laughing and teasing and having fun. Besides, Jameson won!

Appreciation.

After a nice lunch, they were picked up and headed back to their home, with cupcakes in hand. Now it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to sit back, put up our feet by the fire, and look out the back window at the snow softly and gently falling down. The big ponds that were back there have frozen over and they are now ice rinks. The softly falling flakes are mesmerizing and beautiful. We are so lucky to have such a view out the back, and enjoy the weather, no matter what season it is in Wisconsin.

Appreciation.

A couple months ago I saw this cute little African violet plant at the grocery store. For less than $5 that pretty little plant got popped in the shopping cart and came home with me. I have fond memories of my Grandma Kafehl with her beautiful skill of growing African Violets in her windows. She could get them to bloom year round, and have so many different colors. She could propagate the leaves by pinning them down into dirt with a hairpin. She had such a green thumb and her violets were absolutely beautiful. As kids, we had to be so careful looking at them, because it was way too easy to crack off a leaf with their stiff brittle stems.  That is when Grandma would scoop up the broken leaf, and propagate it in another little cup with a pin.  I guess I remember it well, because I was probably the one who broke off the leaves!  

I haven't had to do too much to keep this one going. I put it in a larger pot and I water it carefully using a funnel between the leaves, so the water goes down on the dirt and not on the leaves. That's when it makes spots on the leaves---  if you let water get on them. I remember my grandmother telling me that.

It has grown from about 6" across to now well over 12" across. 

I guess I am doing something right? 

Now I am rewarded with the most beautiful blossoms this week as it sits in my kitchen window.

Appreciation.

This morning, I was greeted with a mug of coffee and a smiling husband.  We made a nice breakfast together. We are sitting in the sunshine. There's not much more that we can do about what's going on in the big bad world outside. But inside, we can stay close, stay warm, and truly appreciate what we have.

APPRECIATION.

One. More. Tree.

Oh yes.  He did. 

You read that right. One more tree.  We already planted 14 trees this summer. What's one more?

Steve had to run a couple errands, and drove past the Tractor Supply Store. He saw a clearance sign by their trees. Now they are marked down to "Half Price". He had seen a row of cedars and was curious about maybe doing them a along our border. He didn't buy them, but instead came home to ask what I thought. After supper we drove back over there to take a look. The cedars were already gone. But there was this really nice white dogwood tree. It's supposed to get between 15 and 25 feet high with the most beautiful white dogwood blossoms. Seems to have a lot of nice branches. Although the leaves are dead and dried up now, the branches are soft. Come springtime, we should see some beautiful new growth.  It was only $15.00 and after my 10% off coupon, it came to $13.50.  So yes, he bought another tree. 

From there, we stopped at the grocery store. We just had to pick up a couple things. They had a cute little display of the most beautiful African Violets! If he can have a tree, I can have some flowers.  I have this nice pretty flower pot that I had gotten from my neighbor Sheryl with some succulents in it two years ago. Succulents finally died off, and I wanted to find something pretty to put in the pot. These violets just filled the bill.

Been a while since I had an African Violet. My grandmother used to grow beautiful ones. I carefully potted it and put it in the window in the kitchen where it will face the north. I can admire at each time I stand at the kitchen sink. Now that the outdoor flowers are dying off, it will be nice to have blooms inside.

We started working on the French doors to go between the living room and the guest room (which we may turn into an office). Steve had done all of the sanding and prep work and had them ready for me on saw horses.  Remember, he HATES painting.

The weather had finally warmed up enough to start a couple coats of paint.  It is my job to change them into beautiful French doors that will go in the house. I think we will put on a glass doorknob, to match the original ones on our bathroom door. 

I love the beveled glass. It's very hard to take a photo of beveled glass but each pane of window has a nice wide beveled section all of the way around. There is brass caming in between the sections. Some of it is bright and some of it is tarnished. My daughter Erin suggested I find one of those metallic flow paint pens at the craft store. Then I can make them all maybe a nice deep bronzish brown and take down the brightness of some of the spots and cover up the tarnished areas of others. Great idea! It's on my next shopping list.

It was warm enough on Saturday to get both coats done on both sides of the doors. So now they will be ready to be installed whenever we prep the inside doorway. Steve will cut off the protective plastic over the glass and then I will see about doing something to the brightness of some of the brass caming pieces.  

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Saturday was such a nice day with sunshine and slight breezes. The neighbor to the back Southeast yard was wanting to cut down a couple of the dead trees in his yard. Some of it's in our yard too. Some would fall in our yard if he cut the best direction for the leaning tree.  Steve said have at it, and the neighbor can use all of the dead wood for his wood burning stove in his house. They got one hunk hung up in a crotch of a tree, they had to use a rope attached to the bumper of his truck to yank it down. They did it safely and nobody was in the way.

My Lumberjack guy looks pretty good on this fall day. I'm glad that we are both feeling good, healthy again, and able to get a few projects done before the weather turns cold.

It was nice enough to give Binney a little bath down in the laundry sink in the basement. When I was done, I let her loose in the sunshine in the backyard. She ran some "Zoomies" around and around the yard in circles and shook off repeatedly. She was like a little puppy, even if she is 9.  The sun felt so good on her coat, that it was drying her off quite well in no time and now she smells pretty!

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Later in the day I hauled out my Grandma Groop's old Singer sewing machine. It's from 1942. It's called the "Godzilla Finish" machine because of the rough textured surface instead of the shiny golden filigree decals that Singer was known for putting on their machines.  This was made during World War 2, so embellishments and frilly froo froo designs were frowned upon.  Manufacturing a utilitarian machine to do work was okay, but not a fancy pretty Singer that they were accustomed to making in the pre war era.  It does have the beautiful bentwood case. This is such a workhorse of a machine that I can use it to sew the triple folded hems of my hand-woven rugs.

This rug is now finished, hemmed and measured up and listed for sale in my Etsy shop:

Snowy Winter Day Rug

She had used it all of those years, and sewed many quilts and patched up her hard working husbands's mining clothes on it. Both of my aunts remembered sewing their prom dresses on it, as well as other clothing. I remember the big heavy quilts that she made for us when we were children. For the inner layer of batting she used heavy moving blankets. She was always one to recycle and reuse.

It has really done it's duty over all of these years and is still going strong. 

I remember the day my Grandma Groop gave me the sewing machine.  I was sitting on a lawn chair at my nephew's graduation back in about 1998. Grandma Groop came over and tapped me on the shoulder and said: "Before you leave town tomorrow, come on up to my house. I have something to give you".

We went up to her house, that was only a couple miles away, and we had a nice visit. She had the sewing machine sitting there for me. She said out of all of the grandchildren, I was probably the one who would use it the most. So she asked if I would be interested in having it. Of course! I use it often and proudly.  I hope she is looking down from heaven and smiling to know that it is used a lot and still kept routinely oiled and cleaned, and stored carefully where it won't get rusty or damaged.

One of her quilts is hanging on display in a museum downstate in Lansing Michigan. This is called a "Signature Quilt" and it has historical and patriotic connotations. It was done during the Bicentennial of 1976. It is embellished with all of the signatures of the people she worked with at the factory in Caspian, Michigan.  Just 2 blocks from where we grew up.  I remember her sometimes coming over on her lunch breaks to visit.   FW Means is a commercial clothing and linen laundry service. They take care of the sheets and blankets and towels for hotels, nursing homes, hospitals, and even work uniforms for large factories. She worked there for many, many years. My mom even worked there for some time, and my brother still works for them as a semi driver delivering the big bundles of clean fabrics and picking up the dirty bins.

Everybody knew her there at the factory, because she worked there almost all of her life, until retirement and then sometimes filling in when they were short staffed.

Here is the link with more information about her quilt at the Museum

 Grandma Groop's Signature Quilt

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It's getting late. I think that's enough for this blog post. Because my next blog post will be about Halloween. Which is incidentally, also my birthday! And it sure was a good one. Stay tuned.