Lucy Update

 I find such gentle encouragement from Jennifer at Elefantz. I am one of those that compares myself and beats myself up for not accomplishing all that I want to do. I thank God daily for allowing us to live in this incredible old farmhouse in the country away from the hustle and bustle of the noisy world.

And yet, I continually bring that noise into my home by continually having my face in the computer checking messages, reading blogs, researching many things. 

We put the snow tires onto the car, and I took the hour drive to a church camp to consider renting a location for our Women's Small group retreat for the spring. We have had our first taste of winter this past week and looking forward to at least 4 months more of ice and snow and cold wintery blasts where I do not have to drive anywhere that I do not want to. I can stay home and enjoy home. 

It is November and one of the things I recall learning in grade 11 Geography with Mr. Woods was to enjoy the sun in November. And sun we have now. The other thing I recall him teaching me was to read a road map. I love reading road maps. There is so much "scope for imagination" to quote Anne Shirley from The Green Gables. did I mention I bought the entire Lucy Maude Montgomery kindle  collection for $0.75? Then read her biography, twice and The Emily trilogy this weekend. 

Christmas is just a month away and we are looking forward to a family wedding and a house full of guests. And yet, I stopped doing all the mad planning and prepping for a storybook Christmas. Blasphomous, I know, but I do not put up a tree of decorate or buy hundreds of presents. I have instead, chosen to have the focus on family and a simple (if cooking a turkey for a crowd of 20-30 is ever simple) turkey dinner. I have learned how to delegate and not stress over a lived-in house that has dirt and clutter, and lots of love. In our empty nest years, I started to give each of our children a large cash gift to purchase a non-specific gift of their choice. Sometimes, I suggested something. Like our daughter needed a new laptop to go back to school to do her masters. Another year, I said her father told me I was not getting them a snow blower, but here is an envelope with some cash. Merry Christmas. This year I will not buy a piano for her boys who are taking music lessons. 

I turned 70 earlier this year and that caught me by surprise. It is no wonder that I do not move as quickly as I used to in decades past and do not accomplish all the crazy things my imagination conjures up. We started receiving a pension this year. Crazy, I know. That is for old people. 

I did not accomplish my November OMG goal. Fact is, I did not even try. Instead, I have been having a lot of fun with Lucy this month. Too much, in fact. And I plan to continue that for December. 

My OMG quilting goal will be to make at least 8 more sashing units. And I plan to bring out the bin of pre-washed fabrics and cut out the next 12 cross block hexies. That one blue one with the stripes stands out of place right now and I want to add a lot more colours, especially some with whitish backgrounds for more contrast.

I already have a lot of random neutral hexies basted just waiting for exciting fabrics to bring them alive. In my uneducated starting place, I chose random fabrics and quickly made and basted a lot. Now I choose deliberately. I kind of like it. But I may want to make at least a thousand more. But I have other goals in mind for 2023. More about that later. 

I did complete some of my To-Do Tuesday goals last week. This week's will be short. Prep for the Small Group Racklette Potluck luncheon this Saturday. 

Linking with Linda at To-Do Tuesday. 

Gone Stitchin'  myquiltinfatuation.

inquiring quilter.wednesday-wait-loss 

alyciaquilts.finished-or-not.

ninamariesayre-off-wall-friday.  

party-patchwork-quilts-

kathysquilts.slow-sunday-stitching.

quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

Blessings,

Chris