Thomas and His Serious Naps

Thomas takes serious naps between 12-4pm......I mean serious naps. Usually he picks one of the porch rockers to melt in to but today, we looked out across the woods and thought he was injured or dead..............he was lying on his back with his paws in the air.

Yep, we had to call loudly for him to pop up here. Bodyguard is cleaning up around the outside of the house, so Thomas had to move his serious afternoon nap out in the woods where he spends his quiet time.

He says, "Maybe if I look the other way, momma will not take another picture...... again!"

"Well, come on and get a picture if you must and then let me go back to my nap!"

Ok, Thomas, don't scare me again buddy.

Saturday Progress

From this~~~~~~

To this~~~~~ Saturday night

Almost there. The New Amsterdam 1624 Sampler by The Sampler Girl. Plan to finish and frame today! YIPPEE!

I have enjoyed stitching the blue colors in this piece.

Yesterday we had fun, went to a hotdog grill-out then came home to watch a little Gone With The Wind video I have had for awhile and one of my favorite movies.

Then Bodyguard helped me rearrange my bedroom..........every now and again I get in the mood for the bed to go a different direction or such.......not very often but last night was one of those days. I really like it. It's a good change.

The sun is out this morning and my coffee is tasting mighty good right now! Summer is definitely here with the warm temps, upper 80's, maybe 90 today.

Well, I will post my next project or projects coming up soon.

Fiddle-de-dee..............

Rejection

Driving home from work, I contemplated on the most particular forms of rejections, especially the ones that hit us hard such as from parents or from children. I have to say I'm blessed because my husband has always been supportive and understanding when even immediate family members demonstrate such rejecting, even repulsive acts, that would usually drive away anybody. He has been the most loving, most understanding and the most supportive of the sadness that accompanies rejection. We had a long talk after I came home from work and we're amazed at the family members that really are hurtful in their choices. We can only answer for ourselves and know in our hearts that we have been supportive even when things were bad.

In my experience, it's been kinda known fact that rejection is inevitable part of life, for we have no supportive family at all. But we keep on keeping on in spite of the hurt that our immediate family imposes. I have one of the most passive-aggressive mothers in the world. She particularly likes to point out the fact that I'm not "quite good enough". She thrives on passive aggressive control. For example, she loves to point out to me that she has cooked meat in the vegetables and want let my vegetarian sister-in-law know about it so that she can say "see, I made her eat meat whether she wanted to or not". Wow! Just really bizarre. She has reminded me through the years of my inability to be the perfect mother. She tries to "take over" and do it better herself and in the meantime, has won if you think about it. I hope she is thoroughly happy at causing constant strife. In trying to make sense out of the bizzareness, I can only think that she must be a really unhappy person to try to be as hurtful as she has been.

Rejection has only as much power as you let it. You see, I know I did the best that I could as a parent and her opinions are ......only opinons. I guess, when I found out sporadically, even accidentally that she was having a "going-away" supper recently for my son , who would be gone a year to Afghanistan, and intentially didn't invite us.......I realized what she really was made of.

Even though it was very hurtful to find out we were'nt intentially invited and that we may not see him for a year, she still persued her act of aggression.......but in a passive way. Never the less, it's hurtful. She will have to live with her decisions. I would not like to be in her shoes because intential hurt for my childen has never crossed my mind.

Rejection is such a powerful impact on people you love.......or think you love. I'm fortunate in that I have a husband that has always been supportive even through these times. He is the most understanding person in the world and actually cannot totally relate to folks like this but he sees what it does to other people and can appreciate the impact that total support has in a relationship. I'm so thankful for him. It's been hard being a step parent and being told over and over by my children that he is basically not respected for being concerned.

I'm thankful though for a husband that is very loving and very understanding.

We realize that we are unimportant to our family but we still love them in spite of their hurtfulness. I have told my children this many times........life is choices and your the one that has to live with your decisions. And that goes for parents as well.

We know that even though our children and my parents reject us, that God loves us because he knows what we really are. That's the most important of all. I just hope my parents realize this one day.

Giddy in the City

Today started out with a mission of getting to the city of Atlanta for my first appointment at Emory Spine Center. First of all, being a country girl, I was clicking in my mind at the things I would like to accomplish on the way back from the trip. Let me tell you that Atlanta traffic is challenging to say the least but I tried to avoid rush hour. I was very pleased with my visit to the center. Very professional, physician very informative and knowledgable.......very impressed. I will be getting an MRI at Emory in a couple of weeks to see if the cervical disc ruptures have worsened.

Overall, the day went well. After my visit, I was starving so I went by the Mall of Georgia and got my favorite Chinese food with a little extra soy sauce. I have my favorite stores I like to peruse.......I absolutely love Ann Taylor Loft and Barnes and Noble especially! They really make my skirt fly up! Learned a few lessons today though:

Lesson 1~~~ never try on clothes after eating Chinese food and drinking 2 bottles of water.

Lesson 2~~~absolutely, give in and get a 30 minute foot massage. It's worth more than any medicine!

Lesson 3~~~Do not go by Hobby Lobby after a large Cafe Mocha from Barnes and Noble!

Lesson 4~~~Get satelite radio ---it's worth the price with no commercials.

While at Barnes and Noble, I looked at all the magazines I could possibly look at. Audio books are beginning to look appealing to me as it's hard to read and stitch at the same time but I didn't get any books today. A record for me. I did get me another pair of reading/stitching glasses while I was there. Couldn't resist.

At Hobby Lobby, I got a big matting board for my present stitching project and now I just need to finish so I can frame it. They had 30% off some fabric, so I got a couple of yards of blue calicoish fabric to make some kitchen curtains. I was also looking for a pattern holder that I could clip on my stitching stand but didn't find one.

So, back on the interstate, down the country roads to home sweet home, thanking God that I didn't have to drive in Atlanta traffic every day!

My giddiness turned to sobering thoughts on the way home of Brandon and Meghan and wondering what they might be doing tonight. Meghan is probably studying very hard and Brandon is across the world in Afghanistan. I know that the time difference is about 8 hours. I wonder if he is safe, wonder if he is hot, is he able to carry around all that gear, does he sleep ok at night, is he happy with his choices?

I have those moments alot. A piece of good news yesterday was that Brandon's unit did get safely to Afghanistan. I guess the bad news is coming home every night and keeping up with the news of current conditions over there. Very sobering indeed. Well, late night insomnia means more stitching.

Progress after midnight

From those to this tonight (or morning)

I'm getting that adrenaline rush to finish it. I've already got my next project in mind. Hint: it's from the Sampler Girl

Is It Well With Your Soul?

One of my favorite hymns of all time is It Is Well With My Soul. I simply love this hymn even though there are some times when all is not well with my day. I can't tell you how many times I say the dialogue, "how are you", then the other person "I'm fine, how are you" or vice versa. Have you noticed no one ever saying "I'm really not well today, how about you?"

This song is so inspirational to me now and even many years ago. I used to play this in church alot. Maybe our days may be going sour, or even health may decline but the real question seems most importantly, is it well with your soul? In spite of so many hurdles, I can truly say that it is well with my soul.

My soul is nurtured here in the mountains.

I found this on U-Tube and having trouble putting it straight into the post; however, click on this for added inspiration to your day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIPnLh91R3M

I do not know the pianist, Ian Oakley, but his version of the song is beautiful. His talent is so touching.
Inspires me to go to my piano and play my old version of the song while I look out the window at the mountains, the birds, the butterflies and flowers.
So for today, not "how are you?" but "Is it well with your soul today?"

Until later, enjoy your Tuesday afternoon.........
Jennifer

Interesting Sampler Blog

I've been reading through blogs and catching up tonight. I found a great stitching blog, especially if you like samplers and the history of samplers. It's called Needleprint. Check it out:

http://needleprint.blogspot.com/

She has just posted the Part 1 section of the Mary Wigham Ackworth School sampler, free online with donation. The finished picture of the sampler is just beautiful! I like the various colors vs. the monochromatic interpretation. The entire piece looks quite large.
Reading through the blog, there are also some smaller free motifs to download. Very interesting blog.

Midnight progress

Well, here is my midnight progress. I did have to frog a bit but caught back up . I absolutely love the blue colors. Getting sleepy now so we'll talk later but here is a pic. I just loosely put in the frame to get a take on what it will look like framed.