Fanciful Quilts

Yesterday early evening, daughter & son-in-law & baby girl showed up to surprise their dad - a most welcomed birthday hello. Granddaughter has the most expressive eyes we (dear husband & I) have ever seen. She's all of 15 months old now...and each time we see her, those eyes take in every detail...more so each time. It's amazing. She uses sign language - some one's innovative way to teach babies sign language caught hold with our daughter and so she taught the baby sign language. It is amazing to see this wonderful young lady use her hands to express words. I am picking up words slowly (very slowly) and plan on finding a sign language book soon. I took a 6 week course many years ago while working at a VA hospital. That was far too many years ago to remember much of anything. And I am betting that the sign language book I bought for the class has long since disappeared. Granddaughter warmed up to us in record time - small wonder it takes awhile since we

Yesterday afternoon I babysat our grandson for a couple of hours. This was a good thing. Even though I'm family, faith & trust was placed in me that all would be well while the parents took time for themselves to enjoy a movie. I learned four truths while looking after this wonderful young man of 2 years plus. First, we all start out with an incredible energy level. Sadly, we seem to lose this energy level as time goes on. I know the body isn't capable of doing things when it's 80 years old as it did when it was 15 years old ... but I believe now that we let the world dictate what's proper and what's not. Two year old kids can constantly revolve their bodies in circles for a couple of minutes and laugh when they fall down. Thirty year old people wouldn't even think of spinning in circles. Okay, maybe alone but not in public. I taught grandson the penquin walk which he picked up immediately. Mom was cool - she mimicked son immediately. Dad - well,

The other day I spent some time talking and listening to a member of the family. She's had some rough times in the past year all of which can be classified as 'marital problems'. After 15 years of marriage, she called us - she didn't know what to do anymore and she wanted to move out. Long story short, she now lives in our apartment building. It's been over a year since the big move and sadly, no vast improvement on the part of her estranged husband. After listening to her laments, I realized that we all possess a very valuable weapon: the power of words. I heard over and over 'he never follows through'. Words can encourage, bring smiles, bring tears, plant seeds of doubt and if we're good enough with words & the listener is receptive - change the course of a life. We all have free will and we choose so many courses of action - all part of God's plan. No sense in blaming others for choices we make in life. The power of words can destr

Yesterday evening, dear husband & I ventured out to a movie. The choices are pretty slim if you set certain standards for a movie: must have no blantant sex in it (okay if the married couple disappear off the screen and it's obvious what's going to happen - emphasis on the MARRIED part), no excessive swearing (nix the movies that think four letter words are adjectives), and no body parts flying all over the screen (nix the bloody horror films). That kind of narrows it down. For last night's movie venture, I chose Will Smith's latest movie "The Pursuit of Happyness". Based on a true story (which I intend to research sometime this week), it's an inspiring movie. Despite everything, this man achieved his dream - and never once thought of leaving his son behind. I've read numerous reviews of this movie - and not one review really captured the essence of it. You just have to see it for yourself. Angel45402