Tiger Lily turns 2.

My beautiful granddaughter Tiger Lily turned two in June. She is gorgeous (naturally), and has curly red hair and blue, blue eyes. Here she is at her other Grammy's after a dip in the pool:

(She looks just like me, at least in the chunky-thigh department.)

I always make a quilt for the grands' second birthday. Tiger Lily's favorite things are horsies, monkeys, kitties, and princesses. I added ballet dancers, because I know that will be a favorite as soon as she discovers ballerinas:

I love the green and white polka dot border. It is also the backing of the quilt.

In other news, I am having brunch today with an old friend, catching up. All of our children are growing up, and you know, that means it is hard to find the time to have Mom-time. She is making zucchini bread, and I will add strawberries and coffee. But conversation will be the Principal Thing.

Hooray!

It's time for Me.

After almost an entire year, I have been able to make something for myself. Me! Me! Me!

Some time back, I found a piece of vintage barkcloth at the thrift store. Baby boomers will remember this fabric. Whenever I see it, I think, "family room curtains." It is heavier than quilting cotton, and has a really great "hand" for purses, in my opinion. I used my favorite purse pattern, as well. It is sorta-big without being as big as the duffels that girls and women carry today. Don't get me wrong--I'm a "big purse" girl. This "sorta-big" size holds all that I need, and can be carried on the shoulder.

The purse is lined with brown/white polka dots. Gotta spread that polka dot love.

I always make my purse pockets special. I have many cute, cute fabrics in my stash, usually in fat-quarter size (18" x 22"), so they won't make anything big. This particulat one is of vintage girls going to a birthday party (carrying festively wrapped packages) in the rain. The print is complete with umbrellas and puddles!

The pockets are lined with Ivy fabric. Ivy has a connection with our high school , and with the school I am attending, Ivy Tech Community College. Besides, ivy is green, and green is the greatest color in the universe!

My new purse has been filled (which means my old purse has been cleaned!) and is Ready. For. Shoppin'.

In everything...

I was thinking about the verse in I Thessalonians 5:18:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I think we'd all agree that this is not always easy to do. I've sometimes heard people rail against this verse: "What?? My husband just left me/I just found out I have cancer/My son got his girlfriend pregnant. I'm supposed to thank God for that???"

I guess I never noticed before, that little word "in." God does not call us to thank Him *for* everything, but *in* everything. "FOR everything give thanks." That would change the situation entirely, and I couldn't do it. But switch our thinking to "IN everything?"  We may be barefoot, but can remember that old proverb, "I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet." Not so difficult to do.

We've just been through two weeks of 95-105 degrees, four and a half days of which we had no power. Threw out the contents of my frig, but had opportunity to clean it sparkly clean and, even though I threw out four bags of food,  have managed to eat every meal since. Friends offered their lovely home for a respite. Got considerable visiting time with neighbors, since there was nowhere else to go. Time slowed down for a bit, and isn't that what we are always saying we want?

We don't have to thank the Lord FOR the heat/inconvenience/loss of food and the basic comfort factor. But I can thank Him IN the circumstance, for we all know that there are always an abundance of things for which to be thankful, no matter what is going on in our lives.

A Stream-of-Consciousness Recounting of the Last Week.

(this may not interest you at all, I'm mostly doing it for myself.)

What a week! Not only did it hit a record high (106 degrees--to be repeated today!), but we had a storm-of-a-decade last Friday night. Our power was out for four days and five hours--a total of 101 hours! We've never been without power for so long. 138 of 146 (95%) of the circuits which serve our area were damaged. I spent three of the four nights at home (more of that to follow), and was blessed by a church couple in letting us stay in their home for the fourth night. (Actually, they volunteered to house us all of the nights.)

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about these last days is that the quiet and the crisis give you time to think about the Lord and how good He is to us. For one thing, this happened in the summer (but really, could I have not learned these lessons at 80 degrees?) so we didn't have to deal with frozen pipes or anything. We still had water and gas, so I could light my electric-pilot stove with a match, and showers were uninterrupted. Coffee in the morning went a long way towards making it through the day.

I traveled wa-a-a-y back into my memory to remember how to do things old-school: open the windows late at night (when it finally got below 80 degrees, the temp of the house), and close them after a couple of hours in the morning. Of course, we did not have access to fans, like my childhood, so sleeping was pretty bad. When I'd wake up after a couple of hours, I'd jump in the shower for a wet-down, and back to bed to air-dry. Hopefully, I'd get to sleep before I dried!

I really, really don't do well in the heat. I'd be a quick candidate for heat stroke, but mostly, I just feel like my organs are melting inside. I quickly turn beet-red, and then get nauseated. So mostly I did dishes, did a little hand-sewing, and wet my head a lot. After the third night, it got worse. My son and I drove out to my friend's house to get keys for that night (they were going out of town). She asked me if we wanted water--I declined because I had a bottle in the car. I did not, however, drink it when I got back to the car. When we got home, we fell asleep for two hours. My son had to run an errand after that, and called me awhile later. I couldn't quite understand what he was saying, and vice versa. I realized that I couldn't remember the last time I had taken a drink. I also realized that I hadn't been to the bathroom since about 9 am. Thank God I "saw the signs" and began to drink water. I drank about 24 ounces in 45 minutes, and my neighbor brought me an electrolyte drink (I didn't remember eating, either). Soon I was feeling much better, and was grateful that I had said yes to my friend, with her lovely air-conditioned home! My daughter told me to keep water beside everything else I drank: coffee and water, milk and water, pop and water, alternating "sips."

Power was restored late Tuesday night, so we slept a second night at our friends's home. We came home Wednesday and tossed the refrigerator and then cleaned it (eeuuww). My daughter facebooked: "I'll bet there are 100,000 newly-cleaned, shiny-bright refrigerators today!"

There were originally 138,000 customers without power in our area. They reduced the number to 3400 before another storm hit yesterday (Thursday). 10,000 additional customers lost power, some for the second time. We were fortunate this time. My a/c, however,  is still trying to recover. After running for twelve hours, the thermostat still said 80 degrees. Overnight Wednesday it got to 75, then with the above 100 degrees yesterday, it was back to 78. I think it says 74 this morning. Charming thinks that all of the 2x4s in the walls got hot, that is why it is taking so long.

The point of all this is that, no matter how much we think we are in control, God can remind us in an instant that He is the one in control. (I didn't tell you about the myriad trees uprooted and crashing branches that virtually stopped traffic in many areas of the city.) Suddenly we are all reduced to Survival mode, the way so much of the world lives their entire life. I think of our soldiers, living in this heat, with full gear, and being shot at, to boot.

Lord, help me to be grateful, every, every day.