Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Valentine's Day, spent with the one(s) you love.  It's always a wonderful thing to stop and focus on the one(s) we love and to be intentional in expressing that love.  But the emotion celebrated on Valentines, while a wonderful blessing from God, pales in comparison to how God expressed His love to us.

 

I have to confess that I stole borrowed this acrostic that Auburn Chick found online (why don't you head on over there and visit her blog after you're done here?).

I'm spending my Valentine's Day watching T#3 and T#4 while their mama and daddy take T#1 and T#2 to Chicago to see Legoland (and some of the museums).  T#1 turns 9 on Wednesday and just loves his Legos.  I can't wait to see to see the picture that DD promised of his face when he walks into Legoland.  My Valentine's Day may not be very romantic, but then we've never needed a Hallmark holiday to share a little romance.  ;-)

Friday Ramblings

• The sun is shining today ... and it looks like Spring may be making a surprise visit next week ... temperatures in the mid 50's!  As you all may know, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE snow ... but I'm growing weary of all this COLD weather ... and am looking forward to some warmer weather.
• I'm not scheduled to work for the next 5 days!  
• And what wonderful 5 days they will be!  I hope to be able to get some piecing done today and tomorrow.  I'm just short of having half the blocks put together ... I've been working on this top since just after Christmas ... I know I'll get this done - eventually.  ha!
• Sunday we'll be attending T#1's birthday party ... he turns 9 on Wednesday.  His mama and daddy are taking him (and T#2) on a surprise trip to Chicago (to visit Legoland - that boy LOVES Legos!).
• Since mama and daddy are taking T#1 and T#2 to Chicago, that means Nana will get to have T#3 and T#4 here for a couple of days ... and those of you who are grandmas can imagine how excited I am at that prospect.  :-)
• DH has a stress test scheduled for this morning; he's been having some chest pain that appears to have been resolved with increasing his Nexium, but his primary care doctor wants him to have a stress test to make sure that his heart isn't causing this pain (his cholesterol is high and he's got heart disease in his family).  
• 5 weeks from tomorrow, we'll be leaving for our annual spring training trip.  We're going to be staying in southern Florida; our motel is just a short walk from the beach.  We're hoping to add in a day visiting the Florida Keys. 

Have a fabulous Friday!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - Valentine's Day Edition

Once again, Joyce has come up with some interesting and thought-provoking questions.  I just love reading what everyone else's answers ... and if you'd like to, too (or if you'd like to join in on the fun), just click on the button above.

1. What is more important-doing what you love or loving what you do?
I learned early on to try my best to learn to love what I do ... because then I can make sure that I'm doing what I love.  IRL, we aren't always given the opportunity to do what we love ... sometimes we have to do something else instead.  And while sometimes what we have to do is just plain impossible to learn how to love, but often enough, our outlook on what we do is within our control ... and we can learn to love it (or at least enjoy it) enough to be able to say that we're doing what we love.  

2. Do you like bleu cheese?
I'm not a huge fan of it ... but I do enjoy it if it's served in something else that "tones down" the strong flavor.  My favorite thing with bleu cheese is the bleu cheese slaw served at the Boat House on Isle of Palms (near Charleston).  Yummy!    

3. What is the most difficult emotion for you to handle?
Fear (and its cousin worry) ... if I allow myself to get caught up in it, it can be paralyzing.    

4. Fresh flowers or a box of chocolate?
Fresh flowers.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE flowers (even though, yes, they are a bit of an extravagance).  And they don't end up on my waist or hips like chocolate does.

5. What's a song you love that has the word 'love' in its title? It doesn't have to be a 'love song'.
My favorite song with the word "love" in the title is "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by the Righteous Brothers.  I love the Righteous Brothers ("Unchained Melody" is my favorite song of theirs).

6. Are you the person you wanted to be when you grew up?
I'm not sure that I'm grown up yet.  ha!

When I was growing up, I wanted to be a school teacher.  It didn't take me long to realize that I didn't have enough patience to be the kind of teacher I wanted to be.  

7. Any special Valentines Day plans?
Yes indeed!!  I'll be watching the 2 littlest Ts while DD & DSIL take the 2 biggest Ts on a surprise 2-day getaway for T#1's 9th birthday.  I dare any of you all to top THAT!  ha!

8. Insert your own random thought here.
I got a new cell phone last week.  I don't understand why there are so many changes in cell phones ... why all the buttons, settings, ringtones aren't the same from cell phone to cell phone.  By the time I get used to this phone, it'll be almost time to get a new phone!   

Weekend Wrap-up

Another weekend has come and gone ... time flies by so quickly.  As do the week days, since it's now Tuesday and I'm just getting around to the Weekend Wrap-up.  ha!

Saturday I got some more work on T#4's big girl quilt.  I'm getting very close to having half of the blocks finished.  Here's a finished block ... the pinks in the lower right hand corner aren't quite as washed out IRL, but this does show how the browns capture your attention, and my goal was for the pinks to be the focal color:

I've learned a lesson in color selection with this quilt ... and to be honest, I'm tempted to say that the lesson I learned is to go back to selecting quilt patterns where the hue and value of the fabrics don't define the pattern like this one did.

Choosing fabrics I like in colors I like is difficult enough for me without having to worry about the hues, values, saturation, etc.  I enjoy quilting, and while I want to expand my horizons and grow in my quilting, I don't want to set myself up for disappointment and eventually reach a point where quilting is no longer enjoyable.  I admire those quilts that are literally works of art ... but I'm not creating works of art.  I want my quilts to be useful and to be a reminder at how much I love those who use my quilts. 

Ooops, I got a little sidetracked there ... back to my weekend wrap-up. 

Sunday, I did a little sewing between church in the morning and the Super Bowl/birthday party in the evening.  I'm not a football fan, but any evening spent with the people I love is an evening well spent.  ;-)

My weekend may have been a little ordinary, but it was spent doing things I love and included the people I love, so it was a great weekend in my book.

Thankful Thursday

Today, I'm taking the time to be intentionally thankful for:

• Road crews - the main roads are all pretty clear, and the secondary roads are passable.

• Sunshine - after cloudy skies for the last 3-4 days, it's nice to see some sunshine today ... and the sparkling ice is pretty
• Changed weather forecasts - while I am disappointed that we didn't get much snow, I'm very thankful that we didn't get the 1 inch (or more) of ice that was in the forecast on Monday.  Just 30-40 miles to the east, ice wreaked quite a bit of havoc.

• My hubby - he drove me to work this morning and dropped me off at the door so I wouldn't have to walk in from the employee parking lot (a 10+ minute walk) in the cold (it was 0 here this morning); I have Raynaud's, and no matter how warmly I dress, I feel the effects of the cold.
• Snow days - being a part-time, temporary employee, I don't get benefits, so I don't get paid when the University closes.  Even so, there's still something liberating about getting an unexpected day off.  

Wednesday Hodgepodge - Storm of the Century Edition

Joyce has come up with some interesting Wednesday Hodgepodge questions that will help take our minds off this major winter storm that blanketed most of the Midwest and is no doubt now heading Joyce's way.  ;-)

1. Would you rather be seen as a person who did their duty or forged their own path?
I would rather be seen as a person who did her duty.   

2. This week's Wednesday Hodgepodge happens to fall on Groundhog's Day. In keeping with that theme, if you could have a do-over of any one day out of the last seven, which day would it be and why. If you haven't seen the movie Groundhog Day this question will make absolutely no sense but that's okay....you can answer anyway.
I'll answer it if you can remind me what I did the last 7 days.  ha!

You thought my question was going to be weather related didn't you?
That's ok, I'll insert my own weather-related thoughts in #8.  ha!

3. Hot cocoa...yay or nay on the marshmallows?
Yay.  There's something about the foaminess of marshmallows in the hot chocolate (which I'm not a huge fan of -- but I'm not a fan of hot drinks, chocolate or milk).    

4. Do you wear makeup every day? What are the top two must haves in your daily makeup routine?
Most days ... and certainly on days when I know that I may be leaving the house.  If I know that I'm going to have a lazy day here at home by myself, I might skip the make up.  My must-haves are my Clinique Redness Solutions and my Eucerin Replenishing Lotion.

5. Is it more important to you in a relationship to be loved or understood?
My first thought was is it possible to be loved without being understood?  Then I thought about DH ... how I love him but DO. NOT. understand him.  So I'd really rather be loved than understood.  

6. Parsley sage rosemary or thyme... your favorite?
Thyme.  It's very flavorful without being overpowering.  

7. What do you do when you feel angry?
 I wish I could say that I act wisely, calmly, and lovingly ... unfortunately, God's not finished teaching me some valuable lessons on how to deal with anger and situations that cause it. 

8. Insert your own random thought here.
What wacky weather we've had the last couple of days.  We had freezing rain on Monday ... with an inch (or more) of ice forecast.  I woke up Tuesday morning to find out that we were under a blizzard warning ... with no more ice accumulation but 10-20 inches of snow with blizzard-like conditions.  That that the storm has pretty much passed through this area, we've ended up with 1/4 of ice, at least 3 inches of sleet and who knows how much snow (since the winds picked up overnight, the snow has blown all over the place ... we were forecast to get 2-4 inches of snow overnight).  It seemed like every 2-3 hours over the last 2-3 days, the weathermen would come up with a new forecast -- with some pretty significant changes, not just a slightly tweaked version.  And the hype surrounding this storm?  The St. Louis stations had nonstop coverage Tuesday from 4:30AM to 3:30PM.  Seriously?  The capper was when  I heard the weatherman on the local news last night during the 6:00 news trying to cover for all the media hype and missed predictions  by saying that they were giving us the worst case scenarios so we’d be prepared and  how thankful we should be now that the worst case scenarios are not panning out (as if they knew  all along that they wouldn't).  Whatever. 

Weekend Wrap-up

It was a mostly uneventful weekend.  I did some piecing on T#4's big girl quilt (got 1 1/2 blocks put together) did, some handquilting on the doll quilt, had the unexpected pleasure of Sunday afternoon/evening with the Ts ... and checked for updates on the forecast for Monday through Wednesday.

The forecast has been all over the place ... originally we were forecast to have 1/4 to 1/2 inch of freezing rain (ice) with 3-6 inches of snow.  Yesterday they were predicting 3/4 to 1  inch or more of ice and 12-16 inches of snow.  Today they're "down" to 1/10 to 1/2 inch of ice and around 3 inches of snow. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE snow, but I HATE, HATE, HATE ice.  We had a big ice storm 4 years ago, and we lost power for 7 days!  I do not wish to go through that again.  I'd like to think that we've ensured that our power won't go out by buying a generator from Home Depot on our way home from church yesterday.  Hey, a small price to pay to keep power!  ha!


I am concerned, however, about my dad's house.  He's still on the Alabama Gulf coast, so his house here in Illinois is unattended.  The forecast for his home is for more ice; my job is to watch for power outages (thankfully his electricity provider has an outage monitor on their website).  If he loses power, DH & I will have to make a trek to his house to turn on the faucets ... so the bitterly cold weather in the forecast for Wednesday & Thursday won't freeze his water pipes (he has only a crawl space under his house, so the water pipes would be more susceptible to freezing).  He didn't lose power in the ice storm 4 years ago, so we're praying that he won't this time around.