Thursday, May 14, 2020

Really Random Thursday, 5/14/20

Here we are again. I actually thought my emotions would have kind of leveled out by now. How about you? Yet I still find myself on an emotional rollercoaster.

This morning I woke up and said to Mark, "It's Thursday already?" It seems like the week has gone quickly. I tried to figure out why. And decided that it is because this week has been the most social since the shelter in place.


This week is the first time, other than visiting with my cousins a few weeks ago and visiting with precious family every couple of days, that we have had a couple of social engagements on our calendar. Appropriate social distancing for sure, but social nonetheless. It made me realize how important actual contact with people, even those 6+ feet apart, is to our mental well being. I think that is what also accounts for ups and downs, because it brings into more focus the times we might have squandered opportunities that we can't get back. Hindsight, right?

Anyway...

On Friday, Amanda Jean set up a Zoom get-together with our Minnesota quilt retreat friends. I'm still crossing my fingers that with another two months to go before our annual retreat the middle of July, there is a tiny chance we can still have it. It was SO good to all be together. I hope we can do it again soon.

Our friend, Jenny, brought over the a bouquet of sweetpeas, one of my very favorite flowers.

Supernova Starburst
Definitely a blast from the past (I think I started this in around 2007), but I love it.

Mother's Day was also Christa's birthday so it was a quiet day at our house. Mark made a really good brunch for me. I was thrilled when Aaron, Christa and the kids dropped by for a few minutes.

I'm so incredibly proud of this guy. I'm honored to be his mother.
I always look forward to my Mother's Day bitmojies from both Aaron and Christa.

Christa and Stacie have birthdays two days apart, and they always celebrate the day inbetween as "tweener day." I ran across a recipe for salted caramel sauce, and decided I'd make it for them. Yummy recipe. You can find it here on Sally's Baking Addiction.

Under the Big Top

Kids rode their bikes over. I love it when they pop over.


Parisville

Before the shutdown, I was planning on teaching a beginning sewing class. It is postponed temporarily, but we decided to get together for lunch. Here's the thing about shelter-in-place entertaining: you don't have to prepare food. Or clean your house. :) It was a beautiful afternoon, and we all definitely needed the connection.
Me, Karen, (Mark, the photographer), Lotti, Sharon

In honor of our sewing club, I hung this quilt outside.

Big Purple Machine
Kelli designs some great quilts and this was a fun one to make!

Tuesday evening, we celebrated Stacie's 25th birthday. She had a fast-food progressive dinner. Isn't that a fun idea? It started with fries at McDonalds with some friends, then the main course at Chick-Fil-A, and then she ended up with a different set of friends for donuts. We were all spaced apart in the mall parking lot. We had not been there very long when the security guard drove up and said we could not gather there. "But the mall isn't even open!" Doesn't matter.


No problem. We moved the party to the nearby park. It turned out to be a much better party venue anyway.
Photo by Stacie Winckler

Boys who are so happy to be together for a little bit.

We are having a pergola built in the front of the house tomorrow. So excited. But some prep work needed to be done.  Levi was given permission to come help. And what a helper this 12-year-old boy is! He scraped and painted two coats of paint on the dormers, helped take down the gutters as new gutters are being installed, and then took a wire brush and scraped all the dirt from the trim. Not a word of complaint.








While Levi was here, four F-15C jets from the 144th Fighter Wing of the California Air National Guard did a flyover in a salute to the state's emergency workers and first responders. This was their published route.

When they flew over, they were so low that it seemed they barely skimmed the trees. I couldn't get a good picture, but my friend, Karen, got this when they flew over the hospital by her house.
Photo by Karen Unruh

It was truly amazing.

All in all, it's been a good week. I'd love to hear what your week has been like.


6 comments:

05 08
Charlotte M. said... #

It looks like you had a good week. I'm happy for you. We did the Costco senior shop again.I have sewn, puzzled and other projects. I baked bread and cookies. Last night was our zoom book club meeting for May. I also got to talk to my daughter in North Carolina for almost an hour yesterday, with no kids interrupting her. It was magic. We had some work done in the front yard and have been watching the progress through the window. It's almost done and the new drought resistant plants are beautiful. And yes, the weeks seem to be picking up speed again for some reason.

Anne / Springleaf Studios said... #

Can't wait to see your pergola. We're working on our front yard too. Glad you've been able to have some social time. Our kids and Em's husband came over for a bbq on Mother's day. It was so nice to see and visit with them even though sitting far apart. Emily and I also did one of our Monday coffee breaks by going for a long walk and then ordering from Panera and coming to the house to sit outside and enjoy our treats. Strange to walk apart from her though. I need to hug my kids!

Robby said... #

I remember that Supernova quilt, still love it. I'll think good thoughts about your summer retreat, but please promise me you won't hold your breath until you can go?! We've had 3 of those fly-overs in the last month. I think the skies are empty so it's pretty easy for them to take training runs that might normally be hard to schedule to do them. Yesterday's was an "aviation parade" which was about 30 civilian aircraft. I was upstairs when they started coming over and I suddenly had a sense of what being in London during a WWII bombing run must have been like, although I was pretty sure I was safe. Yesterday was going to be my first effort at a socially distanced coffee chat with a friend. It sounded so inviting, until the heavens opened up with a huge downpour. We're trying again next week.

Needled Mom said... #

Having some social gatherings has certainly helped to make life seem a bit more normal. I hope you can still meet in July. You guys have gathered for so long. It'd be a shame to miss it. Loved seeing your quilts hanging. We had the aircraft do a flyover yesterday. They went right over the house.

Jacqui's Quilts said... #

Great to read your update. We're doing well here in SW Ontario, Canada! We had snow last week!!!! Yikes...in May? But, tomorrow is finally supposed to be sunny and 18C. So, we hope to get outside for awhile. I've been sewing scrub caps for our front line workers the last 6 weeks. Kept me busy! That is finished now and back to completely UFO's and maybe starting a few new projects LOL. We had a virtual retreat with our quilt guild and guests. We meet twice a year with 50 of us and of course were not able this year. We set up a face book private group and set the day aside to sew in our own homes and posted pictures of quilts, snacks, lunch, drinks, recipes, jokes, etc and just had a fabulous day together. It was a real boost for sure. With the warmer weather coming finally, we are hoping to do some social distancing visits outside! That will be very nice! Hope your retreat can go ahead in July! Isn't zoom so nice to connect? We had a 1 1/2 hour zoom meeting with our small guild last night and it was so good to 'see' each other again! Greeting from Canada.

NdakJoleh said... #

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