A Work in Progress

I've managed to shift myself pretty well from work mode to home mode this summer. Some years it takes awhile, but this year I put some thought into a routine for the day. Haven't used the routine yet, but just thinking about it seems to have helped make the transition. My daughter left for "senior week" at the Maryland shore on Friday. After I dropped my daughter off at her ride's house on Friday morning, I took advantage of the fact that no one needed me for several hour and headed off to the quilt shop to pick up my Thimbleberries block of the month. On the way back, I stopped at two used book stores. One benefits a local hospital and I had never visited before. It's very well-organized and stocked, but a little pricey ($4 for a used paperback). The other book store is in Valley Forge Park and I dropped off a rather large donation of books my children had released from their shelves. It's smaller, but I managed to find a few paperbacks for $2 ...

The past ten days have been over-full. I had to finish up my paperwork as well as pack all the accumulated things of 19 years in one school. It took 60 (!) boxes and yes, I did some purging. Some of the paperwork's not quite finished, but an hour or two on the computer will take care of that. School was out on the 11th, the same day my older son came in from California. On Monday, I put him on a 6:15 train to New York so he could talk with his company about job possibilities there, and then got ready to attend my daughter's high school award ceremony. After taking her to lunch, I helped set up for the post-graduation party. Tuesday was spent making sure my daughter got to graduation practice and my husband picked up my son from the train. I drove 180 miles round trip to pick up my son from his camp and then we all attended graduation. Yesterday, I took my older son to the airport from his 6:00am flight and then drove another 180 mile round trip to be sure my son got back to cam...

It used to be that the tears would start rolling whenever I heard "Pomp and Circumstance." Until my kids paired these lyrics with the tune: My reindeer flies sideways; Your reindeer flies upside down. My reindeer flies sideways; Your reindeer is dead. Which is why I was dry-eyed at my daughter's high school graduation last night. (OK, so I did choke up when she sang in the choir and I realized we were probably watching her perform for the last time.) All in all, it was a very happy time and both my sons were also in attendance (one came in from LA and I retrieved the other one from his job as a camp counselor.) My daughter spent four years collecting "graduation bling" as she and her friends referred to it and you can see that she amassed quite a bit of it from honor societies, band, drama and student council. We were all so proud of her and can't wait to see what the next four years will bring.

Or use some other e-reader? I've been toying with the idea of getting one and am leaning toward the Nook from Barnes and Noble. But I always manage to talk myself out of the purchase. I have access to a wonderful public library system and often use their on-line service to reserve books. At least half of my "reading" is audio books because I'm in the car so much and I like to listen while I stitch or quilt. But my reading time may increase when my youngest goes off to college in August. But I also have about 2500 books under my bed waiting to be read (just kidding, of course. I probably only have 2400). So would those of you who have one of these devices or have gone through the decision not to buy one let me know what you think about them?

Robin posted a WIP challenge awhile back and I entered. My sampler guild usually has a stitch-a-long, but this year, we are to choose a piece already in our stash (started or not) for completion. My piece for both of these is Moira Blackburn's Keep Me Sampler which was the one I was stitching at the first guild meeting I attended back in 2006. I've done a little more on it since this photo was taken. My mini-goal for the week is to finish the top right (fence, vine, border) with a bonus goal of finishing one of the trees on the right. And maybe figure out if/where I went wrong on the border on the left. The plan is to stitch on this pretty much exclusively until it's done.

I purchased this MP3 player a few years ago so that I could download books from my library. Only problem was I couldn't get the required software from the library to download onto my desktop computer. I got around that for awhile by downloading the software onto a laptop, but then the laptop died last summer. I had been thinking of replacing it, but at the moment, my desktop does most things I need it to (although it can be slow about it) and it seemed extravagant to buy a new computer just to download books. I do have an I-touch and an account at Audible, but I really prefer the MP3 player at times since it's small and fits easily into my pocket so that I can listen to books while I clean. Besides, the books I put on it are free. Today after looking at the Best Buy ad as I do every Saturday, I thought I'd try to download the necessary software one more time. And lo and behold, it worked! Cleaning the house was much more pleasant while listening to Meg Cabot's Size 12 ...

Here's my first finish in my 25-project challenge. It's the Eye on the Sparrow chart by Silver Creek Samplers stitched on an R&R fabric with a Sampler Threads conversion from Shakespeare's Peddler . (No affiliation, just a happy customer.) I started it during my trip to Colorado over spring break to visit my 91-year old aunt and finished it the beginning of May. This verse has special significance for me since it talks about the lilies of the field and Susan is from the Hebrew word for lily. I'm a big-time worrier and planner (remember how much I like to make lists?) so this reminds me to relax a little bit--OK, a lot--and try to go with the flow. While I was working on this piece, I was totally unaware that there was going to be a major change in my work life. I am a speech therapist and have worked in my present school district for 19 years. During that time, I've worked in several different buildings, but have always been in one of my elementary schoo...