Something Vaguely Religious

This is actually Pretty religious. It's directly from Sunday School this last Sunday. In the book of Ezekiel, 44th chapter and 23rd verse, I discovered something that needs to be done so desperately for people today. Here's the verse:

And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

Not enough people appreciate that there even IS a difference between holy and profane, and that they're on opposite ends of a spectrum. In the middle, I think, is "regular" and then it goes to "casual" and then to "irreverent" and onward toward "profane. On the other side of "regular" it goes to "special" and then to "reverent" and then onward toward "holy."

Profane is a word that could be WAY overused, if people took the time to recognize that it's still relevant. It's not just in speech, as in "speak using profanities." It's also in dress, attitudes, jokes, actions, and events. I love the word profane, for how descriptive it is.

There's your vague religion for the day.

Not Really News, but They're Funny

Doesn't everyone just think they're children are so awesome and of course everyone is going to want to see pictures. Mine are looking kind of blurry.

1. Not very interesting but definitely cute. His second "birthday cake" was those Lemon Bites from Costco. Two of them. He just sat staring at the candles burning even though he's really good at blowing.



2. Army of Ninjas. What boy can turn 11 and not need a new Army of Ninjas? He got them over at Nickel-a-Play. We took him and his two friends for his birthday.

3. Even Big Boys Get Sleepy. I don't know why he was so sleepy. Maybe it was early evening. Often in the early evening, he just can't stay awake. His one leg gave out right after I took the picture and he got up.

4. Not in Focus, but Definitely Grumpy. That's my Julesie.

Just a little somethin' to keep ya coming back.

Quilt Retreat 2010

Seth's mom and Aunt live next door to each other, about 4 1/2 hours from my place. A couple years ago I got the brilliant idea to invade their homes and mooch off them during spring break, fall break, a week during summer, or any other time I felt like inviting myself down. The idea is that I stay with Aunt Emma, who's also a quilt lady, and the kids go back and forth between Emma's and Grandma's. This way I get a lot of projects done and the kids don't have a terrible time. Quilt Retreat, I call it. I just went down there over fall break for a Quilt Retreat.

The first Quilt Retreat I did was maybe last year sometime. I don't really remember. I do remember promising details about it here on the old 'Blog. And here I am keeping that promise.


What I do is, I bring tons of half-finished projects, the bigger the better, and then work on stuff every waking hour, with the end-result being tons of finished projects. The first time, I stuffed the van to over-flowing and barely had room for the children. I also brought a lot of unreasonable projects. The last two times, I have brought stuff that's way more reasonable and do-able. Leaves room enough to bring the children's bikes. Anyway, here are some things I got done this last time, over Fall Break, despite feeling terrible because I have a Baby on Board.

1. Baby quilt. Sorry to spoil the surprise, Yara, if you're reading this. It's for Rafael. I started it during my Spring Break Quilt Retreat and it sat in my work room for 6 months. This time I machine quilted it, free-motion, and Emma helped me hand-stitch the binding on.




2. Wool project. I saw a stunning applique "bed rug" in a quilt catalog. It was a block of the month, costing nearly 1000 dollars when it was all said and done. I set about getting the supplies to make it out of 100% wool, pretty sure I could do it for slightly less than $1000. I'm gathering patterns I like from books and magazines, and for the materials, I've spent less than $200. I think I'm on track to achieve my goal. It's slow-going, though, since I apparently think I have until eternity to get my approximately one billion projects done. This is one I'm not thinking of abandoning. It's machine applique with invisible thread. This pattern is from William Morris in Applique.

3. I actually made two of this baby quilt. They're close to identical, just with different backing fabrics. The one Emma chose, the cuter one, is up top. This one is backed with the fun red print I chose, which is cute, but not the cuter fabric. I love the fronts of these quilts and envy the little boys who will snuggle with them. There are patches made of circuit-board print fabric, for crying out loud! I got this one machine quilted and Emma helped me bind it also.

4. Mending. I found these kids' jeans in a bag and knew they were in there for mending, not picnic quilts. I've mended the knees, which the children will blow out again within seconds of putting them on.

5. The Main Event: I, along with several friends, am making the O Tannenbaum quilt. I've talked about it before. The "block" for November was to make eight log-cabin blocks. I did the October block, another paper-pieced house, and then used the rest of my awake-and-feeling-good-enough-to-do-anything time to piece these monsters. I really had to push myself. I did them all at once, chain piecing and then pressing each log. I feel terrible for the ladies who did/are doing one block at a time. They will be sewing through the millennium, I think. Each log only comes out to 5/8 inch when it's all sewn in, so these seemed to be about 3 inches square for like two days. They never seemed to get any bigger! But I did it. It's a major accomplishment for me. And then the best part, was arranging them in my favorite log-cabin arrangement. They're stunning. Separately, all I see in each block is toil and sick-feelings. Together, they inspire me to make MORE log cabins!! Maybe...

These are some of the main things I accomplished at my Quilt Retreat this fall. I plan to go again, but maybe not until after school lets out and the baby's here and I feel awesome. But then again, maybe for Spring Break! Who knows?!

Photographic Essay: Smoky Hill High Student Trash

My house is in a neighborhood that's right across the main thoroughfare from Smoky Hill High School. Then Laredo Middle School is just beyond that. I love this. As long as we're here, my children will never have to know the torment of The Bus. I had some Bad Bus Times, in middle school mainly.

So there's a lot of foot traffic through our neighborhood and past our house, with high school and middle school kids coming and going. Plus the High School has a an open campus and a weirdy three-on, one-off daily schedule, so the kids are going by pretty much all the time. Mostly they're kids that live over in Sunburst Townhomes. Bless its heart, some really great people live in Sunburst Townhomes, including the Incredible Zirker Family. But also some not-so-savory people live in there. It's a big place.

Here is my photographic essay of things left by these friends as they traipse past my home. And this is just from this morning, not including the trash I picked off the lawn yesterday and the things I've recently had to kick into the street for not wanting to touch them with my hands.

1. Random scrap of litter. Looks like a gum wrapper.





2. Straw. The kids are constantly going to 7-11 or Taco Bell and ditching their "leftovers" in public places like my sidewalk.

3. Cigarette pack. This was technically on the neighbor's lawn and I know they don't smoke... But at least the teens got their money's worth by going for the 100s.

4. Plastic baggie. This is far from the grodiest thing I've seen left by the miscreants...oops! I mean Leaders of Tomorrow!

...on looking more closely, though, you'll see why I decided to do this photographic essay.

Because I am enraged at the number of terminally ill students with chronic pain that have to walk themselves to high school! This is an outrage! Yeah. If you can't catch my feelings on "medical" marijuana, then perhaps I haven't been cynical enough here. Maybe I'll do a whole 'nother post on why medical marijuana is a farce and anyone who really thinks sick people need it real bad are lying to themselves and our state. Or maybe I just said my piece, amen.