Closing out 2023 and heading into a New Year

 I have seriously been remiss in updating my blog but have vowed to turn a new leaf in 2024. Since my last post in 2018, I have lost my Mom at the age of 91, she was blessed with a wonderful life but I will always miss my parents even though I had them both until 91. I lost my beloved golden retriever Charlie in January 2021 in the middle of the pandemic when things were already tough enough and rescued another golden Hannah who was an Amish breeder and now lives the life of Riley. I also lost my sister Cindy in Nov., 2021 pretty suddenly to a stroke. She had been dealing with undiagnosed Alzheimers for a number of years and was declining pretty rapidly the last year but still a stroke was so unexpected and sudden.  I had retired in 2019 and left Texas and moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to my grandkids Emma and Lucas, and have been so blessed seeing them grow up and being just a few miles aways. There have been challenges moving across country right before the pandemic and leaving behind all my friends and family, but I am beginning to settle in. I have found a local stitch group that meets at the library weekly and brings me so much joy and recently found a local quilt group that meets monthly along with semi-annual retreats to Lancaster, PA, local sew days, Christmas brunch and so much to be thankful for full of creativity and fellowship. Quilting remains my primary craft of choice but I have done a lot of cross stitch during the pandemic and still continue to embroider, and hand sew various things. I will try to do an update blog on all the many things I've made in the past 4 years since my move. 

My Mom and a Christmas ornament on my tree of my parents

                                                               Charlie I lost in January, 2021

                                                               Hannah I rescued in Sept, 2021

                                                       My sister Cindy I lost in Nov, 2021

                                                        Emma and Lucas, Christmas, 2022

Financial Independence while living a simpler life in 2019

I'll warn you up front this won't be a short post but rather a catch up on things I've learned in 2018.

I went on vacation the 2nd week in January to Mexico with my son,daughter in law and two grand kids. Just as we arrived my Mom ( age 92) started having some internal bleeding issues. By the time I got back she had had a stroke and while I was expecting to come home and move her to rehab life took another turn. Within 24 hours we realized she was not going to recover and began the process of moving her to hospice on a Sunday afternoon. She spoke with my son on the phone about 3:00 and would never speak again and passed peacefully on Wed morning. My life would never be the same.

Since I was the executor, I began the task of dissolving the estate and my siblings joined in getting rid of her things and closing up her apartment. I ended up with about 6 large containers of things that sat in my garage for a few weeks. I had already been feeling like I had too much stuff, had been contemplating retirement in a few years and this just put me over the top and the need to downsize became a stronger pull. I began reading up on the Kon Mari method  (https://konmari.com/) of organizing and tiding up. This led me to The minimalist documentary on Netflix ( if you haven't watched this it's a must in this day and age of consumerism)  , then the tiny house movement and ultimately to the Choose FI group on facebook.

Choose FI ( Financial Independence) is all about saving diligently so you can retire early and do what you love. The community and the idea is more a of movement geared towards the younger generation so they can save everything and retire in their 40's if not earlier. I wasn't raised this was but definitely wish I had found all this out 20 years ago. My parents were definitely FI, but of course who listens to their parents. Me being in my 60's it's not quite the same timeline of course.

Now fast forward a few months and I have been looking at all the unnecessary stuff I own and getting rid of things, I paid off my car and I'm making headway to retire in Sept, 2019 and move to PA to be closer to my son, daughter in law and grandkids. When I made the decision I was FI but with the decline of the market things continue to be a little more tenuous.

One of the strongholds in the FI community is Mrs. Frugalwoods. You can find her here:  http://www.frugalwoods.com/

She is just now advertising for her 2019 Uber Frugal Month Challenge which she does every January and July. If you are looking to cut back on expenses, get off the hamster wheel of consumerism and learn some techniques of self care and simplicity please go to her website and sign up. It's free and I guarantee you it will be life changing. So won't you join me? Let's make a commitment in 2019 to slow down, smell the roses and save our hard earned money that the stores are so trying to get us to spend on needless stuff.

May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Nanci

Rest in Peace George H W Bush

It's been a very sad week watching all the tributes, funerals, gatherings as we celebrated a life well lived. George H W Bush truly cared about this country but more than that he cared about people. He cared deeply for his family but he also just as deeply cared for those he didn't know who were suffering. He gave this country 73 years of his life with the best service he had. I was touched hearing some of the funny stories about him I had never heard. We are gradually losing what we always considered the greatest generation. Maybe it was the depression that created such selflessness and I only hope that the current generation can look beyond their personal needs and ask how they too can serve this great nation. George Bush you will be missed but never forgotten. May you now forever hold your sweet little Robin in your arms and walk peacefully into the sunset hand in hand with your beloved Barbara.

Winter is upon us......

We woke up in the Hill Country this week with dipping temperatures that say it's winter but in fact, what happened to fall? It was 20 degrees here Wednesday morning so I was forced to stop in my tracks and harvest the many lemons on my lemon tree. Turns out there were roughly 38 grocery bags of lemons so I'll be in search of lemon recipes. I've made lemon body scrub so that's a good stand by. Anybody have any great recipes I should try? I'm not sure how involved it is but I'll also probably try some lemon curd and freeze lemon juice for the coming winter cups of tea.

May you have a lovely weekend and Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Nanci

Life continues to be a blessing.....

It has been forever since I've even opened my blog or thought about it but its been a good two years and I continue to be blessed. My son and daughter in law were married the summer of 2012 so I spent a week in Albania and another week in Greece and it was a trip of a lifetime.

When I got back my parents were still dealing with issues of an older home and just not capable of taking care of repairs for a large home so we sold everything, packed their bags and moved them to a wonderful independent living facility in Austin, Tx. Since I live outside the city it's about an hour drive to see them but beats the 4 1/2 hour drive before they moved and my other siblings are just 15 minutes away.  It was hard at first for my Mom to leave her home but they enjoyed the freedom of no cooking, cleaning or repairs and yard work.

My son had been on a long adventure of working to get his degree since he never went to college directly out of high school and it 's a whole different game to go back to school full time and work full time but he pulled it off and graduated with honors in May, 2103 and as a Mom I couldn't have been prouder.

In early 2013 we found out the newlyweds were expecting their first child. She was expected to make a glorious arrival on October 19 so I got busy planning a baby shower along with Greta's Mom and I threw her a baby shower in August, 2013. The theme was tutus and all things pink and I think it turned out very sweet and she had a great time seeing so many of her family and friends. There were about 40 people so it was large shower but well worth all the time effort and planning.

The middle of the summer one of my cats,Smokey got sick, wouldn't eat and no matter what we did it wasn't enough and I was forced to make the heartsick decision to end his life. It took a real toll on me for weeks and I still haven't been able to part with him. I had him cremated and they put him in a very nice engraved box but at some point I know I must release him back to the ranch he so loved to roam. So after about a month I decided it was time to move on and rescued a sweet 4 month old kitten, who I've named Bella. He is becoming an active part of the family and the other animals at this point just tolerate him but with time he'll be one of the group. He is a fetcher so retrieves all sorts of toys you throw to him, this a first for me will all the cats I've owned over the years.

On October 25, 2013 Emma Rose Moy finally made her grand entrance and has changed all of our lives.

Sometime in October my dad had another minor stroke and while there was much outside signs of damage he would be a slow decline for the next few months and we lost him on January 25, 2014. He was a wonderful man who loved his family, served his country for 30 years in the Navy and will be sadly missed for a long long time. My Mom has had some trouble now living alone and being without my Dad and only time will heal the pain and hopefully before long she'll come into her own again and begin to enjoy life, even though Daddy is no longer here to enjoy it.

So to say the least my life has been hectic but things have been good for the most part. My sewing and quilting and blogging have taken a back seat but I have vowed to get back in the swing of things and start some sewing again. Sorry for the long post but it's been almost 2 years and lots has happened.

So a few more of my favorite ( and only granddaughter Emma )

Quilting progress or lack thereof......

Sometime late last year I feel like I lost my quilting momentum and the love and passion just disappeared and I looked up one day and it had been weeks since I'd even touched my machine. I was such an addicted quilter before this and hardly ever went more than 5 days without sewing. In August I got stiffed in an online Christmas swap, then my Dad had a stroke and it seemed like all my spare time was spent traveling to see him and the holidays came and went without much fanfare. January came and I decided to move my sewing to my office space and thought maybe that would spark some interest but it just sat there. I am planning a trip to Albania in June for my son'sweed ding and then will go to Greece for a week so I was looking online one day for quilt things/shops in Athens and stumbled upon Kristine in Thessaloniki, Greece that is teaching young girls to quilt and helping make quilts for women and children taken in from human trafficking and also for some orphanages in the local area and it all just touched my heart how they needed quilts and I decided to start making quilts for her. I now have 6 quilt tops ready to send and all it really took was looking outside of myself to get my quilting going again. It probably doesn't help that I have a pinterest account and I spend so much time looking at things to make and never actually making anything. So if you are interested on helping the orphanages in Greece go check out her site and blog, I know she could always use more help. I had also just read another article last week that as the economy in Greece continues to tank more and more families are taking their children to orphanages and turning them over because thyme can't afford to feed them and this just breaks my heart and so reminds me of our own great depression and it's a country in desperate need right now. Her website is www.toquiltorknot.com.

All in all life is good, my son's getting very excited about his upcoming wedding, he should graduate next spring, my Dad is doing very well and almost back to normal and at almost 89 that was a great feat. I'm quilting again and grateful to have some focus on what's really important in life to unearth my apathy. I'll try and take pictures of the quilts before I ship them so you can see the fun I've had these past couple of weeks.

I hope everyone else is having a productive and happy winter, I won't be long before we're back in the heat and draught of summer.

The stars are aligning for something big!

I came to Philadelphia last week for my son's engagement party which is scheduled for Saturday night and also to meet and visit with some new found cousins and family I haven't seen in awhile.

 We were enjoying a wonderful luncheon in New Jersey with family when all of a sudden the lights starting swaying the table shook. Everyone was looking around not knowing what was going on. We had no cell phone service and it was just a little disconcerting not knowing if it was an unheard of earthquake or some sort of terrroist attack. We had a couple of smaller aftershocks later that day but nothing serious. Now this in and of itself is pretty unusal for New Jersey but the next day they start talking about Irene making a path up the eastern coastline and we should start preperations for the "storm of the century".  We have pretty much just been going about out usual days shopping and enjoying the wonderful weather of the east coast. My future daughter in law Greta and I went to Phildelphia's Magic Gardens on South Street and had a great time taking in all the wonderful art that Isaiah Zagar has blessed the city with. If you haven't ever been here this should be on your must see list if you come to Philadelphia.

Sunday we went to Atlantic City

  and walked the boardwalk , shopped and enjoyed the wonderful early fall weather they have been enjoying.

 This morning my cousin Diane and I decided to drive to Ocean City, NJ and see what was going on and do some more shopping and walk the boardwalk. We hit everyone of the TaDah shops on Asbury Ave. and came away with some fun stuff.

We shopped for all of 2 hours and then everyone was buzzing about saying we needed to get out of town because the NJ govenor was calling for all out of town people to leave the area and they were already making preperations for evacuations of Cape May that will be mandatory tomorrow morning. And to think I was so excited when I got here last Thursday to finally see rain ( we haven't had rain in central Texas in a long long time). Be careful what you wish for. With any luck the engagement party will still take place on Saturday night in time for us to get home and batten down the hatches before Irene hits on Sunday. With any luck my flight will still make on Monday afternoon.

Say a prayer for us all that we are safe and the kids enjoy their engagement party and if nothing else it will be memorable.

Summer Sunday reads...

 So another book I just finished is one of Nicholas Sparks, Safe Haven. It's an easy read with a good ending and a good feeling book. Not too heavy just a sweet love story. I wouldn't exactly call this a favorite but it's definately something I would read again and feel safe recommending. I have read a number of his books , some better than others and this is at least a keeper book. Have you read this one? What did you think? I just finished "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand another great book. Do you have any suggestions? Any avid readers out there.

Happy summer reading....

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday bag

I've been meaning to make this little bag for my sister for her birthday (belated) and while it's supposed to be a Two-Hour Tulip purse , I think that only means if you know what you are doing. It's only my second bag and it took me more like 4 hours but I hope she'll love it none the less.

I chose to make mine out of batiks which I really loved

 with a beautiful purple lining (batik) with all the pockets and dividers but I added a cardboard covered square to the inside to give it some structure. I also added a peice of polymer I had for the button and she's all set. Hope she loves it.

Heart warming

Have you seen this yet, it will make you smile and hopefully make you want to pass it on.

Have a wonderful day!