Once Again

Once again, I must start off by thanking everyone for your wonderful prayers, thoughts and e-mails regarding my mom. You folks are all awesome! The care and concern that I have found in the blogging world has been inspirational to say the least. It IS just like family.

My mother continues to improve since a diagnosis was made and she was transferred from the hospital to an acute rehab facility on Thursday night. Since she has not been well since Thanksgiving she will need some intense therapy to get her back to being able to do her own transfers from bed to wheelchair, etc. She has used a slide board which is a flat board that bridges the gap between wheelchair and whatever. It does require a lot of upper arm strength to lift your body even to slide across. She is feeling well, is very upbeat and eager to accomplish this goal and return home to living on her own again. So, again, thank you one and all. Today she was educating her occupational therapist on how to play Spider Solitaire.

Much of my time has been spent at the hospitals so I am now beginning to get a few of the very necessary things done around the house. Today was spent pruning roses. I have over 100 rose bushes and I generally have them all pruned by the beginning of January. We have had such a heat wave here and I noticed that the bushes were starting to bud out already. I would have much rather spent the day in my sewing room, but needs and wants can differ.

I have not been able to get to any sewing since the beginning of December and I was going to post some of the items that I was working on for Christmas. Since I did not get to it then, I will show you a few that I did manage to finish.

This was a gift for one of our granddaughters. She has one of the 18" dolls and needed some clothes for her.

This is a small quilt and pillow for a doll bed for the same doll. It was actually a Santa gift that my DIL had asked me to make.

I did manage to finish up both stockings for the new babies this year. I have always done the counted cross stitch ones and have loved doing them, but this year I did the felt ones. It is ironic and a pure coincidence that the felt kit that I selected for Jack was actually a Jack-in-the-box. I had picked up the kit before we even knew what the baby was going to be. All the same, I thought this was appropriate.

One more project that I completed was a table runner for Christmas.

SOME AWARDS FOR 2009.

I have also been blessed with two wonderful awards to start off 2009. The first one came from Baba and it states:

"This award focuses on the friendships that blossom here in blogland. Blogs who receive this award are 'exceedingly charming' say its authors. This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Be sure to check out her blog and meet two adorable little twin boys.

The second one came from Midlife Mom and it says:

"The Blogger manifests exemplary attitude, respecting the nuances that pervades amongst different cultures and beliefs. The Blog contents inspire; strives to encourage and offers solutions. There is a clear purpose at the Blog; one that fosters a better understanding on Social,Political, Economic, the Arts, Culture and Sciences and Beliefs. The Blog is refreshing and creative. The Blogger promotes friendship and positive thinking. The Blogger who receives this award will need to perform the following steps:

1. Create a Post with a mention and link to the person who presented the Noblesse Oblige Award.
2. The Award Conditions must be displayed at the Post.
3. Write a short article about what the Blog has thus far achieved – preferably citing one or older Post to support.
4. The Blogger must present the Noblesse Oblige Award in concurrence with the Award conditions.
5. The Blogger must display the Award at any location at the Blog."

I am thrilled to add both of these to my blog, but to choose only a few of the blogs for these wonderful awards would be exceedingly difficult. I therefore welcome my faithful readers to accept them and pass them on to others. I find all of the bloggers that I follow to be friendly, charming, witty, talented in so many ways and very inspiring. I think we all are motivated by one another and are vastly improved because of blogging.

Did everyone enjoy the HUGE full moon that we had last week? I heard that it is the biggest moon of the year and I had to take a picture of it rising from the East.

One more note of interest was my Amaryllis that I started in early December. I had planned to have it bloom in time for Christmas, but it shot right up and had five huge blooms on a short stem the second week of December. I cut that one off and would you believe it shot up another stalk with SIX huge blossoms on a very tall stem? I was so impressed in spite of the fact that I did not get my Christmas bloom. I have never had one do that before. Has that happened to any of you?

Second bloom.

I am off now to soak these sore muscles in a warm bath. I wish the best of all for everyone this coming week.