Flower pics and a Sydney story

There is very little to show quilt-wise this week.  All my quilt work has been binding the wedding quilt (which apparently is some kind of continuous circle that will never end) and cutting strips for the arcs quilt.  I still need to make and attach a label to the wedding quilt, so hopefully, next week, there will be a nice post about delivering it. 

Work was very stressful last week.  I have too many projects on my plate and my boss is being kind of obnoxious about my workload.  His solution is for me to hire a temp to help me manage it.  My suggestion is that if my workload is more than one person can do then HE should hire someone to handle it.  In the meantime, I'm done working myself so hard trying to keep up.  A weekend in the yard was exactly what I needed and I worked out there until my hands ache and are stiff this morning.  Perfect solution to stress.  And, the garden is definitely paying off. 

The mock orange in bloom before the big storm we had on Saturday.  Of course, the rain played havoc on it, but it's still covered in flowers. 

Sedum blooming.  I think this is the first time these have bloomed this way.  I'm using it as a ground cover in the sunny part of the garden.

Yellow roses.  Just starting.  It's not quite hot enough for these roses to go nuts yet, but soon. 

Asiatic lilies.  Syd gave me one for Mother's day one year and I bought a second.  These usually die here because of the heat, but this one is doing quite well in a pot. 

These two iris are first time bloomers.  Hopefully, this won't be the last time.  I'm not sure what I did last year to get all these iris to bloom, but I sure hope I accidentally do it again.

 

I also found some time to play in the scraps for the arc quilt.  I need 24 sets of 16 gradated strips and 24 sets of 9.  I counted last night and had 16 sets of 16 and 31 sets of 9.  Oops!  That's okay.  Nothing is wasted in this quilt.  There will be plenty of need for strips in the borders. 

 

 

I've got two weekends sunk into cutting strips, and I haven't sewn the first stitch yet.  Hmm.  That ain't right.  I'm ready to sit at a sewing machine for a while.  Cutting these strips is just standing at the ironing board, ironing my scraps, tossing the polyester and then cutting the tone-on-tone scraps into strips.  YAWN!

 

Sydney has been in Nebraska for the weekend.  She comes home today.  It was her first flight alone.  She was really cute as I tried to share all my experience.  We sat on the sofa the night before with her phone and I showed her how to check in using her phone and pay to check her bag.  We looked at pictures of airports so she could see what it was going to look like after she went through TSA.  And, we looked at maps of the airports she was traveling through so she could see how far she was going to need to walk between gates.  And, I shared that she should find her gate, then walk around to find food.  I took her to the airport on Thursday morning and we talked as we drove in.  She looked like she was going to be sick and we laughed about that.  We checked her bag in and I showed her how to use the check-in kiosk and walked her to TSA.  We talked about the machine she was going to need to go through and how to stand when she did.  Fortunately, there were no lines to wait in and she got right in.  And, I left her there.  She kept us up to day through the day and was picked up on Omaha by her aunt. 

 

We've talked to her more since she's been in NE than we talk in a month when she is here.  She has called every night and we text and chat and laugh about her family.  We sent all the ingredients for her to cook Indian food for Grandma, and Grandma loved it.  She has visited with her Aunts, both of whom she lived with before she came to us.  One called Rob to tell him what a wonderful job we had done with her and to tell what a great person she had grown into.  Very independent and confident.  And, honestly, that's what we were going for.  Before she left, I told her that no matter what mistakes I had made as a parent, the one thing I never worried about was her ability to stand up for and take care of herself.  And, I'm pretty sure there was some standing up for herself that needed to be done. 

 

Family forgets that people change when they move away.  Family thinks that people are in some kind of stasis in their new location and only change in concert with the family.  But, that's not true.  Just like family members grow and change, the ones that move away grow and change.  And, when the two groups come together, it can be uncomfortable.  I think one of the Aunts thought Syd would still be the same person that left 12 years ago.  But, she's not.  And, the Aunt apparently wasn't very interested in who she'd turned into.  That's the Aunt's loss because Sydney is certainly a  LOT more interesting today than she was when she was 9.  And, just like it was the Aunt's loss, I don't think Sydney was bothered by it.  I think she looked at the Aunt and celebrated that she had moved away. 

 

Everybody have a great week!  I pick up Syd at the airport tonight and I'm sure there will be fun stories and her dog will be very glad to see her.  And, I'll be glad to know she's home.  Raising kids is crazy.  You spend all that time trying to protect them in hopes they will grow up to thrive, independent of your protection.  I definitely got to feel both sides of that coin this weekend. 

 

Lane