Visiting Mom

I visit my mom twice a week - sometimes more. I thought about saving this post for Mother's Day in a couple of weeks, but I'm not good at waiting. She is 86 years old, and has done some very cool things. She has written two children's books and a number of short stories. She has also knitted the most amazing sweaters, socks, shawls, and doll clothes, and was still knitting up until three or four years ago. She worked as a reference librarian in Chagrin Falls, where I grew up, and helped hundreds of school children find the information they needed for school reports and projects. After they moved to Auburn she and my dad had a big garden and raised chickens. Two years ago she moved into an assisted living apartment. The big place out in Auburn was too much for her. We went outside for a walk yesterday, and the first thing we saw was this large Canadian goose.

She can't see very well, but she could smell these beautiful hyacinths.

The grounds where she lives are very pretty. They have statues and lots of flowers.

We needed our sun hats until we found some shade where we sat and read some more of "At Home in Mitford".

Another statue.

This little girl with an apron full of puppies is adorable. We're so glad winter is over and we can spend our visits outside.

June weather in April

June is my favorite month of the year. It's warm and sunny and the daylight hours last from 5:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. We're having June weather today - nice! Larry and I took one of our "suburban adventure" walks this morning. We wore short sleeved shirts with no jackets - in April!

The double daffodils are a delight, and the flowering trees lining the road are gorgeous. The odd thing is, those trees smell dreadful, like something that died. Very odd. Usually tree blossoms smell sweet, but not these.

I took this gargoyle's picture for Owen. He seems to like this sort of thing. :>} It was in someone's front yard.

For six months of the years the trees have no leaves. The new little baby leaves are just starting to come out, and pretty soon we won't be able to see much of the branches for another six months. I don't know why these words turned blue and acquired an underline, or why some of the photos came out side by side. The mysteries of blogger, I guess. Even odder is when I pressed the publish button the photos were no longer side by side and the underline is gone, but the words are still blue.
The robins are out enjoying spring. This one found something tasty.

An update on things at work. They're looking up! Our new gal started on Monday, and has done a very fine job learning the way we do things. One more week of training and I can go back to my four ten hour days, instead of the 50 hour weeks I've been putting in. Just in time for summer. Woo-hoo!

What fun!

Jodie told me about Vista Print - look what they can do! You just upload a photograph and they can make it into practically anything. I didn't really need a yard sign or a hat or checks, but I couldn't resist the FREE t shirt or magnets they offered with my purchase of 20 note cards. I'm going to try designing birthday cards and greeting cards with photos of my wall hangings - what fun!

This statue is outside the public library. Every time I see it I think, "That poor lady - her arms must be so tired. She's been holding that big book over her head for ten years."

We went for a delightful walk this morning - I just love the flowering trees.

Too soon old, too late smart.

I keep making these! One of our patients admired the one at work, so I made one for her. A birthday gift for a coworker.

I like it against the green blanket.

I made a decision. Yay! I am going to hire someone else at work to help fill in for all the times when we need an extra person. I have worked six days a week for the last several weeks, trying so hard to make do with the personnel we have. It's not working, and I certainly don't intend to spend the summer working ridiculous hours. I have swimming to do!

A very nice gal is coming for an interview tomorrow, and I hope she'll start training right away, and be able to be a big help before very long.

As the title suggests, I waited way too long to do this, but I was feeling a bit gun shy. Last fall I hired two gals. One trained with us for FOUR WEEKS, and then decided the job is too stressful, and she quit. The other one accepted the part time position we had to offer, and then found a full time job almost immediately, and quit. It's expensive to train someone, and I was feeling a bit burned after those two experiences.

I'm feeling quite optomistic about this applicant, and I trust it will all work out.

Happy Easter!

Easter - the priceless gift of love. New life in last year's old leaves.

New hope for all of us.

Thank you, God, for the blessings of this day, and your gift to us.

I feel as though I'm emerging from a cave of sorts. I was sicker than I've been in years this week, and am now able to poke my head out and give thanks for feeling better.

Irristible

My mom always taught us that on snowy days you stay home and bake. I did have to work this morning, but I had the afternoon off, so I took her good advice. Yes, it's April, and yes, we plan on swimming in late May, but today we have snow. . . and cookies!
I just used my favorite sugar cookie recipe and added enough unsweetened baking cocoa to make it this lovely shade of brown. I rolled circles of the dough and placed them on the baking sheet. Then I combined some coconut flakes and sweetened condensed milk until it was a gooey mess. . . I mean mixture. I scooped out a bit on a spoon and with a knife pushed it into the roll of cookie dough. then I took another little roll of the cookie dough and flattened it on top of the coconut mixture.

Simply delicious!

Shhh. . .

This looks like an ordinary wall hanging to give Sean and Kate, two of David's friends. But look! It has a secret pocket on the back to put the rest of the wedding present in. It can be kind of a wall safe.

We're enjoying spring with some lovely warm days and daffodils in bloom. Nice! Snow is in the forecast for Tuesday, but at least in April we know it can't last long. Take care and have a good week.