Day 563

First it was that I was taking too many food pictures. Then it was because I was writing too much about Christmas stockings and taking too many pictures of fabric.

So for you my daughter, I have three new pictures. No stockings, fabric, or food. Any complaints about a spider hard at work, a Black-Eyed Susan up close, or the clouds in front of the sun?

Day 562

Every time I go to one of the meetings put on by Idaho's State Dept of Education I always walk away thinking about how I'm not living up to my full potential. I see all these folks around me - some I've know for years - who have gone on to get advanced degrees. Master's degrees, doctorate degrees. Folks who have moved on to higher up jobs in other school districts (or even at the state level).

But not me. I started a master's in Curriculum and Instruction and didn't finish it. Same for Technology Integration - halfway finished and stopped. I was going to get a master's in Administration so I could be an elementary school principal but pulled out the week before classes started.

My inability to live up to my potential bugged me all the way home from today's meeting. But then I got home and saw the pictures on my living room wall. Each and every picture I took myself with my family beside me (except that scary suspension bridge from this summer - that was a solo adventure).

Memories over potential, I say!

Mt. Rushmore...Statue of Liberty...The White House...Glacier Bay NP, Alaska...Moraine Lake, Alberta, Canada...the middle of the Yukon Suspension Bridge...Mexican Hat, Utah...inside Chateau Lake Louise, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, Big Island of Hawaii...Niagara Falls, New York at night...Fireworks at Disney World, Orlando, Florida...Volcano eruption at Mirage Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Day 561

It took a phone call to give me some inspiration.

I've been hanging out with Christmas fabric for quite some time now. Sewing scraps, strips, and squares into bigger pieces. Cutting out lots and lots of stockings. I've kind of got lost in the repetition. I've been frantically working so my box of stockings can be one of the first that Stockings for Soldiers receive when they open their doors on October 1st. Except somehow I overlooked that they open October 15th instead.

I'm so thankful for those extra couple weeks. I've needed to get started back on some kids' quilts but my inspiration has been gone. But along came a phone call this afternoon that changed that. A call from someone who shares an enjoyment of quilting. Just the conversation got me thinking, and more importantly, got me moving.

At least I've now chosen the fabric for the next batch. Baby steps.

Day 560

I was starting to feel a bit sorry for myself today. My back has been killing me, my arthritis has been flaring up in a big way, and even my "new" knee (the one with the replacement) has been causing me troubles. I'm not feeling in control of my pain and I'm not feeling in control of my life.

But when I got home from taking hubby to therapy, I had a package waiting. Christmas fabric from Ruth. A package stuffed as full as full can get. As I opened that package and sorted through the fabrics I looked around my sewing room. I have quilt tops and pictures on fabric ready for quilts and lots and lots of Christmas stockings all around me. On my table and on bookshelves and even stacked on the floor. All for charity.

In that moment I recognized that the doggone pain clouds my thinking. No more feeling sorry for myself! I'm ever so thankful to have what I have. To be able to do what I do. And for Ruth for sending the Christmas fabric that will soon be sewn into stockings for soldiers.

Day 559

I predicted I could get 12 Christmas stockings out of the fabric squares I discovered in a drawer.

I was wrong. I got 14.