Gravel Road Musings

I feel like all I have done recently is write book reviews. And if I'm honest with myself, all I have done on here recently is write book reviews. So my feelings are not removed from the truth, at least not in this situation. I feel like I am coming to the end of the crazy, hectic summer. I had my last bake sale at Mom's and it was a good way to end, my best weekend all summer. But it feels really good to have that rat race come to an end. For those of you who wonder though? I love baking and for the most part this summer, it energized me. I will confess to a couple weeks in the thick of it feeling a little overwhelmed and stressed, but even at 10 PM as I'm cleaning up the kitchen and bagging bread, I was happy. D even noticed and commented. That's scary, because I'm suspicious that that happiness is not always present. I know it's not always present. And there's something to work on. One of these days I will try to get some pictures up and start actuall...

It was a beautiful evening, the kind you want to capture and hold close and remember. The sun was setting after a warm day, the wind was sending a cool breeze making the outdoor temperatures pretty much perfect. The children were enjoying being outside. The clouds were doing a dancing act in the sky. In particular, one big fluffy cloud kept being illuminated by the lightning streaks from behind it. It was fascinating to watch. The evening was further commemorated by a smore party around the first true campfire of the season. There were all the yummy smore fixings: graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate bars, Symphony bars, Kit Kats, Candy cane bars, peanut butter, and nutella. This was a real "smoregasboard". The wind was wreaking a bit of havoc with the smoke sending it swirling in all directions around the campfire making sitting down comfortably in one place a practice in perilous times. It was better to stand and be ready to move on around the circle when the smok...

So one of my goals for this year is to help sew on 36 to 48 quilt tops. Mom and I have a pretty good system down. We cut at her house, I take them home and sew as much as I can, she comes and irons while I sew. We get them all into blocks or strips, then she takes them home, sews the top together and adds the border. And then yesterday, in the middle of lots of ironing, my iron done did quite working.  It was sad in two ways. It was sad because we were on a roll, the littles were in bed and we were gonna get stuff done. It's sad in another way because it's a little extreme when an iron quitting can so completely disrupt one's day. But it was all good. We loaded up, I went with Mom back home, we sewed and ironed and then, (happy dance) D and I went on a date yet too.  Now that's turning lemons into lemonade, for me at least. Mom was left with the too-tired-to-be-good 3 year old.   Enroute to NJ, I believe. She spent about 20.5 hours in this seat on the way ou...

Hi, You may ask the question; "Why are you doing this?" The answer to that is, "I'm not sure." So here I am; I have just created a blog for myself. At this point, nobody knows I did this; nobody, but myself and God, and I'm not totally sure why I did this yet. I like to write; I like to journal; I like to put my thoughts down on paper. Why did I pick the world wide web? Maybe someday I want to have a famous blog where many people are hounding it daily to read what new brilliant idea I have come up with in the last 24 hours. But, to do that, I will need to tell someone about my blog. I told my husband I might do one; does that count? So, until that time in the future when I branch out and tell the world that I have a blog, I will come on here and chronicle some of the journey life and God are taking me on and no one will know. I kind of like that idea; though I am sure at some point I will want to tell people. It's kind of like Facebook and Xang...