My Easter Bonnet

For the first time in a few years I put up my Easter Tree!  I went out in the back and cut some pussy willows and forsythia. The buds were very tight, but after a few days in my warm dining room I had flowers. Also on the table are dishes leftover from another return to my former life - a tea party!

I left my job about 3 years ago. My long time neighbor has retired and she made friends with some new neighbors who are young, stay-at-home housewives. They began to meet on Friday mornings for coffee and invited me! When it was my turn, I invited them to a tea party. It was the first time they were ever served "real" tea and tea sandwiches and they were quite impressed. 

But what I really wanted to share was a recent purchase. I had won a gift certificate to a local "antique" mall and kept misplacing it. I found it a week ago and decided to spend it. I wandered through the store for an hour or two planning my purchases. 

I found a small vintage suitcase for a little more than I wanted to pay, but with the booth offering a 20% discount and my gift certificate (still overpriced after that) I purchased it to hold clothes for my Christmas present. My hubby bought me an American Girl Doll who is my namesake! And I have been busy outfitting her with vintage Pleasant Company clothes. 

 When I posted my bonnet on Facebook, a number of people who use their phones as computers thought it was a cake! Perhaps they need more sugar in their lives.

I am totally in love! I do have a small collection of vintage hats. I usually buy them at country auctions out of people's attics.  I try not to pay more than 2-3 dollars. But this one just called my name! It was around $15, which is so much more than I usually pay!

And you know what that led to . . . I had to order a new dress to match! I am pretty excited about showing it off on Easter Sunday!

I have been crazy busy the last few weeks. I hosted a baby shower for 45 ladies (young and old) for my youngest daughter, as well as a "diaper party" for her husband's friends and family. It was my first time using a caterer and honestly, it is less stressful for me to just do it myself. I am also teaching our church's confirmation class and somehow was put in charge (at the last minute) of a retreat for 20 teenagers the day before the shower. I wasn't really sure if I was coming or going. 

Needless to say, Easter is going to be a casual affair at my house this year (except for the bonnet). Confirmation is the week after and then I am looking forward to hosting my neighbor ladies for another tea. 

Happy Easter!

Current Score: Blue Team 6 - Pink Team 1

One of my favorite parts of being a gramma is dressing up my grandchildren (like little dolls) and having photos taken. This one always makes me smile. First because my husband is completing his 36th year on the railroad and second because those babies were not even in the picture. It turned out to be a cold and stormy day so we posed them one at a time in the bucket and they were photoshopped in. 

For Summer 2016 I knew I wanted Rockabilly. I scouted locations all summer and then pulled into my son's driveway one day and looked straight ahead at his 1920's garage. Later that month I stopped at Hobby Lobby and they had exactly 6 different metal signs in a grocery cart marked $1-$2 each. The rest was all in the top of our garage. Aren't they cute?

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And here is a snapshot from this year's Gramma Mimi's Wild West Cowboy Summer Camp.

AND here is our latest little bundle of joy! Oliver was born on Valentine's Day - almost three weeks early, but weighing a whopping 7 pounds!  Don't you just want to grab him out of the photo and cuddle!

And for those keeping score, that makes SIX grandsons and ONE granddaughter. I am still thinking pink, though. We are expecting grandchild number 8 in April and mom is keeping the flavor a surprise. 

Pride Goeth Before Destruction and an Haughty Spirit Before A Fall

Well, I must be getting pretty prideful and horribly haughty!

Actually, I had thought my life had gotten a little easier. I have been caring for some of my grandchildren; different ones on different days, but not really any days off. My son was bumped to second shift and I suddenly found myself with 2 1/2 days a week without children!

I decided to clean and organize my bookshelves. 

When we built our addition in 2004, my dear sweet husband built me a wall of bookshelves - all the way to the ceiling. These tough and sturdy shelves are two books deep and I file them just like the former library assistant that I am. Fiction is alphabetically by author, vintage children books and history at the very top and non fiction to the far right. 

I was moving along on my ladder, one set at a time. Moving all the books to my dining room table and the top of my toy shelves. 

Scrubbing the shelves and letting them dry. 

Dusting the books, sorting, culling, and re-shelving one section at a time. 

I was going like gang busters! Up and down the ladder, books piled here, books piled there. Gleaming shelves!

And then it happened. I had just gotten to this point - ready to start shelving M-P when

Well, actually I don't know what happened. I felt myself slipping with an armload of books. I fell toward the counter of the bookcase striking my left elbow and hand and bounced toward the sofa on my right. I thought I could catch myself, but pitched into a wooden bench striking my right hip, my legs tangled in the ladder, my foot then striking a chair and then I landed on my stomach on a box of picture frames. 

Unbelievably only bruised, nothing broken. 

But I am not sure when I will be finishing the bookcase project. 

Baking Christmas Cookies

I used to be quite the cookie baker when I was a stay home mom. I thought it just wasn't Christmas with at least a dozen varieties and different icings and decoration. I made cookie trays and cookie boxes as gifts and had dozens and dozens to serve on Christmas and the weeks that followed. 

I do remember one particular Christmas after I returned to work. I had mixed up a refrigerator full of different cookie dough to chill and the demands of five children, school plays, gift exchanges and my work schedule and the piles of laundry had left me no time to bake. My plan was to get up at about 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning so I could bake what I could before leaving for work and icing what needed icing after I got home. Behind my back, my dear, loving husband had tossed the dough (I could have never done this - what about the cost of the ingredients?) and picked up a tray of very nicely decorated cookies at the bakery to serve on Christmas. This is (and reasons like this) are why we are going to be celebrating 40 years of marriage next fall.  He balances my crazy, obsessive nature with a teaspoon of common sense. 

Meanwhile - this year I am babysitting for three of my favorite young men, my youngest grandchildren. This morning while his partners in crime (aged 14 months and 18 months) were napping, one of my favorite elves helped me bake some cookies. 

Using the step stool to reach the counter, he carefully put the store bought, sliced cookies on the baking sheet. 

My elf added decorative paper doilies to the Styrofoam plates so that the boys could take cookies home to their families. 

And there is our plate of cookies. Nothing fancy, not really "homemade" - but made with love and help from my favorite 3 year old. And we may not be making our own cookie dough, but we are making our own memories!