WEEKENDING { part 1 }

i have been enjoying a wonderful weekend with my #1 guy.

we are slowly digging through the house and storage unit to down size.

first thing to go is the storage unit......yahoo!

i went to the unit yesterday for the first time and was thrilled with what i found { more on that later }.

so home i went to go through old trunks and look at what needed to go...{ to my children }.

and i found plenty of wonderful things for all my children to take.

tomorrow we start moving furniture....yahoo a second time !

i love sunflowers

these are in my living room and i smile every time i walk past them.

friday i was gifted some fresh eggs.

to me this is like winning the lottery.

beautiful browns and light green eggs...

and were they yummy.

to my friends out east:

stay safe and dry.

you all are in my prayers!

COWS

cows are one of my favorite animals ! their eyes always seem to be speaking and when they run, well now that is a sight. 

they are so connected to our food system, dairy products and meat ;)

both of these wonderful food products are from these amazing  animals.

and sister these animals are big!

but oh those eyes...........

the above cows belong to john g.  of lancaster,pa.

YARN ALONG

i started this sweater  [ Harvest Moon ] on vacation this past august, made a huge mistake and had to frog most of the sweater.

then i just kinda got tired of counting the rows put it aside and started, then finished another shawl.

but now i'm back on and almost done with the body and 

i love it !!
when i'm done i will post all the details of Harvest Moon;)

lately i'm very into reading,

i tend to read novels in spurts

because when i read a novel nothing else gets done till i am done with the last page, last sentence, last word.

yes i get very single minded when reading a good book.

but this is what i have been reading.

i recommend all of them;)

linking up with giny

and

yarn along !

happy wednesday.

oh dear, have to run 

i'm late for work

and it is only 5:20 am ;(

CLIMBING HIGHER and THINKING OUTSIDE of the BOX

i survived the past week !

yes i knew i would, the alternative was not a realistic option.

but i have spent the last two days sleeping it seems every spare minute i could find.

yes, the past several weeks around work has felt like an uphill climb.

and i'm terrified of heights!

relationships broken...

on committees that forced me outside of my comfort zone....

very outside my comfort zone !

[ presentation in front of large group that are not in my peer group]!

trying to repair some relationships...

will take some time..

my knees get weak, feel like jello....

then i start having visions of free falling......

forever down into the abyss.

i know i'm stressed when i start dreaming this "free fall" dream.

yup, when i start dreaming that dream it is time to circle my wagons,

regroup,

reorganize 

review my priorities,

write it out if need be,

and get back on MY track,

and off what i call the

treadmill of life.

i have spent the week end doing just that, with encouragement from family and friends.

[ thank you Alice for being a wonderful friend and checking up on me].

and today i am hosting my quilt group

serving pie from my daughter's MEOHMY pies

and getting back into my groove.

hoping you are having a peaceful sunday!

YARN ALONG

lately my life seems over the top with stress  and wondering what my job will look like in a year from now.

[ if you haven't noticed medicine in the US is going to look different in the very near future. this is not a bad thing, just can be painful getting there].

this week i am in meetings 8+ hours a day trying to " get us there".

summing up these meetings =

excitement and STRESS.

so to counteract the stress level i am knitting on all my breaks and any down time that is appropriate to pull the needles out.

i notice people just star at me with that look " what is she doing" not a lot of questions but we are only half way through the week.

my perfect world hope/dream is to have everyone knitting by the end of the week...hehe.

i'm very into amish reads currently

both these books i highly recommend.

separate from the world is a mystery

money secrets of the amish is how they view money.

 knitting a stephan west shawl 

love love his patterns.

 knitting with brown sheep from my stash-----another big yahoo for me.

linking up with yarn along

BEGINNING OF FALL

i know it is the end of summer and the beginning of fall when the flower pots are looking like they are sooo tired.

the earth under my feet is crunching and a different kind of color is dominating the scapes.

suddenly all i want to cook is soup and pot roast..

and use my jewel-t dishes. 

love these dishes, my mom started collecting them for me when i first got married over 33 years ago.

she is gone now but i think of her with warm memories every time i use these fall dishes.

thanks mom!

AMISH COUNTRY

the amish use no electricity in their homes

so on wash day amish hang all their clothes out on the line.

it is a beautiful site the laundry hung from the house to a pole far out in the yard.

clothes grouped together

adult clothing, followed by the children biggest to smallest.

a world of intent and organization.

i could of pulled over beside every amish farm house and gazed at their laundry.

for some reason i find amish clothes line very soothing.

a visual slow down statement !

the amish use a pulley system to hang their laundry. 

i took these pictures to show my husband in hopes of being able to install this line in my yard.

{ won't the HOA love this }

another past time is fishing 

[ i couldn't take any pictures of the amish close up.

i love this culture and to photograph their faces would be disrespectful ]

the little boy sitting on the cooler caught the fish and was thrilled to show us his cat fish.

i can see his big eyes full of excitement and that smile on his face....joy!

at the fair. this women was on her way [ quickly i might add ] to collect her small child after the greased pig contest.

here in lancaster they grease the kids arms and not the pig ;)

watching the grease pig contest.

an amish buggy

amish buggies are small to get into..

[ or i am just getting too big ;( ]

oh joy i fit. getting in is harder than i thought. they are very small inside and are on metal springs that move A LOT. having not ever gotten in a buggy i was a little weary of them.

but what fun i had being inside. 

an amish buggy is made locally, only about 12 builders in the county. 

cost about 7000-7500 dollars. 

horse cost 3000-4000 dollars.

this buggy i am sitting in is about 20 years old.

the horses generally do not out survive the buggy.

i was amazed by what the amish can pack into one of these buggies.

jake the owner of this buggy said 900 pounds was the limit for a buggy horse to pull and only a short distance. 

cover bridges also call out to me.

days of old, slowness, calmness

and absolutely beautiful.

only one car at a time can pass through these old bridges.

would of loved to have heard a buggy on the bridge...

iron wheels turning and horses hoofs clip clopping.

lancaster for me is better than any therapist i could visit. 

it is watching real people in their world 

i feel my shoulders dropping

the lines on my forehead smoothing out

and i am exhaling..

thank you lancaster [ helen, glen, alice, alica,  jake, lydia,

orphra, dave, and anyone else i missed]  for a wonderful time.

hope to return soon.

THE QUILTS THAT FLEW TO PENNSYLVANIA

i love to make quilts....no surprise to those who have been reading my blog for sometime.

and lately i'm really enjoying making "modern" looking quilts! traditional quilts have always been what i have made but mixing things up is so good for my soul.

and these colors made my heart sing.

my goal was to use colors outside my comfort zone, to use the fabrics all up,

 to design my own backs and to machine quilt all three quilts.

i also designed the fronts of two of the quilts.

mission accomplished ;)

the pictures are not the best, { sorry }- i forgot to take pictures till it was rather late in the evening.

oh well, but aren't those girls cute!

LAMPETER COUNTY FAIR

meet dilly and pickles.

these goats were shown at the lampeter fair by jenna [ daughter of  "happily married to...the cows"] 

hope i have this correct

meet pickles

and dilly

such great names for goats

before jenna showed her goats we decided to cruise around and see some other animals.

cows of course being my favorite ! 

not sure what it is about cows but i just love them.

not that i want one, just like looking at them.

and did i get an education about milking cows, all week long i had questions about milking cows.

i'm sure i sounded like some "silly city girl". which is true...i was raised in a big city and thought as a child that milk came from the jewel store.

who would of thought then that milk really did come from cows ! truth be told , i just never thought about it one way or the other.

these cows were about to be shown at the fair and the judges like to see them with their "bags full".

it hurts to look at these girls, that has to be uncomfortable.

and the mooing going on in this barn...

honey i feel your pain !

some just had to put their head down and take another bite hay.

love this chicken taking a ride on the back of a woolly sheep :)

off to be judged....i'm feeling her pain ;(

found some good seats and watched the goat judging.

ladies this is hard work for these kids.

goats do not always corporate and some of these kids were smaller than their goats.

jenna did a great job and won a second place ribbon.

congrats to you jenna

all your hard work paid off.

a little square dancing

yes, the amish came to the fair and were they fun to watch.

happy saturday to everyone

i have to finish getting my garden "in" and "up".

i'm loving this cool weather

how about you !