Quilting retreat

I went to a quilting retreat this weekend with one of  my daughters. 

I went solo last year and stayed the weekend. I also went to a retreat by myself in January and stayed the weekend. If I am by myself I stay. 

This year, with daughter to drive, we came home each night and ended a day early. She did all the driving. 

So, she took Friday off and we arrived just as the weekend started at 10am Friday. 

About 5pm Friday, I hit my limit and was very tired. We headed for home. We arrived home 1 hour and 15 minutes later. We then had our whole evenings, as if it were a slightly late work night. 

We arrived at 9am Saturday, just as most people were getting going. We were there in time for the 9:30am group photo. 

We shopped briefly at three places Saturday morning. If I had been by myself, the shopping would have been much quicker, but that was okay. 

We took all our own food, so we were actually at the event (in the room) much more than most other people who both shopped and ate at restaurants. 

I got very tired, again about 5pm Saturday, we packed up and headed for home. 

My husband packed both dogs in daughter’s car, on our driveway, and headed to her house. Daughter and I met him at her house, she unloaded her stuff, husband got in my car with me and we headed home. He then unpacked my stuff. 

We did not go back Sunday, people start packing and leaving for home about noon, the event is cleaned up and over by 3pm. I find Sundays at a retreat awkward. 

This worked well for us, we plan to do it this way again next spring. 

For the January 2027 retreat, I am finding a buddy or two to go with me. I am going a day early so all my driving and unloading is Thursday. I am taking my own food. And I plan to come home early Sunday while I feel good to drive. 

Here is a tiny border that squeaked in just under the weather

A couple weeks ago, I dug up the vinca bed.

Vinca is also known as periwinkle. (1st picture below which I used in my ad, in that concentrated picture, it looks nice, as a whole bed, not so much).

I dug 1/3 of the vinca bed last spring, cleaned out some invading grass, and then replanted the vinca. I still just did not like it.

While I have other ground cover beds that I love (pachysandra, lily of the valley, ivy), the vinca bed just always looked messy. Even weed free, it was not very clean looking. And it seemed like a waste of a bed.

A neighbor, who has lovely gardens, was over and concurred. In fact at her old house she had done the same thing and eliminated a bed of vinca.

So two Thursday’s ago I posted a “free vinca” ad on Facebook Marketplace. And by Friday, when I had two people willing to pick up that afternoon, I started digging.

My mother came and helped me.

So much vinca! (In the 2nd  picture below with the pool and the cardboard and the wheelbarrow, one person had already picked up two huge boxes full.)

Both people came to pick up the plants. In fact one of them made a second trip for the rest.

It was a very big job, but by the end of the day, it was tidy again (3rd picture).

In fact middle and I rented an edger and cleaned up the lines all along the sidewalk and driveway that same night (4th picture). So it was really tidy.

This past Friday, my mother helped me plant a border in the old vinca bed (5th picture). It has 11 liropa as the outer border. 40 Grape hyacinth bulbs were planted as a second (inner) border (so as the grape hyacinth is dying back, the liropa will come up and cover it).

Rather than digging holes, I dug two wide trenches. I removed all the dirt. My mother planted (the liropa are 12” apart) and then I filled both trenches with good dirt. Tidy again.

I am planting Impatients (annuals which flower all summer) next spring to fill in the back of that bed.  Probably solid white impatients. Maybe light yellow.

Assuming nobunny eats any of it, it should be lovely. And being so defined, and full, it should be easy to maintain.

Friday my mom and I went on to get the last things in the ground before the weather turns.

Two day-lilies on the east side of the house (starts from a neighbor). That first neighbor also gave me the grape hyacinth bulbs. She also had given me all the daisies that went in another border several weeks ago. She has massive beds.

And we planted a Hosta (I had admired) start from another neighbor. That second neighbor was gifted the rest of my liropa.

It pays to have gardening friends. Everyone likes to rehome plant starts as they garden.

We will have extended family here over the holidays.

And most everyone loves games. That is what we do when we have a house full.

I listen to several podcasts. And games have been mentioned.

I got three for this year:

Note, youngest and her college friends went thru the Meme cards and removed the ones which were more gross than funny. We now have three stacks - PG, MA funny, MA gross. Same college kids have been playing these games, so youngest knows how to do all of them before family plays.

Also note: prices have gone up on a couple of these since I ordered.

My card box

I looked back a couple years and did not see a picture of my card box posted. I can't remember what year I did this, so it might be a repeat.



We keep empty bins in the attic. I am talking about plastic storage bins with lids. Our life with bins changes. Sometimes bins are still good, but are no longer needed or have been replaced. I KEEP those outdated bins, because they almost always come in handy again.



My cards were stored in a bin, in no particular order up until a few years ago. Just piled in a bin. If you needed a card, you had to dig. Envelopes had gotten separated from their matching card. A mess.

One day I decided the "no order" part was really bugging me, probably after I bought a card only to discover later that I had one for the same occasion.



I would not say I use cards a lot. But I do use them on occasion.

I might have bought a storage bin to reorganize the cards, but I think I actually found the perfect one in the attic.

I also already had the hanging file folders.

I remember sitting upstairs, watching TV one night, sorting cards, finding matching envelopes, and making my box.

You can tell we are Catholic from this box. Of the seven sacraments, I have file folders for four.

Seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony, and Holy Orders.

Interesting fact - Last Rites has been replaced as Anointing of the Sick. I do have sympathy cards, but I didn't count that as part of my four.




Every card in the box is with its matching envelope. The envelope file has extra envelopes.



Everyone in my house now uses this file box. It lives in the cupboards in our computer room. Extremely handy.




If I buy a cards, in advance, for a specific person/event, I use a bulldog clip to attach it to the right page on my big calendar that hangs on the refrigerator. Right now there are two birthday cards there, for upcoming months.




I also bulldog clip tickets to calendar pages. We go to a lot of events. A lot of tickets come through this house. If anyone needs them, that is where they always are.

2 new card games, geriatric cards, our favorite games

Middle came home from college loving Fluxx. She and her boy had played it at (freshman year, bonus baby) friends' house. We ordered this game for middle from Amazon. Fun. (This is a game that has to be played around a table where everyone can see cards. The game rules and goals change as players put down cards. Have to be able to see all those cards. So this is an "around the kitchen table with good light and paying attention" game.)



Oldest played Monopoly Card game at his friends' house and loved it. The card game is in keeping with the spirit of the board game, just much faster, simpler, smaller. Bought one set for home and another set for middle. Oldest has his own. We all seriously love this game.




Other card games we play with regular decks -

If there are four of us, we play Euchre. This is a very popular game in Indiana. It is oldest's favorite.

If there are a lot of us, and an even number, we play Canasta in teams. Usually girls against guys. This is played with many decks dumped together. We have a large bag of cards we use for this game. (Picture below) This is my favorite card game. Only four hands, but it takes a while.

If we are at a restaurant, we often play Golf. The games are short. Each person plays with six cards in front of them. Youngest loves this one too. Inevitably someone forgets, turns over their last card, without meaning to end the game.

If there are 5 of us, we often play Hearts. It is a good restaurant game too. We also think of this as our train station game. We played it at the Washington DC train station (in the cafe section) a couple years ago.

We play Tic, a lot. There are 14 hands so it takes a while. We have been known to save score sheets to finish a game later. We have been known to save score sheets to prove who won an epic game.

We play Gin or Gin Rummy if there are just a couple of us.

We also play Crazy 8's. Does not require a lot of room or brain power.

Middle loves Speed if she can find a partner. Most of us will not play her, she is too fast, even if we restrict her to left hand only.

Youngest's favorite is Kings in the Corner. Need a flat surface (table, floor, bed) to play. She has been playing this since age 3-4.

This is our bag of Canasta Cards. These are all old decks which no longer shuffle easily, or cards which have had water spilled on them and no long lay flat, or decks which are difficult to read. Full decks always including wild cards go in this bag. I am not sure how many decks are included.

Middle calls these the geriatric playing cards. We buy them at Walgreens.

Regular playing card on left. Geriatric card is on right. Much easier to see with bifocals, in bad lighting, from a distance. Three decks of geriatric cards live in my glove compartment. Three more live on the kitchen table. The three decks consist of two blue and one red. So then we can (easily) pull out the red for two decks of blue. Or play with all three decks. Or pull out the red for one deck. Because different games, number of people, require a different number of decks. And we are often playing with a lot of different combinations of people over the course of a week/weekend.

Gretchen's Relationship/Socialization/Family Improvement posts

If you missed them, they were very good. Very good.
This link will take you to the whole collection.

pictures as gifts

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. 
Eudora Welty 




 I am not going to post the pictures here as they are full of other people's kids.

We have a wonderful shot of youngest's whole, 8th grade, graduating class after the luncheon last week.

And we have a fabulous shot of middle's, whole, high school class tossing their caps after high school graduation on Friday night.

Both pictures are very unique and not something most families would have.

I have always been good about having extra prints made when other people's kids are in our pictures and then giving the prints to the families. I have been doing this for 16 years. In the times when I was not having pictures developed on a timely basis and had things printed years later, I still passed on belated pictures to families. 

We have over a dozen envelopes, with pictures and a note, going out in today's mail to youngest's closest 8th grade friends. A copy of the really great group shot, in addition to other candid shots including the kid, are stuffed in each envelope. Some envelopes only contain 2 pictures, other envelopes have half a dozen, but each friend is receiving something.

We have a stack of the high school cap toss pictures sitting by the back door. As middle attends graduation open houses, she is giving each friend a card and a copy of the picture. The picture, in my opinion, will be truly cherished. It is a great shot of the kids. (We sat on the end of a row on the far outside edge of the facility at graduation, when the kids were just about to dismiss, my husband went scooting up the aisle/unseen and was outside waiting for the kids to emerge. He was standing there camera ready and was able to get a series of 4 pics as they gathered and tossed. One of the toss pictures is priceless.)

I probably mentioned this in 2008: A mom was gathering pictures for 8th grade class video when middle graduated. The mom called me and said - I have photos here from over 80 families and there is NO comparison between the quality of your family pictures and everyone else's pictures. Your family shots are so much better, what are you doing differently?

I said (at that time) my husband was still taking pictures with an old fashioned 35mm camera. I said my husband took dance pictures for a photography studio as a part time job in college. He has that kind of eye and is most excellent. Middle also has that kind of eye and takes great shots. We only get good pictures developed. Now that we have good quality digital (not the digital that first came out), and can check on scene, the quality of our pictures has improved even more.

And we have always had our pictures developed by a photography place. So we go to a store whose only business is photography. They are most excellent. They have a small studio and will take family portraits and passport pictures also, but the vast majority of their business is developing pictures.

I started out taking in rolls of film. Now I download camera into our computer, a full copy is saved on hard drive and a second copy is saved on back up hard drive. And then I upload pictures into the website for the store and order my pictures on line. I use the slow download option so the quality is as high as possible. So, every one of our pictures are stored in three places. We get a discount on all pictures printed by buying a membership. The membership normally pays for itself with the first order.

All this month, with a million things going on, I walked in the door from each event and downloaded/uploaded pictures immediately. I also ordered the pictures immediately. This week I ordered pictures nearly every day. The pictures  have all been picked up from the store and all of them/100% of them are either in a photo album, in an envelope ready to be mailed, or are the stack of cap pictures sitting by the backdoor.

If I had waited until the end of the week,
1. I would have had a lot of pictures to download/upload/order/sort. And
2. it is possible someone might have hit the wrong button on the camera and deleted pictures (middle who is very good with camera settings had this happen when she was in Poland and lost 2 days worth of really great pictures, pains her to this day, because the other kids' photos were not of the same quality).
3. it would have been hanging over my head and making me feel behind about things. I could do this photo work even with my broken foot!

Kids are able to post pictures on their Facebook pages on a very timely basis. The cap toss picture was up before middle went to bed graduation night.

I still give kids' friends hard copy prints even though things are posted on Facebook. There is nothing like having a picture, in your hand, in my opinion.



PS - there was a professional photography at oldest's and middle's graduations. I ordered a download of their pictures instead of ordering actual prints.This is the first time I knew to do this. It started because the photographer for the oldest only had wallets and then 5x7's as their smallest print size. Our photo albums all use 4x6. After emailing back and forth with a non-helpful customer service rep, a helpful customer service rep said - do you realize you can order a download and then have any size you like printed locally? No, I did not know that. I had clicked directly on the Order Prints option and had been solely focused on lack of size options. So, when the on-line order opened up for middle's graduation, as soon as I verified that only wallets and 5x7's were available (different photographer but same options), then I looked for download option. Yes, I paid between $35-40 for each download, but now I have them.