What happened to cause such emotional stress... My wife and I had to make a tough decision... We decided to leave the Children's Choir that we and our kids have been involved in for over 8 years. If it were completely our choice, it would be much easier, but the truth is we didn't have much choice.
There are some principles which I simply can not and will not compromise. We were basically in a situation where we had to compromise our ethics, or walk away. We withdrew our kids and we agreed to completely walk away. I still can't believe it came to this, but it did.
On the positive side, as I told Trish, "Well, honey, you are now going to have an extra 20 hours per week to dedicate to something else, and I'll have another 8-10!" My son immediately chimed in and proclaimed, "You should be thrilled Dad, now you can start quilting on Thursday nights again!" He is right, I can, and I plan to.
I will start next week. I have a few things I need to do tonight. I can't wait. Of course, Trish pointed out to Jonathon that he also now had nothing to do on Thursday evenings and asked him if he would be joining me and learn to quilt! I don't think I've heard him so "NO" so quickly in a long time.
All that aside, we have had a bunch of other "fun" stuff happen... We learned that the stray kitten my son brought in a few weeks before Christmas is actually a very small, but full grown 1.5 year old cat. And she's pregnant! Here we were nursing this skinny kitten back to health so we could give her away, and now we are going to have who knows how many kittens to get rid of... On a positive note, the doctor did say we had done a great job with her and gave her a clean bill of health. She looks much better now than she did when Josh brought her home.
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| Misty - Our Pregnant "Kitten"! |
CMQG had a swap last month, and I haven't posted about it because the night of the swap, I never got home before the meeting and I wasn't able to bring my swap item, but I plan to bring it tonight, so it is now safe to post it. My partner was Vicki, and she brought some very bright orange batiks for me to work with.
We made sewing caddies to sit under our machines and hang down in front with pockets for goodies. We received a pattern, but I did my own thing. It's the rebel in me, what can I say?!
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| Here it is hanging from my machine. The oranges were provided by Vicki, I added the Kona Gray. Note the decorative stitching on the bottom... Another feature of my fancy new sewing machine. Two buttons to push and away I went. |
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| A Point of View photo. |
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| Here is where I went on my own agenda... I added one large pocket for stuffing threads, fabric cuttings, etc. |
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| On the front of the large pocket are three more pockets for storing scissors, tape measure, seam rippers, or whatever you might need close at hand. |
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| Look at this nice presentation... A nice touch! Of course the bow looked much nicer when I first received it. I tried to re-do it for this pic but... I know how to sew, knot tying... Not so much! |
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| When we were talking with our partners, she asked me where I considered "Home", to which I replied that Columbus is now where I have lived for more than half of my life. I thought it was an odd question, but now I understand. Note the print fabric... Cities from all over the globe! |
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| And a photo of the Columbus Skyline right on front. |
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| I started looking for cities I have / haven't been to, there are a lot here... |
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| Three small pockets, one large one. My Ghinger scissors fit perfectly into the center one. |
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| I had happened to mention my sewing machine during our conversation, she actually looked up the dimensions on the web and made it to fit perfectly! HOW COOL IS THAT!! |
Until Next Time,
Paul
You have a gorgeous kitty there. Look at her glowing eyes, just gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for your rough 3 weeks and sorry for your pain but so very PROUD to know here's yet another American who's willing to stand up for what's right & actually DO what he knows is the right thing. As they say, you can't go through mud without getting some of it on you and you've avoided that. I'd love to have you come visit at heirloomquilting. blogspot.com!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful cat...I'm sure she will have beautiful kittens as well! On the quilty side - those are great machine partners!
ReplyDeleteHi, Paul! I'm glad you enjoyed your sewing caddy so much! I blogged about it over on my blog: http://adventuresinfabricland.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/day-2-12-days-of-christmas/
ReplyDeleteIt was tons of fun to make and I'm looking forward to our next CMQG swap. It was nice meeting you!