A Wonderful Addition.....

A few days ago I got a text from Indiana....a new baby joins the extended family. This little girl was born on April 12th ....  she would have been my Cousin Claudia's newest grandchild....and oh how Claudia would have wrapped her with love.

My dear cousin died a few years ago....cancer....and way too young. I miss her still....especially when I get news, even happy news, that I wish I could share with her. Her youngest son and his lovely wife welcomed this sweet baby into their arms. The two of them were engaged before Claudia died....but she missed their wedding. And now she missed the arrival of this sweet baby girl.

So to celebrate the addition to the Clark family and to help work through my renewed sadness I made another throw-on-the-floor baby quilt. It goes in the mail tomorrow. These are not perfect and sort of my version of a "Where's Waldo" quilt. My thought is always that once baby is old enough for tummy time she can lie on the quilt and explore the colors and find the fish or the bird or the car. She can find yellow, or red, or green.

I've made at least ten of these little throw-on-the-floor quilts for family and friends. I always have fun because they don't demand perfect corners or matched colors of any kind. But this one was also a bit of therapy for me.....grief therapy.   

The sadness and feeling of loss lessens of course....but sometimes that heart scab gets ripped off and the grief seems almost as fresh as the first day. I guess that's the way it works when you lose someone you love.

Welcome to the world little one.....I hope you have some fun exploring this little quilt even if you will hardly ever know who made it for you.

Ta Da!

April 28th and Wisconsin has not exactly enjoyed a warm spring. We've had a lot of days in the 40's...then a surprise 65....then back to high 30's....and then maybe 55 before settling back to low 40's. We get excited when we have a sunny day after mostly low, grey cloud cover. My constant refrain (after living in the mid-Atlantic states where spring lasted SIX WEEKS!) is that in Wisconsin "Spring comes on a Wednesday."

But I know it's coming.....birds are singing in the trees when I walk Fen first thing in the morning, rabbits are racing all over the place, squirrels are chasing each other up and down trees. And yesterday, when I walked over to Lake Michigan for a change of scenery I spotted it....a yard with some flowers in bloom!

Tiny blue ones peeking out through left-over leaves.

And other purposely planted in a bed next to the house.

Yea! I've noticed some small buds on some of the trees so I know that within a few more days green will begin to take over. Someone remind me of my "spring complaints" when it hits 90+ and the humidity climbs in August. Right now I'm just looking for a steady 65 degrees or so.

Stupid Pink and Blue Lines....

Dave started feeling "coldy" on Wednesday, took some medicine and sat around resting and watching TV. He was all stuffed up and coughing.....and since we are supposed to leave on an RV trip Tuesday I kept my distance! He wore a mask when he left the apartment to walk Fenway because he didn't want to share his germs with our neighbors.

Friday I got a telephone call from an Eastcastle board member....she was curious about how we'd started our successful Ukraine fundraising effort and we had a nice long chat. At one point in the conversation she told me she'd been a board member for a long time but had never met me. I explained we were pretty new to the community. She then explained that she'd had COVID the week before her call so hadn't been over to ECP for a while. She said she started with a runny nose and just felt coldy. Two of her friends told her to get tested and sure enough, it was COVID.

I hung up the phone and got one of the self-tests out of the bathroom drawer and Dave followed the directions. Yep, the stupid pink line on the test strip ended up close to the blue line so it's not a cold. He has COVID. I tested myself but the results showed I am negative.

Sheesh.....two vaccines, two boosters and here we go. 

So I now share our two bedroom apartment with a man in a mask. He will be living in the bedroom with the small TV for a few days. 

And we wonder about our planned RV trip.....leaving on Tuesday??? Or not.

Donations.....

Just after Russia invaded Ukraine I was wondering what I could do....one person all the way across the globe. Watching the news with pictures and interviews was so difficult, just heartbreaking. It made me feel so angry that the Russian bully was flexing his muscles and sending hundreds and hundreds to their death. The strength of Ukraine's citizens was more than inspiring....but they are up against such huge odds.

I knew we could send a contribution to a reputable charity and so many organizations were doing good work there....but I wasn't sure how to get our small donation to the right group without having it "diluted" by administrative costs. I wanted our contribution to benefit the people fleeing Ukraine and/or staying behind to fight for their homeland.

A Milwaukee television station did a story on local churches sending contributions so I ended up calling the Ukranian Catholic Church on the south side. I talked to a staff member there who explained that they were actively accepting donations for Ukraine and working with an organization in Poland to get what was needed. She said that once a week they received a list of the ten most needed supplies, purchased them here and sent them to Poland. On that end the organization delivered them to refugee camps or got boxes across the border and into Ukraine. She said 100% of the money donated went to either purchasing what was needed or paying for shipping....not one cent went toward any kind of administrative costs.

After talking to her I was still thinking that our small donation would hardly make a difference. Then I remembered just how generous Eastcastle residents had been with holiday donations around Christmas. The big Toys for Tots and food pantry boxes were filled and emptied over and over again. I talked to ECP's Executive Director and then our Director of Philanthropy. Suddenly we had a collection box at the front desk. Donations were completely voluntary and the box would be emptied just after Easter....and then one check would be sent to the church as ECP's contribution.

I have been more than thankful for the response to this small effort. Our blue box is going to make a difference.

As of April 18th we had a total of just over $5,600. This was so much more than I ever expected and I am just so moved, once again, by my thoughtful and caring neighbors. Eastcastle Place is a real community and a good place to live.

Gut Reaction....

Scrolling through my on-line "news" feed this morning and after a few photos for the stories of the day an ad appeared. This was for a new retirement community....a picture of a lovely home. I have no idea where this is, but it looks very upscale. We are settled and comfortable so I scrolled on to the next story.

The photo heading this article was a punch to the gut....and another reminder that not everyone's home is a safe space.

How many Ukrainian cities, towns and neighborhoods will be destroyed before this god-awful war is stopped. The immoral leader of Russia can't be eliminated too soon....I don't know how or when this might happen....but I have to hope that it will and someone with an ounce of humanity will take over.

What a nightmare.....

Plenty of Free Time.....

I've been retired since 2010 and looking back it's been a busy 11+ years! We've been fortunate to do a lot of traveling, had fun times spent with family and friends and enjoyed good health. Then, last October, we moved to a retirement community which meant I had even more free time to do the things I enjoy....no cooking!

So when my friend next door, Eileen, and I decided to pick a day to go to a local museum so we could see the Downton Abbey costume exhibit while it was here in Milwaukee we figured it would be easy to find a day and buy the tickets. I took my calendar over to her apartment and we started to look for a day that would work for both of us.

We started mentioning options and one day after another was a "no" for a commitment on my calendar or one on hers. We ended up flipping the page to an "emptier" May and chose the 19th.

Who would have thought that retirement would be this busy!  :-)