Our Thanksgiving

I'm not getting on to moan about our Thanksgiving Day. I have plenty to be thankful for, and I am thankful for so many things.

Our thankfulness is overshadowed though with news of my husband's mother. She went in the hospital Wed. morning, and is still in tonight. She was not able to share Thanksgiving dinner with us and we missed her.

I just got off the phone with my father-in-law and he said she just got out of surgery. Hopefully, they were able to fix some leaking around a shunt near her liver. She's been bleeding internally and they haven't been able to figure out what the problem is. She is very ill this time. She is in desperate need of a liver transplant, but I fear she's too ill at this point to even get one.

I am frustrated with waiting. My FIL is a loner much of the time. He doesn't want to "put us out" to have us drive all the way in to the hospital with all 3 kids, only to find she's gone the whole time for procedures. We wouldn't mind going in, but he does seem to want to go through this in his own way. I feel so helpless just sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. So, I leave it up to my husband to make the decisions about when to go in to see her or not. It's hard for me to just wait.

I did call her on the phone today (finally got her, since she was out of her room most of the day.) She could hardly talk to me, and most of the time she was not even thinking clearly. Plus, she was simply too weak to speak.

So, I wait and I pray. And I wish I had given her quilt to her long before now. I was saving it for Christmas. Then, a week ago, I decided to give it to her for her birthday/Thanksgiving, since we aren't exchanging Christmas gifts this year. And now, I wonder if she's too sick to know when I give it to her. I made a custom personalized quilt label for it 2 nights ago, but I can't show the pic here since it's got personal names on it. (If you want to see the label, email me and I'll send it to you. It was an iron-on, colored in with crayons and set with a hot iron. It turned out really nice.)

So, I'm off to pray some more. And hope we get to see her tomorrow at the hospital, feeling better than she has for the last several days.

Mother's Day in Review

I had a lovely Mother's Day. My family remembered! That's major progress, I can assure you. They got me a huge greeting card, and a red rose.

But that's not all. Hubby blessed me with a brand new sewing machine, of which I don't know how I was even quilting without it. I had to do my own legwork to find the machine I wanted, which took a couple weeks, but it was all worth it.

You local ladies are welcome to come over and take a gander at it. You know the invitation's open!

It's Advent

This is our first year observing Advent. We will be celebrating the observation of Jesus' birth. So far so good. We started the book "Jotham's Journey" tonight which is a book specifically for reading during the Advent Season. We tried to read this book a couple years ago, and they just weren't ready. But tonight the kids were wonderfully quiet and I like to think attentive too! This is a picture of our Advent wreath. It is a very simple home made job, thanks in part to my friend M. Hers looks better than mine! In lieu of a nativity set, I am using our Betty Luken's felt set. I'll post pictures of it later. Happy Advent, everyone!

Preparing for Advent

I attended an Advent Workshop last night with a friend of mine. Thanks H for telling me initially, and to M for the reminder! What is an Advent Workshop? Well, it was a talk and a demonstration presented by a Christian mother with a wish to share her family's special Advent traditions with other families. Advent is the time leading up to Christmas. She was so energetic and inspiring. I can't wait to implement some of her ideas with my own family. I have always tried to present Christmas as the observation of Jesus' birth. I know it is not His real birthday, but I would still rather reinforce the memory of Jesus' magnificent gift to us, than focus on the commercialized counterfeit version of Christmas. I don't want my kids to grow up materialistic and shallow. How much better if they could be generous and giving of themselves, spreading Christ's cheer to others.

So, now the task of putting some ideas into practice. This part may be a little more tough. I am not a "traditions" kind of gal. Maybe because of my personality, maybe my own upbringing, or even having a hubby that isn't very sentimental? (He has even been called a "humbug" before, by various friends and family members, though not by me, of course!!) I will attempt to have enough enthusiasm to carry my family through some new ideas. I'm off to find an advent wreath and some candles. I will use our flannel graph set in lieu of a nativity set. It should work just fine!