A Fine Woman

A woman can pack a lot of living into 90 years.

Ruth Kimball was 90 when she passed away on Friday. She was quite a woman. Ruth was a 4-H leader for many, many years, leading so many young people in so many good ways. I met her through her grandson and his wife (my neighbors) and her daughters. She was part of my Circle of Home and Family group, and I feel honored to have known her, however little. If the crowd at the funeral home tonight, the line around the room, across the hall, around two more rooms, out the door and down the sidewalk is any indication, I am not alone feeling that way.

I had only met 'Gram' a few times before she started greeting me with a hug. She was always more interested in what was going on with me or my children than in telling me how she was. She was the kind of person that would always go out of her way to help people, the kind of person you could always ask for advice, the kind of person who would put together a quilt whenever one was needed. Dependable, responsible, funny, considerate. That was Ruth. Just plain good Yankee stock, I'd say. And a heck of a good cook to boot.

A woman from our Circle of Home and Family group called to ask me to make some sandwiches for the luncheon after the funeral tomorrow, which I did after I got home from the wake tonight. My husband hates the smell of tuna, and I can't say that it was really what I felt like doing after I got home. But it seemed such a small and easy thing to do, the kind of thing that Ruth would have done without anyone even asking her. I'm grateful to live in the kind of community where they still do this kind of thing, the phone calls to gather the food and so forth.

When someone dies at age 90, it is easy to say that they had a full life and it is sad, but what can you expect. But it is also true that the more years you have with someone the more memories you have stored up, the more you will notice their absence. I hope for her family and friends that all those memories will be good ones, that the difficulties of the last couple of months will fade in their memories quickly, and that Ruth's legacy will live on for many years to come. I am glad I had the chance to know her.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Last Thursday night I was hoping for a snow day on Friday. A day off so I could work on my curriculum project for my class, finish it on Friday and have Sunday off to do something fun.

Well, I got a day off, alright, and then days and days without power to boot. Instead of snow we got ice. Lots of it. Every outdoor surface covered. It was beautiful. Just beautiful and dazzling. And awful.

We got our power back today, just about a week after we lost it. My brother brought a generator down on Saturday, so we could plug in the heater and a lamp, but in between was lots of running around, eating out, trying to get the generator started on the coldest day, filling water bottles so we could flush the toilet, and so on. Thank heavens for our close friends down the hill who were going through the same thing. We were in contact all the time, looking out for each other and finding strength in our common plight!

We are so thankful for our electricity today, for all the small things, like turning on a light switch, flushing the toilet and washing our hands under running water. It was a good experience in many ways, but tough too.

So be careful what you wish for! You might get more than you ever thought possible.

One of My Favorite Sites

I love to sew. My mother taught my when I was about 8 or 10, and I've been sewing ever since. It is one of the most valuable things she has taught me (and she's taught me a lot!).

My favorite sewing site is Sense and Sensibility, which is a pattern company. Jennie Chancey, the owner, sells historically inspired (and accurate) patterns for several different eras. I've used several of her patterns. The Regency dress, of course, is the one I've used the most, but I've also made items from her Edwardian apron, the Romantic era pattern, and the Regency Spencer. I love her directions - they make it seem like Jennie is right there, looking over your shoulder, and anticipating your questions before you ask them. Her patterns are the ones that Simplicity produced for their Regency patterns, too!

Now she's got a new deal - e-patterns! For a small fee, you can download some of her patterns and print out the pieces yourself! How cool is that?! Now you don't have to pay for shipping, and you don't have to wait for the pattern to come in the mail. Here's the link to her site and the e-patterns: http://www.sensibility.com/pattern/main/?page_id=50

I have recommended her Regency gown pattern many times to people who wanted to have dresses of that style, and now I think it is great that there is such an easy way to have her patterns in hand very quickly. It was funny a year or so ago to go see a local stage production of Pride and Prejudice and notice very quickly that the women were all wearing dresses made from Jennie's patterns!

One of the other great things about Jennie's site is that she has a fabulous forum. I check out the discussion boards almost every day, and have 'met' many nice women there. They are sew helpful with any sewing questions, whether they are historical in nature as well, and they are so very knowledgeable! It is like The Republic of Pemberley in that there are no arguments, no flaming, and it's all child friendly. In fact, there are some young women on that website that are more capable seamstresses than I'll ever be!

Go check it out! :-)

Veterans' Day

Thank you, to all of you who have served our country and helped protect our freedom. I appreciate you more than I can say.

Ever have those times when you have lots of things you want and need to get done but can't seem to summon the energy or the motivation to actually DO them? That's my problem today. I had a nice lie in this morning (I didn't really sleep that late, but I did stay in bed quite late), and I should have felt quite rested and ready for the day. But, nah. Why not hang around online for awhile? Why not catch up on all the blogs I read? Why not fool around on Facebook for a bit? That's been my day so far. Then, if I don't get much done today, I'll probably beat myself up about it tonight when I'm getting clothes ready for the rest of the week and making sure things are ready to go for the morning.

It's been nice having a long weekend, and the parent teacher conferences went well yesterday (both kids are doing well in school), and the bookfair is all set up and so forth. But I'm still struggling to get more of a routine established. I thought I was doing well to get some laundry done last night, but then DH told me this morning that the drier isn't working. I shall have to call a friend to see if I can throw a load of wet laundry into her dryer today....

OK, I'm really going to go to something now. Yep, I'm going. No, seriously, I am.

In a minute.

One of these days

One of these days I'm going to figure out how to post pictures on here, and then I'm going to bore you to death with projects I've done and so forth. I think I could probably do it without too much trouble. I have, after all, posted pictures on websites. I've even posted pictures on my own long-un-updated website.

Perhaps I'm just too lazy.

Or just too tired.

But one of these days I'm going to do it.

Moose Alley

Little Bug and I saw a moose last night!

We were on the way to Girl Scouts and were running a bit behind, but boy am I glad we were! We wouldn't have seen it otherwise. It was just starting to go into the woods on the left side of the road we were turning onto, and then it turned around and when back across the road and into the woods on the right side of the road. Very cool.

This is the first time I've seen a moose in the wild. I've seen one at the Maine Wild Animal Park, but not like this!

I feel like a real New Hampshire-ite now! lol!

Hum Drum

I don't know how I thought I'd be able to keep up with a blog!!! Or than I had anything too exciting to even say! :-) But here I am, and I am going to make an effort to keep up with it a bit better. I am hoping that things here at home will start falling into a routine now.

The weather has really been great, and the leaves have been gorgeous this year! I'm going to North Conway on Friday, but I think most of the foliage will be gone by then. It's been pretty here, though.

Now that most of the leaves are gone, it's easier to see where the tornado in July left its mark. Suddenly you can see sky where there wasn't any before. Sad. I just yesterday noticed a tree in back of the house that is broken off at the top. It has been dead since we bought the house, but the leaves of the trees in front of it hid the fact that the top had been knocked off in the tornado.

I guess I had better go get my work done for my class tomorrow night! I'll be glad when it is over, truthfully....