Thankful...

I am always thankful when we find a few minutes to be out in nature...last week was no exception.  So thankful to get a few new photographs.

I am thankful for a wild and crazy granddaughter.  Yes, she is making a face in the photo above.  Some tell me that one of these days she is sure going to love me for this.  I honestly don't think she will ever mind...her mom never did care.  She did not get embarrassed easily so am not expecting Lorelei to change.
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The Maintenance light came on and stayed on on our Rav4 yesterday.  Talk about being upset...I just did not know what to do....I could call Jeremy, or I could try to get it to a guy not too far from here and ask them to bring me home.  But I decided to sleep on it before I did anything.  And pray about it.  I got up this morn, and the thought came to me that maybe it was time for the oil to be changed.  I went and checked the mileage and was pretty sure that was it.

I first was going to reset the light and see if it came back on, then decided I would be apt to forget to have the oil changed if that was the problem.  So, I talked to Roger and believe it or not, he agreed to let me have it done.  I called, and got it in this afternoon.  I came home and did the reset of the light.  The Maintenance light comes on every 5,000 miles...when we change the oil we have to 'turn' it off.   There are specific steps to turning it off.

You turn the key to the on position, but not to the point you start the car.  And you do not touch your foot to the brake, and set the odometer tripmeter to Trip A....then turn the key off.

Next, while holding down the trip A meter button, turn the key to the on position, and continue holding the Trip A button down while it goes down to zero and wait till the maintenance light will goes off.

So I did that and took it for a drive to see if the maintenance light would come back on...it didn't.  I am so, so thankful for that.
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These are just a few things I am thankful for...

Linking to Michelle's Thankful Thursday...

A bit of fabric therapy

First of all some oranges, for an orange quilt sometime in my future.  I keep adding a few.  Years ago, on an quilt forum a lady whose first name was Judy did a quilt and named it Bushels of Orange(s)...it was all oranges with a bit of black and an accent of blue, on my computer it was sort of a torquoise blue.  I totally loved that quilt and have planned to make one some day.

I did not get this to go with anything specific...just in case I needed it for an alternate quilt block in the ones I am making now.

Then I got some neutrals, since I have been using mine.  One of these days I would like to make another two color quilt...such as the one below.

Do you remember it?  I made it in 2012...and it is kind of reversible...see?

I didn't have enough of any single fabric so I did this using the same fabrics I had used on front.  I think it was about 52 inches square.

A repeat post...

In a post over at Lily Valley, Karen ask if we had a favorite gift or item from childhood.  Though she was remembering Easter, the Christmas I write about below is one of my best childhood memories.  I think it will be new to a few of you.  I hope you enjoy it.

Did Santa ever come to your house? I am sure he was at mine...in the form of one of my sisters. It is the Christmas I will never forget.  Though you would think I would remember how old I was I am not sure...I think I was about seven years old.

It was late in the evening, either dark or almost dark.  I don't remember if I knew my sister, Fran was coming home or not.  Either way, in her and her husband came--and they had a big, big box full of stuff for all of us. I remember the box ripping apart.  It had toys and clothes--I can remember most of what I got, and it was wonderful.  But to just to have Fran home was joy beyond measure. 

A ham was fixed for Christmas, and it is the first time I ever remember having ham.  I could not stop eating it....every time I could I would sneak in the fridge and get a piece of it.   My mom kept telling me I was going to be sick from eating too much. Oh, my, how I loved it.  That night I paid the piper though.  I started throwing up and don't remember how many times or how long it took to stop...Fran got up and took care of me.  It was almost worth it just to have her caring for me.  I can remember her telling mom to go on back to bed, that she would stay with me.  She would wring a wash rag out and wash my face with such loving care.

Don't get me wrong, we all loved each other, but Fran is sort of the special one...I think special memories are attached to her by all of us.

She would do anything on a dare, and not afraid of anyone or anything.  I can remember when she was in high school, her and the algebra teacher got in a big, big argument.  She was sure she was right, and he  just assumed the book was right.  I think he even came to our house talking to her...not sure how right all my memories are because I was maybe not even in school then.

Anyway, I think they argued back and forth for a day or two or three, each working and reworking the problem.  He finally had to agree that Fran was right.  Anyway, that is just a sample of what she is/was made of.

Back to that Christmas, she brought the game of Tripoly home...I was too young to actually play...so I just sat by her side.  I don't remember how the game is played, but a free hand is dealt.  Well, she  would look at her hand and whisper to me to see if there was this or that card in the free hand...and if there was, I would sneak it to her.  I would have did anything in the world for her.  Of course either her husband or one of my brothers caught her and put a stop to it.  But she was having fun just sneaking and getting by with it.

All my sisters and my brother always came home, at least once a year after they moved away, and I always hated seeing any of them leave.  It was just always worse when Fran left...