Employment

My husband was offered the position I mentioned in my previous post. Thank God! While it was convenient for us that he was at home to help me for the first few days after my surgery, we are so happy to have that burden lifted. A thank you to any that remembered us in prayer.

A Job, Hopefully!

My husband may have a job! He's supposed to report to a company tomorrow morning. For those who believe in prayer, I'd be so grateful if you'd say a prayer for us. Thanks and I'll keep you posted.

A Quick Note and Favorite Quote

I know it has been more than a week since I posted, but I had surgery last week. Saw my surgeon this morning and everything is going well.

I have to dash out for errands soon, but I wanted to do a quick post.

I collect quotes... have for years...here's one of my favorites;

"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is." -- Winston Churchill

Amen.

Congratulations to my Daughter!

Fair warning -- I'm going to brag about my child in this post. :)

My daughter just finished her freshman year of college. She's an English major with an European History minor (I know...I've heard it many times from family and friends...waste of time, waste of money, waste of a good mind, etc.). Her concentration is Writing and Literacy, the most practical of all the concentrations.

This semester her writing professor personally escorted her to the campus Writing Center to recommend her as a candidate for a Writing Fellowship. This graduate-level seminar trains students to become writing tutors. Upon successful completion of the program, she will be certified as a writing tutor and begin working at the Writing Center.

They take a maximum of 12 students for the school year. Two professor recommendations were required, along with her writing portfolio and an interview. As I said, this is a graduate-level program and she was told, at the start of the process, that they rarely accept a freshman student.

She was notified this week that she had been accepted for the fellowship. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly congratulate her efforts. Well done, sweetheart! I'm so excited for you and I know you will do well. The faculty that interviewed her described her cover letter as "amazing". I wonder what they'd have said if they knew she'd written it in 15-20 minutes. :) And while I know I'm biased, it really was *that* good.

Thank you, readers, for indulging me. :)

A Red-Letter Week

Since I made a commitment that I was going to post at least once a week, here I am. It has not been a good week, so this isn't a happy, inspiring post, but here we go. Since I last posted on the 22nd...

I've been diagnosed with gallstones. I see a surgeon Thursday and that appointment can't get here soon enough as far as I'm concerned. I am having some minor attacks, which are very unpleasant, but nothing as bad as the first big attack that, at the time, makes you wish you were dead.

My aunt fell and broke her hip. The day after her surgery, she suffered a heart attack and was admitted to ICU. She is now out of ICU, thankfully.

My uncle, her husband, passed away the day after her heart attack. He had been hospitalized, in a different hospital, and his death came more quickly than the doctors predicted. My aunt has some dementia and she has not yet been told that my uncle is no longer with us. I expect she will be told tomorrow. They wanted to give her some recovery time before breaking the news. The funeral is Friday. They had been married 60 years. It breaks my heart that they didn't get the opportunity to talk one last time and I'm not sure if she'll be able to attend his funeral. So very sad.

My husband was laid-off from his job. This totally blind-sided us. Normally, you hear rumors that lay-offs are coming which gives a person some preparation, but this time -- nothing. So far, no luck in finding another position. Not even any good prospects.

I am coming down to a deadline on submitting my application for a fall craft show; a really, really, good show -- it took me three years just to get an application. My camera's broken, so I borrowed my daughter's and took lots of pictures, none of which turned out. The second time went more smoothly, but the quality isn't up to standard. I'd keep trying, but I'm not feeling well. Thought I'd enclose a note with my application explaining about the camera and offering to re-submit pictures.

I got the pictures downloaded to my computer and was ready to print them. But I couldn't, because when I turned on the printer, it died. Sigh.

Here's a picture of a couple of bags I managed to make this week.

For Literature Fans

Just a heads-up for those of you who enjoy classic literature, CraftLit, courtesy of Heather, has just started Little Women. I mention CraftLit in this post, for those who aren't familiar with it.
Episode #90 are chapters 1 and 2, and Episode #91 posted last Friday. I hope to keep current with this read. Over the years, I have started Little Women a number of times, but I've never finished it. I get bogged down once Beth dies.

LW was the first hardcover book I ever owned. An aunt sent it to me when I was about 11. I have no idea what happened to that copy, but I loved the cover -- a white background with purple lettering and a small watercolor vignette of the four March sisters. Isn't it funny, the things we remember?

I'll close this post with a quote from the author:
I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. ~ Louisa May Alcott

Bleeding Hearts

A sure sign that Spring has truly arrived, my bleeding hearts blossomed this weekend. I eagerly await this "event" each spring. I will admit that I have a brown thumb and that this lovely, old-fashioned flower is the only flower I have grown successfully. And it blooms, literally, overnight. I was outside on Friday and saw my plant's green leaves swaying gently in the breeze. As I was coming out on Saturday, the vivid pink "lockets" caught my eye immediately. And I did what I always do -- stare at it in amazement as though I've never seen it bloom before. I have no idea if this overnight blooming is typical of bleeding hearts. I only know that *my* bleeding heart does and for a moment I'm like a young child seeing it for the first time. If anyone is home, I have to run in the house and announce that it has bloomed. Every. single. year. :-)

This excitement, in part, I'm sure, has to do with the fact that the blooming is proof-positive that I haven't killed the plant after all, even though by summer you'd swear by the looks of it that it will never again blossom. Unfortunately, it flowers for a very short period of time -- generally, at most, a month. Perhaps this is the norm for bleeding hearts. I really need to look this up on the internet. Anyway...I'm so glad I had access to a decent camera (thanks to my dd) so I could capture the image, share it, and enjoy my hearts long after the blooms have gone.

Hope springs eternal...