Sanity is slowly being restored around here.....if you don't count insurance claims and sick little boys of course.  We did manage to get to the bank yesterday to deposit all of our important papers.  The little man came with us and behaved very well considering he is still somewhat under the weather.  His mother sent me this photo of him watching the cars go by while she got ready for work in the morning.  You know he couldn't have been feeling his usual energy.  :-)

We had similar quiet times on and off during the day and I did manage to get the prep done for a t-shirt quilt.

He cheered up for a while and we had great fun with a chair on the porch.  It's fun watching him work out some of the basic laws of physics.

This morning Mom and I met with one of our quilting bees.  There was lots of laughter as well as heartfelt prayers for those among us that aren't well.  I got out my hexies for another go at my grandmother's flower garden quilt.  I haven't touched it for a long time.  I was constructing it row by row which meant it wasn't portable and I figured I should start working on it flower by flower instead.  Mom watched me struggle awkwardly with the English paper piecing from her seat across the room.  She made us all laugh by asking me what in the world was I doing, and pointing out how I was doing it all wrong and also how to do it properly.  We always listen to Mom.  ;-)

This afternoon was spent on insurance issues and some errands.  When I got back to the Sandbox I realized some laundry needed to be done.  Funny how you don't see stuff for a long time then suddenly it becomes obvious.  I did a double take when I opened the detergent dispenser for my washing machine.  Ewwww.  Where was the black stuff creeping in from?   Well!  When you detatch the dispenser drawer and take it all apart you discover the ugly crud that's been accumulating out of sight for longer than you want to admit, in and under the drawer.  Shudder.  Anyway, it's all clean now and that's what matters.  :-)

That left a few minutes for some basic crochet therapy.  Just some simple cotton dishcloths.  Weird and colorful.

How long will this little obsession last??  :-)

And now I feel like this....

Good night.

Absurdity

Yesterday and today were odd days.  We made an appointment with ourselves to sort out all our "important" papers, a task that puts us both out of sorts.  We had documents stashed in various semi-secure places so brought everything together into the Sandbox for processing.  Like most people I think, we tend to keep far more than is needed.  Everything seems precious at first glance.  After much purging yesterday, we took another look this morning and decided to downgrade the importance of a few more documents.  We have a safe deposit box at the bank and had been planning on upgrading to a larger one, but at the rate we were going we would have needed a small vault of our own!  Absurd.  ;-)

All the useless paper will be recycled one way or another.  This left the Tramp with an absurdly large pile of papers to shred and feed to the compost bin.  Until it was thoroughly lubricated, the shredder squeaked and squealed in protest, much to Ngaire's fascination.  Maisy on the other hand, is watching with some trepidation from the safety of her corner.  Ivy hates loud noises so was hiding out in another room I'm sure wondering about the absurd people she's forced to live with.

Once the Sandbox was finally cleared of the detritus I sat down at the sewing machine.  Two more Dear Jane blocks done.  (Yay!)

One absurdly fiddly.....

And one absurdly simple.  :-)

While watching Tim Minchin (very absurd to some I'm sure) in concert at the Royal Albert Hall we enjoyed a bit of ice cream to round out the day.  I thought mine was a rather "normal" combination of vanilla ice cream, fruit cocktail and chocolate Magic Shell topping.  When asked what he wanted, the Tramp had me whip up a combination of coffee ice cream, fruit cocktail and pink lemonade flavored Magic Shell.  (Shudder!)

Which is what set me off in the direction of the absurd.  To each, his or her own absurdity!  :-)

Need

 Ewwww.  Have you seen this?  I went to JoAnn's to buy some cotton yarn for making a few dishcloths.  Scented yarn!  OMG.  It was so awful.  What are they thinking???  Who needs it!

Enough on that subject.  T-shirt quilts are still in the making.  This pretty one went out the door this week.  I've been so overwhelmed with life lately that a whole bunch got out of here without being photographed.  Do I need to photograph them all?  Not really. :-)

I needed to feel some accomplishment with my own sewing projects.  I won these blocks at Christmastime.  I had made two of them and the rest were made by other guild members.  Needless to say they were all different sizes, but I was very pleased when they went together with no problem.  It's lap sized and I'm thinking it might need an added border.  I love the colors.

Ngaire helped put it together.  :-)

I've been making snail's trail blocks for our bee's "bucket swap."  These are the two latest.  We are passing around "buckets" of our own fabrics and then making a block with each person's fabric.

I'm very behind on my Dear Jane blocks and need to devote some time to them.  At 10 per month there are 60 to do so far.  I've done less than half.  Sigh.

 Ngaire felt the need to help me again this evening.  :-)

It's fiddly work and I take a bit of time to get back into it each time I pick it up.

I thought I had lost this brand new ruler and was thrilled to find it in the Dear Jane box.....where it should have been.  :-P

I also discovered that my rotating cutting mat had warped somehow (grrrrr).  I scouted around for something heavy to flatten it.  Oh look!  How about a sewing machine?  :-)

Two blocks done this evening.  Yesssss!

Something we didn't need.  SIGH.  Another flood at The Other House.  The same toilet overflowed all over the place.  At least it didn't sit soaking for a week this time.  ED found the mess after just a few hours thank goodness.  SERVPRO did their usual fine job with blowers and dehumidifiers.  

The new baseboards ripped out once again.

Various plumbers still don't know what's up with this toilet so we had it yanked out and a new one has been installed.

Poor ED and LZF, the living room is a mess too.

And if that wasn't enough, a pipe started leaking in the living room ceiling.  Lightening striking twice and all that......  Sigh.

The wall is soaking wet too.

Not pretty.  We've called on the insurance company again and are waiting to have it all opened up and dried out.  What a pain!!!  None of us need this.

While contractors were at The Other House doing various repairs I spent some time with The Viking. Poor baby, he had come down with a fever.  He played quietly with his cars and trucks for a while

then totally zoned out to Sesame Street playing on my iPad.  You can see how glassy his eyes were.

Then I brought him back to our house and he just sat there poor baby.  ED reports he is much better today though.  :-)

Such a change from his usual easygoing and cheerful self.  

He has a shoe fetish at the moment so a few days ago I brought out my almost never worn party shoes for him to play with.

Cars and silver shoes.  One of those priceless moments.  lol

Another priceless moment.  We sent caterpillars to Stardust for her birthday and received some sweet photos of the butterfly release this week.  I'm glad she enjoyed them.

The other project of the week has been the scanning of photos.  Hundreds of photos.  This little scanner makes it easy though.  

Oh my.  Brown hair and big glasses.

MD

MD and ED

ED

The Sailor Son....and those big glasses again.  :-)

Precious moments.

Briefly.....

Just a brief look at the past couple of months....

We threw out the old pantry cabinet in the garage and The Tramp bought new shelving and some can storage racks.  It was a full weekend job!  Geez.

We survived the pollen season.

The Viking got his first hair cut.

Stardust turned three!!

The grands in New Zealand just get even cuter...

...and more handsome.

Dad turned ninety-two!!! 

Five and Batman came for a visit.  Don't you love their fedoras!  (Or as Five says, "fenoras.")  :-)

A trip to the Marbles Kids Museum was great fun.

Another sewing machine snuck into the house.  :-D

I made nine of these cute "mug buckets" as gifties for friends.

I went on retreat to the mountains.

We stayed in a fabulous house.

And I finished twelve Dear Jane blocks.  Only a huge number left to go....

We built a retaining wall in the front yard.

ED and I took The Viking strawberry picking.

The Sailor Son got a new motorcycle to replace the one that was run over parked in front of his apartment.

And on the way home from graduating from the Navy's advanced motorcycle safety course someone ran him off the road.  Not the phone call I wanted to receive.  He will heal.  Slowly.  So for three weeks this was a daycare and convalescent home.  Mom and Dad made everyone more comfortable by loaning us their electric recliner.

I might have been a bit tired.

We tried to keep him from getting too bored.  :-)

ED has a part time job now so The Viking is spending several days a week with me, and he got to spend lots of quality time with his Uncle Sailor Son too.

There isn't anything that can't be used as a toy.

He helps me sew too.  Yes, t-shirt quilts are still moving through here, though not at the rate they were.

Everything is a hat.

 All furniture has multiple uses.

The Garbage Pail Kid.

There are parking garages everywhere.

Parks to go to and turtles to see in the pond.

What was that about garbage pails?

The Sailor Son was recovering well and ED made sure to arrange her schedule to give me some time off.  Four of us enjoyed the weekend together in Wilmington at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium.  I love having these gals as "sisters."  :-)  It was great to spend a few minutes on the beach after class.

Fun and fabulous gifts were shared all around.  My contribution was a set of quilty temporary tattoos for each of us.  A few glasses of wine and we giggled through applications of tattoos on necks, arms and ankles.

We managed to smash luggage, sewing machines and project bins for three into my car....as well as three people!

I'm still wondering how!

Yesterday we drove The Sailor Son back home to Norfolk.  He still has physical therapy and possible shoulder surgery to go through but it's great to see him moving around more easily.  :-)

And today we dealt with fleas.  Ugh!  Apparently our local fleas have become immune to Frontline.  Time to try something new.  In the meantime it's flea baths times three.  Sigh. 

Poor Ivy, beseeching me to rescue her.  :-)

And Maisy looking reproachful, as only Maisy can.

I want to sew!!!