Thankful . . .

This is a special time of year for me. Growing up on a cash crop farm, this was was the best part of the year.  All the crops would be in the barns and my father would work shorter hours. He would be home for supper and stay home. I liked it when Daddy was home in the evening.

In summer, his hours were long, and often he wouldn't come home for supper, so my mother would pack the big wooden picnic hamper with sandwiches, salads, fresh sliced garden tomatoes, sliced peaches, cake or cookies, and a big metal Igloo of KoolAid. I thought it was fun to ride in the backseat of the car with my older sister and all the food while we headed out to find the field he was in. When we found him, my mother would pull over to the side of the dirt road and park in the shade while I anxiously waited for him to make his way up the row to meet us. If you want to see what the setting was like, watch the movie, "The Natural". Several of the scenes for the movie were shot just across the road from where we would have our summer suppers under the trees. You can see the trees that we sat under for our meal at the end of the movie when the main character, Roy Hobbs, (played by Robert Redford), has returned to his homestead and is playing catch with his son in the sunlit field. Those trees are still there and sometimes when my husband and I are out in my old neighborhood, we go down that road and park under the trees just so I can relish the memory.

Our summer crops, sweet corn and peas, went directly from the field to the canning factory. During the winter, the stored crops would be bagged by my father, uncles, and hired men, and sold to wholesalers, local farmers, and people from town who liked to buy directly from the grower. We sold seed oats and wheat, eating and seed potatoes, dry beans, hay, and straw in the winter.

I am thankful for the memories from my childhood and for the new ones I am making every day. As I write this, I am enjoying a Sunday afternoon with my husband. We are having snacks and watching the Buffalo Bills game on TV. A new favorite memory in the making. :-)

Thankfully, I can report that my surgeon is very pleased with my progress. He changed the order for my bandages and now I have much more freedom. I think my nurse visits might end next week. I am adding foods and activities back into my diet and routine. 

I am feeling stronger and finally made something new in my studio. It is the banner pictured above. I made it to fit our living room fireplace mantle. It describes how I feel about this time of year and about my life. Thankful. For those who are interested in its construction, I used DCWV's paper-backed burlap for the large and small flags and some DCWV 12x12 Wild Saffron papers from my stash for the background, the die cut oak leaf shapes and the letters that I traced from a stencil set.

This week I will be my reentry week into my sewing room. I have a very special quilt to make. I pulled some batiks from my stash and then made a pilgrimage to the quilt shop to round out my choices. Along with this project, there are many UFOs that I pulled out this weekend from my closet. I am hoping within a few weeks that I will have some things moved over from the UFO pile to the finished pile! Since I still need to take it easy, sewing should be a good fit! So, with that being said, I will sign off for now.

Thank you for stopping by. As always, your questions and comments are welcome. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy