quiet and full

The past week has been pretty full, but not really busy, just quiet and full. I like it like that. Nate and I have made a lot of headway on the book he’s reading to me: The Old Curiosity Shop – and we have made a fair number of rude comments to our dear Chucky, as we familiarly call the author now that we’ve plodded through a number of his books together. All the same, we’re somewhat hooked- his character developments and descriptions are terrific, we just sometimes wish he wasn’t such a windbag and that his plots were a bit more cheery. Someone told us that he was paid by the word… wouldn’t be surprised, the way he rambles on…
So, while Nate has been reading to me, my “Quilp” has been coming along. I finished quilting half of it and have a bit more work to do on the edges of the other half before I can bind it and call it done. I got distracted this weekend with a new project: a cushion cover that I wanted to make and give to a friend. I started it one night and finished it the next- which was a record for me (a two-day project?! Unheard of!!), and it was a lot of fun. I’ll post pictures of it when time and technology allow.
My quick project involved the sewing machine, and once I got that out, I was inspired to finish up a long project of re-curtaining our entry-way, on which I did a poor job, resulting in a curtain that is uneven on the bottom. Oh well for now – at least it matches the others and it covers the window. I guess someday I might get up the energy to re-make it so it looks decent instead of pitiful.

On another note, the kids’ room has been re-arranged on account of Annie nearly climbing out of her crib this weekend. She is now a proper big girl with a mattress on the floor, and she just beams when you ask her about her new bed. She and Will are enjoying getting up together in the mornings to come and bother their poor, tired parents. Annie is learning about staying in her bed when she’s put there, as you can imagine.

Other than that, a highlight of my week was our women’s Bible study which was an answer to prayer, because the numbers had dwindled so much that I was discouraged with it, and then last week, seven of us met, and it was really encouraging. I also managed to drag my kids up the mountain to visit my dear friend L and her kids – a 45-minute hike for my son, and it was nice to get out and do that. We also spent a morning going down to the school to play on the playground, weigh the kids again (Annie IS growing!), and visit the library. We checked out some books and my kids really enjoyed the outing.
I’ve also been ‘pottering’ in the garden (as our British friends say), although it’s fairly hopeless, since if I pull all the weeds, then there will be nothing but rocks in the garden… So which is better: weeds, or bare rocks? I’m thinking that I might try to buy some plants that the monkeys don’t eat and try to plant those, but more than likely it won’t happen, and my ‘garden’ will remain in its hideous state. I’m not much of a gardener. As a matter of fact, I’m not much of a rugby player either (those two thoughts seemed to go together somehow). Ahhh, yes, it’s because yesterday I DID play rugby, and I learned how to tackle! And I did tackle people, so now I am a bit sore, as you can imagine since I’m terribly out of shape and never do sports these days. I felt old and fatty, but it was fun to get out and play again anyway! I’ll probably even do it again sometime.
We also had a nice leisurely walk up to our Church on Sunday, got to talk with our Texan relative Jo :), baked pumpkin pies with Baking club (and promptly devoured them), ate lots of pumpkin bread (since my husband brought me a pumpkin last week-yay!), had a friend over to bake brownies on Saturday morning, and did many other things which I forget at this moment. So you can see, that we’ve been occupied, but not really busy. It’s been a full, good week.