Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Friendships and Laughter Our lunches with friends are spiced with a lot of laughter. A quip here and a joke there throws off the bite of any problem we face or even the reality of growing older. Laughter makes these times of getting together with friends stand out as

The museum’s sign labeling this unusual looking item was necessary but didn’t explain how a person managed to use this remarkable tool. It was simply four scythes, connected to one handle, making one great big instrument to cut tall grass or any field of weeds or shrubby undergrowth that needed to be removed or gathered.

     “Oh, the ingenuity of the American mind.” My Mother made that exclamation whenever she observed some remarkable way to solve a problem or a clever invention. She was always impressed and appreciated new approaches to common problems and whatever made any task easier or more efficient. Raised on a farm, she grew up witnessing

I’m not sure what drives the trend of substituting doughnuts for cake at weddings, but we’ve been to several where an abundant number and variety of doughnuts were attractively displayed for the wedding guests. A very small cake for the bride and groom to cut supplied the traditional wedding picture. Perhaps large quantities of doughnuts

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt and Encouragement Taffeta Memories and Fresh Yeast Rolls Even today, the smell of taffeta takes me back to my role as a five-year-old flower girl in my aunt’s wedding. I wore a yellow taffeta dress with ruffles to the floor. I was so distracted by the crowded church, I forgot

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Limber The gathering of a group of children can leave their elders feeling exhausted just from watching the amount of movement made by each child. As we observe, we can identify movements that would make our joints creak and set our muscles screaming in protest. One did perfect cartwheels

There’s no more charming sight than little flower girls at a wedding. This little flower girl sported a special hairdo complete with a distinctive barrette. Between her hairdo, a long dress, and her careful placement of white rose petals along the pathway the bride would walk, she and her sister flower girls delighted the wedding

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Sandcastles One Granddaddy started the sandcastle which quickly attracted the rest of the family to pitch in to build a charming sand village within attractive sand walls. It was altogether a magnificent sand village complete with feathers, shells, and straw trees. We enjoyed the wonderful creation. Passerbys carefully walked

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement The Blahs Every year brings nasty viruses or bacterial sicknesses to test our wellbeing. Sickness can easily leave us with a case of the blahs. My definition of blahs is something that causes us to feel lousy with no pep or no interest in anything beyond resting. Merrill-Webster Dictionary

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement A Row of Birds An unusually long row of birds perched side by side on the phone line that ran beside the highway in the countryside. Our car whizzing past didn’t disturb them. They were comfortable that they were high and safely beyond our car. They looked like they