Tying Up Loose Ends

With the spotty posting I have done lately, many topics have gone untended. Today seems as good a day as any to pull together some of those loose ends that pop into my head at odd moments.

We welcomed summer this week. One thing I love about living in Ohio is that we get to enjoy varying seasons. As much as I love traveling to tropical beaches, I still prefer to live in a place where we have such variety in the weather. Summer skies are gorgeous here and I love seeing long shadows cast across our front yard each morning as I begin my day. Enjoying a cup of coffee on the screened porch while the birds flit about our various feeders and seeing the new blooms on my DH's flowers - all these things make summer a delightful time of year.

(Copied from Facebook/NBA)

 Another great thing about living in Ohio - we have some pretty awesome sports teams. Our Cleveland Cavaliers are NBA Champions! What excitement and pride we have in this championship! That final game on Sunday night was a nail-biter, and when we ended with the victory I was screaming and jumping around, which caused the dog to go into a barking frenzy, and the house was chaos for about 45 minutes after the game was over - at something like 11:00pm. We are sports fans, for sure. It's been electrifying, and I do believe that our Cleveland MLB team, the Indians, are feeding off the Cavs' success - we are currently sitting atop the AL Central and looking quite strong on all fronts - hitting, pitching and fielding.

The week prior, I hosted the Frienzies for our monthly get-together. Gosh, I love these ladies! As co-workers at CHS, we became good lunch-time buddies; and we have made a concerted effort to remain tight as one-by-one we retired.

I suppose you can guess which two are yet to be retired?? Yeah. Hettie and Susan are still teaching, although Susan has just one more year.

Lately, our get-togethers have been potluck style, which have been lots of fun. We are trying new recipes and enjoying all the variety.

Watermelon, feta and mint salad; edamame cole slaw; bread varieties, bellinis.

Chicken Parmesan, pineapple casserole, cauliflower casserole; corn casserole.

And also a week ago, there was quilting with the Frankfort Girls at Sharon O's house. I did not take pictures of any of our projects, but I did grab a pic of Sharon's pretty centerpiece.

This week, I have had to get some reading done for book club. The selection for this month was short stories by Willa Cather, and since she wrote so many, they have been compiled in many different collections. So I found a free download in the public domain, which I managed to work on steadily as the week wore on. I love Cather's novels My Antonia and O Pioneers and have read them both multiple times. She can describe a scene better than just about anyone, in my opinion. I always come away from reading her work with notions of how I wish I could write.

Another book I started is Blessings by Anna Quindlen, our author from last month. I have had to put it aside, but definitely plan to get back to it this week.

Thanks for letting me collect myself today. Perhaps I can be a bit more regular about posting quilt-related stuff for awhile. That is my plan, at least!

Happy Quilting, Friends!