Dear Friend

This is my dear friend since 5th grade, Jonell. She’s lost one of these sisters. She’s the eldest and in the blue shirt. We’ve been pals since 5th grade. Her cousin is my cousin, but she’s a cousin through Vingina’s mother and me through her father. As we age, more and more we lose many we love. Our cousin fell and broke hip and hit her head. She already had dementia. She’ll go soon. Her brother called me today to let me know. Our circle gets smaller and smaller. Finally, it’ll be my turn.

This is a dough cover for bread. My dear Amy Patsy wanted it for a Christmas gift. I made it yesterday. These are called flour sack towels and are inexpensive. You can buy them at Walmart. They don’t have lint and are light. They are cherished by bread bakers.

Physical Therapy today. I have rode by bike already. Will have oatmeal and go lift weights.
 

Filet of Hearts

I finished the filet of hearts baby blanket. I’ll find a new pattern for my next one.

 

Laura’s friend (she’s an elementary teacher) is a twin. Her twin sister has twin girls. They have chickens and the girls gather the eggs. Laura’s friend saw this “egg apron” and bought it for them. One apron and two little egg gatherers. Laura whipped up a second apron. So now each can have eggs in little pockets.

Corgi Welcome

Logan got this for their front porch. It’s perfect for a Corgi lover.

Every morning and afternoon my neighbors get a snack. June will have her baby soon. Probably this week. I’ll have a new neighbor. Donkeys are desert animals. They really don’t like cold or rain but they are are tough animals.

Astrid tried her hand at making a quilted pillow. She said she’d improve but it’s very pretty to me. 

 

Trees

Laura decorated her room with Christmas trees her daughters made when they were in elementary school.ingrid’s is above andAstrid’s below.

The one below is Sigrid’s.

This is the sweatshirt Laura created for Amy Patsy.

Yesterday, I walked to my mailbox and back. Longest walk in a while.

My 2007 Chevy truck says 0 oil pressure. It’s going to the shop Tuesday. I can’t even check the oil. I’m pitiful. I was afraid when I had the oil changed October. 9, they might not have put the oil in it. But Eric checked today and it has oil. It’s the oil pump or gauge sensor is out. I don’t drive it much is the problem. I hate to give up having a truck. It has 148,000 miles. We bought it new in 2006. Thankful for Eric.
 

Face Cream

Laura and Eric bought 1/4 of a beef back when meat prices skyrocketed. Last week Laura rendered the tallow and made face cream. Also tallow makes great candles.

Each year Laura makes a new ornament for her three little angels’ trees.

Got my two pair of new glasses. I can see better. 

Yesterday, my friend Kay and I tried the new Olive Garden restaurant. She likes Italian food and I could tell she enjoyed it. I was not impressed. Salad was just mainly iceberg lettuce and I ate a bread stick. I’m not a big pasta fan. It’s water and flour so I ordered soup, chicken gnocchi. I really liked it. The cheesecake was delicious with a cup of coffee but the waiter didn’t bring it til we’d almost finished our dessert. 

 

Being Found Out

This is Ada being picked up yesterday from school. Her head is bowed as her teacher found lots of work in her desk that she had been hoarding away—not finishing or just not doing. Being a baby of a family can be hard. Ada has four big people that help her. She’s a little spoiled. She told Erin she was very sad, but Erin said you should be ashamed.  The work was in a large paper grocery sack. Now Ada is having to complete it all at home. They had a long conversation about responsibility and commitment. Ada chooses what she likes to do over what she’s told to do. She’s is actually improving—slowly💚

Amy Patsy, my favorite librarian, made Laura a sweat shirt for school. That’s a quilt block covered with flowers. Laura made Amy one with a Christmas tree 🌲 I think. Talented friends are gems.

 

Copy Cat

I finished the yellow blanket that I created from the picture I found. It’s similar but not exactly the same. I’m working on a gray filet of hearts now from an image I saw. I’m too much of a tight wad to pay for patterns. I like a written pattern. I don’t like video instructions. I’m weird. 

 

Sig’s Essay

Last year Sigrid took a Journalism class because she needed two hours and it was all on line. She had to write articles. Yesterday she discovered her professor had put one in the newsletter.  I’m saving it here. Don’t feel you need to read it. Love my Sigrid!

 

 Transitioning to college is difficult—as a freshman in my second semester of college I still don’t have it all worked out. I’ve always known who I was, what I liked, disliked and wanted. However, moving into adulthood I’ve found that most of those change. I don’t really know what I want, I like things now that I didn’t before, and I dislike people that I used to enjoy.

The thing I’ve found that stays most consistent has been my relationship with my mother. My senior year of high school I read the book “What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About,” written by various authors and edited by Michele Filgate. 

The book is composed of essays detailing various complex relationships each writer had with their mothers. I then decided to write my own. As I was recently rifling through my old things, I came across it, and as I read it I found that a lot of what I had written didn’t hold true anymore. Therefore my revisions to the essay go as follows:

My mother and I have always been bonded at the hip. I enjoy bragging to various individuals and anyone that will listen about it now because the older I have gotten, the more open my eyes have become to the fact that it is such a rare and beautiful thing to be fully seen and understood by your mother. I have two older sisters, only 18 months apart from each other. They always had each other to play with growing up, which left me to play with my mother. This has led me to enjoy activities like drinking coffee in the morning and going to bed early.

As I got older my mother and I drifted in closeness, and I received a cell phone for Christmas when I was 14. This changed everything— the way I viewed my body, soul, and personality. It made me resent my mother for some reason, and every morning before I left for school we would bicker about how messy my room was, and how secretive I had become about my personal life. 

As a senior in high school, I knew that when I graduated, I wanted to, for lack of better words, get the hell out of Russellville. But as I got letters back from schools it became increasingly more apparent that that was not happening unless I was prepared to take out a hefty loan. 

Therefore, I ended up at Arkansas Tech– but moved out of my house to gain independence apart from my parents. 

As I have gained what I think of as independence, I have found that transitioning to a new chapter is hard and my mother was right. I started the year alone. My best friends that I had grown up with since elementary school went to separate colleges from me.

I started picking up the phone that had once split my mother and I apart and calling her. What I discovered is that I really missed the way she took care of me, and she has a lot of wisdom to share with me. So while I thought I hated my mother’s nagging, nit-picking, and constant need to make me feel like I need to be a better person—I actually love it. My mother has become my most cherished part of my life.

As you get older you start to understand your mother and realize she has always understood you. I don’t know much about life and what being a mother feels like, but I do know that I’ve given her too hard of a time. I’m so appreciative that I get such an empathetic person to call mom- someone who fully sees me for who I am, and unconditionally loves every part of me even when I can’t see the full picture.

So there will be times in my life when I fall to pieces, but I am comforted in knowing that my mother will always be there to help me pick them back up.

Snow?

Last year on this day Astrid and Logan framed their barn. They did one thing at a time and in a year it all came together and is paid for.

We may get snow today.  Feels really cold. It is above freezing.  Astrid bought me this rooster weather vane last year. I do love it.

 

November is Over

I saw this image and shared it with my Christensen family. They all laughed and my son-in-law posted this comment. So much for me tooting my horn. 😂

Sigrid tried deer hunting. She said it wasn’t very exciting. She went with Logan 2!

Amanda went into the Navy after High School. She served 6 years. Then she came back here. she worked in a bank. Lastly, took a supervisors job in a plant because the pay was better. I suppose she dreamed of a career and at 38 she grabbed it. I hope it’s rewarding for her.
 

Policewoman

Laura saw this online and sent it to me. Pop’s niece graduated from the police academy and is a new police officer in our town. It’s a new career for her at 38. Ada used to aspire to be a police officer but I think she is on to a new career pick now.

 

Lunch with Jones Girls

 

Thanksgiving morning, Laura and Astrid met Faith and did the Turkey Trot. Proud of the turkey trotters! Laura was first in the walkers. She’s a clipper 😉 

Got to enjoy lunch with the Jones’ girls Wednesday. Neighbor’s Mill was busy but still very efficient. The food is always good. Ada talked nonstop. Sweet Greta only answered my questions to her. I loved my time with them. Clay was on the clock at Walmart. 

Ada showed me her two tooth gap. I asked if the tooth fairy left money. She said—only two dollars. Guess she thought losing a tooth was worth a lot.

Christmas Bouquet

Thank you God for all that grows, thank you for the sky's rainbows. Thank you for the stars that shine, thank you for precious friends of mine. Thank you for the moon and sun, thank you God for all you've done!

We took a Christmas bouquet to Pop yesterday. We picked up my Jones’ girls at Harrison and they went with us to the cemetery.

I saw Helen’s stone. Hopefully we’ll get ashes to put there.

Ada has been upset by Aunt Helen’s death. This is the first person that she actually knew well that has passed away. Fleta gave me Helen’s cane. My sister had shrunk. The cane was very short. I gifted it to Ada.

Laura stopped twice on the way there and I walked around. I rubbed Voltaren on my knee before we left. I made the trip fine.