Show and Tell Fridays - Baskets

I am always impressed with people’s crafting skill and have always admired the workmanship that goes into their products. Often such loving detail comes at a high price, putting such beautiful work out of my financial means. However, I am very lucky to have acquired a few pieces that I think are exquisite.



These baskets which hang on my living room wall and sit in my entertainment center are made from white pine needles wrapped in sinew with other embellishments such as beads and feathers added to. The artisan happens to be my birth mother. I am sure as I continue to post on Show & Tell Fridays, you will see much more of her work as her pieces are tucked here and there in my house. With such a birth mother, I can only hope that my genes carry a small portion of her talent.

Museum Learning

One of the great things about homeschooling is that you become aware and focus on learning as a part of living and not a part of schooling. I am always on the spy for little bits of information wherever I can find them. When we were at Higgins Armory, I found a little tidbit that I had not known before and which I found especially interesting due to one of my recent craft projects.
All of us are probably aware of chain mail, a cloth made of metal links to protect the wearer during battle; but, probably few of us know the artisanship that went into these creations. Apparently, in each of these links is an imprinted name of Muslim warriors or prophets. Of course, as they were not written in English but probably some form of Arabic, I would not have noticed this without the help of my handy-dandy museum phone. This idea of writing on each link, reminded me of the prayer shawl that I am crocheting, each link infused with a prayer for the future recipient. Certainly each is used for a vastly different end purpose, but both have a similar concept behind them – encircling their wearer with the protection and comfort of God they believe in.

And I was not the only one enthralled with my museum phone. My nephew, Rowan, would listen intently at age 5 and then inform us what he learned. For example in this Japanese warrior’s costume, Rowan informed us that the face was a mask and not the warrior’s real face.

Rowan was especially excited to be able to try on some of the replica armor.


It is never too young or too old to learn something new. What was the most interesting fact that you learned when visiting a museum?

"You're Fine,Don't Worry About It" - Famous Last Words

Whew, Haven’t sat down since Saturday except for meals ----It’s been a swirling dervish: Picked up my sister and her family at the airport, went to church, had a family picnic,



visited Old Sturbridge Village,


went to Higgins Armory, and now as my sister and her family went to Mystic to visit other family, I’m spending the day getting my poor son’s arm checked out after falling off his scooter on Sunday. Poor DS slid on a patch of grass on the drive way. He was a little scratched up and certainly sore, but we didn’t think too much of it. He was relatively calm. We cleaned him up and iced his arm. We actually had a nurse friend at the house that evaluated the situation and thought it was borderline case. She, like I, thought we could continue to monitor the situation. By that evening, his complaints were more of the wrist than the elbow. The next day, we wrapped the arm and iced it again that night. He seemed to be doing ok, but when it didn’t seem better Tuesday and he had limited left to right movement of the hand, I thought if it isn’t significantly better by tomorrow that I needed to make a doctor’s appointment. So this morning, I did so. One doctor’s visit and an x-ray later, we found out that he has an undisplaced fracture of the proximal radial metaphysic, otherwise known as a broken elbow. Of course the orthopedist at our hospital is on vacation, so I’m currently waiting for a call back from another orthopedist.

Of course, one of our friends on Facebook commented, "Go figure - He can go on numerous high adventure hikes/canoe trips, etc. with no injury, but breaks his elbow at home."

I Want to Suck Your Blood

Yesterday, DD and I volunteered at a local Blood Drive. At the last blood drive we went to, frankly my first, I couldn’t give blood. I just don’t have enough iron. While the Red Cross says that I can keep trying, I have been borderline anemic my entire life and thus why I hadn’t given before and I think there is a reality of knowing that while I may be better than I’ve been my entire life, my blood is not strong enough to share. But to volunteer, no iron is necessary and so DD and I spent a few hours checking donors in and making sure that no one fainted.

Interestingly, the day tied into a sermon a few weeks ago at church about the “reasons” for death and pain. I learned that the woman who had announced the need for volunteers at church was organizing these blood drives in memory of a daughter that she lost to cancer. She shared this with me as she herself was on the table donating with her other three children nearby. She had taken her grief and turned it into a wonderful life giving gift to hundreds and thousands of other people in need. A pebble in the water leaving ripples that ring ever larger. One small pebble, one large impact.

If you can give, I encourage you to donate. If you can’t donate, then perhaps you too can volunteer. Call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE or check out their website.

Show and Tell Friday - Keys

I found these keys when hunting at the Brimfield Antique Show. I absolutely loved them and they were only $2 a piece. My husband laughs at me because I didn’t even try to negotiate with the man, but when you are in love, you do strange things. And I did not have the heart to tell my husband that I had seen similar keys in decorating magazines and contemplated buying them for far more than $6 for the set. Of course, my only mistake in this purchase was to buy them right off the bat, but I have learned that if you truly love something, buy it on the spot or you will regret it. But those buggars are heavy. My arms were aching about half way through the market. All that pain dissipated though once I got them hung on the wall.

If you want to join the show & tell, visit:

Generational Memories

Is there a place in your life that has been a constant for generation after generation?

In our family, it is Hawks Nest Beach in Old Lyme, CT. The beach has stretches from my daughter, through me, to my mother, past her mother to my great grandparents. Prior to 1938, our family had a cottage at this beach, but the ’38 hurricane took the cottage and flung it into the swamp. In fact, my great-uncle contracted yellow fever after trying to collect the items that survived the blow. My grandmother told of the dresser drawers that while they were pulled out of the dresser and flung into the swamp, the drawers were still packed full of clothes just like you had opened them on a normal day. Unfortunately, my great-uncle died from his illness and in an act of cowardice, his father actually committed suicide. He was frustrated that his son was dying and that he did not have insurance on the cottage, but I say it was cowardice because he actually committed suicide before his son died (the same day, but prior to his death) and left two other children and his wife to suffer through all loss themselves.

Anyway on a more positive note, my mother remembers hiding under the cottage stairs to watch her older cousin and her boyfriend as they sat at the beach. When she and her brother were caught, the cousin would give them a nickel to go get ice cream and leave them alone. My mother continued the tradition and rented cottages for us to stay at. My husband and I rented for a few years with our kids and while we don’t anymore, other family members do. So last weekend, we went back to the cottage for a good old fashioned family get together.

DD even got to go jet skiing. She is a girl of no fear and kept asking her cousin to go faster.

There is a part of me that hopes that this piece of family history will continue to climb down many more generations.

Wordless Wednesday - Hint, Hint

I hoping this post serves two purposes. One, your All can be inspired; Two, maybe DH will be inspired to make them again because he knows I appreciated them so much: