a different kind of creation

At the end of February, I took a trip with my husband, brother, and two other people from our church.  We visited the mountains of western Virginia.

I love a foggy mountain morning.

 I love a sunny mountain morning.

I pretty much love any kind of mountain morning.

We worked with Appalachia Service Project - a mission that is near and dear to my heart.  I worked with them on week-long trips in high school, and spent two summers in college working for them.  I also helped lead a couple of high school trips after I graduated.  Then I got married, had kids, and found myself a little too stuck in suburbia!!!  Time to change all that.  My heart was calling me back to the mountains.

ASP's goal is to make homes in Appalachia warmer, safer, and drier.  That took on a whole new meaning after it rained ALL DAY on Thursday.  We were pouring a foundation for an addition onto his house - for a bathroom.  And we had the luxury of going back to the center for a warm shower. {gulp}

I won't go into depth about all the things that concern me about life in Appalachia - substandard housing, Wal-Mart's effect on small towns, mountaintop removal, prescription drug abuse, and lack of quality health care.  I will tell you about the amazing beauty of nature, resourcefulness in times of need, strength of families, the good that can be done when people care about each other, the honesty and openness that can be experienced when you choose to share a little bit of yourself.

At the beginning of the year I hinted at my new phrase... Love-Believe-Give-Live.  This was part of my plan to put that into action.  I don't know how the rest of the year will play out and where I will be led to give next.  I am constantly trying to find ways that I can share what I believe and give what I can.  What are some ways that you give?

parkinson's quilt project

My Aunt Nancy {of beautiful ocean quilt fame} and I have been collaborating on something special.  This is my portion.  I actually made two - one to send away to be showcased, and one for my Aunt Marge to keep.

Her photo was printed on fabric you can run through the printer, and then mounted on purple fabric and edged in yellow thread because those are the colors of the university she taught at.  The fabric used for parts of the brain are symbolic of things important to her.

My Aunt Nancy took the square that I made and added a border of prints and signature squares.  She gathered signatures from family & friends, as well as a paw print from her dog.  She then resized and combined the names as needed, printed them on fabric, and added print fabrics in between the names.  When she could she tried to pick special print fabrics that matched up with interests of the people who signed the squares.
Here is the finished quilt square:

{if you're paying close attention you may notice a few little differences.  The one on top was sent to her to keep, the one in the bottom is the one already sent off to the Quilt Project people.  I didn't photograph it myself because I was in such a hurry to get it sent on to my aunt for her to add her part.  Deadlines...ugh.}

My Aunt Nancy wrote this up about her when she submitted it to the PDF Quilt project:
"This quilt square is submitted to honor Marjorie E. Anderson, Ph.D., for her research on the basal ganglia, the portion of the brain which affects movement and is associated with Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Anderson was a professor of neurophysiology from 1971-2007 at the University of Washington in Seattle, and her research contributed to the deep brain stimulation procedures now being used to control the tremors often associated with Parkinson’s disease. Ironically, in 2003, Dr. Anderson was also diagnosed with this disease. The signatures of Dr. Anderson’s family, friends, and colleagues surround the center square to pay tribute to her research which benefits all those diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and to show their support as she now lives with this disease. The fabrics chosen to represent the brain not only illustrate Dr. Anderson’s history and personal interests, but also are located in the portion of the brain associated with that activity."


If you'd like to learn more about the Parkinson's Quilt Project go to Facebook or their web site.

baseball... a family tradition

We don't spend a lot of our time watching TV.  That means the kids haven't really watched many baseball, soccer or football games.  However, my brother- that's a different story!  He LOVES baseball above all others, but will watch anything he can.  Even better if it's in person.  In fact, he loves baseball so much that he spends some of his vacation time each year road-tripping it to as many different minor and major league games as he can.  Earlier this year he traveled around the southern US - and this week he's traveling around Michigan.  We spent the weekend with him (and numerous other family members) and had the opportunity to go to a baseball game in Kalamazoo.  It was the kid's first baseball game and they loved it for a little while!  Conner took his baseball glove, hoping for a foul ball of course (and because Uncle Matt had his).  He got his glove signed by the mascot, and I think that was the highlight of the game for him.  There was a home run, but he was in the bathroom then.  The game was on the 4th, so we enjoyed music & fireworks after the game too!

If you want to check out his blog it's kind of an interesting tour of the baseball fields and some of the little slices of Americana he's found along the way.  He gets a baseball hat at every park too - his collection is getting pretty impressive!

Since my brother lives so far away, we don't get to see him as often as I would like - and we were talking a lot about how we were going to see him on this trip and go to the baseball game.  We've been following his blog of course, and talking about all the places my brother goes.  Conner decided he wanted to write a book for Uncle Matt.  We took some computer paper, folded it in half, stapled it, and he started dictating.  I only changed one or two little phrases so they would make sense to my brother.  Otherwise, it's all his language.  I'm sure he could have written some of it, but I knew we had a short amount of time to get it done before we were leaving, and I was more concerned about him enjoying the process and putting his effort into pictures.  Writing isn't quite relaxing for him yet.

The book is titled "Cubs Fans" and talks about how the two of them are Cubs fans, how they talk about baseball, and have Cubs hats.  I just love how hard he was concentrating as he was illustrating it!

Do you have any special baseball memories?