Setting goals

Setting goals seems to be helping to keep me more focused.  Over the past week I prepped eight of the Meadow Cosmos blocks, as planned.  I love the way the fabrics blend and are so subtle.  I can just imagine cuddling up in this quilt.

The binding on the Paisley Runner is a work in progress........I am about half done.

Blocks eight and nine of the Primitive Gathering's Favorite Things are done and I expect the next one in the mail tomorrow.  I am trying to keep up with these.  They only require about an hour each, so it is really not difficult.

The next blocks on Coxcombs & Pomegranates have not arrived.  However, after a considerable amount of effort, I finally spoke to Tori at Jan Patek's yesterday and I am hopeful that the kinks on this BOM are now resolved and the blocks will arrive soon.

One of my Yahoo groups is doing a project from the latest Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine.  I loved almost every project in this issue and was glad to get the nudge I needed to do my favorite, Sweet Pickins.  I changed mine a little and did the applique in wool.  The top is finished.  Now for my least favorite part:  Quilt as Desired.  I don't know how I desire.  I desire that I would wake up in the morning and it would be done for me!!!!

So, my next goal is to finish the binding on Paisley Runner and to prep the next eight blocks on Meadow Cosmos.  Anything else accomplished is icing on the cake.

On the chicken front.........raising backyard chickens is not as simple as I thought.  Like my friend, Diane, said...."I thought you fed and watered them and collected eggs".  Well, that and some more.  Last weekend Esther was eggbound.  That was an education in itself.  She finally laid on Sunday, thank goodness.  But then she didn't seem to get better.  On close inspection, I found that she was literally covered in chicken mites.  YIKES!!!  They were sucking her blood out and she was anemic....think pale comb, listlessness, shortness of breath.  The others were all okay, but had minor infestations.  Thank goodness for the internet, You Tube and local chicken expert Brian.  The chicken house and yards are decontaminated, as are the chickens.  You don't even want to know how much work that was.  Esther has been getting extra iron rich foods and seems better, but not quite herself.  She isn't laying again, but doesn't seem in distress because of that.  In the meantime, Bobbie has started laying.  She is one proud girl, clucking loudly as soon as she produces her lovely brown eggs.  Zulu, the rooster, is in the market for a new home.  I find that I am just not up to having a rooster, even though I love to hear him crow.  All that being said, I am still enjoying them immensely and spend an inordinate amount of time at the chicken condo.

On Sunday we had our first meal that was compliments of the girls (the eggs, not the sausage).  And they were yum!

The Hornes recently vacationed in Florida and spent some time at the amusement park.  When Macy saw this chicken on the Merry Go Round, she had to have her picture taken just for me.

Son in law, Rob, is on a flight to Brazil tonight for a ten day mission trip.  Robert and Macy started school this week.  Robert is trying out for Middle School Football and made the first cut.  Jackson attended a camp at Newnan FUMC and loved it; he won't start preschool until after Labor Day.  Colten, Dillon and Sara Ashley start school next week.  Today Ashley and Sara Ashley surprised Macy at school and had lunch with her.  Here are those two sweet girls:

GRATITUDES:

The privilege of being a part of the lives of our grandchildren.

Rain.

Cooler temperatures.

Hummingbirds swarming our feeders, preparing for their trip south.

Take care,

Jennie