I feel like a broken record saying how fast each year goes, but 2021 is going fast.  We hardly had New Year’s and then Valentine’s Day and here we are in the middle of March already.

The days are full for two people who don’t go many places.  David and I are kept busy here on our little half acre with the puppies and the chickens and our hobbies and the upkeep on our old house.   I can say I have never been happier.  The past few days I have been mindlessly sewing two inch squares together from all the squares I have cut while making different quilts. I have a box full of them. I always knew that one day I would make a quilt from these squares.  I find it rather calming to sew them together as I listen to talk radio. The pile of blocks keeps getting higher and higher.

I have this quilt pinned together and ready to be quilted.  I absolutely loved sewing these little blocks. So much so that I made another quilt just like it in Christmas colors.

I put bird blocks in the center instead of a medallion like the pattern called for.

And I have this perfectly lovely material I found at an antique mall that will be the backing.  I will show this quilt in more detail later.

I’ve had my snowman quilt out for the Winter, but it’s time to put it away.

I made this quilt when we had a store and I sewed quilts from the quilt books we sold.

My snow people have been keeping warm on the dining room table.  But they will be put away soon.

We did have one good snow.  I was hoping for a blizzard like we had in 1978 when our children were small and David was in the National Guard and went out to rescue people who were stuck in their homes without food or heat.  At one house I remember him telling me they were burning their furniture in their fireplace to keep warm!    My children and I were snug as bugs in our home with plenty of food because I have always kept food stocked for an emergency and we hardly ever run out of anything.

But we didn’t have a blizzard and the snow lasted for only a few days and now the temperatures are up in the sixties so Spring cannot be far.

We had second Christmas with our son and his girlfriend and her son.

I made the son a quilt like all the others. Now everyone has at least one quilt I have made.

Our son had the virus which is why they didn’t come at Christmas, but that’s okay. I love having a second chance to have a second Christmas!

I became another year older.  I can remember as a girl talking with my friends, back in the sixties, about how old we would be in the year 2000 and we thought that fifty was old.  Well, we have all passed that and are even older.   I have lost several friends in the past few years. Yes, we are not getting any younger.

David took a week off to celebrate my birthday. We went out to eat a few times and he gave me these…

Such beautiful roses.

I always love getting cards. People don’t send them like they use to.  I still send cards to people because I think it’s just the extra thought that makes it special. Last year I sent a card and some money to a friend and he told me it made him feel like a kid again opening a birthday card and getting money.  That made me happy.  We all need to be treated like kids once in a while because we all are really just children in older bodies.    I like to think everyone has a kid inside just waiting to burst out.

I had a very happy, uneventful birthday which was fine with me. I told David I didn’t want cake and ice cream because with this quarantine I know I have gained weight and so I didn’t need to add any more!  It did seem strange not having a cake, but it was better that I didn’t have one.

Flower catalogs have been arriving almost daily, but these are the two I am ordering from this year.  Select seeds are very good and I had a nice display of zinnias last year.  I am looking forward to planting seeds and flowers soon.  But I won’t be planting anything in our back yard this year. Our two Lab puppies have made it  look like a junk yard dog lives back there. They have dug up some of my flower beds and they drag whole logs off the woodpile into the yard and chew on them.  I really think they are actually woodchucks, not dogs.  But I have always said the back yard belongs to the dogs and I can’t complain. They will grow out of all this behavior and next year I can resume planting there again.  Lucy and Sugar have grown so much. They were spayed last week and are doing well.  I thought for a short blip that I would like to raise some puppies, but I then decided it would be way too much work for us.  So Lucy and Sugar won’t be mothers, but they are the best dogs we have ever had except for Mollie and all the rest. All my dogs have been the best dogs.

I found this magazine a while back and it’s very interesting.  I have a special place  where I create and love it. The women featured here have some of the most beautiful studios.  My studio has a man and dogs tramping through it, so it’s not always the neatest place, but it’s mine and I have lots of room to work so I’m not complaining.

Well, I’ve rambled on long enough. I hope your year has been going well.  Our governor is talking about lifting the mask mandate, halleluhah, something I have not complied to very well as I think it’s unhealthy to breath the air through a mask.  Of course I have worn a mask when it was required.   So soon, I can go maskless with abandon.  Isn’t it strange how we all adapted so quickly to wearing masks without really knowing if they worked or not?  I hope I never see another mask in my lifetime.  Unless it’s a Halloween mask.

Here’s to March.  May it go out like a lamb. Bye.