My Baby

           Forty-two years ago today my youngest, Kevin, my baby, was born.

          Yeah, that makes me old.

          Mike and I recently received the wonderful gift of new, updated photos. This is Kevin with his beautiful wife Kandyce and their very handsome son, Andrew.

          Speaking of Andrew...

          Kevin also sent along a couple of shots of just Andrew. Isn’t he so handsome‽

>>>*<<<

          Do you remember last week when I was talking about the Colonial Penn commercial? I told you, “When I find something good the first thing I do is tell all y’all about it.”

          This week we found something good.

          “What is it?” I know you wanna know.

          Did you know that you can open a savings account with Discover? And did you know that they will give you 4.30% interest? Compare that to the less than one percent your bank will pay and it’s a heck of a good deal.

          >>>*<<<

          My handsome mountain man had to go for a routine test this week. He hasn’t seen the doctor yet but we assume all is well.

          I took road pictures for you.

          Mike had to have a blood test before his appointment, then there was an hour's wait while they processed that. We waited. Shortly before the hour was up, I got an email on my phone saying his blood test results were back. I looked at the time on my phone and thought, Cool! They’re back in time for his ten o’clock appointment.

We waited. People came in and were called to the back. We patiently waited some more. More people came and went and we were still waiting. It was twenty minutes past our appointment time when Mike finally went to the desk to see if he had been forgotten.

“We’re waiting for your blood test results,” she told him.

Maybe she doesn’t know that they send a notification when the results come back and I’m able to get that on my phone.

"They're in," Mike told her.

“I’ll check,” she said. When she came back, she said, “You should be next.”

Another 10 minutes passed, which seemed like an hour, more people were called ahead of us, then they finally called for Mike.

They had a really hard time getting a needle in his vein. Both to draw the blood before the test and to give him the contrast dye for the test. He came out looking like a used-up pin cushion.

“You’re not drinking enough water,” I told him.

 After that, we had lunch and did a little shopping to kill time until it was time to get the car inspected. We didn’t need much of anything and not being keen on shopping, we were done early.

“We might just as well go sit in their waiting room,” Mike said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Maybe they’ll take us early.”

 They didn’t. I guess the guy doesn't come back from lunch until then.

Waiting time is seldom wasted time when you have a book to read and right now I’m reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It’s a page-turner and at 973 pages in paperback, it gives me plenty of pages to turn! Some pages I turned without even reading. There’s a scene where they had a bear-baiting contest. Five greyhounds pitted against a chained-up bear. It didn’t take me long to see that the whole life-and-death struggle was graphicly written and I didn’t really want to read it. I quickly flipped past it.

I read this book years ago and don’t remember much about it except I liked it and passed it on to Momma to read. We both read the first two books in what is now a five-book series. If you want to read them and you use the Libby app, you can borrow them from the library.

One of the places we stopped was at the thrift store. I picked up a couple of stuffed animals for Raini to tear up. I’ve learned I have to check them for plastic beads and if it has them, I put it back on the shelf. I don’t want it. I think they use them for added weight in some stuffed animals. The beads are in little bags, usually in the feet, and Raini finds ‘em and tears ‘em up, then I have a mess of beads to clean up.

Somehow, I missed finding the beads in a stuffed pink pig when I checked for them. I decided I’d make a little cut and pull the bags out. Surprise! This one didn’t have the beads in bags. I used my finger to rake out as many as I could but I know some of the beads have migrated up into the stuffing. Raini liked that I started rips for her and she pulled out some of the stuffing. Sure enough, there were a few plastic beads mixed in. Oh well, it’s not the end of the world.

Speaking of Raini...

We had a frosty morning. The rising sun made the weeds sparkle and I took my camera out to try and capture it for you. Raini, carrying her ball, was hot on my heels as I went out. I didn’t capture the beauty of the morning but I did capture Raini leaping for her ball. 

This little orange ball is light and doesn’t knock stuff over or do damage when Raini bops it. She’s gotten in the habit of following me around while I’m doing my morning chores and dropping the ball at my feet. She’s got me trained. I’ll pick it up and give it a toss. I don’t watch where it lands, don’t even care. While she’s retrieving, I’m continuing on with my chores. One day this week she bopped it and couldn’t get it. I can usually find it because she’ll stand right near where it’s lost. If it’s under something, she’ll indicate that with her nose. But this time she was standing in the middle of the kitchen.

“Where is it?” I asked.

“Woof!” Raini said and lifted her nose.

I couldn’t see it anywhere. Raini kept insisting it was on the counter. I took a few steps and looked up. There it was. Stuck between a bottle and a picture frame in the window. The peacock had obstructed it from my view. But that’s why I love this ball. It landed in such a precarious position and didn’t knock anything over.

Right now Raini’s orange ball is lost and she has to settle for one of the other ones. I don’t go looking for her balls. She’ll find it again or she won't.

Yesterday, Saturday, I was out in the kitchen and happened to look up and saw her orange ball was still there, stuck in the window. Like I said, the peacock hides it. I guess I forgot to give it to her once I took its picture. Four days her ball had been lost to her. You should’ve seen the smile on her face, the joy in her step when I gave her back her beloved orange ball.

>>*<<<

            I stayed busy all week.

I’m always busy doing something.

One of my newest projects is making cards for my girls. Cards of encouragement. My original goal was to make two cards a week but I’m finding it’s quite enough to fit one card-making session into my week.

It’s time-consuming to find or make images for the front. It’s time-consuming to find decorative background papers to go along with the images. It’s time-consuming to cut and piece together a layout. It’s time-consuming to compose a message. Nonetheless, for all the work, I do enjoy making cards and I know they are appreciated on the receiving end.

I made the cards, got out the envelopes, and had to walk away. This is what I found when I came back. Tiger, that stinker, is sitting on the outgoing mail.

And stinker is right!

“Peg, come here — please?” Mike called from the recliner.

I went.

“Smell him,” he said of Tiger sitting in his lap. “Does he stink?”

I didn’t have to get very close with this old sniffer of mine before I detected the unmistakable aroma of poo.

“Why does he smell like that?” I asked.

“I don’t know unless he was rolling in it,” Mike replied.

Guess who got a bath?

“Tiger?” you guess.

Yep. And he was not happy about it at all. You wouldn’t believe how high he can jump! I bet he jumped more than halfway up the closed shower doors. I started with water that felt just warm to me but maybe it was too warm for him. An image flashed through my mind’s eye of John, a man dying of cancer that I used to care-give for. One of my duties was to give him a shower and I’d always have him test the temperature before I sprayed him. Invariably, and even though it only felt warm to me, it was always too hot for him.

I kept turning the handle to colder and colder until Tiger stopped hopping around like I was trying to boil him alive. I also started talking to him. One thing or the other worked and he resigned himself to his fate. Once out of the shower, Tiger started purring as I toweled him off. He sure did smell a lot better! And bonus, I had a shower, too!

This week I made buttons for playing card holders. I made the green buttons from glass.

“Aren’t they sharp?” you ask.

Nope. I ground the edges so they are not sharp.

The red buttons I made from air-dry clay.

“Won’t they break?” you ask.

Nope. I made one and had Mike try to break it. He couldn’t. They’re pretty strong. But I think before I make them again, I’ll color the clay before I mold them.

The other one is made with a grommet. Actually, that’s a lie. It’s not made. My grommets are too short so it’s just sitting there not doing his job. I could get longer grommets if I decide to make them that way.

For my daily painting, I wanted to paint something on a little canvas board I bought. I found out pretty quick that watercolors don’t work. I switched to acrylic and painted from one of my photographs.

And I finished my commissioned photo board. The jute string can be adjusted shorter if you didn’t want it this saggy.

The photos are just some I pulled out of my drawer.

Let’s end this time with more road pictures. Mike and I went on some roads we don’t travel very often and one of those roads was named Covered Bridge Road. Can you guess why?

          It’s funny how changing the angle can make it a whole new picture.

          Let’s call this one done!

This Week

           This week the Luby house saw some changes.

          “Like what?” you ask.

          Like the addition of another upper kitchen cabinet.

          It all started after we put the new cabinets in the kitchen.

          “We could take the shelves down and put two more cabinets up,” Mike said.

          “No,” I said. “Those were your mom’s.”

          “That’s alright. We can put them someplace else. It’ll give you more room and less dust,” he pointed out.

          This same conversation took place several times over the past few weeks and the more I thought about it, the better I liked it — at least the less dust part.

          This week we made the trip to Lowe’s in Dickson City. Because we’ve made the trip on the same roads so many times over the years, I decided to take my big lens with me and hopefully get some better pictures of hawks for you.

          I only took two pictures on the way down. This old house...

          ...and all these birds lined up along the bank overlooking the road. They looked like they were plotting an attack.

I did better on the way home.

          “Now that I’ve got my big lens, I probably won’t see any hawks,” I complained.

          We were almost to Meshoppen, not far from home, when I saw the first hawk.

          Then we were between Meshoppen and Laceyville when I saw the second one sitting on top of a utility pole.

          A minute later, a big bird takes flight from the road in front of us.

          “Is that an eagle?” I asked. I could see the white tail feathers.

          “I think so,” Mike confirmed. 

          I snapped away and most of the pictures aren’t that good — heck, even the good ones aren’t that good. But I was excited to be photographing an eagle anyway. 

          I would’ve seen him sitting on the road having lunch sooner except that I tend to watch the trees, which is where you expect to find birds.

          Sometimes I see a flash of white in the trees. Is it a hawk's breast or trash?

         I get my camera and my hopes up. I’ve learned it’s better to take pictures first and delete them later, rather than wait until I’m sure, or I might miss the shot. The voice of experience here guys.

          After we got home and got the groceries put away, we put the new cabinet up. Mike got to use our brand spankin' new drill to drill the holes for the handles. 

          Our car is small so we only bought one cabinet. Next month we’ll buy one more. 

          Mike put his mom’s shelves up at the entryway into the exercise studio.

          “Peg, what are all the little white squares on the glass doors?” you ask.

          The plastic is still on the windows. It’s only been that way for a few years. To quote that handsome neighbor of mine, “You can’t get in a hurry about that stuff.” It only took him fifteen years to put a railing up on the basement stairs.

          Monday was shopping and installing the kitchen cabinet. Then someone had a job to do washing dusty dishes and putting them in the cabinet.

          On Tuesday I worked on my next commission.

          I have lots of conversations with my clients. I want them to be happy with their commissions. What appeals to me may not appeal to them. And this will serve as a good example of just that happening here.

          The first thing we had to establish was what we were going to call it. “Here are some suggestions. Good Times, Adventures, Best of Times, My Favorite Things, Happy Times, Shenanigans, Memories, My Remember Board. Do you like any of these or can you think of something else?” I asked.

          “Happy Times,” he chose.

          Perfect. Next, we needed an image for that board. “Flowers, hearts, puppies, kittens?”

          “Puppies, kittens, and flowers,” he said.

          I used AI (artificial intelligence) to create images. I picked out the ones I thought I could paint and put them in my design space on the computer.

          He didn’t like them.

          “How about something less babyish?” he asked.

          This girl is four! I figured once she outgrew this board, he could order another one. He wasn’t falling for it.

          I scoured my saved images looking for things I wanted to paint. I tried to give him a variety of subjects less babyish.

          “I like the boots and the heart,” he said.

          I designed two boards for him. One with the boots and the other with the heart. Just using “Happy Times” left me with too much white space and you know how I abhor white space! It needs to be filled with something! I decided to add the little girl's name.

          He chose the heart.

          I was getting ready to print my patterns and looking at it, it bothered me a little. I didn’t like how the flowers created a “block” between the words and the image. I just thought it would flow better if the scroll of flowers was on the outside. Rather than tell him this, I sent him two images hoping he’d choose it.

          He didn’t.

          “Heart on the right,” he said.

          Darn!

          I went back to my design space and made two more designs. This time I flipped one of the hearts.

          “How about if I flip the image?” I asked.

          “Bottom one,” he said.

          The man knows what he likes, that’s for sure.

It took me a couple of days to transfer the images and get this far. My shadows might be a little dark so when I start again on Monday, I’ll add a wash of red and lighten them some.

My peeps like to see what I’m working on so I sent them a picture in my morning love note.

          “They look like butt cheeks,” one of my peeps said to me.

          “That was my first thought, too!” another one said.

          And it’s one of those things that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Nonetheless, I smiled. At least my painting has dimension to it!    

          I am not the only creative one in my family. My grandmother painted, although I’ve never seen anything she painted nor do I know if she was any good. My mother dabbled in colored pencils and she was pretty good at it! My cute little red-haired sister is by far the best, in my opinion. She can create from her head whereas I can only copy what I see.

Some of my other siblings are talented in the drawing department even though they don’t pursue it. Other siblings don’t want to paint or draw and have talents in other areas.

Patti, my oldest and much-adored sister is an enviable handyman. She handles repairs and upgrades to her home that you wouldn’t think a woman could or would want to do. It would take me at least a page to list all of the projects she’s tackled. I’m always in awe when she tells us what job she’s gonna do next. Patti has made a few amazing pieces of art too, one of which hangs on my wall and I smile every time I look at it.

          “What’s it say?” you wanna know.

          It says, “Mother wrench feeding her young.”

My cute little red-haired brother makes beautiful things from wood. I use a carry box he made to hold my paints. A mirror with a shelf hangs in my bathroom. There are many other things, too, but you get the idea.

And, oh my gosh! My handsome younger brother Paul is amazing! He has a love for watches and can repair them. Just this week he said he was toying with an idea to convert his 3D printer into a watch parts cleaning machine! How cool is that!

Some of us have more than one talent. I tend to try lots of different things. I love to master a craft and move on. It’s not that I don’t want to make more of whatever-it-is, it’s more like what am I going to do with them once I make them.

That’s why I’m always thrilled when something I make gets a request from someone I love. I got a request for two of the playing card holders and I made her four. It was fun. My only regret is that I didn’t think to make them for her before she asked.

Now, there’s one more sister I want to talk a little about. That would be Phyllis, my beautiful younger sister. Phyllis is a wizard in the kitchen. She can look at a recipe and instantly know how to make it better. I’ve also seen Phyllis do some amazing handyman chores. She’s repaired furniture the dog chewed up, erected fences, gardening — oh the beautiful gardens she’s made! — and landscaping.

Phyllis also has a heart full of kindness and compassion. She spends her days with her 99-year-old mother-in-law. Jean is just a few months shy of being a centenarian. Phyllis makes clothing protectors for Jean (I won’t call them bibs) and she made this greeting card holder to display Jean’s cards for her. All of these things she does while battling MS. She’s my hero.

Two of my brothers have gone on to walk with the Lord and that leaves three I haven’t talked about.

My older brother Chuck pretty much does his own thing and isn’t big on staying connected with us. We love him anyway.

Our youngest brother John is busy being an amazing father to his young son. With grown daughters and grandchildren, he has a second chance to get it right. Something some of us may wish for.

And David, my Irish twin, his superpower is kicking cancer’s ass. I’m thankful for every day this courageous man stays with us.

I’m truly blessed to have such talented, amazing, inspiring, awesome, not to mention beautiful and handsome, siblings.

Now speaking of siblings, I wanna call out that commercial on TV for Colonial Penn Life Insurance.

Two sisters are having coffee and one says to the other, “I see you're still using Mom’s old coffee pot.”

The other sister says something about it being the kids' inheritance and they can sell it to pay for her funeral.

The other sister tells her she should get Colonial Penn. “We all have it. John, Maria, and even Paul with all his health problems.”

Have you seen this commercial?

If it had been me, I’d’ve felt resentful. “Y’all have it and didn’t bother to tell me about it?”

When I find something good the first thing I do is tell all y’all about it. But that’s either because I love you or I have a big mouth. You pick.

>>>*<<<

          We woke to three inches of snow Saturday morning.

          “Peg, I think we got four,” my handsome mountain man says.

          When I went out to feed the birds, Raini brought her ball out for me to toss. She caught the first toss and missed the second.

          It was amusing to watch her try to figure out where the ball went. She puzzled over it for a minute before using her paw to dig the ball out.

          Then she dove in and came up with the ball and a snootful of snow. Despite trying to shake it off, she still had snow on her face when she brought the ball back. 

          Speaking of birds, I have baby Zebra Finches!

          “Peg, I thought you weren’t going to let them have any more babies?” you say.

          I know, right! But the only way to do that would’ve been to take out their house, and I did do that, but then they didn’t have any place dark to go and nap during the day or sleep at night. They didn’t seem happy so I put the house back in.

          I decided not to torture myself. If they had babies and didn’t feed them and they died, that was on them. I avoided feeling guilty by not looking in their house.

          Yesterday I kept hearing more cheeps and mews than two birds can account for. My resolve not to peek in the house lasted half a day. I had to know. I got up and took a quick peek. I didn’t even take the time to count. All I know is there are several fat, fluffy babies in there and boy, can they be noisy! They get louder every day. I’m guessing they’re two, maybe three weeks old. It looks like Mom and Dad finally figured out what they’re supposed to do.

          With that, let’s call this one done!

          Done!