Doings.

Well, I certainly didn't intend to vanish from my blog for days and days. There hasn't been too much going on here as of late.

I overdid it with the organizing and sorting and hoisting of boxes, and had a small setback in my surgery healing process, so I have been taking it easy and reading a lot of books and finishing my unicorn needlepoint along with the boring necessities of laundry and cooking and whatnot. No big projects for the last little while.

I really didn't anticipate weeks and weeks of soreness and restricted activity after this surgery. I can do most things, it's just lifting heavy stuff and reaching up high that has proven too much. Also I think I started sleeping on my chest too soon, so I have had to get very strict with myself about sleeping on my back again.

Anyway, that has all proved as dull to live through as I'm sure it is to read about, so not much blog inspiration there.

Last weekend we headed out of town to see my brother's family and go to the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale in Harrisonburg. All the money raised from the auctions and food sales goes to Mennonite Central Committee.

The big money maker at the sale is usually the handmade quilts. Todd and I have attended the relief sale several times in the past ten years or so, and have always wanted to buy a quilt, but the ones we really liked always went for more than we were prepared to pay.

I didn't realize it, but Todd was bound and determined to buy a quilt this time. So we did! It's a gorgeous Lone Star quilt in dark blues and greens. It was all very exciting.

Natalie and Marissa could not stop talking about riding with "Sonny and Cher," the horses who pull a wagon around the small county fairgrounds where the sale is held. You can see the anticipation on Marissa's face as the horses come up.

I don't know how many times they rode the wagon Friday night and Saturday, but it was a lot! Here they are riding with their friends Adam and Luke.

I wish I had a profile as cute as this. Love the way her nose turns up at the tip:

The sale serves dinner on Friday night, which we all partook of, and breakfast on Saturday morning, which Todd and Jeremy and I went early to enjoy. We had to stand in line a bit (the line runs far into the big barn:)

But it was fun. Here's me and Jeremy after omelets and sausage:

Yet another ride on Sonny and Cher...that's my sister-in-law Tracy, our little friend Luke, Marissa, Natalie, and me:

I got to catch up a little bit with my friend and cousin Trina:

My cousin Dan and his wife Lynley were there too, but I didn't get much time to talk with them, as I had to go off on another horsie ride.

Here's Marissa getting her face painted:

And Natalie and Tracy enjoying some homemade potato chips:


I'll post a picture of our new quilt once I get our bedroom all neat and tidy. I also bought homemade apple butter and stone-ground cornmeal. The donuts, alas, sold out before I could get to them. Just as well, I suppose.

The girls have a new kitten named Luna, who is the sweetest, most laid-back kitten I have ever met. Case in point:


She will sit and hang out on a four-year-old's lap.

She likes my brother, too.

In fact, she likes everyone, and the feeling is quite mutual. How I do love kittens!