family – Page 56 – Karla's Cottage

Being Real

By Karla Nathan / March 18, 2011

Sugarwings and Pixie Pie spent the evening with us Monday night and like all evenings do when they get together, it ended in playing dress up. I'm always looking for fun princess, fairy, or other costume accessories and dresses for them at garage sales and thrifts.

This time, the dogs got involved too. I think that Agnes Rosebud was born to wear a boa, don't you? This is the one I am packing to take to Moulin Rouge, but I think she looks much cuter in it than I will.

Twinks got into it too. She could use a smaller size fairy crown, though, this one falls around her neck.

By the way, does anyone know what the term for these things is????? I've been wracking my brain for it, and I KNOW that there just has to be a name for them.

I love to see what costumes the girls pull together. You never know what will be coming down the stairs to curtsy and show off. It could be a bumble bee, a witch, a fairy, or a conglomeration of all of them at once.

Sugarwings often falls back on the Dorothy look. Although she puts her own spin on it, and is wearing two different shoes, not ruby slippers.

But her first outfit was the best. She hadn't been part of the parade down the stairs yet, and I went up to see if she needed zipped or buttoned, or helped out in any way. But there she stood, completely naked wearing her two mismatched heels, a crown, and pretending to drink a cup of tea.

I asked why she wasn't dressed up, and she said she wanted to be "real". She's real funny alright.

Once upon a dream

fairies, family, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / March 11, 2011

Thank you all for your kind words about my Bookie. He was a funny little, odd ball and will be missed. I appreciate you sharing your stories with me about your furry loves too. They do find their way deep into our hearts!

Oh a happier, much happier, practically gleeful note, Jenn Hayslip's

Once Upon a Dream

event is open for sales!

And oh my gosh, her site is like stepping into a fairytale already. I can't wait to see the actual party! She is known for her attention to detail.

Plus, I might have a slight fondness for fairies…. So this weekend will be right up my ally. Or up my fairy trail. No, that sounds a bit wrong, and maybe even little risque, doesn't it?

Our magical weekend in Asheville, NC will be a grown up fairy tale, far from the Disney princess type of fairies. She is going for romantic and gorgeous.

As a matter of fact, when Jenn was first planning this and invited me to teach a mini class, she sent me a lot of the inspirational links that she was looking at and that is what inspired me to take the fairy pictures of all the little girls in my life.

Which reminds me, I should try to get some more sweet winged, naked baby pictures before my tiniest grandfairy is big enough to crawl away!

Here is the project that I will be doing at Once Upon a Dream. We'll be turning a teensy, 1" Charlotte in to a prize ribbon to wear or display.

Jenn is providing a generous budget for the kits, and I'll be filling them with vintage wallpaper, and pretty ribbons, lace, some millinery, and sparkle. Nothing but the Besties!

I keep looking at the Once Upon a Dream site over and over, its just so well done and so dreamy. I highly recommend a visit there to get lost in the atmosphere and day dream of fairies.

Today in Lawrence, KS, the weather has the promise of Spring. I've got all the doors and windows open, and hope to do a spring cleaning before scooping up my own little fairy, Sugarwings.

I found this cute old book, that I now have listed in the Boutique, and it has some interesting tips in it. But I think it should add "Play make believe with your grand-kids" because I can't think of anything else that keeps me feeling as full of life as that does!

We went to the park yesterday, and pretended that the slides were rainbows that we could ride. We had a treasure hunt using a map that was actually a scrap of some kid's homework blowing across the playground, and the hunt ended with her finding an imaginary crown for Prince Charming buried in the wood chips.

I'll leave you with a few more photos of whats new in the Boutique. I'm still restocking, and there is much more to come!

Sugarwing’s Low Sugar Freezer Jam, otherwise known as a strawberry spread type thing

family, Food and Drink, how to's, how-to projects, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / March 3, 2011

For not having a recipe and having never made jam before, we did okay last night when we gave it a try. What we ended up with was a unique strawberry spread type thing, and we really like it. So, I guess that is what counts. Whether anyone would ever call it "jam" when they ate it, doesn't really matter to us.

We were going rogue.

While I've never made jam myself, I knew a bit about it. Like you need a LOT of sugar for it to set up. And if you aren't canning it, you need to make freezer jam instead.

We used very little sugar, because I was making the jam myself so I could purposely cut back on it, since Sugarwings has a little bit of a jelly addiction. Well, with a name like Sugarwings, you might expect her to have a sweet tooth…

Here's how we did it, if you want to make some strawberry spread type thing for yourself:

First you need a good berry scrubber with skills in pulling off the "green parts".
After the green parts are gone, cut off the top, and toss the fruit into a blender. We used 2 quarts of organic berries.
We squeezed half of a lime over the berries in the blender and then purreed them. To get the most juice out of the lime, we played with it a while, and got it good and smashy before I cut it in half.
To the berry/lime mix, we added a 3/4 cup of organic sugar and about three good sized squirts of agave nectar syrup, and blended them all together. Have the lid on the blender before your helper pushes any buttons, or else be ready to wipe berry globs off your forehead.
We opened a packet of pectin (found on the jello isle at the grocery store) and disolved it in a 1/4 cup of boiling water. I have a feeling that the jam might have been thicker if my helper hadn't spilled quite a bit of the pectic powder when she poured it into the bowl. If all your pectin makes it into the hot water, you might have a better end product than we did.
Mix the pectin/water with the berries and sugar, then pour into jars. Leave space at the top of the jar for the jam to expand when it freezes.
Let set at room temperature for a couple hours before cooling in the fridge (or freezer if you want to save it for later)
Make labels while the jars set up.

The whole endeavor might have just been an excuse to make labels. Our yeild was small, only three partial jars, so we decorated the lids, too. We had looked forward to making labels too much to stop at three.

For our labels, we used some fruit rub ons and paint markers on water color paper shapes cut out with our punches.

My kitchen might still be a little sticky, but we sure had fun. And our so called jam really is tasty. And good for you too!

To me, it tastes a bit like a Margarita. Sugarwings thinks it tastes like jelly, but she's never had a margy. This spread has more of a fresh berry flavor than a jelly flavor. And I don't think it ended up costing any more than if I'd bought three jars of All Fruit spread. Sometimes, kitchen experiments can go a bit crazy in the budget department, but this one did okay financially.

Plus, its something we will really enjoy eating, and it wasn't hard to make. We also whipped up some home made yogurt, and for breakfast today, we swirled some of our "jam" into the plain yogurt, and it was heavenly.

My funny Valentine

family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / February 16, 2011

Did you have a good Valentines Day? We sure did, we had Sugarwings for the night and my husband whisked us away to see a romantic chick flick. Gnomeo and Juliet. And it was really pretty cute. First of all, I have a thing for yard gnomes. No, not a romantic thing, I just like them.

And second, the music was all Elton John. Can't beat that.

On the way home we scooped up some to-go food and served it on the good dishes when we got back to the cottage. After, Sugarwings and I whipped up a quick, festive dessert.

We skewered mini marshmallows onto red toothpicks, melted a hand full of Belgian chocolate chips in the microwave for a minute, then dipped the marshmallows in and quickly rolled them in sprinkles.

It took minutes to do, and she could do most of it all by herself. Plus they were tasty! The trick is to use the good chips. What a difference it makes to upgrade from Toll House chips.

In the last year, I switched over to the Belgian chips and they are make any thing I bake better. They cost a bit more, but are such better quality. If I am making cookies, I put the chips in a blender and chop them up, so they go further. I only use half as much that way.

I hope your Valentines Day was a sweet one too!

Snot, Elbows, and some Vintage Valentines for you (the images are for you, that is, not the snot and elbows)

celebrations, family, free images, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / February 14, 2011

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope that you are having a day filled with love. Around here, this year's holiday is more about tissues and Nyquil than chocolates and champagne.

My husband and I usually celebrate Valentines Day as a family because it is the anniversary of him adopting our boys. So, we take the kids out to a nice restaurant and toast each other. Because of everyone's busy schedules we weren't able to do our dinner on the 14th, we spent Sunday evening at our favorite Italian place instead.

The food was so good and the company so wonderful, I was able to forget about this nasty cold I have, and had a spectacular time. The only bad part was that I was trying to avoid holding the baby, so I wouldn't spread my germs to her.

Can you imagine how hard that was for me??? Look at that face! Don't you just want to scoop her up and squeeze her?

She was being extra cute too, giving everyone big smiles. Usually, she is very serious, so seeing all those grins made it even harder for me to stay away.

When we got to the restaurant, I asked the hostess to seat us out of the way, so my nose blowing wouldn't gross out the rest of the guests. It all worked out fine, I timed my cold medicine to be at its peak through the meal and I was glad I didn't cancel to stay home and blow my nose in bed, like I almost did.

The cold hit me extra hard because I'm just getting over the flu. And on Saturday night I got no sleep at all. Poor little Sugarwings was in pain, and I had her sleep with me to take care of her. She cried out in her sleep from a sore arm, and I felt so bad for her that I didn't get much rest myself.

Finally, the next morning we took her to the ER and found out that she had a dislocated elbow. You have no idea how bad I felt by making her wait over night to go to the Dr. But her daddy had thought she should wait till the next morning to see how she was, and her mom was tied up. Its hard to be the grandparents sometimes. You have to respect the parent's wishes, and try to follow their guidelines and rules for raising the kids, even if it goes against your own ideas on what to do.

But luckily, all was settled on Sunday morning and we got our little one to the hospital where she was fixed up so quickly that it was like flipping a switch. Once that elbow got twisted back in place, she perked up and was her old self again, bouncing around like Tigger.

The whole time she was in pain, she was so brave and so sweet. I have to say, that she is the happiest kid I've ever met, even when suffering.

Have you ever heard of nursemaid's elbow? Apparently, its very common for kids under 4 to dislocate their elbow when someone is holding their hand and they twist away from them. She had happened to be holding her mom's hand and threw herself to the floor, and pop! There it went. We were told that once it happens, it can recur quite often for a couple of years.

At least we'll know next time to get her to the Dr. immediately!! Since she waited over 12 hours to get treatment, it wasn't easy to fix due to swelling. The nurse tried a couple of times, but no luck. So, a Dr. was called in to do it, and she had to give the arm a good wrench. My husband, Sugarwing's Hippy Chick Mommy, and I all had tears on our cheeks when we heard our fairy baby cry out in pain.

It just hurts so much more to see a little one in pain than to be hurt yourself.

She put it all behind her quickly, and then proceeded to let loose all that pent up energy that she had felt too bad to use since the day before. If only I could recover that fast! This cold is kicking my butt. Too bad they don't make chocolate truffle cough drops for people who are sick on Valentines Day.

Somehow this holiday mostly got away from me. I didn't make a single thing for it, or do any kind of romantic decor in my house. There is not a heart to be seen, except these few bits of jewelry that I found in my supplies to show you.

Between illnesses, injuries, and just plain old being busy, I seem to have missed out on getting all geared up for Valentines Day.

But, its not all about the hearts and flowers, is it? I might not have decorated or created anything with a Valentine theme, but there has been plenty of love in the household. And while dinner out with the kids and a big box of Kleenex, while I had a nose that looks like Rudolf's and eyes that are glowing red like a demon's, doesn't sound so romantic- my sweet husband still took my hand, looked into my runny red eyes and asked me to be his Valentine. And our dinner out with the kids was so much fun, that we laughed and talked for over 2 hours.

Yep, its not been a traditional holiday. But its a good one. Even with the snot.

I'll leave you with a couple of Valentines from the 1930's. You can click on them to pop up in a larger window, then save them to your own computer to print.

Battling the mid-winter blues and dreaming of Spring!

bird song art event, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / February 7, 2011

The other day, I was cleaning my studio and doing some rearranging, with my spring time art event in mind, and just decided that I couldn't take it anymore, I had to MAKE something. Something quick and simple, but something. This weather has had me down, and not feeling very creative, so I needed a boost and forced myself to create.

Since I'd been cleaning up, there was a pile of papers I'd gathered up on the desk, so I used them up instead of putting them away, and turned them into a mini ephemera book.

I felt a little better about winter after doing something pretty.

Sugarwings came to spend the weekend with me, and both of us are feeling that mid-winter pinch. That cooped up, sick of being inside the same four walls dread. To beat the blues, we built a fort with blankets and curtains over the dining room table.

We discussed building strategy and felt like all white was the way to go, and that we'd call it a snow fort.

The floor got covered with a couple of thick, soft comforters, and we brought in pillows, a flash light, and art supplies.

And treats, of course! We snacked away all day and didn't even have lunch.

Yes, I did say all day. We were in that fort for hours.

We spent some of the time doing cave paintings. We used markers to draw fairies, clouds, hearts, and stars above our heads on the underside of the table.

Hopefully, she'll take my warning about never drawing on anyone's furniture unless an adult says Okay, seriously.

Hopefully, I haven't created an urge in her to marker up every table she sees… But I think that she understood that this was a special place and a special time.

After a couple hours of stories, drawing and snacking, she still wasn't ready to leave the fort. So I snuck out and got a book for myself and a DVD player for her.

This is our book for Monday night's book club and I hadn't had a chance to open it till Sunday afternoon.

So, I borrowed Sugarwing's flashlight and started to read while she watched Ariel. After a while my handsome husband got home, and he crawled in to hang out, and discovered just how cozy the spot was. He ended up taking a nice long nap in the fort while Sugarwings watched another movie.

Her Hippy Chick Mommy came over for Sunday dinner, and we made some Valentines, then the two of them crawled in the fort to watch a 3rd movie. I think that if she had her way, that kid would still be in that fort right now. She did eat breakfast in there this morning.

Thanks for all the sign ups for Bird Song! There are still spots left, if you are interested please email me for a pay-pal invoice. I can't promise you a snow fort while you are here, but please feel free to climb under the tables and draw on the undersides if you'd like.

Details about the event can be found HERE.

And if you'd like to win one of my bargain bag rhinestone bracelets, leave a comment here or on the previous post. I bought a ton of them for dirt cheap and will draw a few names to share them.

A Case of the Januarys

family, Hand Painted Furniture, housework

By Karla Nathan / January 28, 2011

Each year, after taking down the Christmas tree, I feel like my house needs… something. There is something about going from full on glitz and glamour to just plain back to normal that is a little sad. Plus, the weather doesn't help. Being cooped up and staring at the rooms day after day doesn't help. Things that bug me just a little start to bug me a LOT when there is no escape from them.

Last January, I spent a lot of time neutralizing and de-pinking my kitchen, and rearranging all my pretties in their glass fronted cabinets.

This year, I thought I'd gotten off the hook easy. After taking down the tree, cleaning the rooms and simply shifting a few things from here to there, I thought I was done and past it all. I was so busy with the funeral and guests that I almost made it to the end of January without taking on a do over anywhere in the house.

I was content with my simple clean up and and it was nice just to have the tree and most of the Christmas foof hidden away for the year.

But then, I ended up watching Sugarwings for a few days while the flu attacked at her Daddy's house. And while she was here, a bug got her too. Not the bad, spewing one that was going on at her Daddy's, just a cough and fever. Enough that she was down, but not out. Lots of cuddle time and movies. But, still, I was cooped up in the house, staring at the things that bugged me.

Since I needed to stay near my sick fairy grand baby, and couldn't really start anything big, I decided to tackle the dreaded closet.

One door leads to the bath, the other to the bedroom where Sugarwings was tucked into my bed watching our new favorite movie, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians." She and I watched it together twice and when she said she wanted to see it again, I simply had to get up and do something else.

So, Twinkle, Agnes Rosebud and I started tossing stuff out of the closet.

The room was too awful to show a before picture. It was crowded, and you couldn't even see the floor. I had baskets, furniture, and who knows what cluttering it up.

Where the rolling hamper sits now, was a tall chest filled with too many old clothes. I threw out 3 garbage bags of clothes not good enough to donate, and packed one boxful to take to the thrift store.

Now, why did I have all those? And why would I even think they were fit to wear?

Its easy to cling to things that I might need…. but I realized that I never would need them. And really, really shouldn't wear them even if I did think that I needed them. I had a wardrobe intervention on myself. Kind of like this summer when I emptied out that old shed. Man, it felt good to get rid of stuff that was cluttering up my life.

Oh, I kept plenty of comfy tees and hoodies, because I am smart enough to know that I won't ever dress "nice" around the house, or to most places I go. But I got rid of enough old clothes that I didn't need and should never be seen in, that I was able to do away with a whole dresser and make the room more open and pleasant.

Then, I arranged all my clothes by color, just like they do at my favorite store, Goodwill. And I recycled all the wire hangers.

What I noticed while doing this, is that I dress myself kinda the way I do my house. My keepers were lots of neutrals with soft pinks, a few flowers and lace, and a touch of aqua blue.

The space is also our laundry room. When we were newbie empty nesters, we thought it was a brilliant plan to remodel one of the kid's rooms into a larger master bath for us, and turn it into a laundry room at the same time. It is really a nice concept. As I pull clothes out of the dryer, I hang them up or put them on a shelf, there are no laundry baskets to tote into the other room, and we have more space in our bedroom because we don't need clothes storage in there. (except for Sugarwing's clothes- which I am too lazy to carry upstairs in her bedroom, we keep them in our room).

But, that was before we had one son and his family move in and out a couple times, another son move in permanently, and various other relatives come and go. A laundry room off the master isn't as easy to share as one somewhere else in the house.

We have two walls of built in shelving, (hand made by Sugarwing's Daddy, who also built my kitchen) and this section of shelving was just the right width to slide in this small chest of drawers that I painted years ago. My boy built the shelf above it to pull out and use as a folding table. Its one of my favorite features.

The room is not very pretty. It was done on a tight budget, we didn't even finish the floors, I simply painted the sub-floor white. I guess I could fill all the open shelves with matching wicker baskets and hide away the laundry paraphernalia, but I don't think it is worth my time or the expense. I did wrap an old crocheted table cloth around my ratty, rolling hamper, but that is about the extent of foofing that I did and that only took a minute, and was free to do.

For now, I am thrilled just to have it cleaned up and feeling spacious. The trick will be to not fill it back up with junk again.

Yes, I know, this was not the prettiest of blog posts… but to me, that cleared out, naked floor in the walk in closets is one of the most lovely sites I've seen in a long while! I'm glad I was struck with a case of January-itis and got this project done.

By the way, Sugarwings is better now, and back home with her father. Her poor, little Sis-star has her first fever though and we are hoping she doesn't get the spewing flu.

I'm back to the studio working on more fun projects, but every time I go in the house, I take an admiring glance at my closet.

At Disney

family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / January 24, 2011

So much has happened since the new year, that I haven't had a chance to show you our Disney pictures. You didn't think you were going to escape a doting grammie's photos of her baby on vacation did you?

Sugarwings was thrilled to meet some of her favorites, Mirry Pippins (as she calls her) was way up on the top of her list of great movies, so this was a real treat for her.

And of course any one who wants to hear "Alice in Wonderland" read to her over and over can't miss meeting the White Rabbit. We were walking through the park as he was making his way to the spot set up for him to meet kids and when she spied him, she took off following him just like Alice did. Luckily, there were no big holes for her to fall into.

This was a moment when we could have used Mary Poppin's nanny skills, because Sugarwings saw no reason to stand in a line to give this rabbit a hug. She was determined to get right to him.

One character that she really wanted to meet, was not there. But it looks like there are plans for a Little Mermaid attraction to be built soon. And Ariel was featured in a 3D movie that we saw multilple times. At each showing, Sugarwings had to call out, "Hi Ariel!!!!!"

We got to the park early and it wasn't too crowded yet. It was nice to explore a bit and let our fairy princess run about. Once the place filled up, we had to keep her close. She likes to run, though, so we found a playground in Toon Town for her to play in for a while.

She made a few friends there, mostly boys. She was wearing her dress over her head part of the time and asking boys if they would marry her. I think she thought the filmy net of her skirt felt like a bridal veil.

I hope this isn't how she plans on meeting her prince charming someday…

We ended up carrying her through most of the park. She spent a lot of the day on her Pop Pop's shoulders. I took a few turns of holding her too. It made me not feel as bad about missing time at the gym to haul her 30 pounds around for a few hours.

Plus, I love any excuse to cuddle her.

We only spent one day at the Magic Kingdom, and two nights at the hotel. I think that if we go again, we'll take a bit more time to explore. Saying goodbye wasn't easy for me. I had waaaaayyy too much fun!

An odd trip to Nebraska

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / January 23, 2011

What a relief to be home. And to a clean house. I took time before we left to spic and span up the joint and de-christmas it. There is nothing nicer than coming home from a rough trip to a welcoming, cleaned up house filled with little dogs happy to see you.

Not only did I de-christmas it all, I rearranged all the funeral flowers too. Kind hearted friends had sent a couple of dozen floral baskets to the funeral and all of them got delivered to my house afterward. So, we distributed them between family and the local nursing home (where Ardell used to live until he met and married his wife who worked there-a long, odd story that you probably don't want to hear).

I don't know about you, but if I lived in a nursing home, I'd be depressed when a truckload of flowers left over from a funeral got delivered. Just a reminder that time is short in those places. Kind of a poke saying
"another one bites the dust".

Or maybe they just enjoy having pretty flowers around and don't think about it like that.

I know that I am enjoying the freshly rearranged flowers. I prefer a less formal look, and took all of the stems out of the baskets, trimmed up the ends and plopped the posies into vases and pots to sit all around the house. Many of the flowers had gone brown, and lots had been given away, but I still ended up with at least one vaseful in each room, the dining room and kitchen each got 3 or 4.

Some people had sent baskets of growing plants too. Those all got re-potted. I also rearranged all the furniture in the living room, but am not thrilled with the new look…. It might need a tweaking now that I am back home and have more time.

Our trip was certainly memorable.

We had my father-in-law's coffin loaded into my brother-in-law's truck. Then, a caravan of us followed the body up highway 75 to Nebraska where Ardell wanted to be put to rest next to his parents.

Seemed simple. And his widow wasn't left with a lot of money, so driving the body ourselves was going to save the cost of having it transported.

But not all goes according to plans, does it?

We stopped along the road after my BIL pulled over, thinking he just needed to stretch his legs, only to find out that his truck was as dead as the passenger it was carrying. had broken down.

We were in the middle of nowhere, on back roads with no cell phone reception, so it was lucky that we had kept together. We were able to pull them with our own truck. We were also lucky that the next small town we came to had a Chevy dealership.

The day was snowy and freezing cold, one of those below zero Nebraska days where the wind whips across the corn fields and right into your bones. So, I'm glad no one had to walk, and that we didn't have to pull them far. It could have been much worse.

There was talk of loading the coffin into the back of our truck and leaving the broken down truck behind to be repaired and picked up the next day, but the garage promised it to us by that afternoon, so we stuck around and killed time while waiting.

The first store we went in had a sign that said " Antiques" but I found out that was an old sign that the new owner hadn't taken down yet. She said the town used to be ALL antique shops. Used to be. Now there were none.

We did find a thrift shop where everything was 88 cents. Everything! And with plenty of time, you could really dig through the stuff, not just glance over it and leave. Its easy to overlook some nice things at thrift stores if you don't really take your time to look through it.

I got some shirts, and we found Pixie Pie some books, plus spent some time sitting on the floor of the shop reading them to her. Sugarwings wasn't along on the trip, which turned out to be a good thing, she isn't as patient as her cousin is.

The guys played cards, we explored the town, we had some lunch, and we laughed a lot. The situation was feeling pretty absurd to us. But all worked out well, and we were back on the road in about 4 hours.

Ardell was safely delivered to the funeral home, and had a nice send off the next day in Madison on what had to be the coldest day I've ever vountarily went outside in. Arctic and icy, but the Nebraskans didn't seem to notice. I figured that if little kids and a 90 year old aunt could take the wind chill to be there for the short, graveside service, I should buck up and not complain.

It was an interesting stay in Norfolk. Did you know that hotel rooms start at about $38 a night there? And that you can take a dozen people out to dinner for only $120??? That included appetizers, wine, beer, and ribeye steaks too. (we ate at the Grainery Family Diner) If you ever need a getaway, to somewhere friendly, affordable, and with beautiful snowy scenery, I sure recomend seeing Nebraska. Personal service every where you go too. Everyone we met seemed like a next door neighbor ready to lend a hand or advice or a smile.

But I don't reccommend touring the countryside with a cargo load like ours. Leave the dead relatives at home if you decide to go.

Thankful

family

By Karla Nathan / January 19, 2011

Well, I think its time things start to get back to normal around here.

I feel like I've been in some sort of limbo, between nonstop holiday fun, then a week's vacation followed by wrapping up and sending hundreds of purchases from my Boutique sale. After barely catching up and getting settled back home, a big snow storm hit and then, the bad news about my father-in-law.

This weekend we will be driving the body up to Nebraska where he wanted to be buried. We are also taking his favorite recliner to the nursing home there, but no, we won't be strapping him into that. Although, I do think he might have enjoyed it.

So, I won't be back into my routine for a bit. Thanks for all your messages and kind words, sorry I haven't been able to answer them all. But I read and appreciated each one.

Its a sad time when someone dies suddenly. Its a realization that hopes are cancelled, relationships will never improve, this was it, all there was. Potentials never fulfilled, reconcilliations never made.

My husband's family is amazing. Caring people with sharp wits and the capacity for deep love. All of them came together to be there for each other to celebrate their sibling love and honor their father.

He was not an easy man and like all humans, had his flaws. But I will love him forever for creating this diverse and adorable group. They are all wildly different people with opposite religious, political, and lifestyle views. But all enjoy each other's company and accept the huge variations of their beliefs.

In his last years, my husband's father learned to show a softer side with these two great grand children. Pixie Pie and Sugarwings got through to him.

Sugarwings knew he loved her and that she could make him smile by singing the Nebraska fight song for him. Her memories of Grandpa Ardell will always be good ones.

Even though our home was filled with laughter and fun with all the relatives visiting, she picked up on her Pop Pop's underlying sadness and when he tucked her in at night, she told him, "When I grow up I will go to school and be a doctor and make sick people better. Then your daddy won't die, Pop Pop."

Yes, families aren't perfect. But there are perfect moments in each. We had a lot of those this week. And I am thankful.