Gift Giving.



At least....being on time with the gifts.

In my mind, I have these wonderful plans of perfectly selected tokens of my love and appreciation.
In reality I have a pile of unfinished crafts and a shopping list a mile long.

Take Christmas, for example.
As in Christmas 2014.
As in the present from 2014, intended for my sister, that is still sitting in my "to be finished" quilting stash.

Or birthdays.
As in our daughter's 12th.
As in that being the age where we told her she could get her ears pierced.
As in 12+ months later .....and no extra holes in her head. 
(I DID buy earrings though....AND remembered to give them to her.)


My excuse is that I am paralyzed by wanting everything to be so perfect and fear failure so much, that I never just DO something.

I should probably get over that.
Yeah.


You see, my husband is great at getting things done on time.  Birthdays,  Christmas, Mother's Day, Anniversary.....

Like today. 
Today marks 18 years of him surviving moments like this morning:

Him: Good Morning
Me: Happy Anniversary. 
Him: Happy 18th Anniversary
Me: Wow.  That's a long time....... I mean....I Love You!*


He then proceeded to chuckle at his fuzzy-brained wife and hand her his pre-planned, pre-purchased anniversary gifts.  Which were prefect.

I, on the other hand, am still "shopping" for the table saw he wanted for Father's Day.




I think I can get that done before another 18 years pass.....

Because while I may not be the best shopper-co-ordinator-present-giver, I do love him very much, and would love to see him have a new "toy" to play with as he works so hard to make our house a comfortable home.  I did NOT miss the class on appreciating all his efforts.

Happy 18 Wonderful Years Calvin!
Love,
Susie



*not to be held responsible for anything said before being properly caffeinated

 Bunting, Banners and Baseball


I was recently asked if I missed celebrating Independence Day in Boston...because being the Cradle of the Revolution, it must be so much more exciting to celebrate in New England rather than the quiet and sedate mid-west.


Honestly, the question caught me off guard.  I hadn't thought that much about it before, but suddenly that question became a niggling whisper in the back of my mind this weekend.

Do I?    

If I had been in Boston this week I could have seen:

Boston skyline

The Old State House

Old Ironsides

Instead.... I was in Iowa where I was able to see:

Yankee Doodle Pops
Des Moines July 1

Ready for our town's parade!  July 3

F.D. History :)

What's a parade without farm equipment???

and where else could I have this.....?

1875 Suffragettes
"Votes for Women!"
July 4

1875 Baseball
July 4

 and best of all.....

I "caught" the pitcher!

So while I may miss the security of knowing that any fireworks in Boston are shot off over the the muddy water of the Charles River instead of the not-so-muddy soil of a sun-baked Iowa corn field, I am not missing out on anything else.
We have it all right here.  A community of people who gather to celebrate our Freedom and those who have sacrificed to protect us.  Which is what Independence Day is all about.....in 1776, 1875, or  2016.....regardless of your geographical location.

'Cause I didn't miss the class on that!