Kat, congratulations on your new family member. She sounds like a wonderful little girl. What do the cats think about her?

SRS, That's terrible about Dean's house! If the bank made the mistakes shouldn't they be making it right for him?

Any toys that are sturdy and intact are good to keep. You'll be amazed at how fast the time passes before grandchildren arrive. It seems to us there will be an endless supply of little ones. Our first grandchild arrived over 22 years ago, the most recent is two months old. The eldest already has a four year old and a two month old baby of her own so the cycle continues. They all enjoy playing with my children's toys when they visit us.

Last night I worked on my sewing machine, catching up some mending and projects. I've been using pieces of fabric from items in the rag box to make "pockets" inside my husband's pant legs to hold the two collection bags he has fastened to tubes in his body because of his kidney problem. The bags are meant to be held up with elastic strips around the leg. The elastic doesn't hold well enough and also tends to increase the swelling in a leg. So far, the pockets seem to work well.

I'm using thrift store sheets to give some worn comforters new life, recovering an entire worn surface. It was easy to sew the sheet along the edges of the first one. I'm hoping that I'll be able to feed the thicker parts of the comforter through my machine to follow the quilting lines and fasten the sheet in place.

Today I spent a couple of hours in the five foot by 20 foot long space between my deck and the fence along my neighbours' driveway, pulling up seedling trees and cutting out small trees. My hands are not very happy. I also pruned a lilac back away from the fence line. There are Green Ash, Mountain Ash, Cottonwood, and Choke Cherry seedlings everywhere in my yard. If I ever am unable to clean out that space or mow the lawn, in less than ten years my house will be surrounded by a dense forest. The Green Ash are the worst, they'll grow at least four feet in height in a year.

rags