Simply Norma

Minnesota Spring

Although the calendar date for spring to begin has passed, it still looks and feels like winter.

Minnesota in Spring

A long brisk walk cleared my head as I took deep breaths of the cool air.

Minnesota Start of Spring

There is so much beauty that can be found when one looks for it ~

And the stories that trees tell when you take the time to really look at them.

The buds haven’t yet started to grow ~ not even an inch ~ but there is hope in the waiting.

Minnesota Start of Spring

Big blue sky country is not just in Montana either ~ Minnesota has it’s own beautiful big sky.

Minnesota Start of Spring

And then it happens ~ hope springs from the ground to satisfy the heart longing for the season of spring.

Minnesota Start of Spring

The transition from winter to spring is a slow one in Minnesota yet it will satisfy a heart longing for warmth and transition soon enough.

Shortly after we purchased our house, the doorbell rang and I went to answer it.  A portly man with a smile on his face could be seen through the side windows.

Opening the door, the man said “Hi, I’m Bob and I’m your mailman.”

This was the first time a mailman had actually introduced himself to me.  Must be the Minnesota nice that people talk about here.

As the years rolled on, Bob and I became friendly.  We shared laughs about family and when there was no mail for us, he would put a note in the mailbox that said “no mail today.”

When Bob was going on vacation he always let me know.  I joked that perhaps I should put our mail on hold while he was gone.  I said it jokingly, but I had so many problems with the temporary mailpeople that I actually considered it.

One time a package was delivered to our unfriendly neighbors across the street.  I had been waiting for my package and saw when the mail woman arrived.  I then received notification that my package was delivered.  I called the carrier annex immediately and the mail woman said she remembered delivering it across the street.  In spite of their best efforts, the post office was never able to retrieve the package from the neighbor  so I never saw the package.  The company that it came from was kind enough to send me another one for free.

Such was life without Bob.  Sigh (laughing)

One day Bob came to the door and told me that he was going to be retiring in 6 months. I know, I know … one must not become dependent on someone so dependable.

I told him that he couldn’t retire but I knew it would happen.

A week before Bob’s retirement he put an invitation to his retirement party in the mailbox.  Unfortunately we were not able to make it.

A few months later, our new mail carrier arrived ~ John.  John was a little different.  He came at different times each day and did some of the oddest things.  For instance, one day I received a package and John put it on top of our mailbox since it didn’t fit inside the mailbox.  Hmmm … why not drive up to the front door and leave it there? I pondered.

Anyone could have driven up and taken the package with no problem.  Fortunately I saw what he did.  Unfortunately for John I called the carrier annex and issued a complaint. “Don’t worry, we’ll talk with John” they assured me.

Since John did not arrive around the same time every day, I didn’t wait to see when the mail arrived ~ 11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm ~ there was no consistency.

One day I was waiting for an Amazon package and the I received a message that the package had been delivered.  Heading to the front door, I peeked outside but didn’t see a package. So ~ I went to the mailbox.

And there it was.

Stuffed Mailbox Package

John had stuffed the package along with the mail into the mailbox so I couldn’t remove it. Even with my small hands, I could not put my fingers in at the sides to grasp the package.

Sigh, sigh and sigh again …

I went into the house and called the carrier annex.  What would possess John to shove this package in the mailbox so that it couldn’t be removed? I wondered. Was he lazy? Did he have an appointment that he was in a hurry for?

The supervisor at the carrier annex apologized and said someone would be out by the end of the day to remove the package for me.  Sure enough, as promised, the female carrier came to the front door with the package and mail in hand.  She apologized.

It seems such a small problem in life ~ a stuffed mailbox package, doesn’t it? Yet when a lot of small things happen and start adding up they can become large in our minds.

That’s why we have to keep our focus on the bigger picture and allow these smaller problems to roll off our shoulders ~ so they don’t become one large piece.

I’m glad that I can talk to God about both the little and the big things in my life and that He cares about all of it.  It lifts all of it off of my shoulders because I know that He will always have my back.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  1 Peter 5:7

And John?  Well, he hasn’t made any mailbox deliveries anymore ~ he brings them to the front door.

Dashing out to the store to purchase groceries, I remembered that someone had mentioned we needed flowers for a church program tonight.

Since Trader Joe’s flowers are fairly inexpensive, I picked up, what I thought, was a pretty bouquet.  “This will do” my brain reasoned.

When I arrived home, I picked out a vase, snipped the bottoms of the gerbils (flowers) to keep them fresh, added water to the vase then plopped the gerbils in the vase.

Before leaving the house in the evening, I wrapped the flower arrangement in a plastic bag to protect it from the cold air.

Arriving at church, I removed the plastic bag and set the vase on the entry table.

Blah, I thought to myself.  They don’t look good at all.  Yet I received compliments on the arrangement ~ who would’ve thought?

Since the program was for only one night this week, I brought them home and set them on the table. Droopy, I thought. Why did I pick this arrangement?

I pretty much ignored the flowers until Saturday morning when I sat down to breakfast and looked up at them as they were centered on the table.

Wow! I thought.  These are beautiful!

The bold pink gerbils with hints of yellow in the center bathed my brain with delight.

Gerbils

The white gerbils were just as beautiful with transient pinks in the middle.

White Gerbils

In my busyness, had I failed to see the beauty of these gerbils?

Sometimes that’s how life is though ~ you go through life running from one errand to another without noticing the blessings right in front of you.

Then, BAM!  God sends a blessing that you just can’t ignore.

That’s why I call Him my Friend ~ He’s always making sure I don’t miss out on what He’s sending my way.

Yellow Belly Cardinal

While the snow was gently falling, a cardinal appeared at our bird feeder.

Although we’ve had the fully red cardinals appear, this was the first time this beautiful yellow bellied cardinal had made an appearance.

And it was the perfect time for it to visit as the snowstorm warnings for today had me a little anxious about what the day would bring.

Yet here it was ~ giving hope of a spring to come.

Winter Blues Design – Quilt

At the end of August, when trees were threatening to drop their leaves, I started feeling a little pain in my left shoulder.

Not worrying too much about it, I continued my outdoor yard work well into September.  The shoulder kept feeling worse and worse but I figured the pain would eventually go away with time.  Words of wisdom?  No, this time I was wrong.

In spite of the pain, I decided to start a quilt in October at the request of a friend ~ “just a small one to throw over my chair,” she said.

So I ordered a kit on the Craftsy platform called Winter Blues and started cutting out the fabric.

The fabric for this quilt is by Anthology Fabrics and the quilt was designed by Maria Pate of Airborne Heirlooms.

I’ve always had a hard time matching points on a quilt and this one required a lot of piecing but it went quickly.

Quilt Fabric

This is a photo of the middle of the quilt.  As you can see, a couple of the points are a little off, but as they say in the quilting world “no one will notice except for you.”  I have found that statement to be true.

Anthology Fabrics

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had a 25% tear in the left shoulder which was confirmed with an MRI.  Still, I was determined to quilt this on my own instead of sending it out to be quilted which was a bad decision and one that made me change the design from what I had originally envisioned.

Perhaps if I had a better sewing machine things would have fared better, but my small Brother sewing machine with a 5″ throat space was not ideal for all the finagling I had to do with this 55″x72″ quilt.

So, although I wanted to try my hand at free motion quilting it was not to be.

I ended up stitching in the ditch with a few curvy lines throughout.  But I still had large spaces that needed to be quilted.  So I decided to improvise on a method called “tying.”

With the tying method, a person would use knitting yarn and tie knots throughout the quilt spacing them equally apart.  But, I don’t like the look.  Instead I decided to use the tie method but use thread and not have the knot show but have it lay flat. It actually worked quite well.

Straight lines and an occasional curved line throughout the quilt made it a little easier to maneuver through the sewing machine.

Winter Blues Design – Quilt

Winter Blues Design – Quilt

Here’s a view from the side …

Winter Blues Design – Quilt

It came our pretty nice, eh?

Well, Patricia really liked it so I’m glad for that.

My next quilt will be a scrappy one ~ my first scrappy quilt. Can’t wait!