There's Another Dr. in the House!

Please forgive a little bragging, but we are so proud of this boy! Just a week before his 32nd birthday, our middle son Andrew successfully defended his dissertation for a PhD in neurobiology.  And he did it while he and his wife were having four children, including this little sweetie just 6 weeks ago:

Andrew has accepted a job at the University. Though it's not an ideal position, he will stay there for a couple of years and get more experience. And you know what that means - we will have them near us for awhile longer! Yah!!!

PS. You might remember that our oldest son received a PhD in philosophy in 2012. I know, we don't know where they get it either:) But I have to say: home schooling works!

Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt and Pin Cushion

I have been wanting to make a log cabin quilt similar to the one made by Mias Landliv. (Her blog is closed  now, but you can see her quilt on Pinterest.) I went through my scraps and pulled out the colors I wanted to use. Not enough. So I made the trip to my not so local QS and picked up mostly French General prints. Perfect! I had forgotten how fast and easy strip piecing can be. It went together just like I wanted and in a few days it was ready to be quilted. But it will have to wait. I'm quilting another one right now and want to get it finished first.

While I had those pretty fabrics out I decided to make a pincushion based on one from Heidi Staples new book. I changed it up a little and added a place to put my quilting thread. My husband says it was about time I made something like this as we are always searching the sofa for lost scissors or thimbles! I love having everything handy in a cute place.

We took our grandson down to Turkey Run State Park on Saturday. We usually don't go there on the weekend but we thought the rainy weather would keep most people away. Wrong!!! Anyway, we had a wonderful time with this enthusiastic, smart boy. He loves nature just like his daddy and uncles, and it brought back so many memories as we hiked along the creek. We love this boy, and can't wait until the twins are ready to do this as well!

Spring in Our Garden

Virginia bluebells, woodland poppy, and lungwort

Crabapple in bloom, hostas coming up

Muscari

Flowering quince in the herb garden

Love those snowdrops: need to plant more!

Viola planted from seed

Couldn't resist instant color - Knock-Out Rose

Pretty peach daff.

This is my most favorite time of the year - the time I wait for all the rest of the year! I love that soft green just coming on, the blooming trees, noisy mating birds, and best of all, the spring peepers. We can hear them from the creek across the back field. Of course that also means the louder frogs in our pond (and our unopened pool!) But I don't mind. We look for the eggs and then the tadpoles. I love nature!

Smaller male on female. See the strings of eggs?

 To end this post I will share what I saw when I went outside this morning. Five huge vultures perching on our barn. They look rather menacing, don't they?

Meet Our New Granddaughter!

This is our Andrew with his precious baby girl, Beatrix. Isn't she the sweetest thing! (It looks like she has Tad and Klaus's red hair.) They called us at about 10:00 Monday night and said I should probably come over to stay with the other kids. When I got there, Alison was bustling around (through her contractions) getting everything ready to go. We were going to take Tad to our house and a friend was coming to stay with the twins. They were only at the hospital for about two hours, when out she came! No time for an epidural. I guess when you've had three babies already, you know what to do!

She came at just the right time too. Andrew didn't want her to come before he turned in his dissertation last Friday, but they wanted her to come before the 22nd when he does his defense. Boy, these kids have a lot going on! We were worn out just having Tad for two days:) Really he was so good and delightful to have around. Now he is back home and they are settling in. I'll be taking food over. No time for them to cook!!!

Look at the Size of this Egg!

One of our regular eggs.

If Rick had brought this egg in on Friday, I would have thought it was an April Fool's joke! But no, one of our poor hens had laid this huge egg. Most of our eggs are "extra large", but nothing like this. All I can say is "OUCH"!

Easter Fun

What a wonderful Easter! Andrew brought the boys over for an egg hunt and dinner. Alison is expecting their baby girl in a few weeks and needed a break so she stayed at home.  The weather turned out perfect for playing outside and looking for eggs. As you can see, the little guys are more interested in the chickens than anything else. But Tad was all for finding the eggs with the treats and toys inside! Then we had to inspect the gardens and swings. Even though Jasper is a little bigger and more sure on his feet, Klaus is the thrill seeker! He loves going high on the swing and being thrown in the air. Even though they are twins, they are different and special in their own ways.

I had fun decorating and making goodies for dinner. And I love to make little favors for each plate. It gives me another excuse to use my paper crafting supplies! The stamps I used are from Lawn Fawn. I love their images and they are so much fun to color.

Did you notice those cute toys for the boys? I found those at Meijer. Each little house has several animals that make a sound. We were mooing and growling a lot!

I hope everyone had a good weekend and Easter celebration (if you do so). This is my favorite time of the year and I will be posting pics of our gardens and some new spaces very soon. Have a great week!

Hearts and More Hearts

I realize that Valentine's Day is just a fond memory now, but I wanted to share one of the gifts my sweet, talented husband made for me.

It's a stepping stone for the garden! I just love it. We have been adding homemade stepping stones for a long time. We have some made by the boys when they were young. We added all kinds of things to the concrete: shells, marbles, old tools, fossils and rocks. Rick saves everything, and he had a jar of those flat marbles and put this together. I love those 3 blue ones.

Rick has been a maker his whole life. Even when he was a teacher he was carving wood in the evenings. He eventually went back to carpentry and now a handyman. So through the years I have gotten some beautiful handmade gifts. Here are a few of my Valentine's from other years:

This beautiful jewelry box is made from walnut. I can't remember when he made it, but it's been a long time. I use it to keep old pieces that I don't want to get rid of:)

This is from the front of an old coal furnace. (Don't you wish utilitarian things were made this decorative now?) He attached it to a wood base and hinge. Inside he etched a loving message. So sweet!

This heart flower planter is made from copper. You can see that he "sewed" it with copper wire. And then added some smaller hearts to decorate it. This usually hangs on a fence with some dried flowers in it. I love to display these expressions of love from Rick and smile when I see them.

In other news, I'm impatiently waiting for spring. We had to go to southern Indiana to help out some family over the weekend and got to see some crocuses blooming. It can't be long for us now! And I've seen my first robin for the spring!