The Quilt

I love to quilt. Find the fabric, cut it, put it together. Put warm flannel on the back. And then give it away. I have made quilts for all my grandchildren. Special, amazing beautiful kids. Last week was a sad and happy week. I finished Cohen's quilt. He is grandchild number 5, his brother Carter, grandchild number 6. Each one so precious and special. I had great plans to have the quilts all done for the boys, in opposite pattern. I cut them both out, laid them on the floor, gathered them up in the exact order, and made sure the colors were in opposite spots, so we could tell them apart. I would present them to Jana at her shower. God had other plans for our family the past 6 months. Cohen and Carter (I LOVE saying their names together!) were born at 25 weeks. Much to soon. Carter passed away at birth. Cohen continued the fight for his life.130 days in the NICU at the University of Washington. Carters quilt was done, early, before the showers, before the homecoming.I sewed it in one night. Thru more tears and anguish than I ever imagined. But it was done for him. For his burial.   I finished his quilt in a teenie tiny version, a 2 lb and 13 1/4" version. He was wrapped in it and laid to rest.  Forever loved. Forever with Jesus. How we miss him! Over the days and months, I tried to finish Cohen's blanket. I wanted him to have it to come home in.  I could not quite muster the energy. When I realized he was coming HOME I got to work on it. It seemed so much bigger, than I had first laid out. But I kept on sewing.  Heck, he can use it for a toddler bed, or take it to college... I showed it to Jana, and pointed out how I had included a square from Gramma Rineharts fabric stash. Jana had written about Gramma and Carter after I had typed this post, but did not publish it. (which does not surprise me, we had many "thinking of Carter" moments at the same time.) I was thinking of Carter, Gramma and quilts all week. How much I miss her. How much I miss Carter. She would have cried with us and talked with us and loved and prayed for Cohen and his journey. What I love about quilting is the history, the stories each quilt has to tell. Cohen's quilt was extra big, because I had not realized, until it was done,  I had included all the extra pieces of Carters quilt. As I sewed Cohen's quilt, I kept thinking of Carter and his identical tiny little quilt. Cohen's quilt  had Carters pieces in it, a piece from Gramma, and I had also stuck in one piece of fabric I used to make a quilt for Jana in college. So there are the generations. The 4 generations, which have so shaped our families story. My special connection with Gramma was the quilting and the love of sewing, and of course her son! She loved each and every grandchild and great grandchild. she would have been SO excited about Jana having twins. The first EVER in ANY Rinehart history! I understand her great love and excitement for each and every grandchild. I love them all so much. Gramma Rinehart is watching and rocking Carter for us, for now. And we are loving Cohen to bits!

LOTS of eggs

In April I refreshed my flock of chickens and bought 24 of my favorite breeds. 12 Barred Rocks and 12 Americana. The barred rocks lay brown eggs and the Americanas  lay blue/green "Easter Eggs". Jordan(5) was over yesterday and we were working outside and he went to get the eggs. I explained to him why some were brown and some were green "Easter eggs". I was working in the garden and he came back, after I had asked him to set the eggs on the porch. He had 1 green egg in his hand. After seriously examining the egg for about 5 minutes, he asks, "Gramma, is there CANDY in these Easter eggs?" For snack he wanted scrambled eggs. MY kind of guy!

Any way, lots of eggs. So This is rapidly becoming one of our favorite meals:

Eggs, potatoes, cheese, onions, peppers, what ever you want to "pile" on there. 

I bake the potatoes, and then just flatten them with a potato masher. Fry the eggs, and top with your favorites. We like, cheese, onions, peppers, salsa, tomatoes, what ever is out in the garden at the time. 

Brownie

I used the name "Out There" because we are. Not really on the way to anywhere.  We  don't get many "drop in" visitors. And our life seems to be a bit "out there". But I love it. Brownie, our little 15 yr old pygmy goat died this week. That was kind of the "end of an era". We have had goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, dogs and cats when the kids were growing up. My husband always said he'd NEVER have a goat. That was my thing. I asked him if we could PLEASE get 2 little pygmy goats, as they are sooo cute. That was about 14 years ago when he first started work at BP. He agreed and we brought them home. They followed us around like little dogs. Then someone had some "free" sheep they wanted to give us. Oh boy... not. But my husband also adopted these sheep.  They ate the nice grass and the goats preferred the yucky stuff. It made a good combo. Over the years they have all moved on the the big pasture in the sky. EACH while my husband was not at home. There are some kind of funny stories about that. Another time. The goat dying just caused me to think about all the memories we have here.And all the times to come!   


Here's to you Brownie!!

Brownie waiting for a handout.