Catching up

I'm back from retreat! It was the best weekend! The autumn colors were wonderful! The food was good! No cleaning up was GREAT! PEACE!!! QUIET!!! I did NOT hear ONE phone ring all weekend!!! I swear it does not get better than that!

I spent hours in the art room playing with oil pastels and watercolors. Joy! Bliss! I'll post pictures of those next time I write, meanwhile I wanted to post some pictures from my lovely lovely walks outside. 45 acres of gorgeous woods.

First is a picture of my friend/sister contemplating a little red squirrel who thought this bench belonged to him. He did end up throwing an acorn at me later in the day!

Here is a lovely little stone bridge in the woods.

This is that awesome color I was talking about! Could that sky be ANY bluer? Ahhhhhhhh Autumn, my favorite time of year!

This is the end of the boardwalk down a hill and to a grotto. It is such a special place for so many visitors. On the alter there are all kinds of mementos people have left there, coins, flowers, jewelry, pictures, beads. It is so peaceful in the woods here, I just can't adequately describe it. I feel like it's a little bit of heaven on earth.

No More Sleeps!

Retreat day is here! wooooo hoooooooo

I can't believe how fast this week went!!! Erlack and Egad, I did not get everything done I wanted to get done. Okay, so that is pretty much par for my personal course. Wait, it's okay Flori! I did manage to get my sleep pants done and they are in my bag waiting to go with me. :-)

I'm posting these pictures from St. Anthony's so you can imagine me walking around here. I'll take some pictures of my other favorite spots and hopefully post those when I get back.

this and that

I got my files done at work this past week so I get to keep my regular Friday off. WOO HOOO, and happy dance!
So, today I am doing things around the house - quietly as my husband is sleeping upstairs, he is on night shift for the next 6 days- er, nights. Anyway, it's a gorgeous fall day here, cool though, can you tell by my cat's nap position? We call this her Garfield pose. How DOES she breathe??? She is keeping me company while I cut out patterns. I got a pair of cargo pants cut out for my honey, and next I'm cutting out sleep pants for me. Did you read that Flori??? I'm REALLY doing them this time!

This is a mousepad I covered to go in the office at one of the clinics where I work. The full time records person there and I will be sharing an office and we get to decorate it however we want! she wants to do greens, and yellow to make it cheery and garden like, and who am I to argue? I'd let her pick whatever she wanted anyway since she is there 5 days a week and I'm only there one. The mouse in the picture is not my real one, it's an extra that we had here at home and the cats actually killed it one night! I came down in the morning and it was on the floor missing it's little battery door! One cat looked proud, and the other looked guilty.

A few weeks ago we moved two of our daughters back to their colleges. In Eau Claire there is an art movement called Hands Across Eau Claire, and there are these hands around town painted in all different ways. This one is on campus, and from the next picture of me you can see how big they are! We hope to find the rest of them and get pictures of them too! When I see these pictures I keep thinking of that saying from a few years ago "talk to the hand". Except for me it's, Sit in the hand~

Eleven more sleeps!

Can you imagine honest to goodness real peace and quiet?
Can you imagine no talking for 2 days?
No answering questions, no answering phones, no giving directions or telling anyone what they need to do?

I can!! For the past 13 years I have gone on a silent retreat once a year. Does the idea of no talking scare you? It scares a few of my friends, but I LOVE IT!!! I feel soooooooo relaxed and renewed when those two days are over. Could it be having my meals cooked for me? Or having all the dishes magically cleaned up? Could it be NO PHONES?? It's all those things and so much more! St. Anthony's visit it here, http://www.sarcenter.com/index.html is an awesome, wonderful, peaceful place where you can let the spirit speak to your soul.

99% of those retreats have been with my good friend Cookie, and 1 was with my dad. They have all been wonderful. I like to take along my art supplies and draw outside, something I don't normally take time to do in my real life. And yes, I have even brought quilting with me! Once I brought a wall hanging I was working on for Cookie so I could tell her that I had quilted it at our favorite spots.
Eleven more sleeps! I can hardly wait!

on a post it note above my sewing machine.....

"Work while you have the light
you are responsible
for the talent
that has been entrusted to you."
Henri Frederic Ariel