A Girl to Call His Own

At nearly 16 years, he is much, much older than she. She is aware that his life may not last many more seasons, and therefore takes every opportunity for love and cuddles. He's lived his entire life in the great outdoors, putting on thick coats of fur in Winter and shedding down to a minimum in the Summer. He has hidey holes in so many places, and favorite cat-nap spots that change with the seasons. He regularly munches on wild prey, but always away from the front porch, which suits us all just fine.

He had a brother and a dog to keep him company in his youth, but I think he is happiest now that he has his very own girl that loves him with her whole heart.

She's All Talk and No Action

This girl of mine can talk cross stitch like a pro.

But this is literally the only time I have convinced her to sit down and put more than one stitch onto linen. She put in FOUR stitches.

I keep waiting for her to do more, but this was a special project, that meant a LOT to her, and she insisted. For now it's good enough.

What were those four stitches? The little copper penny on the Prairie Life Sampler. The sampler that I designed at her request, as her very own to keep forever.

10

This girl. Sweet and sassy and quick-witted like her Daddy. The one that made me change my mind about little girls. Who loves to cuddle and giggle and whisper in my ear. She's 10 years old today (insert crying emoji here).

She had only a few simple requests for celebrating her special day. Request #1: Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. How could I say no? Even though it has literally been years since I made them from scratch, I got up early and worked some magic in the kitchen.

A few gifts, simply wrapped, from her big brother and parents were just the ticket while we waited for the rolls to rise and bake to perfection (so sorry for the Costco bag, my darling, but sometimes practicality has to trump aesthetics. In other words, Mama forgot to pick up a gift bag large enough to hide the gift... oops!).

Skipping school, cinnamon rolls in our bellies, we headed out for a chilly day at one of my girl's favorite places on earth: the Oregon Zoo. Bear and Beaver and Big Cats are always favorites there. And this time we were treated to a very close encounter with a lovely Lioness, intent and wishing she could pounce on whatever was coming down the hall in the distance, but totally ignoring us, just a few inches away, although protected by some very thick glass. It was amazing and a memory we will all keep for a good long while.

Later, with the help of our dearest friends, we lit candles, made wishes and celebrated with ice cream cake from our favorite DQ artist, Minecraft style. I like this tradition very much, because it means I don't have to dust off my happily-in-the-past cake decorating skills.

And, as if that all wasn't enough, there was another gathering a few days later with Grandparents and Cousins and Aunts and Uncles. Olive Garden is apparently the way to a 10 year old's heart.

I love this girl so much. She continually surprises me with her intuitive compassion and understanding of others. She has a grasp on the world that is both 10 and 25 years old at the same time. I hope she is forever and ever the same sassy, determined, and honey-sweet girl that she was as a baby, and still is today. I pray that life won't take any of it away, but will only make it deeper and more solid. I wish you all could meet her. I don't think I'm biased when I say that she is a rare treasure among girls.

Into October

I returned from my late September retreat to a newly-revamped bird & squirrel feeder outside my kitchen window. I returned to continued mild weather, making a very green Autumn. I returned to a mound of firewood needing to be stacked (a seasonal favorite; no joke). I returned to just enough crisp in the air to justify the dusting off of my most delicious stew recipes.

I also returned to a scary call-back for a second mammogram and ultrasound (they found nothing but exceptionally dense breast tissue, thank goodness). And... after a few brief weeks of transitioning back to normal life, there was a fatal hard drive crash that ended everything abruptly.

With a family vacation on the calendar for the next week, all I could do was take the failed hard drive to the Geek Squad and pray for the best. Normally a faithful monthly backer-upper, I had lapsed in my good habits for months. Meaning master copies of any new design and financial records were under threat of being lost forever. Re-creating them would have taken weeks of my time, so I paid the big bucks for the highest chance of retrieval, packed my suitcases for vacation and tried to leave the worry behind.