I am disabling comments for this specific post simply because I know everyone has an opinion when it comes to the abortion issue and most of them are very strong.  But, I have a personal story I’d like to share . . a real life side of this issue.

I’ve never had an abortion, nor have I ever had a teen daughter or teen son come to me to state that she/his girlfriend is pregnant.  Nor am I a doctor who can state with certainty when life actually begins.  I don’t even think the “when does life begin” question is a concern any more with the late term abortions that are offered.  I think it totally boils down to convenience.  Oh, I realize there are cases of rape or incest that come up but my guess is the largest percentage of abortions are about convenience.

In the early 80’s I tried and tried to get pregnant and could not.  We went through everything possible at that time to make it happen.  In 1984, it did finally happen and I was pregnant . . I can’t even think of the words to describe how I felt.  Not long into my pregnancy, I had a miscarriage and was never able to get pregnant again.  To some, this may sound crazy, but I’ve kept my 1984 calendar all these years. It has all my notes - pregnancy confirmed, doctor’s appointments and the date I lost the baby.  24 years later, as I write this, I still cry over that loss.

Silly me . . I was trying to be a virtuous woman even back in 1984 so you see . . this isn’t something new for me.  After 24+ years, you’d think I’d just give up!  The getting up while it is still night gets me every time!  The purple silk clothing . . that part I have down! :)  And, I must’ve liked lime green even back then!

In 1987, a young single lady whom I never met, found herself pregnant.  I do not know how seriously she considered abortion but in the end, she decided to give the baby up for adoption.  I heard that she continued to live at home and hide her pregnancy from her parents and I’m not sure they ever knew.   Think that might have been a bit inconvenient for her?  But, she perservered and gave me one of the greatest blessings I’ve ever received.  Almost 21 years ago, this bundle of joy was placed in my arms and my life has never ever been the same.

To think that Chad’s life could have been wiped away as if he were never conceived, even though no one had ever touched him, seen him or held him, because he was not yet born, and to some, he wasn’t a “life” yet . .  by the decision made by a teen under tremendous stress — it makes no sense at all to me.

Whether or not having an abortion, or having a baby and giving it up for adoption has positive or negative life changing affects on a young woman, I cannot say.  But I can tell you that receiving a baby you could never have on your own, has a positive life changing affect on a family.  That much I know from personal experience.

I cannot even think, nor do I want to think of what my life would be like without Chad.  And, to this birth mother who I will probably never have the pleasure of meeting, you had a choice, and chose life . . I cannot thank you enough.  No form of “thank you” seems adequate.  I thank you for choosing life, whether or not I had been the recipient of that life.

But, I was the recipient of that life and there isn’t a single day that goes by that I don’t pray for this young man, who will always be my baby, as well as the birth mother who made the choice that changed my life, and to whom I’ve never been able to say “thank you”.

Some days I really wonder about myself.  I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t like pretty fabric.  I seem to like the stuff that no one else wants.  Maybe that explains that boyfriend I had through high school and college but . . let’s not go there!  Good thing I don’t have any great aspirations to be a fabric designer, huh?

I’ve had this fabric for a while.

It’s really uglier in real life than in this picture.  But, I really, really like it but I can’t come up with anything to go with it.  I drag it out and try to put it in every quilt I make.  I have a bit over 3-1/2 yards, which makes it perfect for the dark background for the next QFAH.  I must’ve ordered it online because had I bought this one in person, I’d probably have 7 yards of it.  Maybe I like it so much that I just can’t use it.

That’s not the only ugly fabric I have.  Look what I came up with trying to find fabrics for the QFAH.

Maybe I just need to accept that not every quilt I make has to be green!

This next QFAH is going to be another quilt to go to the orphanage in Houma, LA so I doubt the quilt police will be doing any heavy duty inspection of my color choices but this might work for my light and dark backgrounds.

I still have time to change my mind!

I haven’t had much luck adding anything from Word but I just noticed this little box up there that says “Insert from Word” so I’ll try anything once.  If it’s all crazy and you see it before I get to another computer to check it, let me know and I’ll take it down.

Since we buy our beef by the half of a cow, I end up with more Round Steak than I’d prefer.   I could live off Chuck Roast and ground beef but Round Steak doesn’t thrill me.  I found this recipe and tried it and we liked it a whole lot!

BTW, everyone probably already does this but when I have bread about to get old, like leftover hamburger or hotdog buns, I run them through the food processor to make bread crumbs.  I use a lot of bread crumbs when making meatballs but this recipe also called for bread crumbs and that’s why I thought of this little tip.

Round Steak Parmesan

Cut round steak into serving-size pieces. Combine flour, salt and pepper; dredge meat and pound on both sides to tenderize and flatten.

Mix egg with water. Combine bread crumbs and basil leaves. Dip each piece of meat in egg mixture and then dredge in bread crumb mixture, coating thoroughly and evenly. Brown in hot cooking oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.

Combine tomatoes, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, wine, sugar, oregano and salt. Place meat in a 13×9x2-inch baking dish and pour sauce over meat. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until tender. Sprinkle cheese on top of meat and continue baking for about 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Serve with pasta.

• 7 yards on a the quilt I started Friday and will finish the top tomorrow!
• 2.5 yards for a quilt I finished up Thursday
• 6 yards for the backing on the LSU quilt.

I forgot to say last week that the fabric Vicky donated didn’t get added to my stash numbers and isn’t going to get added to the usage reports either.  I have it in a separate stack and it will all be used for backings for donation quilts.

Here’s my numbers:

Fabric added this week - 0 yards
Fabric added year to date - 282 yards

Fabric used this week - 15.25 yards
Fabric used year to date - 314.25 yards

Net Used to Date - 32.25 yards

You know what occurred to me this week?  There’s hardly a day that goes by that I don’t quilt — piece or quilt — I call it all quilting.  I’ve used 314 yards this year.  Just suppose that I spent $8/yard.  I didn’t because I usually buy fabric on sale or order from Thousands of Bolts.  But, just to have a number, I’ll say $8/yard.  That means I’ve spent $2,512 on the fabric I’ve used this year. 250 days have passed this year so that means I’ve spent about $10.05/day on fabric.  Does that seem right?  I don’t know what I think about that number.

Will you share your stash report for this week with us?

This, of course, will be in addition and completely separate from the Star BOM.

I’m thinking about . . something that uses a light background and a dark background and some scraps/stash.

I’m thinking the top will be about 70″ x 81″ but will be pretty easy to enlarge if you wish.

I’m thinking it will take about 15 hours and since we only get instructions during the week, that will be about 3 weeks.

I’m thinking we might start on September 15 and finish on October 3.

I’m thinking it would take about 2 yards of a light background and about 3-1/2 yards of a darker background.   Remember the subtle difference in the Shadow Stars light and dark background fabrics?  Something that doesn’t necessarily have to be a huge contrast but definitely a noticeable contrast. I know some are already wondering if the backgrounds could be scrappy.  Wait til you see the picture of the quilt and see what you think.  I don’t think in terms of totally scrappy so I’m not a good one to ask.

I love dachshunds!  Speck is my third dachshund and by far, he’s my best one.  When Vince and I met I didn’t have a dachshund.  Not long after Vince and I started talking about getting married, I explained to him that I MUST have a dachshund in order to be happy.  Hmmm . . that might be a big problem because Vince said he would never-ever-in-a-million-years have a dog in the house!  No how . . no way!  I figured that was a small hurdle and eventually he’d come around to my way of thinking.

There was a pet store next to the Chinese restaurant in Owensboro.  We ate Chinese at least once a week until I threatened to do something serious if we didn’t stop eating Chinese food.  Every time we’d go to eat Chinese food, I’d insist we walk through the pet store.  The lady in the pet store knew how badly I wanted a dachshund and when she would happen to have one, she’d grab him and meet us at the door.  But no . . never could convince Vince that we needed a dachshund.  This went on for years!

In 2001 I had gone to the Quilt Odyssey show in Gettysburg, PA.  I came home and Vince was so happy to see me that one of the first things he said was “Do you want a dachshund?”  You can’t imagine how thrilled I was!  He had even found some for sale in the county south of us and he wanted us to go look at them.  I had cash left over that I hadn’t spent at the quilt show (I must’ve been kinda sick!) so I even offered to pay for the dog with that money.  They had three puppies and I actually wanted a different one but Vince liked Speck.  I figured I’d be happy with whichever one we got so I let him choose.

Vince had never ever had an inside dog and I was so afraid he would see Speck have an accident in the house.   You know puppies have accidents in the house!  I can’t tell you how many times I grabbed a pile of dog poop in my hand to run to the bathroom with it before Vince saw it.  Pretty gross, huh?  But I wasn’t at all sure how he would handle knowing that those little accidents happen.

One thing Vince told me from Day #1 was that a dog was never sleeping in our bed.  We got a crate/wire kennel type thing and Speck slept in there.  We spoiled him right off the bat by putting his sheet in the dryer at bed time, getting it real warm, then tossing it in the crate.  He loved it!  Even now, when I get clothes out of the dryer, Speck will stand there and beg and beg for something warm.

I’m not even sure how it happened that Speck began sleeping with us but it happened.  When it gets to be about 10:00, someone has to go to bed with Speck.  He’s tired and grumpy and he just drives us nuts til someone goes to bed with him.  The other night I had turned the covers back, picked him up and put him in the bed and before I could even get the pillows off the bed, he perched up on one of them and was waiting patiently for me to get in the bed.  I had to run get the camera because he’s just so darned cute!

We’ve come a long way since I was told there’d never be a dog in the house!

Chad’s transmission can be #2 and Vince’s pickup can be #3 and we’ll consider our streak of bad luck done!

Chad’s car goes into the shop Tuesday for a transmission rebuild.  Vince’s pickup will be picked up from work with a tow truck this afternoon.  Not a clue what’s wrong with it — won’t start but that’s been coming for a long time and there’s something orange (probably rusty something) that dripped on my driveway the other day.

In the last week, we’ve gone from 4 fairly decent (2 are questionable) vehicles to 2 that are running.  Makes for more room in my garage anyway!  But, this puts me as taxi driver since Chad isn’t on our insurance.  Hopefully by this time next week, he’ll have his car back.

In the meantime, I’ll try to come up with a better proposal for Vince that might get me a new Sienna.

And, I finished writing the pattern for another quilt for the next book and here’s the fabric I’ll use for it.  I hope to start it this afternoon.

See that dark green on the left?  I love that fabric!  LOVE it!  I wanted to use it in this quilt and didn’t have enough but then I found another piece of it in the stash but after this quilt, that will be the end of this fabric in green.  I still have it in purple, red, blue, gold and who knows what else.  Honestly, I’m getting low on good greens and that will probably be the first thing I need to buy.  I have some yard or one yard pieces but am low on 3+ yard pieces.  I’m making excuses for why I need to go shopping for green fabric!

At Vince’s work, the people in his department bring snacks the first Friday of each month.  Vince told me yesterday that everyone was going on and on about how much they love crabapple jelly.  I had planned to send apple nut bread but then another blogger posted a recipe for pear bread so I thought I’d make that but then Vince suggested I make regular bread and send with a jar of jelly.

So I made Honey  Oatmeal Bread.  Yes, the loaf on the left is smaller than the loaf on the right.  I usually weigh the dough so I get it closer but I was in a big hurry last night and taking a chance didn’t pay off.  I sent the bread and a jar of jelly and Vince found out they’d changed the date to next Friday.  Too bad!  They got their snacks from me today.

Vince is going to an all day wood carving class tomorrow and I need to send a snack for that so I’ll make apple bread and send with him.

It’s stil very cool outside and it’s sunny and beautiful today.  Makes me want to go do something in the yard.

Guess I might not get to start that new quilt top today after all!

When we moved to Kentucky, Chad was 9 and in the 4th grade.  At the first PTO meeting, they had notes written by each child about their family and the kids who wanted to do so read them in front of the other parents.  Vince has a daughter from his previous marriage, Chad’s dad has 3 children from a previous marriage and Chad’s dad is re-married and she has three children from her previous marriage.  It sounds way more disfunctional than it really is . . I suppose.

Chad has seen Vince’s daughter maybe twice; he’s never seen his dad’s three children from a previous marriage and he has seen his step-mother’s three children often when he was seeing his dad.  Even so, I’ve always considered Chad an only child because he’s my only child and he’s never been raised in the house with another child.

So, imagine my surprise and shock when Chad stood up to read his story and the first thing he said was:  “I have 4 older sisters and 3 older brothers!”  OMG!  That would mean if we were a normal family (which obviously we are NOT!), that I would have 8 children.  There’s nothing wrong with having 8 children (as long as they’re yours and not mine!) but I know my mouth must’ve dropped open and I could see Vince counting in his head trying to figure out where the 4 sisters and 3 brothers came from.

Kids say the funniest things!

I believe pretty much everything Dave Ramsey has to say and I think if more people lived by his principles, we wouldn’t be in this housing mess and credit issues, for citizens as well as our nation, wouldn’t be a hot topic.  Of course, I’m no economist but when Vince and I were in KY, we watched people get a little equity in their homes, either take out a home equity loan and buy a new car or take a cruise or sell the house and buy a bigger home with a bigger mortgage.  Again, nothing wrong with taking a cruise, buying a new car or getting a bigger home but for us, our goal was to get our home paid off and never again have a home mortgage.

Any time Vince and I have looked to buy anything big, which we don’t do often, we think about what will happen if he loses his job or if he goes a few months without a paycheck.

Driving a fancy car, having expensive clothes, having a big, showing house . . maybe it just comes with age but none of that would ever be more important to me than having financial stability.

I’m a firm believer in having an “Emergency Fund”.  I’ve tried to teach Chad my feelings about money.  As a parent, I feel like a total failure in the finance department.  Where do kids get the ideas that they don’t want to work (he is working now but there was a good while that he was between jobs and wasn’t interested in getting a job!); they want the best clothes, gadgets, cars and they don’t have a clue what they will do tomorrow or how they will pay for whatever they do?

Since Chad received his first paycheck several years ago working at Kroger, I have begged him to set up an emergency fund.  He drives a 1997 vehicle and it will eventually need repairs.  Yep, he’d do it . . next paycheck.  Of course, it never happened.

Now, the transmission is going out in his car.  It will be $2,000 to $2,500 to fix it.  The car is probably worth $3,00 to $3,500 but he has no money to buy another car; and, if he did have enough to buy a car, it would be a very used car and who’s to say it wouldn’t need $2,000 to $2,500 in repairs soon.  At least we know the history of Chad’s current vehicle.

I could pay for the transmission but I will not because my feeling is that would not teach him any financial responsibility.  Mom offered to send him $$ and I asked her not to do it.  Chad needs to learn to save money for a rainy day.  I don’t expect him to save every dime he makes but if he had saved just a little each month over the past 3 years, he would be in a much better position.

He isn’t going to go hungry because he lives at home and goes to college and works but he isn’t going to have any extra $$ for a while.  I can only hope that he learns from this and that some day, he will see that our financial values are a much better way to live than living paycheck to paycheck, all the while buying fancy shirts, flashy cuff links and eating out at every opportunity instead of eating at home.

Parenting surely is big job!  It’s so hard to know when to help, when to stand back and watch them flounder.