Sunday, October 29, 2006

Wonderful Present

This beautiful quilt showed up in my mail yesterday. It was made by a group of quilters with whom I have been corresponding and sharing since 2001. I love these little boats. They are so much fun. The blocks came from quilters on three different continents-- Europe, Australia, and North America. The top was designed and pieced in Oklahoma. It was quilted in Australia and Florida, and bound in Illinois and Florida. (I am not sure how that worked, but that is what the label says...) It is such happy quilt. I am sure it will get years of use.

My parents left for home this morning. They sure were a huge help these last two weeks, but I suppose I need to stand on my own, now. But they made sure I had a fridge and freezer full of food before they left. Mom even made a fresh batch of peach flavored iced tea for me. While they were here, they made sure the big kids did not have to miss a soccer practice or a Lego Robotics meeting. They watched the little ones so I could go to my oldest's first orchestra concert. Mom and I cleaned out the kids' dressers and went through the boxes of stored clothes. I don't know what I would have done without them. And they also brought my kids to visit me in the hospital, which was a tall order.

On the list of people who came to my rescue... My husband's younger brother who started sleeping with his cell phone so he could come take care of our kids in the middle of the night if I went into labor. We left for the hospital at 2am, so he came in the middle of the night and saw the kids off to school the next morning. My former neighbor and best friend, also a quilter, who came and rescued my brother-in-law who needed to go to work. She took the kids for the rest of the day, until my brother-in-law and his wonderful wife came and got them. She spent a lot of the day running back and forth between our two houses getting kids off buses and making sure no one was home alone for any length of time. How she did it? I don't know. But I owe her big. Both of my husband's brothers and their wives brought me food in the hospital so I didn't have to eat gross hospital food.

So this week I will learn how to function with four kids. I have a couple of easy errands planned. Halloween costumes are all taken care of. I need to plan out some meals with the food I have. And I need to learn to take things easy. Oh, and Jorge Cruise's 8 Minutes in the Morning needs to start again. I want to get back into my skinny jeans soon!

7 comments:

Hedgehog said...

Just reading your post made me tired! Best wishes to all of you!

Anonymous said...

Yikes! Functioning with four kids--that is Halloween-scary if you ask me. My first husband came from a family of 10. 7 girls, 3 boys. And only one bathroom. I always marveled at that. Lovely quilt~~how thoughtful!

Deb Hardman said...

Wow! You are a busy girl! Nice to have all that family support. Your quilt is lovely. What a nice surprise to get something like that in the mail! & it must've been interesting organizing such a project! Lucky you!

My Brain on Quilts said...

Jules,

I love your Wonderful Present. What a loving and generous gift from your cyber friends -- an heirloom with a great story -- before he's a month old -- what a lucky little boy!

Sandra said...

Congratulations! He's adorable! And so is that new quilt...

Kay said...

Lovely quilt. I can't imagine four kids. But you'll do it!

Anonymous said...

Cute quilt!