Friday, July 07, 2006

I am a Daffodil :-)


I am a
Daffodil


What Flower
Are You?



"You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard."

I love daffodils and now I know why. I am one. LOL! Daffodils remind me of "back home". Specifically my grandparents house that I grew up next door to. Ma - what we called my paternal grandmother - had a lot of daffodils and narcisus planted around the house. I keep meaning to dig some up next time I go visit but I rarely make it that way any more so I'm not sure that's gonna ever happen. I'm not even sure they do well in my climate here as I've never seen any around the neighborhood during the spring. But one day I'm going to plant some just to see how they do.

Other flowers that remind me of "home" are spider lillies, day lillies and gladiolas. Also because they were planted at my grandparents home. The spider lillies always fascinated me as a child. Okay even as an adult I love them. :-) They shoot up from apparantly nothing with this big beautiful red bloom. And then a few months after the flowers have gone away the foliage shows up. Another flower I've never seen here but would like to try growing one day. The day lillies were given to my grandmother by a neighbor and still 30+ years later they make a spectacular showing all summer long. AGAIN something I've always planned to dig some up but never get around to on my way too short trips back home. And gladiolas will always remind me of Pop, my paternal grandfather. They were his favorite flower and he always planted them every year until he got where he couldn't do it any longer. During the summer they alway had a vase of gladiolas somewhere in the house.

When I was a child I had no interest in gardening. I was forced to help with the vegetable garden and it was always against my will and just as soon as I could get away with it I'd be back inside usually reading a book. But as I got older I found I really liked planting things and watching them grow so I guess some of those "farmer" genes did trickle down. Now when I "play in the dirt" as I call gardening I think of my Daddy and Pop and I feel connected to them in a way I never felt when I was growing up. And now that I'm not really able to garden myself anymore I really miss that connection. I'm hoping when we get moved I can set up a small raised bed garden that I might be able to keep up with at least for a few more years as I really do miss playing in the dirt and then sitting on my bench under the tree and watching as my efforts grow into yummy tomatoes and cucumbers and squash and peas and....... OH LORD AM I GETTING HUNGRY JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!!!!!

I haven't sewn a stitch since Tuesday evening. After 5 days off I wasn't at all ready to go back to work. Especially since I've quickly become acustomed to a mid-afternoon nap. So the last 2 days I've gone home so tired I fixed and ate supper and went to bed. Like at 7:30 or 8:00. WAYYY before dark. I do plan to sew this weekend and I hope to finish my drunkards path flowers this weekend. But if I don't I'm certainly not going to stress over it. I have a bad habit of setting goals for myself and when I don't meet them I get upset with myself and then I get in a blue funk and just don't do anything. So as part of the "new Nancy", the "calm, cool, not stressing over anything that doesn't matter Nancy" I'm not setting any goals for myself. So no swaps, no workshops or classes, or block of the months or promises of a quilt for a special occasion. If I feel like sewing I will. If I don't I won't feel guilty about laying in bed with a book or napping on the couch with a fur-baby for company or wasting many hours playing stupid computer games. The only thing I'm making myself do is just go spend 5 minutes in my sewing room every day. I might pick up a bit, or straighten a shelf, or cut some scraps, or just sit in my chair and think about what I'm going to do after my 5 minutes are up. Or I just might work on some quilt blocks. And I might even end up staying way longer than the 5 minutes and getting a lot accomplished.

I finally took the plunge and signed up at bloglines. Why didn't I try this sooner????? I can log on and then just go to the places that have been updated since I last checked. With 95 blogs on my list you can see why this is really a timesaver. I didn't visit all 95 blogs daily before but I did try to get around to all of them at least once a week. Now I won't waste time going to sites that haven't updated and can spend my time actually leaving comments that I haven't really had time to do much before. I've also taken some time the last few days to visit some of your archives and have come across some really beautiful quilts. My "must do" list is getting longer by the day.

I've been killing time waiting for David to get come meet me for supper at our favorite seafood place. We've been really good about going home and cooking but sometimes it's just nice to go out and let someone else do the cooking. He called a few minutes ago and said he was leaving work so I have about 30 minutes before he gets to town. It'll take me 15 to get over there so I guess it's time for me to stop this ramble and go.

7 comments:

Gail said...

I like bloglines, too, and like you think it saves me lots of time. I just can't figure out how to comment from there. So, when I want to comment, I go directly to the blog. Have you figured it out? Also, the original blog sites are so much 'prettier'. And good for you about not allowing yourself to be guilt-tripped into sewing, doing it because you HAVE takes the joy out of it.

quiltpixie said...

I too find myself able to spend time commenting now instead of clicking through blogs which haven't been updated.... The fact that I can simply click to the post lets me enjoy the blog itself, leave comments, but not sort through "have I seen this".... Hope the break has been refreashing.

ForestJane said...

I love my new bloglines tooooo... lol

Where do you play computer games, Nancy? Ever tried Pogo?

Shelina said...

I love the bloglines too - and like the link to go directly to the blog to see it in its full glory and be able to post comments. I too spend time looking in the archives, and my list is growing exponentially just like yours. I do have to say though that all these new ideas gives me incentive to finish up what I am working on faster just so I can get to something else.

Mary Johnson said...

It sounds like Bloglines is going to make life easier for all of us.

Good for you taking the pressure away from your quilting. Goals help me accomplish the things I want to get done but who needs to beat themselves up over not meeting them!

Bonnie said...

Quilting is so much more fun when we take that pressure off ourselves. The hobby is supposed to be fun - why do we make it into a "guilt".
Guess I will have to try bloglines since everyone seems to like it. It does take me a long time to go around to all the blogs. I don't visit 95, but it is getting close.

Cher said...

whoa, 95 blogs to visit, read, and leave comments on? That is a lot! I can understand how that could be however. Glad you are taking a new approach-the more you work on not allowing things beyond your control to stress you, the better-and of course beating yourself up is never a good idea! Hope you are able to play in the dirt sometime in the future-it's sure something else I enjoy spending time doing.