Just keeping busy!

The past month has been a flurry of planning and plodding. I did attend a quilt show in Jefferson, TX and thoroughly enjoyed the day with friends Julie and Chrissie. To prepare for the big fund raiser at church, I made 4 batches of Roux, each batch made with 5 lb of flour and a quart of oil. During the month of January, I read several books - Revolutionary Road, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, A Single Thread, All That Matters, and The Quilter's Kitchen. I liked them all. I am now reading the first in a Trilogy by Paulina Simmons call The Bronze Horseman. They are all three large books with small print. I will be consumed with them for quite a while. I also have at the ready John Grisham's newest, The Associate.

David and I continue to enjoy our weekly movie dates. We have seen some really good movies lately - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Grand Torino, Last Chance Harvey, Slumdog Millionaire, Taken, The Reader, He's Just Not That Into You, New In Town, The International.

The first week of February, I drove down to Orange, TX to visit my Mom and do a few things for her. The big thing was getting her a new flat screen TV and setting it up on the new console that had to be assembled. We got some visiting in and a little cleaning done.

Last week was Gumbo Week. Monday was the day of bell peppers, celery, and green onions; we cheat and buy the white onions already chopped. Less tears! Once everything is chopped uniformly, it is weighed and bagged in a appropriate amounts for each pot of gumbo. Tuesday and Wednesday we cook. Each pot makes 52 quarts of gumbo. We cook 5 pots at a time and two cookings each day. once cooked, the gumbo is put into quart containers and ready for pickup. By the end of the second day of cooking, we have sold over 1,040 quarts of gumbo. We all have a wonderful time together working on this project but are always glad when it is behind us for another year!

I had thought I might start my machine quilting on my 4-patch posie quilt. But just received in the mail fabric for a challenge. I will be attending a Sew n Spa in April and forgot about the challenge associated with it. So that is what is taking up my time right now. I am trying to get my creative juices flowing to come up with a idea.

David gave me a beautiful Valentine card that said all the right things along with a heart shaped box of Pecan Millionaires. He knows what I like! I gave him a card and washed his car. We went to dinner last night and played cards with friends. It was a very nice day.

It is hard to believe that our granddaughter, Alex, will celebrate her 10th birthday Tuesday. She is such a joy! We have so much fun together. She is learning to cook and sew; we have so much fun together. We also like playing games. She loves to read too.