Something that Made Me Happy - October 2018

During the past month, there have been many things that have made me happy.

Something I've been enjoying a lot are the amazing sunsets here at the farm. This one was taken on October 16th.

In a matter of minutes, the sky changed to lighter colors as sun went further down on the horizon.

Another pretty sunset was on October 30th.

Again, in a matter of minutes, the sky has a different look to it with different shades of blues, purples, and pinks.  

This past month, in addition to my weekly pottery class, the girls and I took some art classes together. One that they wanted to do (so I thought I'd try my hand at it) was hand-sewing  leather. We each chose several projects to make. Below, Olivia is ready to start work on making a case for her sunglasses.

Sophia made three projects including a keychain (finished and to the right of the photo), coin purse, and a wallet which she is sewing in the photo below.

The three projects I made were a field note holder (to the left) which holds a little notebook, cards, and money; a keychain; and a clutch.

The clutch can hold an iPad mini, the field note holder, or other items.

This is the inside of the fieldnote holder. I need to get a little notebook that will on the right side of the holder.

We all said that we would want to take a hand-sewing leather class again.

On Halloween, during the middle of the day, Sophia and I took a SAORI weaving class at White Bear Center for the Arts. For two hours, we wove alongside ladies from Bloom.

Bloom is a SAORI weaving group made up of eight ladies. While these ladies happen to have developmental disabilities, they have had two nearly sold-out shows at Homewood Studios in Minneapolis. They gain teaching experience through workshops held during their shows and at White Bear Center for the Arts.

Below - from left to right - is me, one of the ladies from Bloom (dressed as Elvis for Halloween), and Sophia. Sophia went to town weaving and has a very long - and beautiful scarf.

Both of us still need to finish off the ends and cut the strings so they are even. Sophia is really happy with her scarf. For some reason, the yarn on my loom kept breaking (this is the first time this has ever happened), so the finished piece is lopsided. Oh well...it still was fun to create the weaving.

Another thing that made our entire family happy was finding a bin of Halloween decorations in the basement. I thought that some of them were still in the hobby shed when it burned down unexpectedly in May 2018.

Needless to say, I was so happy to find that we had some decorations that were passed down to us by Paige's mother and step-father, like the witch below.

The pumpkin that I used when I was a child was in the bin too!

The pumpkin still has my name on it with a scribble/swirl under it. When I sign my first name only I still will often put a line or swirl under it. I didn't realize I did that earlier in my life as a kid.

I was particularly happy to find both Sophia's and Olivia's candy bags. Since the first time each of them went trick-or-treating and dressed up, I traced one of their hands, wrote their name in the center along with their costume and year. When they got older, they began writing their own name and decorating the handprints.

October also brought many opportunities to volunteer together which made me happy. Olivia and I volunteered to help pack up a nearby library. We packed four racks (six shelves each) of fiction books; the large-print books, and about half a wall of non-fiction books.

We volunteered at the Lions Pancake Breakfast in the middle of the month, and enjoyed talking with some of the senior members of the Lions. The woman on the left helped paint the barn quilts that Olivia designed four years ago. She told us she's the same age as Micky Mouse, which would put her at about 90 years old now!

I coordinated a Service Project Sampler Day for Lions, Leos (the teen version of the Lions), and community members who wanted to volunteer. We ended up doing 14 projects or collecting items for 13 non-profits locally and globally. Afterwards, we had a healthy diabetes-friendly lunch together. (Diabetes is one of the key issues that the Lions work on.)

One of the projects we did was make 16 birthday bags for children whose families are struggling to put food on the table. We donated half to the local food shelf and then the other eight bags to a food shelf about 10 miles away. In addition, we donated over 50 pounds of food to the local food shelf.

At the Lions' Sponsor Appreciation Dinner, Sophia played the harp during the social hour and dinner. Olivia helped her get set-up and the speakers attached and working for her harp.

After having dinner together, the teens who volunteered to help had fun talking with one another, learning to play the harp (for the two exchange students from India and Mali, it was the first time they had touched a harp!), and talking about upcoming events.

So, it was a fun month - filled with beautiful things in nature, crafting, weaving, creative expression, learning new skills, special celebrations and holidays, volunteering, meeting new people, and deepening friendships through service and activities.

There is much to be grateful for and happy about as I look back at October.