Make-A-List Monday - What A Weekend!!

Hi, all!

It feels like it's been much longer than a week since last Monday - we had a heckuva weekend here in Tennessee!  I'll share about that in a minute, but first let's check out last week's list and see how it went...

1.  Finish the t-shirt quilt and deliver.
Done!  I can't share pictures on this one yet, but I will soon!

2. Finish piecing the special quilt.

3. Quilt the special quilt.
Done!  I also can't share pictures of this one, but trust me, they'll be coming soon!

4.  Continue cleaning the house.  Goal this week is to gather up all the clutter in the dining room and polish all the furniture.
Done!  I think all I have to do now is the bathrooms, and find a temporary place to stash all the quilts that are on the guest bed so Lilli can sleep over Wednesday night!

5.  Pull fabrics for the next commission job.
Done!  I've got all the fabrics pulled, and most of the pieces cut!

6.  Try to get to the next Gypsy Wife blocks.
Done!  I managed to do the Hourglass blocks this week.  They were my reward for quilting two quilts and binding four quilts for the ministry!

7.  Keep up with any quilt ministry needs that come up.

We gave away quite a few quilts this week...

This quilt and the one below went to sisters whose house burned down this week...

This quilt went to a woman diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer.

This quilt went to a woman going through serious medical issues.

And this quilt is for a new baby boy!

So all in all, not a bad week!  Since this week is a holiday week, and I'll be spending most of my time cooking and cleaning and visiting with family, I won't have a set list.  Instead, I'll tell you about my weekend!

Saturday I cleaned all. day. long.  Have I told you how much I hate cleaning?  Well, I do!  I scrubbed and polished and moved things that hadn't been moved in years; I found baby bibs and teething rings and baby bottles (those all found new homes, by the way) and in general really embarrassed myself with the state of my house.  My husband, feeling generous because Miami beat Virginia, took me out to dinner!  We love Chuy's Mexican Cantina, so we drove over to Murfreesboro about 4:30 for supper.  **We weren't eating that early because we are old, but rather because we hadn't eaten lunch!**

We sat down in our booth and were looking at the menu when both our phones buzzed with tornado alerts.  We weren't home and not much we could do, so we didn't think much about it.  But then our phones started dinging with IMs asking if we were ok!  Well, that got our attention!  Still, though, not much we could do so we ate supper and headed home. (To be totally honest here, I decided I was going to be totally p***ed if a tornado had taken out our house after I spent all day cleaning it!)  Conversations with a neighbor told us that the road just east of our house was blocked by fallen trees.  We found another way in, and fortunately found that our electricity was on (not true of some of our neighbors) but it looked like we had a lot of trees down in our yard.  A quick inspection of the house showed no damage inside, and as it was pitch dark outside, we saved a closer inspection for morning.  

This was the view out of my front storm door.  Now, I know I hadn't cleaned it yet, but it wasn't nearly that dirty when we left for dinner!

Stepping out on the front porch, this is what we saw.  That is the TOP of a tree brushing up against my bedroom window.  The only damage?  A small tear to the screen.

Yes, that is my beloved and well-used clothesline/photography assistant tangled up in that tree.  Needless to say, it bit the dust, and I'll be buying a new one today...

This tree was just shoved over out of the ground!

More trees and limbs...

More trees, this time red cedars.  I think we lost six red cedars in this storm...

Snapped off like a broken tooth!

We have lots of very tall trees on our property, and more than few looked like this after the storm...

See what I mean?

It will never cease to amaze me how a storm can come in, like a giant hand, and just plow down trees a few feet off the ground.

It even overturned and broke the kids' play set that Bill made for them a few years ago!

This was a thirty-foot red cedar the day before this was taken...

And look where we finally found the cover to my husband's grill!

But thanks to some wonderful neighbors with tractors...

...church members with Bobcats....

...and a LOT of helping hands....

...we've managed to get our yard back to close to normal!  Just in time for Thanksgiving - - - and I'm reminded just how thankful I am every time I look out a window!  Here's a little video, introduced by my youngest helpers, Emmy and Nathanael, showing how it looks now...

So - I'll see you on Wednesday, hopefully with some more Gypsy Wife blocks, but if not, at least my house will be clean and there will be pies!  Enjoy your Thanksgiving and come back to do a little whoop whoop on Friday.

Hugs!

Sarah