An (almost) Perfect Mother’s Day Weekend

What would any mother want more than to spend a weekend with those she loves the most? For ABN, it was the perfect Mothers’ Day gift.

First a trip to Wilmington, NC to pack up our oldest granddaughter, Alison, at UNCW and move her back to Florida for her summer break. From ABN’s memory of moving Alison’s dad in and out of college housing, it is a necessary but not fun chore. We were pleasantly surprised to find Ali had all her packing done and the apartment cleaned, leaving only the actual loading for us.

It was a much more organized and smoother experience than we expected and certainly worth it to spend time with our granddaughter and get a glimpse into her college life.

Love this young lady!

We arrived in Florida in time to celebrate our youngest granddaughter, Camille’s, 18th birthday.

Cake decorated by her talented mom.

It is not unusual to have their friends celebrating with us. We sat in amazement and listen to these young ladies discuss topics like music composition, college experiences and future plans. Were these the same girls that we knew to act silly? Before the evening ended, we were assured, they are the same girls.

Rarely are we in Florida and not see a ballet performance. This weekend was not an exception. Saturday we watched Camille perform a variation from the ballet, Carmen. A stellar performance, it is our favorite of all her performances that we have seen.

Love this one too!

Following the performance, Captain treated his girls to dinner at The Surf Hut in Destin. (Except for Camille who continued to celebrate her birthday with a night out with friends.)

It was an (almost) a perfect Mother’s Day Weekend.

Of course we could not drive through North Carolina and not stop to visit with our dear friends, Kathy and Jesse.

No, we did not get in trouble; we just took a little trip back in time, visiting Mount Airy, the hometown of Andy Griffith which was inspiration for the fictitious town of Mayberry.

Jesse and Kathy introduced us to The Yellow Deli in Hiddenite.

The story began in 1973 as a few passionate people decided to bring a ray of sunshine to their neighborhood “because, in the face of mounting troubles on all sides of this planet and for all of humanity” the restaurant founders saw the need for a solution. Yellow represents the ray of hope; the solution was a little place where people could come, sit down, not feel rushed, ask questions and find a refuge from the pressures of life. Following their interpretation of the early church where believers lived in communities, they live, work and homeschool their children on a little farm not far from the restaurant. To join the commune, one must give up all their worldly goods, agree to work on the farm or in the restaurants; they do not receive a wage. All of their needs are provided by the commune. It’s a very interesting concept or, perhaps a cult; The Yellow Delis are in several states as well as in other countries.

The restaurant in Hiddenite is in a beautifully restored warehouse with very good sandwiches on bread baked in their bakery.

The best part of our visit with Kathy and Jesse was sitting on the porch of their lovely home with a spectacular view,  sipping wine and catching up. 

We are back home, just long enough to do the laundry, load The Wanderer (she stayed home this trip) and head back to Florida for high school graduation celebration.

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The invasion is over............

for this year.

Last week was Quilt Week in Quilt City, USA. This is a big deal!!! 30,000 quilters from all over the world invaded our city of 25,000. Each year we turn our streets, sidewalks, hotels, shops, restaurants and homes over to women in patch work vests while we take extra precautions navigating our streets, eat at home and count the coffer.  

For the past 12 years we have hosted quilters in our home, sometimes strangers and sometimes friends. It was not different this year except the friends from Texas we were expecting had to cancel at the last minute. Coincidentally (or maybe not) ABN noticed in a newsletter from Sew Powerful, a non-profit in which she has had an interest, that they were to have a vendor booth and needed volunteers. What better way to learn about an organization than to work with them? On a chance they might need lodging we offered our vacant guest room. Long story short, they accepted our offer, we made new friends and became captivated with a purse making mission. Even Captain (he was their personal driver for the week.)

Driving Miss Daisy the Ladies

We ended the week with new friends from Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, Indiana and Washington.

This is not the entire team.

And we found a way to help make the world a little better place. Now I know you are curious; you want to know about Sew Powerful and how making purses can make a difference. In a nutshell, it is a faith based organization that works to empower women to learn skills and to improve education for girls. They got our attention with empowerment and education. The organization recruits volunteers around the world to make purses that are sent to Zambia via WorldVision. Sew Powerful employs the local women to sew reusable sanitary pads that are placed in the purse along with a bar of soap and two pairs of panties. The purses are distributed to 6^th grade girls in their health class in the Ngombe Compound in Lusaka Zambia. This project provides a means of income for the women and keeps the girls in school all month long.

Doubt that Captain will be making purses, but one never knows.

We would like to say we returned home to sunny skies and warm temperatures. We have had a few wonderfully mild days, but also a lot of days that were cloudy, cool and rainy. Not much different than the past 4 months in Texas and Arizona. Most of the geraniums survived in the greenhouse (thank you water elves, you know who you are, the roses and Irises are beginning to bloom and we have had one hummingbird scout stop by. Hopefully the Major Wheeler Honeysuckle got his attention and he will report back to his tribe flock.

The house and garden are pretty much back to normal after a winter hiatus, so now it is time to hit the road again. North Carolina, here we come!

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Success!

Is this not a picture of success?

Rex and Matt are doing exceptionally well following the kidney transplant six weeks ago. In case you missed our last post, we received word Matt was a kidney match for his dad and surgery was scheduled. We left Arizona and returned to College Station to help out during the recovery.

While the guys were recovering from surgery, Captain’s mom spent a weekend in the hospital with pneumonia. She too is recovering nicely; so much so we took her to see the Azalea Trail and Pyron Garden in Tyler. 

We slipped away one weekend and wandered over  to Menard, TX with Captain’s classmates, Nancy and Jere to visit with another classmate, Deb and to listen to the Double Eagle String Band. Playing the fiddle and harmonica was another classmate, Tim. 

Yep, it was a tiny class reunion with lots of memories and stories. 

With everyone on the mend, we are headed home. But not before stopping in Jacksonville to deliver a graduation gift to a special high school graduate.

Thomas is part of our extended family and will be attending Texas A&M in the fall. Not only will he be an Aggie but will also be in the Corps of Cadets and play in the nationally famous Fightin Texas Aggie Band. Whoop!

As the weather gets warmer, the grass gets green and The Wanderer gets loaded with plants, ABN is  anxious to be home. Having been away from our home for almost 4 months, we are looking forward to catching up with hometown friends, ABN is anxious to see what lived and died in the garden and greenhouse and we both are eagerly awaiting Quilt Week. This year we are doing something different and exciting. More about that in a few weeks.

Porch friends, look for the Tipsy Tuesday flag next week!

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