Cast of Characters

I read a book recently that had a Cast of Characters at the beginning of it. You know those pages in the front where they outline who you are going to meet so that when you forget the names later in the book, you can always look them up. Rather helpful if you ask me.

This got me thinking about the Cast of Characters in my own life... I was thinking about how on earth I would figure out how to write one for myself. Who do you include? Just my immediate family alone is kind of an overwhelming cast of characters- both in sheer numbers and describing the role each one plays in my story. And then if you went into extended family (gasp!), friends, extended friends, the rest of my community... What a cast it would be!  

I started one, just for fun... and quickly got stumped. It is overwhelming enough just to list family, spouses, kids and then I started on friends, which is where it got really crazy. I have so many friends, near and far. Daily contact, monthly contact, yearly contact. Just because Friend X lives out of state and we're terribly bad at phone calls doesn't mean she isn't part of my life, my story. She may have played a larger role in some part of my history, but she's certainly part of the story. I get excited for a new baby (or 5). I visit when possible. She and her family take up heart space -- they are part of who I am, even from a distance.  But how on earth would you ever list and describe all of those people? And their spot in your story?  

It keeps circling around in my mind lately... and it's kind of an interesting place to let your mind wander. And it makes me so grateful for the Cast of Characters in my story, even if it is too complicated to actually write it all up.  

What about you? What does your Cast of Characters look like?  

Sadness

It has been a heavy week. Last week, our community buried a 12 year old girl who lost her battle to brain cancer. I didn’t know her personally, but had been praying for her for a few years and following her story. And I know her grandfather, who is a deacon at our parish. She was one of us. Community. And she died so young. The world only sees the tragedy, the heartbreak… and I certainly see and experienced that, even from a distance. And yet, we also see the victory in her death. She fought the good fight and was going Home. She reached the Beloved face to face!!! What more could any of us hope for? 

The same day, they found a young man in our community dead. I still don’t have all the details, but apparently a freak accident. His older sister was my best friend all through middle and high school. His big brother is a good friend and married one of my longest childhood friends. I worked in his dad’s store in high school. We went to the same daily Mass for years. We rubbed elbows serving at Mass on occasion. He was a vibrant, joyful, and faithful witness of God’s great love to all those around him. And at age 23, he is gone. It is heavy. I trust that He is going or has gone Home. Victory. And yet there are so many unanswered questions. So much sadness, not just at the gap in my life, but the gap for those that loved him and were so close to him. That shared so much more of their lives with him.

I was talking to a good friend who lives out of state and she was missing this community while getting ready for her new baby. Our community makes such a big deal about new babies and their grand entrance, and she’s missing some of that where she’s at.

Community is an amazing thing. We really do bear one another’s burdens, weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice. I am so humbled and so blessed by the gift of it. And I am praying for this community as we bury a couple beautiful young people and learn to love each other more in the process. Come Lord Jesus. 

Ecclesiastes 3: 1 – 11.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Lord, help us remember that you have indeed made everything beautiful in your time and that you have a plan and work all things for the good of those who love you.

The dining room upgrade…

Awhile back, I mentioned my quest for a new (used) table and chairs for the dining room. I managed to exceed my expectations finding some awesome chairs in several locations and then got stalled on the table. It seemed like everything on craigslist was way to expensive for what they were offering.
One day I headed to the local Habitat for Humanity Restore just to see… wasn’t even sure they had tables, but I was going to check. And there it was…. a beautiful oak double pedestal table with the leaves that stored inside (I love that!). The table top had some scratches and paint streaks on it, but the price was right ($50), the size was right, it was coming home with me!

Donal happened to buy a stove at the Restore the very next day, so we pooled resources and helped each other get our large purchases home. (Love that guy!)
For the next few weeks, I had two dining room tables and a lot of chairs in the dining room, making it seem even smaller. And then some woman from the magical land of craigslist came, gave me cash, and drove away with the old table and chairs. Fabulous. And, as it turns out, I made enough cash on the old set to buy all the new stuff and all the supplies to refinish them. Perfect!
On to the refinishing project…
My buffet –which I LOVE—came from my dad’s grandma, so it’s really old. And there was an unfortunate incident a few years ago with a colander of tomatoes… that leaked… and made a stain… and it caused me great anguish for a long time. And it became clear the only way to get rid of it would be to refinish the top of it. So I matched the stain to buffet (since the rest of it doesn’t need to be refinished).
Saturday I stripped the finish off the top of the buffet and the table top. 

Tonight I pulled out my trusty orbital sander and started at the sanding. The edges of the table took as long as the entire table top! Why did I choose a table with a fancy edge?? It felt like a lot of sanding, but I was eventually done (and the dining room was a dusty mess).
Next I cleaned all the dust off the table top and buffet. And then I applied the wood conditioner and then stained them both.
 

The table is a different wood than the buffet and has a lot less natural red in it, so the color doesn’t match exactly, but I think it looks great.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get a coat of polyurethane on them.

More awkward

And in case one awkward "Take down the sign" moment wasn't enough, a few days ago I got an email that stopped me in my tracks.  

At my last job, when I first started, back when there were four partners, the general manager's mom was working there. She was very emotionally invested in the business, and had picked up a lot of slack when the companies were merging. She brought her own set of um... , she was rather disorganized, often did things the hard way (instead of finding new and efficient ways to do the same tasks) and she refused to change how she did anything. But she was very well meaning and when I started, she felt like she finally had an ally. We worked together on a lot of stuff and I took a lot off her plate. What can I say, clearly we were office BFFs. In the midst of that, of course, I got a lot more personal information than I was hoping for... all the details of her divorce. Her current relationship. Her kids (including one of my bosses). Her grandchildren. Her friends at the club. Everything. In excruciating and sometimes horrifying detail.

So we worked together probably 4 months before the bottom fell out. Her son, the general manager, stopped coming to work for a couple months. So all communication went through his mom, which made it even messier. And there was fighting among partners. And then the general manager had some sort of mental breakdown and was in the hospital. Next thing we know he's suing the company with a rabid lawyer who is doing it all pro-bono as a family friend. He sent me an email saying it wasn't personal and don't take offense. And then threatening emails. It was messy. Not a little messy, but incredibly messy. And at this same time, his mom stopped working for us, for obvious reasons. And everything she had been doing dropped onto my already full lap. The whole thing was stressful and messy. The legal settlement nearly sank the company and the payments over the next year were maddening and damaging.  

To make all of this worse, the general manager who sued the company lives on my street, 2 blocks down, but on my street. I get to drive by the truck he stole (through legal settlement) from the company. And it was a struggle for me to fight bitterness whenever I drove by. Thank God for the grace to see that this guy isn't my job- God will deal with him in his own time and I was able to let go of the anger and move on with my life.  

Anyway, that was all a year and a half ago. Ancient history. Today I get an email from this woman. She somehow heard through the grapevine that I am no longer working at the company. She'd love to get together with me for a glass of wine and to catch up. She really enjoyed my company when we worked together and was sorry we haven't kept in touch.... 

TAKE DOWN THE SIGN REENIE

Take down the sign Reenie

Earlier this week, my dad and I went out to a job site to take some elevation shots on some pavement that wasn't draining properly. It is in a wealthy subdivision nearby and we do a lot of work in this community.  So we're getting ready to take the shots-- keep in mind my main task here is to hold a survey rod so we can get the elevations-- and the lady whose home is right in front of us comes home from the grocery store. She comes out to chat- she saw us at the meeting last week, thought the road plan and presentation was marvelous, blah blah blah. We start chatting- she's new to the area, came from the east coast a few months ago. She's probably in her mid-sixties. She asks about the driveway, so Ken starts telling her what she can do to fix it.

Then she tells us about her kids- three of them. None of them stayed in their hometown, which is why they moved out here- to be closer to the grandkids. Her husband comes out to join the conversation and ends up walking to the end of the driveway with Ken to talk about curb modifications.

I turn to the lady (is it bad I don't remember her name?) and she says to me, "I am so happy to be closer to family, but (she tears up) it was really hard leaving my friends of 40+ years and trying to start over here."  That's right folks. A simple trip to take some elevation shots-- to hold a survey rod-- and there I am, standing in the driveway with a sweet lady who is tearing up about missing her friends and their community. Unexpected to say the least.  

But seriously, take down the sign Reenie.

#2

I’m still plugging away at making Christmas presents (and staying up way too late, way too often). The original Pajama Eater now has a friend, faster and slightly better than the first one (of course). This one I used a pillow form for the body stuffing- thinking it would make them even more washable if you could pull out the pillow form to wash it. I should have gone with a slightly smaller pillow form or a slightly larger body.

The back is just overlapped to make the pillowcase. Like I said, if I use a smaller pillowform (12”x12” instead of the one I had 14”x14”) it would have fit better. Next one…

Pajama Eaters

My friend Jodi at SewFearless.com had this genius idea to make her kids Pajama Eaters to store their PJs in during the day. Brilliant if you ask me. I kind of need one myself.  Anyway, she went on to put it together into a fabulous pattern, which, of course, I bought. And to start off October decided to try my hand at my first one.

Not perfect, but pretty great. The next one will be better. In fact, I’m thinking about making them for all of my nieces and nephews if I can get my act together. Talk about a stash buster! 11 Pajama Eaters? Yes please.

Jodi sells the patterns over at her website and I highly recommend it!!

All told, it took me a couple hours to cut out two of them and sew the first one all together to completion. I’m sure the next ones will be faster.

September Round Up

September flew by in a flurry of… well, a little bit of everything!

My cousin got married… so a big party, and some of my other cousins were in town. And there was this really cute baby (belonging to one of the cousins). And there was an uncle or something of the bride who decided to get close up video of everything. Highly entertaining and not disruptive at all (note the sarcasm). 

I got strep throat for the first time in years. No pictures of that. It was kind of awful. And bombed a weekend… that one free weekend… alas. Modern medicine restored me to health and we moved on.

I finished sewing my quilt top together (though that might have been August) but I definitely remembered to take pictures of it in September.

I marveled at the beautiful clouds.

I sewed His and Hers matching aprons as a wedding gift.

And then went to that wedding in North Carolina with friends. Had some great adventures. Went to a great wedding. Drove a lot.

There was a bachelorette party. And some bridesmaid dress alterations.

I ate a lot of tomatoes and made some salsa.

Dinner with friends and their adorable munchkins.

And to top it off, a great weekend away in western Michigan with some girlfriends. Complete with fabulous food, perfect weather, wine tasting, and generally laid back moments with friends.

And suddenly, it was October…