Bits and Pieces

When I was out and about last Saturday, I stopped at a garage sale. I picked up three small red frames and one larger silver-toned frame and a wall basket shaped like a ladybug.

I used one of the frames to preserve that fortune I got shortly after I was called to be Relief Society president. Remind me to show you; it’s hanging out with Betsy, Tacy, and Tib¹, on top of the gas fireplace. That poor wall is so very, very vanilla. But I have promised myself that the boudoir gets finished first.

The Sunrise Circle Jacket is nearly done. It’s bound off and halfway sewn together. I looked for buttons at JoAnn’s and Hancock’s; I found something plausible at Joann’s, but they were roughly $5 each, and I think I can do better at Benno’s Buttons in Dallas, both in terms of style and price.

I discovered a small mistake on the right front of the jacket. I don’t think anybody but me, or one of my knitting friends, would notice.² We will consider it my small, retroactively deliberate imperfection. A design feature, if you will.

I dashed out around 8:00pm and did a single load of laundry. For reasons I do not entirely understand, I can do a load of whites in 45 minutes or less. When I do two or more loads, it takes at least an hour and a half [but then I’m done for several weeks].

Brother Abacus was at the memorial service yesterday. I greeted him, and he said, “I didn’t know you were in this ward. [That’s because you don’t listen, honey.] I’m moving into your ward.” [I knew that, because I do.]

“Yes. I’m the Relief Society president. Proving that Heaven has a great sense of humor.”

“Woah.” Just the smallest spark of fear in his eyes. Hey, God loves me, even if Brother Abacus didn’t and doesn’t. It was a lovely small moment. And I also saw, for another small moment, what it was that attracted me in the first place, neatly filed away under “O” for “Oops”. [Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. No thanks!]

¹ If you have ever been a little girl, or you have a little girl, or you have a granddaughter or a niece or a goddaughter who is old enough for chapter books or will sit still long enough to be read to, and you don’t know about Maud Hart Lovelace’s classic books, they came back into fashion after You’ve Got Mail was released [so did Streatfeild’s Shoes series], because she referred to them in the movie. And I just learned that there is a Betsy-Tacy Society. Fourthborn gave me the ten-book series years ago, and I later picked up Emily of Deep Valley and Carney’s House Party on my own. The last five books in the series are being reprinted this fall, but Emily and Carney and Winona’s Pony Cart [which I do not have] are not.

² My mother would have said, “You wouldn’t notice it on a galloping horse.”

Very glad to go back to work today. Work is where I go to rest...