I am Blessed

Yes, I am truly blessed.  June was a potpourri of blessings and emotions.

Our daughter returned home after a year in the Marshall Islands.  She was on a remote island teaching English in the elementary school for World Teach.  She survived a year without plumbing, electricity, telephones, or computers.  She learned so much about the people and their culture and history and has so many great stories to tell.  Now we are waiting to find out what her next step in life will be.  She is such a joyful person and fun to have around.

Then I received this great news via UPS:

I was selected as a winner in a giveaway from Quiltmaker Magazine.  Wow!  What a great prize.  I received a gorgeous glossy book of the first two issues of the 100 Blocks magazine called (what else?)  200 Blocks.  It comes with a CD to print out all the patterns.  How great is that??  Plus they sent me two mugs from the first two volumes.  Each mug has the quilt blocks printed on them that appear in the magazines.  I feel so lucky.  Thank you Quiltmaker Magazine and the Quilty Pleasures Blog!!

The peach truck came again in June and we are working our way through a half bushel of peaches.  My husband requested peach cobbler so I have made it twice.  This was a first for me.  I don't love cooked peaches, but was happy to make it for him.

My dear sweet mother- in- law passed away in June also.  She was the sweetest person I know and never ever said an unkind word about anyone.  It was so sad to lose her.  We shared quilting and reading and we are the only ones in the family who shared these passions.  I know I will miss her for a long time.  She quilted for a group at her church that made prayer quilts.  I found a box of photos that she was saving of the many, many quilts she had made over the last 10 - 15 years for this group.  I was truly amazed at how prolific she had been.  I was also dismayed that she had quit sewing on her machine almost a year ago because she could no longer lift her arm above the table to guide her work.  She had been hiding this from me and it made me even sadder.  Because she loved to read so much, my FIL had written a computer program for her to track all the books she had read.  He called up the program while we were visiting and found that she had read over 2500 books since 2005.  I think we figured that was about 1 book every 2- 1/2 days.  WOW!  I doubt I will read this many books in my lifetime.  I am so grateful that God brought her into my life and that she was the perfect mother for my husband.  She did such a remarkable job of raising him and making him the best husband I could imagine.