A Blessed Thanksgiving.

Good Morning.

As I sit here trying to find the words to express my gratitude for oh so many things that have happened this past year,

I am smelling a pumpkin custard baking in the oven (a crust-less pie for the gluten-free hubby who never liked crust anyway and always left it behind) bacon sizzling on the griddle, the sounds of my menfolk setting the table.

It’s a tradition here – with all of the cooking that goes into the main Thanksgiving meal, the men take care of breakfast giving me just a bit of reprieve to write and enjoy a bit of the morning with some relaxation before tying an apron on and getting down to the big meal of the day.

My biggest surprise came last night when Jason texted from South Carolina that he WAS coming up to Virginia for Thanksgiving.  He didn’t think he was going to be able to make it work because he flip-flopped his holiday days off so that he could come to Idaho/Oregon with us for his grandpa’s memorial service last weekend.

He walked in my door about 9pm last night.  I guess he hasn’t had enough of us over the past week! 

I am down in the basement studio out of the way typing this post, yet I can hear their stories and banter wafting down the stairwell to where I am.  Life is oh, so good.

This morning’s sunrise.  Click to play:

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Nov 23, 2017 at 5:31am PST

But my grateful heart would truly be amiss if I didn’t acknowledge the greatest blessing of all.  I got a call from my brother Mark in Arizona whom I’ll be seeing next week.

He had a seizure, and this is a concern with his brain tumor status, so off they went to the oncology center for an emergency MRI.

The following text came yesterday:

“I wanted to share with the whole family that my last MRI from a few days ago showed NO tumor.  It simply wasn’t there. 

We asked the doctor what happened to the tumor and he said ‘it’s probably there somewhere, we know there are cells we just can’t see it.’

We have been praying for a miracle and Sharolyn and I feel as if our prayers have been answered.  Love you, Mark.”

Our hearts are bursting with so much gratitude that we can’t contain it.  The tumor was about half the size of his thumb and was located in the frontal lobe of his brain.  And now not even an MRI can find it.

What caused the seizure?  We don’t know. But we do know that this Thanksgiving really has a deeper meaning to us as a family than those in years past. And when I go to Arizona next week it will be in celebration of the continuation of Mark’s life.

I enjoyed a long walk with these two – Jeff and Sadie.

While the saws and drills and hammers were going to re-surface the deck:

I counted my blessings, every single one as I pressed and cut --

Running the 6 1/2’’ segments through the 1 1/2’’ Accuquilt die -

Working through the rainbow, color by color.

Soon all of the pieces needed for the rail section of this year’s Checkerboard Rails Leader & Ender Challenge will be ready for assembly! At this point I’m contemplating a piano key border as I KNOW I’ve cut more strips than I need, but so many things can come out of these strips, I just don’t care.  I’d rather have them cut and ready, than waiting in bins as odd hunks and chunks.

There will be no cutting or sewing this morning – as soon as this hits post, I’ll be stationed in the kitchen, along with many of you.

My best wishes to you and yours for a wonderful day!

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!

Wishing everyone a wonderful day with time to count our many blessings and all that we are grateful for.

ONE MORE SLEEP to ON RINGO LAKE!