Sari Bari

Thought I'd share this link with you. It's an interesting project in India. The Sari blankets are made by women who have left the red light districts in India and have take a brave new step into a new life. This new chance of freedom holds the promise of diginity, respect, and way of life that was never before possible. The Sari Blanket is made made out of five layers of Saris. Each blanket is put together by hand and then hand stitched. Each Sari Blanket is unique and there are no two blankets exactly alike.

If you have a chance check out the website and read more about Sari Bari: http://www.saribari.blogspot.com/

What's New...

Benjamin and I spent last weekend in Mississippi to help celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday party. There ended up being about 65 people who came to a reception to honor her. She was absolutely thrilled. I give big kudos to my mother and all of her recruits for doing a great job organizing everything. We got to visit with a good amount of family going, returning and in-between. It took me a couple of days to regroup after spending that much time in the car.

I spoke to a community group in town last night sharing ways to come up with funds to save for whatever their goal might be. It went well and it was my first endeavor using powerpoint... somehow I've gotten away with not using it up to this point. Hopefully I'll get it down well before my next couple of seminars. I really enjoy passing along financial resources and knowledge to the general public. It's doesn't really pay well but that's not exactly my goal.

I've also added a link to a friend of ours who recently joined the blog world. ... bynaomi...

Good News

We had another pregnancy Dr appointment yesterday. Sarah's sugar test came in very good and we had a followup ultrasound and everything looked to be on track. We'd been a little concerned based on the previous one but no worries at this point. Sarah's been doing really well with work-out routine in the mornings and I'm proud that she musters up the energy to get up early and knock it out before the rest of us drag ourselves out of bed.

We made good progress on the baby's room. I completed most of priming and hope to have the walls completely done by the end of February.... maybe the trim as well. I hope to complete at least the early stages of painting our downstairs bathroom before Benjamin and I leave town this weekend.

Benjamin has really been enjoying a big box that we gave him. He'll play hide in it and then he wants us to pass him small toys through the wholes where your hands go to pick up the box. It's been an absolute riot.

The temperature really dropped last night and we had a mild icy/snow mix. This morning it's basically been snowing all morning. Benjamin and I went out for a few minutes to put out some bird seed so we can watch them eat in the snow from the warmth of our living room.

Benjamin and I head to Mississippi late Thursday to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. She's a pretty amazing woman and I'm glad that Benjamin can have a relationship with her. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll have a good turnout for the celebration on Sunday afternoon.

I'm about half-way done with The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck. I think it's been over 10 years since I've read any of his works. I've enjoyed most of what I've read by him in the past and picked this work up at a local used bookstore here in Berea. I find the title a bit ironic since I seem to enjoy cold weather so much.

Visit, Snow, Cold, Squirrels ...

We had a great time visiting extended family and catching up friends a couple of weekends ago while we were in Hendersonville, NC & Anderson, SC. It would have been nice to spend more time with everyone but we tried to have quality time with just about everyone for the short while we were there. We had the pleasure of driving through semi-blizzard conditions on the way back - nothing like swirling snow blowing at a high rate in all directions as you slowly drive through the gap between NC & TN. To make it even more exciting the temperature with wind-chill was around 7 degrees most of our trip back. Our little 5 hour trip was stretched into 7 but we made it back home safely and recoverd on our sleep deprivation after a couple of days.

I think that maybe this cold weather has decided to attach itself to us for a while. I'm not really a winter person. I'll gladly take warm or hot over cold, frigid, snowy, icy days. The last week or so it's snowed off and on and then the temperature has dropped down to close to ZERO with the wind chill. I think we have about another week or so and then the tide will begin to turn again. Hopefully for good.

I had a really good day of working on larger projects around the house. I added lots of insulation in the attic before the worst of the cold weather came through. I also prepped the soon to be nursery for painting. My goal is to get the priming portion knocked out by the end of this weekend. I also finished moving things around in the garage so Sarah can park her car inside during this lovely weather.

Benjamin has been helping me shoo off squirrels that are making a habit of eating our bird food. If he sees a squirrel he'll point at it and say something that sounds like "Get back squirrel." Its really hilarious. He's very serious about this task. Sometimes he even bangs on the window to really get their attention.

More later...