Friends!

Today, I got to have lunch with two wonderful friends today. How blessed I am for such wonderful friends and realize no matter what life gives you...if you have the love of family and friends, I believe you are pretty rich.
Then later today I was able to go over and stay with one of my neighbors today and this evening. She has been sick for over a year and  and so we have been over there as much as we can, to let her husband get a break.
Yesterday he got sick. So we are trying hard to help. I am so proud of our neighborhood, everyone is trying to do all that they can. It is nice to know we all have each other's back. Yes, we are blessed to be in a neighborhood like this. On Halloween we will have just moved in here 12 years...I am soooo grateful!
Good Night dear friends!

Building bridges

Great story...something to think about!
Good night dear friends!

The Farming Brothers

In days gone by, two brothers, Raul and Johan, who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 35 years of farming side-by-side in central Germany, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a single problem occurring.
However, one autumn, the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence between the two brothers.
One morning there was a knock on Raul's door. He opened it to find a man holding a carpenter's toolbox. 'I'm looking for a few days work,' Angelis said. 'Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there I could help with? Could I help you?'
'Yes,' answered Raul, extremely pleased to see Angelis the carpenter, 'I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor, in fact, it's my younger brother, Johan's farm. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll go him one better. See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to build me a fence; an 8-foot fence, so I won't need to see Johan's place nor his face anymore.'
Angelis the carpenter said thoughtfully, 'I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you.'
Raul then left for the nearby town, Erfurt, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing, and hammering.
About sunset when Raul returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer's eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all.
It was a bridge: a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other. A fine piece of work handrails and all, and the neighbor, his younger brother Johan, was coming across, his hand outstretched. 'You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done, 'Johan smiled.
The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each others hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder. 'No, wait. Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you,' called Raul.
'I'd love to stay on,' Angelis murmured quietly, 'but, I have many more bridges to build.
Found story here:


 Got photo of bridge here:

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."
Paul Boose

"When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free."
Catherine Ponder

"The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves."
Eric Hoffer

Getting to know your neighbors!

Tonight was our neighborhood BBQ and it turned out well. We only thought of the idea a few days prior, so we didn't give our flyers out until Monday. Still we had about 15 neighbors/families there... it was wonderful. We got to meet new neighbors that had just moved in, old neighbors that we have never met and then to re-visit with those neighbors that we already knew and loved. It was so much fun and how interesting to get to know more about them and their lives.
I went and got name tags so we could all call each other by our first names. It went well and we all were already planning our next get together! I am so grateful to live in a wonderful area with some incredible neighbors...what a treat tonight was!

I think we needed to do this BBQ get together... so we could all at least take the time to get to  know each other. I laugh when I remember how my grandmother used to tell me about neighbor's life, just by watching their laundry. Too funny, true but funny non the less.
But since most of us don't have a laundry line any more, I thought it would be nice if we shared a meal together and...we did!

 

A CLOTHESLINE POEM
A clothesline was a news forecast
To neighbors passing by,
There were no secrets you could keep
When clothes were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link
For neighbors always knew,
If company had stopped on by
To spend a night or two.
For then you'd see the "fancy sheets"
And towels upon the line;
You'd see the "company table cloths"
With intricate designs.
The line announced a baby's birth
From folks who lived inside -
As brand new infant clothes were hung,
So carefully with pride!
The ages of the children could
So readily be known
By watching how the sizes changed,
You'd know how much they'd grown!
It also told when illness struck,
As extra sheets were hung;
Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too,
Haphazardly were strung.
It also said, "Gone on vacation now"
When lines hung limp and bare.
It told, "We're back!" when full lines sagged, with not an inch to spare!
New folks in town were scorned upon
If wash was dingy and gray,
As neighbors carefully raised their brows,
And looked the other way.
But clotheslines now are of the past,
For dryers make work much less.
Now what goes on inside a home
Is anybody's guess!
I really miss that way of life. It was a friendly sign.
When neighbors knew each other best by what hung on the line.

 http://lyle-lylesplace.blogspot.com/2011/03/clothes-line-history.html

" Don't buy the house, buy the neighborhood."  ~ Russian proverb

"Everyone is a friend, until they prove otherwise."
- sent by Steve

"Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life."
- (sent by Dior Yamasaki)

 

Pumpkins are here!

Yes, it is definitely that time of year again, when the nights are getting cooler and the day light is getting shorter. I love the Fall season. I am not trying to rush it... because it does feel like we are just now getting the summer weather that we usually have. Still we have pumpkins on the vine in my back yard (no they don't look like the ones in this picture, these are the pumpkins I made and that I am teaching how to make at the Quilt Shop ).

I spent part of the day today with one of our neighbors...passing out flyers for a Neighborhood BBQ this week. I am so grateful that we took the time to do that, everyone that we talked to seemed excited by it. It seems funny that you can live next door or down the street for years of each other and still not really know what is going on in each others lives. So we are excited to take the time to eat and just talk to each other. We have a lot of new families that have moved in so...we are hoping to have them come and get acquainted too!

I feel it is so important for us to get to know our neighbors, that is who you are living by and it would be a great help to each other if we were friends. We already have a pretty close neighborhood but still many times it is hard to find the time to get together. It does take time and effort to get to know your neighbors but... it has always been worth it for our family. We have been blessed with many wonderful neighbors who became dear friends throughout the years. So I am hoping that you are enjoying this September and will take the time out to get to know a neighbor near you. Who couldn't use another friend?
Speaking of dear friends...Good night!

"We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men."  ~Herman Melville

"While the spirit of neighborliness was important on the frontier because neighbors were so few, it is even more important now because our neighbors are so many."  ~Lady Bird Johnson

Good news and Bad news

Well the Good news is......................this week is finally over!

The Bad news is................. Jeff did get laid off from his job! ( but we will be fine)

So with that (non life threatening) information, I will go to bed and leave you with this neat story about... how our lives and the decisions we make, can effect those around us for good or bad. I want to thank each of you for the good influence you have been in our lives. It has made such a wonderful difference, thank you again for that!

"Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does."  ~William James

Growing Good Corn

There was a Nebraska farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon...
One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.
"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.
"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves.
So it is in other dimensions. Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.
The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.
Unknown Author.~ inspireme.net

 

"He who gives when he is asked has waited too long."  ~Sunshine Magazine

"In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy."  ~Karl Reiland