Catching up again!

So as usual time flies and Valentine's Day is in the past!  Both my brothers called on that day to catch up and this photo is Ross and I in 10 below weather on our front porch, brother Kent and Karen in front of their church in Hawley, MN and Brian and Sherry in California.

And a Granny friend got me into the dot crafting so of course after I finished a couple bookmarks I ordered (inexpensive) two 12x16s of Paris.  Love this one with the Eiffel tower in the background.  Makes we want a baguette and croissant right now!

This is the one I started first and as of today have more done but in this photo I only had the little white cloud in the upper right corner.  It was terrible news when I heard of the big fire and all the Notre Dame destruction as we had been there many times but there is progress and it will be beautiful again.  In the meantime I will make my own view of it beautifully.

Bookmarks finished and as I did them I thought "boy these are big and will take a long time".  Well now I have two 12x 16 scenes of Paris to finish and Ross is saying he thinks we'll be in Paris before I finish them so I never like to lose a bet and we'll see about that!

This is putting an old pill box to a new use to store the teeny tiny "dots" and the Notre Dame one has 19 different colors so I just ordered a 29 slot container made just for projects like these.  And as I am frugal each "painting" was less than $10 and the slot box was $7 so I should be keeping track of the hours that I spend and how many cents per hour it is costing.

We have always been accustomed to lots of entertaining with 10 or more people at the table really often.  Well, it's been a new era for sure and our dining room table is now "Dee's Craft Table".  Maybe I need to craft a sign that says that right?

So how can it be so exciting to get a shot in the arm.  Ross has had both COVID shots and my #2 will be March 8 and for mine we drove 25 miles as I finally could get in as I am not yet in the 75+ threshold.  

We watched an Egypt documentary on TV last night and one of the things was they showed us the Great Pyramids and how mummies are made after death - like King Tut.  Very interesting and 12 years ago we had the honor to visit Egypt and it was fantastic.  This was a photo from our hotel room balcony and it was a lucky day to have blue sky as with the large population and a jillion cars it was mostly foggy polluted air but we got the luck of the draw!

Two years ago Udaipur India - beef is not eaten there and cows are considered sacred, free to roam and have the right of way.  Very very interesting concept since I was raised on a dairy farm in the prairie of NW Minnesota!

And we learned how to wear a sari, tie a turban, do the "Namaste" and have the turmeric dots on our foreheads.

And it's Lent and my podcast Bible studies on the treadmill and our actual in person church services are telling the whole story.  This is the site of the Crucifixion in Jerusalem and it is a very holy place. 

And with our fantastic Egyptian tour guide we saw so many wonders and actually walked the Stations of the Cross or Via Dolorosa as it is in Jerusalem.  We are thankful and fortunate to have these opportunities in our lives.

So this week I get a short text from daughter Jenny:  "Mom, you wanna come babysit Rooke on her spring break".  Rooke is 13, they are in California so it only took me a few minutes to get things in place and we will be on an oceanfront walk in a condo in Newport Beach CA.  Woohoo - and we will be over two weeks out from our COVID vaccines but will still be very careful.