Catching Up

Off this week for spring break after a lovely Easter weekend with my family.  Eric, Annie and the kids arrived on Good Friday night and stayed through Sunday late morning.  We did our worship on the hill at the Church of the Universal Shepherd, in the most beautiful sanctuary God has ever created.  I loved having my family here, cooking for them and catching up on the news you don't hear on the phone or on-line.   We ate heartily, climbed the hill together, hunted for Easter eggs in the giant upper hay mow, and made Easter baskets for Hannah and Luke.  Luke is becoming more sophisticated at the ripe old age of 11 and pronounced "This is not an Easter basket - this is free candy!"  Maybe next year, if I am lucky enough to have them for Easter again, I will leave it at the Easter Egg Hunt.  Mia and I packed almost 50 eggs with candy and one dollar bills.   We must have done a good job hiding them, climbing ladders and teetering on platforms,  as Hannah and Luke could only find 36.  I found one egg fallen down to the lower level, broken open and the candy consumed by a hungry animal no doubt.  Annie spent Saturday afternoon packing over 50 Maggie's Farm Fiber Pack Samplers for me.  These six ounce bags of colorful fiber are a great buy and do well at the Hamilton Farmer's Market.  I'm still high on having them here.   I don't realize what an "alternative" lifestyle we enjoy here until people come to visit.  I worked very hard on Friday, a little knackered as I had a rough week with my aide being out for three days, but I got the place a little more organized and a little cleaner than it was before they came.  Needless to say there is a serious disruption in the Force, with everything not where it was last week, but I am slowly getting it back together.  The many totes I had designed and cut out are being sewn together, one by one, and I am loving it.     I've been sewing my Bundaflicka totes since, let me see, it must be 1993?  I was teaching knitting and quilting at a fancy summer school the Morris School District sponsors in New Jersey.  My aide, Lisa Palmer, was about to travel to Mexico and said she needed a bag.  I said, let's make you one since we have all this fabric here, and the rest is history. She also said she wanted to be able to secure it, so Bundaflicka buttons were born.  I have a picture somewhere of Lisa with the very*first*Bundaflicka*tote.  Would love to find it but I would also love world peace.  In the meantime I have almost ten totes hanging from the rafters ready to bring to Maryland in one month (oy!)  My goal is forty but thirty is more realistic, with going back to work next week and everything else I have to do.  Annie is coming to Maryland and maybe Hannah too.   Annie volunteered to be the financial officer so Kim and I can concentrate on helping the patrons.  I am happy to have her help.  Now to get there before Jenny the Potter parks her little U-haul full of cups and bowls on the only level spot next to the building where we camp.  Jenny rents a spacious house for her entourage but, for some strange reason, snatched our space next to the building where Kim and I have slept for the four years I've done Maryland.  This should  be the worst problem I encounter!  We love to stay on the grounds and wander around the sheep barns at night when the shepherds are taking care of their animals.   The gates start letting the patrons in at 7 am and this way we are always ready to go.