Multi-Talented Cousins

Last month I wrote about my cousin, Mumsie (who lives in Nova Scotia), and I showed pictures of a few of her many talents.
Here Mumsie and I are visiting my cousin, Beth, and her husband, Art. Beth makes beautiful quilts and I'll write about her in my next post. Today I want to introduce you to Art.

Art is notorious for his large repertoire of jokes. Frankly, I don't know how he remembers them all, but the jokes just keep coming. For example...

See all these violins? Art made them. He plays them, too. He's a multi-talented man.

Making a violin takes the right kind of wood...

...and skill and lots of time. Art has all three!

Here is the end result. Beautiful isn't it? Art made the guitar, too.
All of Art's instruments have a lifetime guarantee. If you want to know more, you can contact him in Centreville, Nova Scotia at 902-678-7423. Tell him I sent you, OK?

Love,

Homestay Mama

I'm Back!

I had a wonderful and relaxing trip to Nova Scotia in Canada, staying with my cousin, June. Actually she feels more like a mom to me and I call her Mumsie. I also visited with many second cousins that I'll tell you about in later posts.

At Mumsie's home, she made sure I stuck to a regular schedule. We got up early, went for a walk, fed the goldfish...


...had our morning devotions and ate breakfast all before 8:00 a.m. We had our biggest meal of the day (dinner) at 11:45 a.m. and a small supper at 6:00 p.m. By 9:30 p.m. we were heading to bed. With Mumsie's help I didn't cheat on my diet, and actually lost a little weight while I was there--even had to buy a size smaller jeans!

In between meals we went shopping, visited places that held family memories (my grandfather was born in Nova Scotia), and...
...played games of Sequence and Hand and Foot.
The change of pace was therapeutic. It was a total contrast to the life I lead in busy Seattle!

It was a blessing to be totally relaxed. I played the piano a lot, and had time to read three novels! See all those dolls surrounding me? Mumsie made them all. See the picture of Jesus on her wall? She painted that. She is one very talented lady. In future posts I'll show you more of her talents.

But, as soon as my feet touched Seattle soil, I was back into the rat race. I got home at midnight and by 8:00 a.m. I was back at my job.

Never-the-less, I'm thankful for my extended family and the wonderful time I had in Nova Scotia.

Love,

Homestay Mama

I'm Leaving!

But only for 2 weeks! I'll be visiting extended family in Nova Scotia. I won't have access to a computer, so will have to wait and share pictures with you......if I have time........ after I get back on October 14th.

I'm sorry I haven't written in a long while--the blame lies squarely with my work schedule which has ramped up to more than 30 hours per week. I used to read and write blogs in the evening hours after cooking dinner for my Homestay students--after I'd finished cleaning up the kitchen. But now I've had to become a morning person, so no more staying up late! Then on weekends I play the catch-up-game. I can see all you working moms nodding your heads. Yessiree! You play that game too, don't you!

I've also become more involved at church--playing the piano for the morning service once a month, plus playing for the services at a local nursing home two Sundays per month. Then add in weekly Bible Study, Prayer Meeting and the Christmas program practice. Seems like I'm never home anymore!

So much for being retired!

But, I am missing all of you very much! So when I get back, I'll keep trying to find snatches of time when I can read your blogs, make comments and, if I'm lucky, write something in my own blog.

But right now I've got to get back to packing.

Love,

Homestay Mama