Grief, Hard Work, and Celebration

This past week has been extremely difficult for us.

First: Matt's beautiful grandmother Eileen Kranz, passed on yesterday afternoon. Not only has she been more dear to Matt than can be expressed in words, and not only did she share a good deal in raising him to be the person he is, but she also was admired and loved by me, her granddaughter by marriage, and by her great-grandson. I will let Matt write more about this when he sees fit, because I think this is his story to tell, or not tell. But I will say that we will miss her on Earth very much, and we will work hard to replace the sadness in our hearts with loving and lasting memories.

Second: My yarn partner abruptly quit our little venture three days before our craft show, so I had to rush to complete more items, get together all of the marketing stuff like tags and business cards, gather supplies and props, print patterns to sell, and other things in only 3 days. I haven't talked said much about this to our friends, because they know her too and I don't want to act inappropriately, but it's a very odd situation and one that I did not provoke. I'm trying to remain tactful about everything, but I can't help but feel angry, even as I'm trying to let go of the anger. We will have to explain to G that he will no longer be able to play with these friends of his, but what do we say? I just wish that whatever she's going through didn't have to involve the kids. Anyway, facing this craft fair as a sole vendor was one of the scariest things I've done in a long, long time. It was also a heck of a lot of work, but I'm extremely proud that I was able to face the challenge and still keep my wits about me. I would not have been able to do this without the nonstop and unquestioning help of my beautiful husband, my mom being at our beck and call and basically taking care of G for 4 days straight, and the support of my amazing friends. But today, I faced my fear, didn't make a fool of myself, and completed my goal. It feels really good.

This one found a really great home!

Skye needs an adjustment. But check out her new awesome 'do!

Joel is better at flying airplanes than Christophers.

The view from my table. Well, more like from above my table...

After the craft fair, we watched Michigan finally win a game!

This evening, we were invited to a Clue dinner party at our neighbors' house, so we dressed as Mrs. Peacock and Mr. Green. If you look closely, you can see I'm slipping a wrench into my purse. I don't think Mr. Green noticed, do you? Also, check out the question mark baked into our dinner. Fran is a terrific chef!

Not bad for a minister and a widow, eh?

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