It's a Beautiful Day!

The sun is shining. The sky is blue. It's a beautiful day in northern Minnesota. Never mind that it's 11 below - 30 below with the windchill factor. I'm not being sarcastic. It truly is a lovely day, and I'm not just talking from the inside looking out. We went to a breakfast benefit this morning for our niece, her husband and new baby boy. Little Evan, due February 20, made his entrance into the world on December 9. Jenny works at the same place I do (where nearly 2,000 people in our community of less than 10,000 work), and because of our good health care plan, they are not going to have much, if anything, to worry about in the way of medical expenses. Nonetheless, the baby remains in a hospital about 120 miles from here, and undoubtedly, mommy and daddy are incurring expenses for travel, etc. My niece returned a couple of weeks ago, so that she would be able to stay home with Evan for six weeks or so after he's released from the hospital. Thus, the only time she and her husband have with him right now is the weekends. That would have killed me. I am so grateful that I was able to stay home with my kids until they were almost out of school.

Back to Evan, he weighs five pounds and is out of the incubator and in a crib. His paternal grandparents were finally able to hold him yesterday. Having to wait more than a month to hold my first grandchild would have killed me, too. There's always so much for which to be thankful. The health care benefits I mentioned earlier are among things for which to be grateful. They're also a big part of the reason I get up and go to work when I'd rather be a stay-at-home mom/grandma again. My insurance is free as part of my compensation package, and I pay $27 every other week for my husband's insurance. We have no deductible and a $7 co-pay for prescriptions. I'm relatively certain I could find plenty of freelance work were I to stay home. It's those darned benefits that are nearly impossible to walk away from.

That was a lot of information for folks who most likely stopped by to see a couple of cards! However, anyone who stops by regularly realizes that they have to put up with a little jabber once in a while. I came across the Garden of Life set this morning when I was putting stamp sets away. This is another set that I've had for quite some time and haven't worked with much. Today's cards were made with scraps that were waiting to be put away, too. The colors are Baby Pink, Amethyst, Blush,Hollyhock, Sweet Leaf, and White Daisy. I random stamped one 4-1/4 by 5-1/2 inch piece of cardstock, cut it into a couple of pieces, and turned it into two cards. While I marvel at the 10 (or more) for 1 sets of cards made from a single random stamped piece of cardstock, I discovered upon trying it that it's not for me. I'm more of a design-as-you-go girl. With that, I'm going to spread the photos that I'm going to scrapbook out on the floor in front of the TV and bask in the bright light streaming through the window. Later!