The Joy of Giving May Baskets

As you know, I am not really giving away a May Basket but this book by Eleanor Burns is the next best thing! My husband drew a winner and the name is Ida. I have sent her an e-mail with the good news. As always, I had my husband draw a second and third name in case I don't hear from the first name drawn. Congratulations, Ida!!
I really enjoyed reading the comments you all left. I have more to share on that in a minute.
First, I said I was going to tell you the changes that will take place in my BOM and here's the scoop.............I have set up a Yahoo group called SeasonsBOM and that is where I will post all the PDF files for each month's block patterns. I am thankful to have blogger where I can blog for free. I looked at other services but they all charge a fee and I don't mind sharing my patterns. However, Blogger doesn't have an option for loading PDF's so I had to find a different venue. I have my Wooly Buddies Yahoo group and it works very well there to post patterns in PDF format. Membership is required, though, but it's free. I will "activate" the group next week on May 8th when I post the patterns for May. As I mentioned in a previous post, the need to go to Iowa for a quilt show and to take care of some things for my mother and just to visit with her, took precedence. I've spent the last few days there and have some fun stuff to share. Today, I was doing some shopping for a birthday gift for my grandson and shopping for a Mother's Day gift. I found perfect items in both cases. It's birthday cake time for my grandson this weekend and then Monday, I'll mail the gift off to my mom (I should have given more thought to this and shopped before I went to see her so I could give her the gift in person!). It's been a busy and enjoyable week.
So, now to the "Joy of Giving May Baskets"...........last year on this day, my grandson, Jacob and my niece, Sue Ellen delivered May Baskets to the residents of the Care Center where my dad had lived. I had planned to share them with all the residents, including my dad, but he took that drastic "turn for the worse" and passed away. He loved sweets, though, so the kids took the baskets to each of the 20 some residents and it cheered them up. A small care center is like a home and my dad spent the last two years of his life there. Everyone was sad that he had passed and any little joy would help bring a smile to the day. It's been a year since he died and the pain and sadness has softened and the tears don't come so easily now. Sometimes it just takes time and then you know everything is still going to be okay.
I'll be back later tonight - or tomorrow (just a bit tired so we shall see) to begin sharing the details of my trip to Iowa. I saw so much gorgeous green grass and so many tulips. Awesome!!
Sandi