My friend Megan

Megan Painter and I work at The Reclamation Project together, but she's also started a business of her own, Great Heights Furniture. She makes beautiful, functional pieces out of reclaimed wood. 

It's so cold here that we wear our coats all the time now. Just kidding.

 Her work is on display at Crestwoods Frame Shop and Gallery, in Roanoke for the next month.

bench

Anna and I drove over for the opening of the show on Saturday. Roanoke is only fifteen minutes down the road.

headboard

Some of it looks a lot like the kind of woodwork that my dad did. Megan knew about my dad's work before I met her.

coat hooks

I especially love the knife blocks.

magnetic knife blocks

Here's Anna trying out the fake bed. She brought her stuffed kitty along.

Anna and headboard

I got a picture of Megan and her young hip friends.

Megan and her hip friends

 And Anna chatted with Megan's mom while I bought a birthday card.

Anna chatting with Megan's hip mom

The gallery is a beautiful space and other work from local artists is on display as well. It's well worth a visit.

Making Friends

Thursday, I was worried. Many, many details have fallen into place with school and Anna's adjustment. But as I left her in line, she was standing alone, forlorn, and lagged behind the group as her class went up the steps.

I am learning to advocate for her, but I can't make friends for her. 

When I picked her up in the afternoon, she was cheerful and said that she had a new friend. Now we have a play date for Wednesday at her new friend's house.

I love quick answers to desperate prayers.

Also, on the friend front, Anna decided that she wanted to make friends with an older lady down the hall who has dogs. I was a little hesitant about this. We have always said hello to this lady and helped her out years ago when her toilet was flooding, but showing up with my daughter at her door felt a little too forward to me.

So, I put Anna off for a day and said we needed to at least make cookies to bring with us. Thursday I made chocolate chip cookies, and we took a plate of them over and rang the doorbell. No response and some tears. We tried again later (with the warning that we would only try if Anna would not get too upset if she wasn't there), and figured that she was probably out walking the dogs. Finally, on our third try, she was back. We offered our cookies and friendship; we came in and chatted.

It turns out that after babysitting her great grandson during the week for the last few years,  he started school this year, so she has been feeling a little lonely. She said Anna could visit anytime and was extremely happy with the kids' offer to accompany her walking the dogs although she warned that they wouldn't accept anyone else holding the leash.

So, Anna spent a good deal of time with our neighbor yesterday afternoon and helped walk her dogs in the evening. And the smaller of the two dogs obeyed perfectly with Anna taking the leash. Our neighbor was pleased to have companionship (some plans to be with family had fallen through), and Anna was thrilled to hang out with the dogs, watch tv, and make a new friend.