Life Update And A Thank You

 Hey guys.  Just dropping in to say 'hello'.

This past week has been a doozy.  The only thing I have done craft wise is make 4 quick and easy baby hats.  They are on their way to the NICU my niece works at in Las Vegas.

Here is a quick run down of my week.

Monday - Called the vet to make Enrique an appointment for anal gland expression.  Put MANY blankets away that had been removed from their cedar chest (Josie needed the chest)  so I could make the bed they were laying on.  Cleaned the guest bathroom's bathtub.  Washed two loads of laundry. Helped with Funeral arrangements.

Tuesday - Got Enrique to the vet and to the groomers (groomer for nail trim).  Took the evening off and went to a baseball game with Jay and Tiffany. (we won!)

Wednesday - Finally folded all the laundry I had done and put it away.  Had lunch with Josh's best friend along with Stacie and Josie.  Jay and Tiff came by for a visit to make sure we were doing ok.

Thursday - Spend 7 hours shopping for appropriate clothing for my son, Josh's, funeral. Yes, I know I go to Mass weekly, but we attend the Saturday evening Mass and it is a bit more 'relaxed' than Sunday Mass.  I did find what I was looking for at Dillard's and it was 75% off!  I got my steps in for the day. My feet and legs were done by the time I got home.

Friday - Relatives started arriving. So did the worse rain storm in over 7 years came.  Our airport actually shut down for over 5 hours because of the severity.  We saw horizontal rain coming down.  Our home received over 2 inches of rain in less than 2 hours.  Flash flooding was every where and there was loss of life as well as a lot of property damage.  Two of our guests were not able to come into town because of flight cancelations.  Two other parties were caught in this state wide storm while driving in for the funeral.  It was a very nerve wracking time for me.  Everyone arrived safely thought.  Thank God!

Saturday - We had the Funeral Mass.  There were around 200 people there!  Josh had touched so many people.  The love.............I can not even describe that feeling.  After the Mass about 100 of us headed to his favorite sports restaurant.  Joe and I finally headed home around 5pm.  I was emotionally spent, my eyes were swollen from crying yet my heart was full with seeing how many lives Josh had touched.

Sunday - For some reason I thought it would be an excellent idea to host an open house for family and very close friends.  Our son, Jay, smoked an 16 pound brisket, I made a 7.5 pound pork loin into green chili, our friends Jenny and Tim brought fruit, cheese and cookies, our daughter made Spanish rice, Joe's sister brought potato and macaroni salads.  By the time it was over, everything, other than the green chili were GONE!  We had 25 people in my humble abode.  I ran out of places for people to sit!  Yet, it was fantastic.  We opened the doors at noon and the last person left around 7pm.  By the time Joe and I got it all cleaned up and the house put back together it was 9pm.  Exhausted again but, my heart was once again filled with all the love poured out to us.

Monday - Josh was interred at our Catholic Cemetery.  About a dozen of us came to the service for the interment.  Afterwards, Joe and I took everyone out for a lunch at our favorite hangout.  By 3pm everyone had left.  Joe and I were finally alone for the first time in 4 days.  Neither of us were up to doing anything other than sitting and watching TV for the evening.

Today I am going to catch up on laundry,  The baskets are over flowing!  I have thank you cards to write also.  There will be some sourdough baking happening as my sourdough starter has been in its little fridge for several weeks and needs a bit of love.  I have plants to figure out where to put them so they will live.  There is green chili that needs to be frozen for future use.A busy day to keep my mind busy.

I do believe I am going to take a bit of a break from blogging in YOP for a while.  The last 2 years have taken a toll on me and I need some time to find me again.  I also want to be 100% available to my immediate family.  We are all suffering in this loss and need each other as we navigate our 'new' normal.

A huge thank you to all of you who have offered prayers and messages of encouragement. This crafting/blogging community is awesome.  I offer much love back to all of you too.

Until Next Time.....................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!! Now go and hug someone near and dear to you!

WEEK 13

 

Here it is, time for another weekly update.  I am surprised I got as much crafting done as I did.  It was a very hectic week preparing for Josh's upcoming Memorial Mass.  We thought we had everything 'done' but discovered we had only scratched the surface of what we needed to do.  So, let's look at what happened in the craft department.

KNITTING

The socks did get a bit of love this week.

I didn't say it was a lot of love LOL.  That is because I cast on a new project.

I have named this pattern 'Grammies Blanket".  Josh's MIL does this pattern for all her baby blankets.  She gave me her instructions and I customized it to be made with worsted yarn and for it to be a lapghan for our cancer ministry.  It is a very simple pattern.

I will admit, I have had a bit of an issue concentrating this week.  There was one point on this I knit and tinked back 2 rows multiple times.  Last night I found another 2 row mistake and had to tink back 2 rows to fix that one too.  Yet, this is still a very comforting project at the moment and gets 90% of my knitting attention.

READING

Well, if I am having a hard time concentrating on knitting, you know there is no way I could read and comprehend anything.  So, I returned 'The Secret War of Julia Child'.  That book will get borrowed again at a later date as it was quite fascinating.  There is no book on my kindle at the moment.  I am hoping to be back to reading again very soon.

DIAMOND ART

After completing the nativity scene, I had gotten another DA put together to work on.  After Josh passed, I realized I had a DA in my 'travel' bag that had been started the week he left us.  Since I was no longer going to be traveling to his house each week, I decided I would finish that one before any others.

I am in love with the colors on this one.  One of the guest rooms in my house is done in an English Cottage theme.  This will be perfect to hang in there along with other similar type of artwork.

I found this clip this morning on Facebook.  It gave me pause and then made me proud.

Nothing else got worked on this week.  This coming week will probably see even less craftwork being done.  We have friends and family arriving starting on Tuesday and most are staying until Monday.  This will keep us pretty busy.  Once everyone leaves, I am hoping to get back to some sibilance of normal.  The memorial mass is on Saturday and the interment will be at a later date and be private for the family.

My friend, Rebecca, sent me this photo this week.  We were facilitating a retreat at church.  I was the chef and she was the leader.  Josh decided it would be fun to photo bomb us.  He was always the jokester.  It made my heart happy to see this.

To make your hearts happy, I leave you with this weekly chuckle:

Until Next Time....................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 12

 

A day late but at least I got this up.

The socks have had the heel done and I am now on the foot for both socks.  They are getting there, slowly, but getting there.

The Nativity scene is completed and ready to be framed, once I find one that is the correct size.  A new diamond art project has been started but no photo yet.

The best 'WIP' I ever made is completed.  Josh passed away last night at the age of 51.  He was the child that made me a mother.  His cancer battle was brave and he fought like hell to get more time to spend with his family.   We were blessed to have the almost 2 years we did had with him, after his diagnosis.  His dieing was quick.  He stopped eating and drinking Friday evening, Saturday he was unresponsive and by Sunday night he was gone.  He was able to pass at home, which had been his wish.  We had all taken our turns in saying goodbye in the last 24 hours of his life.  We have a very strong faith and truly believe he is now in the loving hands of Jesus Christ.  His humor is going to be sorely missed.  He had the best 'dad' jokes.  His awesome hugs were legend.  But his laugh..........a deep belly laugh was his calling card.  Mom loves you son!

Thanks to all of you who have sent prayers and thoughts our way for the past two years. 

But, I can not close without lightening the mood a bit.

Until Next Time...............Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 10

 

I keep thinking the last of our HOT weather is on the way out of here.  We had several days below 100F which gave me some false hope.  I don't know why I keep thinking summer is almost over here.  After living here for almost 40 years you would think I would realize summer doesn't end here until after Halloween. *sigh*  But, I will take any day under 100F and rejoice.

Another productive week for me!

KNITTING

Both of Sock #1 have been completed.

As promised, both of sock #2 has been cast on.  

CROCHET

Move along to next category

CROSS STITCH

Oops, not this category

DIAMOND ART

Still working on this nativity scene.  The bottom section of the last section is completed.  The top section is about 1/4 of the way done.  I will be super happy when this is done.  I have so many more to work on.

I also started another one that travels with me.  I will take a photo of it next week.  I only work on it when I am at Josh's house.

LEGO

Still stalled

PUZZLE

This is slow going.  I have been tempted to just take it and put it back into the box.  But, I am no quitter.  I only allow myself 1 hour a day on this.  Otherwise, I get really frustrated.

SEWING

It will happen this week.  Promise!

READING

I started and finished another book.  "Snow on the Tulips".  It was very good.  Takes place during WWII in the Netherlands.  I am now reading 'Hidden Blessings'.  So far, it has been good.  I am about half way through it.

ACQUISITIONS

Here is my planner/journal for 2026.  The past several years I have used the Hobonichi Techno Weeks planner for my day to day planning and then another lined book for my daily journal.  I am not sure this book will work for both yet.  I do like the layout for the weekly planning as well as yearly, monthly and many other aspects of it.  I got it off Amazon.  I was going to get another Hobonichi until I saw how much they had gone up in price this year.  Even if I need to purchase another book to journal my daily thoughts, it will be cheaper than getting the Hobonichi.  Time will tell.  This planner is undated which will be something new for me to fill in.  I have always stayed away from undated.  Probably because it seems like a lot of work to date everything and get it set up.  If I do it one month at a time, it shouldn't be so overwhelming.  

LIFE

Everything is status quo.  Josh remains the same as last week.  Our schedule has started to change thanks to hubby's classes he attends and ones he teaches.  This gives me a bit more down time.

Today we went to our youngest son's home for the first Sunday of NFL football.  I made Belgium waffles and bacon for breakfast.  They made pulled pork for lunch.  It was a nice day spent together.

The chuckle this week is soooo true.  The only difference for me is....when I am cooking in the kitchen, Enrique is ALWAYS on my heels.  I wish I had thought of doing this HEEHEE

Until Next Time..................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 9

 

Another week, another update.  I was much more productive craft-wise this week.  Have a look.

KNITTING

Hubby's RCR socks got a bit of attention.  I still have 40 rows before I start the toe.  I am in no rush.  He might be though.  He wore the heel out in another pair of socks this past week.  If the man would stop walking around in only his socks, they might not die.  But then, they were several years old.

Guess who's socks got the most attention this week?  Yup, mine!  I am about 10 rows away from starting the toe.  My goal is to have this sock completed today and to cast on the next one immediately.  

CROCHET

*sigh* nothing here

CROSS STITCH

again nothing

DIAMOND ART

The 'Faith' diamond art is completed.  This is only 12"x12" so not all that big.  It was the perfect piece to travel with me on my 'Josh watching' days.

I continue to work on my nativity scene at home.

This is completed up to the blue line.

This is all I have left to complete.  You can see I have made a bit of progress on it.  I really look forward to getting this one completed.

LEGO

still on hold

Puzzle

Bits and pieces have been done on this one.  Actually, most of the easy parts are done.  Now to tackle the much harder areas.  

SEWING

Nothing this week, but stay tuned.  I have been informed my services are going to be needed this coming week.

BOOKS

I finished 'The Lies We Leave Behind'.  A very good book but not the ending I was hoping for.  But, I am a hopeless romantic.

BAKING

Last week I bragged about my active sourdough starter.  This means I needed to use it.  Bread is all fine and good but, my house is warm and the bread only lasts about 3 days and then begins to mold.  So, I decided to use it for something else.

Lemon Blueberry scones.  They are so wonderful.  Perfect for breakfast.  These are made with discard so I do not need to worry about feeding or timing for the peak rise of the starter.  Infact, most of my SD items I make are made with discard or unfed starter.  Even my bread!

LIFE

Things are pretty much the same here.  Josh has good days and not such great days.  We did get hospice to switch him from oxycodone to morphine.  This has really helped with his delusions and hallucinations.  I got to thinking.....I am not able to take hydrocodone or codeine as they both give me horrible hallucinations.  If I have the issue, maybe he does too.  Sure enough!  So glad we finally got that taken care of.  He is getting weaker in his legs.  We are now making him use his walker and if we go out, he is in a wheelchair.  

Stacie's parents have returned from Seattle.  They will be a BIG help for Stacie and Josh.  Her mom pitches in with all the household chores and her dad fixes anything that needs attending too.  Plus, her dad will sit and watch TV with Josh during the day and keep him entertained.  This should also help ease up our schedules a bit too.  When you hear the phrase "it takes a village", think of us.  There is no way Stacie and Josie could do this all on their own.

Joe and I are doing well.  Our schedules will be getting a bit busier.  He is teaching a weekly Bible study class starting in September as well as teaching Catechism class once a month.  He also is taking a weekly class online related to our Faith.  This gives me lots of time to work on all my projects.  Not to mention, I get to watch all those chick flicks he has no interest in.

We did do something different this week.  Well, kind of different.  Every Tuesday, our local sports bar and grill has 2 for 1 burgers.  This has become our weekly date night.  When we go we play Buzz Time trivia on their electronic system.  Well, Buzz Time has been down for a couple of weeks.  This week when we went, I took our Cribbage board with us.  We had so much fun. It had been almost 20 years since we had played.  

Here is your chuckle for the week.....................................

Until Next Time...........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 8

The most non-productive week ever!  I worked on all my projects but it doesn't seem I made much progress.

KNITTING

Added 10 rows to each sock.  Not photo worthy

PUZZLE

Still struggling with this.  I do manage to get a few pieces in each day.  Maybe next week it will show progress that is photo worthy.

DIAMOND ART

I worked on both of my pieces.  The 'Faith' piece has a bit more color added to it but not worth a photo op yet.  The Nativity is still on the same section.  I am hoping to get that section completed this week so the last section can be moved onto the light board.  Not photo worthy either.

CROCHET

Nada

SEWING

I pinned a pair of pants for hemming.  Nothing too exciting

READING

Two books were finished this week.

    Booked for Christmas

    Bones and Roses

Hmmm, maybe this is why nothing else really got much attention.

CROSS STITCH

Nada

LEGO

Nada

This week was the week I resurrected my sourdough starter and got it going again.  I have had it in the fridge for at least 2 months.  Once I took it out and got to feeding it again, I had more starter than ever.  I have made 2 batches of crackers and 2 loaves of bread.  My starter (Dotty) is back in the fridge but will be making her appearance again this week for another loaf of bread as well as scones.

LIFE

Things are the same with Josh.  He is in 'fantasy land' a bit more and sleeps off and on throughout the day.  We now have a closer eye on him as he tried to walk out the front door last week and had no idea where he was.  He also tried to go up the stairs 'to his bedroom'.  The Master bedroom has been moved to the main floor for several months now.  

Hubby and I went to our farmers market today and got a 30 pound bag of Hatch green chili.  It was roasted for us (we watched) and then we took it and bagged it.  Jay and Tiff went with us and we split the chilis between us.  We are set for the next year or two now.  This was the first time we had been to this farmers market.  We were super impressed with the prices and freshness of all their produce. They also carried many locally made items like honey and lemonade. We will be going back there.  I would rather give my business to a local farmer than the chain grocery store.

Incase you are wondering...............it is still HOT here.  We are hoping to have a few days below 100 this coming week.  Might even get a bit of rain.  We got some sprinkles this past week but it was actually just sprinkles.  The wind had a heyday here though.  Many trees were uprooted in our area.  We did not sustain any damage at our place.

I can not leave without giving you a little chuckle.

Until Next Time..............................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 7

 

I was busy this week with my projects.  Nothing got completed, other than books.  Progress was made on all of them.  Wanna see?

Good!  Here we go...............................

KNITTING

Both of the RCR socks got about 20 rows added to them.  I consider these my slow but steady project.  Neither hubby or I are in dire need of socks at the moment.  Therefore, these can take their time getting finished and sock #2 being done.  Good for TV viewing or for take along projects.

DIAMOND ART

A new section of the LARGE project has been started.  I am trying to limit myself to an hour a day max to work on this.  Otherwise, I will completely get absorbed and nothing else in my house will get accomplished.  (ie: making dinner, laundry, feeding Enrique etc.)

I did start a new Diamond Art that travels with me to Josh's house.  

This will be the finished product.  I may gift this one to a dear friend.  She is a woman of great faith and inspires me every time I have a conversation with her.

CROCHET

 

Move along

SEWING

Keep going

CROSS STITCH

Nothing here either

LEGO

Nope

PUZZLE

YES!  I finally got one out and started on it.

I am not very far along with it.  There is an excellent reason for that.  Here is the box it came in.

Inside I find this piece of paper.

I called my friend, who I got the puzzle from, and questioned her.  Seems, they ordered this from Amazon and while putting it together realized the puzzle in the box was not what they were working on.  She was kind enough to go online and find a photo of what they actually were making and put it in the box for the next unknowing person to find and use to help with the puzzle.  That photo is only about half a page big so details are a bit hard to see in it.  I will persevere.

READING

This has been my strong suit this week. I finished 'Home for Christmas'.  Next up was one of my 'on hold' books..........The Apothecary's Poison.  That also was completed and now I am reading 'Booked for Christmas'.  I should finish that one either today or tomorrow.  I do believe there is a third book in the Christmas series.  So, until my other books that are on hold show up, I will continue with that series.

SOMETHING NEW BUT OLD

Those of you that have followed me for sometime know I started working with sourdough a few years back.  I have neglected it for a few months now.  Yesterday, I pulled my starter out of its little fridge and decided to get it active again.  I have 5 days in a row that I normally do not have any out of the home activities.  Hence, there is no reason I can not get back into my sourdough baking and maintain an active healthy starter at all times.  Fingers crossed!

LIFE

I only spent one day this week with Josh.  So, lots of home chores got taken care of.  For starters, a load of donations got dropped off.  I also gave back books I had borrowed from Josie some time ago.  I organized all my diamond art projects.  All the laundry was done.  Bread was made.  Menus were completed as was grocery shopping.  Enrique's dog food was cooked and bagged and frozen.  But the best thing ever..................We finally got our solar back on!  We had been without solar power for 11 days.  And naturally, it was the hottest 11 days of our entire year (118F 48C).  My poor electric bill is going to be HUGE!  But, now we are back on solar and it is wonderful to see my electric usage charge being almost nil.  HAPPY DANCE!

This coming week, we have 2 days we will be with Josh.  He is about the same as last week.  His memory timeline is getting worse and delusions are more frequent.  He even knows his brain is not functioning correctly and it really upsets him that he can not control it.  But, we usually manage to get it turned around and make some jokes about it and then he feels better.

We have some horrible mountain forest fires happening in our state right now.  Depending on how the wind blows, we can get some of the smoke and smell here in the valley.  This was taken on Wednesday night when I took Enrique out for his bedtime potty break.  The minute I opened the door, I could smell the smoke that was coming from 100 miles away.

The pink glow is the smoke hiding the moon.  It was so nasty outside.  My friend, with asthma, has had to stay indoors for several days because of our horrible air quality here.  Thankfully, Thursday night, we finally got some rain to help cleanse the air.  The last few days we have had some good breezes too which is blowing the crud out of here.  Oh the joys of big city life!

I do have a little chuckle for you today.............................

Until Next Time......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 6

 

Hey there!  Good to have you back again.  Hope your week went well for you.  Mine was productive as well as enjoyable.  I have a finished item to show this week.

KNITTING

Hubby's RCR socks are completed and in his drawer.  I was so inspired by the completion of these I decided to cast on more RCR socks.  Yes, that is plural!

These are for hubby since they are wool.  Once again, the yarn is from Leading Men Fibers.

These are for ME!  It is Diversity Yarn.  I love this yarn for the stretch it has and yet never looses its shape.  Wears quite well too.  Hubby has socks in this yarn that are MANY years old and still look brand new.  My only complaint is all their yarn is self striping.  I would love to have a solid or variegated color in this yarn to play with.

DIAMOND ART

I only worked on my Diamond are 3 days this past week.  I was very focused on sock knitting.  Yet, I did get the section I was working on completed and started a new section last night.

Here is the current section I am working on.  The star is the halfway point for this project.

The left side is what I completed the middle of the week.  My biggest problem with working on this is, once I start I have a hard time stopping.  I worked on it 5 hours yesterday.  Time just slips away when working on it.

READING

The book I was reading last week got returned as I was correct and had seen the Hallmark Movie of it.  I did check out another book.  'Home for Christmas in July'.  I am thoroughly enjoying this little mystery/romance.  Naturally, as soon as I got started reading this book one of my 'on hold' books became available.  I had to put that book back on hold as I am not good at reading 2 books at the same time.  

Crochet

Not yet

Puzzles

I finally got all my boxes to Goodwill so my dining room table is now available to set a puzzle up on it.

Sewing

Keep on moving to the next category

Cross Stitch

Nope, nothing here either

Lego

Nothing new built and the Notre Dame build is still at a stand still.

I was informed that putting an 's' on the end of Lego is a big No-No.  Sorry.  I did not mean to cause any upset in Denmark.  Forgive us Americans.  We mean no offense.  

Life

Pretty normal week here.  I spent 1.5 days with Josh this week.  We saw a large change this week in his delusions, paranoia and anxiety.  This tells us his cancer is continuing to wreck havoc in his brain.  His short term memory has decreased to maybe about 2-5 minutes and his long term is laced with fiction along with facts.  It can make for some very interesting stories!

As you probably remember, Hubby and I have been getting up very early every Saturday, for several years, to gather food from local grocers to take to our church's food bank.  This week, we decided this will be the last month of us participating in this worthy endeavor.  My RA is preventing me from any heavy lifting and hubby is starting to have issues with lifting heavy items too.  We have enjoyed our time doing this but at some point you have to know your limitations. 

Here is your chuckle for the week.......................

Until Next Time.........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!