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!!!!!!!!!!!