Midweek

I used to be a morning person.  Being married to the worlds biggest night owl has slowly changed me into a mid morning person.  Retirement has encouraged that behavior even more.  Ten in the morning is my 'get to it' time now a days.  I do have morning routines, though.

This is my cuppa and my journal.  Each morning I make either coffee or tea and put it in this cup.  I then sit down with my journal and go over my 'to do' list and also journal my thoughts from the day before.  This gets me pretty well centered for the day.

That travel mug is used each day and is the bomb!  I despise lukewarm morning beverages.  My Contigo Travel mug keeps my beverages hot for HOURS!  Yesterday I actually timed it and my coffee was toasty warm for 3 hours!  Just a little side note......I also have refrigerated creamer in my tea and coffee.  So, for it to stay really warm for that long is something.  This summer I will try cold drinks in it to see how it works with them too.  Stay tuned.......summer starts here in about 2 months.

Last night I got bored with my sock.  So I decided to start a crocheted prayer shawl.  I started a knitted one some time ago but feel knitted shawls take way too long.  So it is going to be frogged and I will be crocheting that yarn into this:

Mrs Hughes' Faroese Adventure Shawl.  It is the first time I have used a crochet charted pattern and am loving it.  It is a fairly easy crochet pattern as long as you keep your count straight.  I plan on going back to the Prayer Shawl Ministry group this week and will take this along to work on.  I have not been for over a month and really miss being with my lady friends.

My rocking chairs came in yesterday.  Assembly will happen today.  I am very excited to get them done and my porch ready for some outdoor crafting time.  

My kitchen got the cleaning I talked about in Sunday's post.  The fridge got torn apart and scrubbed down.  All the spices were taken out of the cabinets and only the ones we use were returned to the cabinets.  The counter tops were scrubbed and polished (granite shines so nice when all cleaned up.  Cabinets and drawers were culled and cleaned.  Yesterday I cleaned out our pantry........what a disaster that thing was.  I now have all my baking 'stuff' on one shelf so I no longer have to dig and move everything when I want to make cookies or bread or brownies or any other of our 'healthier' snacks.  This made me so happy, I looked like this all night.

No, that is not one of my dogs.  But speaking of my dogs:

They love their blankets. Usually one of them is buried inside the blankets.  Guess it was too early for that much effort this morning.

I am off to try and assemble a couple of rocking chairs.  Hubby needs to get his allergy shots today so it will give me time to read instructions (Yes, I do read them).  I have the power tools charged and ready to go.

Until next time.........Happy Crafting!

WEEK 30 YEAR VII

Crafting has happened this week.  I have a FO to show and it is not my sock!

 A lovely market bag for me!  I went to the store this week and realized all our shopping bags were in the hubby's car.  I started this Monday night and completed it 
Saturday afternoon.  I had made one of these 2 years ago but gave that one I made away.  I made the handle shorter than written as it stretches a bit.  It may not look like it holds much but...........it is almost 12 inches in diameter and then has some stretch too.  It is made with #3 fashion thread and a size G hook.  I got the pattern off ravelry but do not remember which one it is.  I did not print out the title page of the pattern.  This will be perfect for the veggie/fruit market.  I will be making more of these but will be looking for different shapes. (rectangular or squarish or even oval)

 I did work a bit on my second sock.

The progress keeper shows where I was last Sunday.  I will be working on this today once I complete my to do list.  There is a football game on at 4:40 this afternoon I am quite interested in watching.  This sock is perfect TV crafting.

I had told you I was looking for rocking chairs for my front porch.  I found them!



I got this one and one just like it in olive green.  They will be arriving on Tuesday and I am as excited as a kid on Christmas.  I have been looking for over a year for seating for my front porch.  It is not a common thing to see people here in Arizona sitting out front, yet several of our neighbors have started sitting out front on the nicer weathered days.  (Most new houses do not have front porches) This will be perfect for me to sit out and knit/crochet in the mornings when it is cooler outside.  I have never enjoyed sitting in our backyard and crafting.  Our house faces north so, it is nice and cool there until around July.  I cools back off again, around the middle of September.

Today will see me tearing apart my kitchen and doing a deep cleaning in there.  With all the company we have had, it has really taken a hit on sticky door/drawer pulls, finger prints on all surfaces, crumbs falling into drawers and items just stuck willy nilly where there was room for them.  It is driving me nuts.  My kitchen is my sanctuary where I love to cook and bake for my family.  If it is in disarray so am I.  

I am going to close this and ask you to send some prayers for my BFF, Beth.  She lost her father this morning.  This is her first parental loss and she is a lot of heartache.  Like most of us females, she was a daddy's girl.  My heart breaks for her.  Having suffered a parental loss in the past month, I can empathize quite a bit with her.

Until next time............Happy Crafting!!!!!!

Remember When?

 Do y'all remember when I posted everyday in November?  How I enjoyed doing that.  I don't now why I don't post more often now.  It's not like nothing happens around here on a daily basis.  Today, I decided to do a bit of blogging just so Sunday's post wouldn't be so involved with my daily life.

Monday saw me trying to play a bit of catch up on daily life.  I did 2 loads of laundry, made out a menu for the week, went grocery shopping and cleaned the fridge.  It was a greatly productive day for me.  It felt good to be doing normal things again.

Tuesday,  hubby and I spent 4 hours with his mom at the nursing facility talking to elder advisers, social workers and her therapists. She is improving slowly.  She will never be independent again though.  We have a lot of research to do on her behalf as well as getting an attorney to help us.  She has no will or power of attorneys assigned and she can no longer make decisions on her own behalf.   It is quite a mess.  Today also saw me receiving my mom's death certificates.......finally.

Wednesday I had my blood work done for my liver functions.  They are so close to normal!!!  I mean super close....less than 10 points close to normal.  To let you know how bad it was.....I was over 1000 points above normal.  They were sure I was in the throws of liver failure when, all that happened was, my Arthritis medicine built up and effected my liver.  I am no longer taking that medicine and it has stopped the issue.  Now we are looking into other medicines for my Arthritis.

Wednesday also saw me loosing my cool when I noticed my mom's death certificate was incorrect.  It had me listed as her MOTHER!!!!  So now I have to wait for an addendum to be filed and the certificate to be reprinted before I can send it anywhere.  This is the second boo boo made by the mortuary.  Needless to say, I am or recommending them to anyone at this point.

Wednesday evening we had a lovely dinner with friends from Las Vegas.  They are really more like family than friends.  It was so much fun to be able to just laugh and talk for several hours.

Thursday I took the last puzzle my mom and I did together and paid to have it framed professionally.  After that I made a quick trip to WinCo and Costco for a few essentials and then came home to do some much needed house work.  

Today, hubby and I are going through paperwork that has been scattered all over from our frantic searches over the past month.  Having 2 family members going through traumatic times together is not fun.  We are surviving and even are managing to keep things pretty normal now.  I am back to cooking dinners for us.  Hubby is back to cleaning house and me back do routine laundry.  Our dogs are fed and loved on daily and we even have time to watch our TV shows we record.  

Life as we knew it 3 months ago will never come back.  We are learning to live with our new normal though.  So you see.......you can teach an old dog new tricks.

My goal for the next week is.......................find a rocking chair for my front porch.  I want one that will hold our blistering heat and fine dirt that is on everything all the time.  I would love to sit out front during the day and work on my crafts while watching the little devils angels walk to and from school.  Maybe I can figure out which brat child is the one throwing rocks at my dogs and in our pool.  

I am off to get ready for the day.

Until next time............happy crafting!!!!!!

Week 29 and Life in General

 

I have lots of pictures to post as well as stories to go with each one.  So if you are in a hurry, you might want to come back when you have some time.  Otherwise, grab your favorite beverage and a snack and let's get to it.

First up:

I completed sock one of the Hermione Socks.  This is such a great pattern to work when under a bit of stress.  Easy to memorize and if you make a mistake, it seldom shows.  

Sock 2 got started Thursday night but didn't see much love until yesterday.  It has been just a bit busy around here.

That is it for crafting.  Next will be about my life in week 29 of Year 7.

As you know, MIL (mother in law) had a stroke on New Year's Eve.  She finally got released from the hospital on the 11th and was placed in a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation.  So far she has tried to get out of bed by herself, twice, which resulted in falls. (She is unable to stand or walk at this time.)  Luckily, she has a thick foam mat by her bed and is only 6 inches off the ground.  Last night, she was by the nursing station because of irritability, and fell out of her wheelchair and had to go to the Emergency Room for CT scans. (She is fine)  According to new Federal Guidelines, facilities can no longer use rails on beds or ties to help keep people from falling out of their chairs.  That is considered restraining the patient.  They can use it in a hospital but not a nursing facility.  I wonder how long before a law suit is brought to the federal government because of serious injury or death from this brand new ruling?  So, I have about 4 hours of sleep under my belt and a full day ahead of me.  

We have had some fun this week though.

This was dinner time one night this week.  Looks like a feeding frenzy in my kitchen.  Hubby is in the blue shirt, Brother in Law in the hat, Sister in Law facing the camera and the other two are my nieces from the dude in the hat.

See those pink roses?  Son in Law brought them over on Monday.  They lasted until this morning.  They were gorgeous though.  I am now flowerless for the first time in 3 weeks.

This is the crew out to dinner one night.  We had such a great time talking and laughing.  It really helped with all the negativity that was going on.

I don't normally like any photos of myself, but SIL managed to get a pretty good shot of my hubby and I.  This man has been my rock these past weeks.  

I was finally able to bring my mom home yesterday.  I still don't have any death certificates.  Hopefully they will be ready next week.  The urn will remain on my mantle until around Easter.  Then we will travel back to Kansas to have her service and internment.  I am in love with this urn.  It is so my mom.  Just getting her ashes has helped me so much.  I am much calmer now.  Thinking of her in cold storage for 2 weeks was making me nuts.  She hated the cold.  I know she could not feel it, but it still bothered me.  The Medical Examiners office even called me to apologize about the length of time it took them to review her medical records.  They did change her cause of death though.  It was complications from her pelvic fractures.  Most probably some type of embolism (Per the private conversation with the Medical Examiner)

Journaling has been my saving grace these past two weeks.  I keep my to do list in here as well as writing about my feelings.  I love checking off all the things I accomplish each day.  If they are not competed, it goes on the next day.  It is just a super simple layout, but works so well for me.  I set it up each night before bed so I don't have to think too hard in the morning.  My SIL has a journal too and carries it everywhere with her.  She loved my reading journal and thinks she might start multiple journals for different areas of her life too.

The internal Christmas decorations came down on Wednesday.  I am never that late getting them put away.  Our tradition is to take them down on Epiphany (January 6).  Hubby pulled the yard art that day too but........................we still have lights out front (even though they are not coming on anymore).  Our goal is to get them put away this week.  

I get my blood work done this week again.  Praying my liver functions are back to normal so I can get back on my anti-inflammatories.  They were not the drug that messed up my liver functions but I had to stay off everything to give the liver time to regenerate.  RA is not a fun thing to deal with when you are not allowed any medicines to help with the pain or progression of the disease.  I have been drug free since the first of December.  (That sounded weird LOL)  With all that has happened in the past 6 weeks, I am lucky I haven't been totally knocked out of daily living.  There has not been any adult beverages during this time period either.  My hubby says I come from strong stock and that's why I don't let my RA get the best of me.  (See?  He is my rock)

That covers my life this past week.  Next week will see me working on a sock and visiting my MIL a few times.  We are hoping they can get her strong enough to transfer her back to Nevada in a couple of weeks.  We already know she will never be independent again.  She is getting an hour of therapy 5 times a week.  She really tries hard to do all they ask.  Her upper body is doing pretty good but the right leg has a mind of its own.   She is still on pureed food also and that will need to change before she can get to the next level of living arrangements.  Her speech is getting better but still needs some work.  I can now understand her about 40% of the time.  She is 90 and 1/2 years old.  (Seems when you hit 90 the half years become as important as they were when you were a child LOL.)  We ave nick named her Spark Plug.  Sparky for short.  She is bound and determined she is going to escape and go home. Those nurses will be given a run for their money with her.

Until next time.............Happy Crafting!!!!

Week 28 of the 7th year

Good day to all my readers.  It has been a roller coaster of a ride this week.  I will say, it has not been boring around here.

I was able to get a bit of crafting done this week.  But just a bit.

Hermione Sock was my only project I worked on.  I got the FLK heel done and have about 2 more inches of the foot to do before I start the toe.  Then I have the second sock to start and complete.

I was able to get into my craftroom this week and do a bit of cleaning in there this week.  That is kind of our catch all room when we need to get stuff out of the way and out of sight.  It felt good to be in there working.  My DIL's mom brought down 2 large garbage bags of yarn for my friend and I to go through and then the rest we are donating to the prayer shawl ministry at our church.

This is most of the yarn I selected.  I have 3 partial skeins that will be going into a shawl and then 2 skeins of a cotton blend for dishcloths.  My friend took 99% of the Vanna yarn for her toy making.  I still had over 1/2 of a bag full of yarn which I took and caked up to make it look nicer and neater.  

Once our lives get back into some semblance of order, I am hoping to be doing more knitting than is happening right now.  We have had 4 days of no company and we are once again having our house filled with relatives.  It is all my hubby's side of the family coming to visit his mother.

My MIL is still in the hospital with her stroke.  Her brain is still bleeding and 2 days ago she had a heart attack.  (not sure how severe at this point, tests still being done.)  We thought we would be loosing her soon so the call went out to all the family to come and visit.  Our son from Seattle arrived yesterday as well as a brother from New Mexico.  The son leave today and a sister arrives from Colorado.  Not sure who else or when the others are coming.  I have 2 nieces arriving today also.  Most everyone should be back home by the end of the week and then we can try and settle into some kind of new normal.

We think my MIL will be discharged this week to a skilled nursing facility.  I am searching for one that I approve of.  So many of them have bad reports.  We still need to get her strong enough so we can transport her back to Nevada.  Not sure if this will happen or not.  The Dr's said we could loose her as early as in 2 weeks depending on her heart and brain.  Hence the reason everyone is coming down now to see her.

As for me and my grief..................that got cut really short because of all that is happening with my MIL.  My mom is still in storage (That sounds so awful).  Seems the Medical Examiner wants to go over her records before he releases her for her final destination.  I am a bit upset and angry over this.  I have calls into the ME's office and I will continue to call daily until I have an answer as to why they are doing this to a 90 year old woman.  They will come to know my name before this is all over.

Hubby has left to go to Mass (I went last night).  Brother in Law is up and having some coffee with me.  Think I will go and work some more on my sock and try and figure out how the day 'might' go.  My bullet journal has really helped me with keeping my 'to do' list straight and journaling my feelings.  

Until next time.....................Happy Crafting!

Wednesday

I am super blue today.  I have cried, screamed and thrown things.  The grief has started.  It hurts a lot.  

2018 FINALLY

Happy New Year, friends and family.  I hope this finds all of you healthy, warm, happy and loved.

We had a small gathering of friends and family yesterday for a little football party.  Hubby and I did not get to enjoy it for long because....................................We ended up rushing hubby's mom to the emergency room.  I am glad we went as quickly as we did as it turns out she had a hemorrhagic stroke.

I am beyond numb now.  MIL (Mother in law) is now in the ICU Neurology unit at a hospital that is 20 miles from our home.  That is the only hospital with a stroke unit that had any beds available.  It took 8 hours just to get that bed for her.  The flu is rapid here and the hospitals are overflowing with sick sick sick people.  The hospital she is at is an excellent place and is well known for it care and advances in medicine.  It is also a teaching hospital so you know it has to be good.

We have no idea how long she is going to be there.  We figured for at least a few more days.  Then they will decide if she is a candidate for rehab or what.  Right now they are testing her to see if she can swallow.  They are also doing CT scans to keep an eye on the bleed in her brain.  Her speech has been affected horribly and her walking is pretty much non existent too.

Please say a prayer for our family.  We are in need of strength right now and the courage to face what ever challenges lie ahead of us.

Here she is with our local Grand Daughter on the 30th!  What a difference 24 hours makes.  And NO!!!!!!!!!!  Our Grand is not a giant, my MIL is barely 5 feet tall.

Until next time....................Happy Crafting.............which is what I am going to go and do now.