Today I am thankful for indoor plumbing. Go ahead and laugh, but it is true. Have any of you lived some where that did not have indoor plumbing? I have. My Grandma's farm did not have a bathroom. She had an outhouse and during the winter we used chamber pots. The outhouse was located out by the chicken coop. Those birds were not very nice either. If you wanted to bathe, you heated water on her wood burning stove and then bathed in your room. Also, to get the water to bathe with, you had to use the well pump that was outside by the side of the house. Ever hear of priming the pump.....this was a regular occurrence too. As a kid it was kind of an adventure. As an adult, not so much. As age is happening to me, I find there are times when I need to use the facilities in the middle of the night. All I need to do is walk a few steps from my bed and there I am! Yup, indoor plumbing is something to be very thankful for.
To all my family and friends here in the US I would like to wish you and yours a very blessed Thanksgiving.
Hubby and I left our home at 9:30 this morning and 12 hours later we are home. Yes, I am exhausted but it is a happy exhaustion. We had a meeting with our attorney from 10 until 12. Then we went to our Grands High School to pick up gift cards and some items for our secret Santa gifts with the family. After we left there we went out to lunch to a, new to us, Mexican restaurant. It was quite yummy too. Off we went to Costco to pick up a new laptop/tablet for me and another secret Santa gift. From there we went to JoAnn's where I found all Cricut supplies at 50-70% off! Yes, I stocked up. Then we were off to our local Walgreen's to pick our last secret Santa gift. Last stop on our journey was Sam's club for dog food and a couple of other items. We did a quick stop at our house to feed the dogs dinner and the we went off to Trivia and dinner.
You may be asking why 3 secret Santa gifts. We take one gift per family member attending the Christmas celebration. We were just informed we will be gifted with our Texas Grand Daughter for the Christmas holidays. We had so much fun last year doing this gift exchange. We have been thinking all year about what we would get for the exchange this year. We have a $20 limit for our gifts. It is so much fun. So those gifts are purchased and just need wrapping.
Now we are home and I have been thinking all day what to put down for my thankful item today. It came to me as we were out and about. Today I am very thankful for our first responders. (fire and police) My husband was a police officer for over 20 year. It is a very hard job. The things he saw while on duty were not always pleasant. In fact, most of the time they were heart breaking. These first responders put their lives on the line everyday for us. How many times have we heard of Firefighters or police officers being hurt in the line of duty. Think of all the first responders that ran into the twin towers during the attack of 911. Would you have done that? These men and women are heroes in my book and I think we need to respect them and teach our children to respect them. Too many parents threaten their children with the police if they are bad. Really? Who are they to call when they are in trouble?
OK, enough preaching. I am off to finish up one of my knitting items and watch a little TV.
I hope all of you are safe and warm with all these horrible winter storms hitting the US. We are expecting rain over the next 3 days and our high temps will only be in the 50's. Pretty cool for us desert rats.
Today I am very thankful for warm clothing. I refuse to turn on our heater since I just turned off our A/C the first of November. Hubby and I both are just layering our clothing. I love my long sleeved undershirts that I wear under my blouses. I have leggings I wear under my jeans. Naturally my knitted socks are nice and warm and always on my feet. My house is sitting at 69 during the day and when I wake up it is around 64. The coolness forces me to move often which means my housework gets done in record time. I also, do not shy away from using my oven since it adds heat to my home. In the summer, it seldom gets turned on for the same reason.
I am sure some of you are thinking "64? that's warm for us". In the summer my house sits between 77 and 80. What temp is your home at? In the winter I have the heat set at 68. It all depends on what your body is used to. Our summer temps are often 110 plus so when our temps in the winter are 40 it is down right cold for us. I have tried to explain this before and people just do not get it. So put it this way:
110F to 40F is a 70 degree difference.
Take your normal summer temp and subtract your normal winter temp. Is it 70 degree difference? If so, then you understand us being COLD!
Thank you warm clothes for allowing me to keep my heater off for a little bit longer.
It has been a busy day around my house. Hubby and I are getting back into our daily routines as well as getting ready to decorate for Christmas. I got 2 loads of laundry done, eggplant steamed and marinating in vinegar and oil, cleaned veggies, and made an ornament for the one Grand that actually puts up a tree. Hubby has trimmed the bushes out front so we can put lights on them. He is also working in the backyard t clean it up the doggie bathroom. (I know, TMI) I finally got time to sit down and do my thankful blog.
I am very thankful for my craft room. When I go in there, I can spend an entire day sewing, making, printing, knitting, crocheting, and doing many other crafts. It is a room that has allowed me to express myself without any input from others. If I am in a foul mood, I can go in there and within minutes my mood will be lifted. Sheryl may have a sheshe-er she shed but I would not trade my craft room for that at all.
Time to knit!
Hello again. It is early on Sunday morning, the house is quiet (other than my male dog snoring), I have my coffee by my side and lots of pictures to show and tell about. First up is my crafting week.
Since we were on a road trip from Sunday through Thursday, I did not get too much done in the craft area. In fact, the only item worked on was my Fawkes sock.
This is where I am at on sock #2, as of this morning. My goal (hope) is to have it completed this coming week and get back to working on my sweater. The weather here has cooled off quite a bit and a sweater would be most welcomed now.
While hubby and I were grocery shopping this week, we ran across this:
Is that not the cutest bowl ever? We found it at Trader Joe's. I just knew it would be perfect to hold my sock yarn cakes. My other yarn bowl is quite a bit bigger and I use it for my DK and worsted cakes.
It is just perfect. This photo was taken on Friday afternoon so you can see I have gotten quite a bit done on the sock. Anyway, I know the bowl does not have the usual cut out on the side for the yarn to guide through, but my bowls sit on the floor by my chair. Since the yarn is caked, it just pulls off the cake easily. I mainly use the bowl to keep the yarn off the floor and out of any dog hair or dirt that many be there. Plus, it doesn't roll away from me either.
If you follow my blog regularly, you know hubby and I took a little trip to Las Vegas last week. We left on Sunday and returned on Thursday. The main reason for the trip was a delayed anniversary trip for us and a bingo tournament. The tournament was HUGE.
This was only part of the room where the tournament was held. There were over 2000 people in this room. Needless to say, we did not win at the tournament but we did meet some very nice people there.
When we got to our room, I started to unpack and put clothes away. While doing so I discovered I had under packed for myself by 1 shirt. I never under pack.........NEVER! No problem, we will just go to the gift shop and see what they had. There was quite a bit of clothing there and I found an adorable blouse. Well, it was adorable until I looked at the price tag and it was $110! No thank you. But I did finally find something there that was in my price range.
I now have a souvenir sweatshirt. Good thing it was chilly inside and outside. Hubby and I had a good laugh over this. I wore that shirt with pride too.
We also visited hubby's mom while we were there. She is 92 and feisty as ever.
She is still insisting on going home and it looks like she will probably get her wish in the next month or so. We do not agree with this idea as she will need constant care, but she is determined to make this happen. The house is almost ready for her to go there and her youngest son has sworn he wants her home too and will take care of her. Time will tell, right?
Oh, I did get about 15 minutes of knitting in during one of our breaks at bingo.
Yup, that is all the knitting I did while gone. Since I did all the driving up and back and all around, there was no car knitting done either. On a happy note, when driving, I was able to see some lovely fall foliage as well as snow capped mountains.
On the way home we were in and out of rain the entire 5 hours. Most of the rain was light and did not last long. I think we hit 2 really heavy downpours where it was almost blinding. The most interesting thing we saw on the way home was this:
That, my friends, is hail covered earth. It was almost 2 inches deep and covered everything. I thought it was snow at first but hubby was able to really look out the window at it and was able to see the hail stones. Lucky for us, it was done hailing when we got to this part of the trip. That much hail could have really done some car damage.
We are gearing up for Thanksgiving this coming Thursday We will all congregate at our son's house for food and festivities. I have the turkey in the fridge defrosting. Everyone contributes to the meal which makes it easy on the host/hostess. Next Saturday, we will be heading to our daughter's place for a brisket dinner. She has been wanting the family to come out there for some time now. She and her husband have a very small place so it will be quite intimate LOL. I am making no bake cheesecakes for the occasion. One will be plain and the other peanut butter. YUM!
Today I am thankful for Pinterest. WHAT????? Are you kidding me? Thankful for a website? You betcha. I have been able to get so many recipes, craft patterns, hair tips, decorating ideas from this site. When hubby was told to cut down on gluten, Pinterest was there to help me with that. When I got an air fryer and needed ideas on what to cook in it, Pinterest was at my service. When I was looking for a way to undercut my thick hair so it would lay down better, Pinterest gave me copious amounts of photos to show my hair dresser. When I am stuck on what to make for a gift using my cricut, Pinterest pops all sorts of images up for me to choose from.
Yes, Pinterest can be a time sucker but........................most everything on there is free and, I would be scouring book stores trying to find the same stuff. This way I do not need to leave the comfort of my home to go and seek things out.
Until next time.............................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!
Some days are easier than others to pin point what I am thankful for. There is so much in this world to be thankful for that my mind just explodes with ideas. Today I pick my bed. Sound strange? Maybe. Hubby and I have had different beds in our 44 years of marriage. We have had traditional mattresses, a water bed (several in fact), pillow top and now we have an articulating Tempurpedic bed. I love this bed. It is so nice to be able to raise the head of the bed up slightly to help with hubby's bad back and also helps a bit with our snoring. When I do not feel well, I crawl into the bed and can adjust the head and feet to make my aches and pains less and I will sleep quite well for a few hours. I do not get pressure points in this bed as I did on regular or even pillow top mattresses. The only other bed that was as kind to my joints as this one is, was the water beds. When we travel I dread night time. I know after about 3 days my hips, shoulders and neck are going to remind me of my age and my RA. So, yes, I am very thankful for my bed.
Today I am thankful for good news from a specialist about me. I have been having some health issues for the past few weeks. I had made an appointment with a specialist and today was the day to go and see him. I am happy to say, there is nothing majorly wrong with me that will not be cleared up in a few weeks. Phew! I have been on pins and needles for a couple of weeks now fearing the worse and praying for the best. My prayers were answered.
Sorry to say, I will be putting moderation of comments back on. I had hoped the non-related comments had stopped so I took off the moderation. Darn it! I got non-related comments on 23 different posts! I am not going to go in and delete them all at this time. So I will just make it where I will moderate all comments again for a while. Sorry, folks. It is just annoying for me as it is for you.
TTYL
