Starting to Feel Better

 I am just starting to feel better.  I found getting things done 30 minutes at a time helped a lot. 2 plants got new pots and John planted a cactus out front for me.  My new sheets got washed replacing a set that I wore out.  I also started but did not finish a new organizing project, I have finally found a place to put all the masks and stuff. I think COVID19 will be here for a while. 

 I did start a new scarf today, so far I am liking that it is a stash buster.  I am 20 inches in and have almost used up 1 skein of sock yarn.  Yes, at one time I thought I would be knitting a lot of my own socks, not so much.  So I am always happy to find a pattern that uses sock yarn up.  I have also used up 1 1/4 skeins of worsted weight cotton yarn.  The cotton yarn is good for 17 inches between color changes so I think 5 skeins should just about finish the scarf. After I finish the skein of sock yarn I will start on partial skeins to change things up.  I will have to finish weaving in the ends of the scarf I finished yesterday so I can drop it off for a friend to take to guild for me.  

24 Quarts

 I usually count my yarn and batts by the quart or gallon.  I know most people count by skeins,  ounces of roving or yards. So for last week’s spinning for Spin Together 2021 I emptied 2 , 12 quart sweater boxes of hand carded batts.  Since I spun 12 skeins of yarn that works out to an average of 6 skeins per box.  Of course as you have seen from the pictures, the skeins were spun with 1, 2 or 3 batts.  That’s the great thing about art batts, no 2 are alike.  Some can be singles while with others just more go together.  

Don’t worry about the empty boxes.  They will be filled up again by tomorrow night.  I am in the process of cleaning craft room number 1.  My crafts are currently divided between 2 rooms.  I have it on the best Authority that craft room number 1 aka the guest room might just have some guests.  So I do need to finish my top to bottom cleaning of the room.  I got off to a great start today.   Just so we are clear craft room number 2 is shared with our pantry.  At least I have all the snacks when I am working in craft room 2.  

I also learned today that my body no longer likes kale.  So my go to vegetables are carrots, celery, salads, squash, sweet potatoes, daikon radish, soy beans, Lima beans, lentils, Garbanzo beans, beans in general,   radishes, yams, corn, peas and seaweed.  Yes I now count seaweed as a vegetable. It goes great on tofu.  

Below are my empty storage boxes.  I was going to stack them the other way but the kept on sliding. 

10,000 Plus Steps Again

 Despite waking up to a bad body day, things went as smoothly as could be expected.  I fought with my body all day long.  I still managed to get laundry done, go through my craft books to decide which books need to go, I had some duplicates too.  When I got to tired to move I had an 18 inch pile of books to go. I Will try to get them listed tomorrow. I managed to get the 12 inch pile of new knitting books off my dresser too.  I also started organizing the books.  That will take more time.  I will probably destash more books through this process. 

We went out to lunch today.  Then shopping at Bryn Walkers 70% off sale.  If you have not tried their clothing line everything is made for comfort and made in The U.S.A.   So I go 2 pair of pants in a smaller size, 1 skirt, 1 top and 1 jacket for less than $200.  I love a good Ganga.  

I said I was going to save my knitting for after dinner. Boy did that backfire on me.  By the time I was ready to knit and watch television, my hands were to tired to move.  Well there is always tomorrow.  

A Pattern, No Not Knitting

 I have found a pattern to my bad flare ups.  Somehow they are triggered by our summer rains aka the Monsoon.  I am not sure why.  I will look into that.  

Today was spent icing my elbow. Putting knitting things away, By the way I have more room now to put things than when I set up the new craft room / pantry.  This means that I am doing something right.  I must have used a lot of yarn and roving since the start of COVID19.  

Now that the house has cooled off, it’s time to reset the thermostat and go to sleep.  

An Extraordinary Day

 Today was an ordinary yet extraordinary day. It might not seem much to most people, to me it is a huge step. My body has been going through a lot of changes since the last retooling. Today was the first day in decades that I didn’t need any aspirin or Tylenol. For that I am extremely grateful. 

I did get some knitting done. We started cleaning out the fridge, tomorrow the new one is coming.  Not a moment too soon in my humble opinion.  The last repair is already starting to fail.  I know this because our frost free fridge is starting to frost up again.  We are getting the same fridge but a five year newer model.  

I had a very tired day so napping took priority over laundry. Tomorrow will be better   

I am exhausted so it is time to call it a night.  

Either Or

 It has come to the point in my recovery that I either have the energy to clean or to spin. Today was cleaning. Not heavy duty housecleaning, just straightening up and putting things away. I do consider this progress. I think it will take me a while to be back at full speed.

I hope everybody will join us and staying home for New Year’s Eve, it has been a family tradition since so last century. Make an hors d’oeuvre tray and other munchies. Chill some sparkling apple cider. You won’t have to deal with driving and walk back to bedroom is very short. Have a happy healthy new year.

Oops

 Oops I did it again.  The election drove me crazy. So I cleaned beyond what my body could handle.  I also started, wove and finished 4 scarfs in 4 days.  Not to mention the regular house hold chores. So I am beyond exhausted.  I have spent the day resting and sleeping.   With just a little bit of cooking thrown in.  Yesterday I got my sourdough bread starter.  So today I have my sourdough starter going.   Sourdough pizza crust and sourdough pancake sponge started.  I will also try my hand at low sugar sweet rolls using the pizza crust recipe tomorrow.  

The big news though is that we got a nice winter storm and got 1/4 inch of slow rain.  There was almost no run off so I hope the plants are happy.  

Green bowl sourdough pancakes, clear glass bowl sourdough starter, front bowl pizza crust.  

3 for 3

Today was the third day in a row that we made charity drops.  Today we filled the back of my car to capacity with dog pillows for the animal shelter.  There were 9 in all plus a few odds and ends. Thank to new donation procedures we did not even have to get out of the car. We just popped the hatch and they took what would have been several trips for us. I did not even have to stop knitting. The result is a much cleaner craft room.  Although I still need to vacuum.

I also tried starting my day with a walk around the block, that seemed to help my mood. We also cleaned out part of the garage and put the new patio umbrella up.  All in all a good day.

I Am 3 for 3

Today was a puttering kind of day.  Over breakfast I found out I could get my favorite Trader Joe’s snack food from Amazon, at a slightly higher price. I justified it because Trader Joe’s does not deliver.

I got laundry, walking and cleaning done in dribs and drabs.  Yes, John’s polos came out wrinkled, but I did it so I can’t complain about.  I honestly can’t quite remember when the last time it happened, but I think Teri was in preschool.  Since John is working from home I am the only one who is going to see the wrinkled shirts.

My fiber crafting was quite scattered today also.  I spun 2 ounces out of 16 ounces which means that I have 4 ounces on the bobbin.  I can’t decide if I want to get a bright hot pink silk to ply it with or just ply the yarn back on itself.  Twice as much yardage or the regular 2 ply yardage.  Then it was off to the modular  baby blanket after dinner. I finished 1 square and found a mistake in another that needed to be fixed before I could continue with the blanket.  I fixed the mistake and moved on.  I am decreasing stitches on the current hat.  Since we are not eating out at all or going for car rides not a lot of hat knitting is going on.  So I worked on 3 projects and finished none some that is how I am 3 for 3 today.

I Need a Routine

Well I think we will be at home for a while. I need to start a routine.  I have a hunch that this might just take a little while to resolve it self.  I intend to call at least one person a day to check in on them.  Knitting is going well.  Reorganization is going well, tomorrow I am sending 8 pounds of roving and fluff  to a friend who needs project’s to do. Clearing clutter is going well too.

Tomorrow I will try Fry’s order in advance and call when you get to the parking lot service.  The ordering was a bear and kept changing my order and adding things that I did not want. The app needs to be more user friendly.  I hope the delivery goes better.

I have decided to use the same mindset I used when Eric used to get sick.  We will make it through. I have yarn and fluff.  We are cooking 3 meals a day at home we can do this.  Also. Have lots of plastic bags to put finished projects in.

Still Sick

I am still battling the head cold when the  arthritis decided to make things interesting by flaring up late last night.  So I walked 3/4’s of a mile while waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  In between naps today I cleaned out most of the pantry and dumped the expired food. I did not do much cooking in Eric’s last months.  It seems that food expiration dates are getting shorter. Either that or we did way too much take out during that time frame.

I spent a lot of the day napping and did not make my step goal again. Sigh. I did more sleeping than knitting too.  I hope I sleep well tonight and feel better tomorrow.

Progress

Today I worked on getting caught up on paper work. This included cleaning out my coupon file, I had coupons that expired in 2018, oops! I got most of my steps putting things away and throwing things out.  I did make my goal of 8,100 plus a few extra.

Our friend Rich knows he is getting this for his birthday, even though it is a little late. So Rich here is the progress on your hat.  I am on the first stripe.  I am half way through the first stripe.  Yes, I did make the brim 4 inches deep.

A Hard Day

It’s been almost two months since we lost Eric. I needed to do Eric paperwork which in it self is not hard, but the emotions will over take me in a snap. I got through about half of what I needed to do.  Then it was time to find smiling pictures of Eric to remember the happier times. Eric had a smile that just lit up the whole room.

After that I went on a small cleaning spree.  I managed to get a lot in the recycling can. I also did 2 loads of laundry.  There seems to be a lot less laundry now. The loads are also smaller.

Before I knew it time had flown. It was time to reheat some stew for dinner. After dinner it was. I needed to figure out how I managed to get 6 eye lashes stuck in one eye. I still don’t know how I did it.  The skin around the eye is still a little tender.  My advice is not to get 6 eyelashes in your eye at one time.

It’s getting late so it’s time to call it a day.

Today

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season.  Since there are about 20 different holidays world wide between Thanksgiving in the United States and the end of January, I choose to make this a general greeting. So again Have a Happy Holiday Season.

Since we don’t celebrate Christmas, we spent the day cleaning and made remarkable progress.  Since everything was closed today charity runs will begin again tomorrow.

The one low spot of the day is that our newer Roomba is dying. It fell in to the hand wash sink a few weeks ago.  Just the electronics fell in.  It just does not pick up like it use to.  John had to use the upright vacuum. I guess I will have to research this, unless anyone has a fix for this.   By the way the sweater that I was washing at the time is fine.  I see a new Roomba in our future.

Family Time

I am really enjoying some much needed family time.  This first holiday season without Eric is a lot rougher than I thought it would be and I knew it was going to be very hard.  To alleviate some of the stress I have been cleaning and purging stuff.  I also have some extra help which is nice.  I see a few Bookman’s and Goodwill runs in our future.

I have also been working on the blanket pattern that got sidelined when Eric went into hospice. I am almost done knitting the “wings”. Then just 4 corner blocks and the crochet edging.  Figuring out the yardage. Pictures and typing up the pattern.

Since I did not sleep well last night, I am going to bed early.

Super Powers

We all have super powers. Each and everyone of us.  We all don’t have x-ray vision like Superman.  Can I give a collective thank goodness for that. Stopping a speeding train or lifting up a bus, who really needs that? What most people don’t realize is it’s the small things in life that make us superheroes.  Giving a friend a hug when they need it is an awesome superpower. Opening a door for someone pushing a stroller or for someone in a wheelchair, again an awesome superpower. Wishing someone a good day is an awesome superpower.

Today my awesome superpower was repairing Eric’s Wheelchair.  Some how the crossbar had come loose.  So before I ran off to Ace Hardware I did a bit of trouble shooting at home.  It turned out that a screw had come loose and only needed to be tightened.  This involved turning the chair on its side. Pushing the lower half of the chair up to meet the connection while lining up the screw. I took the Allen wrench otherwise known as the Hex Key to tighten down the screw.  Yes, it is as hard as It sounds. As long as the chair was on its side I took off the rear wheels, cleaned and oiled the axles.  I then sent the chair off to be cleaned.

So my superpower today is Wheelchair repairs.  It took me all of 15 minutes and Nick 20 minutes to clean the chair. I would like our health insurance company to know that we saved them an awful lot of money today.  I did not even charge for a home based Wheelchair repair service.

So I would like to know what your superpower is.

The End of May 2019

My day started off at full speed ahead this morning. I had 2 loads of laundry finished before breakfast.  I had all the laundry for the day done by 10am.  Some how Eric hijacked my day. All forward progress came to an immediate halt.

I felt with my frustration by going to the grocery store and wondering the aisles looking for low carb treats. vegan doughnuts came to mind but at 65 carbs per doughnut it was a no go. I don’t even want to think about how many carbs a scone has, but I am guessing more than a doughnut. My treat landed up being a couple of pieces of fresh fruit and a hot lunch that I did not have to cook.

My timing was so bad I missed an opportunity to get out of the house to knit.  I did manage to get dinner with my sister tonight. We knit after dinner.

I did manage to get a little more cleaning done before Eric decided that the afternoon was all about him.  I am a bit tired and way behind, but there is always tomorrow.

What It’s Not Sunday?

I spent most of the day going around as if it were Sunday. I spent the day cleaning and organizing the house.  I went through piles of paper. Found projects that were never going to be done and sent the fiber to the dog pillow bin. I now have 3 dog pillows to do the final seams on. I got the kitchen towels down that I can’t remember who gave them to me for bibs down. They are not Eric colors so the will go to The Flowing Wells SD Clothing Bank.  If you need the pattern for the bibs I.believe that I published it in October of 2009 or 2010 under the key word bibs.  I also got by with only doing 4 loads of laundry.

I finished another hat and cast the next one on. I am on the final rows of 2 of 3 A Shawl Study pattern.  Sadly this one is more fussy and will require blocking. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow.

Well tomorrow is going to be just as busy so it is time to call it a day.

Q

Did I ever mention how much I love crocheting using a size Q hook and bulky yarn.  I was able to start a scarf at 3 pm  today and finish it around 8 pm with all the ends woven in. I still had

time to cook dinner, take a walk and clean up dinner.  It was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal day.

Eric kept me up last night so I was tired to.begin with. Then there is building construction at Eric’s day program which will muck with the air quality, so he will be home until at least Monday.  So besides a much needed nap, all I did was play pick up.  This lead to a cranky mommy day.  Yes, I know in my heart that things could be worse, but sometimes it is hard to see outside my four walls.

So this is what 56 rows of crocheting looks like when you only go through the back of the top loop.

Yucky Flare Up

Nothing but 5 loads of laundry and 2 hours of deep cleaning got done today.  I have almost another foot of knitting books for Bookman’s and a pile of craft magazines for my knitting friends.  My hands were to sore and tired to knit.  I did spend a lot of time napping. This flare up has knocked me out.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.