Inspiration Comes at Strange Times

Eric is still sick. Eric is tired of being sick and I am tired of Eric being sick. I am exhausted. So I started working on a new knitting pattern to try to relax.  Yes, there is a large disconnect to most people between Eric being sick and a new knitting design. Sometimes I just find it very relaxing to play with yarn. Sometimes it just gets ripped out. Sometimes I put it in the charity pile. Very rarely does it result in a pattern. Yes it is a very easy one with lots of texture. It is a one skein project. This one might just be a little out there for most people, but it is very fun to knit. I just have to finish up the sample and add the narrative about how this pattern came about. Take a picture or two. Then edit the final draft.  Hopefully it will be out sometime this week.  

More Progress

Today I started out very early. I emptied 4 more boxes. Then found homes for most of it. A number of things made it into the Goodwill Box. Some even made it in the trash, it was beyond reuse. I now have a diaper box of things ready to go.  Amber also came over and started packing up the living room.  I know it's really weird. I am unpacking the kitchen stuff and she is packing up the living room stuff. This is to get ready for the next stage of remodel. The new carpet in the living room.  After lunch we went through my shoes, there is a good reason for this. Ambers fiancés unit at the base is having a shoe drive. So John and I gave Amber 27 pairs of shoes for the shoe drive.  Yes most of them were mine. No I will never get back into the Aa and A width shoes.  I have lost enough weight so that the wide shoes no longer fit.  So the bright side of this is, the shoes will find new homes, and I have more room in the garage and my closet.  This is what 27 pairs of shoes looks like. Yes that is a large outdoor trash can bag.  

The New Kitchen

I am showing the mostly finished kitchen.  The dishwasher door will be changed and 1 shelf is still missing. Meanwhile I unpacked 5 more boxes and found new homes for everything.  I still have not found the box with the kitchen knifes. Sorry Lisa it was not in the box with the baggies. We also have way too many wine glasses, so the running joke at dinner was how were we going to break some, we are a little behind in breaking them.  We have an even dozen that we still have from wedding gifts.   

The kitchen came out well.  It looks like it might have come straight from Pinterest. Everything was a total colabration, give and take on all sides.  We are a great team.  

I Made My Goal Early

The big news today does not have to do with the house.  Nor does it involve everyone being sick, which we all are.  Not even knitting, spinning or weaving.  It involves a long term goal made when I went off one arthritis medicine which caused me to put on 50 pounds in 6 months.  For those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis I have now lost 1/2 of the weight I put on with the medicine.  Slow and steady is winning the race for me.  

So after much research I went off aspertame and high fructose corn syrup. The first 3 months were very rough. I started using smaller plates for almost all my meals, I still use a soup bowl for cereal though. I eat a lot less fast food. Most of my cooking is now from scratch.  When Eric is home sick and PBS is on all day, I do the excersice breaks with Hooper, which are much easier now. I walk more and do more of my own house cleaning. I set a goal of losing 5 pounds a year, because most people my age put on 5 pounds a year.  I figured that this would put me ahead of the game.  It was a few big changes and a lot of small ones. Today almost a full 2 months early I have hit my 5 pound weight loss goal for the year.  This means that I can now start using my Wii fit again, I am now under the maximum weight. 

The plates below are as follows: The daisy dinner plate ( this used to. be our dinner plate )was the standard size Correlle dinner plate of the 1990's, which is now used as a serving platter.  The yellow luncheon plate by Fiesta is now our dinner plate. The clear glass desert plate is now our lunch size plate.  Usually divided into 25% protein, 25% starch and 50% vegetables.  

Since I have no medical degree, I would recommend that you check with your doctor before making these or any changes to your diet or excersice routine. This blog is not meant to replace your doctors advise.  This is just about my life and what works for me.  

Patching and Painting

Today the master bathroom and sitting room wall were patched and painted.  I have the before pictures but not the after pictures. The paint fumes were to strong.  They did not use the low fume paint as requested.  I think I will be sleeping in the den to escape the fumes.  

I found one shelf missing when I went to put away today's boxes.  So the work planned for today did not happen.  The bright side of that is that we are all sick and it gave me time to rest a little more. I think that we will all be laying low until Monday.  

Finishing Work

Today the bathroom sink was finished. The floor boards were also finished.  The only thing left for the kitchen remodel is the new dishwasher front panel. The repairs to the master bathroom and a little dry wall in the bedroom start at 7 am tomorrow.  Followed by repainting of the bathroom. 

Meanwhile I am starting to put the kitchen back together. I also cooked dinner for the first time since the start of the remodel today.  A nice pot of chicken soup. The only glitch I ran into was that I could not find the kitchen knifes. I forgot to note which box that I put them into. So I put the soup together with only a paring knife and peeler. Three other boxes were emptied and put away.  

Mean while Eric and I continue to try to recoup from this yucky cold.  While we did not give John permission to get the cold, he got it anyway.  So we will try to stay away from everyone until we feel better.  

Recoup Time

Sometimes there is a down side to sharing.  I landed up with Eric's cold.  It woke me up at midnight and I then understood how miserable Eric was.  The good news is that with my immune system in a very hyper state I was feeling better by this afternoon. Just a warning for everyone, I will be expecting a bad body day for a few days as I am already very stiff.  

There was no construction work today. So Eric and I took it easy today. I set my sights on UFO's.  For those who are not craft people UFO' are unfinished projects.  While I was resting I managed to get 6 UFO's finished today.  I then looked for a few more UFO's to finish.  So after all was knit and done I have 1 more empty project bag and a free set of knitting needles.  Plus I can add 727 rows to the million row challenge on Ravelry.  

Tomorrow is suppose to be the last day for the kitchen remodel. Thursday we are suppose to repair the water damage to the master bathroom caused by problems with the last remodel. After 5 years we finally finished fixing the mistakes on the addition. Fingers crossed as I say this.   Then next week we move back into the craft room. When that is finished we will move onto the living room.  With completion before mid December.  Hopefully I can make a honey do list for a few more things I want done like the back door, I want to keep this energy moving forward.