Day 290 of 365

On TV they have been doing year-end wrap ups. Televisions shows and movies of the year, highest paid actors, biggest news stories. Just a few days ago even Barbara Walters did a year-end list with her Most Fascinating People of 2011.

Although the year isn't quite over, I'm doing a 2011 wrap up of sorts. I'm getting ready to close a chapter in the quilting-for-charity category - just until after the first of the year, that is.

In looking back at 2011, I've done more sewing this year than all the other years of my life combined. Here's a recap of the non-charity project days:

• Days 1 and 195: Pincushions
• Day 8: Fabric Memory Game
• Day 14: Camera bag 
• Day 20: T-shirt grocery bags
• Day 29: Clothespin bag
• Day 34: Potholders
• Day 35: Makeup bag for my daughter
• Days 38 and 188 : Breadbasket liners
• Days 41 and 153: Fabric covered buttons and magnets
• Day 167: Pocket tissue holder
• Day 244: Gift card holder
• Day 251: Fabric covered clipboard
• Day 258: Drawstring bags
• Christmas Tree ornaments on Days 272, 276, 279
• Day 265 : Fabric covered bookmarks
• Day 287: Fabric covered bulletin board

But here is the most important list of all. The list of items I've made for charity.

• Day 3: Flag quilt top
• Day 11: Baby quilt for Calling All Angels
• Day 17: Presentation Cases for Quilts of Valor
• Day 27: more Presentation Cases for Quilts of Valor
• Quilts for the Quilts for Kids organization on Days 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 101, 107, 120, 121, 122, 164, 176, 179, 236, 238, 243
• Day 234: Baby quilt top
• Day 86:  Spinning Star quilt top
• Turtle Pillows for the Painted Turtle Hole-in-the Wall Camp on Days 132, 144, 150, 152, 154
• Stockings for Soldiers on Days 214, 215, 219, 221, 222, 237
• Pillows for Operation Kid Comfort on Days 233, 277  
• Quilts for Operation Kid Comfort on Days 196, 198, 203, 245, 246, 253, 254, 280, and today.

Today I can add two more quilts to the Operation Kid Comfort quilt list. Here on Day 290 another two quilts are finished and ready to head out the door. Being that a couple of my pictures (including today's) have more than one quilt in the picture, I think that makes 30+ kids quilts for charity this year.

Here's today's picture, but keep looking. I have all my charity work pictures for 2011 compiled together right below.

I always hear about how one person can make a difference. I hope I'm getting close to being one of those "ones".

 

Day 289 of 365

My fortune cookie last night read Your hard work is about to pay off.

That's great, but I want to know more. My hard work on what? At work? On my quilts? On the children's book I'm getting ready to work on again? On my decluttering?

I know it's not about my health. After spending a couple hours Christmas and grocery shopping with my husband last night I almost didn't want to go out to dinner because I was hurting so bad. If I wasn't the one driving, I just might have taken a pain pill at dinner. When I got home, it took everything I had to kick off my shoes and go lie down for a bit. Many times when I am really hurting I can go to bed knowing things might be better in the morning. Sometimes they are. Today they weren't.

The knees were killing me enough all day today that I made an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon's office. Not to get that other knee replaced (I'm delaying that one as long as possible), but to get an injection in my knee. I used to get cortisone injections in it, but the pain and damage in my knee is beyond what that kind of shot can do. The injection I'm needing is a synovial fluid replacement injection. They take a big ole needle of synthetic synovial fluid, mark a spot on my knee and, well, you can guess the rest. It's not really that I'm wanting an injection - it's a much more painful injection than cortisone - but it has provided me some relief twice before.

Knowing I can't Christmas shop or grocery shop is pretty depressing. At least I got a positive fortune and got to see this sight across the street from the Chinese restaurant.

Day 288 of 365

There are those pivotal moments in people's lives that change things forever. As I was sitting in a meeting this week, it became clear the leave of absence I took from work was one of those pivotal moments.

The past few years before the leave, my job required me to know the reading program we used at the elementary inside and out. I lived and breathed reading. Phonics, vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing. I taught lessons to teachers and kids. I trained teachers in other districts. I could walk into a room, pick up the teacher's manual and teach the lesson without any preparation. Any question about teaching reading I could answer right then and there, on the spot. For six years I was an expert at it.

But as I was sitting at a meeting this week I noticed a shift has happened. Taking a year off from work really has changed me. While the conversation at the meeting was around teaching reading, it seemed like so long ago since I was a part of it. Even though it was a little over a year ago since I was engaged in the teaching-kids-to-read process it seemed like a lifetime ago. I know my knowledge must be buried somewhere in my brain but it wasn't bursting to come out. Even the excitement has waned. I imagine it could be interpreted as a good thing or bad thing.

I think it's a good thing. My passion for teaching reading has been replaced with a passion for doing other things for kids. I did my thing as a teacher (and loved it at the time but not anymore), as a reading "coach" (loved it at the time but not anymore), as a trainer (and loved it too but not anymore). If it weren't for being off of work for a year, I would never have found the next thing I love - sewing things for others, particularly kids.

And I would never have yet another couple quilt tops ready to quilt for Operation Kid Comfort.

Day 287 of 365

My great-grandfather used to have a collection of postcards he kept in a desk drawer in his living room. As a little kid I used to go through those post cards whenever I visited.

When I visited my grandmother who lived next door to us, I used to go through something in a drawer of hers, too. Something of great interest to me. In her kitchen one of her drawers was a designated junk drawer. Pens, pencils, matches, screws, magnets, papers, and lots of other little things were in that drawer. For a girl who liked to organize (me), sorting through the junk drawer was quite fun.

We have our own junk drawer here at home, too. Typically the bulk of the drawer is made up of screwdrivers, pliers, a hammer, nails, screws, glues, candles, and such. We haven't cleaned it out in a long time so if you were to open the drawer today you'd also find a pair of gloves, some weatherstripping, a school bus candle holder, razor blades, washers, a sprinkler repair tool, garden labels, a flashlight, a watermelon plaque, and dozens of other little bits of pieces of things. It's in desperate need of some organization. I made three trips to that drawer today but not to organize it.

I intended to put together what should have been a quick and easy project today. When my daughter was home last week, I had her help me put a cork bulletin board in my sewing room. It used to be her board through high school and college and had bits and pieces of stickers around the frame.

My first trip to the junk drawer was to fetch the Goo Gone, which turned out to not be in there. Sometimes I use it in my sewing room, but after checking there I came up empty. (I think I probably took it to school and forgot to bring it back.) The second trip to the junk drawer was to get the paint scraper to help get the stickers off.

With a clean frame, I used some fabric to cover the bulletin board. Sprayed some basting spray on the cork board and applied the fabric. After some wrangling and re-cutting and re-piecing I was able to use up every available inch of the fabric piece to get it to fit on every available inch of the board. Then I began to staple the fabric down around the edges.

On my first press of the stapler, my stapler broke. I grabbed another stapler (not like we don't have others around), but this particular stapler wouldn't go all the way into the cork. Hence, the next trip to the junk drawer to get the hammer so I could slowly tap, tap, tap the staples in.

The bulletin board is finished and my junk drawer is still a mess. 

Decorated Snowman and Snowflake Sugar Cookies - Day 286 of 365, Tutorial Tuesday

I'm a fan of snowman. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of snow. Kind of.

I love to watch the snow falling but I don't like driving in it. I enjoy shoveling snow but I don't like the cold. I like the look of clean, clear sidewalks and driveways with snow piled to the side. I love waking up in the middle of the night and having the house bright inside because it had snowed. I like that 6 AM phone call that I get telling me there is no school. I like calling the next person on the "snow tree" (yep, that's what it's called) and breaking the wonderful news to them.

I think teachers might even be more excited than the kids when a snow day is called. The snow day call has always been a competition at our house. My husband and I work in neighboring school districts. There are some years where he'll get a call and I won't, some years where I get a call and he doesn't, and some years we both get the call. We've learned not to rub it in if we personally get a snow day because more than likely next year the roles will be reversed.

We haven't had any snow days this year. Yet. But give us some snow and a bit of wind and you might find happy folks in this house.

Right now my snowman and snowflake decorated sugar cookie tutorial will have to suffice.

Day 285 of 365

The achoo and bless you days are done. I've had enough and tossed them in the trash.

I'm talking about salt and pepper shakers.

I'm a collector. I have probably a hundred or so pair. Gas station pumps, tractors, dump trucks, cars, and trains. Characters like Mr. Potato Head, Gumby and Pokey, Smokey the Bear, Cat in the Hat, and Winnie the Pooh. Some made of marble, antlers, and Mt. St. Helens volcanic ash.

When I first started collecting, I bought just about any salt and pepper shaker set I could find. When others found out I collected salt and pepper shakers they bought for me as well. After a few years my collection was beyond what I had room for, so I stopped buying and only kept the ones I absolutely loved.

One pair that was given to me was a plastic set of old folks. When the grandpa-y one was used it achooed and when the grandma-y one was used it said bless you. I eventually put those noisy ones in the donation box I kept in the back of the car. Every time I turned a corner, stopped, or started, the grandpa would go off. We wound up bringing the set back in the house and stuck them in a drawer until we knew we were going to drop them off at the donation center.

That was years ago. Those noisy shakers have been in the drawer ever since. Never been used. But ever since then, the grandpa goes off randomly. If you walk by the china hutch. If you're eating dinner. If you're sleeping in the middle of the night. The batteries aren't easy to take out, so we've just lived the random achoo occurring all times of the day and night.

So as I was sitting at the table and the achoo hit again, I decided enough was enough. Out to the garbage. Now.

I don't need any sneezing around when I'm decorating cookies.

Day 284 of 365

We used to have dial up internet long after everyone else moved to high speed. We knew it was slow, but we weren't on the computer all that much anyway. We didn't realize how slow it was until we switched to cable internet. It's a whole different world! Now I can't ever imagine going back.

Like my new bed linens. We've always had multiple layers of blankets, quilts, and comforters on the bed during the winter, along with flannel sheets that never fit right on our extra-deep mattress. Some years we might add in an electric blanket. No matter what combination we use, it's heavy. It's hard to turn over and we fight for each layer to stay on the bed evenly.

Not anymore. After sleeping in hotels like Hampton that have amazing beds and linens, I finally get to have the same experience at home. Our new flannel sheets that are made for thick mattresses are wonderful. Our new plush blanket is wonderful and my new down comforter is even more wonderful.

What's not wonderful? The time I'm wasting because of the problem with my iron. It's slowing down my quilt-making process and now that Sunday night is here, I have to report that I didn't get even one quilt finished. I can also report I never got around to getting my Christmas cookies decorated.

Here's hoping today's cookies will be prettier tomorrow.

Day 283 of 365

Notes to self:

• Drive your behind down the road to get a good picture of a lunar eclipse if it's happening at 7 AM. It wasn't enough to get yourself out of bed to look at it - the moon was too far away for you to take a picture. Get those darn shoes on and grab those car keys even if it is only 15 degrees outside.
• Don't wear arthritis gloves when you're cutting fabric. Those soft gloves that make your fingers and hands feel better when you're sewing and typing aren't the best things to be wearing when you're cutting. They'll act like a lint roller and will pick up every stray piece of fabric and teeny tiny piece of thread around. And don't even attempt to pick those threads off the gloves. They'll get sucked right back onto the gloves before you can get the thread to the trash can.
• Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. If someone offers you an early Christmas present and that present is a new iron, take it. That present just might come in handy when you're sewing up a kid's quilt you want to get mailed out in the next week. Handy because your other iron is still on the fritz. That old iron that will only get hot if you turn it off, unplug it, let it cool completely, then turn it back on. You'll have to do that every few minutes. It'll take you all day to press one quilt top because of the frequent cool-it-down turns.
• Get some dang curtains in the den window. How many days are you going to have to wear your husband's baseball cap before you figure out curtains are a more effective way to block out the evening sun?
• Remember at this time of year there are fewer daylight hours. Fewer hours of daylight mean fewer hours of finding a potential picture of the day. There will be some times you'll find a picture after dark, but those will be extremely rare.

The rarity happened tonight. I may have missed taking a picture of the eclipse early this morning, but looking across the river tonight I did get the yellow moon rising through the trees.

Day 282 of 365

I received an e-mail with the final tally:

* Three post office tractor trailers full
* 1,500 boxes
* 2,500 polar fleece blankets
* Over 49,000 pounds of Christmas goodies
* Over 1,000 knitted hats
* 10,000 personal greeting cards and hundreds of letters of appreciation
* And 10,140 homemade, personalized Christmas Stockings.

Just some of the highlights on the work Stockings for Soldiers did this year. 10,140 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will get to experience just a bit of home this Christmas because of the work of all the volunteers around the country.

I'm glad I was able to participate in a small way. 80 stockings were sewn by me (and some by you, too!) and hundreds of items to stuff in them were collected by a couple clubs at Marsing High School. Next year I'll do even more.

What I can't do more of is think tonight. My mind is fried after another late night at work and I can't figure a way to tie today's picture into today's writing. Being as it was Friday I made sure I left before it was too dark and walked out of the building with the sun going down.

The orange-ish jet trail behind the big, leafless tree looked to be an interesting picture-worthy sight.

Day 281 of 365

There were lots of opportunities for me to take pictures of things as I worked through the house today.

I considered taking a picture of my bedroom. I now, after months and months of wanting to go with a spa-themed room, have made some changes. As of today I have new sheets, a new blanket, a new down comforter, and new curtains. Months ago we took the curtains down in the den with the intent of putting them up in the bedroom when we were ready. I've endured many, many evenings of wearing a baseball cap in the den because the setting sun in the window behind the computer was blinding. (It would have made a lot more sense to have left the curtains in the den until we were ready to move them to the bedroom, but I wasn't thinking.)

I could have taken pictures of all the Christmas presents we got wrapped today, or the roses we finally pruned and hauled to the trashcan, the organizing we did, or our belated tree-trimming Mexican feast we're finally getting to have tonight. But one shocking sight took priority over the other potential pictures.

In my continuation of the FlyLady way, I worked on my linen closet today. It has been pretty clean and neat all along, but I've been running out of room for one thing in particular.

Used needles.

I use needles for my methotrexate and I have pre-filled syringes of my Enbrel that I put in those red sharps containers when I'm finished. But drugstores around here won't take the full containers, the drug company that sent them to me won't take them, and doctors and hospitals won't take them. So they sit, full, in my linen closet. Mostly full of the big Enbrel shots.

Today I took the Enbrel out of the containers to make room for the other smaller, more dangerous syringes. When I gathered them up it hit me.

This is what $13,000 looks like. Drug companies should be embarrassed.

Day 280 of 365

Serendipity. Coincidence. Fate. Kismet. Karma. Whatever you want to call it, it happened.

Last night after another consecutive night of me not getting home from work until after dark, my husband and I sat in the living room with the Christmas tree lights on and the Christmas music playing. We talked about lots of things - school things, home things, Christmas things, and blog things.

I was sharing with him how I have less than three months left of this take take-a-picture-every-day-to-see-that-you-have-lived kind of goal. How I've been thinking about what happens next. What happens with everything I've written. With what happens on Day 366.

I've been contemplating just going with a picture a day with a caption - no writing. No life stories would be told. No venting, no frustrations, no exciting events would be recorded. If it weren't for the pictures, I wouldn't know what I did with my life over the past months. Yet, without the writing to go along with it I wouldn't know how I felt about what was happening.

Some days the writing is difficult. There are some days at work when I'm writing for 9 hours straight. Then I come home and write my blog. I've been feeling that my blog writing isn't improving because my brain cells are being used up with work writing. And really, who cares that I get shocked in the grocery store or that the cat bawls a lot?

So the picture a day with caption was what I told me husband. But...

Just a few minutes after that conversation I received a phone call. A phone from someone I know. Someone who has just recently started reading my blog. It was a one-sided conversation, with the person being oh-so-kind about what I'm doing with my writing, my pictures, and my sewing for charity. About the inspiration that the blog provided. Inspiration that despite health issues, I have done something good. It quite humbled me that someone else saw the importance of what I've been documenting.

We all need a boost once in a while. A confirmation that we're on the right track. That the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train.

It was the boost I needed. It made me even more determined to get another quilt finished today for Operation Kid Comfort.