Day 561

It took a phone call to give me some inspiration.

I've been hanging out with Christmas fabric for quite some time now. Sewing scraps, strips, and squares into bigger pieces. Cutting out lots and lots of stockings. I've kind of got lost in the repetition. I've been frantically working so my box of stockings can be one of the first that Stockings for Soldiers receive when they open their doors on October 1st. Except somehow I overlooked that they open October 15th instead.

I'm so thankful for those extra couple weeks. I've needed to get started back on some kids' quilts but my inspiration has been gone. But along came a phone call this afternoon that changed that. A call from someone who shares an enjoyment of quilting. Just the conversation got me thinking, and more importantly, got me moving.

At least I've now chosen the fabric for the next batch. Baby steps.

Day 560

I was starting to feel a bit sorry for myself today. My back has been killing me, my arthritis has been flaring up in a big way, and even my "new" knee (the one with the replacement) has been causing me troubles. I'm not feeling in control of my pain and I'm not feeling in control of my life.

But when I got home from taking hubby to therapy, I had a package waiting. Christmas fabric from Ruth. A package stuffed as full as full can get. As I opened that package and sorted through the fabrics I looked around my sewing room. I have quilt tops and pictures on fabric ready for quilts and lots and lots of Christmas stockings all around me. On my table and on bookshelves and even stacked on the floor. All for charity.

In that moment I recognized that the doggone pain clouds my thinking. No more feeling sorry for myself! I'm ever so thankful to have what I have. To be able to do what I do. And for Ruth for sending the Christmas fabric that will soon be sewn into stockings for soldiers.

Day 559

I predicted I could get 12 Christmas stockings out of the fabric squares I discovered in a drawer.

I was wrong. I got 14.

Day 558

A huge gotta-get-it-done kind of day where hubby tagged along. While there were so many good things that happened today - the relief of getting some of the medical bills paid, the finally feeling of getting a couple small checks deposited that had been sitting on the desk since mid-July. Having a daughter want to hang out with her parents as they ran errands. Having my mom be able to use up some of our surplus tomatoes and seeing some stockings she sewed for me for Stockings for Soldiers. Another finally feeling with a clothing return at the store, checking an eye doctor appointment off my list, a trip to the craft store, and a daughter who put the donation bag in her car to save us a stop and bagged our groceries for us at the grocery store.

But I think hubby had one and only one thing that stood out in his mind. The Ram. On Day 528 when he was in the hospital he had suggested I go to the Ram for my meal of the day. It was delicious then, so today I let him cheat on his diet and took him to the Ram. Bourbon Black Jack burger with a side of coleslaw (no fries allowed on his diet, but I did allow him three.) Heaven for him! My patty melt was heaven too, as were the ice cream cupcakes that the four of us shared. Both the strawberry and peanut butter were equally delicious in their own way.

Mom's stockings

Day 557

I'm still working away at scrappy Christmas stockings, but during one of my breaks I was at the computer in the den. I sensed the cat was underneath me or beside me.

Yep. No wonder she was so quiet.

Day 556

Thanks to the armoire, turtles, and Ruth I'll be making even more Christmas stockings for Stockings for Soldiers.

The armoire: When we moved the armoire this week I had to find new places for the things that were housed in that piece of furniture. When I started opening drawers in my sewing room I came across some squares of Christmas fabric that I bought back on Day 185. (A whole stack is right there in the middle of the third row in that day's picture.) How I forgot about having them I'll never know. But now that I've rediscovered them I'm using them with some other red, green, and white scraps from Day 273 to make even more patchwork-y stockings.

The turtles: When I finished up all those big turtle pillows for The Painted Turtle Camp on Day 154 I had lots of odd shaped pieces of fabric leftover. I tucked those pieces away thinking I'd use them in some way. Today I cut them into more workable pieces and am combining them with the Christmas squares for more stockings. Between all those scraps, strips, and squares I think I can probably get at least a dozen more stockings with the scraps I have but I'll still be short of my goal.

And then along comes Ruth, a reader of this blog. She e-mailed me, offering to send more Christmas scraps my way. Of course I took her up on her offer. Thanks a bunch, Ruth!

With all that, I've made two stockings so far today. These patchwork-y ones take so much longer than if I was using yards of fabric, especially when I'm combining Christmas squares and fabric strips and ovals from the insides of turtle shells to come up with a Christmas stocking.

But the time it's taking me doesn't matter. The only thing that does matters is that this stocking will be hanging on a soldier's wall in Afghanistan at Christmas.

Day 555

I knew it looked bad before I started working on it in February.

Then when I finished on Day 354 I thought it was a big improvement.

But after trying to work from home this last month I realized the den was driving me nuts. It wasn't the best set up and it was still a bit messy for my tastes.

Fast forward from February to this first week of September. Add in daughter's strong boyfriend who moved the armoire from the sewing room into the den and I finally feel good about the less-cluttered work space.

Day 554

Whether it has to do with Christmas stockings or hubby's kidney issues, everything is a numbers game.

Hubby still has a full time babysitter. Our daughter covers Tuesdays so I can go to work and I cover the rest of the days. 24/7. Nonstop. Where he goes, I go. Where I go, he goes. If I need to go to the store he comes along and sits in the chairs by the deli, or the bench by the bathrooms, or in the car, or sometimes he walks part of the way with me. 22 days of it.

But today's number game for him was a little more promising. He had a visit to the nephrologist (kidney specialist). On Day 506 his kidneys were operating at 20% of normal. Thanks to his extensive hospital stay and the right course of medications his kidneys are up to 50%. Only when they begin pulling back on some of his medications (which won't happen for at least a couple months) will they know more about the outlook, but the doctor is quite optimistic about his progress so far.

As for the Christmas stockings for Stockings for Soldiers:
99 made. Six more out of scraps. Six more out of even smaller scraps. Discovery of leftover Elvis scraps netted four more stockings.

115 total. Mom sewed up 10 for me, leaving me 105 to sew. Last year I did 80 (I think). I was hoping to double that number (that would make 160) but unless I find more Christmas fabric hiding somewhere or I make hubby go with me to the fabric store with me it won't happen.

Day 553

I love it when my family helps me find my picture of the day. I love it even more when they bring it right to me while I'm working inside. And since I love my daughter lots anyway, I especially love today's picture.

When you deadhead flowers at my house you never know what is going to crawl up your arm!

Day 552

It wasn't only yesterday's quail that reproduced like crazy. My Christmas scraps have done the same thing.

Those 99 stockings I cut out produced scraps. Those scraps were put together to make six patchwork stockings. The creation of those patchwork stockings created even more scraps. Those scraps were then put together to make six more stockings.

I thought I was done until I turned around and looked behind me. I still have scraps from the Elvis-themed Christmas stockings. Guess more patchwork (and scrap) stockings are in my future.

Day 551

It seems like forever I've been waiting to take this picture. In reality it has just been since Day 405. Back then I snapped this shot of a pair of quail:

It seemed like all spring not a couple days would go by without me spying a pair roaming around the yard. I just knew there would be lots of babies this year.

I was right. I've seen lots of babies these last few weeks and just haven't been able to get them all in the same frame. I tried my best today and got quite a few of them, but I still didn't get them all.

Day 550

My attempt to be perfect almost kept me from today's picture.

On Day 518 I cut out 99 Christmas stockings for Stockings for Soldiers. On Day 544 I took all the scraps left over from cutting those stockings and sewed them into strips with the intent of making patchwork stockings. And today, after looking at the finished product, I almost didn't turn them into stockings.

But I looked beyond my need to impress others and looked at the needs of others. Those scraps allowed me to make six more stockings, stockings that six soldiers wouldn't have received otherwise.

With these six new stockings I have even more - even smaller - scraps. More stockings perhaps?

Day 549

Some days I'm impressed by the picture I take. Some days the picture is just so-so.

This one here started out as one of my so-so ones. Just another picture of another flower.

Only when I put it as the background on my computer did it become a wow picture. What a gorgeous site every time I get on the computer! I need to start using my pictures more often.

Day 548

Because of my husband's love of barns, every time I sit on my couch I appreciate what I have. If he didn't like me snapping pictures of barns I wouldn't have this sitting over my couch:

This poster-sized picture was taken by me while we were driving in upstate New York. Every time I look at it I know how lucky we are. We have done so many things and seen so many spectacular sights all over this country. Not everyone can say they've seen all fifty states, or even traveled to Canada. This barn picture is always a great reminder of our blessed life.

But hubby has been complaining about the barn picture. It has been on the wall a few years now and he's been asking for a new one. Only when I was putting together the photo book of the Alaska trip did I get motivated to get a new one ordered. My plan was to use a glacier picture but hubby opted for one taken earlier this year in Sisters, Oregon on Day 410.

Even though I didn't get to choose the picture, it too will be a reminder of our wonderful lives. I am so lucky, thankful, and appreciative of the opportunities we've been given.

Who gets to take a cruise ship through a glacial field to see glaciers up close, stand in the middle of a suspension bridge, hand deliver quilts to Alaska, and have gorgeous roses in their garden? And if that wasn't enough, I stumbled across another picture to have enlarged that I took on our trip a few years back to Lake Louise, Canada. How many people get to stay at Chateau Lake Louise and experience a view like the one on the bottom left?

I have a great life.

Day 547

I never got into big purses. I figure if I have a big purse I'll wind up sticking all kinds of stuff in there, so instead I'm a small purse gal. I like it neat and tidy.

With all expenses covered on the cruise ship there was no need to use my purse. But when I went into town (buying that quilt fabric) I took it along. And there is where the problem started. I began shoving the receipts into my purse. Then on our way home from the cruise hubby gave me his wallet to hold on to. (He was having enough difficulty with himself that a wallet was the last thing he wanted.) Me holding that wallet came in handy when I had provide his ID and insurance information when he wound up in the hospital before we even made it to the house.

Then came the going back and forth to the hospital and the eating out once a day. Again, more receipts went into the purse. Ever so often stopping at the grocery store after a long day at the hospital produced even more receipts and coupons that printed out at the register.

Even after finally getting him settled in at home the shoving stuff in the purse didn't stop. Physical therapy appointment cards, doctor lab orders, and a whole bunch of crap has made my purse impossible.

So today I sat down and dumped it out. Here, for all the world to see, is the mess these last two months of my life has created. And it was all crammed into my small purse.

 

Most of it went in the trash and now I feel better.

Day 546

I finally found an interesting non-food picture. It's probably good enough to turn into one of those Mystery Monday pictures I used to do.

In fact, I used to do a lot of things. Mystery Monday, Tutorial Tuesday, Win It Wednesday. I used to visit other blogs and quilting websites and post comments and pictures and videos. I used to get lots of readers and visitors because of all that, but I've been ignoring all of those things for quite some time. I'm thinking I need to get back to the tutorials at some point. Maybe. Just not yet.

I just as soon stick with my charity sewing instead. I have some quilts to work on but right now I'm still sewing all those Christmas scraps into strips which will be turned into stockings for Stockings for Soldiers.

But today my picture is the best part of my day. Any ideas?

Day 545

I was able to get away from the food pictures for a total of one whole day.

Kiddo came home today and took over the dad-sitting duties. I finally, for the first time since he got home from the hospital, got to go to work. For a full day. 9 to 5. In my office, with my files and folders and binders and big screen computer. It was nice getting to see people again and getting back into the swing of things. But it was only temporary. Kiddo goes back to work tomorrow and works every day until next Tuesday.

Hubby had kiddo clean house while I was gone (guess he didn't appreciate the housecleaning I was trying to fit in between taking care of him and working from home). And coming home to a what's for dinner after a full busy day at work stopped me from even wanting to think about dinner. Alejandra's, where hubby could have a couple tacos and very few chips, was where we wound up.

I'm sure he would have loved to have this chip. I wouldn't let that happen - I think it probably would have counted for at least seven or eight.

Day 544

I don't know how I found time today to finally get in the sewing room, but I did. When both hubby and kitty were sleeping this afternoon I snuck in and got the machine humming.

On Day 518 when I cut all those stockings for Stockings for Soldiers I had lots of scraps left. Big, little, and everything in between. I'm attempting to use up all those scraps to make even more stockings. So all those scraps were cut down into strips, all those strips sewn together with another strip. Now the next step is figuring out where to go from here. Probably sew strips to strips and then...???

Day 543

When my daughter called last night she told me I was putting too much food on the blog. She's right, but I just can't get out of that rut. Can't get myself to the sewing room to start (or finish) any projects, can't even step foot into the rose garden to snap some blooms.

Right now life is about just getting by. Getting the proper meals cooked, getting the dude fed, cleaning up. Keeping up with the house, delivering every thing he needs, keeping on top of multiple medications and multiple blood pressure readings each day. Going to therapy, going to work for a few minutes while he's at therapy, getting work done from home. The merry-go-round just keeps going. But it's better than when he was in the hospital. At least my home base is my actual home.

So kiddo, I will work on finding some non-food pictures. But for today I have to go with this one. I was digging red potatoes and picking tomatoes for my mom and for folks at work (hubby can't have either so we might as well share) and came across this red tater who must have thought he had a different purpose in life. And yep, that's all one potato sitting next to the regular-sized potato.

Day 542

I get lots of questions about how hubby is doing, so here's the scoop.

Not much has changed. He's weak, he's tired, he's using a cane. His blood pressure is running very low and his heart rate is running high. He spends most of his day in bed, but does get out for physical therapy three times a week. I realized how weak he is when I bought him an ice cream cone yesterday. Just holding up his arm long enough to eat the cone made him shake. A lot. He had to prop his elbow to help support the arm (and the cone). He's got a long way to go.

His hunger gets away from him and I find him going over his restrictive diet in all three categories - potassium, protein, and sodium. He's probably going over in the sugar department, too. I made another batch of cookies today.

This time it was gingersnaps. And this time I bagged them up and put them in the freezer. Maybe out of sight, out of mind will keep him (and me) from dipping into them so much.

 

Day 541

Of the pictures I took today, I can't decide which is the most interesting.

It might be the one I took on our way back from physical therapy when the UPS truck was parked in front of the USPS.

 

It could be the picture I took of the friendly carrots I found while cleaning out my vegetable drawer.

Or it could be the one I took after having shut myself in the den for a couple hours doing school work. When I left the den, the house was as quiet as could be. And guess who was taking a nap on the edge the couch? (Hint: It wasn't hubby - he was sleeping in the bedroom.)

Day 540

It seems so counter intuitive that someone who has been as sick as my husband is being limited on good, healthy foods. To protect and strengthen his kidneys he has a pretty restrictive diet - particularly restrictive on the healthy foods.

When he gets up in the middle of the night to eat I have to keep him away from the cantaloupe and tell him to stay out of the carrots, but I have to let him have cookies. Today's batch was homemade chocolate chip/butterscotch chip.

Apologies for all the food pictures over these last few weeks...food seems to be consuming our lives right now.

Day 539

In October last year, on Day 218, I posted this picture of kale from our garden.

On that day I talked about happiness. And I lamented: But being happy when my husband wants me to eat some freshly picked-from-the-garden kale? I'm trying to be happy on that one, but I'm not sure I can get there.

Obviously my ideas about kale have changed. As I was picking kale this morning I kept talking to myself about how good the kale looked. Even when I brought it in, I kept talking about how good it was. Go figure! Sure is gonna be tasty in my juice tomorrow morning.

Day 538

Lots of things came out of the kitchen of Debz Diner (thanks for the name, Lisa!) but the prettiest was a fruit salad.

Day 537

Not enough choices.

That's the complaint I've already received from my husband in regards to my cooking. He seems to think he is still a hospital patient and should be able to pick from several choices on a menu.

I thought I was doing pretty well in the choice department. In the past few days for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks he's had:

• English muffins
• Cereal
• Oatmeal
• Yogurt
• Scrambled egg
• Veggie breakfast sausage
• Toast
• A large green salad
• Chicken tacos
• A tuna salad
• Roasted chicken
• Grilled tuna fish sandwich
• Chicken fried rice
• Cantaloupe
• Cottage cheese
• Jello with fruit
• Orange sherbet
• Chocolate/strawberry/vanilla swirl ice cream cups
• Grapes
• Blueberries
• Applesauce
• Fruit cocktail
• Grape juice
• 7up
• Mio flavored water
• Crystal Light

 I'm not a short-order cook but it looks like I'm on my way. Tonight's menu special was fried rice.

Brown rice tossed with carrots, peas, celery, onions and peppers from the garden, a bit of turkey bacon, some chicken, and a scrambled egg. Having not used brown rice before there's only one thing to say. Yum.

Day 536

I've had several squirrel stories to tell on this blog. There was one squirrel who was looking at me all friendly-like through the window, the one who appeared ready to attack me like the one in the movie Christmas Vacation, and the one who planted a walnut tree in our herb garden.

This one appears ready to play hide-and-go-seek with me. Except he cheats - just look at him peeking out from behind the branch and not even completely covering his eyes.

Day 535

I don't usually do much in terms of gross, icky, I-really-didn't-want-to-see-that kinds of pictures.

Today I couldn't resist. When picking veggies from the garden I found something on my zucchini plant I didn't want to get near. Lots of somethings.

Bugs. Beetles. Hundreds of them. This picture shows just one little section of one leaf. Multiple this by 10 or so more patches on the rest of the plant and we now have an invasion.

Day 534

I shouldn't have been surprised when I heard noises in the kitchen at 2 AM.

With hubby spending the last month on a calorie controlled low sodium, low protein, low potassium diet and then being on steroids for the last few weeks, he's hungry guy. I just didn't expect him to get out of bed and get to the kitchen without me waking up. But it made me realize I was going to need to start hiding food.

Now that's he's home he still has to stick with the low sodium-protein-potassium diet. Those foods he loves - tomatoes, potatoes, kale, cantaloupe, nuts, red meats - are all on his only a tiny bit list. So the cantaloupe I cut up is hiding in the back of the refrigerator where he can't see it. I won't be keeping any kale in the fridge but instead will pick it just before I put it in my juice. Nuts will be sent to the basement (a place way off limits for him right now). No red meats are in the house. I put all the tomatoes I had in the house into a salsa knowing he wouldn't just grab it and start eating it plain. (Although the tortilla chips I do have are shoved up on top of the fridge.) And I've hidden the granola bars in a bag in the den.

I've got my notebook right beside me tracking his every morsel and the corresponding potassium, sodium, and protein numbers. It's a bit tricky because if something is okay on the protein list it usually isn't okay on the potassium list and if it's okay on the potassium list it might not be on the sodium list. Lots of cross checking has to happen before he gets a meal.

For our lunch today I made homemade chicken tacos. Corn tortillas, plain chicken, finely shredded cheese, romaine lettuce, jalapeno peppers, onions, and a bit of salsa. To keep within his required numbers portions were small but sure were tasty. Maybe even better than those I had for my solo anniversary dinner at Alejandras on Day 514.

Day 533

Between me, my daughter, her boyfriend, and whoever it was that hauled off the broken exercise bike, that to-do list from Day 527 is being checked off like crazy.

I still need to go through my mail and wash and chop my vegetables. But the weeds have been pulled, the roses pruned. The irrigation pump filter cleaned, the daisies dug up and my car has been serviced. One more thing has been finished up, too.

The hospital visits.

Hubby's kidneys are getting better and his muscles are getting stronger, so after one full month of sleeping in the hospital, one full month of tests and diagnosis, of highs and lows, of more medications than anyone should have to take, hubby came home today. We'll begin a new chapter with outpatient therapy visits and 'round the clock care being provided by me. (Our insurance plan doesn't provide for daily living activities or long-term care.)

Of all days for a hospital bill to arrive. We've been receiving doctor bills and radiology bills and surgeon bills and all other kinds of ancillary bills, but the bill for the first week in the hospital arrived today.

One week, $30,620.68. Quite interesting to see the different amounts detailed. If you don't think prescription drugs drive up the cost of medical care in this country, take a look at the "pharmacy", "other pharmacy", and "drugs" lines. The medication-related costs exceeded the cost of the room itself. 

Thank goodness for insurance.

Day 532

I tried to be patient at the hospital today.

There was a great picture opportunity at eye level out the window of hubby's room. I waited and waited, trying to catch the osprey in flight. Unfortunately it had no interest in moving anywhere and continued to hide behind the power pole.

Day 531

When I got home from work a couple different words came out of my mouth.

The first one was Yay! The wildflower-turned-perennial garden looks great.

The next word was A-MAZ-ING! The straw we used to mulch the strawberries keeps springing up wheat. I hadn't been behind the shed since we came back from vacation (hmm...wonder why?) so I didn't realize it was so bad. Kiddo and kiddo's boyfriend tackled it today. A-MAZ-ING is all I have to say about the before and after pictures they took.

Day 530

Gotta love those kids. My one kid, throw in her boyfriend, and you've got a work crew tackling my to-do list.

On Day 508 my wildflower-turned-perennial garden looked like this:

Since then, all the daisies have died off leaving ugly desperately-in-need-of-deadheading plants. That, plus the realization I may not have anyone to help me in the gardens ever again led me to the decision to dig up all but my favorite flowers.

After a long day at work today I came home to find that progress had been made.

It may be empty looking but it's sure looking good to me. Can't wait to see what I find tomorrow when I get home!