Yup, I’ve been away since July 24th! This must be the longest hiatus since I began blogging. I’ve been incredibly busy, and also, at times, a sloth.
We finished cleaning out the documents and had the shredder visit.
I led exercise twice in July, and will lead again in September.
We made a trip to visit with Frankie’s family, to see My-Niece-The-Artist off to Denmark.
Scraps on a Mission has met, and we’ve made more quilt tops. (I’ll take a picture of the one I finished on Sunday, and post it.)
Share a Square is up and running again, and I’m trying to get some 6″ squares crocheted for them, and looking for volunteers.
The gardens have exploded with the recent rain. and so have the weeds. I finally started my Fall weeding today, and expect to weed daily until we finally get a killing frost.
Sis….I wanted you to know that we’re having Mom’s barbecue for dinner! *G*
So, filing, quilting, crocheting, cleaning the basement, weeding, exercise…these are the things of my life. Read on for more.
I hope you are all having a great summer!
Daily Archives: August 16, 2011
The Tall and the Short of It
We had a visit from one of my great nephews. I think he may be the tallest of the lot, and I couldn’t resist a quick picture. Dear Husband is such a good sport about short jokes. He has the biggest heart of any man I’ve ever met!
Share a Square 2011
If you’ve read here over the past three years, you know that I crochet squares for the Share a Square project. Shelly Tucker of This Eclectic Live has organized people who crochet to make afghans for children who are attending cancer care camp.
I hope that if you know anyone who crochets you will encourage them to go to the FAQ page on Shelley’s blog to read up on what she needs. Shelly has a nice group of people stitching away for her, but she can use more help. Every afghan has 80 six-inch crocheted blocks, and each block is from a different person. Our goal is to make 150 afghans to give to kids at camp during the summer of 2011. Shelly is already accepting squares for the first 50 afghans.
If you look to the right, you can see a link with a crocheted block. Your work doesn’t have to be this complex. I’m learning a few more intermediate block designs, but I also send simple (old-fashioned) granny squares. The blocks must be crocheted out of worsted weight yarn (acrylic, no wool), and you need to be sure to weave the tails of the yarn through the stitches on the back. End your stitching at a corner, and leave an 18″ tail to be used assembling the squares.
Help……we need your help! Join us at Facebook if you like.
Boxes
I’m sure that I rambled on about BOXES in my July entries. We decided that we would hire one of those shredding trucks to come and destroy out of date documents. We hired a youth group to bring the boxes upstairs, and then Dear Husband and I started going through the boxes.
DH separated all the pages from the binders. When he was done there was a line eight feet long of empty binders, with more binders starting a second level. I don’t think we will need to buy binders again.
While Dear Husband worked on the binders, I started going through my mothers papers. The dirt was incredible. I’m sure there was dirt left from Missouri, her previous home, about 25 years ago! We had checks and registers going back to 1982. Once those were done, I cleared out our personal papers, which was a little bit easier. I save more than I should, but I organize it in a way that makes it easy to separate the important things from the trash.
I developed a system moving things out of one box, removing paper clips, mementos and anything that couldn’t go through the shredder. I spent one Saturday sorting through the boxes at the speed of light, watching reruns of CSI:NY. When I finished the personal papers I moved on to the company documents.
Ultimately, we had forty seven boxes lined up along the back side of the fireplace in the foyer.
I even found things in the office that could go, staying up one night to be sure that everything that needed to be shredded was ready to go. Of course, the shredder came a week later, and I had to wait all day for him to show up.
Still, it’s such a relief that we have started getting this cleaned up. Now I need to use the shop vac that I borrowed from My-Sister-The-Nurse, so that I can get it back to her. No more being a sloth for me!
Gardening
Oh, my……the gardens have gotten away from me once again.
It’s silly to think that they are going to behave while I spend a month indoors hiding from the heat. It was cool at the start of the day, so I went out to work in the long bed along the drive. I thought I just needed to pull about six tall weeds and cut out four shrubby starts. On the drive side the gardens weren’t too bad, but on the lawn side of the bed it’s nightmare. I did a quick and dirty cleanup of the center of the bed on the drive side, and cut down the shrubs. I’ll have put put hours in on the gardens every morning for the next month!
Johnson’s or who ever it is who makes “Off” is going to make a fortune off me because the mosquitoes are dreadful! The hard part about working in the cool of the morning is that the mosquitoes are still out in force. I wear long pants, a long-sleeved shirt with a turtle neck and a hat, and all my clothes get sprayed. I add a little to my neck and ears, and do a lot of ducking from the ‘sketers that get past the Off.
I’ll have to make a note to myself to do before and after pictures.
Family Breakfast
We had the pleasure of a long weekend with my youngest sister and her family before my youngest niece flew off to Copenhagen for a semester of study. Frankie tried to stuff us with the most amazing food, beautifully prepared. We actually skipped lunch on Monday because we were so full from the exceptional brunch she had put together.
I was thinking about a snooze that afternoon when My-Niece-The-Artist brought out the sewing machine and started sewing squares together. “Niece….what are you working on?” “A quilt.” (Have you ever heard of Eleanor Burn’s series “Quilt in a Day”? Or, Mary Ellen Hopkins who makes a quilt within 24 hours so that she can put that date on the quilt? It can be done, but I was surprised she was doing it less than 24 hours before her plane took off.) I offered to pin the rows together. Dear Husband and My-Sister-The-Nurse helped to move the fabric through the sewing machine. We had the top completed shortly after dinner. The Artist and Frankie flew into town to get the batting, and the two of them, and My-Niece-The-Photographer layered and pinned that quilt and Frankie bound it. The Artist packed it in her luggage, and will tie it into a comforter when she is in Denmark. The coolest thing about this quilt, other than the fact that it went together in a heartbeat is that The Artist will be wrapped up in a quilt that everyone had a hand in helping to make. Lots of love in that quilt! I’ll have to ask her to send me a picture so that I can post it here.
While we were visiting, there was a plumbing problem in the newer part of the house. As they were trying to get laundry done so My-Niece-the-Artist could pack clean clothes for her trip, they were trying to deal with a leak in the pipes that had water flowing from the utility room to the garage. The problem spread, and they finally called for a plumber. The bathroom, master bedroom, utility room, the stairs to the lower level and part of the garage all need repairs now. My sis and her husband are fortunate that they are empty nesters right now, so that they can move to the older part of the house while the repairs are made. Tree roots. Who would have thought they could cause so much damage!?
Tuesday morning, a week ago, we all gathered for breakfast because The Artist was flying to Denmark, The Photographer and her SO were going back to school, and My-Sister-The-Nurse, Dear Husband and I were driving home. It was a noisy gathering, and we had a great breakfast. Here’s a picture of most of the happy diners:
Here’s My-Sister-The-Nurse with The Artist. Don’t you LOVE the legs???
It was tough to say goodbye, but we all know what amazing memories she will have of this trip, so we sent her off with love and the caveat that she enjoy every moment of her semester.