No Disney For Me

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If you read my last post you know that I am down in Florida in a hospital waiting to be released. It’s been a not fun three days of tests and being jabbed with needles and having my blood pressure taken. There is no sleeping at night because the nurses come in constantly checking on me. I am dreaming of a bath in a tub and a soft bed with real pillows.

Here I am in a hospital bed waiting for a doctor to tell me whether or not I can leave. If not for my computer, kindle and a puzzle book I would have been lost. I’ve kept up with friends and family so I don’t feel so alone. But being in the hospital is like being in the army. They are constantly asking for your name and birth date and you are always waiting. We were suppose to be spending these days at Walt Disney World. No Disney for me and David. Boo.

I know there is a reason for everything and I am here in this bed for a reason. But I sure would like to know what that reason is. Is it teaching me patience? Sometimes I don’t have much patience especially when I have to wait. Poor David is waiting with me which I am thankful for, but it’s hard on him, too.

Back home there was an ice storm and my dogs, who live outside, have been spending time in their insulated dog house. Our pet sitter is taking good care of them, but I still worry because if I were home, they would be in the shop with the furnace going. I don’t think I will ever take a trip this late in the Fall again even though the ice storm was unusual for this time of year. The electricity went off I heard and I am wondering if it went off at our house and for how long.

UPDATE: I was finally released from the hospital hours after they told me I would be released. This has been the worst stay in a hospital I have ever had. I would be told they would bring me Advil for my headache. It never showed up. They wanted a “specimen” from me and they never picked it up or provided the medication I was needing at the time. When I was about to check out the RN finally asked me if I wanted her to order the medication. Knowing it would take hours for it to show up I told her “no.” When I was finally checked out, David went to get the car and I was told I would be taken out in a wheelchair. I waited and waited and finally I went into the hall and an RN said, “You are anxious to leave.” It wasn’t until then she called down for someone to bring a wheelchair up for me. I could have walked down and been going back to our rental faster. Then the doctor gave me a new prescription and when David went to fill it, the pharmacy said the doctor had not signed it so they could not fill it. As I write, poor David is trying to hunt up this doctor to get his signature. I am very unhappy. I told David if I needed to go to the hospital again, drive out of Florida before taking me to one. If you are reading this and live in Florida and have had better experiences in the hospital, I am glad for you, but this particular hospital will get a very bad review from me. I’m usually pretty tolerant and understanding, but this was too much. Done with my rant now!

So tomorrow I hope we can spend some time with family and maybe find a yarn shop and relax before we start our trip back. I am so looking forward to being home. I certainly will remember this vacation!

Have you had horror stories about a hospital? In my city the hospital is great and I have always been happy with the treatment. I don’t know what happened with this hospital in Florida.

My next post I won’t sound as crabby. Bye. Oh, and I did get my nice bath and will have a comfy bed with real pillows tonight.

Why I’m Never Making Plans Again

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Do you make plans? Do they always go as you planned? Or are you like me. As soon as you make some plans nothing goes according to plan. This has happened to me a lot lately.

When my daughter decided she wanted to do a ten week twenty day physical therapy routine in Indianapolis I said, “Sure, I’ll be glad to go with you. Then David had to have eye surgery on both eyes and I had doctor appointments I could not cancel. So I could not go with her every time. Plus our son bought us tickets to Walt Disney World for four days in November and I would miss one week going to Indianapolis with her. My plans went all askew.

Our oldest son bought us tickets to Walt Disney World and rented a house for us and our daughter’s family and we all were looking forward to spending some fun time together. The first day in Florida we went to Legoland and had a great time. Then the first day at Disney I began to feel really bad. It was hot and I thought it was just the heat. I could barely walk around the park without feeling like I was going to faint. When we got home I went to bed and slept hoping the next morning I would feel better, but I felt worse. So we went to a new clinic just down the road from our rental and the doctor there sent me to the hospital. That’s where I’ve been ever since. My heart rate is very low and now they are talking about my kidneys. Help! So here I sit in the hospital on what should have been a fun day, waiting for the doctor to give me more news. I also have to have more tests………

If you are a praying person, pray for me right now. Bye.

Halloween

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I’m not sure if Halloween is purely an American holiday, but we Americans sure go all out for it every year. It’s been reported we spend as much on Halloween decorations as we do Christmas ones. I’m not sure about that because I have never gone out driving to see the Halloween lights, but if “they” say so, it must be so.

I loved Halloween when I was a kid. We lived in a tiny town of about 400 people and everyone knew everyone else or was related to them or knew some of their relations. I knew the grandparents, cousins and aunt and uncle of my husband long before I met him because he was an “out of towner.” So, when you went trick or treating, you knew every one in every house you visited.

I don’t remember any of my Halloween costumes except one. My mother made me a white rabbit suit one year with long ears and a furry tail. It was so hot to wear, but I loved that thing. I was probably a first or second grader at the time and our class paraded around the school in our costumes, going into each classroom. Now my school had grades one through twelve in one building. I had older brothers and a sister in the school at the time so we visited their classrooms. I remember going in one room and suddenly one of the older boys was laughing and pointing at me. I wondered what was so funny until someone told me my flap was down. There was a flap on the backside of the costume so I could well, use the bathroom should I need to, and evidently I had not refastened it. I was so embarrassed. I walked out of the room backward.

In other years I am sure my mother bought those hot fabric masks they use to sell in the five and dime stores and I would find some old clothes of some kind to wear and my brothers would take me trick or treating. I remember wearing those masks and sweating and the more I breathed in and out, the sweatier I got. Those masks sell for high prices in antique stores now.

Since everyone knew each other, at each house the person handing out the treats would try to guess who we were before they would give us any candy. It was a long drawn out affair with names being guessed and I could only shake my head so as not to give myself away. Finally they would guess who I was and put a candy bar in my bag. Back then we got the big size candy bars, not the tiny ones handed out now. I was taught to say “thank you,” and then we would proceed to the next house. Being a country girl, it was so much fun to be in the “big” city going door to door and seeing all the people I knew.

When we had visited about every house in town we would go back home and mother would put a sheet on the floor and we would dump our bags onto it one at a time. For some reason my brothers always seemed to have more candy than I did. They would have these big piles while my little pile looked puny in comparison. But still, there was a lot of candy and we got to eat some before we went to bed and then mother would put it up and dole it out a little at a time.

When my children use to go trick or treating they would bring their bags home and dump it all out. I would always look for the Snickers bars and when the candy was put away, the Snickers bars would mysteriously disappear from the candy stash. My children are old enough now I can tell them my deep, dark secret. But they very rarely got to eat any of the Snickers bars they got in their trick or treat bags. I don’t think they really cared because they didn’t like Snickers or at least that’s what I tell myself!

When I got older and thought I was too old to trick or treat I wanted to go out tricking like some of the older kids would do. You could always tell it was Halloween in our town because all the windows of every business had been soaped. I don’t think that’s done much anymore and would probably get kids in trouble now, but back then it was a rite of passage. Soaping was taking a bar of soap and writing or scribbling something on windows. So one year my very best friend, Mary Jean, and I decided we would soap windows. We were both terrified of getting caught so we didn’t soap many windows, but we did throw shelled corn on people’s porches and thought we were sooo bad! But it was harmless fun and the adults in our town knew to expect it and put up with it for one night of the year. There was some outhouse tipping that was not funny and my brothers told of some cow tipping although I think that was just a myth that came out every Halloween.

Back in the day my brothers use to tell me there were these two men who lived in our barn. They would tell me they heard them talking and would scare me so much. I didn’t now why my daddy would permit two men to live in our barn. I think that was another myth my brothers told just to scare their little sister. At least I hope so.

My daddy worked nights in those days and we kids and our mother would sit up waiting for him to come home. One Halloween we were sitting outside looking at the moon and my mother said she saw a witch fly across the moon. My mother could tell a story and make me believe it no matter what it was about. I just knew she had seen a witch fly across the moon. She saw a UFO once(or so she said) and I was forever looking up in the sky for a UFO. Those were such fun times though and I remember them with such fondness.

So now I watch as my grandchildren celebrate Halloween by dressing up and collecting candy. My grandsons go trick or treating two or three times and don’t usually know most of the people who give them candy. My one grandson dressed up like the headless horseman this year.

Speaking of the headless horseman. We always watched Disney’s cartoon version which was usually shown right around Halloween. It would always scare me to death. Poor Ichabod Crane. No one ever knew what became of him. So when I learned that Conner Prairie, an 1836 reproduction village north of Indianapolis had headless horseman hayrides, I just had to go. My older grandchildren and their mother go every year. First you walk around Conner Prairie where they have puppet shows, crafts and food booths and a story teller and then when it’s your turn you get on a big wagon with several other happy people and ride back in the woods. Slowly your horses clop along. You sit there in anticipation. Suddenly, there he is, the headless horseman coming behind the wagon on a big, black horse, his cape flying, his head gone and he is galloping faster and faster. He is laughing this awful laugh as he comes closer and closer and suddenly he is right beside the wagon and you can feel the horse’s breath right on you if you are sitting in the back, which I was, and you scream your head off until he finally gallops away. So much fun!!!

They say Halloween is a pagan holiday. It may be for some. For me it’s all about fun. As long a no one gets hurt or too scared it’s a holiday I hope we continue to celebrate. I don’t go for the gory or bloody or murderous Halloween. I go for more the Casper the Friendly Ghost kind of Halloween. The candy filled Halloween. The cute costumes Halloween. The slightly scary Halloween. Happy Halloween! Bye.

Oh, Glorious Days

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I love Autumn. I use to love Summer, but I have become heat intolerant the older I get and I don’t like to sweat so there’s that, too. We have been having some glorious days and today was one. Driving back from Indianapolis from my daughter’s physical therapy we saw some of the most beautiful red leaved trees in a field. The leaves are indeed starting to change. They are later than usual, but that’s okay. It will be beautiful in Brown County in another week and the leaf gazers will be out in force.

We have been busy doing things with the Grandboys. Once again we attended Grandparents’ Day at the Christian school two of our Grandboys attend. We always enjoy it. And we take them out to eat and get to have some one on one time with them. It’s fun having a real conversation with our older Grandboys about all kinds of subjects.

This one went from a little boy to a young man almost overnight. I hate it, but what can I do? Kids grow up right before our eyes almost.

This one is a Junior. Ack!

Taller than us both and such a nice boy. We love them both so much.

Then soccer with this Grandboy. His team won both games. Yay!

This boy can kick a soccer ball. He made several goals.

Sitting on his mama’s lap between games.

This is our “baby” Grandboy. Getting so tall also. He played goalie for a while.

Sometimes he didn’t look very interested! His team won their games, too. Yay!

Since this was the last of the soccer games for the season there were concessions, booths giving away things from water bottles to Tide sticks and some were selling soccer paraphernalia. And this guy showed up since Target was sponsoring the whole thing.

The sky was so blue that day.

Trees starting to turn. It was just glorious and nice to be outside although right after the games the wind picked up and began blowing pretty hard. Leaves flying everywhere.

In Autumn it seems the flowers give their last hurrah as if they know that soon they will be resting for a few months.

My hydrangea had more flowers on it than ever before.

I’ve always wanted blue hydrangeas and this year I finally have one. I do have to add something to the soil so they will turn blue.

I’ve done very minimal Autumn decorating this year as I won’t be around for most of it.

Fairy lights, pumpkins and Halloween figures on the mantel.

A tray of tiny pumpkins and a Buttered Maple Syrup scented candle. I haven’t lit it yet, but maybe tonight.

And of course, new yarn has been ordered and received. I used up a bunch of yarn on patchwork socks and so I needed a new stash.

These colors are so beautiful. My horrible photography does not do these colors any justice at all, but believe me, they are deep colored and delicious looking. I can’t wait to get them wound and let the knitting begin. I’m really going to have to relearn how to knit sweaters because I have knit so many socks this year. I use to knit sweaters and things for my kids years ago, but it seems I have forgotten all I ever knew.

Enjoy these glorious Autumn days because Winter is right around the corner. Bye.

Been Through the Wringer

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Do you feel like our country has been put through the wringer in the past few weeks? Or months? Or years? Being put through the wringer is being twisted, squashed, pounded, and completely drained. I have never seen anything like it in all my years on this earth. Before you read much farther, this may get political.

I love politics. I will be up front with you about that. Ever since I got to vote for the first time at eighteen, I have loved politics. I watched CSPAN faithfully. I kept up with and still do, all the news I can watch. Being honest with you, I believe there are several “news” shows that have drifted from being the news to being opinion shows and that is fine, I just wish they would admit to it. I voted for Jimmy Carter. GASP! I grew up and started to see how politicians affected my life and my pocketbook. Politics seems to have become all touchy feely anymore. Not about the operation of our great country and how our money is spent and how protected we are. It’s about how people FEEL, not the facts or what is good for them.

During the last confirmation hearings of the new Supreme Court judge it went from finding out how well the man would serve on the court, how qualified he was, how long he has served with distinction, to something he didn’t do years ago, could not be proven and then he was called a drunk, that he threw ice in a bar, the horror, and that he did not have the temperament to be a judge despite the FACT he has served as a judge for decades and been praised over and over for how he performed on the job. I know many women reading this are saying, but, but, he may or may or may not have done something to a girl in high school? Well, there were no witnesses, no one to back the woman up, no evidence of anything she said and yet the “news” media continued the lies and deception over and over to try to brainwash people into believing one thing only. How many of us can say we were perfect in high school? How many of us have done things we would not want brought to light? Would we want our lives ruined because someone may or may not have remembered something we may or may not have done thirty, forty, fifty years ago? Things that could never be proven? We live in a very dangerous world if someone can throw allegations at you with absolutely no proof and then you are found guilty. It could happen to anyone. Even you or me.

Then we watch as people, mostly young men and women throwing what I call tantrums and rioting in the streets. They are not peaceful demonstrations. I have seen people punched, signs torn from people’s hands and ripped apart, elderly people harassed by dancing young women who get in their faces and shout. There is absolutely no respect for anyone from most of these people. Is this the kind of country we all want? It’s not the country in which I grew up. Do we want to hear our leaders telling others to get in people’s faces and shouting them out of restaurants? Where has civility gone? I noticed it began years ago when a certain young president told his followers, “If they bring a knife, you bring a gun.” I wondered then, who was bringing a knife?? Another politician tells people to get in the faces of those with whom they disagree. And just this week I heard the woman who wanted to be president tell us that liberals cannot be civil with conservatives. What kind of leadership is that? Certainly not a leader who wants to unite people. I don’t want a leader like that who promotes violence. And less you say our president does that, I have listened to most of his speeches and he has never promoted violence. Yes, he has asked protesters to be removed from his rallies which I don’t find a bad thing. And yes, people say “Lock her up,” about Hillary even though we know that family can get away with just about anything and nothing will happen. It’s called letting off steam, but I have been to a Trump rally and there is no violence there and it was fun. I’m telling the world most of all the negative things you are hearing about President Trump is not the truth. If you are reading this just know, most of us like the job he is doing. We have more money in our paychecks, we haven’t entered anymore wars and he is trying to protect our borders that have become like a sieve.

I love peace and harmony. I don’t want to see people shouting at each other, striking each other and doing all kinds of mean things because of politics. I want to get along with those who may vote differently from me, but if my man or woman wins, I want people to respect the office and respect our country enough not to throw a tantrum. I certainly kept quiet for years when people were elected to office with whom I disagreed. I just waited and quietly voted. It seems one side is not content to do that any longer. If someone beats their candidate, there has to be something wrong with the world. Maybe we should all just turn off our tvs, get together for a pitch-in dinner and talk among ourselves and ignore the politicians and talking heads for a while. I’d love to invite you for a cup of coffee and cinnamon rolls and just talk about our lives and our families. Most people all around the world only want the simple things. Freedom, enough food, shelter, friends and family. This is what I pray for the world, my country, my family, and my friends.

We don’t want to be put through the wringer any longer. Stop threatening to impeach someone duly elected or confirmed in his job. Stop telling us what you want us to hear or believe and start telling us the truth. Get along for a few months, at least, and let the country rest. We have had enough.

Here’s to freedom and being able to voice my opinion. May it never be taken away. Bye.

Autumn Weekend

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Autumn has officially began with all its glory. No, the trees are not changing color yet, but lots of things shout that Autumn is here. Everywhere you go, you see pumpkins at roadside stands, in fields and at grocery stores. Mums in all different colors are displayed and tempt us to buy one, two or three.

Candy corn and candy pumpkins are put out in the stores. We have already gone through three bags of candy pumpkins or I should say, David has gone through three bags of pumpkins. I ate one pumpkin, but I think they taste like wax. I did some baking in an Autumn theme. Cookies for a bake sale iced in orange icing and sprinkled with orange sprinkles. My daughter said they made $275 for the MS Society at the sale, the charity the children chose to donate to. I also baked a caked, iced in orange icing with candy pumpkins on top.

I am slowly decorating for Autumn.

The little tray I bought at an antique store filled with, what else, pumpkins.

I love getting out all my Autumn quilts. I am working on a pumpkin quilt right now and have an apple one to finish. Maybe this week or next I will be done painting and will have time to devote to quilting. Speaking of painting, I have been painting on something since the first of the year. I painted the inside of my shop, the shed, the outside of my shop, boards for our new screened in porch, stained and polyurethaned two screen doors, and today I finished staining the floor of our front porch once again. I also am preparing to paint four new barn quilts to hang on the front of our house. To say I am growing tired of painting is an understatement.

I love changing out my wardrobe from Summer things to cool weather things. I am getting out my clothes and washing and ironing them getting ready for a new season.

Our Grandboys spent the weekend with us. It’s always fun to have them here. We went to see the movie, “Small Foot” about a man taken in by the Yeti who considered him an object of curiosity. It was cute, but I thought the music was way too loud. The movie, “Goosebumps 2” that is coming looks really good. I don’t see too many movies anymore because most just aren’t my cup of tea. There are very few movies made for adults that appeal to me. There is always a hidden message that I don’t care to see. Why does Hollywood do that? Just make a good movie with good dialogue and we will come.

Took the boys to church and right in the middle of it, one of them left to go to the bathroom and was in there for a very long time so David got up to check on him. A while later, here they came and Foster had lost a tooth. He put it in his pocket to take home, but later I saw it lying on the floor underneath a pew. Wonder what the janitors would have thought about finding a tooth in the sanctuary? I use to clean our church. I found some strange stuff at times.

Anyway, he put the tooth back in his pocket and I hope the tooth fairy was good to him.

We took the boys home and visited with our granddogs. I love Golden Retrievers, but I will never have one because of the long hair that has to be brushed all the time. My daughter’s Goldens are just beautiful and the sweetest things. I took lots of pictures of them with the boys.

Lily, on the floor is the mother.

Two sweet faces.

Now that’s a doggie smile. My son-in-law was telling me that one day when he was off work, he was putting his shoes on to take a walk and the dogs all knew what was happening and he said they all looked like they had big smiles on their faces because they knew they were going out for a walk with him. Oliver, the dog who lost his leg in a trap, still wanders sometimes. You would think he had learned.

This is Oliver, the one I wrote a story about. He is so beautiful and you hardly notice he has a leg gone.

You can tell the boys and the dogs love each other.

Really tried to get a picture outside, but the dogs didn’t cooperate. They wanted to play.

My grandson made a basketball goal out of paper just because he wanted to.

I like to encourage creativity. I think he did a good job.

This week will be more trips to Indianapolis for my daughter’s PT. We had a little excitement coming home last time. We were driving along on the interstate and a car with some men inside, drove up beside us and a man pointed to our car and wanted us to stop. Me, being the paranoid person I am, and having heard of scams where men do this to women to get them to stop, I told my daughter to just keep driving. The men had pulled off to the side of the interstate thinking we would follow them. We were near our exit and the outlet mall where David works so we drove to the store and I went in and he came out to see. Lo and behold, we had a sort of flat tire. David looked at it and had us go to a filling station to fill it with air. A side story. Once when we were traveling through Arizona, we stopped at a filling station and suddenly a man came up and looked under our car and said if we didn’t have a certain thing repaired, our car might flip. David, being a mechanic in the military, knows about cars and blew him off. We traveled thousands of miles in that car afterward with absolutely no trouble, so I believe we were being scammed in that instance. But me, I worried all the time about that car flipping! I am completely useless when it comes to cars and their repairs.

Remember when we had the kittens under our porch? Our daughter took one and Sunday was the first time I had seen him since she adopted him.

He is beautiful with a beauty mark on his face.

But very hard to hang on to. He’s made them a nice pet.

Here’s to Autumn, Goldens, Grandboys and Cats. Bye.

September, I Hardly Knew Ye

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I’m sitting here with a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee laced with Pumpkin Spice creamer watching WPC56, a British crime drama on tv. David and I have a penchant for British shows, especially ones that take place in the middle of the last century when he and I were just babies. We pretty much watched all they had on Netflix, quit Netflix and started Amazon Prime which has a large selection on Britbox. One of my favorites I’ve watched in the past few weeks was the Village about a late nineteenth and early twentieth century British village and all the happenings in it. It was before women’s suffrage and during the first world war. Very interesting.

But enough about what I’m watching. This month has flown by in a haze. Earlier David and I had both gone in for eye exams and because I have had problems with one of my eyes and am blind in it, I figured the doctor would find something wrong with me, but instead, David found out he had very bad cataracts and had to have surgery to remove them. He had told me a while ago that when we were sitting and bird watching that the birds looked a little blurry. I thought he just needed a new glasses prescription. Surprise to us. So, this week he had the first eye done and while the doctor was in there he fixed David’s astigmatism. After he gets his second eye done he won’t have to wear glasses any longer. Just use reading glasses. I have only known him wearing glasses and I’ve known him since I was twelve, so it will be strange to see him go without them. He has already seen a difference. Amazing what they can do nowadays.

My daughter has MS and has entered a new physical therapy study in Indianapolis and I volunteered to go with her two times a week for moral support. Plus I have to get her scooter out of the car and put it back in again. Let’s just say, I have very little upper body strength so it’s been fun getting that scooter in and out of the car. We practically have to take it all apart so I can lift it, but we get it done. She has a very nice therapist whose name is Depak who is very inspirational and makes us both feel like he can help her movement a lot more. So I’m looking forward to the next ten weeks as she is put through the paces.

I have been knitting up a storm. David and I took a road trip to a little town that had a really nice yarn shop and I bought this yarn

I’ve already knit one sock from this.

This is knitting up into a beautiful sock.

This is the yarn I am using. It was a bit pricey, but the yarn is wonderful and knits up so well and I can probably get a couple of pair of small socks from the remaining yarn when I get the larger socks knit. As of today I have knit fifteen pairs of socks since January and hope to get several more done before Christmas. I was thinking I would like to knit socks and sell them and was checking out what other people charged for handknit socks and the prices ran from $40.00 a pair to $65.00 a pair depending on the price of the yarn. I may have to start selling some socks to feed my sock knitting habit I have acquired. Believe me, the time it takes to make them, getting a pair of handknit socks is a wonderful gift. I did knit one sock in a couple of days this week only because I was challenging myself to see if I could do one that quickly. I know there are lots of faster knitters than me out there, but I never thought I would ever be able to knit one sock, let alone dozens of pairs.

I am hoping to branch out into larger knitted items. I found this pattern at the same store. It looks fairly easy. Just knit rectangles and sew them together. I’m thinking of knitting it in a soft lavender.

I had Thanksgiving dinner Sunday for my family since we will be gone on Thanksgiving this year. I hadn’t made a big meal like that for months and it plum wore me out. I baked a pie, homemade rolls, made homemade noodles and several other dishes to go along. After I have cooked a big meal like that, I am not hungry until everyone goes home and then my appetite suddenly comes back and then I eat. As you have read, cooking isn’t my favorite pastime, but I can do it when the need arises. This next week I will be baking cookies for a bake sale. One of our grandsons is in a club at school where they do things for others and they are having a bake sale and the profits will go to a charity they have picked, but they have to ask people to bake something for them so my grandson called me on the phone and asked me if I would bake something. Of course. I would do anything for my grandchildren if I can. Glad they are teaching the children to think of others. We need more of that.

I didn’t get any pictures of our “Thanksgiving” dinner only the aftermath.

The table really looked pretty. You’ll have to take my word for it. But I find I am living more in the moment nowadays and don’t think of taking pictures until it’s too late. I used my Fiestaware dishes and it was a very colorful table.

Then we gathered around the tv to see some videos of Disney World rides we will be riding( well, some of us will be riding) when we all go there together. I’m afraid riding anything that drops suddenly is off my list of rides, but I am sure I will have plenty of things to see and do while we are there. See the guy in the red shirt on the floor? That’s our oldest son. He is almost fifty and he loves amusement parks. He has a season pass to King’s Island in Cincinnati and goes there almost every day before and/or after work. He’s ridden all the roller coasters. This is the kid who was afraid of heights and once when we had to sit way up in the uppermost seats at a Cincinnati Reds game, he was afraid. Things have changed.

October will bring another surgery and more trips to Indianapolis. I’m hoping to get some quilting done. Ever since we remodeled my shop, I have had hardly any time to just go out there and sew. I did finish sewing together a wall hanging today which thrilled me beyond all reason. Plus we are getting our house painted and a new screened in back porch built. It’s going to be another very busy month.

Hope your days are filled with some work and some play and that you will enjoy the Autumn weather because the heat will soon go away. Halleluhah. Bye.

To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question

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I have never liked to cook. I like to bake, but cooking just bores me, but it’s the one thing I have to do several times a week whether I want to or not or we’d just be eating sandwiches and salads.

Through the fifty years we have been married I have probably spent thousands of hours in the kitchen doing that which I find boring. It’s a necessary evil and someone has to do it and I’m that someone. I’m a pretty good cook, too. That is what is amazing. I did have a good teacher when she could get me into the kitchen. My mother. She was the best cook around. I still miss her fried chicken. My chicken doesn’t hold a candle to hers. My mother wasn’t all that fond of cooking either and yet, she spent most of her life in the kitchen cooking up big meals for our family of eight and huge dinners for company which we had quite often. I always thought people showed up right at dinner or supper time on purpose to eat some of my mother’s cooking. I did it a few times myself after I got married. Mom always had something good to eat and always a dessert.

Now when I cook for company there is a whole new dilemma. What to cook. Today so many people are on diets or special diets or can’t eat certain foods or are diabetic or can’t have salt or are lactose intolerant or eating gluten free or on the keto diet. I find cooking for company isn’t at all fun anymore. I can’t fix several different things to fill all the needs of everyone. When my mother cooked, she didn’t ask what one could or couldn’t eat. She cooked a meal and you ate it. If you couldn’t eat something, you didn’t say anything. Now you have to take notes on who can eat what.

So many people are dieting all the time now. I know it’s healthier to be slim, but there is fanaticism to it one didn’t see years ago. I’ve been on every diet in the book and I just gave up and eat pretty much what I want. Even if the doctor says don’t eat this or that. I’m going to die some day anyway, I might as well die happy. My husband eats everything with lots of salt and is skinny and hardly ever sees the doctor. His grandmother was a thin woman and lived into her nineties, so I think he takes after her. And if he does go on a diet all he has to do to lose weight is leave out a slice of bread and he’ll drop pounds. Life is not fair!

So do you have a special diet? Do you love to cook? How easy is it for you to plan meals? That’s another thing. Planning all the meals just makes me have to think of food all the time. When I ask my husband what he would like to eat he always says, “I don’t know, let me think about it,” so that is what we will have one day. A plate of I don’t know with dessert being I’ll think about it! Hope he likes it.

I don’t even know why I am writing about food and diets and all that anyway. I think it’s because I am about ready to go grocery shopping and the whole vicious cycle will start again. What to eat or not to eat. That is the question. Bye.

Where Were You?

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Today is September 11th. A day we Americans remember with sadness, some anger, and hope that it never happens again. It was a day like no other I have experienced, when for just a little bit of time we Americans were banded together against one enemy. An enemy who thought nothing of flying two airplanes into office buildings and murdering thousands of our citizens. An enemy who used our airplanes to attack the Pentagon and would have done more damage if some brave souls on one plane didn’t fight back.

Now years later, we are still fighting this enemy while allowing many of them into our country. Something I just don’t understand at all. Would we have welcomed Nazis during WW2? I don’t think so. And less you try to tell me all muslims are not terrorists, just know that almost all terrorists are muslims. I watch them torture and murder Christians in several countries. What would happen here in the United States if we were under muslim control? May it never happen.

Where were you when the attack happened? I was cleaning our church at the time. I would go in at two o’clock in the morning and work until nine or ten that morning. On 9/11 I was taking out the trash in my car when I heard that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. My exact thought was, “What nut flew an airplane into that building?” I was thinking a small plane. I didn’t know until I got home and turned on the tv that it was an air liner and I saw the second one fly into the second building and I knew we were under serious attack. I sat glued to the tv all day. I had so many emotions that day. Grief, anger, disbelief, fear. When the pentagon was attacked I thought it was all out war. Maybe it should have been. Maybe we should have annihilated the enemy once for all in the days afterward. My heart broke for all those who lost loved ones that day. Remember all the pictures and messages posted on fences and walls by family members looking for their loved ones, hoping they had survived the attack? Those pictures still haunt me.

But true to form, the Democrats and Republicans could not remain as one voice for very long and soon some were for protecting all muslims at any cost while some wanted to bomb muslim countries into oblivion. Maybe if we had done that then, we would not be having the continuous threats to our country and many other countries around the world with muslim infiltration. I read about rapes going up in European countries because of muslim infiltration. In Sweden, rapes have sky rocketed in that small country. All because of their leaders allowing so many muslim men into their country.

I don’t know what the answer is. I ask God to protect our country from those who would destroy us. Just this week a hundred Banglesdesh people were stopped at our border. People are flooding our borders as never before. I heard today that since 9/11 border patrol and ICE have turned away eleven million people at our border. Millions more have come into our country illegally. Muslim Terrorists were even found living in a compound right on our border, who were training children to attack our schools. Our president is trying to stop this with a wall, but, as usual, the politicians can’t come together and get it done. I hope there will not be another 9/11 to wake some up.

This day brings many thoughts. If you live in a country being invaded, you understand what I am writing about. If you believe muslims are a peace loving people, and many are, that is your right, but the religion was founded on conquest and destruction and taking over people by force, if needed. The culture of Islam is not compatible with free countries. I never really thought much about Islam before 9/11, but I have thought a lot about it since and I have done some studying of it and nothing has proven to me it is peaceful. It’s only peaceful when kept in control.

So, when you ponder where you were and what you were thinking on this day, just know we must all come to some conclusion one day about who the enemy really is and what should be done about it. I pray we never have to endure another horrible day like 9/11 ever again.

Say a prayer for those who lost loved ones this day seventeen years ago and pray God will protect our countries from any more harm. Bye.

Once There Was A Summer

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Remember those first few days of Summer when you thought they were spread out before you like a gift just waiting to be opened? So many plans made for picnics, road trips and long, lazy days by the pool. Blue, blue skies? Warm sun on the face?

Days when clouds had curls on the top like a Dairy Queen ice cream cone?

Summer didn’t quite turn out that way for me. I have spent a great deal of Summer painting and gardening. We have talked for years about painting the house so this year we have decided to get it done. But first, we wanted to try some paint colors to see what we would like. We painted the shed and my shop a deep, dark syrupy chocolate and I like it.

Between David and myself we got them both done with two coats on each. We are having the house painted. No tall ladders for us.

It’s rained so much this Summer so we painted between the rain drops. The rain has done wonders for my garden, though.

The pumpkin vines have spread everywhere and I have seen a few pumpkins starting to form.

One vine grew up and tree and then down and there is a pumpkin hanging in there somewhere.

And the vine continues to grow down to earth again. Who knows where it will end up?

These pumpkin vines are waist high on me. The leaves are huge. I hope the pumpkins won’t disappoint.

Being a farmer’s daughter, I am always glad to see that the farmers have good stands of corn and soybeans in their fields. I heard on the radio that harvest may come early this year. Good for the farmers.

And even though it’s Summer, I have still found time for knitting. In the early morning or in the evenings I try to knit a bit. Here are a few of the socks that have come off my needles.

With all this yarn I knit a pair of patchwork socks.

Not sure anyone but me will want to wear these colorful socks, but I do love them.

Another pair of socks from odds and ends of yarn leftovers. I rather like these, too. These were a bear to knit for some reason. I tore out one of them three times, once when I was at the toe. Grrrr.

And I found the colors in this ball of yarn almost matched my patchwork socks.

And here they are. See the mistake? It’s hardly noticeable, but I know it’s there.

And I also did some patching of holes on some older socks I knit. These are some of the first socks I ever knitted. I knit little squares and sewed them over holes.

Then I did a little yarn embellishing. I will be glad to wear these on a cold Winter’s day.

The children are all back in school sitting at their desks hopefully filling their brains with useful information that will get them far in life. Our oldest grandchild started college this year and our youngest is in fourth grade. How fast they have grown. Soon the leaves will begin to change. The air will have a crispness in it that I have longed for all Summer. I am not a hot weather person. We have plans for this Autumn. I will be making trips to Indianapolis with our daughter as she takes part in a physical therapy study for MS patients. Pray for good results. Then we will all go to Walt Disney World together and have some fun. That’s our plans.

Hope your Summer was full of everything your heart desired and that Autumn will be the same. Bye.

Oh, and Belle and Molly give their regards.