Monthly Archives: March 2020

Are You Bored Yet?

I was reading another blogger’s blog and she wrote that this time was made for introverts.  She may be onto something there as I have been very content to stay at home and piddle around the house during this enforced isolation. Of course, that’s what I do almost every day, so this is not much of a change for me.  The only thing different is David is also at home all day, every day, but we have been enjoying this time together very much.  We certainly haven’t been bored.

We are catching up on some chores around the house we have said we needed to do and we are enjoying watching some new shows we are finding on AmazonPrime and Acorntv.  We painted a bedroom I’ve wanted to paint for a while.  It started out being a white room, but as I painted, I felt very discontented with it and so we bought some new paint in a soft, pink blush color.  I immediately felt more soothed by this color. It’s true that colors do affect how we feel in many cases.  Which is why I don’t think prison cells should be grey, but should be painted happier, softer colors to ease the savage beast.

Anyway, I was very happy how the bedroom turned out. I put a fresh quilt on the bed and we folded all my quilts and stacked some of them on an old trunk in the room. Lace curtains at the window and I’m going to hang a quilt behind the bed and it will be finished.  I just may sleep in that room tonight.

We’ve been working in the yard, raking and cutting down the big grasses so the new grasses can grow up.  Seems Spring has sprung as all the daffodils are blooming, the magnolia trees are budding out and you can see a tinge of green in all the bushes and trees.  My favorite time of year.  Forty-three years ago, I was expected my baby girl.  She was born March 30th so I am going to bake some cupcakes and bread tomorrow and David is going to make ham salad and we are going to take it over to her house and leave it at her door.  She lives up a hill where we also have property so we will check up on that while we are there.

This has been a crazy time for a lot of people.  Having children home all day sounds like fun to me, but I’m sure parents are having to adjust to it.   My grandson is missing a lot of his senior year which is a bummer. No prom, no senior day, maybe no graduation, at least on the day it was supposed to happen.  I’m sure we will have a party for him at some date.  I can’t believe some of the things that are being cancelled that are months ahead.  Do the powers that be think this crisis is going to go on that long?

Again no pictures today, but I have several I will be posting.  Someone posted this on Facebook. Nine months from today there will be a baby boom.  Will some crazy parent name his little girl Corona Virus?  Or Corona Vi for short?  Don’t be surprised!

Just checking in and hope you all are not feeling too isolated. There’s always the internet, Facebook or the phone. Call someone you haven’t actually talked to for a while and make their day.

Be safe, have fun and just know this will pass. Bye.

 

Sharing Toilet Paper

What is it about toilet paper that has people so anxious?  And why are people hoarding it now?   You can only use so much toilet paper in a month, but some people are buying enough to last a year or two. Why is that?  Did you ever think toilet paper would be the most coveted item on everyone’s grocery list?

And what happens when the toilet paper starts to run out everywhere?  Will we have a government bill passed that ensures that every American would have a month’s worth  of toilet paper sent to them every month?   Will toilet paper take the place of the welfare check?    Or will we have a toilet paper exchange where you get so many sheets of toilet paper for so many eggs?  Or loaves of bread? Or anything?  Will toilet paper become part of the black market where people meet in dark alleys to slip a roll to someone for a few bucks?    I can see it now. The new mega millionaire who gets rich by selling underground toilet paper.  Maybe that’s what all these toilet paper hoarders have in mind.  Would you buy toilet paper on E-bay if it were priced 100% higher than the stores had had it? Would you really get that desperate?

I read where somewhere in the U.S. people were ripping up t-shirts and using it for toilet paper causing major sewer jams.   I call that desperate, but if you can’t flush, what’s the use?   You are left with a bigger problem.

So let’s all work together and buy ONLY what we need.  Don’t hoard. Share. Remember that word? We learned it in kindergarten.  Make this toilet paper scare a thing of the past.

Back So Soon?

I don’t usually write two blogs so close to each other, but I hated keeping the coronavirus blog up too long. As far as I’m concerned it’s a downer and I don’t deal in downers very often.  I just hope I didn’t disturb or cause angst to anyone who is truly concerned about it all. I just can’t make myself get too upset about it.  I guess if the grocery stores continue to have empty shelves, I may get a little worried, but we are being assured the trucks are delivering and the stockers are stocking the shelves.

Enough of that. I’m sitting here this Saint Patrick’s Day watching John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in the wonderful movie, The Quiet Man and thinking how different this Saint Patrick’s Day is from last years’ for many people. No celebrating in bars or wearing of the green so you don’t get pinched.  I guess I could have made green cupcakes or something, but I didn’t.  Happy Saint Patrick’s Day. We will all remember this one as the one where we were not allowed to gather and celebrate because of a nasty old virus.

I’ve been sewing up a storm in my shop.  I’ve got most of the 123 blocks finished for the six quilts I plan to make.  I’ve been sifting through my containers of fabric finding treasures I had forgotten about and today I found a quilt top I had forgotten I made years ago with my quilt class when I was teaching beginning quilting.  My class made a different block every week learning how to sew straight seams, do curves, match points and other things until they had twenty blocks and then they sewed it all together into a quilt top.  Then they’d come to my house and we would lay their quilt top, batting and backing together and baste them together. Then it was up to them to finish the quilt. I don’t know how many completed their quilt, but it was fun teaching all the ladies I taught.  I always made a quilt right along with my class and I have finished all of mine except this one, but it will get finished now.

This is what my shop looks like now.  Believe it or not my cutting table was clear of anything a few weeks ago, but since I’ve started making all the block, it’s a jumble of fabric right now.

A stack of the quilt blocks I am making.

There is work going on in this mess. Really.

Each of these piles of fabric will be a quilt block.

When I have them all completed then I will have to decide which blocks go into each quilt.

About two weeks ago my sister and brother-in-law celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary. When my sister got married, I was in the fourth grade and she had been like a second mother to me.   When she got a job at a bank in the city right after graduation, she used some of her hard earned money and bought me a bride doll. I still have her. I’ll have to show her to you sometime.  Anyway, I wonder if this was a portent of things to come because she soon met my future brother-in-law and got engaged. When I learned she was going to get married and leave home I cried.  Then at the wedding I cried and cried.  I did not want my sister to leave me.  But she did and 62 years later we were sitting talking and my brother-in-law said, “You didn’t want me to marry Joanne,” and I told him he was taking away my sister.  But he’s been a good brother-in-law and I’ve forgiven him for taking Joanne away.   Seems like only yesterday.  I forgot to take any pictures of them because we were visiting and talking about everything.  My parents’ farm is right next door to my sister’s house and it was sold to a relative who did not take good care of it.  The barn fell down and the house is falling down and there are trees growing in all my daddy’s fields where he use to grow corn and hay and oats.  It’s sad to see it like that.  My parents took such good care of their home and farm when they were alive.

We drove some back roads as usual when we went to my sister’s house.

Saw this along the way.

Never heard of this place, but we came upon it on our drive.

We went through the town of Liberty where my mother grew up and I have a cousin who still lives there.

His father began this supermarket many years ago and now my cousin, Tim, is the owner and manager.   We stopped in to see him. Usually I don’t see him anymore except at funerals, the last one being his mother’s, my Aunt Suzanne, so it was nice to see him on a normal day.  He and I and another cousin were all born within months of each other and we grew up together and saw each other whenever we’d visit my grandpa and my other cousin was down from Detroit where she lived. He was so surprised to see us. We had a nice visit and then we had to go on.

I didn’t show you my birthday cakes so here they are.

David got the candles on there wrong.  It should be 17!  Ha!  Seems like I was just 17 yesterday.

This was a sweet little cake that I let David eat as I ate the entire chocolate by myself. And was sorry for it!

We’ve been doing some chores around the house getting ready for gardening time.

David cleared out what I call the kitchen garden. Right now it looks barren, but it won’t be long until the rhubarb is up and all the perennials I’ve planted  through the years will be coming up.

You can barely see at the bottom of the birdhouses day lilies beginning to pop out.

Daffodils are popping out all around the garden. Spring is only days away.

Hope you are surviving the coronavirus scare and looking forward to warm and bright days ahead.  Bye.

 

 

 

The Coronavirus and Me

No, I still don’t have any pictures. I’d show you what the Coronavirus looks like if I could. It’s kind of pretty as viruses go.   I’m just writing to tell you how stunned I am at how scared people are and how panicked some seem to be.  I’ve been out and about and most people I see are going on about their affairs while all the news shows are telling us to stay home.

They can stay home if they want to, but I’ve got a life to live and no virus is going to stop me.  It may stop me from getting groceries when some of these scared people go to the stores and clear out the shelves with things they will never use.  More food is being bought than I’ve ever seen. Do people think they are going to be locked in their homes and not allowed to go to the grocery for months?  My preacher couldn’t find a roast. My son couldn’t find one piece of chicken for his curry.  Either there’s going to be a whole lot of cooking going on in the next few weeks or a whole lot of food is going to spoil and  be thrown out.

It really bothers me when churches close. Seems to me that’s where people ought to be during something like this manufactured crisis praying for common sense and patience with people who are so scared.  If you really think you might get the virus if someone breathes on you, then stay home.  I’m going shopping tomorrow in hopes of finding some things I need on the shelves.

How do you feel about this virus?  I’m just amazed that people are having to be told to wash their hands. What in the world have they been doing?   And I hear you should wash with plain old soap and water and not to use hand sanitzers too much as they tend to become useless after a while.  I agree with that.  Maybe we are too clean.  Maybe being exposed to a few germs might be healthier.  And stay out of hospitals if you fear germs because  they have more germs there than anywhere else.

Anyway, the Coronavirus and me might meet up one day, who knows and it we do, I will stay home and drink lots of liquids and take aspirin.  The only time I’ve ever had the flu was after I got the flu shot. Go figure.  I’ve refused a flu shot ever since.  From people who should know I’ve heard that the flu shot is only for one particular flu every year, so if you get another kind, it doesn’t do a bit of good.

I really hope you aren’t one of those who is panicking over this. You really shouldn’t.  As C.S. Lewis wrote, we all are going to die of something. It’s in our future, no matter what.  So should we fear this virus any more than the volcano that might erupt, the tornado that might fly overhead,  or the bullet that might fly?  As FDR said, “There is nothing to fear, but fear itself.”  Wise words because I think it’s the fear that is fueling this more than the disease itself.

I really hope and pray all who reads this will remain well, but should you get the virus, don’t worry.  If you are a relatively healthy person you will pull through as thousands have.  I will pray this all will end soon. And don’t listen to the panic mongers on the news shows. Go out and have some fun with your kids since all the schools are closed.  Bye.

I promise my next blog will have pictures.

I Write Blogs in my Head

If you are a blogger, you know you are always looking for something to write about.  Anyway, I do. I write blogs while I’m quilting, while I’m laying in bed unable to sleep, at the  most strange times a story will pop into my head. I really ought to carry a pad and pen with me and write down what I am thinking, because I’ve written the best blogs when I’m not sitting at the computer. Honest.  I will think of something and it will grow and grow in my mind and I think to myself, “you really should write this down because you will forget it all if you don’t.”  But I don’t write it down and then later I forget what I was going to write.

So I was sitting in my Lazyboy on the computer when this idea for a blog popped into my head so here I am, writing it and now I can’t remember exactly what the aim of this post was supposed to be!   All I know is I have had some pretty amazing blogs pass through my brain and you would have been astounded how great they are, but sadly, none get on this site.

This is my birthday month and already I’ve had reason to celebrate as I went to my favorite antique store where a lady has a booth of fabric and sewing paraphernalia and I got a big pile of really nice fabric to use in the quilts I am  making now.  It’s almost like she saw me coming and stocked her booth just for me.   Tomorrow is actually my birthday and we are going out to eat at a restaurant where I have a coupon for a free salad bar and since I’m easy to please, this makes me so happy.   I also have two cakes, TWO, albeit they are small cakes that David slipped in on me and I just happened to see them in the cake stands.  One is chocolate and the other is a tiny white cake with one rose on top.  I’d eat a piece tonight, but I better wait until tomorrow to start gaining weight.

 

March, April and May are my favorite months of the year.  I love Spring so much and already the flowers are poking through the soil and we have a few daffodils almost ready to bloom.  For some reason this Winter has been especially hard on me. I’ve been cold all the time and can be wearing three layers and have two blankets on me and still be cold.  I’m so glad we have a heated mattress pad on our bed. Best invention ever. It’s like getting onto a hot pad for your whole body and while I usually have to turn it off after a while, when I first get into bed it’s an ahhhh moment for me.

There’s been a lot going on around here and now we are getting ready to paint one of our bedrooms. I’ve grown to love the shabby chic look and want to make this particular bedroom look shabby chic.  I’m making a quilt for the bed and found some beautiful linen pillowcases with wide ruffles and I plan to paint some of the furniture white.  David’s not sure about that, but since I will be doing all the work, he won’t stop the progress!  I don’t know how long this is going to take me, but when it’s all done, I will TRY to remember to take some pictures to show you the finished project.   We bought an old chicken nesting box a while back and I plan to paint it and store things in it, fabric or linens or something.  The box needs a lot of cleaning as it was used, well, by chickens and they are not the neatest creatures on the planet.  I laugh sometimes when I see ladies have put curtains in their chicken coops or nice furniture or paintings on the wall. I tried decorating our chicken coop when we first built it. I bought a picture of roosters to hang on the wall which I thought my girls would like. I also hung posters of chickens on the walls.  Well, those hens made short order of the posters, tearing them to shred, pooped all over the curtains and knocked the rooster picture whopper-jawed.  Needless to say, all they get now is a good cleaning out of their coop and a -refreshing of their bedding every so often.  No more shabby “chick” for those girls.

I hope to have some pictures for you next time.  I know I like to read blogs that have pretty pictures to look at. There are some really pretty blogs out there and I love looking at them and  I look forward to these.  I try to stay away from the blogs where they are constantly selling something.  I like to read about people’s lives all over the world. We all really are not that much different.  We all are looking for beauty in our lives  and love in our homes.

Here’s to all you bloggers. May you continue to entertain and inform us.  Bye.