November Challenge Day 16

It’s the 16th and today I’m supposed to tell you about my proudest moment. Goodness, that’s a hard one. I am proud of the people our children all turned out to be.  I am proud of the fact that Dennis and I have done everything on our own, with help from the Lord, and taught our children the value of hard work and honesty.

But, probably my proudest moment was when Dennis graduated from college. We were so poor. He was discharged from the Air Force in August. We were married in September and he started back to school that same month. He worked full-time while going to school 3-4 nights a week. It took four years to earn his two year Associates degree and another three to earn his Bachelors degree. He never missed a semester of school, but went constantly for those seven years, working the entire time. During that time period, both Mandy and Jamie were born. There were no computers back then, so after he got home from school about 9:30 at night, I would sit up late into the night and type his papers for him so he could study for the next day and get some sleep before going to work at six the next morning. Do you all remember typewriters?  None of his professors allowed white-out to be used. Inevitably, I would be near the end of the page and would make a mistake and have to start all over again. I almost felt as though I earned that degree along with him. We made a lot of sacrifices during those days and had next to nothing, but we had each other and a dream.

Here is more Christmas to show you. I have the nativity scene set up on the dresser in the bedroom. It was the only place I could be sure it wouldn’t get bumped. Most of you recognize it from past years blogs don’t you? I made this the first year we were married, 42 years ago. It has survived 12 years of an in-home daycare with children playing with the pieces and four moves. So far, nothing has been broken.

The boot toppers seem to be a success. It poured most of the day today and I wore these while walking Chloe. They stayed in place just fine. So much more comfortable than without them.

I started a sock this afternoon. This picture is not showing the true color at all. It is Knit Picks stroll yarn in the Manatee colorway. This is the yarn that I unraveled from the shawl last week. I am using Vera’s pattern, who has “The Threaded Lane” blog over on my side bar. Thanks Vera!  I love this pattern.

I got my grocery order from Walmart this morning. Those shelves must be really empty inside! They substituted eight different things. And they were out of several more on my list.  What were they out of?   Chicken broth, ham, ground beef, pork chops, coffee, refried beans, con queso dip and sausage gravy packets, to name a few.  It is so frustrating. I had my menu plan all made up for the next 2 1/2 weeks and now I have to change it. As frustrating as grocery pick up is, I have no desire to go inside any stores right now to shop on my own. We will eat what we have and be happy to have it.

It looks as if more and more states are in lockdown. I saw a news article where one poor woman had lost both of her parents, her aunt and uncle and two cousins to COVID. I felt so bad for her. You could feel her pain and her sadness as she spoke. I pray for all of you every day to stay safe, healthy,

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy