Happy New Year!

Wishing each of you the happiest of days as you wake to a New Year in the morning.

My love and Gods blessings to each of you. May you trust your life to Him who NEVER fails.

Betsy

Recap Of The Year

Snow! Snow! Snow!

I don’t think you can see the snow falling in this photo but it is really coming down outside right now!

So many people online are doing recaps of their year.  I have tried to keep track before but have been unsuccessful. This year I did a pretty good job, although I think I forgot to write down a few things. This might be a boring post for some, but I want to get it in writing here so I can look back and compare it next year. Please feel free to skip onto the next blog if you’re not interested. Here we go!

CHARITY PROJECTS:

All knitted or crocheted.

Baby blankets - 14

Toddler blankets - 5

Wheelchair blankets - 7

Full Size - 1

Queen size - 1

Mittens- 118 pair

Shawls to nursing home - 5

Adult Hats - 23

Baby/Toddler Hats - 31

Knitted Knockers - breast prosthetics - 36

GIFTS:

Miscellaneous items:

Crochet mini-socks  filled with candy - 4

Crochet Mask Ear Savers - 23

Clothespin Bag (sewn) - 4 

Masks (sewn) - 23

Easter Bunnies - 22

Dishcloths - 12

Dish Scrubbies - 7

Knitted Socks - 13 pair

Knitted boot toppers - 2 pair

Child Knitted Sweaters- size 4 - 5

Child Knitted Sweaters - size 6x - 3

Child Knitted Sweaters - size 8 - 4

Adult Knitted Sweaters - 2

Scarf -1

Crochet Doilies - 2

Personal/Home Use:

Dishcloths - 4

Scrubbie - 1

Boot Toppers - 1 pair

Advent Mini-stockings - 25

Masks - sewn - 4

Dresses- sewn - 7

Cross-stitch - 7 squares ( Sheep Virtues) finished.  I believe there are five squares left to stitch.

Adult socks - 3 pair

Total Items - 421 (counting multiple items in a set such as mittens or socks as one per set, example- (1 pair of mittens = 1 item)

Wow!  That shocked even me. I am so glad I was able to give so many things away this year. And surprise! This year I even kept a few things for myself!

This is a photo of the road and the picnic table across the street. I’m guessing we have close to 8 inches or more of snow so far.

This one is outside our door. I have shoveled three times today already. And have cleaned that table on the right off twice!

It has been snowing since 9:00 last night and it is 3:30 in the afternoon right now. It was supposed to change to rain this afternoon but that has not happened.

I’m staying home except for Chloe‘s walks. Have a wonderful evening my friends.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Peace before the storm?

It’s been a few days since I posted so I thought I would just drop in and say hello. We have a snow storm on its way that is supposed to start within a half an hour or so. It is just after 9:30 on Tuesday evening and it is supposed to snow quite heavily for the next 36 hours. Right now the weather person is saying we should have 10 to 12 inches by the end of the day tomorrow, but snow is forecast for every day for the foreseeable future. The new year will definitely come in with a bang if the forecast is correct. ☃️😧

Today has been a peaceful day, although it was very icy out this morning.  It snowed a bit during the night and then we had a freezing fog and mist early this morning that iced everything over. I dropped some mail into the drop box at the post office and picked up a few groceries at Walmart pick-up, but I almost turned around and came home and canceled my order. I braved it out though and was able to accomplish everything, but not without a few slips and slides along the way. Now all I have to do is walk Chloe for the next few days. I have no reason to drive anywhere. Dennis does have to go to work every day except Friday though. He’s a good driver in this kind of weather, but not everyone else is and I worry about the other people driving. I would appreciate prayers for him as he’s out and about.

I have spent some time knitting on Dennis’s sweater the past two days. I am in the process of binding off the body and will start on the sleeves tomorrow. This is the Adirondack Pullover by Elizabeth Morrison and it is a paid for pattern on ravelry. I’m using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes yarn in worsted weight in the Cobblestone Heather colorway.

I received a wonderful surprise package in the mail today. Look at the goodies that were inside.

Three beautiful balls of Lion Brand Cupcake yarn. Two skeins were in the Forest Path colorway and one skein was in the Happy Dance colorway.  The sweet person who sent them to me wishes to remain anonymous but you know who you are and I appreciate it so much. I will definitely be able to make some things for charity with this yarn. Thank you!

Obviously some snow fell in Nebraska this week as you can see by the photo below. Mandy and Brad‘s neighbor built a snow cave for these four little girls today. I have marked out the faces of the other three girls as I don’t have their parents permission to put them on the Internet, but you can see Little Miss Piper. There is also a very cute video of her going sledding down a huge hill at the school, but I cannot figure out how to get it into Blogger. It was obvious that she had a good time though. I wish I still had this kind of love for snow!

I have been enjoying that quiet, in between week that happens every year between Christmas and New Year’s. I always enjoy this week as it seems to be a time to catch your breath and prepare for the new year. I did take the Christmas decorations down yesterday and put them away in our storage unit. After putting them up the first week of November, I was ready to get back to normal.

Be safe out there, all of my friends who live in the paths of these winter storms that seem to be rolling across the US one after another right now. And for the rest of you in the other parts of the world that I don’t have access to the weather, I wish you a very safe and wonderful week too. 

Do you all have BIG plans for New Year’s Eve? We do! I’m going to make a cheese ball and we’re going to watch the new year come in at 9:00 pm our time, because that will be midnight in New York! Then Dennis can go to bed without guilt! 😍. We have never been party goers, so this year won’t be any different than any other year in that respect.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Christmas 2020

Merry Christmas!

Amen and Amen!  Happy Birthday Jesus!

Blessings and love to you all,

Betsy and Dennis

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have all had a good day today, even if it might not have been spent how you would normally choose to spend Christmas Eve. We had a wonderful visit for a few hours with Alex and Tara on video chat. It’s the next best thing these days!  I also spent a few hours knitting on Dennis’s sweater.

Here is my Christmas Eve stocking.  A lovely stone with the word Imagine on it and some candy.  We have one more stocking to go for Christmas day tomorrow. Woo-hoo!

I am wishing you all the merriest and happiest of Christmases tomorrow. Even though in many cases we are unable to be with our families for various reasons, I still hope that your heart was blessed today. My prayer for each of you is that you would take a moment to reflect on the reason we celebrate Christmas and give gifts. The wise men brought gifts to the baby on that day of his birth so long ago.  Although we know it wasn’t on December 25, this is the day that has been set aside to remember the day that the greatest gift was ever given to mankind. The gift of salvation. I pray that each of you will choose to receive that gift someday, if you haven’t already.

I am so glad that each of you has chosen to read my blog out of the many that are out there. Many, many of you have become my friends through this blog.  I am very grateful for each one of you and I consider you a gift to my life. Again, I hope that you all have a wonderful and very happy, Christmas Day.

Blessings and love!

Betsy

December 23rd

Happy Christmas Eve, Eve! I didn’t even know there was such a thing until I heard it today on the radio. Here is my stocking from this morning. More yummy candy and a bottle of essential oil in the fresh linen scent. It smells very nice.

After dinner tonight, Dennis asked me if I would like to go look at Christmas lights. He knows I love to drive around and see them. Our snow is all gone, although it did turn bitterly cold again during the night last night. It is 14°F right now on our outside thermometer.  I took a few photos to share with all of you. The creativity of people never fails to amaze me. I hope you like the following pictures as much as I enjoyed our drive, although the photos don’t do justice to them.

This one looks so elegant with all of the white lights.

The following three are all the same house. Usually the homeowner is outside dressed as Santa handing out candy canes. This is the first year he wasn’t there. He probably thought it was better to keep his distance this year because of the virus.

Look at the inside of this bay window. It’s all set up as Santas workshop.

There was even more on the other side of the garage, but we didn’t want to hold up the line of cars that were driving by. Can you even begin to imagine the hours he takes setting all of this up?

I hope you enjoyed our little drive to see the lights tonight.

I did start the sweater for Dennis this evening. Nancy, at “Wyoming Breezes” over on my side bar emailed me with the name of the sweater and the date I had posted about it. She was a lifesaver! I could not find it anywhere. Thank you again Nancy. I really appreciate your investigation skills. In case you’re interested, it is the Adirondack Pullover by Elizabeth Morrison. It is a paid for pattern on Ravelry. I’m using Knit Picks, Wool of the Andes worsted weight yarn, in the Cobblestone Heather colorway.  I don’t have much done, but it’s a good start for one evening.

I hope you are all ready for Christmas Eve tomorrow. I know it’s not the Christmas most of us had planned. We had hoped our son Jamie and two grandchildren would be here today, but they decided it just wasn’t worth the risk of bringing the virus to us. Jamie works from home, but both of the kids are in school. I appreciate their concern but gosh, I sure miss my kids and grandkids. However, Dennis and I are determined to still enjoy the day remembering the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My wish is that you all will have a wonderful and blessed Christmas too.

I’ll see you tomorrow night!

Blessings,

Betsy

December 22nd

It’s almost December 23! Christmas Eve is the day after tomorrow. Oh my! How are you all doing with that? I’m reading through the book of Luke in the Bible, one chapter a day to help prepare my heart for Christmas this year. With all of the news and chaos out there in the world, it is really helping to calm my spirit. 

It has definitely gotten colder here. It’s supposed to be 16°F tonight. So far we are still cozy and warm here in the RV. The worst part is not having the doggie door for Chloe anymore. I am forced to take her out on walks several times a day which I guess isn’t all bad is it? It makes me get up, put my coat and boots on and wander around outside for a while instead of sitting in my chair all day.

I did go and pick up my groceries this morning, minus the eggnog and the bread I forgot to order. Walmart said they have been out of eggnog for days. Dennis really likes it and so I tried to order a half gallon for him. No luck. This will be the first Christmas since we were married that he hasn’t had his eggnog. When I talked to Mandy this afternoon, she said they haven’t had eggnog at their store either. There must be a problem with supply somewhere. The only thing they were out of besides the eggnog, was a pie I had ordered for Christmas and some biscuits. That wasn’t too bad. I have always made my own pies but the oven situation isn’t the best here, so I was going to splurge and buy a pecan pie as it is also a favorite of Dennis’s.  I may run across the road to the little store early tomorrow morning and get the pie and bread. I was thinking today that I don’t remember the last time I took a grocery cart and leisurely walked up and down the aisles choosing what I wanted to buy. It will seem so odd to be able to do that again someday.

And here is my mini stocking from this morning. Candy!

I did manage to finish one pair of mittens and the first one out of a second set. I have the cuff done on the remaining mitten, but probably won’t get much more done tonight.

I’m at the point where I need to decide what big project I’m going to work on next. I want to make Dennis another sweater. I want to work on my cross-stitch and I also want to work on my cozy memories nine-patch blanket. Decisions, decisions! I am running into a snag on the sweater though, no pun intended. I thought I had the pattern in the binder I brought to the RV with me and it’s not there. I have no idea where to start looking in the storage unit. We packed so fast and I’m not sure which box my binders of patterns are in. He definitely wants the same sweater. I think I’m going to look at past blog posts and hopefully I told all of you the name of the sweater in a post.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and are able to relax as we prepare for Christmas, the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child. Stay safe and well out there everyone.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

December 21st

Winter Solstice.  The days will begin getting longer again! That is always so exciting for me. It means spring is coming soon. And this year there is so much to be excited about. A vaccine and along with it, the chance to see your family again. 

I went out this evening to see if I could get some pictures of the Bethlehem star. I had a very, very small window between rain showers and I was hopeful.  This is what I managed to get. I took the photos with my iPhone 10 camera with full magnification on. It started pouring down rain about 10 minutes after I took the photos. I stood outside for 45 minutes, but when I started getting wet I thought I better give up. I’m sorry the photos are blurry but those planets are a long way away from my little phone!

This was a bit better. I may try again tomorrow.

Today’s advent stocking. The hand cream is very nice and smells like coconut and wild berries.

And here is the sweet little bird that I made a mistake in photographing a few days ago. Jenny had folded his tail up and over his back in order to fit him in the stocking. I didn’t realize it until after it was too dark to retake the photo. So here he is in all of his glory. I think he’s beautiful. He looks like he’s eating the reflection of the twinkle lights on the counter.😂

I finished a baby blanket late last night. I had it about half finished when I set it aside to work on Christmas gifts and mittens. It only took me a few hours to finish it up.

A closer look at the stitch pattern.

I also made a couple of baby hats this afternoon. I took one batch of hats and blankets to the hospital about a month ago, so I know they are accepting donations again. I will probably wait another month and take another batch. They were so grateful for the donations because not too many people have been making things since they think they can’t deliver them due to Covid.

And I chose this photo and verse in honor of the Bethlehem star. It is quite amazing when you think about it. And what a wonderful promise Jesus brought with him when he was born as a baby.

Tomorrow I have a small grocery pick up order between 7:00 & 8:00 in the morning. Then I will stop by Larry and Nita’s to get our mail and hopefully will be back home again by 7:30. I’m such a gadabout these days!  But would you believe I forgot to order bread? I may have to stop at the little store across the road from the RV park on my way home. Although at that time of the morning, there are very few if any people inside shopping so it’s not too bad of a risk.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and have your final preparations for Christmas all done so you can enjoy the day.

Blessings,

Betsy

December 20th

What wonderful comments you all made yesterday about my sweet little Miss Piper. Thank you all. We sure think she’s pretty special and she holds our hearts in her little hands, but it’s nice to know that others think she’s cute too. And she’s really very smart. Uncle Alex is pretty proud that she likes teaching, since that’s what he did for a while. He’s amazing with kids. We always called him the Pied Piper with little kids.

Speaking of Piper, I have another new picture today. She was able to go see Santa Claus yesterday. Mandy had to make the appointment three weeks in advance. You can tell by the picture that it was a socially distanced visit. No sitting on Santa‘s lap this year! How strange things are, but the kids seem to adapt pretty well. Mandy said they also had a gift bag and a scavenger hunt.  You can see Piper took one of her babies to meet Santa too. She does love her babies.

Today’s Advent stocking.

I thought I would take a photo of the Christmas cards hanging up. But I couldn’t get them all in one picture so here is the first half...

and here are the rest of them.

You get a pretty good view of my kitchen here too. On the far right is where we have our Keurig and the coffee pods. In that tall container are teabags and the smaller one on the left has hot cocoa.

I finished a baby blanket about 10:30 tonight, but it was way too dark to take a photo of it. I’ll try to get one tomorrow even though it is supposed to rain all day. I didn’t make the whole blanket today. I had it about half done before I started on all of the Christmas things, so I just finished it up today.

Neal and Jenny stopped by today with a “doorstep delivery.”  She had made pumpkin rolls and bought us a plateful.  She makes the best pumpkin rolls. We also exchanged our Christmas presents. I had given our gifts to them last Sunday at the birthday parade and they brought ours today.  Even though it’s not the same as a real visit, it’s so good to see other peoples faces.

I had wanted to go outside tonight and see if I could see the Star of Bethlehem. It is supposed to be the brightest tonight and tomorrow night about 1:30 in the morning our time, but it’s already raining so I don’t think there’s much chance of seeing it tonight. I’m hopeful for tomorrow night. So, it’s late and I’m off to bed.  But first I have to tell you a story. The funniest thing happened last night during the night. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking of something very important that I needed to tell Sam at the “Self-sufficient Sam” blog on my side bar. I remember thinking at the time that I should probably write it down because I would forget to tell her by today and sure enough, for the life of me, I cannot remember what was so important! I hope I’m not the only one that does these things.  Take care everyone and I’ll be back tomorrow.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

December 19

I hope you all had a wonderful Saturday.  It was quiet here. We picked up mail and drove through the car wash. No contact with anyone. Dennis walked Chloe several times while I did some laundry. Nothing exciting, but I’m content. We’re healthy and have a warm home.  Also, my headache was completely gone today. Hooray! It hasn’t left that quickly for several years. I appreciate all of your prayers and warm thoughts. I’m sure they helped.

The box for the sleep mask had no information on it and I can’t get the copied link to work either. If you type in “Sleep, Bluetooth, Headphones, Headband” in the search bar on Amazon, it should appear. It was $19.85.

My stocking today.  The sweet little birds tail needed to be unfolded when I took the picture and I didn’t realize it until it was too dark for a retake. I’ll try to remember tomorrow and take another photo.

If you’re a long time reader you may recognize this view as the one from our house that we sold in July in preparation for moving back to Nebraska after retirement.  We drove by our old neighborhood on the way to the car wash, so we stopped to take a photo of Mt. Spokane. I do miss seeing this every time I looked out of our back windows at the house, but I really don’t miss having a house. The crazy thing is, we now live much closer to the mountain, but we can’t see it!

And now for the Piper part of this post.  She was supposed to be in a dance recital in the spring but, of course that was cancelled because of “you know what.” She already had her sweet little costume though. She put it on the other day and she and Mandy watched “The Nutcracker.”  Isn’t she cute?

Today she and Mandy took Grandma’s, (Dennis’s Moms), Christmas presents to her.  I had sent our gift for her along with Mandy, Brad and Piper‘s gifts so they could all go in one box. I know the postal system is overwhelmed this year. They ALWAYS wear masks and stay away from Mom.  She told Piper she wasn’t very good at math, so what did Piper do?  Little Miss Teacher made up some flash cards and drilled her Great-Grandma on her addition. 😂. Yesterday she gave me three tests, one in reading comprehension. Yes, she used the word comprehension! She’s 8!  One in math and one in sentence structure.  I had to take photos of my work and send them to her on messenger so she could grade them. I will find out if I passed them on Monday!  She’s a taskmaster.  Doesn’t Mom look great for her age?  She’s 85. I think she looks 20 years younger.

And this one is really special too.  Teresa, “Teresa Kasner” over on my sidebar, sent Piper these two books which arrived today.  Doesn’t she look happy?  Piper LOVES books.  The Betsy Beaver book was from the Vista House where Teresa played a key role in getting it renovated and open to the public.  The gardening book was a gift to Teresa from sweet Gracie, who is “One Saylor’s Log,” on my sidebar.  Gracie gave Teresa her okay to send it to Piper, so it’s from both of them.  I have the BEST blog friends. Both of these ladies remember when Piper was born in Portland, OR, very close to their homes. We girls used to get together several times a year for lunch and hours of chatting.  Since Mandy’s family left Portland, I don’t get there nearly as often.  Fingers crossed I will be there in the spring if the vaccine does it’s job. 🤞

Thank you so much Teresa and Gracie. You made my little girl very happy. You are such wonderful friends to me and I appreciate you both very much for thinking of Piper.

Well, it’s time for bed. I hope you all had a good day and are taking care of yourselves. I heard on the news today that there is a new strain of the virus making its rounds around the UK and Italy. I sure hope the vaccine is effective against it too. We all need to see our families. Keep your chin up and keep having hope. Things WILL get better.

Blessings always,

Betsy

December 18th

This will be heavily loaded with photos so I won’t write very much. However, I did want you to know that my headache was much better today. Thank you to all of you who were so nice about it.  It’s still there, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. Also, the Bluetooth headband worked very well again last night. I slept almost 9 hours! Based on these two nights, I would highly recommend it. I will get the box out and take a photo of it for you tomorrow so you’ll know exactly which one I bought. There are several to choose from on Amazon and I think they would all be pretty good.  

And now for the photos. First up is the Christmas stocking for this morning. More yummy candy.

Nancy from the blog “Wyoming Breezes,” over on my sidebar sent me this pattern last night because she thought I might like to knit it up. I made it this morning, but it turned out a little small so I just did a double crochet border around the edges and now it’s perfect. I think it looks okay. Thank you Nancy! Now I have two Christmas dishcloths!

Three more pair of mittens for the children.

And another mitten done and it’s mate is on the needles.  I’m trying to use up all of my scrap balls of yarn out of storage before I buy any new yarn. I would love use some variegated yarn just for some variety, but I can’t justify buying anymore.

This was the view from my chair this morning while I read my Bible.  Although it looks bright out the back window, it was really very dark all day and we had some rain. You won’t hear me complaining though as it was 43°F. Almost all of our snow is gone. Hooray! The weatherman is saying our next chance of snow is Christmas evening.

I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing Saturday planned. We have no plans for tomorrow except to relax and maybe get some things out of our storage unit. Dennis has misplaced a plastic funnel and he’s determined to find it. It could be anywhere in there! I think he could buy a new one with a lot less hassle than digging through who knows how many boxes. He says he doesn’t have anything better to do. 😍

I’ll talk to you all tomorrow.  Stay safe.

Blessings and LOVE,

Betsy