Beautiful Fall Days

I know that the weather has been less than ideal for a lot of you recently, especially those in the Florida and Georgia areas and I’m very, very sorry about that. However our weather has been picture perfect. Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Brilliant blue skies. If it could only be like this all year. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Life is crazy busy as always, but I have managed to finish a few projects because I carried them along with me.

First is this prayer shawl that I’m making for the hospital. I am using a Caron Skinny Cake in the colorway “Baked Alaska.” I’m really enjoying using this yarn as it’s nice and soft to work with and hasn’t been splitting at all. I’m crocheting with a size H, 5.0 mm hook. The pattern is just called “crochet triangle shawl.” It’s a free pattern I’ve had laying around for a while but I don’t remember where I got it.

I also decided to show you the tea towels that I embroidered for a Christmas present. They haven’t been washed or ironed yet so they’re still pretty wrinkled. I really enjoyed working on these as I could slip one in my purse easily and put in a few stitches when I had time. I haven’t done embroidery for a while, and it was fun to practice the stitches again.

This is the garter squish blanket by Steven West. It will be for Dennis’s Mom for Christmas. The puppies really like it. 😂 You use a size 15 needle and worsted weight yarn held double. It is very thick and squishy!  I still have to wash it and sew in a few ends too. The edges finished nicely with a knitted I-cord edging. I’ve never done that before and it was surprisingly easy.

Miss Lizzie is having a slumber party with Zoey tonight because Piper is having her birthday party with some school friends tomorrow afternoon. We thought it would be easier without a puppy around. The grandparents will go over tomorrow night and we’ll have dinner and have our family party for her. It’s the first party she’s had in two years because of that lovely virus that’s been going around. It’s nice to have things getting somewhat back to normal for kids these days. Meanwhile, these girls are thrilled to be together again.

Thursday was Miss Piper‘s 10th birthday! Can you believe that? They didn’t have school because of parent teacher conferences Thursday and today, so on Wednesday her other grandma, Marilyn and I took lunch to her and ate with her at school. It was lots of fun. I also had to take Mom to a doctors appointment that afternoon anyway, so everything was done in the same part of town!

I don’t remember if it was Monday or Tuesday that Dennis and I went to the zoo. The goal was for us to walk around the entire old loop of the zoo where the big animals are without my back protesting.  We didn’t go into any of the newer fancy places like the aquarium, the jungle, the aviary, the butterfly house or any of those other places. We just walked the loop with the big animals and had a lot of fun. I made it all the way around, but boy, my back was not happy with me that night.

I thought I got a picture of the baby elephant but I guess not. This is one of the Mama’s. There were two new babies born this year.

We had fun watching this elephant eat out of the basket hanging from the tree. It’s amazing all of the things they use their trunk for.

The giraffes were all out wandering around too. I enjoyed watching this one eat from the ground. He would spread his front legs wide apart so he could reach the ground with that long neck.

These two were just picking on each other the entire time. The one on the left would go over and literally slap the one sitting on the right across the face and back until he started chasing him around. I don’t know what that was all about. 🤷‍♀️

That’s about it. I have been reading your blogs just not always able to comment. If I could use my phone to comment with Blogger it would be great, but I have to use my laptop and I’m on the go so much I don’t have it with me most of the time. We’re planning to take a short 2 to 3 night camping trip next week at the Lewis and Clark State Park in Iowa. It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun. We’re going with Dennis’s cousin Curt and his wife Barb. We’re thinking it will most likely be our last chance to get out this year. It’s only about an hour from home so we can get back quickly if we need to.

Take care, all of you.🍁🍂🍁

Much love and many blessings, 

Betsy 

It’s been awhile…again.

Hello! It’s been a hot minute hasn’t it? Our life is so chaotic right now. When I have been home I have just collapsed into my chair and done basically nothing. I have finished the Christmas ornaments for our family, but I don’t dare post them here in case someone’s reading the blog. I’ve also finished embroidering a set of tea towels that is also a Christmas gift. I’ll take pictures of everything and post them after Christmas. Both of these projects have been great carry along projects.

I also have started the Stephen West garter squish blanket that is a free pattern on Ravelry. It uses a lot of yarn because you hold two strands of worsted yarn doubled using a size 15 needle! I have never used a size 15 needle before and it takes some getting used to, but this does make a wonderfully squishy blanket. This will be a Christmas gift for Dennis‘s mom as she is always so cold.

Here we are in mom‘s apartment. You can see my toes and that’s it! She loves her new place. This is just a little part of the living room and kitchenette. It’s about twice this big and she has a very large bedroom and bathroom too. She is truly loving the apartment and the meals that are provided. I was there yesterday helping her with her laundry and she said she wishes she had done this years ago.

This is where I am right now. I’m watching Pamela‘s Adoring Crochet on YouTube while I finished hand sewing the Christmas ornaments. Today is the first day I’ve been home in weeks. We do have Bible study tonight, but I don’t have to go anywhere until then. I hope I didn’t just jinx myself. 😍

As you can see I’ve hung up my crocheted autumn leaf garland, as well as put out a few pumpkins for fall. You can also see Zoey’s bed and toy box.

Dennis signed the papers on Mom‘s house on Monday and the new buyers are supposed to sign on Friday. Less than 2 1/2 weeks from when we listed it! Meanwhile, there have been a couple of inspections this week and I’ve been calling to get utilities shut off and insurance canceled, etc. This doesn’t include our daily, at least once a day trips to see Mom. Hopefully that will all begin to slow down now. I have filled up the gas tank in my car three times in the last 10 days! That definitely cannot continue.

In addition to all of this, while Dennis has been doing the final things around Mom’s house, I have been looking at apartments and over 55 apartments for us. We finally narrowed it down to two possibilities, but the cost is prohibitive at the one we really like. The manager told us rent went up 7% last year and they are planning another 7% increase for this year. With the uncertain economy and not knowing what’s going to happen over the winter, I think we decided just to stay put in the house for the time being. Maybe things will change in the spring or maybe we will decide just to stay here. Meanwhile, we have bought a locking mailbox that attaches to the house so that if we decide to go camping we don’t have to worry about our mail. That is a concern in this area. In the past, our mailman was very good about just delivering our mail to mom’s house if we were gone.

I am so sorry I haven’t been around much lately, either writing here on my blog or commenting on your posts. I have been reading them, but I’ve been falling asleep while trying to comment and then what I write makes absolutely no sense! So many of you have told me you understand and this is just a period in my life I’m going through. I have to admit, I have seriously thought of just giving up blogging altogether because life has been so overwhelming. Dennis has been encouraging me to just stay with it and pop in when I can. Hopefully, since we’re not moving again right now, the worst of it is over.

Here’s a funny from FaceBook that I thought you would appreciate.

“This discounted yarn is very challenging to crochet with. The cuteness is distracting, yarn moves around a lot and yarn actually farted once. Would not recommend.  1/10 stars.”

Isn’t that hilarious? The yarn matches the puppy’s fur so well. 💜💕💜 Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

I’m still here!

First of all I would like to express my condolences to all of my friends overseas and in Canada with the passing of  Queen Elizabeth II. She was a lovely and gracious woman who was deeply admired by most of the world. Our London family has been reaching out to us and sending us articles and photos since before she passed yesterday. I hope and pray that King Charles III is as compassionate a leader as his mother was. Rest in peace Dear qQueen Elizabeth. You have earned it.

Thank you all so much for checking on me. I know it’s been a while since I posted. We have been incredibly busy here. But first let me show you what I made while we were on our trip to Spokane. I can’t believe I haven’t even shown you those things yet.

First off are three crocheted baby blankets in the “Every Which-Way” pattern. They were very easy to work on as we drove across the western US and stayed in various campgrounds. No pattern to have to follow as this is so easily memorized.

I also made three chemo caps in different sizes for the hospital.

As to where I have been for the past few weeks, we have been busy packing up mom’s house. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, living room, family room, dining room and kitchen. And this is without mentioning the myriad of closets and storage places this house has. Each closet was completely filled to the brim. 47 years of memories had to be cleaned out of the house in just a little over a week. A lot of tears were shed by several of us as we remembered various items throughout the house in closets and hidden nooks. Mom is completely thrilled in her apartment though. It’s like a huge albatross has been lifted off of her with moving out of this house. Dennis and I did most of the closet work and sifting through all of the papers and photos. I emptied the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator. We moved much of the furniture ourselves, but had a lot of help in cleaning over last weekend. Several of the granddaughters and grandsons were there to help clean out the garage and do the actual cleaning of cupboards, floors and bathrooms. Oh, how we appreciated that! ( That’s our house, the white one on the right in the photo.)

I took the photo below of mom standing outside the door the last time she walked out of the house. Right after this, I drove her to her new apartment where Mandy and I had unpacked everything. We tried to put it the furniture and mementos in as close to the same spots as they were in at the house. We wanted it to be as familiar as possible for her. As I said before, she absolutely loves it there.

The house went on the market Wednesday and we had four offers presented to us at 3:00 today. An offer has been accepted and signed and will hopefully close in two weeks time. When they say the market is still hot, they are not kidding. There must have been 25 or 30 different groups of people go through the house. There were many more offers made, but our realtor picked out the best four to present to us. We still have a few things to get out of the house that are going to the grandkids. It had been planned to be done tomorrow, but there’s a 95% chance of rain all day tomorrow. Of course. It’s the first rain since the night I came home from Texas! 

Now, Dennis and I have a big decision to make. We had never intended to live in this neighborhood if we moved back to Omaha, but we needed to be close to mom. We may be listing our house soon or we may stay for another year or more. It depends on what we can find in the next week or so. The thought of moving again fills me with dread. Especially after just finishing up with mom’s house. We shall see. We could definitely use your prayers for wisdom in this decision. We are actually seriously thinking of moving into a manufactured home just a few blocks from where mom is. It’s also much closer to Mandy and Brad. It’s in a park setting with many other manufactured homes. It would mean considerable downsizing, so we’ll have to see what we decide. Living in tornado alley is also a concern. We would  like to buy a condo or something similar that we could just turn the key and walk away if we wanted to take a trip somewhere. If we stay in this house or buy another house will have yard care and snow removal to worry about which is also a concern as we get older. We are trying to make a wise move and have it be our last one. But unfortunately, the market is “slim pickens,” right now. Most of the condos either have a lot of stairs, which I don’t want, or they are way out of our price range or not in the part of town we want to live in.🤷‍♀️

Meanwhile we are really struggling with getting the homecare people to get mom‘s insulin injection to her at the same time every day. She has a long acting insulin, but it should be given within a half hour window at the same time every day. Today was the first day that we haven’t been there at night for her injection. Some nights the people show up and some nights they don’t, so Dennis or I have to give her the injection. Tonight I had her call me to tell me that they did show up which is great! I have driven out there twice today already and I just wasn’t ready for a third trip unless I had to! You wouldn’t believe how much gas I have used in the last week and a half. They seem to be in the same boat as everyone else is these days. They just can’t find anyone who wants to work. The people who are there are absolutely so nice and sweet, but they are considerably understaffed. She is in a lovely, lovely place. If it wasn’t so expensive I would move in there now too and just stay there for the next 30 years! The food is great and I wouldn’t mind not having to plan meals anymore! More time to play with yarn. 😍

If I’m not around much for the next few weeks you will know where I am. I’ll get back to posting as soon as I can. Not much craftiness being done anyway. I do appreciate those of you who reached out to me to make sure that we were OK. It’s lovely to think I have people who care about me all over the world. I am trying to keep up with commenting on everyone’s blogs I’m just a little late sometimes.

Blessings and love,

Betsy