Gorgeous Sunshine

I am so sorry that most of you are in the grip of a horrible freeze with lots of snow. Meanwhile, so far we have enjoyed one of the most mild winters I can remember in Spokane. I took this picture out the back door about five minutes ago.

 Although it is not overly warm outside, I think it’s about 34°F right now, the sun is so bright and warm that everything has melted. Oh, it’s still on lawns and grassy areas, but the roads are all clear and most of it is gone off of roofs. I’m keeping all of you that are dealing with the bitter cold in my prayers. If you can, stay inside and stay warm.

I finished Dennis’s socks Sunday night. They have been in my knitting bag for almost 2 months! They were my carry along to doctors appointments and that was the only time I worked on them. Basically I had the cuffs done as of Friday morning and nothing else. I put my mind to it and finished them. He’s a happy guy as he loves to wear my hand knit socks inside his cowboy boots. Yes, we live in the west and my husband wears cowboy boots. If I had my way I would have him wearing a cowboy hat too, but so far he hasn’t found one he likes. He wore a cowboy hat the entire time we were dating and I loved it.. :-). He also looks great in jeans! :-) The socks sure look purple in this picture. They’re actually a deep, almost eggplant color. They look more blue than purple in real life.

Here is the yarn I used and the pattern was Petty Harbour which is free on (Ravelry).

Last night I also finished another square for my cozy memories nine patch blanket. I will start the border in cream around the square today.

On Saturday Dennis and I went and walked around the RV show for almost 3 hours! I’m counting that as a win. My back was stiff at the end of the day but I was able to do it. Last night however, it was on the verge of spasming again and I have no idea why. Every time I go for physical therapy or to see the actual doctor they ask if I’m getting better. I have no idea how to answer them. We did have a great time at the RV show. Although we have no plans to buy anything now, we like to look at the different floorplans and dream about what we want to do in retirement.

I put my Valentines decorations up today as it’s almost February!  The hearts are a free pattern on my friend Teresa Kasner‘s blog. You can find her over there on my side bar. They are very easy to crochet and she’s very generous in sharing the pattern.

My birthday is on Friday and the plan is to go out to dinner somewhere with Neal and Jenny.  I get to choose as that’s the tradition with the four of us. The birthday person gets to choose where we eat. I think I will choose a German restaurant here in town that I know both Neal and Dennis enjoy and we haven’t been there for a while.

I’ve also been doing quite a bit of reading. Right now I am re-reading some books I read almost 30 years ago when we still lived in Omaha. They are Frank Perretti‘s “Piercing the Darkness” and “An Ever Present Darkness”. I’m finding them quite applicable in light of the world we live in today. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but about unseen forces in the world. I truly believe that.

I have a neat little book holder. Actually I have two of them. One holds regular size paperbacks and the other holds trade size paperbacks. The clear band that you see allows me to read without holding the book open. There are hinges on the back that you just pull one side of the book up and the page flips automatically. This makes it very easy to read books while I knit or crochet.

You can tell by the yellowed pages and the curled up corners that these books have been well read. Our entire family has read them and I’ve loaned them out to other people. Both of the books have been autographed by the author when we went to hear him speak years ago when we first moved to Spokane.  They are works of fiction, but they truly make you stop and think.  Every time I read them it reminds me how important prayer is.

Tonight is my appointment at the Apple Store. They are going to set the computer up for me and hopefully get it all ready to work. I’m excited. I am happy however, that my iPad has decided to cooperate again in blogging. It sounds like the whole photo issue was a Google problem. What I’m told is that they changed a setting a few weeks ago but they have now “fixed” it.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Stay warm, and in the case of my friends down under, stay cool!

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  Ephesians 6:12

But then we have this verse.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven.” 

Matthew 5:14–16

Many blessings to you all my friends, 

Betsy

I have photos!

So I thought I would share pictures that I tried to post last week. Since there are several I will try to keep the actual words to a minimum. Here goes!

The Crosstitch that I was working on. I haven’t touched it since I took these photos. The center angel is finished I’m working on an angel on the left and there will be another on the right.

I’m always amazed at how much the outlining makes the stitching pop. You think it is finished and looks okay, and then you do the outlining and it’s like “wow!” I obviously still have to iron the fabric when it’s all done. The hoop makes a lot of creases.

Blanket number two.

Number three.

Number four.

And all four of them together.

I’ve made all four of these blankets in the last 9 or 10 days. You can’t even tell that I used any of my scraps when you look in my yarn closet! I think it is like the manna from heaven that just keeps multiplying. I still have to wash and block all four blankets and then they will be going to the “Babies of Homelessness” charity in Seattle.

Dennis and I drove up to the lake on Saturday and hiked in to check on the trailer. It’s a good thing we did because the little dishes that collect water inside during the winter were almost full and needed emptied. It uses silica to drawl the moisture out of the air inside the trailer so you don’t get mold growing. They have worked very well for us.

We’ve had such a mild winter that the lake isn’t even frozen over yet. There wasn’t much snow here on Saturday, but the news tells me this morning that they got 18 to 20 inches of snow yesterday and last night.  I’m glad we hiked in last week! We got 7 or 8 inches here at our house. Dennis got up and snow blowed before he went to work this morning. Bless his heart. I always did that until my back issues. I feel like I’ve just placed one more burden on him. I actually enjoy snowblowing, but he won’t let me touch the shovel anymore.

This was the basket I kept the yarn scraps in while I was working on the blankets. Frannie climbed in and made herself at home. For the past week or so she has been in this basket most of the time. I felt bad because it just had a hard cardboard bottom in it, so I knitted a pad for the bottom out of homespun yarn yesterday. It’s very soft and squishy and she has barely left the basket. It’s sitting on top of the dining room table which has always been a no-no for me. No cats on the table. But I just don’t have the heart to make her stop. I tried putting the basket on the floor and she didn’t like that. She likes it up high where she can look out the patio door whenever she wants. Isn’t she pretty?

The table under the TV is back to normal with all the Christmas decorations gone. I do like to leave some snowman out for a while though. I have Kyleigh and Caleb’s pictures covered up as they don’t like those online. Neal and Jenny gave us the scripture sign as part of our Christmas present and I really like it. And yes, that’s the television cable hanging down. I know we’re supposed to try to hide it, but it really doesn’t bother us that much.

The pain is gone from the injections themselves that I got in my back yesterday, all eight of them!  Now I guess we wait to see how they work on the actual muscles. I appreciate all of the prayers that you have all prayed for me. I have another appointment at the spine clinic this afternoon. And physical therapy tomorrow. They keep me busy that’s for sure. I hope you all stay warm and dry wherever you may be.

I will close by sharing my Mom’s favorite scripture with you today. For some reason it popped into my head this morning when I woke up. I miss my Mom. She’s been gone 29 1/2 years now and sometimes I still find myself reaching for the phone to call her. Actually, as I wrote this I just realized I have lived half of my life since she died. I was 29 when she passed and I’m 58 now. I still miss her desperately.

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of Heaven and earth.” Psalm 121: 1,2

 Blessings, Betsy

Injections!

Happy Tuesday morning everyone! I just got home from getting eight injections in my back. I was told the pain relief can last, (choose one), not at all, 7 to 10 days or up to three months.  They have no way of knowing. All I know is that those eight injections in the muscle really, really hurt! I really don’t want to go through this very often. I was told they can do the shots every 3 to 4 weeks. Oh boy!

I’m going to try once again to add a photo and we’ll see if it works today. If no photo shows up you’ll know it did not work. Connie, The blog “Far side of fifty,” over on my side bar, said that the problem came from a change google made about a week ago.  Since this is a paid for app that I use, I emailed the administrator but have gotten no answer. So here goes, I will try another photo and see if they fixed it yet.

One of the blankets I made last week for the Babies of Homelessness charity in Seattle.

But, even if this didn’t work I’m not going to lose hope. Because you know what my wonderful husband did? He asked me if I would please stay home yesterday because he had an important package that would be arriving from UPS.  When the package arrived it had my name on it! I called him at work and he said he didn’t know what it could be so to go ahead and open it. He had bought me a MacBook Air for my birthday which is February 1!!!! We rarely buy each other birthday presents. We’ve been married so long, birthdays, etc. are not big deals anymore. In fact, his birthday was January 9 and I didn’t get him anything. Boy, do I feel bad now!

Now, I know some of you use MacBooks to blog with, especially my dear friend Teresa Kasner. So I know I’ll be able to ask people to help me when I have problems. And the problems have already begun. Apple makes an appointment with you online to have a technician help you set up your computer. The technician called me at 1:45 yesterday afternoon and we hung up just before 5:00. I had six different technicians as they kept escalating the calls because of issues with the computer. Would you believe there is a software glitch in my new computer? We couldn’t get past the first set up screen. Dennis had to send it back this morning.  They were all very nice though, and a nice lady even offered to send me a hard case for the computer for free because of the inconvenience. 

You know, I didn’t even know I was getting the computer and today I’m frustrated because I had to send it back. Isn’t that hilarious!?  I’m so spoiled.

We are expecting 3 to 5 inches of snow beginning this afternoon. Do you all remember how worried I was about driving to the doctor this morning, up the hill in the snow? The time for the storm to begin kept getting pushed back further and further. I am so thankful that it’s not starting until later in the day.

OK, I’m going to push the button on this post and see if the one photo that I posted actually worked. If so I’ll do another one soon showing the pictures from last week. I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday. 

“ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  James 1:17

*** edit it to add, it worked! Hallelujah!!!***

Many blessings, Betsy