November Challenge Day 17

Before I write anything else I need to wipe the egg off of my face. I said the pattern for the socks I was working on yesterday were from Vera’s blog at “The Threaded Lane.” Vera very nicely corrected me and said that it was not her pattern. But it IS Cindy’s pattern at the blog “Delighted Hands.”  Cindy, I am so very sorry. Sometimes my brain doesn’t work very well. I absolutely love this pattern. I finished the first sock this evening and started it’s mate. Thank you for sharing the pattern with us, and for forgiving my error.

The challenge today is the meaning behind my blog name. Well, it’s pretty self-explanatory and easy. My name is Betsy, I live a fairly simple life and my last name is Queen!  An extra little tidbit is that my grandmother’s maiden name on my Mom’s side was King. Now what are the odds of that?  

The reason as to why I started the blog has a story behind it though.  As you know Alex lives in Japan. He was there during the big earthquake and tsunami a number of years ago. He also lives in the part of Japan that was affected by the tsunami. When he told us how bad it was and I saw the hardship of the people online, I felt compelled to help in some way. It gets so cold there and lots and lots of snow. Most people don’t think about Japan having that much snow. They actually have a lot more than Spokane does every year. I decided I was going to knit 300 hats by fall to donate to the shelters. Well, word got out and you know how generous knitters and crocheters are.  Before I knew it, we had filled several huge boxes.  And I mean huge boxes!  Dennis and I spent over $2,000.00 just shipping those boxes to Japan!!!!!  Poor Alex! He had boxes, boxes and more boxes all over his tiny apartment. I started having people mail things directly to him so double shipping wasn’t being paid. Then, I flew to Japan in September. When I saw his apartment I couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t even sleep in his bed. He had a little space on the floor that he curled up in. Boxes were piled on his bed and everywhere else too. He took a week off of work and we drove to Sendai and several other towns and delivered all of the lovely things that people had made to shelters, but that wasn’t all. Several times Alex opened up the trunk and people came running. Ladies chose hats and mittens for their children and scarves and hats for themselves. They thanked us over and over and told Alex their stories. I will never, ever forget that week. People who had lost virtually everything they had in the world, were so gracious and kind to us.  Dennis, Mandy and I had visited Alex the year before. I couldn’t believe we were even in the same place.  It was like being in the middle of a disaster movie.  

I started the blog as a way to share the trip with all of the generous crafters who donated the beautiful things they had made to the people of Japan. I wanted them to see the photos and read the story of my trip and where their precious items went. The stories are still there at the beginning of my blog if you get want to look back, but blogger made me take some of the photos down several years ago when they were having issues over photos taking up too much space. Beginning in August 2011 there are photos there of some of the preparations for my trip in September.  Anyway, I hope you find the story of why I started my blog interesting. I had never planned to continue it after I came home, but I was encouraged to do so by the people who had contributed and were reading about the trip. So here I still am, all these years later.  I am so grateful that I am, because I have met all of you here, through this blog.

Whew!  That was a lot of reading wasn’t it? I apologize. I’ll show you two more photos of my decorations before I leave.  I told you I like snowmen didn’t I?

A friend from church stopped by this morning and left this beautiful poinsettia on my doorstep. It was nice to at least get to see her face from the other end of the drive, since we couldn’t be closer.  Now, it really does look like Christmas in here!

I think I’ve droned on enough for one day so I’ll stop here. Stay safe and stay well my friends.

Blessings,

Betsy 

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

November Challenge Day 15

Today’s challenge is to put a photo of your handwriting on your blog. I don’t put my handwriting online and so I think I’m going to skip this one today. But I do have a few other things to share with you.

We had a cold but sunny day today with lots and lots of wind. Dennis and I took Chloe for a walk but not as long as usual because it was just plain cold with that north wind blowing in our faces. Most of the day was spent inside the RV, although Dennis did grill us some hamburgers this afternoon.

We watched the services at the church we were married in and also Mandy‘s church this morning. This afternoon we caught up with some of our favorite YouTube videos. Together we enjoy watching several full-time RVing families. During the week I tend to watch knitting and crochet videos while I’m working on my projects.

I finished my boot toppers. Miss Merry asked in the comments for a picture of them, so here you go.

They aren’t  anything fancy. The tops of these rain boots are very stiff and thick vinyl. They really hurt my legs when I walk with them on, especially if it’s cold, so I just knitted these boot toppers.

I used some leftover worsted weight acrylic yarn and size 7 needles. I cast on 62 stitches and did Knit 1, Purl 1 for 8 inches before casting off. I just folded them in half over the top of the boot. Time will tell whether they will stay in place or work their way off as I walk. I’ll keep you posted. I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath! Ha!

I also knitted three more pair of mittens this weekend so I have made my quota of 8 pair for the month of November.

I have another picture of Christmas decorations. These are on the hutch in the kitchen. A little angel and the snowman. You can see the container of Chloe‘s milk bones and Dennis loves sweet tarts, so I usually try to keep some here for him. How do you like our temperature control center? We have a four temperature monitoring station receiver.  On the left are the temperatures in descending order, the wet bay, (where the water comes into the RV and the washing machine lines are), outside temperature, under the trailer and inside. It got a lot warmer today than was predicted. But the cold wind made it feel much, much colder. The number on the right is the humidity level. This little station has taken a lot of stress from Dennis’s shoulders as he can see at a glance if our pipes are in danger of freezing.

I hope you all had a quiet and safe weekend. The governors of the three West Coast states, Washington, California and Oregon have decreed that anyone coming into these three states has to quarantine for 14 days. Our governor of Washington also made an announcement today that we are basically going back into lockdown again until the middle of December.  Surprisingly though, they are not closing the schools. Honestly, I believe a lot of the spread is because schools are open everywhere. I have several friends who are teachers and they say it is getting impossible to have enough teachers as many are out sick and testing positive. 

Believe me, I do not know what the answer is, but it’s frustrating to know that I definitely will not get to see our son and grandchildren at Christmas this year. I haven’t seen them since last Thanksgiving.  I know I’m not alone in missing family and I’m not really complaining, but the disappointment still sets in once in a while. I know this is what has to be done to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and I’m more than willing to do my part.

Take care and stay safe and well.

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy