Getting Busy Again

Today I finished cleaning stuff off the TV stand I gave to Oldest Son.  With a small shelf unit stacked on top, it had become kind of a catch-all for odds and ends of sewing supplies, quilt books and crafty supplies.  Son's workplace is generous with holiday time off - paid, which is nice for him - so maybe tomorrow or the next day while he is home we can drag the stand down the hall to his apartment.

There are a couple of bags containing ham bones defrosting in the fridge.  Son picked up two of those bags of mixed beans for ham and bean soup and the beans are soaking in water until morning.  Tomorrow I'll boil the bones, remove the ham and simmer the soup all day.  After we have had a couple of meals of it, I will can up the rest.

There are four gallons of cranberries thawing in the fridge.  Once the soup is simmering I can start cooking the berries up to make cranberry juice to can.  Son brought me 50 lbs. of berries this past fall and I need to get them out of the freezer.  It is full right up to the lid, mostly with cranberries.  There are probably all sorts of good things down in the bottom of the freezer, underneath all those berries.  The only advantage I can think of about having a less than perfect memory is that you get surprises now and then.  Like when you find out what is at the bottom of the freezer that you forgot was there.

There is a reason for this burst of energy.  I really want to spend some guilt-free time with my sewing machine, and that is a bit hard for me to do when I know I should be doing things like making cranberry juice, especially since I have put it off for so long.

I have always enjoyed sewing since my mother taught me more years ago than I care to think about.   I was listening to my granddaughters talking about the latest fashion trends - the ones with the hefty price tags, and I had to smile thinking that they would be horrified if they were clothed the way I was at their ages.  I don't think I had a store bought dress until I was at least a Junior in High School.  My mother and I sewed nearly all of my clothes and when I think back, I had some really nice things to wear.  We didn't shop for clothes, but for patterns and fabric.  I don't sew clothes so much any more, for the prices of patterns and fabric have gotten so high that it no longer pays.  But I do love making quilts and that is what I am looking forward to working on.

Just as soon as the last gallon of cranberries is in jars and on my shelves in the form of juice.