Saturday Bits and Bobs

Fridays are good days, especially if you have hermit tendencies.  Friday means that once the home health care nurse leaves I have three whole days plus the rest of Friday to myself.  When you have lived alone for ten years, it takes some doing to get used to having people in and out of your home.  I have come to terms with that but still enjoy my alone time.  Now that alone time can be interrupted by kids and grands and you will hear nary a complaint from me.

It helps that the two nurses who come to work on my legs are both cheerful souls.  I kid them about drawing straws to see who loses the draw and has to come here and deal with this grumpy old lady.  They just laugh at me. Both are very good at their jobs.

I get a kick out of the cleaning lady.  She is a chatterbox, but doesn't seem to care if anyone is listening.  Just a nod of my head or an "Um Hum" from me is enough.  She does an excellent job.  And Wednesday she left me a lovely Easter card - so thoughtful.

Mother Nature seems to be taking a page from Hillary Clinton's playbook, refusing to just go away.  Overnight we got maybe two inches of snow and there is the threat of more come Monday.  Guess it will be a while before the scent of lilacs is in the air.  Sigh.

I am hanging up my crochet hook for a couple of days to give my cramping fingers a bit of a rest.  And then it will be 'forward, march' with Boston's afghan.  The green and purple yarns make it fun to work on.

When you have several children who have spouses and inlaws, you don't always spend holidays with them.   We have to learn to share.  So this year it will be just Duane and me for Easter dinner.  He is roasting a ham and I am in charge of the potatoes and vegetables.  If I am feeling really ambitious, there might just be a cherry pie with ice cream involved.

This is me...wishing all of you a very blessed Easter.

Finished...

Spent the better part of the weekend finishing up the borders on the two afghans and called it good last evening.

Here is Zach's graduation afghan.

And here is mine, made from the yarn Jill and her family gave me for Christmas.

Sorry about the poor picture quality.  The battery in my camera died before I could get some better shots.

I have started the next one for Boston.  I have over a year to complete this one before she graduates.  After that there are two more to make and all six grands will have afghans from Grandma.

And now I had better get busy getting caught up on those things that were put on hold while I was playing with yarn.  Like the mountain of laundry waiting for me.  Sigh.

Still here...

finishing up afghans.  Takes time to crochet several rows around them, one being 81 inches square and the other 60 inches square, but hope to have pictures within a day or two.

Depending on which weather forecast we listen to, we could get anywhere from an inch of snow up to a foot of the white stuff overnight.  I love the way they hedge their bets. 

Not much else going on here.  Just a quick post to let you all know I am still upright and taking nourishment.  Be back soon.

How to Spoil Mom

It has been a lovely day here in my little Home Sweet Apartment.  It started out just grand with Oldest Son sharing some delicious caramel rolls for breakfast.  The rolls combined with several cups of mighty fine coffee were the perfect way to begin.

I find I am a bit burned out when it comes to crocheting.  I managed to get all the granny squares sewn together.  All I have left on both afghans is to crochet three rows around each for borders, but I just couldn't make myself work on them today.  Instead it was a day of reading and napping and movie watching.  There was nothing constructive happening here and I enjoyed every minute of being a sloth.

Duane said he would be going to the grocery store and did I want anything.  I had seen that they had bacon on sale so I asked him to bring me several packages as the price was nearly half of what I would normally have to pay.

Later this afternoon Duane showed up with a couple of grocery bags and and big grin.  He set three packages of bacon on the table.

And a box of Little Debbie Nutty Bars, my go to treat.

And a bag of jelly beans.

And a great big package of smoked whitefish.  I dearly love smoked whitefish from Morey's Fish Company, located in northern Minnesota.  Years ago we had a cabin on a lake north of here and we would usually stop at Morey's on the way to the cabin to pick up some smoked fish.  Once in a while when Duane went fishing in the northern part of the state, he would bring me some smoked fish, but it had been several years since I had any.  I didn't know that Morey's fish could be found locally, so this was a surprise.  I ate half for lunch and the rest for supper. 

And that's how this Mom is being spoiled.  :)

My phone rang...

yesterday evening.  It was Youngest Son.  He was calling to report on his daughters.

Boston and Maddie are 15 and 13 years old respectively.  Their school participated in the student "Walk Out" demonstration the other day, regarding the school shooting in Florida.  Some schools made it mandatory that students participate.  The school the girls attend made participation optional.

Boston and Maddie stayed in school.

Boston and Maddie were of the opinion the demonstration was, to quote them, "dumb."

The girls had talked with their parents about what happened in Florida.  They understand the tragedy of the situation.  They also picked up on the talk floating around about gun control as a way to prevent school shootings.  I asked their Dad what the girls thought about that aspect of the situation.  He told me they thought that was dumb, too.  Boston said that if someone is killed in a car accident, nobody blames the car.  It is the driver who is at fault.  Same with guns.

I don't think I have ever been more proud of those girls.  They followed their beliefs instead of following the crowd.  And I am equally proud of their parents for raising children who can think for themselves and who have what is lacking in many adults - common sense.

To quote Boston, "I'm not going to school to demonstrate.  I'm going to learn."

Boston and Maddie, your Grandma says, "Well done."

Still At It

The crochet hook is still flying.  Or maybe at this point I should say the yarn needle is working overtime.  I am in the process of sewing all the granny squares together and when that task is finished there are a couple rows of crochet around each afghan to finish them off with a border.

In the meantime, I just couldn't resist testing out the new yarn for Boston's graduation afghan.

I will put this one together in a checkerboard pattern.  I like it.  I hope Boston likes it too.

And now I'm off to catch up on the homemaker stuff that has been neglected while I have been playing with yarn.  I have  a friend who teased me that I did my laundry only when I ran out of clean knickers.  That was before I bought my apartment size washer and dryer and had to trudge up and down two flights of stairs to wash my clothes.  I am a bit embarrassed to say that this time she isn't all that far from the truth, and me with no excuse other than I have been having fun instead of doing chores.

Can't say I feel sorry for that.  :)

It is quiet...

here in my corner of the world, now that the snowstorm has come and gone, leaving several inches of heavy, wet snow on the ground.  Oldest Son said it was a white knuckle flight all the way home that evening.  Most of the snow has been hauled away from the streets and we are just waiting to see what Mother Nature will throw our way next.  I am so ready for daffodils and lilacs.

I have been working almost exclusively on finishing the two afghans in progress.  There is an occasional nap thrown in for good measure.  Not exactly a party animal here.  :)

I have been hearing about storms to the east.  I hope they slide on past you who are in their path.

Take a look at some of the folks in my sidebar.  Their lives are more exciting than mine.  I will be back with pictures - soon, I hope. 

The Yarn Has Arrived

So this morning Jill stopped by, hauling in two large bags full of yarn.

There was enough to finish Zach's  afghan.  With any kind of luck I should be able to complete that one in a few days.

And then there was this deliciousness.

Again, I would never have thought of these colors.  That's why I beg Jill to do the shopping for the yarn.  I'm not sure yet just how I will mix these colors, but I have a couple of ideas.  When I get a few granny squares done, I will show them to you.

Boston is going to love this one.

This is going to be such fun!