Home in Florida

 I arrived home around 8:30 last evening and was happy to have a nice sleep in my own bed! I leave in a few days for another couple of weeks, but we have a house sitter in to watch and take care of the animals while we are on vacation.

I was surprised to learn that The Rock of Ages visitor center in Graniteville Vermont closed last year! I'm not sure how I missed that. Granite is the industry there and I grew up with blasts in the quarry around noon and 4:30 PM so the workers had stone to retrieve for monuments, tombstones, etc. The extra granite is called grout and there are plenty of grout piles around where I grew up. We actually have a granite basement in my parents house! They do find some nice uses for it, like along the walking patch here to help deter mud slides with the rain/snowfall.  The Vermont Granite Museum in Barre Vermont is a nice spot that tells of the history of granite in the state. It also has some hands on exhibits and one is the table my Mom used when she helped 'rub letters' for a local artist who designed monuments and tombstones for cemeteries. I brought the kids a few years ago and showed them the things their Grammy used when she worked part time when I was a teenager at Mr. Dandurands house with his wife. Gerald was quite the artist. 

I snapped a couple of photo's before we took off. The welcoming 'Green Mountain Boys' air force hanger at the Burlington Airport.

The green mountains. 

I managed to add 2 rows of crochet into the blanket I started on Sunday. Then more people were added  onto the plane at a stop in NC, and I put it away and played games on my phone. I did watch someone doing cross stitch a few rows ahead of me. Nice to see some crafts being worked on a plane. I think I'll be doing that on Saturday with some of the 12 hours of travel I have ahead of me to get to Alaska!

June 15.

 

This photo was from January when the kids and I were up in Vermont. 

Today is my parents 63rd wedding anniversary 💕!

I am on vermont with them and fly home tomorrow.  Dad has opted to be home at this point and made comfortable. He is 89.  My brother is up here and I'm transferring care to him. He will do a great job the next week.   

Not much time for stitching. I did start a crochet project. Just red heart variegated yarn. Maybe 130 or 150 chains then I'm doing a simple griddle stitch. 

I'm taxi service today to bring mom to her doctor visit. Maid and chef service too. Shhh. Don't tell hubby as cleaning is not done at home much by me! I see some cross stitch in my future this afternoon. 

Good news

 Some positive news.

Visited Dad tonight, he looked good. Tv was  on. Smiled.  joked a little. Some fluid retention finally moving out of his body. 

Think the med fix is figured out so pressure at night should stop. 

The biopsy results, slow moving, so good there too.

The Greg sent me this photo. From my tomato plant.

Emily sent me this photo.

Zucchini! 

I extend my stay to Saturday.  Hopefully dad is released in the next day or two. 

A little walk this morning on the trail. 

One of the bridges on the trail with the babbling brook. So soothing.

Slow Sunday in Vermont

 I'm enjoying cooler Vermont weather from my normal hot Florida weather. I'm glad I came up to help out my parents as it is needed. My siblings have been great but needed a break, knowing I had things handled. They need someone here full time to assist at this point. I have a feeling I'll be up here off and on the next little bit. Flying home Wednesday morning.

They have been keeping me hopping, so not much stitching.  I might get out her sewing machine and see if it works!

I prepped some sewing lines waiting at the airport for some 2.5 inch squares to hand stitch when a machine is not around. I did a few waiting on the kidney biopsy procedure Friday.  

I cut a charm pack of pastel colors into squares, and added a bunch of a cream to a baggie for travel.

A few threads have been added to the cross stitch pumpkin while enjoying sunshine on the porch.

Handling medicine, blood sugar checks and insulin along with new home health vital checks keep me busy. Then the day to day care of meals, laundry and keeping them calm has been a handful. Laundry got done yesterday. Hoping to do a little cleaning today and remove more throw rugs that are a tripping hazard.

First up is a siblings (5 of us) meeting at my sister's after I get them settled in with recorded mass to watch this morning.  

Good news - Aidan and Issiac placed 2nd with a silver medal in their National Skills USA Competition in Atlanta Friday.  

he said: We had to make a glider launch holder part for a little Styrofoam glider. Our judges were people who work for Stratasys who are one of the big commercial 3d printer makers.

They each got cash and a 3D printer as a prize!

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow stitching folks.

Vermont

 I arrived safely to Vermont. Breeze airlines out of Tampa was easy to do. I'll remember that as I hate Orlando MCO. Sanford is easy as well.

Got to see my 3 siblings up here and am settled in at my parents.  They do need someone here full time to assist and I'm tagged for a week. I believe we have meds all done correctly this morning and weight and BP and oxygen taken on the new monitor sent directly to the doctor. 

I'll have to review diet recommendation for low salt, no dairy renal and diabetic diets and plan and make meals. A good challenge. I'm used to the dairy restrictions with Emily at least!

I was so happy to see lilacs on the tree! I picked a couple bouquets last night. One for my bedroom, which was lovely to smell all night, and one for the living room. I missed that smell for the last 15 years.

Sitting on the fromt porch with a nice 70s degree weather, no humidity and sunshine with a slight breeze. Perfect stitching weather. 

Wednesday travel day

 I'm leaving, on a jet plane....

Now that you all have that song in your head 😀.

The boy is in Atlanta at Skills USA. I've gotten 2 photos yesterday of him standing near F1 cars. He is having fun. The girl just left fir her final AICE test this year in physics. She had Chemistry yesterday. Yes, they are out of school but the AICE testing is dictated times by Cambridge in the UK. 

I started sewing  the grad quilt together Monday. It's about half done. Setting triangles and the rows still needs to be sewn when I get home in a week.

I did get the little house blocks sewn together. Ill add borders sometime in July or August.

I've got various hand work packed. We will see if anything gets done!

A cool front went through and the morning sniff/walk with Bear was so nice without dripping humidity. 

Sunday sewing

 I finished the last of the 25 bear paw blocks for the Graduation quilt this week. I pinned the boy down Saturday before he attended the last graduation party, and we tried out some different design layouts. 

Scattered around.

Dark blue, light blue, light green, dark green. He liked this one.

I think this one was light backgrounds to darker backgrounds but ended up in blue/green rows, which he did not like. Bear thought it was comfy though. 

He had options of the setting triangles. I don't have enough of the ones I used in the blocks to make them, so found a dark beige in the stash and purchased a lighter one at Hobby Lobby when I finally got the correct last embroidery floss I needed for my current project. He liked the lighter one we placed the blocks on.  I'll be cutting those big blocks today and begin getting this one to a top. It should be about 80 inches square, but I want to add a border around it as a frame. Not sure on the darker beige, or a green or blue yet. We will see how it looks.

A little stitching was added to the embroidery this week. 

I have a new trip planned for mid week up to Vermont to see my parents and help out for a week. Dad landed in the hospital again Tuesday and was released yesterday. Fluid buildup in his heart. They did some scans and found things, so he has a biopsy on his kidney scheduled for next Friday. I'll be up there to bring them to that and help out a little before and after. My siblings have been doing a great job, but I figured I needed to go up and help. My kids are self-sufficient at 17+18 and have their plans in place for the next couple of weeks. Their Dad is here too, and they all should be fine while I am gone.

I'll bring the embroidery and Brimfield with me for hand work. I'm also considering breaking into a quilt kit of blue batiks that I might change into a drunkards path block and play with them. I do have that as an Accuquilt die... and have a bunch of travel opportunities to hand stitch it.  I found 2 options in the kit bucket. I'll probably use the teeter totter batiks....and remember that pattern for a RSC quilt in the future.

I also found this cross stitch! This is from the early 90's!

Some pastel colors... if I want to play with RSC things this month. They look pastel like to me. Maybe some nine patches? Four patches? 

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.