Mid week update

 Well, one of the orange string of beads block is completed.

I also made 4 BITA blocks. I 'think' I need one more but will lay them all out tomorrow to make sure.

I have 4 more of these sage colors in the alternate block just waiting on the big triangle to be cut and attached.

Meals this week - the pulled pork on the smoker was ready really late on Sunday night (9PM) so that was dinner on Monday night. Tuesday was some lemon chicken piccata with capers over angel hair pasta. Tonight, I tried a new to us recipe - Cuban chicken and rice. I expected more flavor, but it was a nice blend. It made a lot! I had the seal a meal out for the rest of the pulled pork into packets for the freezer. I also did a bag of rice and chicken pulled off the bone for the freezer and the rest went into the fridge for lunch tomorrow. There was 2 things in this recipe that I found at my Publix in the spice aisle, rather than the international aisle like I was thinking.

The other one was 7 ounces of whole pimentos; I had a jar of them in my hand but kept looking and found a 7 ounce can of whole ones for about $1. That was much better on the budget than the $3.50 jar for about half of that amount! When I opened the can... it got me wondering if it was any different from roasted red peppers. It appears it is! It is a separate type of pepper. Who knew? I picked up 2 cans of them, just in case we liked it.... since I now have 7 more packets of this spice. I do think I'll use it again, as it did add a neat flavor. Maybe for a stuffed peppers. Yum. 

I only cooked the rice for 30 minutes, since I used basmati rice rather than long grain rice, so the 40 minute cook time was not needed. The chicken was cooked through, and the rice was perfect. I used bone in chicken thighs for mine and pulled the meat off the bone before I put it away in the freezer and fridge.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids. Aidan is heading up to Gainesville with his buddies for dinner at a place up there. Emily is going to drive the truck to school and get herself home. All the seniors are done so there is plenty of parking this week. Greg and I will head over to see how my FIL is doing. We went Tuesday afternoon, and it seems when they finally took his laundry down, it never made it back to his room, so he was without clothes all weekend. Not a single call to us. They managed and found some extra clothes and used some gowns so he could do PT. He indicated he had not done PT since last Wednesday and a Shower on Thursday. I chatted with the CNA - nope, he had been to PT every day and she told me of the gowns for one day and getting some clothes for the other days. She then (with prompting) managed to track down his clothing but it was behind locked doors of the housekeeping. We will check Thursday to make sure they are all there and back... we had a few days worth from home and then purchased a few more each of shirts and sweats for him. I did mention he seemed to be having memory issues so they should check for a UTI. We never did get a call today from PT with an update and Greg has called a few times with no return calls. So, we will go tomorrow and see how things are. 

This next part might be TMI.

 I was having a horrible weekend - this phase before being in menopause is the pits. Yes, I am 52 and will be 53 later this year. My sisters went into menopause before age 50. My Mom had a full hysterectomy in her mid 40's.  I enjoy the no period months that happen occasionally (Jan,Feb and April) but goodness. Friday night until Sunday was brutal. Such heavy bleeding, I was changing things every 2-3 hours for a good 48 hours before it slowed down. No sleep, no energy and drained. Thank goodness my sister mentioned this happened to her, so I was not too freaked out. Fingers crossed I get the next month or two off. I did chat with a few ladies at Sisters Retreat and one said it did not happen fully for her until age 57! Please God, I hope that is not my fate.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 It is a 3 day weekend for us in the USA with Memorial Day on Monday. I've got plenty of hand work prepped and ready to go for little bits of time this coming week. I finished off the Hexagons QAYG column this week so it was time to prep some more to be stitched and quilted this coming week. I cut some 3 inch backgrounds and 2 inch hexagons from colored fabrics and leftover warm and natural batting strips. 

It did not take long to get them clipped and prepped for hand stitching this week. 4 sage greens and 4 teals will start off the next row. 

I had prepped two more of the orange peels for the string of beads blocks last week and started on the first orange one. There will be 2 teal ones left to prep to finish off this collection of 16. 

For a change of pace, I pulled out the crochet hook and added 4 more grey surrounds onto the existing granny square blocks. The right side is the stacks still waiting for their grey to be added. At some point I'll start connecting them together. It might be groups of 9 similar blocks, it might be a checkerboard, I'll decide later but it is moving forward. I do have another skein of each of the 3 blue colors so I could make more of any of them if needed to fill things out. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

RSC in green

 I got a little sewing time in this week for some Green RSC progress. I also did some catch up sewing - I only had 1 16 patch block in yellow and red, so I added another of each and 2 greens to the pile. Not sure what they will become, but they are handy to have ready for quick quilts.

Hand stitching moved to assembly and I have these hand pieced QAYG Hexagons into their column to eventually be added to make the current quilt bigger. I believe I want 2 more of these columns..... so it is time to start prepping more hexagons (and use that extra batting cast offs) for the next row. I'll be needing 48 for the next column.

Linking up Saturday with Angela and the RSC.

I hope to get my alternate blocks made this long holiday weekend as well as the final 5 BITA blocks so I can start assembling that quilt top.

The kids have 3 days of school left next week. Next fall I'll have a Senior and a Junior! Emily is playing at the Graduation Saturday morning (she gets to drive herself over there since it starts at 8AM and I'm sure she has to be there by 7AM).

 We did a Brisket on the smoker on Thursday, and I also picked up a close to 10 pound pork shoulder that will go on the smoker sometime this weekend. That should load up the freezer a bit for Greg when we are travelling to Vermont next month for a few weeks. Fingers crossed it is a light hurricane season with no land hits. We could use a break after the back to back hits in October 2024.

Thursday

 The hexagons are in sets of 8 now. We won't mention the ones that got sewn twice.... because someone got the orientation wrong when putting them together. Unpicking hand stitching is not rewarding at all. These should become a long column in the next few days. I'll prep some more hexagons to start the next row today. I have all day in the sewing room (with one kid pick up late afternoon) to play with fabric.

We had awards for Emily last Tuesday and Aidan this Tuesday. Emily's Freshman/Sophomore awards were an hour. Imagine our surprise when the Junior/Senior awards handed out a bunch of scholarships and ran over 2 hours! We will know for next year when both will be at that one. We got to Emily's right as it started so we were way in the back and no good photo taken. I did get one of Aidan on the stage getting his 4.0 pin to add to his academic letter. Emily wanted Wendy's as her after awards meal and it was a drive through. Aidan (and Greg and I) were hungry, so we pulled into Cracker Barrel on the way home and had dinner around 8PM. It hit the spot.

Wednesday - we had Tom's care meeting. He has stayed at 5 steps the last 2 weeks and needs to show improvement. He needs to be at 100 steps unassisted to be really released, however Medicare will only pay if improvement is seen. We did discuss assisted living, however if he can't improve then it will be skilled nursing. He is not happy, but more open to it. We have a meeting with an elder care Medicare/Medicaid consultant on Friday to see how all that works for payment and what is covered. 

I just finished the 9th audiobook in a Scottish Bookshop series by Paige Shelton. It starts with The Cracked Spine and I really enjoyed this sleuthing mystery.

I just started listening to 'I escaped from Auschwitz' last night on my Audible account. 

Meals this week:

Monday - Greek. I made falafel and tzatziki and picked up grilled herbed chicken breasts from Sams with their greek pita. I had mine with a salad.

Wednesday - stuffed peppers with a box of New Orleans Dirty Rice with some burger meat added to it. Normally I use the Rice a Roni Spanish Rice. 

Tonight - I'm about to throw the brisket on the smoker for dinner tonight with a potato salad using potato's Emily grew and harvested a week ago.   

Time to check the temp on the grill and then go play with some fabrics.

Sunday stitching

 I'm just now settling in with a little slow stitching this weekend.

Saturday was a busy day with horses for Emily and catching up with her trainer and her riding buddy and her Grandpa. I've not seen them in about a month. 

Saturday evening was picking up some food donations for the band booster music program pot luck dinner and awards banquet at school. We picked up more than expected as Cheddars Scratch Kitchen added extra things and Olive Garden provided salads and breadsticks. We were very thankful for their donations. Emily got her medals for superior ratings of the group in both marching band and symphonic, her 2 gold bars to add to her letter and a color guard pin. She also received a plaque for most improved in JV winter guard. She was quite pleased.

This morning, I helped set up tables and chairs for around 200 for the Girl Scouts Tea Party. I have helped set up the last few years but not gone to it. I forgot to snap any photo's, but it looked great and ready for the crowd to arrive.

Some chicken time happened.

5 colorful eggs, so everyone laid an egg today.

The girls eating some treat seeds. They did get some outside time to wander the yard while I helped Emily clean out the second coop area. We had some mice get in there and it needed a good clean. This was the original area we don't use for the chickens, just was storage. 

I finally got something I ordered from Amazon a while ago. I can't wait to look through this book. Pepper Cory mentioned it on the Celebrate Hand Quilting group on Facebook a while ago and it finally arrived. 

Ollie agreed to a photo.

I'm taking a break from the string of beads blocks and will be stitching the quilt as you go hexagons together into a long row, to eventually add to the existing quilt to make it bigger. I added the last 2  to the completed one on the left. Now to stitch those 12 sets of 4 into a column. I'll have to start prepping some more of these - I'll need 48 for another strip. I'm thinking to add 4 strips total, so almost halfway there. The current quilt is 88x66. I think 88x88 should be a good size for the bed.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

RSC blocks

 I got both of my green string of beads blocks completed this month. I'm all up to date! I have 4 more blocks to make, 2 in orange and 2 in aqua/teals.  It will be set 4x4.

I tried to get a better picture in the liing room, but someone saw quilt blocks and decided he needed to pose. He is now snoozing across the blocks, holding them down for me. 

Bear has his teddy bear with him.

Is this a good pose Mom? 

Linking up on Saturday with Angela and the RSC.

Emily had her awards on Tuesday. Aidan's are next Tuesday. They are still each having extra reviews and exams through next week. Emily's got riding on Saturday and her music program banquet and awards is on Saturday. A pot luck and then 2 hours of awards for marching band, symphonic, chorus, Big Band Jazz, and Winter Guard Programs. 

End of school busy!

I'm watching The Quilter on Netflix. Impressive!

A rainy Monday

 It was a quiet day yesterday. I did get some sewing time piecing the puzzle of extra blocks into a long enough and wide enough piece to add to the existing 51x108 length for a backing. I believe it is 24x75, so plenty big enough to work for the 69x69 Arkansas Traveller top. It always takes a lot longer to piece these things with thinking than I would have thought.

The stack of extra parts and pieces is down to just a smattering of parts rather than the tall pile it was between the last backing and this one. Maybe I'll finish that one long seam tonight and get the backing and top both rolled onto the boards for pinning. I do have the batting cut off the roll of warm and natural already. I'm going to miss the Joanns November sale to get another big roll of it at half off. I will need another one about that time. Hopefully there will be some options out there.

An interesting tidbit from yesterday. I was cleaning out the fridge and decided to empty things into the chickens big run for them early afternoon (zucchini and eggplant parm, watermelon chunks and some kitchen scraps of cucumber peels). It rained off and on all day yesterday. I let the dog out in the evening and after a bit when he didn't 'knock' on the slider to be let in, I got up and looked out. He was by the chicken enclosure..... but was he inside the big run or on the outside? The little turkey was inside and the chickens were in the original run area where there is a little canal connecting them the dog can't fit through (thank goodness!). Turns out, the little bugger wanted whatever was left of the scraps in there! His tail was wagging as I let him out and thankfully he did not see Buttercup get excited and run towards us. He just scooted out and went to the door. All 5 chickens were accounted for. Emily got sent out to figure out how he got in and zip tie it again. The joys of chickens and dogs!

Thank goodness it is Saturday!

 What a week! Crazy at work, learning new things with a deadline looming is always fun. I have not been doing much of anything, but I did get this one light green string of beads block completed. It is a rainy day today, so I hope to spend time doing something in the sewing room. Linking up with the RSC in green.

Some normal day sights this week. The pink mimosa tree is in full bloom on the side yard. It is a very fluffy flower with pink.

On our walk this morning (Bear and I) we saw one Momma turkey with her 3 littles. There is another one with 8 or 9 littles as well.

Another wild turkey we saw this morning.

I had my phone with me today and the birds were chirping away. There is a storm coming in this afternoon and it is very overcast so maybe they are busy enjoying the rain free weather? According to my Merlin app (thank you to whomever mentioned it!) I was hearing Tufted titmouse, Carolina Wren, yellow throated vireo, common ground dove and one I have not seen was a northern parula. 

This one was holding me down last night. Yes, my leg is under the quilt, and he is using it as a pillow.

I was working on figuring a backing for the Arkansas Traveller quilt on Thursday. I was piecing all the extra blocks and parts before I had to stop and do a run to Lady Lake. I think I will just use one of the plain cotton panel sheets I have in a box so I can get it done this weekend without too much thinking. I used that on the back of the green quilt above, and it is oh so soft and cuddly. No thinking and I can maybe get a quilt finish this year!

In other news....

We met with an elder care lawyer on Wednesday then headed over to see Tom, my FIL. He was laying flat in bed and snoozing. We did the paperwork finally for admitting, since the admitting person kept catching him asleep and did not want to wake him. He was pretty discouraged and said he could barely stand and was not walking. He was one week out from hip surgery from the break the Sunday befor that. I was hoping to have all Thursday to play in my sewing room. Alas, we needed to head over to do some of his banking and check the house. We also brought more clothing for him that is easier to get in and out of with his hip. He was a different person on Thursday. Sleeping, but sitting up in the recliner. He had been to the rehab area and done some shuffle walking - which was great news! He has come to terms with he will be there for a while to rehab and get his strength back rather than the few days he was hoping. I believe he has 100 days available for rehab, and he has awesome insurance so does not pay a dime. I was listening to my audio book last night when I got a call from a local number I did not recognize. I answered it and it was from his Rehab facility. Hubby did not answer his cell, so I'm glad we gave them mine as well. Seems he has a blood clot in his leg. They did an ultrasound and gave the blood thinner shot and will keep an eye on it. At least he notified them his foot felt weird, and they addressed it immediately. I'm sure there will be a trip over today to check in on him again. 

I still had the non dairy coconut yogurt from Emily's meal so tried it in the yogurt scone recipe (on the recipe page). I added some frozen blueberries on top. She will be so happy she can eat them without a lactaid pill!

Orange peels in green?

 I was not planning to use green in these peels, but what the heck. I have this pretty light green print and will pull a bright green for the next one. I did my ironing of the block - in half each way and then on the diagonal each way. Marked the orange peel shapes onto the background and then pin them one at a time for needle turn applique. Linking up with the RSC in green for May. I hope to get some sewing time in this weekend.

It was a normal busy morning. I got up and walked the dog. Bear was happy. We got home as Emily was heading to school for a 2 hour AICE review of one of her classes. She coordinated horses with Kyra and her trainer to delay an hour so she drove from school to horses for her noon lesson. 

I took the boy with me, and we headed to Bellieview to pick blueberries at Abshier Blueberry Farm. I paid about $35 so we got a lot of them at $4.50 a pound. I have a tray double layer full in the freezer from one bag picked. The other will eventually get some frozen but both kids mentioned cobbler. 

Then we headed to the Market of Marion which was 5-10 minutes from there. We spent $20 on veggies and $10 on plants. I got a pretty african violet - we will see how long till I kill it, and a nice looking cherry tomato plant for my planter. 

We got a small watermelon, 5 beefsteak tomato, a basket of green beans, carrots, zucchini, summer squash, 6 cukes, and 2 eggplants.  We got home before 11AM.  Aidan made a BLT for lunch. Eggplant parm tomorrow. I see lots of veggie meals next week as sides. I think we will do the black bean and charred corn burrito bowl with guac and fresh salsa tonight for dinner.

My FIL has been moved to a rehab facility. It is a new one to us and he moved Friday evening. We will head over after the F1 Sprint race today. Still in pain after the hip surgery but it is all in his hands at this point for recovery. At least he was lucid yesterday but very sleepy, so we did not stay long. 

We will see how he is today.

The boy had a great time at his Skills USA this week up in Jacksonville. He got a second place medal in a new competition to him and was quite pleased. 

Gold String of Beads block

 I finally got a few stitches done today. I finished up the gold string of beads block. I'm heading to school shortly to pick up Aidan as he returns from Jacksonville and the Skills USA competition. He placed second in his competition, and he is quite pleased. That course over spring break paid off.

We visited Tom this morning as he had surgery late yesterday. The anesthesia is having quite the effect on him. He is still in pain, and the PT folks did get him to sit up but he would not stand or move to a chair. He said he was too weak. After they left, he was very talkative.... and having hallucinations with some lucid statements from this week thrown in. It was an interesting experience. They say it is normal and should wear off in a few days. We will see. I've heard that anesthesia can speed up the onset of dementia, so we will see what happens. He had a few signs of it before, but usually when he had an infection which we also noticed with my Mom as well. Greg said he was like that after a surgery back in 2018 when he was in the ICU for a few weeks. We got a call after we got home indicating they moved him off the surgery pre/post op floor to a patient wing. We will head over tomorrow after I finish working and see how he is doing. 

The Tasty recipe for rice noodles with veggie stir fry was really good. We will add that one to the rotation and it was quick to make as well, since we got home pretty late after visiting Tom and then picking up Emily from school after 5PM. 

Last night I had leftover roaster chicken that needed using, so I made chicken enchiladas with a green salsa verde. It was yummy. I just do a can of cream of chicken soup, about a cup of sour cream and then cut up chicken. I added some black beans, then the mixture into a flour burrito and rolled it up. A bunch of them in the pan with the salsa verde on top then some cheddar cheese and baked for 30 minutes. It is all gone as it was dinner and lunch for everyone today. 

Tonight is a black bean and corn charred burrito bowl. We will see how that is.

Off to get the boy.