Sunday, a time to take a deep breath!

 It has been a week, but lots of progress has happened. Today, I have plans to visit the Market of Marion and get some fresh veggies for the week. I really need to get back into a routine of real meals this week and eating healthy.

Then I will clear out the front rooms of all the clutter and prep it for painting. Dining room and a family room. I know, the house will get bulldozed sometime in the next year, but it has been 14 years since we moved in, and they will assess inside for the counteroffer (once they make an offer on the eminent domain take) so a fresh coat of paint should make it look 'nicer'. Maybe I can get Greg to have the Steam Cleaners come in and do the carpets while we are up in Vermont later this month. He's going to have his hands full though, with getting his Dad moved into Assisted Living a few days after we leave to drive north. We went and saw my FIL yesterday, and he was resigned to moving to assisted living. Realistically, he is not even bathing himself or dressing himself, so he does need that assistance after the broken hip. 

I do plan to take some breaks and start working on my second orange, sting of beads block today. The hand stitching of the applique will be calming.

I have 2 of the medium blue granny squares that need their grey surround added to finish off that color. Those will get done tonight, and then I'll move onto the stack of 13 dark blue. edited: I got one done this morning. This container of blocks and yarn will go in the car for the trip up to Vermont. We will see how the stitching them into a blanket goes. 

I'm going after the 'shiny new thing in my head' and will play with my Accuquilt Dies and cut out parts for a pattern called Happy Village. Turns out, I have all the dies needed for the pattern. I have the flowering snowball, the 8 inch cube and the 2.5 inch strip! I'll work on cutting out a 'kit' for possible hand piecing (to take with me.... because I like a lot of options!). It calls for 4 yards of background, which I do have a couple of bolts of fabric but I might go with a scrappy look instead. We will see. I'm not sure if it will be various shades of one color or a bunch of colors. I'll see what I have available in the stash.

I'll link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Friday!... or Saturday as time just keeps moving along.

I'm happy to say it has been a very busy but productive week.

I had 13 of these granny squares that got their tails woven in and 8 of them have their grey surround added. I have 5 to go. I counted the last stack of dark blue, and there are 13 of them that will need their tails woven in and then the grey added after this medium batch is finished. I've been trying to do one or two a day after weaving them in Sunday night.

The cats are keeping themselves entertained. Peanut is the little one and Ollie is the one on the right. It appears Aidan weighs them every few months. Ollie is about 15 pounds and Peanut is 9. 

 

I saw this photo on an Accuquilt Facebook Post. It appears to be a flowering snowball and a Shoo Fly block. I have the flowering snowball Accuquilt die and have been wanting to play with it, and I think these two blocks make a fun quilt. I had not thought of using the color in the rounded area of the block. I do like how these two blocks together appear to have curves in the quilt. 

I found this plate this week while looking in my FIL's cupboards. 

You can stop reading here if you'd like. This is more for me and a recap of my life this week.

Monday - I worked 7 hours and have no clue what happened that evening. Oh, that was the meeting with our lawyer to do our wills and a trust for the kids.  We never had them and with all this going on with his parents kicked us into getting it done.

Tuesday - I got up and walked the dog, got a quick shower and headed to The Villages a bit after 8AM to meet Tom at his Doctors office for 8:45. It appeared they were running late at the facility and he arrived right at 9AM. New doctor who did his surgery - so I had the pile of paperwork to fill out. I had to wheel him around and was there to hear he needed another 2 weeks before he can put full weight on it. I called the driver when we were done, and he met us at the entrance. He got him back to the facility and I did a quick stop at Dunkin and got breakfast before heading to the assisted living facility for 11 about 15 minutes past our house. Good thing I heard the text bing on my phone near home, and checked it at a stop light. They delayed from 11 to 12 noon, so I turned and went home. We took 2 cars as we were planning to drop my car off for a service when we were done. Turns out, the elder lawyer booked another facility for us to check out and it was a good thing. The first one had residents sharing a room, and the room was small. Think of a shared hospital room with a shared bathroom. That was the set up. Yikes. We headed across town to the other facility. We left the truck and just took the car. After a tour through this one, it was so much nicer. Everyone has their own room and bathroom - about 338 sq ft and a nice walk in closet. A fridge is included with wifi. We had a private chat with the elder lawyer rep that was with us after speaking with the sales manager there. She said it is the nicest place that takes Medicaid in Ocala and it fits his budget. There were 2 rooms available, so we put a deposit down on one of them the next day and secured it. Thankfully Greg's head is clear right now being off meds for a few weeks, so he was able to drive down to drop the check off on Wednesday while I worked. We dropped the car to the service center and had the kids pick us up and shuttle us (in a torrential downpour - thanks Aidan!) to our truck about 15 minutes down the road. He headed home and Greg and I went out for a 4PM 'lunch' at Bob Evans and decompressed. The kids were on their own.

Wednesday - a long work day and a hockey game that night.... I went to bed at the end of regulation but was happy to see the Oilers won the next morning when I woke up.

Thursday - I did a dog walk of a very drugged up dog in the morning. Greg and Emily took the dog to the vet for a shot and then I took the kids to the post office to get photo's for Passports for all of us. Greg did the paperwork for the kids and I did mine. They took the photo and verified everything and will mail it out for us. It appears I did change my name on my passport after I got married but it has been more than 15 years, so I needed a new one. Now when I move, I should not have any issues with voting! Life is crazy here in Florida, so I wanted a secure citizenship record with my current name.

Let's see, after that the car was ready so I drove us to the shop and the kids headed home while I paid for the brake pads, alignment and filling the AC with new coolant and that vehicle is ready for travel!

I grabbed a kids meal from Zaxby's and headed home to eat around 2:30. We then headed to The Villages to stop in and see Tom and then head to his house to meet a realtor friend of mine. We just wanted advice on what to do and next steps and she was very helpful. 

Unfortunately, when we stopped to see Tom, we mentioned the lawyer told us of his release date of June 23 and we found a place in an Assisted Living. He was shocked, and thought he was going home!!!!! Arrrggghhhh.

The man is not able to put full weight on his foot, is not able to bathe himself, walk by himself, etc. We asked if he was walking to rehab, he said no they bring me in a wheelchair.  His house is not wheelchair accessible for bathrooms. He also agreed to this in his care meeting a couple of weeks ago and agreed to have us put his house on the market. I'm sure he had a bad night that night. It was a long day, and we got home around 8PM Thursday night and I was exhausted.

Friday was a long day at work but a productive one. I finally figured something out that was not working so that is a positive. Finding a good place for Tom, is a positive. We dropped the receipt for his last purchase of clothes for reimbursement Thursday, so that should be resolved with a check for the lost clothing at rehab. I'm working to find the positives. 

Today, one kid is off for her riding lesson (it is crazy hot and humid out, so I opted to stay home!), the other just headed out to brunch with some buddies - seems they called him around midnight last night while he was watching the hockey game in overtime (I went to bed after the 2nd period exhausted). Greg and I will head over to see Tom after I get moving and shower. 

While all this was going on this week - I've been getting texts from my siblings on the things happening up in Vermont. After my parents hired a roofer a few years ago, he did a horrible job and there has been leaking ever since. He has since stopped responding (over a year ago now) and my sister has been trying to get people out to get a quote on redoing the roof and fixing the damage for about 2 years. No luck. Last week they finally got someone to actually go out, he gave a quote on all of it and said he has a 2-3 week window before starting a new house build and could squeeze it in. Got his credentials, the quote and a signed off contract and he started the next day. He gives photo's and daily updates on progress - it was to take about a week. Scaffolding is up and the metal roof was taken off and will be reused, the 3 layers of shingles were scraped off. He'll check for soft boards and fix then put the proper things down with good seals around the chimney and sky lights that were leaking, then reapply the metal roof with proper edge sealed this time.  It should all be done by the time we get up there. He is also going to fix the damage inside where mold started, replace and then it should be all set. 

Alas, no sewing has happened, but I am hopeful that after visiting Tom today, I might manage to go play a little bit in the sewing room. I'd like to at least make the last birds in the air block and then add the green triangle to the alternate blocks that are almost done from last month. 

Must get moving, as the sooner we leave the sooner I get back home to relax.

BITA blocks

It appears I need one more block... and it needs to be purple I think.  I had to go back on my blog and see how I planned to lay this one out. I found a 15x15 layout for a 90x90. 15 blocks across it is! I just tried to get at least one of each color in each row so the colors are spread out. I did have way more blues and greens than any other color, so those are more prevalent. I think I managed to get a good mix. The dog was helping and held rows down for me a few times. 

 224 blocks.  

starting to lay out the blocks in rows of 15.

 

One block short. I picked them all up - by each row, so they are sets of 15, except that last row. I'm sure I'll manage to mix them up while sewing them together. Scrappy quilts are very forgiving!

I'll be working on sewing these into a top this month. 

June already?

 Where did the first part of the year go?

The kids are officially done their school year and are now a Senior and Junior in High School. How did this happen? 

I've been in a crochet mood, I guess. I got tails worked in and added the grey surround on all the current light blue granny squares. I'll move onto the pile of medium blues - 13 left in the pile. The last stack is bigger of the dark blues. The container of this project will go in the car with us later this month to be assembled into the blanket in our travels up to Vermont. The lighting is not great but will be fine for crochet in the evenings.

Then I pulled the hexagons and got 3 of the 4 stitched. I'll stitch the last one this morning and then stitch them together while watching the F1 race with Aidan.

Then I'll move to the second orange and green string of beads block. I drew the peels placement on the background and the peel stitching shape is marked so it should be easy needle turn applique. I'll have to prep the last 2 for this collection in aqua/teal today

This is the first one in orange I finished off this week.

The dog is insisting on a walk, so I'd better take him out before it gets way too hot. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

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.