Monday's musings coming on Tuesday

I didn't get to the musings yesterday so here they are a day late!

This weekend...
We played board games, I did lots of dishes and knitting, the kids worked on cleaning their rooms. The grownups realized that mostly the problem really was too much stuff in too little space. We are going to have to work on this. We had a quiet and pleasant weekend.

Right now...
I am sitting with me leg up, I did a bunch, but not all of, errands this morning and am tired! My shoulder is hurting so no knitting right now. Soon I will make bread for dinner - we are having turkey - I just finished eating lunch. I made salmon pate and ate it on whole wheat crackers with pickled onions.

Plans, how last week went.
I knit on both the socks and the tank top and resisted the urge to cast on a Lillietind Hat. I did not cut out skirt fabric. I did darn Bunny's bunny socks. I did read the Handspinning Art & Techinques book and it is a slog! most of the info is out of date so reading it is really work. I did work on my German every day, but mostly really late at night. I did not do inventory or film a tutorial. I did work on the house, but not on the 4h stuff. I did not write in my book.

Plans...
I want to cruise on one or both knits so I can cast on the Hat soon! I want to spin the yarn for the hat - only about 75grams - I want to spin for a little bit each day to work up my endurance again. I think I should clean my studio before starting a sewing project. I need to decide if I am continuing to read this book or switching to another. I want to work on my German in the early afternoon so I can focus on it better. I think I will set up a time in the week for writing. I am going to remember that I am still healing and try to go for a walk each day and to be gentle with myself.

Prayers...
I am praying for calmness and strength this week. 

Monday Musings

Now... I am hurrying to get a few things done before I go get the kids and the race begins. We have so many things tonight, that it is 2:14 and dinner is bubbling in the crockpot and my Mother in Law is coming over to take some kids one way while I take other in a different direction. Jim is on a business trip. It makes for a long week and for some reason I always try to add an extra project while he is gone. Once I emptied our bedroom and painted it. I am not looking for an big thing this time.

This weekend... I had a craft show in Elkhorn this Saturday. It was good. They have 7 locations across the city and run a shuttle all day. I was in one building and never left, but I would guess that there were 50 vendors just in my building. Sunday we cuddled, played board games, and I started to catch up on house work. I'll let you know if I every actually catch up, but the laundry is folded and put away and the stack of dishes is done to what could have been dirtied in just today.

Plan for this week... Keep up with the house and kids, get all my products listed on etsy, visit with friends, meet a another friend on her way out of state to O'hare airport, help my father clean out the room he wants to make his workshop - he is an amazing woodworker - and while there replace the wooden door front on one of my kitchen drawers. (ok there is a little surprise the husband project)

If I get some time for myself... Actually, I am taking it. I joined the local gym today. I went swimming and walking in the water - it is a sea water pool I really did not like the taste of what water got in my mouth - tried out the sauna and took a shower. I meet with a trainer tomorrow to be shown how to use the machines. I am excited about this. I am one pants size lower than I had been - I actually spent most of the day at the craft show hiking my pants up. At the end of the day, Dad told me I needed to get a smaller pair. I looked through the old jeans pile and found two pairs, one is good shape and one not so much.

I am grateful for... A joke my whole family played. Cats wiggle their butts right before they pounce. Jim was grabbing the last things from his office, the kids and I hid out of sight (almost) from the door and wiggled our butts. When he cleared the doorway the wiggling quickly turned to pouncing, he was not in a good mood, as he never really is before leaving, but he grinned as he got mobbed.

Prayerful intentions... I pray for civility and understanding, amongst the people and leaders of our people.

Monday Morning (Sort of) Musings...

Now... I am in my studio, listening to the History of Byzantium, drinking the cold end of my coffee. I have spent the morning getting myself organized, home and business wise. Time has moved quickly, and while I want to start crafting my tummy would like to point out that it is almost 1.

This Weekend... We celebrated Badger's eighth birthday. It was actually in August but she wanted to wait for the school year for friends and we have had a busy month with weddings, funerals, and birthdays. She had a great time. Friends and Family gathered and ate the cakes she made and one little girl stayed over night. Birthday season has begun in earnest and Little Seal is next in two week.

Some Plans for the week... That leads into my plans well as I want to make him a stuffed animal dragon. I want to do more work on my business, especially posting listing and such - so much more fun to spin and weave and felt - but work I much do. I also want to get my Christmas crafting plans started.  I also should clean up the garden and put it to bed and will be helping a friend harvest her grapes.

If I get some time for myself... I will likely fall asleep, as much as I like this new schedule, I am a bit run down from all the stress of the past month and feel very tired just now.

I am grateful for... my beautiful funny Badger, who loves to help and to bake.

Some prayerful intentions for the week... I will continue to hold Becca in my heart, she lost her mother to cancer this month. I want to work on my own intention to lose weight and exercise more. I view this in the prayerful section of these musings because it is my head and my heart that need to change. I need to find a balance in this area of my life.





I am off to find some lunch and wish you a good week. ~ Julia

Monday Morning

Right Now... I am waiting for the spin cycle to finish so I can hang the towels in the sun and start a new load of clothes. It is nine am and this will be the third load.

This weekend... We went up to the property to camp. Hence, all the dirty laundry, woodsmoke on clothes yuck, on a campfire yum. I accept that I am weird. I had a cold and did not want to go, but my husband really did. So I went. I had such a great time. He was right we all needed the screen free, outdoorsy together time. We connect up there so well and everyone seems to be bone deep happy there, I wish we just lived in the woods. It would not be the same I guess but it is what my heart wants. Hoping to go next week too.

Plans for the week... prep business for start of show (post on that here) visit with Angie - when the towel are hung - get the house cleaned up. Work a tiny bit in garden. Start walking 3 miles a day.

If I get anytime for myself... I would like to make a few skirts for me. I bought myself some new jeans for the camping trip, I had been thinking I should lose weight before buying new for long enough that what fit was not decent to wear in public and what was didn't fit well. I gave in and it felt so nice to be in clothes that looked nice and fit. I want more of that feeling.

I am Grateful for... the woods and the water, times when hungry children help make food over a fire, the stress falling from my husband and my shoulders when we walk into the woods.

Prayerful Intentions... I want to make a few more little shrouds and line them and to make a few hats for the Christmas at sea program.

What makes me Smile... Butterfly (all of them but her most as she was so certain she would never get it) shooting her arrows at the target Daddy built. Then her joy and certainty when he showed her how to aim and hit the target himself. Of course, Daddy can do anything!

Yarn along - a prayer

Joining Ginny and the other Ladies at the Yarn Along!

It seems bad things just keep coming. Yesterday, my brother-in-law was carrying Seal (my nickname for my nephew who was born in Oct) over a baby gate in their home. I know how many things I stepped over one. He fell. Seal fell. His skull is fractured, his tiny brain has a bleed. He is in hospital this morning after a night fear. He was transferred to the big hospital about an hour from their home. The neurosurgeon is thinking he will not need surgery.

Last night and today, I am praying. I past updates on to family and friends, I worried, and I prayed. This is the start of a prayer blanket for him.

In other news, my mother will be discharged from hospital today. I spent a good deal of time frogging and refrogging my milk sweater but am moving forward again. As for reading I haven't had much time. I am reading a herbal home remedy book, I can't recommend. Catching up on reading my magazine subscriptions. Spin off and Brew primarily. 

If you are willing, would you say a prayer for my little nephew, sister, and brother-in-law. Thank you, 
Julia

Mom and March

My mother has been sick since I was twelve. She went from normal working healthy mom to nearly dying multiple times to disabled likely to suddenly end up in the hospital in what seemed to me to be a finger snap. I don't really clearly remember the start just before and after. I was in middle school and caught up in all that stress and excitement and change, for me this was one of those changes. My parents, and grandparents protected my sister and me from most of the fear they held. It is what parents do. So mom being sick became just a normal part of our lives. Most of the time we don't much think about it. There are things she can't do, there are tons of medications and things she needs to help her. Most of the time her illness doesn't really get in the big picture of our lives. It is something that is normal. Most daughters don't have a spare oxygen concentrater tucked in their front closet in case mom needs it. Most people don't plan three hours for security at the airport. Taking her places is a hassle but it is just our lives.

And we live them. She especially loves the crafting retreat time we take together and joining me demonstrating at Garfield Farm Museum. She will sometimes, if she is feeling good, come along to a craft show, and keep me company. She feels bad about not being able to help, but really it is nice having her there to talk to, or to watch the cash box so I can go to the bathroom without worrying.

Yesterday, she was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and a stomach virus. She is miserable, but getting the care she needs.

Dad's phone call, "Julie, we are at er, looks like your mom is buying a bed." Brought back so many memories, fears, and struggles. I couldn't get a hold of him. He left that message on my voicemail, but the Emergency department at the hospital is in the basement and he had no service. I tried all the numbers I had but I couldn't reach him. I started to drive down - about an hour away, she was admitted about 1am so the call was at about 10pm - he called again and told me to go home. Truthfully, this time mom is okay. They will fix this, she recover, they caught it in time, but the call was the same.

The same as four years ago, I had then as now seen her two days before and she was fine. This time when she went to bed to rest and he checked on her a few hours later she had a fever of 104.8. Last time she was not responsive. This time, he got her up and to the car, last time was a 911 call. Last time was four weeks on a ventilator and her doctor, literally, sleeping by her bedside. Last time she was lost, but came back to us. This time she will stay in hospital for a few days and come home stronger. Last time she was discharged from the hospital to a rehabilitation hospital for weeks.

Yesterday, was the four year anniversary of that discharge.

I say "last time" when in truth it wasn't literally the last time, she has been in hospital since then, but Pneumonia very nearly took her before and has her down again. I don't really remember the fear from when her health started to fail. I became accustomed to the hospitals, stress, and extra work that was normal and fundamental in our lives. I remember, with painful clarity the doom and despair on my father's face from last time. I remember sitting in her hospital room with only the sound of the machines keeping her alive, reading her my textbook.

She is and will be fine. But my heart is stalled at "looks like your mom is buying a bed."

~Julia

Daddy

 My Daddy whose heart lives here and in my mother's chest, who taught me what being a father meant so I could find that in a man for my own children, who would start to explain some thing I was learning in school and end up teaching me about something much bigger  - like great circle routes of navigation - who makes beautiful things, who works hard to save lives that come into his care, and is heart-sore when he can't help or when a patient reminds him too much of my sister or me, who is always there, is having surgery. His knee has given up, so it will be replaced with titanium, Making him Bionic Daddy.

This is him (behind him is my sister)

His surgery is at 7:30. Mom and I are waiting to hear he is okay. If you would hold him in your thoughts.

Thank you,
Julia