Life

One Month Today

/ LDSVenus / 1 Comment

Son & Grand Daughter

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It’s been a month since I lost my youngest son.  This picture was taken about 2 weeks before his loss.  There is much upheaval in the family with my other children as they wonder if there was something they could have done, if they could have reached out more, feeling guilty because they took him for granted, etc.  I want them to understand that I too have the same feelings.  I need them to know that there was nothing they could have done.  I want to tell them that maybe taking him for granted will help us all as we go forward to remember that life is fragile and we should relish all our relationships.  I wanted to thank them for their help with his funeral arrangements and the financial support they are giving for that purpose.   That shows me how much they loved him, and it speaks volumes, because I know their financial situations are as precarious as mine.  Life is short and we shouldn’t put off spending time with those we love.

Patriotic Dishcloth

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I have started to spin a little bit again, and  I’ve been working on some dishclothes during my lunch hour at work, I’m too tired to knit when I get home from work – I’m not sleeping real well.  This is the last one I finished.  You can’t really see the pattern very well because the color obscures it.  The yarn is Sugar N’ Cream Stripes and I thought I remembered where I got the pattern but I can’t find it at the moment.  If I’m able to remember it, I will edit this post and put a link in.  I’m working on a different pattern now, that will end up being a smaller kitchen towel, but I’ve had to frog it twice already.  I’ll get it done, it’s not hard, my thinking is just not always on task at the moment.

The Loss of a Son…

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

8-20-81 to 5-12-10

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It is with great sorrow that I acknowlege the loss of my son.  He leaves behind a daughter, Leena (who was his pride and joy), a sister, two brothers, grand parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and me.  He was preceded in death by his father in 2008 around this same time.

I miss you sweetie.

The loss of my son is devastating and he will be greatly missed.  How grateful I am for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice and the peace and hope it brings.

Ebbs and Flows

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

My grand daughter

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This last week end, my daughter had her wedding reception.  She got married on the April 15th (hoping it would take the sting out tax time?) in Las Vegas and had the reception here.  The picture is my youngest son’s daughter.  He lives in state but about 4 hrs away so I don’t get to see him or my grand daughter very often.   But I got to see her and him as we celebrated his sister’s wedding.   I promise to post a picture of the wedding as soon as I get one ;P.

While my daughter celebrates wedded bliss, my son is going through a divorce and this sweet little girl is caught in the middle with the divorce and custody upheaval.  She wants to spend more time with her daddy but in IA the dad has little say in what happens in custody cases and unless it is pre agreed, full custody usually goes to the mother with the dad getting every other week end.  My personal feelings are that in all states there needs to be automatic joint custody for the sake of the child unless there is found to be abuse.  A child needs equal access to both parents.   But no matter what happens we just need to patiently get through the hard stuff. 

I’m still working at my long term temp job.  It is a fun job and I actually enjoy going in every day. 🙂  I hope I can find a permanent job that I will enjoy as much.  Working temp jobs is a bit stressful because you never know, when that one is done, how long it will be before the next job and if it will be something you will enjoy or not. 

I am doing a little knitting on my lunch hr, the rest of my life has been a zoo lately and I haven’t gotten much done on the spinning or knitting front.  But I plan on spinning some today so I can relax.  I think I will take my spinning wheel out on the balconey and enjoy this cooler spring weather today. 🙂  Hope all of my friends haven’t been hit too hard by this crazy spring weather that has been churning up all those storms.

Officially Spring in Iowa

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Click on picture for larger image

I thought because most of the pictures I had taken were of snow this last winter that I would show you that Iowa really does have spring, it just seems forever to get here!  The leaves are starting to come forth and the robins have been here for a couple of weeks now.  But I know it’s really spring because the Magnolia buds are starting to bloom!  I don’t have a picture of that because I don’t have one close to my yard and I didn’t have my camera with me when I saw one yesterday.  We got pretty warm a week  & 1/2 ago, then late last week it got cold again, freezing at night again.  That is typical here tho, I can’t really depend on the warmer weather to stay until May. 🙂

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Spinning wilton dyed superwash merino

I have been spinning slowly on the wilton dyed superwash merino.  I’ve been busy with a temp job (which should last until mid May), my car wasn’t drivable for a couple of months and I had to rely on others to get around for errands, getting to and from work, church, etc, I caught a cold from my grandson 2 weeks ago and tho I am feeling better there is still the coughing thing going on (a wonderful repercussion from my asthma).  I’m gearing up for the spring cleaning in the house and (now how many excuses have I listed? :P).  Anyway, I’ve started spinning on it again, and it really is lovely.  I wonder what it will look like when I have enough to ply. 

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I have my car back again!  A friend and his wife, from my church, helped me get the steering rack and brakes fixed.  He said it still needs axels (they are ok for a while so we will do that this fall before winter comes) and the carborator needs a kit to rebuild it and he’s going to find a new handle for my passenger side front door (don’t even ask how that got broken – don’t want to embarrass one of my sons because he really is such a sweetie :P), and it needs a tune up, and the  jets for the windshield wiper fluid have never allowed fluid to come out, but it’s getting fixed little by little, the more important things first and hopefully all by the fall.  It’s just so nice to have it back and drivable and be independant again!!!!

Spring at Last, or is it?

/ LDSVenus

1st Day of Spring!

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The weather has been in the 40’s and 50’s for a couple of weeks and our snow was mostly melted off, except some of those huge piles from the snow plows.  Then on Friday it got cold, in the 30’s.  Saturday was the 1st day of Spring and this is what I woke up to, and yes it’s already melted off and the weather is back into the 40’s and 50’s :).  I never take warm weather for granted here in IA until May and sometimes Mid May, we’ve been known to have snow in early May.   Hopefully that will not be the case this year :). 

 
 

Slippers

Here are the slippers that I’ve been working on, they are at knitting on the net.  As you can see on their site they have a pompom on the front decorated as a chicks head.  I chose not to put that on, my grandchildren would have those torn off in nothing flat :P.  I’ve only had time to knit at lunch and these are actually the 2nd pair I’ve made.  The 1st pair was a blue pair for my grand son and I gave them to my daughter before I got a picture of them ;P.  These are for my grand daughter.  She will get them in the morning when my daughter picks me up to take me to work :).  Hopefully my car will be repaired soon, being carless is so not fun!!!

Daylight Savings Time, Once Again

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Old Indian Wisdom - (click on picture for larger image)

 I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t like Daylight Savings Time!!!   And to be honest, the older I get, the longer it takes me to adjust to the new time and less I like it!!  I want my hour of sleep back, and I don’t want to have to wait until fall to get it back!  Ok I’m feel better, still tired but I feel better ;P. 

They don’t have Daylight Savings Time in Arizona or Indiana, anyone else?  Glad to see someone thumbing their nose at it.  Sigh, I wish Iowa would.

I’m working on some knitted slippers for my grand children, I’ll post a picture and the link  in a day or two, when I can find the time  to post and not fall asleep when I try to knit :P.

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It’s Done! It’s Done! & Spring is almost here!!

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Afghan Done! (click on picture for larger image)

 

 .I finished my grand-daughter’s  afghan!!  It was taken from the Triple Chevron Lace shawl pattern at knitting on the net and adjusted to be an afghan.  She is pretty happy as you can see from the picture.  She was glad to finally have it after waiting for about a year :P.  She said it was very soft and way cool :).

She spent the day with me today because she was out of school and I wasn’t working today.  We walked about 1/2 mile to go to McDonalds for lunch (because my car is too scary to drive :P).  We also baked chocolate chip cookies.  Yummy :).  She helped me move my sewing machine and sewing table into the spare bedroom since my son decided to stay close to where his daughter is (he lives on the other side of the state from me).  So I now have my sewing/craft room, still have stuff to do to make it a functional room tho, but the important stuff is in there :).

I will now work on finishing spinning that hand dyed superwash merino roving, that had been calling to me and I’ve had to give the cold shoulder to until I finished the afghan.  Now I won’t ignore it anymore :).   There is a pattern for some slippers I’d like to knit up for my youngest grand-children, but I have to wait until I get the yarn for it.  I need acrylic yarn for them.  My daughter doesn’t appreciate specialized care for their things, because she works full time and says she doesn’t have the time to fuss over hand washing things they will abuse anyway :P.

Oh Yeah, I know it isn’t really spring yet, but it’s March and we have been in the 40’s here this week and I’m soooooo happy!!! So to me it is SPRING!!  Makes me want to go out and start a garden :).

I’m a Procrastinator

/ LDSVenus / 1 Comment

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There I’ve said it.  Yes I am a procrastinator.  It’s really hard to avoid recognizing that, but I try :P.  It’s so much easier to say, “I’m laid back”, “I like to go at my own pace”, but the ugly truth is I’m a procrastinator.  Sigh.

I’ve known it for a long time, but I avoided thinking about it.  However my youngest son is going to be going through a divorce and I told him I had two bedrooms and he was welcome to come stay with me to give him a chance to get back on his feet here.  It meant finishing getting what was left of those boxes still in that second bedroom somewhere else.  I have the room in closets and storage for the boxes, but I have put off doing something with those boxes saying I was going to go through them, until now I have to, I’ve only been in my apt for a year (did I mention I’m a procrastinator?), and I was eventually going to use that second bedroom for my sewing and craft room.  But I never got around to doing it, so now my son will be able to stay in it, and eventually when he’s situated and on his own again, I will have an empty room to put my sewing and craft things in, but then I’m a procrastinator ;P.

Ok, the above is also appropriate for the blanket I’m working on for my grand daughter, yes, I do work on it and I only have about 3 1/2 skeins to go, but I really should be finished by now.  I’ll stop letting things distract me this week and see just how far I can get, my grand daughter will be very happy, and probably very surprised if I actually get it finished, I mean I’ve only been working on it for about a year ;P.

Still looking for work, but at least that is one thing I am not procrastinating about, that’s one point for me anyway :).  My car let me know a few weeks ago that it would not be taking me anywhere anymore.  The steering rack has finally gotten so bad I’m afraid to drive it.  I can’t complain, I only paid $500 for it about 4 1/2 years ago, so with some pampering, I did get my money out of it. 🙂  You forget how dependent on a vehicle you are until you don’t have one.  I miss the independence that the car gave me, now I have to wait until someone can take me to grocery shop, or anywhere else I need to go.  I do take the bus sometimes, but it’s a half a day to take the bus to Walmart to do some shoping  and then wait for the bus to come back by and get home, which would have taken me about an hr to do before.   And I can’t carry too much because I have a 5 block walk from the bus stop coming home.  Sigh.  I also had a week job from the temp agency a couple of weeks ago and I took the bus to work every other day (my daughter took me the in between days) and my son picked me up, or I wouldn’t have been home until about 7 to 7:30 pm.  I had to get up pretty early to catch the bus and get to work an hr early because the next bus would have gotten me to work late.  Funny all the things we take for granted.  I’ll never take a car for granted again.

Fog Frost?

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Frost in the Trees

 

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Ok, I’ve lived in IA off and on for 11 years and I don’t remember having fog like we have had for the past several days, tho it did lift today, and I certainly don’t remember fog causing frost in the trees like this.  But it is beautiful.  I have another picture below.  I wish I had had my camera with me this afternoon when I was out and about, because there was a large group of trees in a snowy field and the frost on the branches stood out making a very stark picture against the sky, but oh so beautiful!

Closer view of the Frost on the branches

 

You can click on the pictures for a larger view.  We are having our mid winter thaw, and the temps have been in the 20’s and lower 30’s this last week and so far this week, however it is suppose to be maybe up to 42 this Saturday – woohoo!!  The mid winter thaw is almost like an early spring, but it goes away followed by more cold snowy winter until the real spring breaks forth.  Come on Spring!!!

Well as you probably already know, the Cowboys did not win their game on Sunday.  Actually they didn’t do very well at all.  But having said that, I was happy to have them make it to the playoffs this year, it shows that they are starting to get things together, now if they can just keep it together ;P.  I’m sure they will have a great year next year. 🙂

Still More Snow & a Swift – Happy Roc Day!

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Still More Snow

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Well mother nature has certainly been busy this winter.  According to the weatherman, we got about 4.5 inches of snow over night and expect anywhere from 1 to 3 more inches today.  But at least it was 12 above today!!!  It’s been in the single digits and below zero ambient temps lately.  Supose to be only around 3 to 6 above ambient temps for the next two days and I know that means minus temps with windchills.  Sigh, I’ll ask again, is it spring yet?

Swift & Ball Winder Set Up

 

My sister, for Christmas, sent me an Amazon.com certificate.  I went to amazon and looked and hemmed and hawed and finally made up my mind (hard to spend unexpected money when you’ve been on a budget for so long :P) and decided to get a swift!  I had a ball winder but had wanted a swift for several years but could never talk myself into spending the money on one.  So I decided to treat myself and it came today!!  It really is a nice one, sturdy and seems to move well.  I’ll give it a workout when I get that Llama skeined off so I can wind it into a ball for my son. 🙂

I intended to spend Roc day today spinning with my local spinning group to celebrate the new year.  However the weather wasn’t co-operating and I did not want to take my wheel out in this.   If you would like to know more about Roc Day you can check this wikapedia link or this Florida link. 

Well the Cowboys beat the Eagles 24 to 0 last Sunday (tho I didn’t get to record the game to watch because it wasn’t on cable) and won their division.   They get to play them yet again this Saturday evening for a wild card slot.  It’s always an interesting game between Dallas and Philadelphia – cos’ they are not the best of friends ;P.  I will get to watch it this time :).  GO COWBOYS!!!!