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One of many pet peeves!

Okay, I love my husband but there are time when I wonder why and how.  For those of you who know me, you know that I have A LOT of health problems.  Needless to say husband has taken great care of me through all my surgeries, recoveries and never ending illness.

For those of you that don't know me, I have been over weight the majority of my life and my body is paying for it now.  My knees are shot, as well as my back, neck, arms, and hands.  A couple of years ago my doctor told me that I if I didn't make changes I would be living in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.  Made the decision to have weight loss surgery and it has helped but the damage was done.  All this to tell you that the hardest part of my life is that I have to let others help me.

I was raised to take care of myself and my family.  If it needed to be done you do it.  You don't stop and ask everyone how should we handle this or who should take care, you just get it done.  Hard for my family to realize I don't think about what will happen if I do something.  It needed to be done and I did it.  All this to say that I have slowly, very, very, very slowly come around to letting others help me.

Now my husband comes home on Friday night and can hardly walk in the house.  Side note he has terrible knees but he is a man so it is different for him than for me.  Just ask him, I dare you!  He went to a training seminar for mission work on Saturday and came home and told me it was so much better.  Talked me in to letting him go to the grocery store.  He made it there and back did ok until time to go to bed.  Could not get comfortable didn't want anything to touch his knee.  EPIC FAILURE!! The next morning he could hardly get out of bed.

Have begged and pleaded for him to go to the doctor but as all women know men are different and it is getting better.  I just need to relax he has it all under control.  CONTROL??? Trying very hard not to do the physical screaming that is going off in my head.

How is it that women had carry children for 9 months and push them out of our bodies after hours of labor and live to walk the world again.  If man made get a sore throat or cold the world falls apart but if they are bleeding or hurting we women just need to understand.  Will I understand that the Cave Man has entered the room and I need a REALLY big club to help him to go back to the cave where he belongs.

Rest at easy because the next time I start to get the lecture of how people are waiting to help me and I should never, ever do something so silly again.  I will bring out the pictures of the cave man to remind my Honey Bunny that he needs to practice what he preaches.

Thank you for allowing me to dust off my soap box today.  I really needed this, so much better than banging my head agains the brick wall I have currently been using.

Long time no brain!

Can not believe how long it has been since I posted to this blog.  In January we discovered that I have a problem keeping my blood pressure up, it bottoms out on a regular basis.  You might already know this but low blood pressure can affect you brain, thinking, and generally everything in your life. Needless to say things have been in a state of chaos in my life.  Beginning to get that a little more in control so back to normal or as normal as I get.

One sad note for me is that I knitted a project for someone who I admire and it was an epic failure. Won't mention names but still brings me to tears.  You will notice that I don't accept failure often and without trying everything in a arsenal to succeed.  Chalking this one up on the wrong side of my board of life.

Currently on my needles I have a sock for my HB (honey bunny) as he is known for today.  Never know what tomorrow will bring. Also working on Christmas Stockings for everyone.  Have two completed and three to finish before Christmas.

On my sewing table I have begun a tree skirt for my OS (oldest son) and DIL (daughter-in-law).  Never knew that taking two charm packs and laying them out was so hard.  Jigsaw puzzles have nothing on that project, took me forever and a day. Probably because I thought if would be easy it seemed like a lifetime.

In addition I have been cooking up a storm.  Lots of new Pinterest items in my kitchen.  The plan is to start posting the trials and failures in the kitchen to share with you.  Big hits at the moment Shepherd's Pie, Chicken Pot Pie, Spicy Shrimp on grits, and Honey Bun Cake.

Let's talk about the Honey Bun Cake.  It was amazing!  Wanted to take a dessert (to my in-laws for Labor Day) that would be a good snack for my dove hunters when they left before dark to hunt.  This hit the spot, garnering lots of complements  and rave reviews.  Easiest cake ever and one I will share very soon.

Also brought at a tried and true family favorite, Hot Milk Cake.  Learned to make that one as a teenager and it was my go to for bake sales.  My OS had a big hurdle in College and when he passed with flying colors rewarded him with one of his favorites treats.  Smelled so good while it was baking not to mentioned the struggle with the Lemon Glaze Icing. It was so hard to keep off my fingers and out of my mouth.  Couldn't not reward the other two men in my life, so YS(young son) and HB got to split their own cake.

So glad that I can think and share again excited for the future.

One of my loves

Have always heard that it is very hard to grown African Violets. Doesn't seem to be the case for me.

These are some more of the Violets in one of the windows in my house. Looks like I only like purple however I had a white and pink but they must have been the two that I gave to my daughter-in-law. Love to grow things. Makes me happy! Go figure, every time I think about growing things one thing comes to mind "Steel Magnolias."

Another look at the one window where all the adult plants are growing and blooming right now. Didn't shot any pictures of the three ivy plants in the same room. Unfortunately my house has great windows but also has great dark spot so hard to take pictures of those.

Here is the line up of grown ups.

This is the window in my kitchen and I call it the nursery. It is where I take care of off spring of the grown ups or where I am starting new plants from a leaf.

On the far left is a pot with three new plants that I started from broken leaves. It is crazy but I get so excited when the leaves start sprouting up new plants. The plant on the right is one of the off spring plants that needs to be put in a grown up pot.

Kinda have success with Aloe Vera plants as well. Purchased the large one from the local coop and as soon as I repotted the plant it proceeded to produce five baby plants. Gave two to my daughter-in-law but kept three and they are all doing great.

Huge plans for the back yard this year. Will share as I put the plans to action and want I get out of plants. Guess I cook, sew, knit with green thumbs. Hope you enjoy my love of plants.

My Loving Husband

Just a little insight into my loving husband and our sense of humor. As I mention in my last post that my birthday was Sunday and below is the great gift that my husband had for me. Take a look.

I love to garden but bending over to plant or pull weeds is not allow with my back nor is kneeling something that I can do either. So this cart is great you can sit on it any where in the yard or garden to work. Just pull on the strap and then you can move on the cart as you work.

Did you notice the lovely birthday card. Yes it only says one word all over the front of the card, OLD. My husband is two weeks short of being a year older than me. So for two weeks every year we are the same age before he becomes older than me again. For two weeks I have to hear how old I am then it is his turn.

Side note we have three birthday's in March. Mine then my youngest son and finally my husband. My oldest birthday is in November, poor thing he is all alone. Let me tell you when they were younger if Easter was in March it was a hard month.

Check out the tools he gave me.

They are kid's Monkey garden tools. He wanted to make sure that I had tools to work with, it backfired on him. Told him that I will save them for a future grandkids. As you can see we have a fun and exciting life here in middle of the country.

Madame Samm

As I told you Madame Samm is one of my hero in the quilting world. Recently she shared a list of things that she would like to have one of the things was a knitted shawl. Since I knit all the time, socks, baby blankets, sweaters, and just about everything you can imagine, thought I could do something for her by making the shawl. Did a little research and found that I could get the pattern and it wouldn't be hard to make for her. Sent her an email and asked if I could make the shawl for her and what yarn and color. She told me yes she would love it and have the yarn on hand would ship to me. So with a little help from her husband the box arrived this morning. Madame Samm told me she was adding some extra yarn, some needles, and a fat quarter bundle. Every day couldn't wait for the mail to get here looking for that extra special box. Well this morning my husband brought the box inside and I couldn't wait to open. I'm posting pictures below of what was in the box.

The best part is the my birthday is tomorrow she could not have times this more perfect. What a way to start my birthday weekend. Have to mention that it really start last night when my youngest who will be 26 later this month gave me a high powered lipstick size flashlight for my purse. You have to understand that I have a long history of ending up all alone when the power goes out and no flashlight anywhere to save me. Now I have a safety net, thanks Tom and Madame Samm this birthday has started off with a bang.

Time to start

It is time to start a new chapter in my life. Retired this year and now I can begin to share my life and hobbies with everyone. Hopefully I will be able to inspire others to enjoy life and their talents. Since retiring I have begun to cook from all the blogs that I follow. My husband and son are really enjoying my new found talents of having the time to cook something other than something as fast and easy as possible. Now I have time to knit to my hearts desire and now have the time to start something I have always wanted to do, quilt. For sometime now I have been following quilting blogs and have my favorites. My grandmother always quilted but she never taught me other than to let me hand sewn on her quilts. She gave all of her grand kids a quilts when we married. My oldest son was married this past year and there was no handmade wedding quilt for them, it made me so sad. Taking a class on Craftsy beginning quilts with Jennie Doan of the Missouri Star Quilt Company. She is amazing and makes thing look doable. Also many, many thanks to Madame Samm, she has given so much to the want to be quilters of the world.

My plan is to share as much of the things I create with you in word and pictures. Have to mention one more person in my the Pioneer Women Cooks, Ree Drumond. She is so amazing and shares so much with those who follow her blog, read her cookbooks and watch her Food Network cooking show. Hopefully I can channel a little of all of this women and share with anyone who might find my little blog.

This is my second blog as I start this first three years ago when I began my journey through weight loss surgery and losing 170lbs. It has been a wild and bumpy ride and one that has allowed this new chapter to happen. Three years I was headed to a wheelchair and probably not living to see any hopeful grandkids.

Now it is time to begin!!!