One more time!

Using my phone to post. My son is hanging in there and thankfully not needing a transplant yet. We have moved to 40 acres in Colorado and are trying to figure out what we are doing with it.
I think I have become addicted to making the Mandala Madness afghan. I am about to finish my 4th one. I will post a picture later in the day because the signal here is bad.

Giving the blog another shot.

Right now I am full of intent. However I am going to be trying to dedicate Tuesday to blog posts.
Just a note today as I am so far behind the day already I may never catch up.

I am trying to bring myself back to routine. Things are just always a bit out of focus these days. Some is the MS and some is just that I am so behind I shall never catch up.
Update on Jason... He is hanging in there. I can't say he is happy or even content... but hanging in there and waiting for his transplant.
The garden is trying to be good and even through the drought it isn't drying up and blowing away entirely.
I don't think I will ever get all the tumble weeds pulled up. They are rampant this year.
So one more time I am going to be making some postings.
(quit laughing...)

These are some of the money plants growing in the border. They look so delicate and then turn into really pretty seed pods.

I know that it has been awhile...

But my son is in physical distress.
He has had the reduction done on the second lung, but he isn't bouncing back like the first surgery.
Last night he grew agitated and has pulled at the trachea tube, so they sedated him again to replace it. Now he is spiking a fever. He is sedated while they treat it to give him a break.

The datura has started to flower though.
Always a bright spot to find in the garden. This flower is Huge.

Sick in bed...

I hate when my immune system attacks me. I have spent most of the last week in bed with a facial abscess...yep... it's just as nasty as it sounds. I look like someone took a base ball bat to the left side of my face.
Lots of antibiotics and pain medication and I am feeling much better now.
Bored to tears but better.
So I decided to try to knit some kitchen wash cloths (like I didn't have enough of them) and pass some of the time.
This one ended up more rectangular than square but it is as good as it is going to get right now. However I really liked the pattern that I found in the book Mason*Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne.

It was easy to follow even medicated and it turned out fine. I think I know what I will be doing with some of that cotton yarn!
* I know that these are out of order... but that is what pain medications do to me. This post was from a couple of days ago.

Made one more...

dish rag. This time it seems to be knit right. However I found that I really don't like the color changes in it, so I just used a variegated cotton yarn. I really like the way it came out so I think I may make a couple of more of them. (also the mop covers that match.)
Feeling much better, and have started to reduce the amount of pain medications I am on finally. I really look forward to not being asleep or dizzy.

Dust?

Well, the entire town seems to be doing fire clean up. I had been thinking that the dust was heavier than usual until I touched a microfiber dust cloth to it. As it turns out, it is smoke residue. Everywhere... just everywhere... having to rewash the entire house is going to be a chore.
The heat wave still seems to be with us and the temperatures remain in the high 90's to low 100's. So the M.S. is really getting in my way. I have spent most of the last three days in bed on pain medications. So I am having no fun at all. I am getting some knit dishcloths done though.

Here is a picture of the yuck that is coating the town.
Ewwww! I think you can see my finger prints in it!

Waldo Canyon Fire...day four

I don't seem to be doing much at all. I think the entire town is in shock.
Bless the fire fighters who are making such a valiant effort to keep this fire contained.

Fire...

I have not gotten much time to devote to the blog the past couple of days. The Waldo Canyon Fire is taking much of my attention. I have a friend who is evacuating and I have been helping out a bit.

Projects that are on going are the knitted shawls and the granny squares... I just seem to always have these projects going and have for a few years.

I am going to be having a crochet along brunch on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month just to keep my social time going.

Fresh Start... again...

I have been distracted far to long.
I have a brunch that meets twice a month now that is concentrating on crochet. I have not gotten pictures posted to my computer yet so they should be up tomorrow.
I have discovered that I am addicted to aquaponic gardening. Small scale on the cheap while I learn... by fall I expect to start a small commercial business up with it.
Everything from staying prepared to homesteading is going on full blast. I will catch up with some of it I promise.

Horribly overgrown gold fish pool number one.

Absence...

They say it makes the heart grow fonder...however I feel like I am a slacker! My son has a very severe illness and is in need of a double lung transplant now. He has been released from the hospital after a month and a half in the pulmonary care and intensive care units. It is going to be a long haul for us I fear.

I believe that I am going to be posting in here a bit more often as I am going to need to have the sanity break.

The picture is of two of my grand daughters working on a pirate crazy quilt from Crazy Rebecca's (Etsy) while we wait for my son to come out of surgery.

Every Tuesday... right...

I am just not trying hard enough to hold myself to a schedule I think. The MS seems to think that I don't really need one. LOL

With the many people I know in town who are a bit freaked from the continuous "sorry folks ... we ruined your budget" news. (up to and including stationing the military around the country to control riots if there is a collapse) I have to say... why does anyone listen to the fear porn that is going on around the air waves anyway? Why not just be ready to take care of you and yours for a short period of time as has always been The American Way ?

Having a stocked pantry isn't hard, you just have to buy that extra something when it is on sale and put it on the shelf. You use what you store, you store what you use, and you never have to panic when company drops in at dinner on how to expand it to feed them.

You don't have to go to the extent of having a years supply on hand, although I think it is wise. I would suggest a good radio with weather and emergency bands. You should have some food and water to get you and yours through a week or two in case of real emergencies... remember Haiti?

Katrina ring a bell for anyone?

Please accept this invitation to pour a hot cuppa and check out some of what we have to offer.

www.millionthmonkeyfoods.com

The MonSter...

got me. I am only beginning to come back to day to day life again. It seems to have left me with a seizure pattern that is active so I am going to be trying to make myself post on Tuesdays as a exercise in getting back to it.

Thank you all very much for your patience.

sorry for the delay...

pneumonia has laid me low for a week or so.

I have done much of nothing this past week except cough and fuss.

Still working on the knitted brown scarf and the quilt squares. I should have pictures by tomorrow.

Knit wash cloths

This weekend I managed to put together enough of these to stock my kitchen! I think that there are eight of them!!!

Now I can just match them with a kitchen towel and have a clean one every day.

I joined in a scrappy 9 patch block swap so I will be posting some of those also.

tea tray pretties

The potluck Sunday was a great success. Such great people and ideas. I was going by the "25% rule" of RSVP... but everyone showed up and it was standing room only!

The crochet and knit items are the busting of the cotton stash! Wash cloths, coasters, and hot pads.

tea tray pretties

The potluck Sunday was a great success. Such great people and ideas. I was going by the "25% rule" of RSVP... but everyone showed up and it was standing room only!

The crochet and knit items are the busting of the cotton stash! Wash cloths, coasters, and hot pads.

So far so good with the crochet baby blanket project. I have enough squares to make centers for about 12 baby blankets. Busy day today as I have to go into Denver! More later in the weekend. Oh the big black blob on the couch is Dusty Mae!

A challenge!

Well... part of this years goals are to de junk our lives. Ummm...yeah... that stash... I think I must use it up before buying anything else. Recalling all those times past when I thought "that once I had time on my hands I will make THIS!". I would now have to say "yeah... right!". So we moved to the smaller house last summer. Then there was this Storage Unit... once again... paying for somewhere to keep the junk that we haven't let go of yet. Some was the art studio stuff... now my 'studio room'... is floor to ceiling-wall to wall...STUFF! Very good artsy creative stuff... but stuff!

I am going to endeavor to use it all up. No buying anything else (except small items to finish that project I have lost parts to) I am going to use it and stop it from being money that was wasted. I may need to open a etsy store. There is beads, yarn, fabric, leather, glass, baskets, and boxes, and sacks of quilts that never happened.... well...you know the drill.

Last night I opened the first box of yarn and started baby blankets to go to my favorite charities. These will be simple granny squares turned into something warm and maybe worth making someone else's memories. I have a picture of the first squares!

I suppose that this is going to end up being somewhere between the Anyway Project and something that I have learned from FlyLady.com. Won't promise to buy nothing... just going to do up all these projects before I buy another crafty thing.

Orange blossoms

I have to say that the house smells like heaven! My tangerine trees have begun to blossom. The indoor tomatoes have gotten some kind of bug and I don't know how much longer they are going to hold up. Good thing it is about time to sow seed for the 2011 growing season.

Winter has been an on again off again thing this year... but it is ON again now. Last Friday it was in the +60f range... today I think it is something like -20f. SO ... I am not going outside till it thaws again... like Friday! when it should be in the 40's again.

Today is a make a pot of soup day. I think curried rice and chicken sounds good.

All ya'll stay warm and prepared.

Don't forget to get that extra can of something for the pantry for when the circumstances don't allow you to obtain something. Please check out the website www.MillionthMonkeyFoods.com

We have all kinds of disaster preparation stuff there so that we don't need to worry about you!

You don't need to buy from us (though I encourage it!), but get prepared to take care of yourself in case of a rough patch in your road.