Wonderful days !

The LORD  IS my shepherd, I SHALL NOT WANT !
My daughter, Kelley, applied for a teaching position in Oklahoma, where they've resettled, but there is a freeze on hiring them right now.  So, she looked elsewhere and has already been hired to work at Dillard's at a very decent starting pay !   She's thrilled and so are we. 

This is her Westie, Sophie.....

...Kelley's driven to Dallas today to pick her up at the airport, as she wasn't able to make the flight home with them due to shot requirements. 

All the kids are going to be happy to have her back, especially since, even though they brought their cat with them, the landlord will not allow them to have it in the house.   Sadly, they need to find a home for it and it is a sweetie. 

This is KitKat...she's less than a year old, an orphan that they took in when they found her, starving and cold......any takers, .......Terri, Wanda, JodieAnn?  

Going my way......

some things......that is !

I received my shirt today and it's just the perfect fit and color !   That's always a nice feeling !  If you'd like to get someone a nice gift, or treat yourself, pay Lavon a visit over on Etsy's website.  She's a doll to work with.......I'll probably have a special request for her soon !

And I actually started knitting a pair of socks on Saturday afternoon.  I won't photograph my efforts yet, as it's been so long since I did this, and I'm thinking that this beginning may be too small to go over my heel.  But I'm loving being back 'at it'.

 Hubbykins has been coming home to spend an hour or so with me, Piper, and China, for the last few days, since I got my nephews to move in the Power-Lift recliner that the landlord is lending us.  IT JUST FEELS SO GOOD TO HAVE HIM IN OUR HOME.....even for an hour a day.  Just a little degree of normalcy returns when I'm puttering around and he's sitting there watching the television.

Love to all of you...............I miss our phone calls, (you know who you are), and I appreciate the card sent my hubby's way (Terri).  Be well !
Oh yeah, Wanda asked about the flower in my header.  That's a photo of a Zinna that grew in my front wheelbarrow in Oklahoma a couple of summers ago.  Beautiful, right?  I had the best flowers there.......and so easy !

new and.........improved?

I got modernized today........and then, of course, I came home and fixed it like I was in the 90's again.  But, hey, it's a new look for me today, and I take a while to move into new things !

Sometimes you don't have to say a word.......

.......I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths......(Psalms 30: 1)

You know that I was just itchin' to make something out of that 'faith' fabric !  
I had a checkbook in mind, but realized that if I used more than one fabric, I might could manage to squeeze a purse out also.  I think I have just enough fabric left for the checkbook........we'll see.  But for now, I'm carrying this sweet little thing everywhere I go, and letting it speak to the world !

From conception......

To completion.....

A peek at the lining.....

(you're probably noticing that I forgot to sew the ribbon loop into the top seam and had to stitch it on later !)

.....and, last but not least, the back !

By the way, if you take a look at some of my favorite things from Etsy, over there in the sidebar, you'll see a tee-shirt with the saying "I don't know what the future holds.......but I know who holds the future."  I ordered one for myself yesterday, painted on a long-sleeved navy tee.  I can't wait to get it.......this is the first thing I've ordered from Etsy in over a year. 
Today is also the one year anniversary of Hubby's last two strokes.....February 17, 2009.   He's a little sore from too much walking without a walker before he was ready.......a little setback that I'm sure he'll recover from soon. 

Nice day for a walk !

I woke at 6 a.m. and peeked out my window since I didn't hear any dripping coming from my roof.  Sure enough, it had stayed cold, and added another half-inch to the little bit of snow covering the street when I had gone to bed last night. 

So, I waited until 8 a.m., the time for the office to open where I had the appointment, and I called to be sure that they were indeed open today.  She said, "sure thing",  so I bundled up good and took off !   I left here at 8:10. for a 9:00 appointment, sure that it would take me most of an hour to walk there.  When I arrived there, it was only 8:30 ! 

Praise the LORD, it was such a beautiful walk, with snow falling and no wind.  Then, on the way home, I ran into my brother, John, who was out delivering the mail.  We walked along together for half a block or so, and he told me a great tale he heard recently......

There once was a king who ruled a very large land, and had riches beyond compare.  With people to serve him and meet his every desire, he realized that he still was not content.  Calling in his wisest advisor, he asked how he could find contentment.  The advisor told him that he should search the land for someone who is content, and borrow his coat for a week..........then the king himself would be content.  After a week of searching, the king asked his staff if they had found no man who was content.  The staff said that, oh yes, they had actually found several people who were content.  The king said, "then where is the coat for me to wear?"   His servants answered, "not one of them had a coat !"

A good word for me today !  

Riches do not make one content,

 unless they are the riches in glory laid up for us by our Heavenly Father. 

I ain't drivin' today !

Looks like I'll be walking down to the nursing home around lunch-time !

I don't mind so much......just have to be careful that I don't fall too.

But tomorrow morning I have an important appointment at 9 a.m., and it's not quite as close.  I can still walk it probably, if it's not raining or the wind blowing 90 mph.  I'll just have to bundle up really well. 

The neighborhood doggies all come over to see if Piper has anything to eat......and would share?  Piper watches them from her front window while they play.

This morning was produc-tive in that I got the borders sewn onto T.J.'s quilt-top, atleast !  Now, I have to figure out what I want to do for a pieced back.

Hooray ! It's coming together !

Now this is more like it..........if in doubt, go back to your original idea !

Here's todays work.......the middle is all pieced together, awaiting a border........

........and this is the border I'm planning to sew to it......it's still in pieces right now.

Gotta go see the hubby.........bye !

Sewing

I got to see hubby do some of his physical therapy, and had nothing but praises for our LORD's healing power.  He looked very good pushing that walker down the hall.....nice to see him vertical again for a little while.

I finished the planned blocks for the quilt, but am definitely not loving it.  It's not symmetrical, and while I love things that are wonky/purposely asymmetrical (am I spelling those right?), I'm not getting that good vibe right now. 

I tried this to balance it, but ehhhhhhhhhhh. 

Yuck, looking at it here, I think that this is about the ugliest quilt I've seen in awhile !  Ugh.......I just want to get to the quilting !

I think I'll have to change my plans and maybe add some vertical strips or something. 

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !

No news is good news.....

.....right?

Things are going well around here.......a little more progress every day.

Today the driveway became a mess with all of the thaw........it's so soft that I mired up in it about 4 inches and had to go to the carwash to remove all of the mud from the undercarriage and tires.  I had needed to give it a good washing underneath anyway, to remove the effects of the salted highway, so it's a good thing that I spun up that mud.

Shopping still exists !

Woo Hoo !

I drove to the next large town over today to take care of some business, and upon leaving my appointment, I saw the local Hobby Lobby store.   So, I thought I'd just stop in since the hubby told me to spend some money on something I wanted for a change.  Let me tell you, I think I heard the angels sing when I walked into that store.   Well, maybe not angels........possibly it was just me singing inside !

Seriously, though, it was the funniest feeling.  Not trying to put my hometown down, but I have become so used to NO SHOPPING except for the local Super Walmart, which, frankly, although I'm thankful we have ANYTHING, is a joke for that name..........that something lifted inside of me when I saw the inside of that store.  It was like I had come home again........to Midwest City, OK, where me, Kelley, and hubby always went to have a little fun and spend a little money.

I perused much of the store, but wound up where I knew I would, in the fabric department.  When I saw the army fabric, I thought of how my buddy, JoAnn (known around here as 'anonymous'), said that this fabric was getting hard to get and that she had gotten the last bit that Midwest City had.   So, I bought the last that Columbia had, 1 yard !  I bought a couple of yards of green solid to go with it, thinking that I'll make T.J.'s quilt reversible too, using these fabrics for the other side.  The green looks nothing like it photographed here, but if it's going to look that way in photos, I may have to consider a different fabric to go with the army print.

I couldn't resist getting a half-yard of the wording fabric........there's a whole series of Faith fabric that goes with it, but the one that has squares with sayings is printed crooked, as squares almost always are.  So disappointing.......it would have made a great lap quilt with frames sewn around each Bible verse. 

Stopped in to see hubby, just in time to watch him get his bath, and turn his lunch away......twice !   That poor girl went and got him a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup after watching him push away the tray with brocolli-chicken and noodles, and mashed potatoes.........and he still didn't eat.  I left him trying to nap. 

He said that he walked the entire hall today, using a walker, and it got easier with each step..........but once he sat in the wheelchair for 30 minutes, his muscles tightened up and were painful again.

I think I'll try to get a nap and then work on the T blocks again. 

See ya !

Finally, I'm sewing !

It's taken me a week to know what to do with myself when I come home without the hubster here ! 

Plus, it's been too cold to enter that sewing room, which I keep unheated.  But today, I got smart and set my featherweight sewing machine up on Kelley's cabinet in the living room, and I put my cutting mat on the kitchen table.  Also, the ironing board got set up in front of the pantry doorway, so I was all set to get back to work on T.J.'s quilt.  I made a run to the local little fabric store and picked out a background fabric, and came home and got to work. 

I'm not crazy about this quilt yet.........I hope I will like it when it's finished.  I surely am thankful to have most of the fabric on hand to make it without having to purchase a lot. 

I strip-pieced the background-sides onto the post of the letter, T, then I sewed diagonally across a square in each top outer corner to produce triangles there.  Then, I added the top cross-piece of the T.  

I've made 15 out of 28 blocks, so that's good progress for the first day back at work.

I tend to visit the hubby mornings and evenings now (Wanda, I hate that I'm missing your calls, but I couldn't even tell you a definite schedule to try to catch me right now), and I try to stay away during the hours when they want him available for therapies and baths.  He said that the walker definitely got easier to use as he went along today.

Piper has come to look forward to the visits, and people just love to see her.   A nurse brought orange juice to hubby a few minutes ago, and was surprised when something moved under the covers.  I had forgotten about Piper being covered up, and this nurse had never seen her.  She gushed over her properly and left smiling.

It did it again !

This year's snow is so strange !

It doesn't just fall in flakes,.......clumps of snow were actually coming down......CLUMPS !

I thought about heading back down to the home, since it was just raining, but I was watching the news and weather to see what was expected.  5 minutes after the weather said that our county would stick with rain, the HUGE snow pattern started, and once again the driveway was covered within 10 minutes. 

I don't guess I'll be going back tonight.  I wish that hubby had a phone in his room, because I know he'll miss Piper's visit.  I'd call, but last time they didn't give him the message. 

I asked him to name 3 things that he was thankful for today, and Piper was number one, followed by heat and food, I think.   Naggy Jane here wasn't on today's list, and I understand that !  There's a fine line between encouragement and nagging, and I'm afraid I overstep it occasionally.

When I left him this afternoon, he had just finished an hour and a half of physical therapy, and they wanted him to stay in the wheelchair for another 30 minutes.  He was really tired, but he gets so tired of lying there, too ! 

Blessed Sunday !

Oh, isn't the LORD good?

I ask, he answers.

 He gives me what I need for each day.
How could I walk for so many years, not knowing that he was at my side?

I praise him......I praise my Lord.

Know him.......he knows you ......hear his voice; I know it's there !

If I'm lonely and sometimes frightened.....

....how must hubby feel.

Prayers to my heavenly Father give us strength, as his Holy Spirit lives up to his name of COMFORTER.

And in the ever-helpful words of my daughter (as quoted), "This too shall pass."

A better day......

Hubby got lots of attention today to all of his needs, and I feel much better about the care that they provide. 

After a first full day of residency, I treated him to a visit from Piper Jean.  He was thrilled after not seeing her for 5 days, and she was tickled to finally know where Papa was.  Of course, people in the hallways had a fit over her, too, and she warned Papa when a man in a wheel chair came to visit and didn't announce himself.  It was cute.........she's a good little guard dog !

He's in

Hubby made it to the nursing home this afternoon, and I've been back and forth, trying to get the things I think he needs to be more comfortable.

I am thankful that the LORD has provided a place for him to recover, and at the same time, I am praying for him and all of the others who are staying there.  It is a sad, sad place.  I wish I had never had to see it and yet we need it right now.....and it makes me ashamed of myself to feel that way.
  There are some pitiful, miserable people in this world, and most of us never see them or know anything about them.
Tonight, please take just a moment in your prayers to ask for extra compassion for the forgotten ones.  And the ones that can't speak up for themselves.
I am saddened......and at the same time, I hope that the LORD can use me in some small way to help one of these brothers or sisters of mine, for his glory.

Goodnight

Small change in plans

I didn't get to go to Church last night after all. 
As soon as I posted here, hubby's doctor called and said that they had decided to do another minor surgery to implant a filter in his vein to prevent clots reaching his lungs or heart.  Because of his previous brain-bleed strokes, he can't be put on blood thinners to prevent the clots. 
So, I called him to see if he wanted me to come back, and I got a resounding YES, which is unusual for him, wanting me to drive that curvy highway after dark.   I knew that he must be feeling VERY anxious, and there was no way that I wasn't going to him, God willing. 
I drove up there, arriving in plenty of time for his 10 p.m. surgery, and he came out of it beautifully.  I then proceeded to spend the night in one of those pull-out chairs. 
I had to come home around 9:30 a.m., though, as Piper had been shut in all night.  When I called there to let him know that I had arrived home safely, he proudly told me of his using a walker during this morning's physical therapy ! 

He is supposed to be transported back here today, but the nursing home here is trying to locate one of those pumps that they use to inflate around his calves, again, to help prevent blood clots occuring.  If they can't obtain one until tomorrow, his move will be delayed another day......personally, I LOVE his physical therapist up there, so that COULD BE a good thing.

So, here I am, trying to get things caught up around here, and waiting for the call from the nursing home.

It's true

I am tired.......but it's a different tired.  I've sat too much over the last few days.

Thank you for your prayers for the both of us, and for being concerned over my health.  You're right, and I've learned that lesson before......it's easy to forget to take care of yourself, but this time I have the HOLY SPIRIT reminding me, comforting me, and leading me.  What a wonderful knowledge.

Hubby had quite a day.......when I got there a little late this morning after running errands, they were already having him participate in physical therapy.  They even had him walk a little, two separate times today.   He was not happy about that, but did really well.   It's not decided yet whether he will come home tomorrow as scheduled.  There's still some question of how to handle the clotting issue, so we'll wait and see.

You don't have to worry about me eating, though......I'm eating everything I can get my hands on ! 

Well, Church starts in about half an hour or so, so I'll close now and get ready to go. 

Love to all of you........and blessings !

Successful surgery

Praise the LORD.......Hubby's surgery went well and quickly.  He has been accepted into a nursing home/in-house rehab facility about 1/2 mile from our HOME !  He will probably have to be there for a month and a half, but I should be able to be near him often.  Since I tend to coddle him, I will have to refrain from butting in too much. 

Oh, the LORD is so good to us !  When my brother brought me home tonight, after driving me home last night and up there and back today, because of the snow in the driveway (I mean, he wanted to be there for hubby and me anyway), we found my driveway's snow melted, so that I can drive myself tomorrow.  And although there is more bad weather predicted, hubby SHOULD be brought back here before it hits. 

Many wonderful friends and relatives supported us through this long day, both in person and far away,  lifting prayers and our spirits.  Thank all of you so much for your prayers and your love.......we can literally SEE and FEEL the results.

Horrible news

I still can't believe it's true, but my husband fell on the ice today and broke his hip !  BROKE HIS HIP !

We rode in an ambulance together to the next town over, as our little burg no longer has a hospital.  The x-rays show that the ball in the hip joint was broken into two pieces.  Tomorrow he undergoes surgery to replace his hip, but tonight he is in the worst pain he's ever known. 

I know you and love you all so well that I know that you are lifting hubby up in prayer.  So, as I thank my dear Saviour for his healing, I thank all of you for your thoughtfulness.