Sunrise Sunset

Hello friends. What a week it has been. I hope yours has been much better. I am sorry that it has been a bit quiet here on the blog but as Dolly Parton says, I haven’t had time to scratch.

Last Saturday, eleven days ago to be exact, my little mother in law fell. We got the call from the Assisted Living Village, where she lives, around noon on Saturday. My husband and I were on our way to Lowe’s to pick out a new refrigerator and stove and have a late Valentine’s Day lunch. So we were actually already in town. They told us they thought she had broken her leg.

An ambulance was called and we spent several hours at our local hospital ER. After doing X-Rays and a CT scan they told us nothing was broken and she was just bruised up. She was sent back to the assisted living village.

She was in more pain than ever the next day and the village called for a mobile X-ray unit. They discovered that her hip had a fracture. The same hip she broke in 2018. We then spent several hours back at our local ER for more images. They confirmed the fractured hip and referred us to The University of Tennessee Hospital in Knoxville. She was taken by ambulance. This was around 2:00 AM on Monday morning. I was told that the check in process in Knoxville would take several hours. I ran home to get a bag to take with me. I got to the hospital a short while after the ambulance. It was about 4:30 AM. We waited ten hours to get a hospital room. It was a nightmare. The ER was packed.

After consulting with the surgeons and the ER doctor we decided against the surgery. She doesn’t walk now and they knew and we knew she couldn’t and wouldn’t do the therapy. The pain would be handled with medication.

In the last six months my husband and I have watched her decline quickly. After being put in the hospital it was worse. She doesn’t know us most of the time. She won’t eat. A lot is going on. Thursday we were ready to have her moved to a full care facility. Transport had been called and she was given a Covid test. She tested positive for Covid. WHAT??? I felt so sorry for her. So she is still in the hospital. She will probably be there for a while. The full care facility will not take her until ten days after testing positive for Covid. Things are not looking good.

***This is me and my little mother in law on. Valentine’s Day. I was able to visit her and eat lunch with her.***

So this last week has been a whirl wind of hospital and work for me and my husband. There is no one else to help. My husband’s only brother passed away last July. His mom was an only child so it is just the two of us. We have either been at the hospital or work almost every day since this happened. The first two days she was in the hospital I took off from work and stayed with her all day leaving her only at night. I packed a bag with lots of books and knitting and anything else I thought I would need.

I stayed at home all day yesterday and caught up on laundry and just a lot of things that needed attention. It was good to be at home. I know Gus has missed us being at home he has been extra loving to us. It’s funny how animals always seem to know when you need some extra attention. The other cats have been their same aloof selves.

A lot of things happened in the last couple of weeks and I will catch up on all of them in a future post. My blog turned six years old. The Anniversary of my husband’s kidney transplant was last Saturday. It has been 13 years. We named the kidney Baby Kay. Since we don’t have children and the kidney did belong to me for many years we decided to name her. So Baby Kay officially turned 13 and is now a teenager. If you would like to read more about the kidney transplant you can find it in a previous blog post here

The reason I named this post Sunrise Sunset is because the sun was usually rising about the time that I got to the hospital to be with my mother in law and then setting when I started for home. The hospital is an hour and fifteen minutes from where we live. I think during times of stress and worry it helps to appreciate the little things that are really quite beautiful things.

***Daffodils are starting to pop up everywhere.***

The daffodils are blooming and spring is in the air. Of course with our crazy East Tennessee weather it could be snowing next week. I hope you are having a great start to your week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Pound Cake and Some Thrift Store Finds – Hello Monday!!!

Hello and happy Monday how was your weekend? It rained all weekend and most of today. But at the end of the day the clouds suddenly parted and the sun came out. It was a nice surprise.

Over the weekend I decided to bake a pound cake in my bundt pan. I have had this pan for years. It weighs a ton. I got it from my husband’s grandmother. I haven’t used it for a long time. I got the pan out, it is cast iron, greased it really well and made my cake. I decided for extra moistness I would add an additional egg, some extra butter, and a little extra water to the mix.

***Oh I forgot to mention it also stuck to the pan.***

At first all looked well. The cake rose beautifully, even though my oven is somewhat on its last legs, and that may be what I am getting for Valentine’s Day. I know, so romantic. But when I took the cake out it seemed to deflate. It sunk down to about half the height that it was. But it tasted great anyway. I think adding all the extras was probably a little too much. In the past I have added a couple of things but it was probably a little too much at one time.

On Saturday I visited a couple of thrift stores in search of some bottles for my bottle tree. I didn’t have any luck. I had ordered a few extra from Amazon and I put those on the tree. Even though I didn’t find any bottles I did find a few other things that I just couldn’t seem to pass up.

I still have several stems for bottles. I will continue my search. I think that will be half the fun.

First, this purse. I just love it. The tag had spring purse on the label. I found it at a local antique mall. The booth was a new one with a lot of great stuff. The purse is brand new. I don’t think it would hold a lot of things but it will be perfect for spring and summer. It’s also quite large. It may make a good knitting bag.

Next, A few weeks ago I bought these green glass bottles and this week I found the little glass flowers. I think they go great together.

I bought this book by Beverly Cleary. I had so many of her books growing up. I still have a lot of them. This is one I didn’t have so I was so happy to get it.

Next, I love this little yellow McCoy bowl. I will probably save it to give as a Birthday gift to someone. I actually bought it with them in mind.

And finally look at these stickers. I don’t know about where you are from but stickers are big now. We sell a lot of them in our gift shop at work. I work with a lot of young people. They will love these. All of these stickers came in a small pack for $1.00. There are ten different stickers in each pack!!! I bought three packs because I didn’t really know if they were stickers. They are, and I plan to give them out to our team members. I will go back and get more of these.

Look at the lake at our house. Because of all the rain over the weekend the lake rose quickly and it is really muddy.

I leave you with a picture of my little Izzy. She is so adventurous and a scaredy cat at the same time. She is mama cat’s favorite of the outside kitties. But you didn’t hear that from me.

Have a wonderful week!!!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday Hello December

Happy Monday. It seems like November flew by so fast. I know it’s going to be the same way with December. This post is a catch of of the last couple of weeks so a bit of this and that.

Last Monday I woke up with a scratchy throat. Living in East Tennessee is usually reason enough for a scratchy throat with seasonal allergies and sinus issues. I didn’t think too much about it. However it was the same type of sore throat I had last year when I had Covid. I continued feeling bad all day. By bedtime I had a low grade fever. The next morning I took a Covid test and it was positive. The test was out of date so I wasn’t sure whether I should trust it. When I get sick Mark and I go into action getting him away from me as much as possible. Because he has had a kidney transplant, and is immunosuppressed he is much more likely to become sick and it could turn into a stay in the hospital.

He immediately put on a mask and I did too. I drove myself to the urgent care clinic and got a real test and it was positive for Covid as well. I went home and quarantined all week. I have a small den upstairs next to my bedroom and that’s pretty much where I stayed for the next six days or so. I binge watched Grey’s Anatomy, and knitted a ton of stuff. Mark brought food and left it at the top of the stairs. He mostly stayed downstairs. Luckily I had a very mild case and barely had any symptoms. So far Mark is still in the clear.

I knitted several more Christmas ornaments. I have sixteen total. I may do a few more to give to friends and family at Christmas.

Before I got sick on Monday I got my Santa collection out and got them arranged for the season. I also have several larger ones that I put out on the hearth in the living room. I have been collecting these for years.

The week before I got sick we had to make a quick overnight trip to Nashville to Vanderbilt hospital for Mark’s four month checkup. Earlier this year We started going over the night before the appointment. It makes things so much easier. We stay at a hotel about five minutes from the hospital. I take off a little early from work the day before each appointment and we drive over. It takes about four hours each way. We have a nice dinner and get to bed early and get plenty of sleep. It had become such a chore to drive both ways in one day. Mark got a great report and it rained all the way home. I was so glad we had gone over the night before.

We went to dinner as soon as we got settled into the hotel. Isn’t this drink pretty. An Islandtini. It was yummy too.

I think Nashville is so beautiful at night.

Vanderbilt hospital had their courtyard decorated for Christmas. It was so festive.

So as you can see a lot going on and then nothing but being home bound for a week. Actually I found that staying at home for a week and doing nothing was quite nice.

Have a wonderful week

Always remember
Love your day your way!!!!!

Its Monday, I ‘ve Been Making Christmas Ornaments!!!

Hello and happy Monday!!! I started a new coffee share on the blog yesterday. If you missed it, check it out here. I think it will be a lot of fun.

The temps here have been so warm and dry. There are burn bans everywhere. We desperately need rain.

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is Thursday. Mark and I are going to my nephew’s house, but I will be making a few things to take with me for the dinner. I will tell you it won’t be a pecan pie. I made one last week for Mark. I forgot I had the oven set high and it burned. It was terrible. Poor Mark tried to dig it out to eat it, but I wouldn’t let him. It was just too bad. I threw it out and promised him another one soon. I don’t know why pecan pies are always tricky for me, but they are. Sometimes good sometimes bad.

I did make a blueberry cobbler that turned out pretty well. I gave half of it to my nephew.

We put up our Christmas tree over the weekend. Someone at work just ask what colors I used and if there was a theme? We have had this tree for about thirty years. I put clear lights on it, and it is decorated with the ornaments that we have collected over thirty plus years of marriage. I love it!!! Every year when we start to decorate it, we pull out all of our ornaments and talk about where we got each one. It may sound boring but to us it is a treasure. I do change the topper out occasionally. I haven’t decided for this year yet.

I have been working on these Christmas ornaments for a week. My friend Annie from work sent me a TikTok video on them and I just loved the idea. I bought clear ball ornaments from Walmart. You can get them just about anywhere this time of year. I used double pointed needles size 5 US. It doesn’t take a lot of yarn so this is a great way to use little bits of yarn from previous projects. I cast on 23 to 24 stitches depending on the yarn weight. Leave a long tail when casting on. I knitted a little pouch about 3.5 inches long. You then thread a darning needle and run through the loops on the bottom and pull together. Do the same thing at the top but put your glass ornament in first. Weave in the ends on the top and bottom. They’re so easy and knit up really quick.