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!!!!

A Long Week And A Sick Kitty

Happy Wednesday friends. This week feels like it has gone on forever and it’s only Wednesday. My big boy Gus has been under the weather and not feeling good.

It started last week when it seemed as though Gus was having trouble using the bathroom. He would go into the kitty box and scratch and scratch and come out and visibly strain to use the bathroom usually on the rug outside the door. I am going to spare you any other details than that.

He seemed to be feeling better one day and then not himself the next. I called the vet on Tuesday and got him in that same afternoon. They did an X-ray to determine if he had any kind of blockage other than a hairball or poop. Luckily he didn’t. They gave him medicine to help get him on track and he is back to his old self. He is romping and playing with Kitty Kitty again. It makes my heart so happy. I hate to see him moping around and not being himself.

Over the weekend my husband and I cut the tree that had fallen across the road a couple of weeks ago. We had cut it off of the road and just moved it to the side of the road. It still looked pretty bad. We cut all of it and carried it away from the road. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

We also put my bottle tree in the yard. This is was a Christmas present from two years ago!!!!! It has been in our garage all this time. I tried to put the tree up one day by myself but it is metal and heavy and I couldn’t even lift it. I finally talked my husband into getting his auger and drilling a hole for it. It took all of ten minutes. I guess we both thought it was going to be more of a job than it was. But it is up and I love it. I only had six bottles to put on it. I ordered a few more but I really want to collect bottles that I find in thrift stores or get at garage sales. I think this will be fun and they will be unique.

***I can’t wait to add more bottles in many different colors.***

I made beef stew on Sunday. I put it in my crockpot and let it slow cook. I had some leftover sourdough bread that we had with it and it was delicious.

My sister had a doctor’s appointment in Knoxville on Friday. I went with her and we did a little shopping afterwards. Look at these bunnies and Easter decorations at T.J Maxx.

I had hoped to find some cute things for Valentine’s Day but they had nothing. Of course they did put their Valentines decorations out before Christmas so I guess they sold out.

A fellow blogger mentioned a poem by Ted Kooser. I loved the poem so I ordered one of his books and I am so loving these poems. While I was at the Vet with Gus I had to wait almost two hours for everything they were doing. I sat in my car and read almost this entire book. It so helped calm this kitty mama’s nerves and take my mind off of worrying about my big Gus.

This is my favorite poem in this book, so far. I haven’t quite finished the book.

So yes it feels like a long week. Knowing my Gus is feeling better is wonderful. But still a bit of a crazy week. I think I need some down time to reflect and just chill. I think that may have to come from within me though. One of the things I most enjoyed this week was watching a man with his three dogs. I was parked at the vet clinic. A man at a house next door opened his front door. Out bounded three of the most beautiful big dogs I have ever seen. They almost looked like popcorn popping up and down and all over each other. They were so happy. He had a fenced yard and they ran and ran and played until they flopped down beside each other. I could see their tongues lolling out. They were just precious. You never know when you are going to catch a glimpse of something that will stick with you always.

How is your week going?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Goodbye January

Well here we are with the first month of January into its last hours. It’s hard to believe that one month of the year has gone already. January has been a bit of a crazy month. Both long and short at the same time. We said goodbye to 2023 and got ready to start a fresh new year. Lots of snow and ice for us. I read 4 books and listened to 2 audio books. I will have a rundown on those for you in an upcoming post. I finished several knitting pieces and the heart cross stitch. I had a lot of winter snuggly time at home and that is fine with me.

Last week we again had the taste of rural living. Remember I told you the week before, that we had the downed tree and we had to cut it off of the driveway before we could get out. Last week we lost power for over two hours. It went out around 6:00 AM Thursday morning. When we lose power we also lose our water, because we have a pump, and our phones because we have to have power for the internet. So there we were.

We always like to report our outages to the power company and not just hope that someone in our area will do it. To do this we have to go to the top of our driveway and get a cell signal to call the utility board. We then get a recording and we report the outage. The driveway was very dark because the outside light on the driveway was out as well. And I forgot to mention it was sooooo foggy. Oh and we have to back up the driveway because we always pull down the driveway when coming in.

My husband and I both went to the top of the driveway so that one of us could get out and open the gate. It was not easy backing up the driveway with no lights except the back up lights. The fog made it even worse. I had left the house without my glasses. That added to the difficulty, because I wound up behind the wheel doing the driving. We finally made it to the top, we have a very long driveway, and got the outage reported. It had already been reported by a neighbor. But you never know.

***This is what it looked like at 6:00 AM***

The power was out for over two hours and I was a little late getting into work. We never found out what the issue was. It was a widespread issue on our road. Several houses were affected. We do have a small generator that we can use if the power is out for hours or days.

Over the weekend I felt like I was running a bakery. Secretly this has always been a dream so it was actually a lot of fun. It started with my nephew requesting sourdough bread. I make this from a starter that I have had for probably fifteen years or more. It stays in the refrigerator until I feed it. He also requested some peanut butter pies to take to his coworkers. He just moved and started a new job a couple of weeks ago. It was also my brother in law’s birthday and I wanted to bake something for him as well. If you want to read more about the sour dough bread and how I make it, visit this post I did a few years ago. It is definitely a process.Making Sour Dough Bread

I made six loaves of the bread, 20 small peanut butter pies, and about 2 dozen cake pops. The cake pops were just something I decided to do at the last minute. I had never made them before. They were okay but I definitely need to work on those. So I did a lot of baking on Saturday morning and delivered bread, and pies and cake balls all over town in the afternoon. I finished the evening with a visit to my little mother in law at the assisted living village.

The peanut butter pies were a big hit.

I also spent some time over the weekend cleaning my silver bracelets. I am ashamed to say that I haven’t worn them in forever because they looked so bad. I bought some cleaner and got to work on them. I feel like they are new again.

This is not my cat. Well she sort of is I guess. She lives at work. She is feral and we haven’t been able to catch her. We are trying to get one of our team members to agree to take her home. We named her Anthe. Isn’t she beautiful? We feed her and take care of her the best we can. She has been with us for several months. I hate to trap her but that may be the only way we can get her to someone’s home where they might be able to tame her.