Am I out of Patients or Patience?

I am finally out of Patients and Patience! Just when I thought the highway was going to smooth out! I have been meaning or wanting to sit and write a post! They are not quite as easy as writing a letter, which is how I think of the blog post… a letter to a friend.

Was a mess. So where did all my time go? There was patient care, my chores, his chores, and the patient care! There was also Christmas to fit in. Fortunately, we have a pop-up Christmas tree. Half an hour and it is standing on a table, lit and decorated and it takes about the same amount of time to put it away! We chose a low-key Christmas this year. I mean, what else do we really need?

The Patients

One of the patients was the DH, (Dear, Darn, Darling, or other descriptive words that fits the moment) Husband had a Total Knee Replacement on November 30. This was his second, so not a totally new experience for us. The first was in 2015, and much has changed in just 5 years. This time it was only 1 night in the hospital and then home! Everything went fine and he has been cleared by his doctor to resume normal activities.

Another Patient
Patton is playing in the yard

The other patient is Patton. He decided to have his own medical issue too. I think I mentioned it before, he has developed Epilepsy. He is doing well and has adjusted to the medications. He was started on Phenobarbital, a fairly inexpensive drug, but very hard on the organs. Because he is only 2, we not only want him to be well but with us for a long while. We transitioned him to another anti-seizure medication. Patton had another seizure this week. The confusion he feels after a seizure makes my heart break. I can see him trying to figure out what he did to deserve the punishment, and for about 24 hours after he is so needy. Unfortunately, he is 90 pounds of energy, so cuddling him is nearly impossible.

Weather Patience

No patience for Spring
These Violas bloomed in December, around the 29th.

Once we were able to get out, the weather joined the game. Severe warnings for both winter and summer seasons in December and January. December gave us really warm weather that brought us tornado warnings as well as devastating tornados to Kentucky. These were particularly troublesome because the storms were coming in the dark. The tornado in Bowling Green was the closest to us and the watch area almost included our area. Since then we have had several dustings of snow, freezing rain, or sleet, and just plain cold temperatures. One of our trips home from physical therapy was quite a slippery snowy ride. The high of 76 at the beginning of December, gave us a hint of spring and the summer-time storms. And a couple of weeks ago, a winter storm that might have brought enough ice to shut things down, but turned out to be significantly less here.

New Weather Warning
The weather service has come up with a new weather warning… Snow Squall

Speaking of getting out. Two of the ‘Cowboys’ have left. That happened in early December. With the DH out of commission, I was the helping wrangler… These 2 cows did NOT want to leave!!! Poor Sir Loin, he has been so lonely the last few weeks. We are hoping his new friends will arrive today. And they did!!!

No patience for mechanical issues either

In January, my car started to ha some electronic issues. The whole center big screen, fancy gadget started to malfunction. When it does not come on, there is no controlling the heat, (or defrost), no radio, no GPS, and several other not quite as essential functions. So far it has not failed to come to life shortly after starting… but it is annoying and required an enormous amount of patience on my part… It has now been to the shop and a new ‘radio’ has been ordered. That is what they call that big fancy all in one screen, the radio! The part should be in next week… so a trip to Bowling Green again. I just have to be a little more patient for the part to come in.

So now you are mostly caught up… I will try to be better reporting in!!! If, you are still here… do you experience things that just take over? Tell me in a comment, what is the first thing you knock off your “to-do list” to accommodate the added demands?

More to come… Beth

and wait, there was more!

Aside from all the things keeping me busy in the last post… there was MORE!

In September I Have A Notion had a booth at a quilt show. The local Elizabethtown Kentucky Heartland of Kentucky Quilt Show. They have a show every year. This year there were 500 quilts on display and 22 vendors. It was a very busy 2 days.

Quilt Show Booth at Heartland of Kentucky Quilt Show 2019
The Booth Space before setting up and after

The move added a bit more stress to the show hours for me. I used to live just a few minutes away, but now with the time change, it takes about an hour and a half to go 40 miles! There is a time change between here and there… so in the morning you lose an hour, but you get it back on the way home!

there was More summer than we could take!

I’m not sure if where you live was unusually hot the tail end of the summer, but it sure was here. The month of September felt more like August. It was so unseasonably warm and dry in Kentucky. The pond water level dropped more than 2 feet, the grass dried up and a few of the trees have already lost their leaves.

Mr Meanie
and there is more with a cat, the low water at the pond

and then a taste of winter!

And then it got cold! Frost and freeze warnings overnight. So all the tender plants have been moved. May need to move them again. The pond was shrouded in fog this morning (but that has been so even in the heat), and when I went out to feed the “feline tenants” I found a Wolly Bear Caterpillar.

and there is more weather coming
The woolly bear caterpillar—also called woolly worm and fuzzy worm—has the reputation of being able to forecast the coming winter weather. … The wider the rusty brown sections (or the more brown segments there are), the milder the coming winter will be. The more black there is, the more severe the winter.

You tell me, what you see… Brown? anywhere? Me neither!!!

on the creative front

nope, not more. I was hoping by now to be doing something quilt related. But not yet. I did wash and hang a quilt out to dry on the clothesline. A quilt I had hoped to have quilted for the booth table this year. Funny how things never go as planned. It is a salvage, holes, and tears in it, so it will need some creative patches, (you can see where I made an attempt at the creative… patching), I am going to redo it with more pizzazz and then quilt it rather densely, edge to edge.

Vintage Quilt Top
and there is more, a vintage quilt top to be quilted for the booth…. someday!

What are you working on creatively? Are you looking toward Christmas yet?

More later -Beth

Coping with Winter Weather!

Winter weather has come early to Kentucky. For once the weather person pretty nailed the winter weather. 

Its not like Kentucky doesn’t have winter, but this stuff doesn’t usually plague us in November. First a wave of cold air and then a very cold rain for a very short time, which then turned into sleet and freezing rain into the late evening. It stopped raining in the middle of the night.

When we got up in the morning… our predicted winter weather was here! Ice covered everything and we still had power! We had Internet for about 15 minutes but of course it went down. So we switched to our wireless devices to Hotspot. That lasted for about 20 minutes and then the whole Cellular system went down. Cell phones came back up around lunchtime and we had about 2 hours of Cable around dinner time  for the news and a little entertainment TV, and then boom out again.

Many of the BIG trees in the neighborhood suffered some damage… Our little birch tree in the backyard was resting on the fence from the weight of the ice, but I can happily report that it is upright today, but it has a new curve to the trunk!

While a coating of ice makes life a little more problematic, it does make the ordinary look extraordinary… warning… a few pictures below!!! 

iced over oak leaves
Oak Leaves.
ice on silver maple leaves
ice on maple leaves
Iced Ford truck
ice on a Ford truck
iced pine needles
pine needles covered in ice, does this look like a quilting design to anyone else?
iced over oak leaves
Iced crab apples (ornamental)
ice on a silver maple bud
ice on silver maple buds
Iced Rose bloom
iced rose

Today, we have sunshine with high clouds moving in. The ice has melted. Clear weather through Thanksgiving! Hopefully you haven’t been too bored with the pictures… above. Tell me what you think of them. I’d love to hear! 

More Later! Beth