Almost December

Greetings from My Field of Dreams.  I kept thinking about writing a blog, but that meant I would have to not have the picture of that sweet baby on my blog, and I really enjoyed seeing him every time I got on. Such a sweet little boy.

Tomorrow is December. I have been decorating for three days. I made a couple of wreaths. I have wanted to do it for years. I ran across a You Tube channel called Dollar Store Crafts. My goodness, I was mesmerized. A gal showed how to make the Christmas ball wreaths and I was hooked. The only problem was I had to go to the Dollar Store.

You ask why it that a problem? Because me and half of Bakersfield must have been watching that same You Tube channel and I had to park far away and do a bit of a walk to get to the store and then there was almost only standing room in the aisles. I always feel so sorry for those poor people behind the check stands and people were standing four or five deep waiting to buy their things. I still laugh quietly to myself and I had a arm load of things, and it was only 20 dollars.

I have always wanted one.  You know I wish on these blogs they would tell you things. Like I have glitter everywhere. Even after two showers yesterday when I went to Bible Study I still had glitter on my face. Or you have to hot glue the tops to the Christmas balls because they are made from some weird plastic that will just disintegrate in your hands if you mess with them too much.

 The first wreath I made I didn't hot glue them and I had fancy ping pong balls going every where in the kitchen and then on the front porch when I was trying to hang it. Here is my first one. I just cut the top off of a clothes hanger and it worked okay. The next time I used some heavy gauge wire I had from other projects. I used my balance ball to measure around so I could have a nice fat wreath.  (Since that is about all I use my balance ball for.)

I have a couple of patterns sitting here on my computer of things I would like to make, but I need to sit to do them and sitting has been hard for me lately. I guess I got so used to having the kids when we were in Tucson and being busy with them, I just haven't got back into my routine.
I just wanted to check in. I am going to be doing a blog for Christmas for 24 days on my other blog. The link is at the top of this blog. I am going to write about the things that mean the most to me about Christmas. I am doing this with Pom Pom https://pompomsponderings.blogspot.com/
My daughter Kessie as well. https://kmcarrollblog.wordpress.com/?wref=bif It will be nice to get back into the routine of blogging again.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.
~Kim~

Once I might have wished for that:never to grow old.
But now I know that to stay young always is also not
to change. And that is what life's all about---changes
Going on every minute, and you never know when
something begins where it's going to take you.
---AGathering of Days, Joan W. Blos,1979

Home From Tucson

 

We are finally home! Two weeks in Tucson. We spent that time with our grand children, while Mom was getting ready to have the baby. We rented a lovely house and it turned out to be just perfect. The kids had their own rooms. We had a lovely kitchen to cook in and a washer and dryer too. It had a nice backyard for the kids and because it overlooked a wash, we felt like we were out in the middle of no where which was nice.

 

It had lovely sunrise just about every morning. That was the closest house to us. This housing development was so pretty with these flat topped adobe looking houses. There are 120 miles of walking trails. The coyotes sang every night. The wash was full of wild life and we watched quail and lizards and even road runners.

We took the kids to the zoo and to the botanical garden. We took them on hikes and a visit to a lapidary shop. We took them out for pizza and they loved gift shops.  We went on hikes and to the park. We had ice cream.

Mom had the baby on Sunday November 4th.

He is such a tiny little guy. He weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces. He is so cuddly. He smiles all of the time and he was even chuckling to himself one day when I was holding him.

 After a whole summer of no grand kids, I enjoyed myself so much. We did finally have to come home though and its always so nice to get home. After being gone two weeks, there are so many things to get caught up on. I have been putting away all of my Halloween things and getting out my turkeys. When we left it was still summer here. When we got back yesterday, it was suddenly fall. It was cold when we got home. It changed so fast.

  They are quite a crew.

 

It was so nice to finally sleep in my own bed last night. Though we forgot to set our clock back in the bedroom, so we got up at 3:30. We are still on Arizona time.

I will get caught up with your blogs. Blogging by phone if different.

~Kim~

"November was a month of massive extremes. We went from 70-degree temperatures in November to six days where it never got above freezing a couple weeks later. "   

Paul Head

Lovely October Morning

Today is the first real day of fall for me. It was so nice to walk around and see how the leaves have changed and really felt like the world is a beautiful place.

Our leaves are turning rapidly now. I am so amazed at how each morning there is a little more red on the leaves. I need some orange colored trees out there. The nectarine hasn't started turning yet and it will be orange if I remember correctly.

I have been sick since September 20th. I have never been sick like this before and had no experience with something that made it so I couldn't push myself to get well. I am hoping that having the energy today means I am officially on the mend for good. I had what started out I thought to be the flu. Only it wasn't. Its not a good way to diet let me tell you. But enough of that. I am better and I hope to be back to my ole self soon.

 

I took a picture of the front yard this morning. Its starting to look like fall in the front yard. Ron reseeded the yard with winter rye a couple of weekends ago. We are getting small shoots of grass coming up. I know California and green lawns are important. Our yard has suffered so much since that drought we thought we would try to get something down so it wouldn't look like it was just patches of green here and there.

 

We really need some rain, as you can see from these leaves. We have had storms pass by but no traceable rain as of yet.

I did work on a small stitchery, by Brenda Gervais. I have worked on it a little and I was so sick this week, I couldn't even sew.  I am that close to finishing it.

I even thought if I ordered wool, that being able to dye wool would help me get well. I haven't been able to do that either. I realized how much I take my health for granted. Do you know what has made me feel the most well?

There is something in that multigreen that has helped me so much. I wish I had found it sooner. It says there are probiotics, and enzymes.

I just wanted to check in and let you know I am still here.

Blessings to you all,
~Kim~

Ta-Da Finally Finshed!

 

Last night at 8:15 I finished His Eye is On the Sparrow, by Beth Twist-Heartstring Samplery.
Its taken three years, but I did it.

 

I never dreamed in a million years, I would accomplish this. There were months I didn't even pick it up. I can't even tell you the many, many times I thought I would just put it away. It was a test for me to continue on and keep stitching. Mistakes and all. I ripped out so many times, I was afraid of damaging the cloth. I would say that I learned so much doing this pattern.

 

I really had to look at it as one animal, or one page or just this tiny basket of flowers. I lost my mojo the week I realized I had just finished the sixth page, and counted and I found I had six more pages to go.
I sat and stared at it for days before I could even pick up my needle. During this time as I worked on it. Ron has changed jobs twice. Ben and Megan have sold and have been on the road. Kessie and Ryan moved and she had a baby and is getting ready to have another baby and William and Makenzie got married and moved three times. The boys that live at home finished college and have great jobs. I did 40 rugs and sold them. Emilie and Nik have been so crazy busy with life and he finally graduates from Seminary in April. So the saying that I loved so much on that stitchery, His Eye is on the Sparrow, and I know He watches me, was stitched on my heart too.

 

The stitch count of this is 435x363 all that means to me is that its big.
I can't watch anything when I am doing counted cross stitch because looking up and down bothers me so I listen to books on tape. While stitching I have listened to:
Bleak House( twice) Charles Dickens
Dombey and Son
David Copperfield
The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Sherlock Holmes read by Benedict Cumberbach 
All of the series about Mrs Polifax written by Dorthy Gilman read by Barbara Rosenblat three times there are nine of those books
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit four time
The Little Princess and The Magic Garden by Francis Burnett three times each
Cherringham-A Cozy Crime Series eight of those.

I can't listen to anything rough or uses bad language or anything like that when I am listening to stuff on headphones. My house has to be clean and my work all done and I will stitch in the afternoons between 1-3. If I have dinner in the crockpot I will let myself stitch until four. I don't do much counted cross stitching once Ron gets home because I can't talk and count. I can rug hook then.

 

I wanted to finish it before fall, which was Saturday. I almost made it. That was my goal. Now I will take a break I think from counted cross stitch. I really want to get back to dyeing wool. Hooking and drawing out patterns. I did manage to get all of my rugs bound this summer. But I will tell you this, my next counted cross stitch project, well, it will only be on one page.
Thanks for being with me on this journey.
~Kim~

“All my girlhood I always planned to do something big…something constructive. It’s queer what ambitious dreams a girl has when she is young. I thought I would sing before big audiences or paint lovely pictures or write a splendid book. I always had that feeling in me of wanting to do something worth while. And just think, Laura…now I am eighty and I have not painted nor written nor sung.”

“But you’ve done lots of things, Grandma. You’ve baked bread…and pieced quilts…and taken care of your children.”

Old Abbie Deal patted the young girl’s hand. “Well…well…out of the mouths of babes. That’s just it, Laura, I’ve only baked bread and pieced quilts and taken care of children. But some women have to, don’t they?...But I’ve dreamed dreams, Laura. All the time I was cooking and patching and washing, I dreamed dreams. And I think I dreamed them into the children…and the children are carrying them out...doing all the things I wanted to and couldn’t.”
― Bess Streeter Aldrich, A Lantern in Her Hand
( My life today.)