06-12-17 It was an EXCELLENT quilting weekend!

Monday, June 12, 2017 @ 6:10AM

Good morning.  This is me and it’s an entirely new week 😊 AND, this is the week that Austin is coming.  With all reality, he’s coming tomorrow, YAY~ must put that in its own cool private place, but DID want to make that notation as the first thing thought of.  WOOHOO!!!

We woke up about 40 minutes ago, and it’s taken us that long to get going.  Most of it wasn’t to do with my measurements in the morning.  It was due to not being orientated to my screens.  It is a new couple of days – We hadn’t been on the computer since Friday – It is Monday now, and while we were gone, Rich shut-down all of our screens.  We pulled up the calendar first, then we thought we’d just throw-out the stuff we weren’t interested in email – since we hadn’t checked it all weekend, but just toward the end, we hit something off-key, and all our check marks disappeared.  There may have been a sound like, “oh shit!”  Maybe, maybe not – we’re not committing, but we decided to move on – nothing earth shattering AND it was now taking up my writing time. 

Shoot … lost a few other moments.  I wanted to make sure my WHOLE right screen was up – Google Calendar, MyFitnessPal, AOL email, Rescuetime & Trello so it took some time – AND we had to make some notations over the weekend, so we could start the week fair and square.  All together, we didn’t eat too bad, though we were still off – sorry just did MyFitnessPal last … we had

Saturday – 1681 cal., 175 carbs, 63 fats, 112 proteins and only 5504 ACK Sodium

Sunday – 1319 cal., 150 carbs, 39 fats, 80 proteins and 878 sodium – obviously someone goofed up the scrambled eggs, because we can’t believe Holiday Inn – didn’t divebomb the eggs with sodium – they are coming out with 0 sodium.  NOTHING has zero sodium – PLUS over the weekend a total of 85 carbs over – that’s like almost adding an entire extra day – but sodium on Saturday?  It’s registering 64% over for the day BLAH!

Ok, doing well though hardly seem to be writing.  I just caught the 5-minute timer and took closer to 15 minutes.  We made Jell-O for later, we put away the clothes that Rich had washed from being out, and then we opened checks from the mail, added them up, put them away and told Rich how much money he’d earned … that made him breathe easier.  YAY!  It was a good “up.” We are making adjustments to Rich being home and STILL being on a schedule.  We ran into it this morning when we told him, we eat between 7-7:30AM.  He thought about it for a moment, and then came back saying, “You eat when the cook cooks!”  EEK!  That’s a little scary.  AND THEN!  He came back and said it wasn’t time to serve me coffee yet.  Ok, this kind of thing can get blown out of proportion!  BUT, we did get his kitchen clean and the truth of the matter is that we write before AND after he makes our eggs so it really doesn’t matter – just so everything is done before 9AM shower, and we’re not kept starving ourselves.  By 7:30AM it is – forget it!  We’re going to get our own cottage cheese!  Yup-yup that’s how we roll!

In a minute, it’s going to be Dakota’ time though – 7AM AND time to get medicine.  That part seems ok for us to do hehe

WooHOO!!!  We did our first breakfast with Rich and we’re not too off-schedule.  It’s now 7:40AM and we’re done eating breakfast.  We talked with Rich the whole time and we went over my schedules.  He listened ALMOST patiently, but he kept wanting to come back to being adaptable.  I get that the first time and I don’t like continuously hearing about it, but he was belaboring the point.  So, we really hit it as to our time spent with him.  I said, we have a half an hour in the morning – remembering he’s at work first thing, and then two hours around the dinner time area, and then an hour to watch shows from 9-10PM, and then we sleep with each other – or at least go to bed together from 10-5:30AM optimally.  So, that’s another 7 ½ hours. 

We did good getting to bed last night, but it was a bit of an adjustment.  I came out five minutes early to move the C-Pap machine to our bedroom.  We took a 45-minute nap with it out in the living room while he was preparing dinner so that he could adjust to seeing me in the mask while he was slightly focused on other things.  And, so at night, we whimpered a bit after sitting down on the bed on our new side.  He was like just put it on.  We didn’t know how to do that with him watching us directly.  We were complaining it looked like a Silence of the Lambs.  He asked if we knew how to do it in the dark.  And, we thought, and then acknowledged, we weren’t ready for that yet.  So, he waited at the light for us to adjust it. 

But, first came the part, we worried like hell about how were we going to snuggle him.  The short-story of that is that we can still do it – THOUGH we aren’t able to put our chin or nose on his back because of the mask.  There will have to be some testing and he was willing to try some snuggle time before the mask got put on, because some time we just like to lay next to him and watch the last part of TV with him, or talk to him, or listen to some music while snuggling.  I guess we have time to play with it, but just the first night, there were a few tears.  We DID get through it.

There was one other thing about the mask.  Before our nap – and we did deserve a nap because we’d been up until 2AM, woke up at 7:30AM and stayed up, plus drove the three hours home – including stopping for gas.  Again, we were ready to take a nap.  What we figured out though was the reason the mask was so uncomfortable, was that it was all-hooked up wrong.  We couldn’t figure out what was supposed to be happening.  So, we found the directions in our cubby hole and worked the six straps and two connections from the start and got it all straightened out.  I think I have it now, but we left the directions in a closer place in the carrying container.  It felt a LOT better yesterday, then it had the night before at the hotel.  I was VERY happy about that!

One of the other VERY nice things that happened last night – OTHER than Rich calling me out to show me how adorable Dakota was being with bunnies in his yard, was that he brought our sewing machine and supplies in the house, and then we moved them to the sewing room.  YAY!  Not only did we put the machine up and the things away, we did some sewing too.  That is why this morning, we rearranged our schedules so that we could be sewing a couple of hours each day.  We really needed some sewing time.  I was hearing Dr. Marvin not drop the quilting part like we were doing, and so figured, we’ve excited him to pieces to include it back in our world.

We could rearrange the schedule by taking off the Trello option alongside social time between 4-5PM and moving to that side – so that if we weren’t socializing, we could organize or read at that time instead of the evening.  We figured it was OK to mark less time for reading, because we had gained with the Audible programs – almost three hours of reading each week by using our driving time to and from Dr. Marvin to be listening to books.  We can’t do that all the time, but that’s when we have those other options.  Maybe we’ll free-up a little more reading time on the weekends, and another option would be to read during Rich’s time at 9-10PM if he was watching a show we didn’t like – though we’d be sitting right next to him to be doing it.  Perhaps with earphones covering the bad TV with music.  I think this is all doable, and still MUCH more time to reading than we were squeaking in before.

The other thing we talked to him this morning about in being flexible with Linda and the social time, she primarily uses is that we’d open up a block of time between 1-5PM to give her an hour each day other than the 4-5PM time she doesn’t like, but that in no way could we go back to chatting in the morning.  I know we have both enjoyed that in the past, but bearing in mind that it is my most productive time, and that now we must shower and go to the gym also during the mornings, we just can’t do that anymore.  The other things like email, Evernote and editing, can be arranged around Linda’s schedule a bit.  We still like having our hour to ourselves after the gym to watch TV and eat lunch QUITELY – especially after being out with people, or out in the car driving.

Hopefully, that will be more acceptable to Linda.  I don’t think she really likes the structure of ANY time, but there is a lot happening.

The point that we must emphasize is that for a long time – the better part of five years, we’ve identified more with being disabled – and being a “no-work” person.  We want to build our ideal identity as a writer/publisher – WHICH takes writing and editing and publishing time.  We can’t tell you how happy we’ve been with the Evernote and other programs that have gotten us back into some nice tracks.  Those parts will continue.  Sometimes, we will write about those programs too, so it will come into our writing a little – but mostly in discussing what is happening.

Going back to last night and the section where Dr. Marvin should be so pleased, is that we’ve laid claim to having REAL quilting time again between 7-9PM.  That was always the ideal time to be doing it.  We’ve faced a lot of time talking about Rich-time and him being able to hold our hand.  BUT, we need to be reasonable.  Including sleep, Rich already has us for 11 hours of the day!  That’s a LOT of time in all reality!  Plus, one of the things we found last night, was that with me working in the back-sewing room, Rich found himself ALSO in the back in the room next to me, his office.  He wasn’t working, he was doing one of the things he really wanted to do which was going over some of his fishy lakes on his computer.  Maybe many of the nights, he will be too tired, or maybe we’ll be too tired to be back there, but it is a VERY good idea or goal to be trying.  We were sharing the same sounds and didn’t feel so far from each other.

The part about sewing?  OMG!  That was SO very nice.  We haven’t even gotten to the point of talking about the weekend.  BUT, just last night?  WHAT a wonderful time!  We’re still not settled as to TV or music, but we have both options.  Pandora is set-up to work on the TV in ALL the rooms.  YAY!  It is so perfect!

We were working on our baby quilt, and we’re going to underline here, OUR baby quilt.  We may have discussed this before because we were working on the project the last time we sewed with the girls too, but what we’re doing is taking some of my Grandmother’s quilt blocks – she’d given us through our Mother, when both died one at a time – well, they passed down this older quilting material.  Much earlier, probably two years ago, we had cut most of the material into 6” blocks, and then we put together about twenty-some baby quilts, primarily using the diagonal pattern, and each small quilt was seven squares, by seven squares.  That means that each quilt has a total of 49 squares.  You caught that, right?

I’ve given out nearly every quilt, we’ve ever made, so at the suggestion of one of the girls – probably last year, we decided to put nine of these smaller quilts together, for one bigger quilt for me.  That might sound selfish, but we are still giving away at least a dozen quilts.  Five of them have already gone to my sister, who is preparing them to go to Peg, my Mother’s Pastor.  Of course, before my Mother died.  My mother used to make afghans for Peg to give to people in their church who had had a baby, or to needy people in the community, she had met in her role as a minister.  Both CS and we have agreed, it is a worthwhile goal.  It is a way to respect our Mother’s work in that community, and in the state, Connie Sue and I had grown-up in.

So, in the meantime – other than giving away quilts to that community, we were working on our quilt.  Well, almost.  As it would turn out, CS and us working on a project on Saturday that benefited one more person.  Each time we go to the same hotel in New Berlin WI – six to seven times a year for about the last seven years, we have met a couple favorite people.  Especially, a few who work at the hotel – Holiday Inn Express.  One is Carol, the manager of the hotel, one is Debby one of the worker-bees, and then there is another worker-bee who works at the breakfast bar.  Speaking now of Debby, each time we are there, she comes in once or twice to say hello and to pet the dog.  That is what brought her in the first time.  Her dog had just died, and she was attracted to our big old silly mutt.  By this time in history, she has elevated the situation, whereas, she has a box of dog biscuits AT the hotel, and she brings Dakota a snack when we are there to visit.  Dakota loves her and allows himself to lay next to her and she pets him for the entire time she is talking.

What Debby has been talking about the most when she visits – is something the girls will ask her about.  She has a Granddaughter who is now about fourteen months old, and this poor little girl has been going through hell.  The latest part is they finally took her to Children’s Memorial, and then found a tumor and the little girl had brain surgery.  We just felt terrible.  She is doing better health-wise now – this just happened since the last time we were there a month ago, although she is still having trouble because her body does not know where to put the fluids. 

The other part of the conversation was asking Debby, “How many hours are you sleeping each night?”  She looked at me like she needed a good cry.  She says, she sleeps 3-4 hours each night and that she and her daughter have been worrying so much and taking turns staying up trying to comfort this baby.  The whole group felt agony over what was going on in their life.  So after Debby left, we looked at CS, and suggested, you know Connie Sue, if it would be ok with you, do you think we would be able to make today a baby blanket for Debby’s granddaughter?  Connie Sue immediately said, “of course.”  She is like that.

So, a plan was formed that was quick and simple.  We had an extra quilt top – we had ten with us, although we only needed nine to put together our quilt, which was far from complete.  We asked CS, and it turns out that she had no problem not only putting the flannel back to my flannel quilt, she also had it with her.  She had a very soft white to go with a white background of my top meaning there were blocks that were also white – with pink or blue patters – EVEN some red hearts.  She said, she could make it just like Grandma did and that she’d practiced beside my Grandmother, even in making the mitered corners.  I was so thrilled.  We then discussed how we should quilt top to bottom.  First, she was going to sew it, which wasn’t a problem for her, but with the help from the twins, we ended up with white yarn and we tied each of the 36 quilt corners.  I was SO excited.

Even the quilting/tying was a together task.  We each had our own gifts to add, and the other’s area of expertise seemed harder.  For the most part, CS would thread the yarn to the needle – two of them, we were working those poor needles, and then we were doing the part where the yarn gets attached the quilt blocks.  It was excellent!  It took us a little more time than expected, and at one point, I tore the fabric a little, but CS cleaned that up.  I so very much loved the product and where it was going and what it meant to both of us to be giving it to Debby for her Granddaughter. 

I’m sure they already have a blanket, but this one is special in having started at my grandmother’s will and continued even through my Mother and then my sister and us. AWESOME!  Debby wasn’t there when we finished the project, but we talked to Carol about it, and then we ended-up giving it to another Debby in housekeeping, who was going to leave it at the front desk for OUR Debby!  We arranged it so that Connie Sue would call the hotel to talk to Debby to find out what she thought/felt, and just to make sure the quilt got to the right place, and Debby understood how she came about this.  We’re pretty sure she’ll realize it came from her favorite quilters, but just want to tie it up with a bow!  Hehe the twins had not only gone home for the yarn – they live also in New Berlin, but they also happened to have a small gift bag and paper to wrap the blanket in.  Just couldn’t be happier with the group!

There’s a lot more that happened than we can discuss in the next fourteen minutes, but the picture above of Dakota laying on the baby blanket, is a reminder of how special the day was.  As to the Saturday – maybe we can talk more tomorrow about it, but everything went along as a dream as most quilting weekends go.  The company and conversations were TERRIFIC!  There was no problems other than a six-minute blip where we yelled at CS for the trouble she caused over the week in getting to the weekend.  I don’t know where it came from, we were good ALL day long, up until this time.  It came suddenly and was over within moments.  All four of us heard what happened and our profuse apology.  Basically, what had got stated, was that we were angry at CS for the drama she had caused the group.  This was simply not necessary.  It was ok to deliver the message and perhaps, it was important to do so, but not in the manner, it happened.  We were showing TOO much anger.

As to how, we handled it previously – the yelling incident was within a half hour of leaving, well pretty much somewhere in our brain without real thinking being done, we decided that if CS was having emotional problems, and that her lack of boundaries and social etiquette, did not give her the proper means to communicating her emotions, then we would better reward the good things that were happening with solid hugs.  This happened eight or nine times during the time together.  And, we were giving “good-deed” hugs to the twins too.   So, little events like Connie Sue paying attention to national news, which was GOOD thing for us in being able to converse another topic with her, then that’s one of the times she was rewarded with a hug.  This time there was a lot of vocalization – oh man – here comes another hug as we’d scoot across the room to her.  It was fun and enjoyable.

We did miss Linda not being there, but her being gone did not detract from the solid time we still had as a group sharing time.  We do want to quickly add, in case we don’t get back to it, that the overnight went well, and we got together with CS in the morning – because we’d both slept over in separate rooms, but we got together from about 8:30AM-11:30AM and just talked – A LOT.  It was excellent!  We’re so blessed to have met this circle of friends and family – oh and bonus?  We got a private ride with Both Janet and Jean – on separate trips – to picking up our meals.  AND, Dakota learned how to PERFECTLY lay down a couple of poops ALSO at two separate times, when we asked, and in a very small piece of land, at a very quick pace.  So, gosh darn proud of him.  I know what else could have been more exciting hehe?