My actual anniversary was a month ago, Thursday, September 29th

The words rotator cuff surgery still make me shudder. It was a very tough experience. It took me 14 mos to recover, they had suggested it would be at least 12. 

Back in regular yoga classes now, I do dolphin instead of down dog most of the time. I am very careful about holding/lifting heavy things out from my body or up high. 

When I woke from surgery that day, 9/29/2020, I was pretty sad. I thought I knew what I was in for, but frankly, it was (much) worse than I thought. 

That was a very long road. 

Having that surgery/recovery during Covid lockdown definitely helped, Middle was living at home, my husband was working from home, I had the round the clock help which I needed desperately.

Yes that is a fire truck at the end of my driveway

 

In August of 2021, youngest and I serviced all the smoke detectors in our house. Some of the detectors had hit their expiration date and were replaced. All the batteries were changed.

August 2022, all the smoke detector batteries were changed again. 

A week ago today, 10am, I was sewing in my little sewing room under the stairs, middle was in her shower, my husband was in the kitchen, and all the smoke detectors in the house went off. 

My husband was not cooking. 

He looked, I looked, inside/outside/attic, we could not find anything amiss, but they continued to blare. When we were confident there was no fire, we opened windows and doors. They continued to blare. 

I called 911, who told us to evacuate and the fire department was on the way. 

After checking the house again inside and out, including the attic, fire department started checking smoke detectors. It was the one in middle’s bedroom, which was one of the new ones we installed August 2021 with a new battery added August 2022.

I had a new smoke detector still in the box ready in the garage. They replaced the faulty detector. I pitched the faulty one.

I went to the store and bought a new back up detector the very same day. 

It felt good that I knew exactly what the history was with all our smoke detectors. When the fire chief asked I was able to say - replaced expired equipment/all batteries August 2021, replaced batteries again August 2022. 

Company for PT

I mentioned in a previous post, I do PT neck exercises in the bathtub almost every morning. I soak my legs and hands in hot water/epsom salts while I do my neck exercises. This process/pairing (hot water, epsom salt, PT) helps my day get off to a good start. 

The daily neck exercises allow me to continue to do two important things: head checks while driving, tipping my head back to gargle after brushing my teeth or doing my inhaler (asthma). 

These two are my company each morning - 

 

An excel program helped

At a family wedding in August 2022, two of my husband’s cousins mentioned quilts I had given them for wedding gifts (which I did not remember) long ago. 

These two were siblings and the aunt and uncle of the October 1, 2022 wedding’s bride. That put quilts into my brain. 

I was not sure I could manage it, my left hand is quite bad (arthritis). But the thought was persistent - quilts, wedding gift, delayed wedding gift for the bride’s sister, using up fabric I had loved/kept. 

I had a fabulous pile of flannel already cut in 9.5” squares that went together nicely. And I thought that if I was very careful, I could get two large lap quilts out of it. 

Youngest built me a very simple excel program to expedite fabric placement. 

The goal was to lay out one quilt, only using half of each fabric, leaving enough for an identical second quilt. The excel program made it accurate and simple. I laid out the colors on the left (above) and the program kept track of used/remaining on the right (above).

I sewed the 9.5” squares together fairly easily. Middle pressed the seams for me. My long arm quilter quilted them on her machine. I sewed the binding on by machine, I am no longer able to do handwork.

The whole process was humbling. The quilts were so basic/simple that it was almost embarrassing (so far below my previous skill set). 

And it is sort of a sacrilege to sew the binding on by machine. (Normally it is sewn to the front of the quilt and then flipped around to the back and hand sewn so no stitches show.) I had to top stitch it, stitches showed. 

But finished, the quilts were nice. The solid gold fabric on the back is actually pin-whale corduroy, so the flannel quilts are thick/heavy. I did not have enough corduroy, I added a cotton print and used the same fabric for the binding. The colors are both fall-ish and Christmas-y. 

The excel program speeded up the process in an easy/accurate way. It also prevented errors. One of my concerns was making a mistake and then middle having to rip out seams. With the printed plan in hand, I was able to check each square carefully before I sewed, and prevent errors. 

My previous method would have been to lay all the squares on the floor and then run back and forth to the sewing machine. This would have been very time consuming and inaccurate since I was making two identical quilts. 

The excel program allowed me to figure out exact placement for both quilts and be confident I had enough of each color.

We had a wedding today

The wedding was out of town and we took the train. 

I made two, identical quilts for this event. One was a wedding gift. One was for the sister of the bride, whose wedding we missed, five years ago.

Standing at the dentist’s reception desk on Friday morning, the day before the wedding, paying a bill, I just happened to ask if they had any ideas for very strong gift bags to transport two quilts to Chicago via train. 

They did - reuseable shopping bags from Tuesday Morning. It was a fabulous idea - only $1.99 each, large and very sturdy. 

I wrapped each quilt in tissue paper and put a large decorate sticker to hold it. The bags had cute designs and are made from recycled water bottles, very sturdy.

When we got to the hotel, the uncle of the bride/her sister relieved us of the bags and put them in his hotel room. 

At the cocktail hour, I told both girls there were bags for them in their uncle’s room. The aunt of the two girls also knew. 

So, these were fabulous wedding girls. One on time, one five years late. I used up a big stack of fabric. The bags were clever and dependable on the train. I was pretty pleased with the whole process. 

Physical therapy

Update - 

If you missed it, I added to my last post. 

Calculated out to an annual cost, (machine) Pilates was a serious annual financial commitment. 

If I find a mat Pilates class, I will reevaluate.

I picked up a second yoga class, Tuesday nights, instead.

Today’s post - 

I met with a physical therapist in late September to reevaluate my needs and update my custom physical therapy app. 

My app program contains multiple sets of exercises. I do one section at a time. 

I do my neck series, first thing in the morning in the bathtub with Epsom salts, nearly every day. I keep my hands relaxed in my hot water while I do the neck series/seated extras. This is now an established habit. Pairing the hot water/soaking my hands, and the PT series, is very effective in helping me to this nearly daily. 

The bath tub extras? We added a few other things to this “bath tub” set, like twists and a modified seated pigeon pose, a modified seated mountain, and a seated cat/cow. 

Then we updated my standing arm series, my floor arm series, my standing leg series, my floor leg series. My goal is to alternate these so I do one section a day, in addition to my bath tub routine. 

My challenge with this is to pair it with something else so it becomes a daily ritual. And to find a set place in the house where this works for me. 

I am relistening to Gretchen Rubin’s book, Better Than Before, to help me with this. 

My bathtub ritual took a lot of creativity. It is an unusual answer and a unique pairing. But it works!

It started because I had Covid mid summer and was on my nebulizer machine several times a day. My husband realized the machine had a long tube to the mouthpiece. The machine could sit safely (far) away from the tub. And the hot water helped my pain. I was very motivated to soak in hot water while I breathed. It was very meditative-like for me. 

yoga and pilates

I restarted yoga in early August by working with an instructor one on one. Things started to come back pretty quickly. And I was able to test my right shoulder (I had rotator cuff surgery in September of 2020 and it took 14 months to heal, I am still careful). 

I am now in a yoga class each Thursday afternoon. This class is a special needs/older women group. 

A little later in August, I started with a Pilates instructor, again one on one, with the goal of participating in a Pilates class on Tuesday afternoons. 

Added later - I went to Pilates one time. Then my shoulder was tender from yard work and I cancelled the next two Pilates sessions. That gave me a pause button. While it definitely would have worked, it was too much of a financial commitment when I multiplied Pilates individual instruction and class fees to an annual cost. 

So instead I picked up a second yoga class on Tuesday nights. 

I have not been in classes since December of 2013. 

In my 40's I remember an yoga studio owner announcing she was available to work one on one if anyone had a friend who was timid about starting in public. I appreciated the fact that was an option, for other people, but could not conceive of needed that myself. 

Now, it has been an absolutely wonderful option. 

We switched dog hammocks for the car

 We had two dog hammocks from Pet Smart. These are covers which protect the backseat of your car from wear/tear/nails/dirt from dogs. 

We wore them out, washing them in the washing machine. 

We bought a different kind (below)  from Amazon which is waterproof. 

After a trial run in middle’s car, we bought one for mine too -

These, we are not putting in washing machine, instead we are using wipes or removing from the car and washing on the driveway with the hose. 

By the way, our dogs are in harnesses and buckled into the attachments for seatbelts ALWAYS. A harness must be used (not a collar). 

Our dogs do not unbuckle on purpose, but unbuckling was happening accidently as two sets of four feet each stepped all over the backseat. These are great for toddlers/preschoolers and dogs.

 

All this would make a good gift idea. 

the boxes are still going strong

My window boxes, last week, they were planted with the same things and watered/fertilized equally. 

Here are inside views of the kitchen box -

My planter under the side windows, the big pots in front of them are massive tomatoes - 

Empty Closets

 I keep thinking about this. 

The gardening neighbor friend, who lived a couple blocks from me and just moved, had many empty closets. 

The three bedrooms closets, her (now adult) kids had when they lived at home, were totally empty. Each room was set up with bed, lamps/nightstand, dresser and maybe a chair in the corner, and absolutely nothing else. 

Closets and dressers were empty. So all the closets, in the upstairs of her house, were empty. 

I think it had been that way for years. It certainly made moving easier. 

Think about how functional a guest room is with no clutter. How convenient it would be to come home for a brief or long visit and have all storage spaces available like a motel room. The rooms were peaceful and lovely. 

It is my new goal.

Procrastination can extend

This table was put up, temporarily, with the intention that I would use it to sort the genealogy papers that needed filed in their respective 3-ring binders. 

I expected to have it done in 24 hours so the table could be put back in the attic. 

Several weeks later, it took less than an hour to do all the filing, and my husband took the table to its storage place in the attic. 

Yes, we walked around that table for weeks. 

I think the problem was the table was not annoying enough. 

Right by the computer room door - very easy when I was taking the papers off the counter and putting them on top their respective binders. I sorted immediately. 

This started because youngest was here,  was working from home for a week, and I was clearing space for her to spread out in the computer room. 

I even had a package of sheet protectors ready for the filing. But then procrastinated on the next step, putting the pages in the binders, for ages. 

Each time I walk down the hallway now, it seems so big, without the table in the way. 

Two flower pots

I have gotten rid of a lot of flower pots in a use it or lose it mindset. 

The last two now have a set place to go each year. They fit perfectly and add a little dimension. 

The flowering annuals came from the clearance rack. 

Fold3 and Great Aunt Dee

You may have heard of Ancestry and Family Search which are online databases for genealogy. 

In the USA there is Fold3 for military records. 

I have not used it a lot, it is on my “futures” list. 

I just saw an interesting article (below). This topic does not pertain to me, probably not to you either, but it is a good read -

https://blog.fold3.com/wwii-research-and-the-missing-air-crew-reports-collection

This one definitely pertains to me -

https://blog.newspapers.com/exploring-the-society-pages-in-the-newspaper

I discovered that in the 1950’s one of my great aunts wrote a column for the local newspaper in my original  hometown. She lived in an area of the county, outside of town, that was active. She wrote about their local activities as well as the community member’s family activities including our extended family. 

I have placed lots of dates using her column. The best example is I now know when my grandparents moved, because my Great Aunt Dee wrote about going to their new house for a small dinner party. 

Using the better quality, instead of storing them

I had a wild assortment of cheap bins in the cupboards in the garage.  

I had a very nice set of latching bins in the attic, empty. 

I moved supplies from one set of bins to the other, next to the bottom shelf (below). 

The locking ones are so much more reliable to use with heavier garage supplies.

Bonus, they look much tidier since they are cohesive.

And I sold the odd ones quickly/easily.

Stranger Things

If you like the Goonies, and you like Fringe, my guess is you would like this show. The show has good casting, writing and direction, in my opinion, in science fiction genre. 

Middle and my husband have watched since the beginning. They have not yet seen the latest season. 

We started back at the very beginning, and watched the first two seasons while youngest was home for a full week over the 4th holiday.

Continuing on, now watching separately, we really enjoy each season’s different story line with the consistent/returning cast. 

We offer Witness Protection

 I am showing you the Cheyenne Cone Flowers. At the feet of the bird is a patch of daisies. In front of the daisies are Cheyenne Cone Flowers hiding from the bunnies. 

Three summers ago I planted them in the backyard and the bunnies kept them trimmed down to about 2”. 

Last summer I moved them to the side of the driveway. 

This summer they have the long arm of a squash helping to hide them from the sun and the bunnies and they are thriving. They get watered nearly every day. 

Identifying photos during a scanning visit

My mom, husband and I went to my mom’s first cousin’s house to scan photos, a couple Saturday’s ago. 

This is our second time going to a relatives for a mass scan, we went to Iowa in the summer of 2019, very good timing. Middle went with us to my husband’s cousin’s house, we stayed the weekend. Eight months later, we were in a long lockdown. 

On that first trip, my husband labeled each photo, on his lap top, as he scanned, which was time consuming. 

This trip, I used post it notes and the camera on my phone, which worked better. 

What mattered, what I needed to document, was what I did not know by sight.

I knew I was coming home to move the photos from my husband’s laptop, which we had taken in order to use our portable flatbed Epson scanner, to our PC. I also knew I was immediately going through all the photos, labeling them on the PC. 

So I only needed to make notes on what I did not know, mostly years and locations. If I knew the people, I did not need a note. 

This worked very well. I wrote most of the notes myself as I loaded the scanner. Sometimes my mom’s cousin wrote longer things out for me. Most of the photos were not labeled. I had my mom and her two cousins to help look/think/calculate. I am very good with identifying people in photos. 

My husband ran the laptop/scanner. 

(My mom mostly enjoyed looking at photos and talking with her cousins, who she had not seen in person in decades, but chats with them online on occasion.)

Very valuable to me

I use the key pad, on the outside of the single garage door, many times a day. 

The puppies and I go out that way for walks, I use that single garage door to water plants, and garden. 

Watering/gardening, I leave the garage door open. 

Walking, I shut it behind us. 

I wear my very small cross body when I walk, it holds my phone. 

I usually have earbuds plugged into my phone and listen to podcasts or talk to youngest (on her way home from work). 

The puppies and I walk about three times a day. 

I used to do this with the neighbor’s pup too. It gets us all out of the house and fresh air. It gives us something to do and breaks up the day. Lots of walking practice at this age pays off in a quality dog for the rest of its life. People are stopping me to comment on the puppies’ beautiful walking skills already. I can stop and talk to people and they are just nicely at my feet. 

 

If the power went out or the battery died on the garage key pad, I would be locked out of the house. 

So I clearly needed a key in my very small crossbody.

I was worried a loose key would get lost. I definitely needed something flat to hold the key. My solution was the thick envelopes with a snap closure that the bank uses for safe deposit box keys. They had an extra for me, when I asked at drive-up. 

So this is now the entire contexts of my “purse” -

That is my medical insurance card, drivers license, AAA card, two credit cards, $60 cash, the key fob for my car, and my house key. 

The fob goes in the bottom of the cross body and stays there. I use the buttons on the inside and outside of the car to lock/unlock. I use the lever on the inside of the car for the trunk. 

All of that fits easily/comfortably in the small side zip of my cross body. My phone fits in the larger pocket. I wear that cross body in the neighborhood and in the car. 

It is extremely light, even with my phone in it. Out and about, I never take it off, it stays on my body. 

This system allows me to have the absolutely basics, in a hands-free way. 

If I am going somewhere more complicated, I pack extra things in a small canvas bag. 

This is a long way from the purses my grandmothers used to carry. 

Update on the slide situation

All the way back in January, I mentioned slides absolutely do not last.

https://baby-steps-v.blogspot.com/2022/01/slides-public-service-announcement.html?m=1

We do not have a lot of slides, but we do have some that we want to save. Preserving slides means converting them to digital, quickly.

Our local library has lots of electronic and craft/skill equipment available for use. So 3-D Printers, scanners, sewing machines, soldering equipment, etc. 

The library slide scanner is an Epson, but more complex than the Epson we have at home. This one has a special light, down the center. (See my arrow).

The holder positions the slides exactly under the extra light.

It scans four slides at a time.

It was about the same speed as our regular flatbed Epson scanner at home. The scanning app/buttons were exactly the same. 

The conversion quality is good. The photo with the boys and the car on the computer screen was a slide. Now it is a digital photo. (Yes, that photo is hysterical. It was my husband doing some type of slide photo assignment for a college photography class in the early 1980’s. Normally he did not/does not take slides. Those were college buddies.)

So we will be able to convert all our keeper slides to digital photos, easily and for (nearly) free. The only expense was we replaced our memory stick. Memory sticks also do not last.

We scan the slides on the library system. We save them on a memory stick plugged into the library computer. We bring the memory stick home, plug it into our computer, save the digital photos.

This scanner will also scan negatives. We have not yet tried that, we think all our negatives have been printed. Plus, there  are still photo stores that will print negatives. But those brick and mortar/local photo stores are dwindling very quickly. In my area, we are down to Walgreens photo lab (in the store) and some things have to be mailed for processing. And we have one local specialty photo store left.