Really Close!

The tree is all but done. I have moved most of the ornament boxes back up to the Christmas closet. There are still a handful of ornaments that I may or may not use. I will make a walk around the tree and see if there are any glaring empty spots. Doubt that there will be many...it is pretty chock full! So many memories hanging on this tree. It is hard to leave some off. There are ornaments dating back to our first Christmas all the way to the present. Some remind me of the family members and friends who gave them to me. Others remind me of events in our lives. I've definitely thought a lot about Woody as I hung ones that we bought together on some of our trips. I have hopes that tomorrow I will be able to get empty boxes all upstairs and out of the living and dining rooms. That would mean emptying a few...so I need to decide what other nooks and crannies I "need" to decorate before all the boxes are out of sight and thus out of mind! If I can manage to finish decorating tomorrow, that will mean that I have a week to get ready for Thanksgiving and do other things that have been neglected due to all the decorating mess. We'll see if that happens. It will largely depend on whether my back allows me to finish. This afternoon, I just had to stop and head to a recliner and a heating pad. I probably should have done some stitching while resting, but I just didn't even pick up a needle...instead I watched a Christmas movie and relaxed. When it was time to head to church for Bible study, my back was feeling much better. I am okay as long as I give in once in a while and just make myself stop for a while and take at least a little short rest. I don't think that I have napped today...just sat and vegged when I rested. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Making Good Headway

I've managed to get quite a bit done on the tree today, but that is about all that I have done. So I have spent a lot of time walking around the tree and back and forth from the couch to the tree. At this point in the day I am calling it quits...I've done enough for the day and it is time to rest my back! Donna and I had a "library meeting" via the phone today. We didn't go to the library to work, but did check in on each other. Donna needed the most checking on, as she had a fall over the weekend, which brought back memories of my fall last year. I couldn't remember exactly when I fell, but it was the week just before Christmas. Now if we can just get Donna healed up and no falls for the rest of us!!!! We did have a little rain today. I didn't think to check the rain gauge to see how much. I guess I'll have to check tomorrow. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Underway!

The top picture shows what the living room looked like this morning after I got all the ornament boxes downstairs and on the couch. I did get the tree branches moved downstairs yesterday and before I headed upstairs for the night, the tree was together and waiting for ornaments. I put the angel (I know she is crooked at this point...will work on her once all the ornaments are on and I'm not jiggling the tree as I put other ornaments on the tree.) on before I put that top section on the tree. And the second picture shows where I have gotten to today. I have emptied and removed several of the boxes of ornaments so progress is being made. As always, I am enjoying being reunited with my ornaments...talk about LOTS of memories! I must hold myself funny when I decorate the tree as it is rough on my back and I can't decorate for too long before I have to rest or at least do something else for a while. I will plug away at the tree over the next couple of days. I headed to the Baptist Collegiate Ministry Center today at lunch time. I ate lunch there and then after Joy came over from her last class and had her lunch, she cut my hair. I came back home and put ornaments on the tree till it was time to go to Monday Night Furnace Room Prayer Meeting. I have been home for a few minutes, took a picture of the current condition of the tree for tonight's blog and am now blogging. That about sums up my day for today. I think I will hang a few more ornaments on the tree and then head to my downstairs recliner and stitch and watch TV for a little while before I head up to bed. Tomorrow I will get busy once again on the tree and perhaps put away a few more things...need to get the dining room table cleared off. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Sunday Favorite

Simply Saturday

I started the day moving and emptying boxes and have continued for most of the day with breaks here and there. One of the breaks was for my monthly Cottey College Alum Book Club. There were probably a dozen of us at the Zoom meeting. None of us were too enamored with this month's book, Tom Lake. I had to find some summaries of the book last night to refresh my memory. I had read this book quite a while back. We had a good discussion, but did get off track at the end and talked about the college itself. One of our book club members is on the Alum board so she shared information about our alma mater. We usually stop at exactly one hour, but with the discussion about the latest at Cottey, we talked for a little longer. Nathan's timing was perfect. He arrived just a little after we finished. He came to add a new ROKU device to the TV in my sewing room. Since I have learned how to use the ROKU TV downstairs, I want to be able to use the same upstairs and the old ROKU device had been bypassed with more technology. While Nathan was here, I got him to carry down a few more boxes...I am to the point of bringing ALL the boxes down that contain Christmas tree ornaments. We started lining them up on the living room couch. Nathan also helped me to move a couple of pieces of furniture making a spot for the tree. I finished, almost, what I needed to put on the tables, etc. in the living room. Most of the boxes except for the ones with ornaments have been taken back upstairs...still a few to take up that are in the dining room. Today after the bookclub, I decided that I had better figure out how to get the next book for December's discussion. Neither my library nor the e-book app has next month's book. I won't buy the books if I can't get them at the library...I need no more books in this house...nor do I have room for more...not with the number that I read. So today, I checked on Amazon and they offered it as an audible book...and, for a very small fee, I was able to get it as an audible book. I have been listening to it while I worked in the living room. My problem with audible books...is that I miss parts when I happen to doze off...and have trouble figuring out where I was when I dozed off! So I just end up missing parts. So far I think that I have a pretty good grip on what is going on...so I just went on listening when I realized that I had been dozing! Tonight's photo shows that I did get to the box with the snowman cookie jar...finding that I was able to complete that corner of the kitchen. I am pretty much finished in the kitchen. I will work on getting the tree put up tomorrow and hopefully start decorating it. After it is decorated, I will decide if I am going to put up the "angels on high." I did decorate my first tree today...a small one that I put tiny cross stitched ornaments on it...small as this tree is, it has about 50 ornaments on it...so that was one of my accomplishments today. I will put a photo at the end of this tree and my Carolers. Years ago I stitched each of these ornaments for my Aunt Lois for her doll tree. Aunt Lois was a doll collector and she asked me to make orhaments for their tree. I did this over a period of years. After she died, I got the ornaments back and now they are here decorating a tree for my Carolers. I am ready to sit for the rest of the evening. I am working away on the last few Christmas ornaments that I am stitching. I have a good portion of the stitching finished...then I will need to make them into ornaments...this year what I am stitching is less detailed which means less time to make each one. Most of the ones I have been stitching can be completed in a sitting...not what I usually do. Less time...but at this point I am pleased with them...now to hopefully be pleased when I have them made into ornaments! To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Friday Doings

I've kept pretty busy today...my steam is running out at this point in the day. I have opened lots of boxes and have put lots of things in lots of places. I really don't have anything exactly as I think it will end up...but more things are in place and have been found. This corner in the kitchen will probably end up with more trees and more snowmen...but for tonight...this is it. I will say that the fireplace decorations have changed quite a bit...maybe it is finished...maybe it isn't. The dining room table still has lots of trees and snowmen on it...and, I haven't gotten into my boxes of angels. I have to decide if I am going to put the "angels on high" up this year...this would mean lots of trips up and down the step ladder placing angels on top of the china cabinet...tonight I am thinking that it may not happen, again, this year...but we will see! I still haven't gotten to the box with the snowman cookie jar in it. I can see it, but it is still wedged into the Christmas closet. I can't really work on the other corner of the kitchen until I have him placed in the back in the corner...then I can place trees and other snowmen around him. It has been fun finding decorations. I am using quite a few decorations that I haven't used in the last few years. Besides decorating, I have done a load of wash...all done and put away and made a pot of soup, Cream of Chicken Florentine...made a pretty good supper. My back is suggesting that I need to rest it for a while. I plan to finish cleaning up the kitchen and take a few more empty boxes upstairs to get them out of the way. If I get rid of the boxes, I will be able to see better what still needs to be done. Maybe...I will get to the point tomorrow that I will be ready to start the tree on Sunday...what a job that is...but I do look forward to reacquainting myself with all those favorite ornaments and find just the perfect spot for each of them on the tree! To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Thoroughly Thursday

Nathan stopped by this morning on his way to work at his church and helped me hang my newly framed needlework. The three newly framed pictures are the small ones in the group. I have had the large print of Williamsburg hanging in the family room for a while. The smallest of the pictures is a cross stitch picture of the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg. The monocrome picture below that is George Washington's Mt. Vernon. This piece my mother started before she married and at some point I found it and I ended up finishing it. It is a stamped piece done in outline stitch. I finished it before we moved into this house...so more than 40 years ago and Mother married in the mid 40's so it was probably started in the 30's or 40's. The other piece is a cross stitch picture of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello that I stitched in the 80's before we moved into this house...so more than 40 years ago. I'm glad that I finally framed them and can now enjoy them on the wall. The planter was a wedding present that I pulled out when Cheryl was here and she said that I needed to put it back up. The dipper was brought back to us from one of Nathan and Kathy's mission trips. I am going to have to ask Kathy whether it is from Africa, the Philippines or..? Anyway, I am happy with the grouping and very glad that I asked Nathan to help me hang them. He figured out spacing very easily. Plus his height was an advantage when leaning over the back of the couch to measure, pound nails, and hang and level the pictures. He also brought down another of the heavier boxes and I have gone through that box and a couple of others. I continue to put things around the house. Nothing more is totally finished, but getting closer. Hopefully I will have something else completed to take a photo of for tomorrow night's blog. I am pretty sure that I am heading in the right direction for feeling better. Today has been a much better day, but I still tire easily. It stayed really windy over night and we did have rain. My rain gauge said that we got 8/10 of an inch. That is the most measureable rain I have had in my new rain gauge. It's good to see rain off and on once again. I doubt that it has done much for our drought condition, but at least it is raining every so often! To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!