Checking in

Before I get the "are you okay?"  inquiry,  just busy, inside and outside the house.

Outside:  I have weeded, hoed, chopped, sprayed all along the edge of the bank in back.  It took me a few hours over two days to get down the row swear that kudzu is like a phoenix rising from the ashes.  You think the roots are dead and then when you start hacking it, you discover that the little sprouts that are coming up are springing off the stuff you thought was dead and gone.  Not only will it trail on top of the ground sometimes at close to a foot a day and attaching to whatever it can find to attach to, it also grows outward underground.   Some of the roots are about 1/2 or more in diameter and it is like hitting rocks with the hoe.  Also you have to be mindful that there are low spots, animal holes, fire ant mounds and where you see the kudzu is generally off the edge of the bank.  You can't get too close and I sure don't want the riding lawn mowers going anywhere that close to it either!

I've swept and I've raked attacking the dead leaves from around the bushes on the front.  Now that the stuff has dried out, I can see where the pieces were left behind when Robert pruned the bushes. The side by the a/c could still use some attention but that is not happening for a few days.

We had some rain (1 inch to be precise) with more due in tonight and tomorrow.  All the rain did is encourage the fire ants to start digging.  I treated a few of the mounds that were in my path to the brush pile and in the backyard where Oscar could get in them, once he was in for the night last night.  To be honest I do not know which of those two awful things I hate worse, fire ants or kudzu.  Maybe the ants as at least kudzu has a few useful purposes.  Very few, to my way of thinking but you can make baskets and wreaths, use it for silage, make jelly out of the blossoms which tastes faintly grape-like I am told.  Fire ants??  I know God made them for a reason but tell me what it might be.

Inside the house:  well, all that yard work makes for more laundry with sweaty clothes.  I am caught up now though, until I decide to out and do something silly like clean up the utility shed or vacuum out the car, LOL.   I've cleaned, cleared and shredded paper stuff from his filing cabinet but mostly I was looking for a misplaced paper that I need for the HHS paperwork I need to file.  Found it!

Tuesday I waited past the time the donation truck was supposed to come pick my stuff up.  They finally showed after a phone call an hour later.  Among the things I parted with was DJ recliner.  No one, including the cat, sat in it.  Remember how he always wanted in there with or without DJ??? It was like he knows that someone is missing.  No fun sitting there if you didn't have to fight with Kitty Daddy for squatters' rights??  Anyway, the handle was a bit hard to operate and it always took up so much room in the living room.  I didn't need to keep it as a shrine to my husband.  Anyway, I was up moving around the remaining pieces of furniture and vacuuming at 9:30 Tuesday evening.  Skyler just wanted to know where the love seat was headed and when the kitty eating machine was going to stop.  There is only so much you can do with a fire place and entertainment center stuck in place.  Still, it looks a bit more spacious in there.   I have since discovered that it must be a position in the room sort of deal rather than the love seat itself, as he has been sleeping on the coach now that I switched the two around.   He can see the kitchen and whatever Oscar is doing or he can see me coming up the hallway.

What else? No sewing this week though I have been thinking about it-----a lot, LOL.   The house is reasonably cleaned after that vacuuming and sweeping binge.  I didn't wait three days to unload the dishwasher.  Cooking has been more of a re-heat thing as I try to get the freezers emptied out a bit but I guess that is the beauty of leftovers.  I did make some spaghetti sauce in the crockpot the other night thinking I would make some lasagna when we  had a couple of cooler days.  Like do it in a couple of loaf pans, maybe??  Didn't happen but only because I had another bit of ground beef something thawed out.  It may morph into something else by the time I decide to use it.

I have made a decision about what I want to do for an upcoming hop and ordered what I need to make that happen---that took care of a few hours this morning but then I had already decided no outside stuff today.   I have a list going in my head of what I need to do sewing-wise.  I doubt that two of them will be completely done in time for my upcoming trip but there is truly no rush on either of the gifties, really. USPS works for me and buys some time.

 I did manage to cut out Lily's baby quilt though after hoeing the other day, it was a little hard on the hands to use that rotary cutter.

What am I doing with these?  Well, the strips should go pretty well with the wall hanging I made her with the aquas.  The #8 strip was one that I used in it while the others are mostly from the two 5 yard quilt packets that I got some Bolines of Indian Creek when I was in Pigeon Forge earlier this year.   AND I am going to make a chevron quilt with them using the tutorial from Crazy Mom quilts.  A white solid will go between the strips.

Would you like to see a few more adorable baby pictures?  Lily is home now with her folks as of Tuesday I think it was.  My sister is an OB nurse but not at the hospital where Lily was born.  Her hospital uses the Bella Baby Photography while the hospital they used is getting the service in August.  I think as a special favor to my sister they arranged to travel down and take some posed, professional pictures of our little peanut.  I put on my own watermark but they get all the credit for these wonderful pictures!  You should not be surprised to see her wrapped in the Pittsburgh towel as Daddy is a big anything Pittsburgh fan (family is from there originally, I believe).   I have Mommy's permission to share these.

AND then we have the critters to contend with:
Case in point, Skyler does not respect boundaries, at all.  Look at him!   I put that gate up to keep YOU out, Mister, when Oscar is IN.

Yeah, like on THAT side looking at Oscar from afar, not right in his face.  I have considered just taking the gate down and letting him chase that nosy thing through the house.  Thing is, Oscar would head right for Sky's food bowl and you don't feed Skyler dry food on demand.   Treat bites, yes but not dry food.  Oscar still goes at the fence every once in awhile barking like crazy but other times they are both walking around the kitchen table sizing each other up.

Oscar meanwhile has the cute thing down to a science.  I still am not sure what his signal is for needing to go out  to do his business so periodically I open the back door and "come on, Oscar, let's go out".  He inevitably lays down on that throw rug, and shows his belly and almost dares me to make him go.  Of course, it almost always works making me one of the most indulgent mamas around.  One look at those big brown eyes even with me being on to him, LOL.

If it has quit sprinkling, I think I'll take my dog for a walk.  If I don't have to referee these two, I might even think about sewing.  Stranger things have happened, LOL.

before and after

Busy day today and I am afraid that Oscar is getting short shrift in the walking department today.  No trip into the park and he will have to settle for a couple of trips up and down our lane.  I'm tired!  LOL.  I did go out and toss his little tug of war toy around a bit in a semblance of "fetch" so maybe that will help?

That bush I showed the other day that needed some cleaning up around?  Here is "before",  the one dead center in the photo.

After I got the loppers and rake out and wore myself out!

Once I got showered and cooled off then I decided to box up some of my cookbooks for donation.  Center Hope's truck is coming on Tuesday to get some other stuff I had phoned about so I thought now was a good chance to weed them out.  There are two more small boxes in the car as well.  One is going to Friends of the Library and the other, a donation bin.

Essentially I was able to clear out most of this bookshelf but then some of it is shifted to the other one.

I can tell that there is a difference even if you cannot----downsizing.  One whole shelf and half of another were emptied out.  Yes, I shifted more back in.  A few more may be going as well as all those cooking magazines as they sell those at Friends of the Library too.  I just don't feel like sacking them up at the moment,  LOL.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday was guild day.  It was so neat to walk in and see all the quilts hanging, decorating those walls at the center.  Not that I had one to share but that was my choice.  There is another challenge for the second half of the year that has a Proverbs theme.  Jill passed out envelopes that contained a proverb, mine being "Don't judge a book by its cover".  So I make an object like a quilt, wall hanging, art piece that represents that in some way.  I forget now what the other 3 had but it should be interesting!

We also drew for the opportunity quilt and it went to someone from the Birmingham Quilt Guild.  A couple of our members knew her.  Only takes one ticket!  I am not sure if I had a picture of the quilt finished up but it used that Granny Square pattern from Blue Elephant Stitches' blog.  I have a few blocks made for what will probably be a donation quilt at some point using the same pattern.  It is a fun one to make really.

I stood in for the secretary Irene, returning the favor as she covered for me during my term at one point.  When she told me (because I needed her minutes for the newsletter inclusion) and the President that she would be unable to attend, I volunteered.  After two years in the job, I thought I might be the most logical choice.  

The girls and I had lunch out and then went on to Ashville since the three of them are all doing the quilt shops block of the month.   I elected not to go shopping.  Don't need anything at the moment except some Frixion pens and it can wait.  Still, nice to have a girlfriend day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My sister told me today that it is okay with my niece if I share a picture of my little great niece.  She did have to have a surgical procedure On Thursday.  As of last night she is recuperating in a transitional room so her parents can tend to her but with staff near by.  Initially they said she might be discharged tomorrow but my sister will confirm that later.

So here is Lily with her daddy.  What a cutie pie, huh?  I'll get to meet her in person next month.  

About time to scare up something for supper.  The idea of cooking has little appeal (What? and I have all those cookbooks to help me do just that???) because it is so blamed hot or I just finally got cooled down, one or the other.  The appetite slacks off when it gets so warm and nothing really even sounds good.  HMMMMM