Goodbye Sick

 It has been so long and so crazy around here I had to look back to see where I left off with life. I will give an update in a moment. 

Let's look at cross stitch for now. I have been pretty much exclusively working on Thirsty Hart. This stitch has been comfort stitching with the deer since I had so much going on. Mostly fill in with brown is what I have been up to. Here is where I am as of today.

There is another half to the deer, grass, the remainder of the flower, the redoing of some of the yellow flowers, lots of butterflies and a little personalization to do. I have made great progress on it though.

I took the time too finally stitch that dragonfly on the heron. It was over one so I procrastinated.

I have the foam board and glass ready. My goal this week is to pin it on the board, because we are going to Auburn for the weekend of the 4th and my friend will have the frame to put it in. I can't wait. 

Family Updates...

With the traveling of sickness, Mother got Covid. That was a bit stressful. She is all good now. It left her fatigued, and hopefully it didn't undo all that physical therapy. We were supposed to have the last visit with her health nurse last week, but she postponed dismissing her until this coming week. I am hoping she will be able to pick up with her exercises and keep progressing.

I am feeling better and how in the world I haven't gotten it -who knows?! IT is odd how it jumps on certain people and skips others.

My duties with Mama have picked up to the point it is just hard for me to be the blogger I once was. It is what it is and I am grateful for the fact she is close by and that I can see about her. There will be time for blogging again one day.

That really has been the bulk of my last two weeks so I don't have a whole bunch to share. 

I did stop by Ace and buy a kiddie pool to put on the lower deck for Palmer and I to beat the heat. August heat in June has not exactly been a good thing, but I think we are getting a reprieve this coming week.

Most of my pictures of him are naked:) I just let him swim as such. One day Tucker was with me and he loved that they were both naked. A dolphin came by that day, so he ran out to the end of dock like that to see the dolphin come by. Our neighbors were on vacation so we had the area all to ourselves.

You can see Gus's nose in the pool picture. He swims in the bayou and drinks from the pool. The pool is much better for corralling boys.

Palmer is 11 months. Where has the time gone?

Like I said, not a lot going on even though I have pretty much been absent from reading and commenting on blogs. IT won't last forever though, so I just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Counting blessings,

Sandy

Busy June

 June is always a busy month for our family, but this year it has a twist. I will explain that in a bit.

Jeff and I both have a pretty long list of outdoor chores and have found little time to get to them. On Saturday, we got outside and had a workday. We didn't rush or overdo it, but slow and steady started on the list. At the end of the afternoon, I blocked the idea of we have so much more to do and chose to look at what we had accomplished. The windows on the back are just so salty. I washed many but didn't finish. There is lots of mildew on the decks and stone. We pressured washed and will have more to do. What we did get done looked great and the chores involved water to beat the heat, so not a bad day.

Gardening Report...

I have 2 roses on the back deck in pots. You may remember I gave up on growing them in the ground in the Florida humidity. The 2 have done really well in the pots on the back though. They are providing me with those sweet little cutting roses that I love without the headache. Just enough ... I am learning to have less -is really more in that I am not stressed taking care of it all.

I have had less black spot and trouble with them in the pots. In fact, I don't think I had to spray them once last year. Fertilize? Yes.

Cross Stitching Report..

Update on the heron status. I was looking for a frame in Auburn at an antique store, when my friend offered to build me one. He is the woodworker hobbyist. Engineer and head of a company by day and woodworker at night. He has been mentioned on here before by making a pie safe for me. I have picked out the wood, gone and picked up the glass and foam board and plan to pin it myself this next week. It should be ready for Lindsay on her birthday in September. Yippie. Can't wait to show you later.

Speaking of Lindsay and presents.... I pulled out all her sorority t-shirts from her old dresser and sent them off last week to an Etsy shop to make a quilt from them. That will also be a surprise present.

I have been stitching away on Thirsty Hart. I didn't iron, but just took a quick snapshot of my progress. I have not addressed the yellow flowers yet, but do have a plan. I just wanted to make sure it was all matching up on the bottom. I am pretty excited about my progress.

Sorry for the poor quality photo. I will do better next time.

Family Celebrations...

Kristan, our niece always comes in June. We did have our family gathering. It was so much fun. Kristan, Lindsay, and Paul Allen are so close. They grew up across the street from each other and even though there is an age difference they are close. Lindsay and Paul Allen watched Kristan grow up and date and so forth. When they get together it is nonstop talk. A blessing has been that each of their spouses are such a good blend. The six of them have a great time together.

We just did wings and pizza to make it easy, hence all the boxes across the kitchen island. Paul Allen and Katie seem to always know when Mom pulls out the phone to take pictures:)

Tucker woke up wanting to know if Katelyn and Tanner were here. I know the day is coming when they will be too old to play with him, but he loves them. Hopefully by that time, Palmer and Miles will keep him company.

I almost waited too long in the evening to take the kids' picture. Palmer had hit TIRED status and was not interested in anything but a bottle and Mama's lap.

Fun was had by all.

Sickness has traveled around the family for over a month and we are worn down from it. Covid stuck its ugly head in after the family gathering. Jeff and Paul Allen have June birthdays and we were all set to celebrate on Sunday evening. Two days after Kristan was here Lindsay and Jeff tested positive and were both sickly. 

We had to cancel our birthday plans. I had to make my baby who turned 30 his banana pudding and presents and drop them off at his house. NOT what this little Mama who loves her celebrations wanted.

Both are doing better, but little Palmer was running a fever all day yesterday. Lindsay is home with him today as she is still coughing too. I am so ready for us all to be well. I am scheduled to go to the doctor as well again. I have had a round of antibiotics and as I said in the last post my ears are clogged. I can't hear at all out of one side. It has been 2 weeks now. Anyway, we are all ready for good health and for it to mess with us getting together. 

Enough complaining.

Another little birthday happened as well. Just like 30 is a big one, little Gus had a marker, too. He is 5. I seriously can not believe he is 5. He is my little sidekick and best friend.

That is it for now. Hoping to get a solution for a clogged ear today!

Hello June

I saw this poem on Instagram and just loved it. It is a sweet little rhyme that looks like something from elementary school days. It is also a good description of June with great white clouds and green everywhere.

Catching up from my last post, we had several days in late May where it rained so much I thought we were going to float away. A tropical low came in from the Gulf and just stopped on us for 2 days. When it ended if there was any doubt that things could get any greener it disappeared quickly. 

We went to Auburn for Memorial Day weekend. As the roads were full of folks coming to the beach, we opted for the quietness of the Auburn house. To our great surprise, the weather was just amazing there that weekend. It was cool in the mornings and a breeze blew in the oaks around the house. It was very nice and quiet there. I took absolutely no pictures. Usually, I am running around snapping pictures of nature that is so different that the coastal scene. I just rested and soaked up the peace and quiet. 

I have painted a room since my last post. If you have followed along for a while, you know I have changed this room up quite a bit in the 8 years since retirement. After moving in, we removed very busy wallpaper and painted it Valspar Humble Blue which is no longer available. It was very similar to the drapes in the room below.

When I had the drapes made, the idea was to match it make them just kind of fade away. It worked and we loved it. Lindsay had a very bright bedspread and lots of teenage goodies adorned the then white bookcases. The picture above the bed was put after she moved out. It was a gift from her to me since I love birds so much. 

I had the idea to grow the room up and let it be a guest room, but that never really came to fruition. I just couldn't remove all the stuff even though she has assured me I could get rid of most of it. I just can't do it myself. You can't see the American Girl doll in the picture or many of her treasures. I have tucked a lot of the stuff away, but it is going to stay as it is for many years to come UNLESS I have to move Mother in, then it will get packed up.

Anyway, I painted it beige and just didn't like it. It totally was wrong for this room, so I decided to tackle it and take it back to the blue.

It looks so much better. I just walk in and sigh a great sigh of peace. Now, the next morning after I spent the day trying to get it done in 1 day and I had climbed the ladder for this pretty big room and then crawled around on the floor I was sure I would never do any painting EVER AGAIN. It was like having the worst leg workout I had ever done. 

A few days later though I was very glad I got it done, but I do think I am done painting large spaces.

Palmer is growing up so fast and fills my day with excitement.

He isn't walking by himself yet, but he is very close.

He is a climber. Here he is after having climbed into the toy box.

We have all been under the weather. I think I just thought I would outlast it. Allergy season has been late this year and brutal. Both boys had such runny noses. Palmer then began tugging at his ear. They both ended up on antibiotics. I thought since I didn't have a headache that I couldn't possibly have an infection. For about a month, I was congested and THEN it moved to my ears. I can't hear yet out of one. I am on an antibiotic as well and hoping when I wake up in the morning that it will magically be open. I started them on Friday night. 

Even the adult kiddos have all been sick. So, I just haven't felt like typing. I have done the bare minimum the past week. I will have a ton of catching up indoors and outdoors this week.

We do have a fun event this week though, so we all have to get well quick. Our niece, Kristan and her family are coming in for their June visit from Houston and we are having a family get together. We are a small family but we love getting together.

I have been stitching and will share some progress soon, but I did sew my pillow together of the bird I stitched.

I opted for just a simple finish. I think it turned out cute.

I am making this a short post for me and will hopefully be feeling better soon and be back with more.