11 SEPTEMBER 2017

So much haze from the fires burning North of us-keep Montana in your thoughts and prayers, please!

It's been a full week with,

70th Birthday Party for a friend

Neighborhood BBQ

Soup Making

Lots of Walking

Car buying (for Dghter in the Minn.)
Yarn Dying
Knitting
Sewing

Today, a friend is coming over and we are going to cut out patterns and start sewing clothes. I love to sew clothes but sometimes I need a little kick start and Jill is just my starter. An amazing sewing Jill is and I have learned so much from her over the years. Looking forward to our weekly sewing adventures.
I must say the air quality is so much better today than the above picture...thank goodness. All our friends in Florida survived the hurricane, so this week is looking better, wouldn't you say?
Did you notice my baby girl is wearing pig tails....be still my heart!!!!!!!!!

My heart is with all the families, New York, D.C. and PA. today.
September 11, 2001

7 September 2017

Fall is the time of year I enjoy dying yarn! Not sure why, perhaps it's because Fall is the beginning of the wearing of wool! It's more exciting to me than the start of the Christmas season is to many others.   This 'wool wearing' season is not commercialized, a matter of fact very few people but knitters are aware of the season starting. But it truly is a season marked on all knitters calendars.

Yesterday I drove some back roads looking for Black Eye Susan's for the dye pot. I needn't travel far at all before finding a safe place to park and walk the road picking the flowers. Both flower and stems will be simmer for their colors, though separately and then titrated for that perfect color. Also started was a gallon jug of water and rusty iron pieces that Eric found in his work room-so exciting. Last year I dyed some yarn and it turned out way to BRIGHT yellow and I need it to be toned down...a lot! Reading, I found to use the color purple or ferrous sulfate in a post after bath pot to calm a bright yellow down to something useable. We are going to try the ferrous sulfate post bath. (wish me luck).

Sweet B was so interested in the bugs that came home with the Black Eye Susan's. However, we could not identify the yellow/black beetle like bug. Anyone know the name of this creature?, please let us know. 

Lists, making daily, weekly, monthly- list seems to be the way many people stay on top of their day. List for kids, meals, 'to do,' knitting/quilting projects...the lists go on and on. I have never been a  list maker. Oh, I have made lists only to not remember where my lists are to refer to them. When my son entered 7th grade the first supply on his 'list' was a day timer to make more lists on. I refused to get him one, believing no 7th graders life should be that busy he can't remember the things that need to get done. After about 2 weeks of school he came home and said: 'Mom, I need that day timer or I have to go to detention until I get one.' I bought him a day timer after writing a letter of complaint to the school ;-\. Around Christmas, I came across his day timer and saw he had no list written, no homework assignments, football practices, nor first dances' scheduled in his day timer- he only had pictures he drew during classes! This kid is an exceptional artist too. I was so proud of him, he didn't need to make lists to get his work in on time, show up to football practice, he knew when the Fall and Christmas dances were, my boy had 'just the right pace' in his life!

I now find myself in that time of life where I can't remember what I was going in a room for or what I was going to make for dinner! Yup, you guessed it, I now make lists and they are kept in the kitchen on counter or table to be seen every time I walk past them. My days are not busy, but I am easily distracted and need to be kept on track for a more satisfying, productive day, (also less frustrating to Eric. He makes lists too, always has.)

Oh dear, another sign of 'aging!' 

My list today

Walk

Chicken for dinner

Wash sheets (if smoke clears out to line dry)

finish the Black Eye Susan dye pots

Quilt this afternoon

Read

Smile and be grateful

5 SEPTEMBER 2017

The talk on most of the blogs and IG is of sending kids to school! Some parents sound thrilled, like it's the "best time of the year," others rather emotional to be sending homeschoolers off to high school and their first exposure to 'public education.' My children did go through the public education system and it was both a positive and negative experience. Public education  is not for every child or family as homeschooling is not for every family. I feel for Moms though, sending your first children off to high school is a real mile stone. I realized how fast time flies seeing my first off to high school  and in a blink of an eye my three children were graduating from college! I still have many mixed emotions about the fact that I'm not only an 'empty nester'( not sure I qualify  as an empty nester after a decade of having the nest empty)  and now a retiree. I love being retired but knowing that I have more years behind me than in front causes me pause. Life aways seems to have tension, yin and yang, positive and negative.....

I love having our baby GD here everyday, such a joy and gives us something to do all day. Yes, I do take a nap when she goes home. 

Labor Day Weekend was full this year:

Rockies Game in Denver

Homemade Pizza

Oven Cleaning

Chia and Breakfast with a dear friend

Cast on for baby boy knitting

Basement Cleaning

Blinds getting cleaned, (yeah!).

Sometimes I really enjoy cleaning and organizing, I just don't keep up with all cleaning on a regular basis. September seems to be my month to clean though, always has been. Maybe it's nesting for the winter, I'm not sure. I really don't want to question my fall cleaning mania, just going with it .

To all us Mama's in what ever stage of life-lets be kind to ourselves!