A relaxing Sunday.

 I was able to finally relax with some hand quilting this week and it felt so good! I finally finished off the quilting in the dark blue cat and moved onto this teal one. It appears I am doing circles/fans or straight lines in alternate cats on this one. 

On the last day of April - was the anniversary of us adding Bear to the family 2 years ago. He was a shelter rescue and has fit in well to his family. I got him this duck toy that arrived yesterday. He was so funny when he saw it this morning in the living room - tail wagging happy dog.

It is still blueberry season in Florida, and I got up early yesterday and went and picked a little under 4 pounds. They have one more week. I hope to go next Saturday as well... since the girl and I seem to be grabbing a handful every time we go past the kitchen. I looked at the sign and they are $4.50 a pound for self pick. After running all day yesterday, I am looking forward to puttering around at home today.

Now to enjoy the yogurt scones that just came out of the oven with a few berries on top!

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

RSC in pink and yellow!

 Since I did not get any yellow sewing in last month, I'll do both pink and yellow this month!

I got a little sewing time in on Thursday morning and cut and pieced 4 chicken blocks. I even remembered to do the big part of the chicken correctly, so I didn't have to modify the parts to make it work! I had that purple one right next to the machine for reference as I stitched.  I did 2 in yellow and 2 in pink. I might make a few more of these later in the month if there is time. The red part is 3-D. 

I had the parts cut out and in process for 2 more of the potato chip blocks so those got stitched while I was doing the chickens above. I think I will get out my 2.5 inch strip die and cut a bunch from the stash wall so I have a variety of fabrics to choose from. I'll go through the white bin as well and try and get some usable parts cut. It is overflowing and needs taming.

Linking up on Saturday with the RSC. Head on over and see what scraps are turning into.

The boy has 2 Cambridge college level tests today and then a review after school for Mondays exam. He said the math one was a killer yesterday and all their brains were fried after it. He thinks he did poorly, but we will see what the results are in August. This is one that gets sent over the pond for grading at Cambridge. He got invited to a surprise moving away party at the middle school this evening for his old Robotics teacher. He is moving north and will be teaching elementary next year in the Carolina's and starting a Robotics program at his new school. A bunch of the kids from high school who were in his classes are planning to attend and wish him well. He had them for 3 years in middle school with the robotics program and the boys helped out at the after school program with him last year for volunteer hours and helped at a few local tournaments the last 2 years for him.

Hopefully I can get a little yard work done this weekend. Pull some old bushes and plant new flowers, trim some hedges back and just tidy up before the humidity hits the crazy levels and I hibernate in the AC for the summer!

Almost normal?

 Wednesday was a good day! I got a few stitches in on the cat last night. Progress.

The kids were a normal pick up. When I saw some frozen catfish in the freezer (when clearing out to defrost it so the noise stopped, blessedly quiet all-day Wednesday!), and a recipe card Aidan has picked up at Publix for Catfish Po'boys, his dinner was decided for Wednesday. We did stop at Publix on the way home and picked up a little more catfish so there was enough for him and Greg, and Emily and I got subs. We dislike most fish!. He did a great job doing the recipe and fying the fish. I might have changed the oil and cleaned the fryer as well. I did a little prep work for him of slicing tomato, lettuce and making a tartar sauce. 

Greg went and visited his Dad and it appears he will be in Rehab for a while. He needed a wheelchair to get to therapy yesterday so his strength will need to get built up again. 

The dog has been walked. I'm off to go pick some blueberries and then I have riding this afternoon before picking up the kids. Might I get a little stitching in? I do need to return a set of pans to UPS and fill up the chlorine jugs for the pool at Pinch and that is in the other direction. It might just be an errand day. We will see.

Running.....

 Another week of crazy...... kids this time! It is getting to be the end of school with all the end of school crazy. Testing started this week - AICE, florida and county. Way too much testing!

It has been double pick up's so far this week. Monday was a normal for Aidan and Emily stayed late for her spring concert. That meant, I needed to get dinner made and eaten before Grandma arrived around 5ish to get to school for the 6PM concert. The Jazz band played for about 30 minutes then the Symphonic band did their pieces which was about 30 minutes. They play in the cafeteria area, so that needed to be reset. Parents help with putting away the chairs and help get the things back to the band room - mostly the percussion as there is a lot of it! The girl has been sniffly again and I'm sure it is allergies and stress. 

Tuesday, I was planning an early walk of the dog then go for my bloodwork... but hubby reminded me the Truck needs a new battery, so a quick shower instead and then I took the kids to school then did my bloodwork. A few errands happened (allergy meds, Lactaid pills and tuna packets for Aidan's lunches) and then it was home to log into work. A trip to get the girl kid and bring her home at normal time. Then back to get the boy kid from his after school study review with the teacher. About half of each of her 3 classes showed up for the review. He came out a little after 4:30. I had to feed them.... and managed to empty the freezer part of the fridge. It is iced over... again and LOUD. So, it needs to be taken apart and get the frozen ice off the wires. This is an every 6 month occurrence with this stupid fridge. Aidan was able to take it apart for me, so I am on tap to hit it with the hair dryer now that dinner is done.

Oh, the truck did get a new battery today. Hubby took care of that.

Just a day in the life..... off to go ring out the towels and put the hair dryer to work on the ice jam.

What a week....

 

Sadly, there was only a little stitching added to this cat this week. 

Monday, my FIL had a procedure to remove one of the kidney stones. When Greg arrived there late Tuesday morning they indicated he would be released that day. By 5PM and no paperwork, Greg had to go to the doctors boss's boss. My FIL chose no rehab, thinking he was ok. Later that evening when he tried to get dressed to go home, seems he was unable to dress himself! Sigh. It was too late at that point as he was discharged and everything was closed. Hubby had a long night with him, and it was a challenge to get him into the house and settled for the night. I went over directly after dropping the kids to school. He was able to contact the rehab facility he had been in before and they worked with the hospital to do the paperwork and get it covered by insurance. They we able to take him that afternoon by 4PM. Hubby got home after 5PM and crashed. His back has been painful ever since, as he had to help his Dad a bunch. 

Thursday I got some much needed horse time with Goody. 

Saturday Emily got her riding lesson. She tried a new horse as the instructor had not used him yet and was curious how he would do. He made Emily work a bit to get him to do what she wanted but he did a nice walk, trot and cantor.... or rather a walk, lope and jog since she was in a western saddle.

Instead of stitching I was reading. This one needs to get returned to the library, so I finished it last night. Cats do not make a good window while trying to read! Peanut kept trying to get on the book, silly cat. I also listened to an audiobook series by Vicki Delany about a Tea shop as a cozy mystery series.

I have been doing lots of house searching online, but we still have not gotten an offer on the house. We did hire lawyers for the process with the county though. They are expanding the road next to our house, from a standard 2 lane road to a 4 lane road with median divided and will be taking our property to do it. We have a 4 bedroom, 2 bath on 1.5 acres. I guess I really need to modify my search to include an in-law space as I really don't think FIL is able to live by himself without supervision. Hubby and I went to visit him at Rehab Saturday afternoon. He looked even weaker to me, but we did wake him from an afternoon nap. We will see how long they think it will take to get him stronger. 

I have yet to do any of my yellow sewing for the month and I hear May is all about pink. 

I'd better get busy doing some stuffed animal surgery for the Dog as I see a pile of his animals stacked up needing some stitching to keep the stuffing inside.

Lets see if I can get those handled before I head to pick up the boy from Grandma's house.

 

Painting with a twist

 I spent time Sunday afternoon with some adult girl scouts. It was a fun break and lots of yummy food and chatting while painting. 

Sunday....

Saturday was a busy running around day. Emily got taken to horses for her lesson late morning. (about 25 minutes away)

After lunch when we got home, hubby and I headed 30-40 minutes in the other direction to visit my FIL in the hospital. The good news is his bloodwork numbers are slowly looking better. He is 88 and has a UTI, kidneys are not functioning well, a new kidney stone and slight diverticulitis. Thankfully we caught it early this time. They are taking great care of him, but it is very stressful for Greg. 

A quick breakfast for dinner and then I was a wee bit tired and didn't do much of anything after the kitchen was cleaned up. I might have done some side streets to check out housing areas on the way home as well. Our house will be taken for a road expansion sometime in the near future (it has been years of waiting but they are starting to buy up the properties the last few months) so we are scoping out potential areas that are closer to the kids school and well away from busy roads and noise.

I did do a little surgery stitching on the dog's stuffed animals. This is the 3rd one I fixed and one of his favorites. A $5 find at the pet store before Christmas! There was also a tear about half the size on his back that got fixed as well. 

The after photo.

From Emily's phone after I handed it to him, and he went to relax with it on Emily's bed.

Some hand quilting has been happening in the evenings. I have been working on the cats and like how these free hand arcs look.

Today I get to do a 'Painting with a Twist' with other adult girl scout volunteers this afternoon. It should be a fun time.

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.