Middy Jane Speaks

Hello again world! It’s been almost a month since I’ve written here. The last few weeks have been exciting (!). One Saturday evening I decided to have a cup of tea. I put the kettle on the stove and turned the burner on. I went to another room to give the water a few minutes to start boiling. I started smelling something and thought, hmmm, I wonder what that is. The smell got intense, I ran into the kitchen and there were flames rising up from my stovetop. I turned off the burner and pulled out the hose from the kitchen sink and dowsed the flames. Then the heavy smoke and soot started up. I ran around putting up windows and then went outside to calm down, to be able to breathe, and to call Suzanne. I was not injured, no tears were shed. I had obviously turned on the wrong burner and used my flat stove top to set an object down. I have no idea what the object was that I had on that burner, it was unrecognizable. I spent the night at Suzanne’s and called Serv Pro the next day. They cleaned the entire main floor of my house and I stayed at Suzanne’s for over 2 weeks. I now have a brand new stove and a new hood over it.

It is really strange to think about people going through your house and belongings to clean everything in drawers and on surfaces, etc. I am a clutter bug. My house has been in worse shape than it was, I was only slightly embarrassed. Fortunately, I only talked to the guy who was in charge, I didn’t have to face any of the crew cleaning up my house in person. The things they must see. I had some magnetic words, dozens of them, that were sticking to a Chinese checker board. Suzanne saw a woman picking up each of those words and carefully cleaning them.

Well, I now have clean carpet, clean curtains, belongings… And a new stove. I got it Wednesday, today is Friday and all I’ve done with it is to have a cup of tea and to turn the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees as the instructions said to do. I must make cookies this weekend for Suzanne and family.

Not much going on lately. Haven’t had any thing much to say. I need to take some quilting and knitting photos, so I have something fun to post. I had the flu this week. Yuck. My mom was in the hospital this week. She’s going home today. A big difficulty during this hospital visit and the last one was side effects from some of the medicine she was given. Both times she was extremely confused, which we kept hearing is normal for older people. When they get out of their normal environment, they get disoriented. This was beyond that though, it was hallucinations, she was seeing snakes and pink elephants among other things. The doctor said it was one medicine, we kind of thought it was a different one. But once the doctor took her off one, mom went back to knowing who she was and where she was. It’s not easy having an aging parent. Mom is 86.

Hope you all have a nice long Memorial Day weekend. It is cold and windy here in Iowa and I think rain is scheduled.

The flowers showed up on my desk at work yesterday. For Mother’s Day from daughter Debra and her family. Sunflowers are so cheerful. I love sunflowers, but Debra really really loves sunflowers. My daughter-in-law Stefanie is a daisy girl and I think that Suzanne’s favorite flower would be the rose.

I made the blue and yellow and white quilt that the sunflowers are posing on.

Suzanne made the wall hanging. I can’t remember for sure, I think she made one for her mother-in-law and then I begged for one also.

I actually bought this quilt, didn’t make it, at a bazaar at the church we went to in Gales Ferry, CT. It was made by a lovely lady named Mary. I think of her when I look at it. I love its simplicity. Buttons and plaid and muslin, simple beauty.

Back in the late 70s, 80s, and through part of the 90s, I was a counted cross stitch enthusiast. I learned how to do it in South Carolina, we lived in Summerville near Charleston. I loved it, I started on hardanger cloth, 22 threads to the inch, 1 strand of DMC embroidery floss. My first project was Jack & Jill from a Gloria & Pat book. Remember Ginnie Thompson? She was kind of a pioneer in the field. Her daughter saw some work I did for a consignment shop in Summerville and I did some models for her designs — she had looked at the back of my work and it was about as neat as the front, that impressed her. I don’t seem to have the patience or the vision for cross stitch any more. I still have a pile of unframed and even unfinished pieces. It provided well needed therapy during the years when the kids were little and I needed a creative escape.

My mother taught school and here is something I made for her. The design was from another one of the many Gloria & Pat books. Can anyone remember the name of the artist who drew these characters who had no mouths?

This is my first blog entry using my brand new computer. Oh boy! Speed and huge monitor. Oh boy! Suzanne set it up for me. There’s still some work to do, like getting stuff from the old one moved over. But one thing I like so far, among many things, is the Windows picture program. I attached my camera and it automatically asked me if I wanted it to upload (download?) the photos WITHOUT my having to ask it to do so. I know, I know, I’m not even sure of the right terminology and I’m way too impressed still at what computers can do. One question I asked Suzanne today was if I needed an iPod to listen to Podcasts. Go ahead and laugh, I really don’t mind. I’ve seen stuff about some knitting podcasts that I’ve wanted to check out. Namely one called Lime & Violet. Not to knock them, I’m sure they have some interesting programs, but the one I listed to about 7 minutes of was about taking the dog to the vet and about tasting wine. Does anyone listen to any good Podcasts? Knitting or otherwise?

I got an order of tea yesterday from a company (Teavana) I hadn’t ordered from before. I got a Rooibos Chai that is quite good. I had been ordering fruity teas when what I really like is spicy. I’m new to Chai, that’s where the spice part comes in. I also ordered Pur-Erh, a black tea, has anyone tried it? But my new FAVORITE tea — is called Azteca Fire. It has crushed cocoa, apple, strawberry and chocolate pieces, safflowers, (I know, strawberries and apples are fruit, but wait!), here comes the best part — it has crushed red chili pods in it. A tango for the mouth!!! OH. MY. GOODNESS. I will now be on the lookout for a friend or family member who will agree to try a cup with me. In case you didn’t notice, it’s not actually “tea”, it’s an herbal concoction.

What’s on the docket for the weekend? Getting to know my computer, continued decluttering of the house, knitting, who knows what else. Oh, celebrating being a mother and grandmother.

I went to a program at a grocery store this evening. Didn’t know until a few days ago that grocery stores did programs. But one day when I was there a few days ago I heard an announcement about a diabetes program. I thought, well, that sounds interesting, but didn’t look around to see if I could find details. Then Sunday’s paper arrived with a little article about it and a website where you could sign up. So I did. “Healthy Habits: Managing Diabetes by the Numbers”. Roche, a national drug company, sponsored it. There was a light supper, a talk by the HyVee food store’s dietitian and then a talk by the drug company representative about their glucose monitor. They gave out free monitors while supplies lasted, other folks will get theirs in the mail. I didn’t necessarily learn any new information (I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes about 11 years ago), but I really needed the encouragement. I tend to try my best to ignore diabetes. It’s an annoyance that I keep hoping will go away. The big deal about type 2 diabetes is to try to prevent complications from happening. It’s all about management. And balance. And I’m not alone in not liking to check my blood, to take my medicine, to exercise, to count carbs, etc. I don’t have to like it, but I do have to deal with it.

Past time to put the mitten quilt away, but thought I’d snap a couple pictures of it first. I made it up as I went along. Added the borders then squared it up, no binding. Random colors of Valdani pearl cotton hold it together. I think I traced my hand for the pattern and then made some a bit smaller. Folded pieces of paper and cut hearts. I really enjoy projects like this. Start with an idea, start whacking away, work with edges left raw, stitch with random colors and sizes of stitches, cut it off and square it off when it seems big enough. Not a completely original idea. I have a pumpkin quilt made in a similar manner from a book, but can’t think of the name of the book. They were going to be the first in a series of seasonal quilts. I think I was going to do kites for spring. Some day, I’ll make more. Maybe.

William Stevenson & Joseph Harold, aka Will & Joe (but in the photo they are Joe & Will, so much for posing in sibling order). When they come to my house they eat grilled cheese sandwiches. 2 each. No other main course allowed. I invested in a 22″ electric griddle just so I could more easily served up grilled cheese. It will also be serving up scrambled eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Scrambled eggs with no butter (I found out that preference the last time they stayed overnight and nobody would eat my eggs. Pancakes with syrup only, no butter. They are 8 and you still have to cut their pancakes for them. (I complain, but I’ll miss it when they can do everything for themselves, won’t I?)

Eating grilled cheese while watching Looney Tunes at a card table in Grandma’s living room. Yumm. I also let them use matches to light candles. Evidently they haven’t had much match lighting experience yet.

Colin Reed, age 2&1/2. I visited his family in March, but didn’t take many photos for some odd reason. And he didn’t want me to take his picture. Correct me if wrong, but this is his Little Einstein backpack. A corner of mommy’s face behind him. Now he has a broken collarbone. Awww. It’s healing fine, no cast. The blondest grandchild I have.