The last one (priorities) was put in to keep the alliteration, though I suppose coming back to this place is a priority after the craziness that is happening around me.
I realize that my heart is spread thin these days, and often I forget to look and see how *I* am doing, so I'm hoping that posting will help bring my focus back to me, which is a healthy thing to do, as Al Anon teaches me.
Since the pandemic came on in March/April, Steve, Michael, and I have been staying home and quarantining A LOT. We occasionally visit with the kids and grandkids out on the front porch/lawn while wearing masks and staying 6 feet apart. Steve and I are trying to stay safe for ourselves of course, but especially for Michael.
We zoom a lot these days.
At the beginning of COVID-19 after EfM- August during Zoom Church-
Steve is working from home, which wasn't really all that new. He'd had projects that required a lot of time, so rather than commute he often worked from home before the quarantine happened. Now that he is home more than ever, he has put a desk in Ashton's old room (which had become the storage room) so that he can be away and alone sometimes.
I have been sewing. A LOT. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was a nut job. My anxiety had spiked so high that I had a hard time functioning. Distraction was the first thing I did - lots and lots and lots of tv and movies have been watched. And then, of course I had to make masks, and the funniest thing happened while I was sewing ... it calmed my nerves. Even picking out stitches was soothing, which is very odd, since picking out stitches always made me super frustrated in the past.
Thin elastic could not be found b/c people were sewing masks like crazy for themselves and for health care workers b/c there was a shortage of masks for a while. Since there was only some round elastic in my mom's sewing cabinet that I inherited, and since round elastic is hard to sew on, I opted for ties. I made Ashton, Austen, Preston, Matthew, and Steve tie masks and kept the one elastic mask for myself.
A week or so ago, Michael went outside to visit with Josh, Hayley, and the kids, and again with Amber and the kids and I was so impressed that he kept his mask on the whole time they were here!
So... I gave him my mask and made myself a new one (reversible) with some 1/4" elastic that I found at JoAnn's a couple of months ago - the thicker elastic makes my ears poke out a bit, so I intend to hand stitch some round elastic on instead.
Quilts! --
You probably know that I had a goal to make a quilt for every grandbaby when they were born. Well, I have 11 grandchildren and only one of them have a quilt.
Since I discovered that sewing was therapeutic for me, I started sewing grandkid quilts, too!
Now, five tops are finished and three quilts are tied and bound. I'm making progress!
School! --
School started for Miah, Teryn, and Mercedes - Aiden and Bentley will start once they are officially moved into their new (to them) home.
Here are pictures of M,T, & M on their first day of school -
This year, I bought each of them a back to school shirt like I have done for years, but this time I shopped and shipped from Amazon.
Okay, one more thing and I'll end this post -
I cut my own hair now! I'm looking forward to the day when I don't have to, and I can sit in Cami's chair and chat while she does the work and has the stress, but when my hair got this long, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
After watching several youtube videos and buying hair cutting scissors and thinners, I broke down and cut it myself.
Not terrible, in fact, pretty darn good! The second cut was even shorter, because I'd gotten some courage since the first time went well - I don't know that I'll use clippers on the side again, because it is pretty darn short! But I am enjoying the ease of caring for it!
Okay, so that's it for today. Life is going on in a very different way than usual, but it is still going on.
♥ Melody
