Life in the Slow Lane

I guess that when you’re retired and are in the middle of suffering through a pandemic with the rest of the world, there’s no shame in admitting that one’s life is not exciting and eventful. We don’t have to get up and go to work (thankfully), nor do we have to worry about kids in school (although there is concern for the grandkids). We don’t have to travel, although we’d like to. But we’re not until things are safe again. So what does that leave? Errands - appointments, grocery shopping, and occasional “gotta-do’s”. The highlight of our week this past week was when Bruce got a new prosthetic attachment for his arm that allows him to hold a guitar pick and play his guitar or banjo. Honestly, I never thought I’d be so grateful to hear a banjo! We don’t have pictures yet , but we’ll take some. First, though, he is just modifying the end of the attachment so the pick-holder part is a little longer and doesn’t necessitate the use of so much shoulder action. 

A meme I found online says it all for us about 2020. If you’re offended, sorry/not sorry.

Also this week I did a lot of batch cooking because the fall nesting instinct hit hard. Over two mornings I made chicken tortilla casserole (enough for 4 meals), beef enchiladas (2 meals), chili (4 meals), baked apples (a panful of of those for a week of guilt-free evening snacking), minestrone soup (4 meals) and chicken tortilla soup (4 meals). I’ll do lasagna in a big IKEA roasting pan (makes 6 meals for us) this weekend, but the rest of the soups I’d planned (white chicken chili and split pea with ham) will have to wait until we free up some containers. That’ll probably be after Thanksgiving, when I’ll likely be doing some leftover turkey batch cooking. The truth is I’m a lazy cook. I like having meals on hand so that meal prep is often nothing more than popping something in the microwave. That leaves me more time to do something else.

My "something else" this week was to sew. I’m nearing the end of my regular Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for our Yellow October. Today I’m linking up, as usual, to Scrappy Saturday.

First I worked on getting some yellow International Sister blocks made. This first one was sent to me by my friend Preeti, the pattern originator. She had a gray background to it, which we both agreed didn’t work. So I picked it apart and inserted my usual Kona Snow.

Then I sewed up three Sisters from some of the African fabric I brought back a couple years ago from Kenya. These blocks will go into some of the Harambe Humanitarian fundraising wall hangings I’m making.

Then, because I have so many yellow and gold scraps, I sewed three more Sisters.

Here are all seven yellow Sisters together. I’m getting antsy to get all these sisters sewn together. I’m planning to spend some time early next quarter to just buckle down and get several of the wall hangings assembled in one huge push. 

Then I began working on my final RSC monthly project, the “Creature quilt” in yellow scraps, chunks and orphan blocks. This is where it stands for now.  Since I took the picture, I’ve actually sewn all the sections together and trimmed it. The bold yellow and black print scraps were sent to me by dear Nann, so they influenced the choice of black as the accent color. 

The name of the quilt was going to be Creature From the Golden Galaxy, but the black stripes and general colors really call for an apiary-themed name. Golden Hive? Golden Skep? Bumbling Creature With the Golden Honey? Yes, I know; I’m over-thinking it, especially since it’ll just be a donation quilt for Quilts for Kids. But ideas are welcomed! 

I also finished the flimsy of a Christmas panel quilt for my brother. The flimsy measures about 56x66”, a good size for a lap quilt for my brother, who is short. The backing is pieced, so it just needs to be basted, quilted and bound. That should happen this week before month-end, just like the yellow Creature quilt.

And I think that just about wraps it up for me this week. The furniture moving last weekend went well, and we were able to get all the old stuff donated and hauled away. For the coming week, Bruce has no appointments with the occupational therapist or the prosthetist. That means I don’t have to drive anywhere and will instead concentrate - maybe - on shampooing carpets. We have three rooms I want to do - two bedrooms and my studio, which is about the size of two bedrooms. Since we do have our own carpet cleaner, I can take it one room at a time at my own pace. But, like the batch cooking, I have to psych myself up to do it. So it may or may not happen this week.