Real Life...

When I last wrote, I shared the knitted cotton dishcloth tutorial, which you can find HERE.

Last week, my main goal was to make medical masks to donate to the staff of a nursing home and rehab facility where a family member works. It was slow going at first because I am a perfectionist when it comes to sewing. But I had to learn this past week to switch from artisan to maker…and do my best to get the job done quickly. My friend, Nichole, who was also making masks to donate, reminded me that what we are making will be used only a short time—possibly some will even be used once. And so, I sewed them as quickly as I could. Changing from fabric ties to elastic and making them without a filter pocket also made the process go faster. Because there is already so much information available online, I am not planning to write a post about the pattern or make a tutorial. Instead, if you are interested in making some masks, please refer to a friend’s website. A Well-Purposed Woman shares how to make the style of mask without a filter pocket and made with elastic.

I had started making the masks with fabric ties because I didn’t have elastic on hand. But my mom said that she had a supply of elastic that she was willing to let me use for the cause. I asked her to put it in a bag out on her front porch so that we wouldn’t have to go inside. Ryan took the girls over one evening to pick it up for me. Mom also told me to send a container with Ellie so that she could pick as many daffodils from the front yard as she wanted. It has been lovely this spring to have bouquets of fresh daffodils from her yard and our yard gathered by the handfuls by my girls. When we moved from our previous home a year ago, I was sad to leave behind the blooming daffodils from the bulbs that my parents had given me for my birthday. But this year, I have been so thankful for the blooming flowers at our new house and the gift of flowers sent home from my parents’ yard. It is great to have enough flowers to place bouquets in various rooms throughout the house. Here is a small bouquet that I put into the girls’ bathroom.

Last week also included stress cleaning and holding my little one, who seemed to need me more than normal.

On Thursday night, I hosted my first Zoom call meeting of the virtual knitting club that I started in response to the current social distancing. Sitting in the corner of my living room, I chatted with the other participant who joined the meeting as we knitted! She is a friend in real life, and we wondered why we hadn’t gotten together previously—before we had to talk through a computer! But it was a lot of fun, and we’ll be doing it again this Thursday at 8:30 p.m. if you care to join us! The Zoom call link is posted weekly in the Facebook group: Hearthside Comforts: Come Stitch with Me. At this point, I have three more free sessions scheduled.

On Saturday, we made another trip to my parents’ farm to buy organic meat and eggs from my youngest brother’s farm store, which is located on the family farm. It’s great to buy locally-grown food directly from the source!

We live at the base of the mountain pictured in the background.

Last night, we had a yummy wilted spinach salad made from the spinach that I picked from my parents’ winter garden.

While we were there, I also took pictures of the garden spot that we will be using this year to grow food. When I last wrote about gardening this summer in this blog post, I asked for advice for container gardening because at that time, that was the plan. But soon after I wrote that post, we were offered the use of my parents’ garden! Yesterday, we went to get some seeds in the ground, and I will be sharing about that in my next post…