Starting over

It's time to start over on blogging. I do enjoy reading other people's blogs so it's only fair that I have a blog. I've been absent from this one since last June and lots has happened during that time interval.

During the summer months we concentrated on the landscaping in front of our house so that it would have "curb appeal" to potential buyers. It had been on the market for almost a year with only minimal interest. The biggest problem was that it was a large house on seven acres so that it was out of the financial reach of over 90 per cent of the adults in our county. That meant that it would have to be someone from out of the county. We kept making improvements on the house as we had to live there during that time. We added a new storm door, a screen door, a new water heater, and new laminate flooring. All things that really needed to be done whether we sold it or not.

In August we went to Missouri. While I was at a quilt retreat, Howard was visiting his neice and her family about 90 miles away. Unfortunately, the trip was cut short as he got a call that his uncle in NC had passed away. He picked me up on Saturday morning and off we went. We made a quick stop at home to unpack the car, repack the car, grab a couple of hours sleep and get back on the road. Home was almost exactly in the middle between the two locations and they were both about a 12 hour drive. We made it to Raleigh in time to clean up for the visitation at the funeral home. It was bittersweet. While it was a sad time, it was also good to see old friends from high school that he hadn't seen in over 20 or more years. We came home on Wednesday and both spent most of the next three days in bed sick with some kind of respiratory virus.

September we had a couple of good nibbles on the house but no offers so we were considering taking the house off the market in November so we could relax over the holidays and then putting it back on the market in the spring. Oh well, life is what happens while you are making other plans. The first week of October, we got a contract on the house and we had to start looking for a new house, fast. In five weeks, we accepted the contract, looked for a house, signed a contract on a new house, started moving things into a large storage unit in the new town, closed on both houses and moved on November 15. What a whirlwind. But, everything went pretty smoothly considering how fast it went. We were totally unprepared to move but we did it in a real hurry.

We love our new, smaller house, especially the smaller utility bills. One of these days we may have all of the boxes unpacked and things sorted out. But, downsizing is hard to do when you are going from 3,000 sq ft, a 40 x 80 ft barn, and two storage sheds, 16 x 32 and 12 x 16. Didn't have time to sort as we packed so we are having to do that now and it's taking time.

Also happening during all of this was Howard's nephew being hospitalized for drug abuse. He was found unconscious at least 3 times between June and the first of November. We thought he had been admitted to a program that would help him but we were wrong. On the last day of November, he overdosed for the last time. At the age of 36, he took too much and his heart stopped for good. He was such a talented young man but was so troubled with demons that no one knew about until it was too late for him. So, an unplanned trip to Florida interrupted the unpacking.

On a happier note, we went back to Missouri for Christmas and spent it with Howard's neice and her family. We had a great time. We took our two dogs, Jack and Daphne, with us. They were so well behaved and got along very well with their dogs. But, like August, we both came home sick with a repeat of the several days in bed with a respiratory virus.

Here it is, the middle of February and I wonder at how fast the time has gone. Howard has completely retired and has taken over the kitchen. As I've been cooking since I was in 7th grade, I'm not complaining at all. I have my sewing room in the bonus room over the garage. I have a real problem calling it a "studio". That just seems so pretensious to me when I'm not an art quilter. I make quilts for beds and occasionaly for a wall or table. I like to spend time there. I'm slowly getting it organized. I do miss all of the built in cabinets and book shelves I had in the old house, but I'm getting there. I have decided that I'm going to shop from my stash first when I want to make a quilt. Of course, I'm not going to ignore my LQS. After living 50 or more miles from the closest quit shop, it's heaven to have three here in town. The closest is only 5 miles away and is great. I'm going to try to finish up several of those UFO's living in those large Rubbermaid tubs and use up those scraps to make quilts for charity. There is so much need in the world right now with all of the disasters and making quilts is my way of helping someone who has lost everything.

I'm going to try to post photos of my progress with turning those UFO's into Finished Objects. I have several ideas of designs I want to try and new techniques I want to learn. I may have turned 70 last November, but the flame of learning is still burning bright. I want to learn something new everyday.

I will be away for the next two days as I have to make a trip to see a long time friend who is also my accountant and have my taxes done. While there, I will visit one of my children and several grandchildren and spend the night with a longtime quilting friend. I will try to post to this blog on a more regular basis, whether or not anyone else reads it but me.