Busy Days

Scrappy Nine-Patch Blocks

Sunday night, I couldn't fall asleep until past 6:00 a.m., then, I slept and woke up at 9:00 a.m. feeling wide awake!  I thought I might have a nap in the afternoon, but, I didn't!  I did a load of laundry and dusted the living room and parts of the dining room.  I couldn't dust the dining table because it was full of my fabric scraps!  Once the laundry and dusting was done, however, I was able to relax and spend the whole afternoon sewing!  I sewed all the 3.5 inch squares to make scrappy nine-patch blocks.  I made 24 blocks.  They are not enough for a quilt top, of course, but, I wanted to do some sewing as I was getting tired of just cutting out squares. 

Later in the evening, I cleaned the litter box, took all the trash cans to the curb for pick up in the morning, and watered the garden.  It was 8:00 p.m. by the time I finished watering and it was starting to get dark.  After I came inside, I chatted with friend R, cooked a dhal curry and warmed up a packet of frozen chicken curry to have for dinner, with rice, and zucchini.  Then, video chatted with my daughter.

I felt a little pensive on Monday, because it was one of those days that I call "anniversaries of the heart" - an anniversary of a day that is special to me for various reasons because something happened or I did something which changed the course of my life.  On those days, I tend to ponder, what would have happened if such and such an event didn't take place or if I had made different choices, etc.  Those questions don't have any answers, of course, because the said events did take place or I made the choices I made.  There is no going back from that point in time; there is only going forward.  I know that none of this makes any sense to anyone reading this, but, August is full of those life changing anniversaries of the heart for me - it was in August that I left my country of birth, back in 1973; it was in August that I arrived in the US, in 1974, it was in August that my daughter left home to do her graduate studies in 2014 and I became an "empty nester", it was in August 2015 that I had to have follow-up scans and a more focused mammogram when an earlier routine mammogram detected an abnormality, which led to the biopsy (in September) which confirmed the breast cancer, and resulted in the lumpectomy (in October) and chemo treatments (starting in December) and so on.  

I had no problems falling asleep on Monday night (well, it was Tuesday morning by the time I got to bed).  I brought the trash cans in and checked on Mama Cat in the morning, giving her more fresh water and dry cat food.  I moved the bowl closer to her hiding spot because she was not coming to eat by the front door any more and a possum was eating all her food!  I was wearing a long white skirt when I went outside and I didn't realize it at the time, but, a little unwelcomed guest had hitched a ride on my skirt!  I was seated on the sofa, when I noticed a black speck on my skirt.  I touched it thinking it was a bit of dirt, meaning to brush it off, and the black speck jumped!  Oh, no!  I pulled out the sheets I use on the sofas as dust sheets, did a load of laundry, covered the sofa with other sheets, and sprayed the sofa with flea spray!

In the afternoon, I replied to blog comments, read and commented on a few blogs, and ironed all the patchwork pieces I had sewn on Monday.  I also chatted on the phone with friend A, with Aunt C, and with neighbor T's daughter K who informed me that her mother has completed the number of days she's allowed to be in the convalescent home under Medicare and because she is not yet able to live at home on her own, she will be going to an assisted living facility, as of Wednesday.  K was mostly calling me to inform me that her brother, who lives out of state, will be visiting and staying at the house, just in case I notice his truck parked in the driveway and wondered who was living next door while T is away!  

In the evening, I checked on Mama Cat, again (she had enough water and food and didn't need any more), spent 10 minutes walking up and down the drive way, and brought in the mail.  This time, I checked my skirt before I came inside, brushed off whatever specks I could see, and immediately afterwards, took the skirt off (I was wearing a pair of shorts, under it) and rinsed it off at the bathroom sink and hung it up to drip dry in the bath tub!  M will be returning from his week of vacation on Wednesday and I will ask him to spray for fleas in the front yard, again!  

Later, I chatted with friend R and video chatted with my daughter.

Brunch was a salad (lettuce, carrots, sliced zucchini, part of an apple); dinner was rice, chicken curry, dhal, and zucchini chutney followed by the rest of the apple.  I snacked on some roasted peanuts when I had my cup of tea in the evening

I am grateful for:
- Working appliances
- Electricity to run them
- Flea spray!
- Chats with family and friends
- Having food to eat

My joyful activity was playing with fabric.  

Wednesday's To Do List:

- Have M set up the window a/c unit in my bedroom
- Have M spray the garden with flea spray
- Vacuum

Speaking of fabric, this is a photo of my scrap fabric stash from August 2015:

Scrap Stash August 2015

There's that green basket, again!  Filled to the brim!  And those stacks of small squares in the foreground when to make this quilt:

Nine Patch/Irish Chain Quilt

I wrote about it here.  The finished quilt was gifted to friend A's younger daughter.  The quality of the photo is not good because I used to take photos with my laptop as my old flip phone couldn't take pictures!  

So the question is, am I going to make another Irish chain quilt with my current nine-patch blocks?  We'll have to wait and see, won't we?

Hope you have a lovely day on Wednesday!

Edited to change the date my daughter left home to 2014, not 2914!