There’s nothing like planning a housewarming party to motivate you to get your house in good order. And when the party is TOMORROW, it’s all hands on deck! Gary and I arrived in the morning with fresh bagels and joined daughter Lara (whose party it is) and DIL Abigail (who was able to fly in for the weekend!) in getting the house party-ready! There were boxes to empty, dusting to do, floors to vacuum, and some mac and cheese to make! One of the most enjoyable chores of the day was helping to put together some of the decorative items in the living room.
Abigail has a wonderful eye for arranging items on the wall, and then we had the great fun of opening up all the treasures Lara had carefully wrapped as they were transported to their new home.
Such a collection! Many of those items came from the home where we raised our kids (especially all those little shoes/boots – I had quite a collection!), so it was like a sweet walk down memory lane. Before too long, the shelves were hung and then filled!
One final vacuum, one last furniture placement, and voila –
A cozy living room emerges!
The Mac & Cheese is ready for the oven tomorrow, and almost all of the boxes have been emptied. This house is just about ready for it’s official ‘opening’! To add to the delight of the day, my niece and family from Michigan arrived just in time for some delicious Chinese take-out!
It was a busy, productive day. But we were working alongside precious family members, so it was all good. It was all Very, Very Good.
…But man, am I ready for bed!
Tag Archives: Helping
Tweaking the Mask
Do you ever find a recipe that sounds good but you don’t have all the ingredients? And then you look for several more recipes for the same dish and mish-mash them together to get something that works for you? Not that I’m doing much follow-the-recipe cooking these days, but when I did, this was a fairly common procedure for me. I’ve found that I’m doing the same thing with my mask ‘production’.
When Dr. Mike, my doctor nephew, first asked for masks, his preferred style was the fitted type. He sent a link to a pattern, and I did (mostly) follow those directions. There was a brief pause after that batch, and then a couple of weeks ago he let me know that once again they were in need of masks. But this time, he sent a link for the pleated type with a pocket for a filter to be inserted. Inside I was saying “yippee†because they had to be less fiddly than those fitted ones. There were lots of things I liked about that pattern, but after I Continue reading Tweaking the Mask
Doing what we can
These are crazy days, aren’t they? For us the disruption in our routine is fairly simple. We are parked in an isolated area in our little house and with only the two of us to feed, even our trips to the supermarket are few and far between. Given our age we are in that ‘vunerable’ demographic, and Gary’s asthma puts him at even a higher risk, so we really are taking this seriously. While we do not despair of these things, we long to be able to help in some way. Since we have no community ties (and will be changing communities soon anyway) it’s been hard to find a way to plug in and be a help and encouragement to others. So when my doctor nephew said that the family practice where he works was running low on face masks, I jumped at the opportunity to help!
(Yes, he is plenty old enough to be a doctor!)
The cutting board and sewing machine came out, and the production began!
Although I had plenty of fabric (must’ve been saving it all for times such as these!), I did run out out of elastic for the straps. Thankfully, back in PA, my sister scored 40+ yards at her local dry goods store. I also had a pretty sorry collection of twist ties to use for the nose-shaper-thing, but a sweet SOWER neighbor had a great supply of brand new ones!
Aren’t they beautiful???
After a couple of prototypes I settled on a style/technique,
and got to work!
By the time I had to put the sewing machine away to prepare for our move, I had a sweet stack of 25 –
Elastic ready, reversible and reusable. They are on their way to Pennsylvania for their last bit of assembly (where needed), and then on to the doctor’s office for use.
I know it’s just a drop in the bucket, but still and all I’m honored to be able to contribute in some way, regardless of how small!