my heart is broken....

On the morning of September 16th my brother called from Connecticut to tell me that my mother who had gone into the hospital earlier in the week had gone into cardiac arrest.  While trying to rush to be at her side and only making it as far as Chicago, I received a second call that she had passed away.

 I. miss. my. mom.



summer in seven

Seven photos that for us will be reminders of the summer that was 2011....

the odds of breaking your arm while trying to do your first cartwheel?

                                                              

note to self: do not trust children who tell you that they have collected

ALL of the eggs from the chicken coop.  By now I should be on to their

shenanigans!!!!!

note to self:  NO ONE needs 21 tomato plants in their garden!!!

The discovery that drying dishes feels less like work when using cute towels.

What's wrong with this picture?

It helps to know that we planted a packet of WHITE pumpkin seeds in

our garden this spring.  Not only is this pumpkin orange but it's on it's way

to becoming a carriage....36" around and it's only August.

In June, I gathered a bag full of fabrics to donate to a local charity.  Many of the fabrics were

left over scraps from the years that my mother and I made dolls and date back 15-25 years.

Some were fabrics that I couldn't recall why I'd bought them and wanted them to go away.

 Together they sang out to me and somewhere between the basement and the car I decided to piece them together into a scrap quilt that I could take with me when we went camping this summer.

Mission accomplished...my quilt was far easier to dry than a sleeping bag after it ended up raining

on the tent for five days!!! 

Three weeks of military academy boarding camp (the little guy on the far left is mine)

and a request from him that he be apply for admission to enter this

particular military boarding academy in the fall of 2012.... 

which means... this will be our last year schooling here at home...

oh, the adventures that are waiting to unfold themselves before us.

so I've been....

knitting, knitting, knitting!!!!  Early this spring I took on a bit of contract knitting and have been doing lots of sock knitting.  This week I needed a break from working with thin sock needles and I picked up a bit of cotton and much larger needles to work on this towel.  The work is flying off the needles and I should have a new towel to dry the dishes with tonight.



I am almost ready to put the knitting away and switch over to crochet. Each of the last two summers I've worked on crochet projects and it seems to have become a bit of the rythm of the seasons.  It just doesn't feel "right" to crochet unless the days are hot and humid. And sock knitting in the summer....what's the point? These little squares are stitched up and will be joined to a backing to make a cushion. 



The children asked for an additional coop so that they could separate out the broody hen and have a coop to raise the chicks in.  Working together they completly assembled this little coop one their own.  A week later the eggs hatched and we've added four chicks to the excitement of our days.





I've spent hours working in my garden this spring.  I have a couple of special projects in the garden this year.   I'll share more about those later this summer.  I'm crossing my fingers that they are a success.  As of 7:00 pm last night I declared the garden officially weed free...who am I kidding...I'm sure that by the time I got to the other end that weeds were already sprouting.  It's a love hate relationship but all the hard work is quickly forgotten when sitting down to a homegrown salad.



The only thing missing are the tomatoes!

love is ....

Happy Valentine's Day!

two prize boxes are better than one....

my children each wanted to have a turn

pulling a winning name from the bucket...

so what's a mom to do...

quick thinking and  a bit of dividing the names into

woolies and cottony entries and a winner

was drawing from each category...

the cottony stitchy prize box will be heading out to...

Malbergs



and the wooly knitty prize box will wing it's way off to...

Carolyn 

thanks to everyone who stopped by to leave a comment.

a reason to celebrate!!!

yipppeee!!!!!

Last Friday we made the trip into our doctor's office for

what we found out was to be our last shot in our rabies series.....

which means that I need to draw a name for my little give

away....you have until this Friday to leave you name and a

good link to you or your email address and if your choice

of a prize box would be something wooly for knitting or spinning

or something quilty and stitchy....BUT...you need to

leave your comment on the original post.....any

comments left here will not be included in Friday's giveaway.

thanks for stopping by...

let's play a game....it could save a life

If a person is sleeping in a room and awakes to discover a bat....what do you do?

I'm not going to make you do research or join as a follower.

The point is I want you to be able to make an educated decision

if you find yourself in the medical urgency that we found

ourselves in this past week.

So here's the answer....if you or someone you know awakes or discovers a bat in a sleeping area......

Assume they have been bitten and seek medical attention.  While only 1% of the bat population carries rabies...a person can be bitten or scratched by an infected animal while sleeping and be totally unaware that a bite or scratch occurred.  What you need to know is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO CURE FOR RABIES!!!!! 

How did we come to share this information with you?  Last Wednesday night we discovered a bat in our home....it was clinging  from a rafter in my bedroom ceiling which is part of the open area of the main living area of our log cabin.  We know that an outside door was left open for a quite a long time on Tuesday evening and the bat may have been in the house for at least 24 hours.  We tried to open the doors and windows but the bat was last seen flying up into the rafters and stone work of our fireplace.   That night we thoroughly searched the two bedrooms with doors and hunkered down to sleep there for the evening.  I tossed and turned while something that I remembered reading on a blog a long time ago swirled in my head...

I recalled reading  something about finding a bat in a bedroom and needing to seek medical treatment.

Thursday morning  I got on line and started looking for information regarding bats and what should be done if you find one in a room where someone has been sleeping.  We learned more about rabies and the number of people worldwide who die from it every year than we ever expected to learn.  But what we didn't know is that there is absolutely no cure for rabies.  Once you exhibit symptoms there is no treatment.  Because we don't have the bat....we can't send it to be tested to see if the animal is a carrier of rabies.  Knowing that information would have given us an option of starting treatment if the bat was infected with rabies....but without it there was only one decision to make...and because the bat was found in the main sleeping and living area of our cabin....and because the children sometimes leave their rooms to use the bathroom and return to their beds without closing their doors....we had no choice but to seek medical treatment for their safety as well.

After contacting the local and state health departments we were advised to seek immediate medical treatment for possible exposure to rabies.  Friday we spent five hours in the emergency room of our nearby hospital.  We were each thoroughly examined for bite wounds or scratches and while all of us appear not to have any visible bites...bat bites can be difficult to detect.  Which leaves us to the ouchy part.....we each received injections to protect us from developing rabies.  Hubby and I received one injection in the arm....two in the bottom...and one on each thigh....FIVE shots each....OUCH!!!!

Here's the hard part....both of my children each received an injection in their arm and one on each thigh....sweet babies...OUCH... THREE shots each....my heart ached when I knew what needed to be done to keep them safe.  Their tear stained faces after there injections made my soul ache and what I wouldn't have given to make the whole situation disappear.

And it's not over....for post-exposure non-bite rabies treatment the injections continue on days 3, 7 and 14 for one additional injection each. 

If you've read this far and are still here....hopefully this little bit of information will weave it's way into your being and if you or someone you know finds them in this situation you will be able to recall it.  I will tell you to skip calling your primary care physicians....ours was clueless when it came to answering questions regarding the treatment of rabies.  It is a medical URGENCY...no typo....and you should seek medical attention at an EMERGENCY room.  They were the only treatment facility that carried the injections we needed. 

If you're still here and want a chance to win my giveaway....leave your name and a contact email in the comments and tell me if you'd like a prize box full of wooly fun for knitting and spinning........or a prize box full  of quilty cottony stitchy things.

Either way... on my last day of treatment (today is day 2) I will pull a name from all of the comments and send off a box full of happy things.