Sunday, April 12, 2020

Wait, what?

I haven't posted since we, the world, have discovered this new virus is invading.

It's the Corona Virus also known as Covid-19. I don't need to explain or elaborate here what it is or how it's affecting me, my family or anyone else (we all know). I will make at least one Project Life page about it for my future generations and I do want to express my feelings.

It's scary.
  • Scary in the way it's made social distancing a common phrase. 
  • Scary that our nation, the U.S. is so unprepared that we don't really know when we'll be able to get back to some kind of normalcy. 
  • Scary in how unprepared the U.S. is by not having enough tests, positive or antibody. 
  • Scary in how unprepared we are by not having enough PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for the medical personnel. 
  • Scary that our president is using his daily briefings as a platform for the upcoming election in November. 
It's sad.
  • Sad because of the quarantine, there are so many kids stuck at home with no food, have abusive parents, friends and family and their only safe place was school.   
  • Sad for the people who have no food and have an abusive spouse but their only safe place was work. I pray they call a hotline.
  • Sad but also enlightening as to the atrociousness this president has in him to constantly berate, embarrass and harass the news media. It's awful to watch so we don't anymore. 
I'm blessed that I'm not alone at this time. Paul and I play games, watch a lot of tv, we're doing a puzzle together (that freaking thing!) and we get to FaceTime with Ellie almost every day. I truly am grateful to live in such a technological era where FaceTime and the internet including Facebook and especially Instagram are a huge part of my life. I'm also knitting and reading.

So let's move on...
HAPPY EASTER!!
It's a strange Easter that's for sure. We don't have a basket. We don't have a ham. We didn't color eggs. But we did FaceTime with Miss Ellie this morning and we woke up healthy and HAPPY. So I'm grateful and blessed (as I say so frequently here).

 Elliott is now crawling and has 2 teeth!! She can stand really well and has started pushing her little cart all around.


For the last couple of weeks I've been making masks. I contacted my doctors' wife, Kay, and I asked her if she could find out whether or not cloth masks are okay. At the time (a couple weeks ago), I was wearing a disposable mask everywhere I went (I had a box from last year when I was sick but had to go into the office), but the CDC and Dr. Fauci were saying it won't prevent you from getting Corona Virus etc. Come to find out, and this is just my opinion, they didn't want people to run out and buy up all the masks because WE'RE so short on equipment for the healthcare peeps, that they didn't want us to hoard them all. Which is understandable since so many idiots in our country hoard toilet paper and sanitizer it's ridiculous!! But she asked the head of the hospital and it was a resounding YES! So, the hospital was giving out pre-cut fabric and instructions to anyone who would make masks for them. They can use them for the workers not in direct contact with the Covid-19 patients, those people wear the N95 masks.
Anyway...the material they sent was cut wrong 😖. They had the patterned material on the inside AND they ran out of elastic..the whole world has run out of elastic. I called my local Joann's and they had some. When I went to purchase the lady said she just sold it - 64 YARDS OF IT!!! I thought that was a bit selfish. So the hospital sent the extra cut material expecting me to use it to cut long strips to make ties with. Well, 2" x 42" per mask and there's 10 masks? Not with this arthritis. So I bought shoelaces and went with those. Here's some of the hospital masks I made with leftover material I had...
I had a bit of bias tape I used on a couple of the masks. 


So after I made the masks for the hospital using of the pattern they wanted, I found my sister in law, Sue, had this pattern that made so much more sense! It's made exactly like the disposal ones I had been wearing. Much more comfortable and easier to make.
Since elastic is so scarce I was able to use the elastic from the disposables along with the little nose wire for a perfect fit.





I made these for Jenn, Dan and Elliott (although we know Elliott won't wear it, it's cute!)



We drove out to meet Jenn half way to give them Elliot's birthday gifts and for me to get my Cricut back (I lent it to Jenn). We did keep our 6' distance from each other but it tore me apart not to be able to hold, cuddle and kiss Elliott! My heart aches to hold her. I keep telling myself, SOON!

I like that it covers my double chin. WIN!


I ordered something from Target online and this was the first time I'd actually been to a shopping center. Pretty sad but thrilled that Governor DeWine gave the "stay at home" order so early compared to other states.

About a week ago, we had a terrible storm come through. It rained and rained. Paul was talking to his dad and mentioned to him to not forget to check his basement for flooding. We didn't even think about ours! Needless to say, our beautiful basement flooded. Apparently, the switch to our sump pump quit. We had our plumber out and he replaced the sump pump with 2 sump pumps, along with a battery back up and they also come with an app that can alert us.

I felt so very sorry for Paul. He had to remove ALL the carpet and padding by himself. He would carry chunks of the padding upstairs in those large, clear plastic tubs. I could see a few inches of water in them and knew they had to be super heavy. It was all so horrible.


Our first glimpse






Trying to get the pad to dry before taking it to the dumpster. I do have to say, our insurance, State Farm, didn't pay for ANY of it. I'm thinking of looking into Farmers. Paul for some reason feels an obligation to our insurance agent, like he's family or something..he's not.


This is going to be super FUN!!

I finished December 2018 Project Life. A lot happened that Christmas so I have quite a few pages...











This is so strange. I got an email from the nail salon I go to. They were giving out kits for people who had gel nails as a way to help them remove them. I haven't had mine off for years! Anyway, I took them off yesterday and so far they're okay. I've been babying them with frankincense essential oil and hand cream.



Well, I've babbled enough. I hope you have a nice Easter. It will be different as most churches are holding services on the internet and families won't be gathering for Easter dinner. But think about how blessed we are!

As always...