Day 626

He picked a hobby.

After forever of trying to get hubby interested in something to keep him busy, he finally picked a hobby. It isn't like he had too much a choice in the matter. As the days were winding down for him to get back to work he was getting antsy. Or maybe it was bored. But now with him not being able to return until at least January he had to figure something out.

Cooking. 

He spent the majority of today in the kitchen. He made homemade pizza, cooked up chicken for tacos tomorrow, baked up more chicken for early in the week. Washed and chopped vegetables for my juice. A few times he asked about how to do certain things but for the most part he was on his own. 

I'm sure part of the reason he picked his own hobby was because he's getting tired of me dragging him into mine. He winds bobbins for me, he picked out buttons the other day, and now he's picked out the color combinations for the applique flower blocks. 

Day 625

I'm so mad at myself because of several missed opportunities for picture taking today. If I had snapped all the photos I considered, things would have been a bit more interesting (and varied). But I didn't and they aren't.

So another day of work in progress. More blocks and triangles and applique pieces for another wall quilt I had started years back.

Day 624

Hubby was too excited to sleep last night.

He had a meeting lined up with his principal for this afternoon to talk about school. He was going to make sure he got the elevator key and restroom key so that when everyone went away for Thanksgiving break next week he and I could get into his classroom and get things set up for his return the Monday after Thanksgiving.

He was excited to see staff, excited to get back to teaching, so excited to try out new jokes on the students.

But when we walked out of the kidney specialist's office this morning we didn't have a work release slip in our hands. We had a shall-not-return-to-work slip. All through the day he and I continued to use the same word.

Blindsided.

While we knew returning to work was going to require some accommodations, we didn't expect not returning was going to be an option. Kidneys still aren't there, but even more of a concern for the doctor is the high steroid dosage he's on. The doctor is super-concerned about the immune-system suppression hubby is experiencing right now. Being around other people - especially 170 kids a day (about how many kids he'd have in classes throughout the day), is dangerous to his health. Like being in a petri dish, the doctor said.

Hubby is disappointed, discouraged, defeated. It's for the best, but right now it's not feeling that way to him.

I did get him to laugh a bit today. We were stopping for milkshakes at Arctic Circle and the sign out front read No chocolate 99 cents. I went on and on about what kind of dessert it might be. Only when we got a bit closer did I realize I misread the sign.

While their sign might be a bit off, their shakes sure aren't.

Day 623

The sewing obsession continues.

As I was organizing the sewing room (one of those things I do when I feel yucky) I came across a box. A long-forgotten box. A box holding partially completed blocks I had sewed together. Blocks I had intended to use for a couple different wall quilts many years back. As I'm in the middle of projects (Alaska quilts sent, snowman quilt finished) it seemed as good a time as any to finish them up.

And thank goodness because working on these old projects has been enlightening. It takes seeing my old sewing work to realize how much better my sewing work is now. But how could it not? Just think of the hours and hours and quilts and quilts I have done. What a busy couple years I've had!

First top complete.

Day 622

I know things are bad, about as bad as they've ever been for me. How do I know? I can't even make it through a full day of work anymore. I struggle so much just to get there, only to find my fatigue, pain, and anxiety too high by afternoon to function. Only after coming home and taking  a long rest do I feel competent to get anything done. (Thank goodness I have a job that allows me time to work at home.)

I  know things are bad because every spare moment I have I hide out in my sewing room and keep the machine humming through projects. My snowman quilt is finished. I washed it up afterwards and now the quilting I did makes it look textured. 

I know things are bad because who in their right mind would spend days quilting thousands of far-from-perfect circles over the entire quilt? I wanted it to be like snow, but in hindsight I probably should have just quilted simple snowflakes.