I've been a busy girl and not taking time to compose my thoughts for posting. Between work at the store, work at the hospital, 4-day quilt retreat, long-arm quilting, and once in awhile managing the recliner and remote, I have been stretched. Good news is I enjoy it all, well almost all, the 2 shifts in ICU have been at the bottom of the list!
My very part-time job in the Neuro/Trauma ICU has been a challenge, to put it nicely. My shifts there are almost always very busy, I can fill 12 hours up very easily with taking care of my 1 or 2 patients. Add on top of that a change in everything I have done for the last 30 or so years, and it gets complicated. Our hospital converted to an electronic medical record on April 1 (no joke here). Now, I am no stranger to a computer, as evidenced by the fact that you are reading this, and I am not afraid to try new things. And I had 3 8-hour classes on the new system, which seems like it should be more than adequate. But when faced with integrating this total change into my normally fully occupied day, it was very discouraging. I know it is a very good system, and totally what needs to be done, and something I have looked forward to because Bob has been working on portions of it for 3 years. But when I found myself in tears after my first shift I was pretty worried about my ability to succeed. However, yesterday's shift was an improvement (i.e., no tears) and I did indeed sign up for 2 more!
Last weekend we (Stitchin' Trips) hosted a 4 day quilting retreat at Lutherpoint for our quilting group, the Ham Lake Piecemakers. It is located near Siren, WI, about 60 or so miles from here. Our group totalled 27 happy women, brimming with creativity and enthusiasm and friendship. Some beautiful items resulted from our time away, everything from tote bags to garments to art quilts to embroidery to knitting to quilts large and small.
I have been working to rearrange my schedule and committments to allow more time for my quilting, and I am looking at several quilt tops that are lined up for me to work on. I am thrilled that I have friends that are trusting me with their quilts, and I am going directly from this keyboard to my machine, Emma, to complete my own project and start on the next. Today is a day off from all my other jobs, so I have some quality time. Hope you have the same!
