keeping afloat

There are days when I don't feel like much gets accomplished from my never-ending mental list of what I would "like" to get done.  Days when it feels like I am only treading water to keep from going under.  That often gives me a feeling of frustration, unless I stop to remember that much of that to-do list is self-imposed. 

Today was a day when I feel like some good things got done, not necessarily the things I "want" to do, but still needing to be done.  We try to keep on top of things for maintenance and upkeep of the house, and that means keeping it neat and clean.  So today the floors got washed and the bathroom shower got scrubbed.  Library books were returned and checked out, groceries were purchased.  Nothing earth-shaking, to be sure, but examples of those non-glamourous tasks that make the world go round.  We value our home and belongings, and feel lucky that we are in the spot we are in.  And happy to have some spare time for our pleasure and entertainment.

I have spent a lot of time over the past 5 days in hospital halls and rooms.  My husband, Bob, needed to have some back surgery, a first for us.  Now, one would think that since we are both RN's, that we would be in a good spot to go through an experience like that.  Indeed, we probably managed the process better than many.  But it still kind of knocked us off-center, and now we are trying to regain our equilibrium.  Things are overall good, with no complications and good people that helped us all along the way.  Now it's a matter of managing the pain and discomfort and limitations to mobility.  He has to wear this hard molded brace that covers his back and abdomen whenever he is not laying down.  This makes it really challenging to do many little things that we take for granted--putting on socks (he's not going to wear socks for 3 months), sitting down (he's using a straight backed dining room chair), take a shower (he wears the brace even in the shower and we now have a grab bar and stool) and the list goes on.  We keep reminding ourselves that this is temporary!

So I don't have much to show for wonderful projects completed!  So here is what I have been dabbling in:

Clamshells (2" across) using paper templates and sewn by hand.  Slowly.

A new quilt pattern for the Quilt MN fabric.  Most of the sewing is done.

Cutting and sewing blocks from a group of Denyse Schmidt fabric.

The Denyse Schmidt blocks will make this quilt.

Cutting out pieces for 4 sizes of fabric "buckets" using the pattern by Atkinson Designs.

So that pretty much sums it up for now.  I definitely need a few sewing days!