Everyday life while convalescing...

 

Well, February is almost over, and this week I played around with my Makers Journal, adding two new pages to show some of what has been made this month. 

Charlie David's "Misselthwaite Mitts" were completed and he wears them every day, even in our ghastly hot and humid summer. He sends me voice messages every few days to tell me he loves me, and as all Nanas know, that precious grandson melts my heart. 

He loves sunrise and sunsets, so this yarn was perfect. They only took me two days to complete, and as they are small I chose to knit on small double pointed needles instead of my long stainless steel ones. To avoid losing stitches or stabbing myself, these very cute little elephant needle toppers were employed.

I always make a few batches of plum jam during February and March each year, and last week the first batch were ready.

I'll plan another batch in a few weeks, as for now I must stay close to the couch. Pots of herbal tea, made with herbs from the garden which I dried last year (ginger, tulsi, mint) and some I purchased online (rosehip and willowbark), are very soothing during this newly extended period of convalescense as I knit and hand sew...

Our Kelly-dog just turned two, and is definitely no longer a pup. He's a sleeper, a snoozer, a fellow who just loves to watch and rest, especially at the front window. Our entire road is being ripped up and new pipes laid, so out front we have trenches 8 feet deep by 8 feet wide and 20 feet long, right across the front of our house (and the neighbours homes too) and it's a bit of a minefield for hubby to get in and out with the car each day, especially as this is the wet season. We have no drains right now and watching those trenches fill up and flow over with mud and down our driveway is not easy. But, many months from now this will all be complete and life on our road can return to normal. 

Kelly-dog loves to watch the workmen and machinery from the front window, resting his long dachshund head on the sill...and then promptly falls asleep and snores. It's the funniest thing! 

It's been two weeks since my last blog post, and I wasn't sure if I'd even blog this week - not because I didn't want to, but because I've had more tests on my knee recently, and the level of pain increased to such a point that sitting at my desk to use the computer wasn't easy. In fact, the key to my recovery now, given the latest results which show a new problem inside two of my bones, is to rest for quite a few months. I must avoid as much weight bearing as possible, and be rather strict with myself if I am to ever recover and get back to 'normal' activities. 

This means no gardening, no using a sewing machine (due to the sitting, and the foot pedal pressure), no driving (haven't driven for about six weeks already), and now not even sitting as a passenger in the car as this causes more pain than I can handle these days - and many other must-not-dos for around six months.

Last week in the early morn, after a few days of feeling quite sorry for myself (though some of that was from the constant lack of sleep and painkillers not working) I cried out again to God for help in coping with the constant pain, physical limitations, inability to ever leave the house, and the 'aloneness' (not loneliness) of life when my husband is at work six days a week...when I heard a kookaburra laughing nearby.

You know they are my favourite bird. They bring me so much joy whenever they visit, but their visits are rare now since the huge poincianna in our yard split twice last year, and is no more. They would often rest in the tree, and sing their laughing chorus as I hung the washing on the line...oh how I've missed that in the past year. Yet last week, one returned and sat on that clothesline, singing it's laughing song. I stood outside under the elder tree and we watched each other for a good ten minutes. I was praying and giving thanks to God for it's visit, when I sensed deep within me these words from the Lord - "I see you, I hear you, I am with you." Hubby came out and I cried on his shoulder, tears of joy for the comfort received from my Father in Heaven.

I turned to go and get my camera, when it flew from the clothesline to the fence and posed for a photo.

My outlook changed right then and there. Yes, this is a difficult time, but it's not as bad as many others experience, and hopefully healing will occur eventually. Accepting a lot of extra help from my husband has been a lesson in humility I'd rather not learn again, so I will be a jolly good student this time round. Having always been the one to care and tend for our home while he works long hours, and making sure he returns home each evening to a space that is calm and beautiful and welcoming, this season of life has turned things around in many ways - but let us not forget, a welcoming home, a sanctuary, is more about the attitude of those who dwell within, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in every corner. 

So I have slowed a lot, with intention, and surrender to my current disability. In fact, it occurred to me that sewing can still be done, but it will be by substituting the sewing machine with my very own nimble fingers. Which is what I did yesterday with my 2026 Adventure UFO project for February. 

At the weekend I stitched the gusset of the pincushion with a row of cross-stitches and running stitch, in the same thread colours I used in the top.

The round top and bottom, plus the gusset, were all backed with Parlan, so hand sewing them all together was a bit on the bulky side...

I used a lot of pins to secure the top and gusset together, but then decided to baste the two sections together instead and remove the pins before properly hand stitching the seams. The main reason for this was the mess made when some of those pins took aim at my fingers...

Fortunately, the blood was on the wrong side of the fabric, apart from one teeny tiny spot amidst the applique. 

Once it was all sewn and stuffed, I added cross stitches around the top edge. It turned out to be a wonderful little pin cushion and I'm so glad to have persevered and completed it all by hand. 

Tomorrow I shall display it in photos on a new page in my Makers Journal, and that will probably be my final finish for February. 

It was my 67th birthday on Saturday and hubby very carefully drove us over to Blossom's so the children could give me a party, bless them. 

I am excited about the future, and not because I'm focused on healing, but because this life is temporary, and I know what is yet to come far exceeds what is behind. There was a time when we were homeschooling and the kids use to talk about all the things they'd like to achieve one day, but you know how they'd say it?  "If Jesus hasn't come back yet, I want to..." We taught them from birth to number their days, and now Blossom teaches her own children to expect the second coming of Jesus one day.

My Nana always said "Lord willing we shall..." which made me aware of God's sovereignty over all things, and having grown up with that in my mind these past 67 years, even before giving my life to Christ in 1991, there is a realisation now of how much closer I am to seeing Him than ever before, and I am excited. 

When He returns on the clouds of heaven with the loudest trumpet blast the earth has ever known, and all the angels, I hope to see Him in all His glory - no matter whether I am alive still, or sleeping in the grave - I pray that I'll be with those who are lifted up into the air to meet Him and be with Him forevermore. May that be your hope too. 

In the meantime, I shall make it my intention to lead a quiet life, to mind my own business, and work with my hands, just as the Bible instructs us. Funny how this has become so relevent to my current season of life. I have always tried to live this way, but now it has taken on a deeper meaning. God's life lessons never grow old... :-)

Not sure which UFO project I shall decide to complete in March, but it will all be hand stitched so I shall choose carefully. 

How about you? What have you been making lately in the kitchen, sewing room, garden, pottery shed...?? Are you hindered by an injury and if so, what changes have you needed to make?

God bless dear ones, and know you are held in my heart and in my prayers.

Until next week,

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