It is 25 degrees this morning, still chilly enough to enjoy our matching fleece socks!    Making socks has been my husband's favorite project these past few months, and everyone in the family has a variety of patterns.  Most of our days are very casual and I am still living and dressing out of an overnight bag that I refresh at home every few days, so it is always a happy accident when we find that we have dressed to match.

Although it is chilly again today, the sun is already shining and it should be a lovely day, filled with the promise of eventual Spring.  Yesterday was nice enough -- about 40 degrees -- to take a short walk in the local Dow Gardens and visit the annual Butterfly Exhibit.  It was good to shed our coats and spend a little time in a sunny, lush little building, surrounded by a variety of colorful butterflies.   I had forgotten that this week is Spring Break from the local schools, so there were lots of children there, too.  Perhaps we will try to go back next week when it will be a tad more quiet and with fewer small obstacles so that we can spend more time looking up than watching out for little ones!

We are more than ready for Spring, so the fresh flowers at the local grocery store seem to call my  name whenever I shop lately.

I am also just on the verge of being ready to start a sewing project, but first I need to take another unexpected trip to the Ann Arbor Hospital, where my brother was taken to the Emergency Room this morning after his routine doctor's appointment turned up some wonky test results.   I hope we get some answers this time . . .

March On

I had a bit of my wedding bouquet made into a bead that I can wear as a necklace.  I have no idea why I did it, it was expensive and I am usually not so frivolous, but there it is.  A local shop dried petals from a few of my flowers and somehow turned them into jewelry.  It was an impulse purchase, but I am determined not to regret it.

I am not much of a jewelry person, so I always have second thoughts when I do buy something.  Years ago, I bought a pair of blue diamond earrings that were REALLY expensive and I felt so foolish and guilty, but my sister finally advised that I should wear them every day until I had worn them SO much that I could say they had only cost me pennies a day.   It's been quite awhile since she told me I had definitely gotten my moneys worth, and I doubt I've worn them since.   My bouquet necklace will be the same, I expect; I will wear it a lot to justify the cost, and then pack it away.   But I want my granddaughter to know what it is, since it will eventually go into her hands.  Since she was a musician at our wedding, I am hoping it will be a fun keepsake for her some day.

I have had fun lately with the Grands.  I took them to a fiddle concert last week, which was also, coincidentally, the night of our latest ice storm.  My granddaughter, who plays violin and flute, wants to learn to fiddle, and my grandson (who plays cello, baritone and tuba) enjoys hearing different techniques and styles.  Besides, they perform regularly and know what it is like to be on stage, so they are always a respectful and attentive audience.  Unfortunately the octogenarians in the row in front of us were decidedly not good listeners.   They had imbibed to excess of the wine sold at the concession stand, served in sippy cups like the kind they give to toddlers, and their group was loud and foul mouthed.  The old lady in front of my granddaughter held her phone up high, encased in a large leather folder that also contained her checkbook and cards, to video the concert, blocking out view for much of the concert.     At one point, a group of them stood up to cheer and yell at the stage and then one of them sat down, missing her chair, and landing right on the floor.  After hearing their  verbal reactions, my granddaughter whispered to me that she had heard the same language from middle schoolers, but it seemed even worse from someone as old as a grandmother.   I had to agree so it was a good reminder to me to mind my p's and q's.  We enjoyed the concert, but not as much as we could have, and that was a shame.

Dominoes Day is today on St. Patrick's Day so I made the American-Irish traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots.   I made (not much of) an effort at green cupcakes, using a box mix and a packet of green jello -- they were very soft and crumbly; they overflowed the cupcake tins and had to be cut out, leaving a craggy mess that I covered as best I could with frosting.  But we are not a fussy crowd - they will no doubt get eaten even though they are not fabulous.   

My husband and I (yes, I do enjoy saying it)  are starting to work in earnest on the wedding celebration we promised to have with his family in Illinois in May.   Some of them live much further south and it would have been difficult, impossible, for most of them to travel to Michigan in December.  We have booked the hall and the hotel rooms and have placed inquiry calls out to a caterer and bakery.  Since we are traveling there I will need to think of simple decorations that I can pick up when we arrive -- balloons maybe?   I am starting to play with the wall hanging/quilted throw that I will eventually make as our wedding registry -- Jack and I signed the moon, my family in Michigan signed stars in blue, and Jack's family south of us will sign on yellow.   I won't tack the blue stars down yet for fear of running out of room, but I am excited to see it all come together after all the stars are in.

I am almost in the mood to sew again . . . It has been a long time.

Meanwhile, we are no closer to finding a house.  As I've said before, there is surely no hurry since we currently have two, but I will be glad when we are able to really settle down.  I have started just a little bit of organizing in my own house, hoping that Spring Fever will motivate me once the weather starts to warm a bit.   This week, in the course of decluttering,  I found an old chart that I had on my refrigerator when my Grandson was very little and kept there because he loved it so much.   His math brain enjoys charts, and we both thought this was a good one.   A good reminder for me, and hopefully to you, too.  Be happy.  :)

Snow Moon and Snow

It is snowing again today, which makes sense, I guess, since this week was the rise of the Snow Moon, another gorgeous super moon.   My new little camera -- a gift to myself, surprise! oh you shouldn't have -- takes better photos than my cell phone did, but so far I haven't figured out the right settings to pick up the moon's features, which were striking in real life.      But what all of this means to me is that we will put off our trip further north to visit my brother for at least another week, which is a disappointment to all of us.   Cabin fever is starting to itch a bit.

The local deer are feeling it, too, and they are grazing closer and closer to the edge of the road.  Last week I saw several lying down underneath trees, no more than 20 feet off the highway.   Soon they will lose all sense of caution -- again -- which can make driving a bit more nerve-wracking than usual.    I have never hit a deer, knock wood, which is a pretty good track record for a life-long Michigander.

Not a lot is new since we are not venturing far from home these days.   I am making long lists of the things I should be doing, but not doing many of them.  I have gotten a couple of test recipes lately for cocktails, which makes me thing that the America's Test Kitchen people are finally starting to understand me, so that has been fun.    We are not really big cocktail drinkers, so I have been making a single serving for 3 or 4 of us to share, but it's been an enjoyable experiment.   And I've been  baking more than usual, yogurt cakes and banana bread and such -- comfort foods.    All in all I  have no complaints.   Life is slow right now, but it's all good.

Ice Ice Baby

Weather is the main topic of news hereabouts lately.  Every time it clears up enough to go out on errands I see the deer herds clustered around patches of scrubby grass, gorging themselves in anticipation of the next wave of cold or snow.  My grandkids have no school again today for the 8th school day in a row because of extreme cold, or snow, or ice.   Today the culprit is ice, making the roads too slick for school buses -- or me -- to be out.    Local people are posting clips on Facebook of their kids skating on the streets outside their houses, or rolling down car windows to punch through a full pane of ice that remains in the window opening.  Winds are going to pick up tonight to about 45 miles per  hour, which could cause wires to snap since they are coated in ice.   Outages are already being reported.    We hope it won't happen to us -- of course, everyone hopes it won't happen to them.   Theoretically we are luckier than some: Hubby has a generator, but we would have to go out for gasoline to run it.   Since I am the only driver here, that would mean me.   Can you hear me whining in anticipation?   I have gotten so soft in my old age.

We hope things get back to normal, just ordinary cold and snow, soon, just so we can get out of the house again.   We are scheduled to get a photo taken tomorrow, and we have volunteered to be judges at my grandson's middle school on Saturday.  Both things can be postponed if necessary, but I am hoping it won't be necessary.

Meanwhile, I am using the bad weather as an excuse to bake and cook.   Applesauce muffins, orange chicken, whatever nonsense I can get into without going to the store.  

Jack, unexpected as always, is using the time to figure out how to use a serger, something neither of us have ever used or wanted and which he inexplicably decided to purchase last week.     He has taken to making socks. so that we often match, and it is fun for him to have a new hobby since so many things became less fun when his vision was impaired by the stroke.    In the beginning I only wore his creations in the spirit of supporting the Team, but I have grown to like them.   They make me smile.

Speaking of  socks, my son's family gave us a few month's membership to the Sock Club, and that has been fun, too.  

And speaking of fun (notice my smooth segues), I received a sweet note in the mail from a former sister-in-law, congratulating us on our wedding.  She is someone I have not had contact with in the 30-some years since my divorce.  It was a nice surprise.  One of the saddest things about divorce is that  you generally lose a whole bunch of people you care about, just because you decide (or are forced to) to go on without the one person.   Her note brought back so many memories of times with her family and it has been long enough that I was able to entertain those memories without the sadness or bitterness that might have been there before.  She was just a child when I first met her, and all my memories of her are pleasant ones, so it was nice.

I hope you are keeping safe and warm, wherever you are.   I am deep in hibernation here, getting lazier by the day, and honestly not minding it a bit.   

One Last Day

My brother is being released from the hospital this morning and I will finally be heading home.   He has been diagnosed with a rare side effect of another treatment he underwent, but they think they have a treatment regimen in place.  It will be months before they know for sure whether it works, but in the meantime he can go home.   And so can I!!  We are both ready.    There will likely be another hospitalization, probably surgery, ahead, but for now things are looking good, thank goodness.

I walked to the main hospital pharmacy yesterday to pick up the medications he will be taking home, which was a pleasant little walk since the halls of the hospital are lined with art work.   I have been here before, with him and other loved ones, and the artwork is always different.   Today I found a little gallery of hand-colored quilts, which I thought created a cozy and comforting space for patients and visitors, even though we are not allowed to touch them.  I was sorry that there was no information posted about how they were made, just that they were created by textile students.

When I left the hospital yesterday evening I asked, as I was paying my daily parking fee, whether my brother would have to pay the full amount, since he came in for an out-patient test and will be leaving after six days.   Well, come to find out that neither patients nor their visitors are supposed to have to pay the $20 a day.  Bummer for me that no one thought to mention it before, but good news that I found out in time for my brother!  

Another surprise was that it was a balmy 15 degrees yesterday afternoon, so warm that I didn't even need to wear my gloves!   It is supposed to be warm again tomorrow, and springy-warm by Monday, in the upper 40s, which means that I missed out on my chance to throw a cup of hot water or blow bubbles outside in the sub-zero temperatures.   Both are supposed to be pretty cool experiments, and I'm sorry to have missed the opportunity.   My grandson told me he tried tossing water into the air but said it disappeared so quickly that he couldn't get a good video of it for me.   I would have liked to see that!  I am grateful that my brother doesn't have to go out in the bitter cold, though, because I suspect he is feeling a bit more fragile than usual.

It will be so good to get home.  Not that it's been all bad.   Although dinner alone is not much fun, I have treated myself with the occasional glass of wine or dessert!

And it is always good to have time with my brother.   This time, the concern about his health led to several fairly deep discussions, the kind that we too often put off, and that was a good thing.    We are both getting (a lot) older, and our time together is increasingly precious.

One more cup of coffee and I will head over to the hospital.   My brother grumbled to me on the phone that he had hoped he would have been released by now, but he has to wait for one final doctor to sign his discharge papers so it's hurry up and wait.  He is eager to get out of here and I have a million make-up errands to do.  But I know we are so fortunate to have these minor frustrations instead of a major life disaster, and I am not going to let either of us forget it.  

Change of Plans

Any anticipation about being homebound with my shiny new husband during our area's "polar vortex" didn't work out quite the way I expected.   The weather forecasters were certainly right this time and it got colder than heck; even the mail service was suspended for most of the week, to protect the mail carriers who walk for miles delivering our letters and bills.  With temperatures below zero and windchill's that were 35-40 below, schools, businesses, and government offices were all closed, while I was safe and cozy and thinking about what to bake.   

My husband and I were just settling into the enjoyment of Tuesday's sub zero temperatures when I became concerned because I wasn't able to reach my older brother, who lives further north than we do.   Just about the time I was ready to call the police for a welfare check or even drive up there myself, my brother phoned to tell me that he had been admitted to the hospital and they expected to do emergency surgery as soon as they could.   I drove through whiteout conditions down to the University Hospital where he had gone in for a routine out-patient test the day before.

Thank goodness, it was only a day before the medical team concluded that my brother does not, or probably does not have a rapidly ballooning aneurism that could kill him.  Instead, they think, he has a growth on his aorta that can be treated, at least temporarily, without surgery.  We should know for sure in the next day or so but, although he is still in the ICU,  they have cleared him to get out of bed by himself, which is a very good sign.   Meanwhile, I am spending my nights alone in a hotel nearby,  hanging out in the ICU during the day, and driving back and forth in horrific temperatures.  No kidding, the tips of fingers and nose start to burn within minutes, but things are good.  For one thing, so far, the car is starting after only a few seconds of complaint.      Better yet, while we still expect there will be some surgery in his future, and probably a few more days stuck in one of those back-flap hospital robes, it looks like my brother will be able to go home again early next week.     Meanwhile, I've explored the local community to buy him the underwear and socks that he didn't know he should pack because he didn't think he was going to stay.    And Jack is home alone, again, teasing me about my high maintenance family while we look forward to being together again.

Hunkering Down

Last I checked, there were 193 schools, businesses and community/government offices closed today in our area.    Cold and snow, snow and cold, with high winds to complicate it all.   We are likely to all be back out on the roads a few days before we really want to be, but it doesn't look like it will be today.     I sent my snow guy a message telling him I'd rather pay him twice than have him outside for as long as it would take to shovel my whole driveway.   It is brutal out there; the cold wind, especially,  is terrible.  Jack has gone out to shovel twice already, but can't stay out more than a few minutes because of the wind. 

There was a single junco at the feeder this morning, braving the wind and trying to dig out the sunflower seeds and eat them before they blew away.  Inside, though, we are cozy warm and breakfasted on french toast, bacon and coffee.     

Winter in mid and northern Michigan is beautiful, at  least from the inside out.  But it can be dangerous; we've seen reports in the past week of two people, one young and one older, who died of exposure after wandering from their vehicles and not finding their way back in time, despite short distances of less than a quarter mile.   We have a lot of woods and wilderness here, and too many people who don't know how to use a map and compass or dress for the weather.

This old fool is content to snuggle up next to my husband as we sit by a roaring fire and watch the blowing snow through the window while I house-hunt on the internet.  I feel fortunate, indeed.