Recent happenings

Just some recent happenings around the house.  It's crazy how some of these bins have never been opened since our move over 1.5 years ago.  Yikes!  Well, a few of these bins broke during transit.  When in doubt, duct tape! :-)

The local library hosted a sewing class recently - to sew a fidget quilt for people struggling with dementia:

I never thought that would be a thing for people with dementia.  I thought fidgets were for kids/people that struggle with keeping their attention.  Well, thankfully you can't really see those sewing machine stitching because mine were not very straight!  

I didn't have time to finish up so I left it for the librarians that work in the Maker's Lab to finish up.  What a neat project though!  The library recently bought 6 sewing machines that you can even borrow for a week at a time.  I do have my very own but it always takes me forever to thread it.  Maybe I just need to use it more :-P

Back to trying to find a different drape for the living room.  The lighter one (to the right) with ferns was just too white.  It clashed with our other tan lace ones in the room.  These blue ones with birds is a keeper!

And I finally removed this wobbly shelf that's behind my chair.  I've moved it downstairs for a more stable one:

You can sort of see the new (used) shelf here, but this photo was actually taken to show my late dad's bow.  My sister passed it along to me recently when we went to visit during her surprise birthday late February.  She had brought it back from Malaysia years ago:

I finally hung the bow up last Thursday, which coincidentally was the 100th day since his passing.  It was weird I had chosen that particular day to hang it (without knowing its significance) since the bow had been sitting on the floor prior to that for weeks!

Meanwhile, back in Malaysia - the signage of my dad's pharmacy is being taken down.  The big one across the front of the store front, as well as the sign for the lab:

The guys were having a tough time getting this one off, and it just made me chuckle a little because I knew my late mom was also probably playing a trick or two on these guys.  She loved that lab and worked so many hours taking blood and processing them.  I miss both my mom and dad so much and it was definitely a sad moment to see these signage come down :-(

Well, on a less delicate topic, Bobby and I tried a new restaurant in Libertyville and it was a hit!  Loved the breakfast sandwich and the scrambled eggs bowl with diced potatoes underneath:

I didn't care for the sauce that they put on top of my scrambled eggs, but the chili sauce that they had on the side was yummy!  It actually reminded me of the ones in Malaysia so I bought a bottle of it to bring home.  He he!

And speaking of home, I seem to be buying plants that we had in our old home back in California!  Here's the recent Birds of Paradise:

The gal that sold it to me said that it's never flowered before.  Hopefully someday we'll see it flowering.

The leaves were struggling a bit, which is why she decided to sell it.  I have it now in a south facing window, so hopefully it will be happy!

The other plants that I have bought recently are a weeping willow and a yucca plant - both were in our yards back in California. And I had bought a small lemon plant during the first few months when we moved, so that's also in the house.  It's too bad these plants have to be wheeled/carried in and out of the house depending on the weather, but it seems that is the way it's done here in the Midwest!

The old potatoes were growing again in my kitchen drawer!  So I cut them up and put them in the soil:

I covered it with more soil and right now it's sitting in the garage.  I've decided to buy an indoor growing light.  It showed up today but while I was turning the light-tube, the plastic casing started to bend in a funny way.  Thank goodness for free returns online! So hope to get a new one tomorrow.  I've started to grow some seeds indoors too - so far nothing sprouting yet so hopefully the new light will help.  Fingers crossed!

I recently suggested that our neighborhood host a gardening event for the kids. And so the Youth Committee (which I'm also a part of) agreed to have the even to coincide with Earth Day in April!  And of course, I also suggested we teach the kids how to make newspaper pots for their seeds.  I think I finally figured one out that's simple and easy enough for all the kids:

I didn't think I was that passionate about gardening but I guess I really do enjoy being out there in the garden!  A lot of the bulbs from last year are already sprouting but these next 2 days are going to be very cold (below freezing).  Hopefully they all survive.

And finally, speaking of survive... looks like Charlie's has been playing too much video games and nap time has finally caught up to him!  So you're probably thinking, that's Bob on the couch. And yes, that's Bob but if you just look past his armpit, there's Charlie laying on him.  Awww, too cute!

And Graham is totally bundled up in his brown blanket on this other chair to the left of the photo. Ha ha!  We are a lazy bunch for sure and we do love watching TV/movies as a family! :-)

By the way, Bobby started his new job yesterday.  Woo hoo!!  And that also means I get the whole house back to myself again.  Double woo hoo!! LOL! It's been a long time coming and Bob is super excited.  Perhaps this job was only meant to come by at this time because if he did have a job last year, I wouldn't have been able to fly back to Malaysia all those times to see/care for my late dad (4 times from July to Dec!).  Good news also is that Bobby's commute is not too long so he can be home in time for dinners.  Let's hope it stays that way! Go get 'em, Bobby/Daddy!! XOX