Life is Good

There was no Afghan Women's Group on Monday because of it being President's Day so Steve and used that morning time to do our income taxes. Whew! It is great to have that done for another year. And nice to be getting money back instead of paying. I also had no music students that day so I loved my extra time to practice the cello (Grand Canyon Suite, what else?), work on family history, sewing and bake a cake for Wednesday. We watched the second to last episode of All Creatures Great and Small in the evening. 

Tuesday we hosted a couple for lunch - Stephanie and Mike - who are about our age. She has a very restrictive diet but happily, refried beans and Spanish rice worked for her vegan preferences. The rest of the day was teaching lessons - getting all my students ready for the recital - and civic orchestra rehearsal in the evening.

Wednesday morning, I drove women to a day-time English class. We are in Ramadan now and evening classes are not feasible so, to help prevent any loss of English learning during the month, we are trying out day classes. Attendance for the first session was low but that might have been because all the ladies had been up into the wee hours of the morning cooking and cleaning up the start-of-Ramadan meal? Class was just an hour long but I had time to do our Aldi shopping while I waited. After I dropped my last woman home, I dashed back to our place to pick up the cake I baked on Monday and drive down to a Wendy's where we celebrated a friend's birthday. I had more lessons in the afternoon and, in the evening, Steve and I attended a reveal of the re-branding of Kindness Begins With Me. It is now called Archway Refugee Connections. Here is the new logo:

 

The event was held in a place called The Chapel. Here is a photo:

It is connected to a much grander Presbyterian church and both are either on or very close to Washington University campus. I loved the statues that were in front (although, I don't think the sunglasses were part of the permanent exhibit) The event was over in time for us to catch an episode of Starfleet Academy before bedtime.

Temperatures had been climbing throughout the week and, by Thursday, it got up into the 60's! I took advantage of the warmth and trimmed the ivy and the tall ornamental grasses growing around the flag pole. We did our Walmart shopping that morning as well as renew our Costco membership and we "celebrated" by bringing home a rotisserie chicken.  In the evening, we watched the 1941 movie of Our Town (based upon the play). Aaron Copland wrote the music and, this Saturday, the civic orchestra is playing a suite he put together from the score which is why I checked out the movie from the library.  It was a good watch. The next evening, Friday, we watched another 1941 movie (from the library) called Here Come's Mr. Jordan. It was remade in the late 70's and called Heaven Can Wait which Steve and I have loved ever since its release. It was fun to watch the original and observe how much carried over into the newer film. Earlier in the day, we attended the temple, I took Sam C. home from her doctor appointment and I practiced the cello.  

Saturday afternoon at 2:00 was my studio recital. We held it at a church just around the corner from our house and I had fourteen students performing this time - my largest group since moving here. And, the students brought a lot of family so the church was full, using every chair we could find in the building. It used to be a grocery store thirty years ago (maybe even twenty years ago) with the church next door in a conventional church-type building. But, the membership dwindled to the point that they could no longer keep up the big beautiful facilities so they sold it and moved to the little store. The original building is now rented out for special events.  The recital lasted an hour, the refreshments another thirty minutes so we were back home by 3:30. Quinn and Larkin performed with Emily and Lucy attending. Joe and Noah were at the opening soccer game for St. Louis City but they stopped by afterwards so Noah could use my stand-up bass to record a playing quiz for his school orchestra. It was nice to see the whole family. AND, we got to spend the evening with Beckie who came over to do her laundry. (her landlord has still not purchased a new dryer for the apartment). We watched A Dog's Journey and the final episode (the Christmas episode) of this season of All Creatures Great and Small.  

So, that was my week. I moved the ball along on sewing projects and on family history. I am feeling better prepared for performing the Grand Canyon Suite this coming Saturday. And, I got to watch a lot of good movies and shows. Life is good 😄

Trying to be spring

 By Monday, our snow had melted enough that I found three newspapers that we thought hadn't been delivered! And, the sidewalks were clear for our morning walk. There was SO much trash and I collected an unprecedented 32 aluminum cans along the route!

It was a pretty quiet week, overall. I baked Valentine shaped cookies on Tuesday, worked on finances, taught lessons and went to orchestra that night. We had sectionals and it was very helpful - The Grand Canyon Suite is kicking my butt. I decorated the cookies on Wednesday evening while watching Starfleet Academy and All Creatures Great and Small. That afternoon, I finished my last oil painting and packed up everything to make ready for my next artistic endeavor - felting. I dabbled in it over a year ago and I want to get back into it. Thursday Sally went to the groomer and came back beautiful!  Elise came into town that evening after English class. This was the last evening class until Ramadan is over and, by that time, Steve and I will be released from our service mission. It doesn't mean we are completely done with volunteering - we will still help drive people to and from English classes and other gatherings - but we won't be official missionaries. Elise joined us at the temple Friday morning and, while she and Steve hung out at the house in the afternoon, I drove around delivering Valentine cookies to people and collecting six tubs of black dirt from the nearby mulch site. Yes, it is almost time to start thinking about gardens again. Before leaving for the temple, Steve and I drove Fred to Schnucks so he could buy paczkis (a Polish donut) that are only available around Mardi gras/lent. They apparently are very popular because Fred got the last box. As we picked him up, I rolled down the back passenger window to tell him which door to use and the stupid window would not roll back up! Nothing we tried worked. So, I called Bates Auto as soon as we got home and we dropped the Kia off right away. It was fixed by mid-day and, evidently, the connecting wire had worked loose and Bates Auto fixed it with no charge! Amazing. Friday evening, before Elise left for Columbia, Beckie drove over (YES, since Tuesday, she is back to walking and driving and even venturing into work) to do her laundry since her landlord has not replace the dryer yet. While the clothes washed and dried, we watched Sneakers, an old Robert Redford movie with an all star cast that came out in 1992. Aside from that and an episode each of All Creatures Great and Small and Starfleet Academy, that is about all we watched throughout the week. Sigh!

Yesterday we had rain - all day - which we sorely needed. But, driving thirty minutes to UMSL to attend a cello recital put on by the civic orchestra section leader was not fun.  Although, the recital was superb and I am glad I went. Four other cellists in the section also attended. In the morning I was supervising the Kindness Begins With Me booth at another Grand Market. I am desperately trying to clear out the current inventory and sadly, we didn't sell very much yesterday. Why don't more people need tote bags and aprons???? After the recital, which was at 2:00, I had a cello student and then we fed the sister missionaries at 6:00. It was a LONG day. 

Today at church we had a lovely surprise. The daughter and son-in-law of Elder Patrick Kearon live in our ward and Elder Kearon walked into the chapel this morning. He had a rare free weekend, his wife was at a reunion with her sisters, and he decided to come visit Lizzie and Jonathan and their adorable toddler, Evelyn. There was time for him to speak at the end of the service and he is just an amazing person. 

Here is Beckie, Steve and Sally on Friday night...

  

New month

We thought Sally was better last weekend from her diarrhea but we awoke Monday morning to a huge bunch of messes in the living room.  It was worrisome so I left a message a Open Door (who provides our free veterinary care) right away. They do not open until 10:00 so I was already at the church for the Afghan Women's meeting when I got a return call saying that they had a vet there until noon if we could get her down there by then. I had to excuse myself from my responsibilities with Kindness Begins With Me and I drove home to pick up Steve and Sally and down we went. The good news is that her heart and lungs are fine and we were sent home with a five-day supply of medicine (antibiotics in a cocktail that I think also included some anti-diarrhea stuff) and some special prescription food (dry and wet) for her to eat.  The medicine was not fun to administer (Steve holding her and forcing her mouth open while I squirt the nasty tasting stuff down her throat) but it, with the diet, worked and she is back to normal poops. She threw up three times during the week and we are not sure what caused that but we haven't had any more vomiting since Thursday. 

Tuesday morning, my "exercise" consisted of me shoveling snow next to our turn-around in the back yard to give our car tires something to grip. Up until then, we had to back into our driveway from the road (hooray for back-up cameras!!!). The temperatures were mostly above freezing all last week and actually climbed into the 50's over the weekend so today, the sidewalks are clear and dry.....just many piles of snow still in the parking lots, along the sides of roads and in the yards. 

Wednesday morning the plumber came to address our leaking pipe in the downstairs bathroom.  It was caused by the pipe freezing and bursting. And, I was probably the cause!!!  We never had a frozen pipe in all the years we lived here but the bathroom downstairs was ALWAYS very chilly thanks to no heat duct and a hole in the ceiling where the shut-off valve was located that spilled down frigid air.  Just this year, I got a bit of insulation and I stuffed it up into the hole.  BUT, I put it the hole between the room and the pipe which left it exposed to the cold above without the benefit of the warmer air in the room to keep it from freezing. Sigh....That was an expensive mistake. I went to Home Depot Wednesday evening and bought a roll of insulation batting and Steve and stuffed it up into the hole as far as we could both ways (the space was right up against the back outer wall of the house which has several openings for the HVAC, cable, phone, etc. to enter and they were the cause of the cold air streaming in). We made sure the insulation is above the pipe leaving it exposed to the warmer air of the bathroom. We are also leaving the bathroom door open to the rest of the basement.  Whew - enough of all this.

Steve had his final follow-up appointment with his retina doctor and all is doing well with his eye. 

Thursday was groceries and many errands ending with English classes at night. Friday morning, Steve and I attended the temple and afterwards, we returned home to eat and nap and then we headed east to Indiana to spend the weekend with Julina and Alex. We spent Saturday helping put Christmas decorations away. Alex has a new 3D printer and he made us this...

            

I sewed up three small holders for Alex's phone and wallet that he can attach to the arm of his wheelchair.  In the evening, Julina, Steve and I watched Train Dreams based upon several recommendations. It was a very beautiful movie!  Sunday morning, we went to church with Juli and we headed back to St. Louis mid-afternoon.                                                                 

 

The Gift of Time

I was given the gift of time over and over this past week thanks to the cold and snow. The snow ended falling Sunday afternoon and we estimate we got between 8 and 10 inches. 

Steve and I shoveled snow throughout the day on Monday. We spent between 15 and 20 minutes each time and, after five shoveling sessions, we punched our way to the road and we got the car cleaned off. You can see that we also shoveled a narrow path to just beyond the deck for Sally to go and do her business. 

When not outside, I worked on finances, I sewed Days for Girls shields, I practiced the cello and I made a yummy turkey meatloaf that also had bleu cheese crumbles and basil and dried cherries. The combination sounds weird but it was quite delicious! As anticipated, I had no music students to teach. 

It was the same on Tuesday. Only the main thoroughfares were cleared by then so schools were cancelled for a second day. Because the civic orchestra rehearses in a public school, when there is a snow day, we don't get into the building to practice. The music for this end-of-February concert is mostly super easy for the cellos. Even our hardest piece, Grand Canyon Suite, has easy cello parts except for the fifth movement - Cloudburst. It is really challenging so I have been hacking away at it all week long. When I wasn't doing that on Tuesday, I finished the thirty Days for Girls shields and I did four Christmas pillows. I think I will give them away to neighbors and friends next holiday season. I also made a little Halloween pillow with some cute scraps I was given a while back. 

Steve had the time and energy to pack away his many nativities but the large one on the front lawn will just have to wait until the snow melts - who knows when that will be??? I finished watching Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark and I started the Temple of Doom. Steve and I watched the second Hunger Games movie - Catching Fire that evening. 

Wednesday morning, I was able to finally get back to some small oil paintings I had started in early October. I finished two and moved the other two along. That felt nice. It also felt nice to teach some music lessons that afternoon. In the evening, we watched another Starfleet Academy and All Creatures Great and Small. 

Thursday English class was cancelled due to the extreme cold and the side streets that were still pretty treacherous. I took Beckie to her doctor appointment in the morning and we did an Aldi shop after that. I brought the knee walker that Steve was using and it was very helpful for Beckie. Steve and I tackled Walmart that afternoon. By evening, everyone was pooped!

Friday and Saturday introduced two minor disasters.  We woke up Friday to many little diarrhea plops scattered around our bedroom (we sleep with Sally with the bedroom door closed). Poor Sally was unable to contain herself. We put her on a 24 hour fast and have been feeding her a bland diet of white rice, chicken breast and pumpkin in small portions throughout the day since then and I think she is on the mend. No more diarrhea and no vomiting ever....   The other disaster was discovered Saturday evening. We discovered a small stream of water coming from the downstairs bathroom towards the floor drain by the washing machine.  Somehow, a leak had developed from the turn-off handle for the outside spigot. It is located in the ceiling of our bathroom above two shelves of towels. It is a very slow leak that must have been going on for a few days because ALL the towels were just soaked - plus the rugs on the floor. I have a plumber coming early Wednesday morning and hopefully, they will just have to replace the valve? And, I guess we will find out then if it is related to the below freezing temperatures we have had for over a week. I would be surprised if it is because we have had similar conditions in past years with never a problem. From the photos you will notice a hole in the ceiling. It has been there since we bought the house. So, no real damage has occurred from this - just a lot of spinning out water in the washer and drying in the dryer.

Steve and I went to Beckie's Friday night to help her with her laundry (her facilities are down a very steep flight of stairs in the basement which she could never do on her own) and to watch Mockingjay parts one and two. We had only intended to watch part one but her laundry took a little longer than planned - her dryer would not heat so we washed everything and brought her wet laundry home to dry.

Saturday was Steve's and my 51st wedding anniversary. We celebrated by picking up supplies for Sally at Open Door Animal Sanctuary, taking Quinn to lunch at Culver's, buying new bath towels at Costco (note to self - NEVER, EVER EVER EVER go to Costco on a Saturday!!!!), and by watching Groundhog Day.  And finding the leak. But, overall, it was a great day, in spite of the bitter cold.