Me, Myself and Memories

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  Noreen 3:22 pm on November 30, 2025 Permalink  

  The Cleanup 

  The cleanup of a 7″ snowfall has been completed.

  There was no lack of the sound of snow removal equipment this morning.  Our neighbor Randy knows to wait until the city has done all of their cleanup past our home.  The ridge of hard snow that can be piled at the end of our drive would and could be labeled as a heart attack if just a shovel was used.  It is a good feeling to have the snow moved to allow ingress and egress from our home and garages.

  The sun was out for just a few minutes before the chilly clouds moved in.

  I was in the studio when I heard a familiar sound.  It was the Ahrens walk behind snowblower.  When I got up from the studio, there was Dennis and the Ahrens . . . blowing a track for the garbage bin and recycling bin.  I can’t believe he got it started.  It had been idle the last two winters.  I kept an eye on him.  Dennis used it for a bit and then took a break.  This happened several times until he had satisfied himself.  He drove the point home that it needed to be used to keep everything running good.  He was right.  Dennis needed to prove to himself, that the snowblower was still his way of moving some snow.

  I don’t remember how many years ago, I made a blue log cabin quilt for Carrie.  It had white applique snowflakes on it.  I must have enjoyed making the snowflakes as I had fourteen of them in a file folder.

  

  The extra snowflakes are going to be put into something rather than running loose in a folder to be dismissed for a circular file, aka: the garbage.  I hunted until I found some designs that would fit on each of them.  They were quick to do and the sewing machine didn’t miss a beat.

  

  I do have the red fabric that they are resting on.  I have gotten this far and now it is time to really think things over.  The snowflakes have been waiting for many years so I don’t want to rush into anything.

  All is well on Stauffer Avenue.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 3:08 pm on November 29, 2025 Permalink  

  And Then 

  And then it snowed and snowed and snowed.  It was forecast.

  I was very relieved when text messages went back and forth from Stauffer Avenue and Eden Prairie.  A cancelation that meant reality and safety.  There is much truth in the phrase, “I would rather think about you than read about you.” Another day, another time . . . that will work out just fine.

  Dennis reverted to his recliner.  I went into the studio to while away time, listen to KNUJ and after enough time was burned, come up with a doable answer to an old project of Lena’s.  The radio stressed over and over to not take this snowfall and the road conditions for granted.

  As I am now in my bedroom porch putting together this posting, the snow is more consistent than this forenoon and the flakes are larger.  The evergreen tree that I see in the neighbor’s yard is now doing a bow this way and that from a light wind moving its boughs.

  Neighbor Randy did take an earlier swipe of the snow with his green machine.  There is no evidence that he was ever here.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 3:24 pm on November 28, 2025 Permalink  

  Black Friday 

  Black Friday savings!  I did no shopping in person or online, so I figure I saved 100%.

  My studio lights went on and I mean “on.”  The side of my church tables where all the planning and finagling goes is sporting a new LED light.  Perfection.  It even has security: a pull chain that only I will be operating.

  I am in the midst of working with fourteen white cloth snowflakes in two sizes.  My attempt this morning was to put a small design in the center of each.  I see where the center of each is, I measured the center of each. I stitched a design.  It sure as heck didn’t land in the center.  Try, try again.  Third time and I needed a time-out, and . . . the lights went out.  It is true that there are no two snowflakes alike.  Thus far I have three.

  I came upstairs to get the last cup of coffee for the day.  The clouds are heavy.  No cardboard umbrella with which to see my keyboard today.  The sky is gloomy, but I feel good.  I slept heavily last night and decided the feet needed to hit the floor at 9:15 this morning.  Dennis had gotten up at nine.  Rest for both of us, can’t beat it. 

  My new glasses are in at the eye center here in town.  I will be going on Monday to get them.  Checking online, they were closed for a long weekend.

  Our supper this evening is going to be fried potatoes, carrots, several buns and our bread and butter pickles.  Leftovers from Thanksgiving, its a good thing.  No, there will be no protein . . . thank you Kluge and Eevee.

  With that I will take my leave.♥

   
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  Noreen 3:32 pm on November 27, 2025 Permalink  

  A Thankful Day 

  The day is coming to a close.  Mid afternoon on the Thursday, the dishes are done and put away.  Our tick list has been completed via the Fairfax team.  Attic, first floor and studio . . . all points were taken care of.  

  

  This is my very first photo downloaded from my phone.  Kersten did a great job getting the phone and laptop to play together nicely.  Practice will be the order for the days to come.  This photo was taken when I was getting ready to stuff this small pillow.  Guess who!

  Even Kluge and Eevee had a bit of thanksgiving while dining in the pup-mobile. 

  The sun is bright and finally . . . the winds are not strong.

  This posting is short as I am at a loss for words.  Who would have thunk it!

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 3:08 pm on November 26, 2025 Permalink  

  My Days 

  Sometimes my days are overwhelming.  I know what I can do to keep our home running.  I am one individual needing to be the responsible one for the two of us.  It may seem at times that I am loosing.  I may loose a battle, or more than one, but I intend on winning the war.

  I have never been 89, that is where Dennis is at.  I have never allowed myself to not be in the present.  Hey, how would it feel to be me, myself and I!  I didn’t sign up for that.  I see each day clearly and what that day entails.  I don’t know how mindsets erode.  I don’t care to know.  I know that I feel very strongly in doing the best I can each day and I will stand up for “that best” and suffer the consequences. 

  So that’s enough about that.

  In the studio this morning, I brought forth three projects that I will be working on.  I started two of them some time ago.  Lena started her project decades ago.  I wish I knew how she intended it to be finished.  I am and will leave them setting on the church tables so when I look at them, they will need to be dealt with.  No additional material is needed, just puzzling them over and over in my mind until the lightbulb flashes.  In part that is what keeps me going . . . never being without something challenging to do. 

  When the challenging things can be set aside, I have my quiet hand stitching to become enmeshed in.  I love it.  I love a balanced day.

  The wind did howl last night.  Every once in awhile a gust of wind made the awning on the west side of the house buck, aka: my bedroom porch, but not enough to keep me awake.     

  This afternoon our drive is bare and dry, but make no mistake, Winter is here.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 3:12 pm on November 23, 2025 Permalink  

  The Sun 

  The bright sun on this mid-November Sunday sets the pace of the day.

  I did putz around in the studio until noon.  I always enjoy listening to the church radio on KNUJ.  As I putzed I did get the last of the eight little pillows stuffed and sealed.  I can no longer do the fine stitching to enclose the batting into said pillows.  I knew some sewists filled the pillows by cutting a slit into the backing fabric and after filled to their desire would then either by sewing or gluing an attractive patch onto the backing.

  I have found that leaving the opening to the bottom of each project works for me.  After front and back are sewn together, I press the seam allowance with steam.  The pillows are then filled.  The pressed seam allowance presents itself for gluing along the pressed edge with the slightest amount of glue using a toothpick.  My quilting clips have very sharp needle edges to clamp a 1/16th of the front to the backing.  It is quick drying and permanent.  I find this finish to satisfy a clean tidy closure.

  The trim that I ordered on, I think yesterday, from Amazon was delivered this noon.  That will be the rest of the story.  I know at one time Kevin ordered a lamp for me and let me know it would be coming.  When I called him to let him know it was here, he couldn’t believe it as he had ordered it the day before.  Sometimes the quick delivery is astonishing.

  At noon with light jackets we did what may be the last of the sweeps of our backyard to pick up some sticks that had found their way downward.  They were dead before they hit the ground.  Dennis made a small fire in the fire ring and short order was made of them.  I have thought it before, but I do think that is the last time for 2025 yard work.

  My cousin Mark Wendlandt called yesterday for a visit.  Nothing but a heartfelt visit . . . it was a good visit.  Carrie and Mark are very close in age.  He is my youngest cousin.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 3:23 pm on November 21, 2025 Permalink  

  Quilt Book 

  A time back, I had mentioned that I need to get a quilt book from Amazon.  That may seem counter-productive as I have a tote of such books heading to the recycling bin.  In early spring, I had cut all the fabric from my stashes.  Cut fabrics that could only be sewn up with a specific pattern in a special book.  

  When I had sought the book, my choice, giving the name of the book and the author, was a used book in fair condition.  The price would be $3.00 plus tax.  It would be coming from a Goodwill store in California.  It did come just as my receipt stated.  The book is in pristine condition.  With tax it was $6.30.  The original label on the book was that Hobby Lobby had carried it at some time for the price of $18.00.

  I had to have a conversation with Dennis about the book.  No, it was my curiosity that fed the conversation.  The process of Amazon acknowledging my request and using some computer generated process to find it in a Goodwill on the west coast . . . how does that all happen?  I would love to be a mouse in the warehouse where this all transpires. 

  Dennis finds the entire Amazon shopping a good thing.  He realizes that burning shoe leather seeking and finding the items we use is no longer in our wheelhouse.  The angst of frustration might well be felt on his shoulders, put there by me.  Being predominantly a hermit that is housebound allows everything here on Stauffer Avenue to run just as smoothly as it did before I had had the stroke . . . via Amazon.

  The package that was delivered this last Sunday for $89.00 and some odd cents contained eight items I was using in the studio.  My efforts in the studio didn’t miss a beat.

  I am a happy and contented hermit in our home.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥ 

   
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  Noreen 3:20 pm on November 20, 2025 Permalink  

  A Positive 

  Oh yes, there is a positive to cloudy gray days.  As I stitch in my bedroom porch, I am facing south.  When the bright sun comes in for quite a few hours it prevents me from seeing my stitching, the printed pattern and the lap top screen.  Makes me feel as blind as a bat.  I have not contemplated any type of an installed shade.  What does work is a piece of carboard the same size as the window sash.  I can easily whip it in place when needed.  Easily accomplished.  On gray days the piece of cardboard is not needed.  Sweet.

  Tuesday, I had received a text that my friend Judy Friesen was not doing well.  This morning, her daughter had put on Facebook that she had passed.  Judy had been the assessor in Brown County.  Judy and I were the same age.  Macular degeneration is nothing to fool with.  Judy had been blind for the last eight years.  She was forced to live in a separate housing unit in Mankato than her husband’s due to his often dismissal of her and not being able to defend herself.   Yes, law enforcement and a restraining order.  Very sad.  Judy deserved better.   

  I count my blessings everyday.  Dennis and I have a safe and cozy home.  Respecting each other and understanding the shortfalls we may each have.  All is well with my soul.  That’s all I have say about that.

  This evening, Dennis will be having a Marie Callender supper meal of his choice.  I will be enjoying a salad of my choice.  It all works out perfectly.  The quality of those types of meals has so much improved from the 60s.  Even the pot pies of Maria’s have found their way into our freezer and onto our table at times.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:58 pm on November 17, 2025 Permalink  

  Brisk 

  It did feel brisk outside this afternoon.

  KNUJ was keeping me informed where a rain shower might be.

  Oh my gosh!  This morning as we were getting up at eight, I heard a lawnmower.  It was Jan mulching out their leaves and ours.  What an elf!

  I spent time in the studio trying out a design with metallic thread.  The top thread broke several times before I hunted down a needle for metallic threads.  Again, several times the top thread broke.  There are three different spindles for the thread to be fed to the tension disks.  Spindle one and two . . . the top thread broke.  Spindle three was the winner.  The small design stitched out so well, I did a second design.

  Dennis took note that Jan had left with her gray car.  That gave the two of us time to take our prepared “door knocker” over to her back door.

  Jan has helped out with picking up blown down branches to put in either our burn ring or hers.  The leaves of this season have been mulched to the nth degree.  Dennis got a Casey’s card and we attached it to an embroidered Christmas towel complete with a ribbon to hang it from her inside door handle.  Good deed done for the many of Jan’s good deeds.

  The air is brisk.  We are having a poor man’s oven meal.  A bag of prepared shredded seasoned potatoes, sell by date November 18th, with a thawed container of meat-heavy chili mixed in.  I am tempted to put some, whatever I find in the refrig, shredded cheese over it.

  With that I will take my leave.

   
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  Noreen 3:18 pm on November 16, 2025 Permalink  

  Gray Clouds 

  Intermittent gray clouds shoving the sunshine out.  It was expected.

  Dennis and I both slept hard last night.  Dennis doing a bit in the garages allowing for things that will change once there is ice and snow being drug in on the tires.  I had chased lint and dust bunnies on the first floor with our little shop vacuum.  Even the Swiffer pads do not pick up the fine lint as well as that vacuum.  We have a second such vacuum in the garage.  Dennis made sure we had two replacement filters on hand.  The wand is long enough that I can shove the attachment that is on the wand far enough under the beds to reach the far walls . . . bend and stretch.  Each of the rooms were tidied.  I did not get to dusting the flat surfaces in the living room.  I saved that for another day.  Dennis’ bedding was swapped out yesterday as was mine.  It was a lot of activity along with all that the day had entailed on its own.

  This afternoon I had quite a bit for the recycling bin as I had been in the studio.  Having a printer in the studio, I had accumulated many stitching and quilting patterns that I would see on various sites.  Hit the little black button and the patterns were there for possible future projects.  Reality does hit home.  As the quilt tops I sew are donated to our church, I don’t vary the log cabin design other than the colorways.  Been there and done the challenging patterns.  

  My hand stitching is a rather complicated one.  Lots of little dots in black and white on the paper pattern.  There too, I don’t save the patterns of that that has been finished.  I know I will not repeat them.

  The week poses no appointments for us, always a good thing.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥