Not the best month!

Well November has not been the best of months.  My husband's health has taken a down turn.  He has several heart problems.  Two of which are atrial fib and atrial flutter. In January 2021 he underwent ablation on both of his upper chambers in an attempt to remedy these problems and indeed it did until recently.  They have now reared their ugly heads again and the only thing they can do now is keep it under control the best they can.  He has been on blood thinners since 2021 and will remain on them the rest of his life.  He takes medication to slow his heart rate and it is helping but he is just weak and tired all the time.  We ended up in the ER last week as he was so weak. 

Then this past week our furnace started making a lot of noise.  One visit from the repair folks to diagnose and now another visit to fit the replacement part, an inducer motor.  The engineer is here as I type this.

We didn't have much wood in the wood shed but had enough to be able to keep the woodstove going for a few days until they could fix it, thankfully.

We like to have wood on hand in case the power goes out.  It is a propane furnace but needs electricity to run the fan to circulate the  warm air.

Another minor annoying problem (but certainly not serious) is the labels for my Christmas cards.  The blank labels I had, had lost their stickiness but I had some other clear labels which were good.  I printed up my labels but it took forever for them to dry out and some got a bit smudged.  Like I said, a minor niggle compared to the other things.

The whole month has been like that so I am looking forward to December.

There were some good things though.

I did knit a toy for Santa's sack as I needed something easy to do at night whilst watching TV.

Thanksgiving was quiet, just the two of us but we had a lovely dinner with roast beef for a change but of course the usual pumpkin pie and whipped cream.  Small portions as we are both diabetic and the pie lasted several more days.

My husband had a hot beef sandwich the next day which is somewhat different here in the US.  It is a slice of bread topped with hot beef slices then mashed potatoes then gravy.  He really enjoys those, I prefer mine laid out like a dinner lol.

The high spot of the month was finding out that I can buy ready made flaky pastry here now.  I love flaky pastry and back in England you could always buy it frozen in any supermarket.  I discovered that our local Walmart now stocks frozen Pepperidge Farm puff pastry and it is quite delicious.  I made us a couple of meat and potato pasties one day and they were very good. 

Now I will make sausage rolls and mince pies for Christmas.  Back in England everyone one loved my flaky pastry mince pies at Christmas.  My dad especially, which miffed my mum a bit lol as she made them too but used regular pastry.

So only two more days and we can start in earnest on Christmas.  I did the get the outside lights and decorations up and decided not to wait until December 1st to plug the lights in.  At our age we don't know how many more Christmases we will have so I plan on making the most of it every year.

Onwards and upwards.........

Furnace fixed and running great!

No more procrastinating.....decision made!

I made the decision after yesterday's post that I am not going to make my cards this year so I have ordered some Hallmark Thomas Kinkade cards.  I like that range of cards and there is lots of sparkly on them and I do so love sparkly!

I was beginning to stress over making the cards because I never had any ideas for them simmering in my head like I usually have.  I went up into my craft room and sat and sat, and nothing came to mind.  I realised the solution was easy.......don't make them, buy some.  I don't need any more stress in my life.  I make cards because I enjoy doing so but if it was not going to be a happy experience there was no point to it.  Christmas cards are a dying tradition anyway but I have been determined to maintain it; but each year I send lots out and get very few back so maybe it's time to bow to the times and wean off them.....slowly.

I talked about neighbours yesterday but where we live it is different.  Every one owns land so you can't actually see your neighbour's houses.  Our plot is one of the smaller ones, only 20 acres and the place behind us which is the closest is the same.  But we can't see their house from ours.  In winter when all the leaves have all fallen from the trees we can see lights but it is too far away to distinguish anything.

View from back of house looking towards the closest neighbour. Their property starts beyond the far tree line

From the front of the house

To the right of the house

To the left of the house

For us, this is perfect.  I have lived in big cities and small cities but this is the first time I have lived in a rural community.  Suffice to say, as this is the longest either of us have lived in one place, (we are coming up on 19 years here) we really love the life.

We have talked about moving to be closer to health facilities but whenever we try, something thwarts us so I guess here we are and here we will stay.

2 posts in two days, that must be a record for me!

PS. Can't seem to get the font size the same throughout!  Blogger is not co-operating today.

Where does the time go?

Where does the time go these days?  It has been almost a month since my last post.  Not much in the 'making things' has happened.  A couple of cards, one for my husband and one for my son.

I used some foil on my husband's one and sparkly white card.  I liked it a lot.

 

For my son I used a stencil which I particularly like and the sticky squares to give it a 3D effect.

Now I must start on Christmas cards,  I am procrastinating. I don't know why.  I bought the new Jacquie Lawson advent calendar to try and get some enthusiasm going.

On the home front, not sure if I mentioned our nearest neighbour died at the end of July.  He was a grouchy old man and didn't like us because our political leanings were not the same as his so we lived in a peaceful existence of just ignoring each other.  We would nod if we passed each other but that is all.  Anyway, his daughters put the place up for sale and it is currently pending.  An older couple like us put in an offer.  They came to see us after they viewed it so I expect they were sussing out who their new neighbours would be.  They were nice folks so I hope it all goes smoothly for them.

That's about it, just plodding on here. My husband is still in full author mode, currently working on making video's to promote his books. He writes under the pen name of SA Andrews.

This is his first one.  Any thoughts would be appreciated as it's all a learning curve for us.  Might not be to everyone's taste, his stories can be a bit raunchy!

Weather is typical for Autumn. Today the windows are all wide open, Thursday the heating will be back on.

Hope all is good in your worlds.