Labor Exchange

This has been my look at work all summer.  We are mandated to wear a surgical mask at all times and a face shield when providing direct patient care.  We are not required to cover our hair but it was encouraged.  My vanity drives me to wear a sugical cap every day because the shield is not fun to wear all the time and I do take it off when I'm not with a patient.  Sliding that elastic band on and off my head really does a number on my hair but I don't have to worry about it if my hair is covered.  My face shield has a big chunk of foam to distance the clear plastic from my face and that foam irritates my skin, so the cap creates a barrier between it and my forehead.  Humidity in that shield is an issue and I find the cotton cap absorbs some of the moisture.  I forgot my cap at home recently and had a downright rain forest along my hairline all that day.  Needless to say, I have continued sewing and selling more surgical caps when I find the time and thereby slowly culling the herd that is my fabric stash

I work with a gal who is my "crochet friend".  She is to crochet what I am to knitting and I love having someone to "talk yarn" with!  Her grandparents are in an assisted living and she approached me about a sewing commission.  She wanted to donate a bunch of surgical caps to the staff of their facility and would provide the fabric if I did the sewing.  She crochets commissions all the time and is very much aware and appreciative of the hours and labor that go into handmade things so we hemmed and hawed over the price while I got on with the sewing.

I had a stroke of genius and instead of paying me with money, I proposed she pay with labor for an even trade.  I provided her the materials, in this case some linen yarn I bought years ago in Finland, and a pattern idea for a farmer's market bag.  She is ridiculously skilled and knows all about gauge and yardage and I gave her free license to choose a different pattern and use her best judgement as to what would look best with the two colors.

Here is the final bag!  I absolutely love it!  It is resting on the vintage Martha blue upholstered swivel chair that once lived in the upstairs bedroom of my grandpa Maynerd's house.  My sister delivered it to me a few weeks ago.  It matches my new sewing room perfectly but I still have some rearranging/organizing to do before I find it's final resting place.  I loved this chair as a kid and I'm so happy to be the proud owner of it now.

No only did Bree deliver that bag to me, but also 6 balls of Kauni yarn!  Someone in her crochet group had given it to her and she doesn't work with wool much and didn't know what to do with it so she gave it to  me!  I asked her if she was aware of the "street value" of such a payload and offered to pay her, but she just gave it to me!  Red letter day!

Speaking of yarn acquisitions, I have been buying up yarn strays at Saver's.  I officially have a problem if I am buying it second hand.  What kind of monster would abandon Cascade and Rowan?  Not me!

It is cooling off around here but what a lovely summer we had despite the Covid pandemic.  I so enjoyed the garden this year.  Here is a little friend on my cucumber trellis.

This was the best year we've ever had for tomatoes.  We enjoyed ours on BLT's, baked as au gratins, by the bowlful on salads, sliced on burgers, etc.  I canned pints and pints of sauce and marinara from our garden and shopping bags of them sent over from Dave's parents.  We haven't pulled the plants up yet and we're still enjoying the slowly reddening leftover fruit and I've enjoyed the hard green ones seasoned, breaded with corn meal and fried.  Delish.

This little monkey loves being outside!  I am definitely an indoor A/C girl but I am happy he loves the outdoors.  I love the outdoors too but not the heat and humidity.  Marek definitely takes after his dad.  We have his kiddie pool from last summer and he loves playing in the water.  We spent many afternoons painting the patio with water.  He's such a little boy because he loves playing in the dirt and grass.  Lots of baths after playing outside.

Here he is playing in his grandpa's tomato orchard.  Dave's parents know how to grow tomatoes!  They plant 12 plants every year and tend them all summer pounding in stakes and tying up the vines.  They grow over 6 feet tall and the tiny seedlings become robust vines the diameter of a silver dollar.  I always think of Jack and the beanstalk when we go to pick tomatoes.

I had to go and buy a garden colander at the Asian supermarket.  Every time we went out to the garden, there was something to be picked and brought in.  Now that the season is ending, I feel like we didn't eat enough cucumbers or zucchini.  We had so much to eat and still had plenty to give away and share with others.

We had great pickle cucumber results with the trellis frames we put up this year.  Dave's parents had two cucumber plants and had them coming out of their ears!  Here is just one evening's pickling haul.  We have quarts and quarts of pickles downstairs.  I use my mother in law's pickle brine recipe that was shared with her by a neighbor:  

1 quart white vinegar

1 pint water

4 c. sugar

1/2 c. pickling salt

Pack jars with onion slices, garlic cloves, dill sprigs and cucumbers.  Pour hot brine over packed jars leaving 1/2 inch head space.  Process in hot water bath for 20 minutes.

My dear friend Brenda puts jalapeno slices in her jars for a lovely bit of heat.  I am not familiar enough with jalapenos so I add 1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes per quart or 1/8 tsp per pint.  Num num.

It is always amazing to me that an absolute PILE of produce can be shoved into a handful of jars and preserved.

We have a ridiculous amount of pickles downstairs but they are delightful.  Dave and I fight over the last few when we crack open a pint and my nieces and nephews love them so we'll have plenty to give away.  I used up all our jars this summer and I never thought canning jars would be at a shortage.  Fleet Farm couldn't keep them on the shelves due to "unprecedented demand" because of the pandemic.  I'm glad to see a revival of these home arts/skills but not under these circumstances.  I suppose people are not working as much and we've seen interruptions in the food supply chains so people are growing and preserving their own food.  I don't want to be all doom and gloom but we are entering flu season and here in Minnesota, our positive cases have been 900+ for almost 2 weeks.  I worry we are seeing another surge...

 

Back to a more cheerful subject...the boy.  He LOVES the water!  We visited my sister for a social distancing get together when my mom came up for the weekend.  I think this will go on our Christmas card this year!

He proceeded to get filthy dirty like a little boy in summer!

He loves water!  Whether he is playing outside in the paddling pool or sprinkler or indoors in the bathtub or bathroom sink, he loves playing in water!

I've given Marek 3 quarantine haircuts and am quite proud of them!  Salons are open now but he won't keep a mask on so I prefer to just keep him home and do it here.  I would never even attempt to cut Dave's hair but the boy's has turned out pretty well.

I came home one day to find this "artwork" inside the closet of the play room.  They are washable markers on flat paint because I never painted the inside of the closet.  I couldn't wash it off but we'll keep it as a time capsule.  Just like you leave growth marks on the wall, we'll leave this art here.  I secured the rest of the markers though.

We've enjoyed walks as a family again now that the heat isn't oppressive.  Poor Lopi can't tolerate a walk in the humid heat and she loves nothing more than a good walk.  We saw these green acorns developing on the branches of an oak tree on our street.  Soon the squirrels will be busy hiding them.

 I'm thrilled to report we have asparagus coming up in our long grass area of the yard.  Back in May we planted some roots I picked up at Menards.  Apparently they like well drained sandy kind of soil and we have buckets of that on the shores of the pond.  Nothing really happened with them and we kind of forgot about them.  Dave noticed these fronds thinking they were dill at first.  We have asparagus coming and will be able to pick it and eat it next summer!

I put up my fall decorations up including my Fall/Halloween kitchen towels.  I love cooking in this cool weather.  Here is bread rising in a bowl covered by my Edgar Allen Poe towel next to the warmth of the crockpot.  We light a candle on the table when we all get to eat together as a family for a subtle sense of occasion.

 Have I mentioned how much I love this boy?  We're trying to get pregnant again with no luck.  Every month is a great disappointment but secretly I feel a twinge of relief.  I know we'll be signing up for twice the responsibility and less sleep and free time and disposable income.  I worry about lifting a toddler while pregnant and pumping and trying to corral an out of control child.  But I also know another baby will be worth it.  Marek is certainly worth it every single day.  I love you, kid.

I am now working 12 hours shifts.  This started back in April and then work was interrupted and school was cancelled and Dave was home all summer.  I'm finally getting back on track with my schedule and getting myself and Marek and Lopi all up and squared away for the day and out the door.  Every day is beat the clock and I work long days but I love every day that we are all home together as a family.  We enjoy breakfast together with coffee, juice, eggs and some sort of home made specialty.  Dave's sister gave us a dozen of her glorious home produced eggs.  Some day I'd like to have chickens here.  Note the double yolk!

Look at this beautiful boy napping!  I just can't look at him enough!  He tears at my heart strings and my ovaries!  That being said, I absolutely LOVE naptime and bedtime!  He is the light of my life but he is also an enormous drain on my energy.  He is worth it though.

I don't know why I am on such a hat kick, but I have been.  I suppose because they are fast and portable projects.  This is a copycat pattern of The Hat I saw all over the place last season.  I bought this yarn at Prairie Yarns in Fargo when we were in town for my grandma Helen's funeral last year.  I don't know what to think about the pom pom.  I don't like yarn pom poms and my attempts to make them have been sloppy and would fall apart in a slight breeze.  These fake fur ones are fun and come in all kinds of colors but they are ginormous and really floppy on the hat.  The jury's still out.

 I knit two of these Llama Una hats because I was so pleased with the pattern.  It also helped that I had a bunch of DK weight scrap yarn sitting around with no earmarked purpose.

 

 This one is Gopher colors of course.  I think I made wrist warmers for my sister out of the burgundy.  Dave says this hat is too feminine and that I should wear it on game day.  OK.

 

 Even though naptime and bedtime means Mommy free time, he doesn't always go right to sleep.  The last time we went home to my parents' house, we brought the video baby monitor and set it up on the table next to the playpen where he sleeps when we're away from home.  He was in a new place and a different bed we looked over and see this on the baby monitor receiver.  You can't do anything but laugh.  Naughty boy!

I don't know how else to say this other than, "VOTE!"  Dave and I voted last week via in person absentee ballot.  Use your voice and VOTE!  I have loved Stephen Colbert since back when I was a single lady in Iowa.  He is doing the Lord's work, quite literally.  Check out his Better Know A Ballot site to find information about where and how you can vote in your state.  No excuses!  Get out there and vote!

New Normal

I was leaving the house the other day and couldn't help but notice this.  We have a catch-all shelf with hooks inside the door from the garage.  Our keys are deposited here, mail gets dumped in the cubby and now our masks hang here.  Dave starts summer school next week so I've made him a few masks (Gopher fabric of course!) and M has a pediatric one from his last well baby appointment.  I have a handful of them in my vehicle for when I go out shopping and I have to wear one in and out of the hospital.  I still remember first masking in public mid March and how strange it felt and now I feel almost naked without one.

Florida, Arizona, Texas and California look absolutely terrible Covid-wise.  I can't stress this enough people:  Wear a damned mask and stay the hell home.  If you have been, keep it up.  If you haven't been, START already.  It will save lives.  The poor healthcare workers in those states are getting crushed.  I can't even imagine.  ICU work is hard enough, but it is even worse with isolation precautions.

We have thus far avoided a surge and our hospitalized numbers are going down for which I am very thankful. I am sick and tired of hearing people (several of them in my own extended family) saying this is no big deal, it is just the flu, etc.  These same people hate our governor and the shutdown and restrictions we had.  Many of our restrictions have been lifted and thankfully prudent people who can think critically continue to mask and avoid large groups.  The low numbers we are seeing are the result of those measures and these critics are either ignorant or dismissive of this fact and therefore say it is no big deal. 

It reminds me of patient after patient I've encountered who were newly prescribed blood pressure medication for hypertension and stopped taking it after 2 weeks and their blood pressure was out of control again.  Why did you stop taking your medication?  Because my blood pressure got better.  They just could not connect the fact that their blood pressure was better because they took their medicine.  I'm so afraid that will happen here in Minnesota.  People will go crazy and go out and gather because our numbers are better.  They got better because we took our medicine, i.e. we masked and abstained from those activities.  Cause and effect!

I am thankful this guy is not school age because they are trying to come up with a plan for the fall.  We've been paying our daycare lady to keep our spot but keeping him home to keep our exposure to a minimum.  I'm a little worried about next week when he has to go back. I worry about Dave being in that infectious slurry of kids and bringing germs home.

We've been going out to play in the sunshine and get our daily vitamin D.  Here is his bubble lawnmower from Aldi.

Here are the two men in my life dressed head to toe in Aldi fashions.  They had these darling Papa Bear and Bear Cub shirts for Father's Day and they look so cute together.  M has his Aldi Croc style shoes on too.  I don't praise Aldi enough.  They kept us well fed and equipped on a limited budget through a strike and now a pandemic.

Marek is now starting to enjoy blankets and I am so happy!  He is watching Sesame Street with a blankie made for him by one of Dave's coworkers. 

He loves the water!  This is our redneck version of a water table and he can't get enough.  He runs through the cold sprinkler and drags it around the yard.  I'm disappointed he can't go to Toddler Tuesday at the paddling pool this summer because he'd go crazy.  Next summer.

We've had plenty of indoor fun too.  I got this magnetic wipe off board/chalkboard to work on letters and numbers and colors.  I'm pretty OCD when it comes to the toys and like to put them away assembled with all their different pieces versus throwing everything loose into the toy box, etc.  26 letters and 10 numbers were going to need some sort of bag...

I found some leftover Eric Carle fabric when I was raiding my stash for surgical cap fabrics.  We love Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? around here so this was perfect.  I made a zippered bag lined with leftovers from his dinosaur pillowcase and it holds the magnets, chalk and dry erase markers. 

I just love little things The Boy does.  He tucked his crib toys between the railing and the wall.  He's had that Miffy since his first Christmas.

Lord knows we've been cooking and eating around here.  We got a new grill and Dave assembled it out in the awful humid heat--he was in heaven.  He used Lopi's old dog tie out to lower the old one in pieces down from the deck.  The cord slipped and he dropped the main piece down onto the yard.  It looked like the scene of a terrible accident by the looks of the mangled structure.  We couldn't resist the chance to take a funny picture.

We made our first batch of spicy Korean chicken wings with the induction hotplate out on the deck.

Whenever we get that pot and oil out, we start thinking about what else we can throw in there.  I tried a batch of doughnuts using a recipe I found online.  I don't even remember which one I used but I only made a half batch and we had more than plenty.  I cut one actual doughnut with my cutter and decided that was too much work.  To save time, I cut them into diamonds like a beignet.

I checked with the neighbors before I started frying and we unloaded three plates on three different households and still had more than we could eat.

Onion rings.  Need I say more?  This was such a tasty, easy and cheap recipe.  I never realized the markup on onion rings.  You could easily turn a bag of onions, a sack of flour and a 6-pack of beer into $500.  We did this on a different day but shared these with our neighbors too.

We made cheese curds using this recipe the same day we made onion rings.  I dredged them in the egg and crumbs twice for a thicker crust.  My neighbors paid me the biggest compliment when they told me, "Who needs the State Fair when you live next door to Katie."

We do eat vegetables around here too!  Here is our first bunch of broccoli coming in.  The Boy loves his broccoli and this is the first year we've grown it.  I just got 2 pots of well established eggplant yesterday at HyVee's garden sale and will get them in the ground.  I hadn't planned on growing them this year because you tend them and wait all summer and then pick them a week before the first frost.  I'll try again seeing as I got these for $1.59 each.

Our peonies have come and gone for the year.  My parents stopped through on their way up to Duluth for my niece's graduation.  We kept our distance from one another and it was wonderful to just SEE them even if we couldn't really hug each other.  We stayed home from the celebration because I'm always so afraid I have been unknowingly exposed at work and I don't want to share it with my family.  Mom was bringing a bunch of her deep pink peonies to Duluth and we sent along a bunch of our white blooms.

I went out to the front garden to pick some shrub roses and was pleasantly surprised to find some tiger lilies blooming.  I thought we'd killed them all off.  Look at that almost fluorescent orange against the bottle green glass of the vase.

The same goes for the fuchsia of the roses.  I love having these cheerful colors on the table.  My new obsession is Escape To the Chateau where they have extensive vegetable gardens and glorious flower cutting gardens.  We've cleared a new area of garden that is full of landscaping rocks.  We're growing a pumpkin vine in that area because the vine doesn't care what kind of ground it rests on.  I have a potted dill plant there too and I'm hoping it will seed itself into a full on bush for next year.  Maybe we could grow some flowers in that area too and I can cut them for the house like Angel Adoree.  I just know Angel and I would be best friends!

Keep safe and social distance.  WEAR A MASK.  

Keep your mind and hands occupied and this too shall pass.  Happy Fourth from home!

Seeking Calm

This is the sunlit hall I walk through every day on the way to my department at work.  These windows are painted every holiday season by the different units within the hospital.  They are now painted in hopeful and cheerful rally-for-the-pandemic themes.  I think it is so pretty when the sun shines through and reproduces the designs on the floor in shadows.  There are signs, cards and posters from the public hung all over in the hallways and elevators.  I appreciate the well wishes but it doesn't ease my anxiety.  We are expected to peak towards the end of June and I have my first re-orientation shift in the ICU tomorrow in preparation for my eventual deployment.  I was notified last week and had a good cry or two about it.  I am nervous all the time.

Pictured here is my Mother's Day gift.  I needed a new kettle and this one lights up and is almost twice as big as the old one.  I needed another coffee cup like I need a hole in the head but it is cabled knitting!  We've had the last of our cool weather when tea tastes best.

Marek enjoys playing with bubbles on the deck.  In these photos, spring had barely sprung and it was almost too cool to be outside. 

It was a bright but overcast day and the bubbles were so vibrant and colorful.  I'd never tried taking pictures of bubbles before and I'm sure the neighbors thought I was crazy.

Last month we started a bunch of seeds indoors and got them in the ground after Mother's Day.  This year we're trying pole beans instead of bush beans because I'm tired of bending down to pick them and I hate how sandy and yucky they get on the ground.  I got these wire frames at Menard's and we'll see how this goes.  Dave's dad gave us cauliflower and broccoli seedlings he started.  Marek loves broccoli so I'm excited to try growing it ourselves.

We're going to try those wire frames with our cucumbers too.  I wanted to do the straw bale gardening we saw at the State Fair but because of the pandemic, we couldn't go and get the equipment/supplies for it and I'm hoping the wire frames will make a difference this year.

This little boy loves to draw and instantly took to the sidewalk chalk I got him.  He's wearing his new "Crocs" I found at Aldi.  I can handle the quarantine and closed businesses, but I really miss Saver's.

We had a fawn born in our neighborhood.  He slept in our rhubarb next to the air conditioner for a couple afternoons.  When he'd bleat for his mother, it sounded like a child.

Here is Mom coming to feed him but not before she stopped for a snack of hostas.  She is practically on our front porch.  We were all very quiet inside the house so as not to spook her because we wanted her to go to the fawn.

I love our front apple tree when it blooms every spring.  It is a visual feast of color and texture.

As much as I love looking at the blooms, I love when the petals drip from the branches and carpet the sidewalk and lawn.  Our next flowers will be the peony bush any day now.

It has been warm and humid all week and perfect for this little nerd to play with water.  We also have his kiddie pool set up in the yard.  I found him a large paint brush so he can paint the sidewalk with water.  We used to do that for hours as kids.

It is official summer pajamas weather.  Gone are the zip up one piece footy pajama suits and we're now in the cotton knit short sleeve and sometimes short pants pajamas.  Here he is on the video baby monitor we got for $22 after sale price, coupon, and rat holed $5 Target gift cards.  My sister's kids call this, "The Marek Show."

This little goof is the light of my life.  He is so funny with the little things he does or the way he sees the world.  He is worth every ounce of energy.

He has discovered how light switches work.

I'm still sewing surgical caps every chance I get but last week I spent my evenings knitting on the couch.  I know I get worked up about things and I have been nothing short of terrified of my orientation shift tomorrow so I wanted to sit and lose myself in the TV and some mindless knitting.  These are some baby socks knit from yarn leftover from M's Sweet William sweater. 

They've officially cancelled the county fairs we go to and the State Fair.  I'm so disappointed but it was the right thing to do.  The fiber festival was also canceled this month.  Damn you Covid-19!  It was the right thing to do.  Basically we all got a year's extension to get more projects done for next year's fair.

Find comfort and peace where you can.  Stay home, wash your hands and be safe.  This too shall pass.