Hello April

  Greetings everyone both near and far, known and unknown. I am always flabbergasted when I see how far my readership extends. That is such a blessing and to all I  would like to say " thank you for taking the time to keep up with what goes on in our lives."  Initially when I started this Blog ten years ago. we were considering retirement and the family were all going in different ways, so it was started as a "keep up with us" for friends and family to keep them informed, Haha i guess we have moved on from that over the years. I still try and keep you informed whilst respecting the "kids"  personal lives, not always easy I can tell you.😀😀

What happened this month ? Oh my gosh it feels like it was a year long.  I am not sure how the busyness keeps rolling or even trying to slow it down, I really do try.  One of the things I am really working hard on, for many reasons, is that I am allowed to rest and not be productive all my waking hours ... definitely a challenge.  Currently as I type this I do not actually have a choice. Last month I shared all the 'drama" surrounding the diagnosis of Atrial Fibrillation which was discovered.  After seeing the Electrophysiologist the Doctors did not waste much time. This past Thursday, 26th March,  I was admitted to the Cardio Ward and after being told I was no 3 on the surgical list, I lay around until past 18.15 before being wheeled into Theatre, not my favourite place.  When I came round from the Anaesthetic in ICU, Poppet was there and what a blessing she was.  There are some anaesthetic combinations that I do not tolerate very well and I came to feeling extremely nauseous and claustrophobic.  Poppet prayed with me which helped immensely. I fell asleep and awoke at 02.30 and was awake from then on, such fun. This ICU operates on one patient, one Nurse, the nurses were amazing.  Everything went well and I was discharged at midday on Friday.  My surgeon said there were many misfiring ventricles that she had to ablate.  There has not been much pain, rather more discomfort and bruising from the wound site (they go in through the groin ) and feeling like I have a stitch in my left side. These feeling are normal and it can apparently take three months for all symptoms to cease and become normal. Sooo, all that to say I have been told to rest, not lift or carry anything heavy etc. My kids are also being quite bossy and watchful in making sure I actually am resting.  I am, I am, I promise.😀

JB and I are have a girl day and catching up on our TV viewing and reading (Hubby is sailing for the day).  She is doing so much better under her new Doctor, in fact she is now battling with regular "lows" and getting her Insulin doses correct.  She has been living with 'high insulin' for so many years that it became the norm for her.  Folks Diabetes Type 1 is no joy ride.  Only living with someone who has it gives you a very small window into what they deal with on a daily basis.  Many people say "exercise" for some that causes a rise in Glucose levels. Eat meat/protein - can also cause a spike, and so it goes on. That is not counting into effect the needle pricks, constant counting and mental maths, having snacks that don't adversely affect your glucose. The effects of highs and lows on their body and overall health are on a different level.  Praise God for at last finding a Doctor who not only cares but takes action and stays in contact.

We were in Hout Bay as well, looking after the little Prince.  Oh my word, he grows daily and is developing such a personality.  He had his first haircut at the beginning of the month and already the curls are growing all over.  It might sound odd to most people but even at his age he has a sense of humour and keeps us entertained every minute.  Congratulations to the Bears on celebrating your 13th Anniversary, well done you two and may you have many, many more years of love, good health and adventures together, your are a testimony to all who know you.

Poppet had a short but good trip up to Pretoria with Princess, they managed to accomplish a huge amount and make many changes, for the better. My gorgeous Princess  has been through a torrid time but I am so proud of the way she has handled everything. God has you in the palm of His hand my precious girl, you have got this, Granny loves you.

Big guy is well, he had a good month business wise in signing off on a very important deal he has been negotiating. Well done Son. It is so good to see you happy and motivated.  We miss you and Princess down here .

 What's happening on the work / hobby front ?  Hmmpppfffff I have struggled with this blessed Penguin for Hooked in Luv.  I think I have started 6 or 7 times. they are either too small or one was actually life sized.  I was ready to pull my hair out never mind the wool.  Eventually  I found a nice looking pattern but it was a wee bit small.  After sitting for a whole day with different calculations trying to make it bigger I was thoroughly disenchanted with the whole thing.  Recalling as recent conversation with BigBear I got onto a reliable Ai site and copy/ pasted the pattern, what I wanted to achieve (all very politely) and asked  it to help me make it bigger and incorporate those changes into the shaping.  Boom, bang it took a couple of minutes and voila I had an amended pattern, just for me, whoop whoop.  When I have the energy that is my next and hopefully last try to get the Penguin crocheted and presented.  In the meantime on JB's suggestion I dug out a Quilt project which I started back during CoVid lockdown.  I had made a LOT of candlewicked embroidered squares with batting and although I knew what I wanted it to look like, I could never just get my head around it, and so it sat.  In a sudden burst of inspiration it came to me - I can crochet and therefore I don't need to sew them together using  lace but, I could crochet borders around each square and then join them together.  It is certainly going to take awhile because it is very work intensive, but it will, I hope, become something of an heirloom to be passed along.  In the light of that there is actually a load of 'work' ahead for me just with my hobbies, I am not even talking about my Diamond Dot Art and Adult Colouring in, reading back on this, I need lots of time hahaha.  The other major achievement this  past month was getting an old laptop which was passed onto me because it was so slow. I barely touched it because I don't have 35 mins to wait for it to boot up.  so out it came, I did a complete factory reset on it, defragged etc and whoo hoo  it is working, I am, typing on it right now.  I treated it to a nice laptop sleeve, cleaned it up and now this operator has to get back into the swing of using a laptop instead of a phone haha. no Sharon it is not a touch screen, use the mouse pad. 😂 It is really nice though to be able to type properly and quickly.

Gosh, a whole blog and not one word about the weather, what am I doing? 😃 The weather has been minimally cooler interspersed with mind numbing hot days.  Obviously living in the Cape the South Easter wind is our absolute friend.  Without it we roast. There have been moments (yes moments) like a hundred drops every now and then, which at least have caused the grass to grow and look greener.  It is officially Autumn but not that you would believe it.  Today for instance there is not a cloud in the sky and not a blade of grass moving.  During March the heat peaked to 50 C in some parts of the Western Cape and an average of 38 C plus for the rest.  I am a winter girl and always will be.

After all that news I am going to say Ciao Ciao for now.  I wish you all a very blessed month, there are no problems that God cannot fix, no hills too high to climb and remember if you have God you are never alone.  Deuteronomy 31 v 6 God says "Be strong and very courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them,  the LORD your God is the One who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you"

Quilt Square - 1 of about 42

Big Olly.