November 6, 2026 - The Car, Canning, Rug Hooking, Cross Stitching . . Everything!

 It's been almost a week since I've written a post. I've been busy - not abnormally busy but everything I was doing was pretty boring and of no interest to most but . . here's my week in a nutshell! It's mostly been canning - very little stitching!

Monday: We were supposed to take the car to the shop Monday evening but it was supposed to storm (hail and chance of tornadoes) so we asked the mechanic if we could bring it in early Tuesday morning and he was fine with that. We had an Azure Standard pickup Monday evening and it was supposed to be at 6:30 p.m. - which is after dark and neither of us like to drive at dark but sometimes you have to do what  you have to do. Then it got pushed back to 7:30 p.m. The storms were supposed to start moving in by 8 p.m. so I was pretty nervous. Vince didn't want to drive so I was going to drive and we were going to take his car. I started backing out of the driveway and said NO! The lights on this car are awful. Put it back in the garage and took mine and wouldn't you know it -- that car didn't make one sound the entire trip. I'm not sure how or why because it has been so noisy with that messed up strut but we made it about 35 miles to the Azure drop location, got what we had ordered, and made it back home. We could see lightning off to the west but it never even rained here.

Tuesday: Took the car to the shop -- I got some canning done, and made rye bread. I had taken some roasts and a few packages of steaks that I knew we weren't going to eat as steaks and cut it all up, canned it as pot roast with potatoes and carrots. I think I ended up with about 12 quarts. Part of our Azure pickup was 48 pounds of beets. I got half of those canned Tuesday (16 quarts) and probably tomorrow (Saturday), I'll get the rest of those done.

Wednesday: I drove Vince's car to stitch with Debbie. I was probably about 10 miles from home, nervous driving that car, I had asked Vince to keep his cell phone with him at all times. I noticed the brake light was on. I called Vince and he said "Oh, it does that when it's cold outside." I said "Oh, instead of a thermostat, this car has a brake light!"  It made it there and back . . just as he said it would!

Thursday: I went to rug hooking again and bought some supplies to try punch needle or needle punch - not sure which way is correct. When I got home that afternoon, I asked Vince if we should call the mechanic because he said it would take two days on my car. He said "No, I'll call him tomorrow (Friday) if he doesn't call." An hour or so later, Vince's phone rang. He was busy and asked me two answer it. It was the mechanic. He said "I'm not rushing you but I wanted to be sure you got my message yesterday that your car is ready." NO! Someone in this house (not me) never checks his messages so we went and got my car and that made me very happy.  When we got home from picking up my car, I canned 16 quarts of cranberry juice. It's that time of year!

Friday (Today): At least I can remember most of what I did today - I'll just share the highlights. I'm trying to clean out the freezers. We have a pig coming soon and there is no room! We used to love pulled pork but it seems the last few times I've smoked one, we haven't eaten much of it so I took one out of the freezer, cut the pork into chunks, seasoned it, raw packed it and canned it. It should be pretty much like pulled pork now but in small portions so we don't have to eat it for days. I want to try this recipe: Sweet Potato Pulled Pork Hash. I think I'm going to cook that tomorrow and see if we like it and, if so, I'll take two more pork butts out and do the same with them.

Quite a while ago, I gave up on chicken from Walmart. Just don't like it any more. I've been happy with chicken from Sam's but lately, it's been almost like what I had disliked about Walmart's chicken - stringy, mushy . . not good. Debbie had found the place where we got the bones to make chicken broth and those people also sell chickens. They're supposedly organic, butchered by a USDA inspected facility so we tried some of those and yes, they're a bit more expensive; they're 1-1/2 hours (at least) from here but we can get 10 or 12 of them at a time when we have room in a freezer. I did get 5 to start with and make sure we liked them . . we do! I spatchcocked one last week and right off the bat I noticed how thick and dense the bones were. I could not cut through the bones and I've never had a problem cutting through a storebought chicken's bones. I almost had to get Vince to come do it for me. I changed scissors twice and finally got the bone cut out. Vince said he will do it for me next time. We loved the taste of the chicken and the texture. The chicken was right at 5 pounds. We ate roasted chicken one night; then I pulled the meat off the bones. We had chicken salad sandwiches one day and then I used the rest of the meat to make this Chicken Enchilada Skillet (I really made half the recipe and I used green enchilada sauce). Then I simmered the bones and used the broth for another canning recipe I made today.

The other canning recipe I made today was a base for chicken noodle soup. I used up 8 of Sam's chicken breasts and I'm hoping there aren't many more packages of that in the freezer. I used frozen (storebought) mixed veggies and the chicken broth from a couple of days ago. I canned that and got 7 quarts. When it's time to cook the soup, I'll boil some fettuccine noodles in about 2 cups of water. When the noodles are almost cooked, I'll take them out, save the cooking liquid and add the contents of the jar. The starch from the pasta water will thicken up the soup, then I'll add the noodles back in and add any seasonings that need to be added.

That's today food cooking but then I tried something new and NOT an "approved" recipe. I've been seeing people canning banana nut bread and those types breads so today I canned banana nut bread and pumpkin bread. I'm hoping we like them and they last (safely) in the jars.

Vince found a cranberry orange loaf recipe and he wanted me to make that so I made that too.

That's about it for this past week . . 

November 1, 2026 - Blackbird Academy November Project

 The November project for Blackbird Academy is something with a basket. I chose What Remains is Love.

Today was one of those days when I was so excited to get started on this project but there were other things to be done. I made three loaves of Ezekiel bread for Vince . . I can't believe he likes that but he does! Then I made two loaves of Marbled Rye for sandwiches and toast. While I was in the mood to play with fresh milled flour, I was getting started on making Oatmeal Raisin cookies because the other day, Vince told me those were his favorite cookies. Huh? I've never heard that? I didn't admit that I didn't know what my husband's favorite cookie is but I made some today. But, before I got the cookie dough mixed up, Chad, Nicole and Addie came by. They were in town to do some shopping and I'll gladly stop anything I'm doing and spend time with them! They stayed about an hour . . never long enough for me but I know they have a lot going on.

Once the cookies were baked and dinner was served and the kitchen halfway cleaned up, I took a nap. I had left a pot of bone broth simmering on the stove. I told Vince it was cooking so if he smelled smoke or heard any weird noises, to wake me. He did wake me but it was because Oscar will not go outside with Vince if I'm home and he had to go outside so I had to wake up and take him. Poor Oscar!

Anyway, after my nap, I had several hours to get some stitching done and here's where I left off.

I love this piece of linen. It's Mossy Terracotta by XJu Designs. If you click on this link wanting to order and it shows that it's out of stock, she will probably have more soon but if not, you may be able to ask her to dye it for you. She used to would do that but I haven't ordered in a while so . . I can't say for sure.

October 27, 2026 - Stitching and Car Update

I've been sitting here trying to decide if it was worth waking the dogs, who are both sleeping so peacefully on my lap, to go find my phone to take a picture of the progress I wanted to share on the current project. I decided it was not worth it and started back to stitching, then realized I can take a picture with my tablet! Why didn't I think of that an hour ago??

This is a SAL and we have weekly assignments. I've worked ahead so I can put this aside on November 1 and work on the Blackbird Academy project. I'm kinda jumping around but by the end of tonight I think I will have finished the assignments through November 15 and a good start on the house, which is the week of December 5. I've been outlining on the house because I want to get to the bottom of it and outline the grassy area.

My stitching plan probably makes no sense to anyone, including myself, but it's hard for me to work on the Blackbird projects if I'm behind on this SAL and it's hard for me to work on this SAL if I know I'm going to get behind on the Blackbird projects. Yes, stitching is fun and it really doesn't bother me if I miss a "deadline" but I do want to keep up if I can.

This project is A Grateful Heart by The Scarlett House. I love the verse on this one, which says "Each dawn brings a new day for us to do whatever we may may. Choose to be happy with a grateful heart for we have been given a brand new start."

On the car issue, we left it with the mechanic yesterday so he could check it out today and drive it. He's pretty sure it isn't the driveshaft. He said there's absolutely no shaking or wobbling he can feel in the steering wheel when driving it. The back right strut has failed and that's the noise I've been hearing the last two or three times I drove it. Remember, I only drive it once a week. I told him the noise I'm hearing doesn't happen when I hit a bump but it mostly happens when I'm on a washboard type rough road. He made the tire bounce and I heard the exact noise I've been hearing and he explained to me why single bumps don't cause the noise as much as a washboard type road. Made sense when he said it because that's exactly what I was hearing. There still could be more issues once he gets it all apart but, for some reason, changing struts doesn't sound nearly so sad as changing a driveshaft. Vince said "I think you have it wrong because changing the struts is going to cost more than changing the driveshaft!" In my mind, struts sounds like a much easier fix. In fact, we had the struts changed on that car either three or four years ago. The guy who did our work back then was really good, had a very good reputation but he retired and closed his shop. He changed all four struts and today's mechanic said we probably just had a bad one. He didn't see anything wrong with the installation. Vince wants to go ahead and change all four of them. We brought it home so I can use it tomorrow to go stitch with Debbie, then it goes back in the shop next week for "a few days".

October 26, 2026 - Funny Cooper Story

 This really isn't funny but . . it kinda was. Cooper does NOT like other animals. If there's a dog, a horse, a cat, even a butterfly on TV, he starts barking and jumping at the TV. I've really worked with him, including behavior classes, and he's come a long way on some things but not liking other animals is not an area in which he's improved much.

He had his annual vet visit today. We always get the first appointment of the morning, hoping we can get in and out before it gets crowded. One lady came in with a cat in a carrier. Apparently that was an emergency because the techs immediately took the cat back and the lady sat near us in the waiting area. The techs were talking about an aggressive dog was coming in and they wanted to put him in Room "A". Then, someone came in with a BIG dog. Apparently he was the aggressive dog. There was a man and woman and the man had a tight hold on his leash. Cooper saw him and barked one of his BIG dog barks and scared that poor dog. He tried to get as far from Cooper as he could. 

The funny part: The couple took that dog over to another part of the waiting area. It's kinda partitioned off from where we were sitting. Cooper was continuing to bark because he knew that dog was over there. The lady with the big dog said to her dog "And we thought YOU were bad!" 

The lady who had brought the cat in said "I have NEVER heard such a loud bark from such a small dog." Yes, Cooper can be quite loud when he wants to be. Oscar isn't nearly as loud as Cooper is.

This part wasn't so funny!

$857!! It does include Interceptor Plus and Credelio for both Oscar and Cooper for a year. When Oscar had his annual visit a couple of months ago, they were out of the Interceptor Plus and I told them I still had some at home and would get them when I came back with Cooper, Even taking off the pills for Oscar, Cooper's visit, including the meds, would have been $550. I'm not blaming the vet . . those meds are outrageously expensive. It makes me sad to know that there are many pet owners who are having to do without these meds because of the cost.

I checked Chewy's price and with the discount for auto ship, the price is about the same as the vet's charges with the discount they offer.

And then the least funny part of all . . we brought Cooper home, then took both cars to Discount Tire for their semi-annual checkup. A couple of weeks ago, my car started making a rattling sound - not all the time but enough that I knew it needed to be looked at. I was thinking something was loose . . no big deal. Wrong! I have no idea what I'm talking about here but I think what they said is that all the carrier bearings need to be replaced. The driveshaft is not exactly in the position where it's supposed to be and, lucky us, this is one of the years that the driveshaft has to be replaced when this happens. Of course, getting a driveshaft for a 19 year old car may take "a while".  The car is in the shop now and hopefully we will find out more tomorrow (Tuesday). 

I understand most people would say "Buy a new car! Don't spend that much on a 19 year old car." That is not the way Vince thinks. I'm fine with it. I drive that car once a week - sometimes to Nevada, MO to meet Debbie and sometimes, she comes here. The most miles we ever put on that car is about 260 miles per month and it only has 130K miles on it. 

The mechanic is going to go over everything and make sure there's nothing else he sees that might go wrong in the near future. This will be a large repair bill and if there's something else that looks like it's about to go out, we'll have to re-think that not buying a new car decision.

The mechanic seems to think that the folks who changed the struts didn't use the right tool and one of the carrier bearing assemblies is completely gone and that's what started this. He said it happens often. There's a certain tool that has to be used and if the shop doesn't have that tool, they use something else and it almost always causes a failure in the same part that has failed on my car. 

We'll know more tomorrow but for now, I'm really sad about my car.

And to further make you shake your head and wonder what he's thinking . . Vince's car is 25 years old and it seems the transmission is going out in it so once my car is all back to safe driving, he's going to put his in the shop. That's the way it is around here!!

October 21, 2026 - Blackbird Academy SAL Finishes

 Apparently I've been getting a lot of stitching done! I've started and finished the Blackbird Academy SAL pieces for August, September and October. I've already shared the finish for August but will put it here again just to make them all easier (for me) to find later.

For August, the prompt was to stitch something with an alphabet. I stitched Christmas Rose. In this photo, it isn't framed, just stuck in the frame I will use. I will get it framed in plenty of time to have on the wall before Christmas. I have Addie's initials on this one and the year she was born.

For September, the prompt was to stitch something with birds. I stitched Come Into My Garden in memory of my grandma. The frame is ordered and I can't wait to get this on my wall. I think this is the prettiest piece I've ever stitched! I had looked for the perfect linen for so long and I don't think I could have found a more beautiful linen. It is Sassenach by Fabrics by Stephanie.

I will confess . . I didn't get it finished in September but as soon as I finished the October project, I began working on Come Into My Garden and it only took a couple of days to get it finished so I'm back on track.

For October, the prompt was to stitch something with a pumpkin and I stitched Moonlit Garden. This one also is not laced or permanently in the frame - just stuck in there for the photo.

November's prompt is something with a basket. I will be stitching What Remains is Love and it will be done in memory of my aunt, Dorothy. I already had this kitted with linen and floss but in keeping with the memorial piece I did for my dad and for my grandma, I'm swapping the solid-ish to a mottled linen, Marbled Terracotta by X-Ju Designs.

I will work on the SAL for A Grateful Heart and try to get several weeks ahead on the assignments so I don't fall behind while working on the Blackbird Academy SAL.

Yes! I am enjoying not having the garden to deal with and loving the extra stitching time!

October 12, 2026 - Floss Organizing

 This is a MUCH needed project and has been a long time coming. In the grand scheme of life, this is not a huge problem but it has been something I've been thinking about and trying to figure out how to "fix" it for quite a while.

When I started cross stitching at the end of 2020, it was hard to get supplies so any time a color of floss came in stock, I would order a couple of skeins. 

I can justify my out of control floss stash . . because I manage to justify all of the crazy things I do but . . hear me out! First, there was not a cross stitch shop anywhere near me. There was one in Tulsa and one in Branson and one near Kansas City. All of those places are at least two hours from me IF there's not at least one 18 wheeler turned over on the interstate, which seems to happen daily! Second, back then if I needed two colors of floss, there was a good chance I'd have to order from two different shops to find one that had it and that meant paying shipping for each skein of floss that cost less than $2.50.  So, if I was going to order floss, I was going to order a LOT of floss and make that shipping cost worthwhile. If you've been around for a while . . you know how I am. It could be worse!

When I started out, I bought loose leaf binder rings. I kept my floss in alphabetical order - separate for the brands - Weeks, Classic Colorworks and Gentle Art. I kept DMC in small plastic boxes according to their numbers.

I did a great job of keeping the floss organized until about 2024. Then I decided I would give up on alphabetizing, mix the Weeks, Classic Colorworks and Gentle Art and keep them organized by color - all the reds together, all the oranges together, etc. I got about through the "L" colors and decided . . nope, don't like that system but I never changed it so A - L was all mixed together by brand and sorted according to color but all the floss I bought after that was put on new rings according to brand and alphabetized. Then a friend who was no longer stitching sent me some of her floss - all alphabetized with the brands mixed together. She had BIG rings and maybe A- F was together and then G - M was on another ring, etc. So, if I was looking for a color, say Chestnut by Weeks Dyeworks . . I would have to look through the A - L ring that my friend sent, the ring I had mixed up in 2004 to find a brown (Chestnut), then I would have to look on the new rings I started after I sorted them by color and, I had a box for each brand where I put floss that needed to go on the ring! 

To further complicate matters (feeling sorry for me yet? <G>), the floss was all stored in the sewing room closet.

Problem #1 with this setup: The closet is dark. The light is in the ceiling but with all the shelves, the light didn't do a lot of good. I had asked Vince about a brighter light and he said it would be the same - the shelves and "stuff" on the shelves blocks the light. 

Problem #2 with this setup: The sewing room doesn't have good lighting. It was meant to be a family room/game room and the light is fine for that. Vince offered to have more lights put in but I didn't want to go to that expense. I don't sew and for the most part, the lighting works fine. If I'm cross stitching in there, I have a magnifying light and that works great.

Problem #3 with this setup: Just outside the closet doors, there sits the long arm that should have been sold 8 or 9 years ago! I can barely walk past the table. We haven't tried to sell it  . . don't get me started on that!  :)

So, if I'm thinking maybe I want a brown that isn't so dark instead of Chestnut, I make my way to the closet, grab a couple of browns, make my way to a room with better light, decide none of those work; go back in there, put those colors back on the right ring, pick a couple more . . and give up and use Chestnut!

I've been thinking and thinking about what to do and I came up with a plan.

There's a little "foyer" type room at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. It's right off the family room where we watch TV, flosstube, I stitch - basically this is the room we hang out in. There's a door off the foyer that goes into the downstairs garage, which is air conditioned/heated and where I do my canning and we have things stored that need to be in a climate controlled area.

When we first moved here, the light in that little foyer was just awful so Vince got a better light and it is the brightest light ever. In fact, the people we bought the house from were over one day and Vince said "Oh, come see the light I put in the basement!" The former owner was joking and covered his eyes because the light was so bright. It's great though because it lights up the stairs at night better than the little lights going up the stairs and, as old folks, we need light going up and down stairs at night. We can turn the bright line off and on from upstairs or downstairs.

So, I thought . . what if I put some kind of hanging system on the wall in that little foyer. No one sees it but us. It can easily be taken down and that small wall repainted if we leave and my plan would not be expensive (nor is it pretty!)

I had the idea to take a board that is about 1" thick and 2" tall, four or five feet long, drill holes all the way through it about every 1-1/2", put a few spacers behind it and put S hooks through the holes and hang my floss there. I explained my plan to Vince and while he wasn't as excited about it as I was, I'm sure he thought . . I might as well do this because she'll probably never shut up about it if I don't.

We talked about it and threw around some other ideas. I took Vince into the sewing room and showed him my current setup. When he saw how I had the floss hanging, he said "What if we just get dowel rods and hang those up on hooks on the foyer wall?" Oh, yes! Much easier and probably less expensive.

This morning we went to Menard's and Home Depot and ended up with most everything we needed. Vince came home and got four dowel rods up on the wall for me.

You can see the stair rail and the door leading to the garage. 

The top row has the Weeks Dye Works floss that I got re-organized last week. It's all now on rings in alphabetical order. The next two dowels will have Classic Colorworks on one and Gentle Art on the other, both of which have to be re-organized alphabetically. The bottom dowel has Colour & Cotton. I was hoping to add Victorian Motto to that row too but there isn't enough room. I don't think my Classic Colorworks or Gentle Art floss will take up the entire dowel rod so, if they don't, I can put some Victorian Motto at the end of each of those rods and I can squish the Colour & Cotton together a bit and make more room and put more Victorian Motto there.

I'm so happy to have this new setup because (1) The lighting is great there; (2) It's easy to get to and I have a spot where I can spread it out and make sure it all works together. If not, I can put it back on the rings and put them away easily. (3) Since I walk by the floss 100 times a day, if I'm thinking . . this Chestnut color is too dark, I can glance at the colors as I'm walking by. I think just seeing it all so many times every day, I will be more aware of the colors I have so when I think a color is too dark, I might be able to go right to a color I think might work.

I can't wait to get all the cotton (except DMC) on there!!

October 11, 2026 - Blackbird Academy Progress

 My project for October is Moonlit Garden and I'm making good progress. Since I took this photo, I've finished the letters at the bottom and have the stars down the right side. All I have left to do are the stars on the left side, fill in the roof, stitch the light bricks in the house and finish the moon. That's still a lot of stitching but I feel like I can finish this by the end of this week.

As soon as I finish this one, I will get back to the September project, Come Into My Garden.

I'm pretty sure it's only going to take four or five more days on this one to get it finished. I've been wanting to get a frame ordered but have held off until the stitching is done. Can't wait to get this one on the wall.

I haven't even thought about what my project will be for November.