WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY

I didn't post yesterday because I didn't do much except lay on the sofa and sleep.  My back is very s-l-o-w-l-y getting better.  It still hurts a lot if I move wrong or if I sit too long.  

Joe had a doctor's appointment yesterday and ended up going to the V.A. Hospital by train so I didn't have to drive.  I did drive over to the train station to pick him up when he came home.  That was the first time I had driven in three days and I was OK.  Not great, but I do have great heated seats in the car with good back support.  Unfortunately when Joe was headed toward the car, he decided to climb up the incline instead of going through the driveway and he lost his balance and fell onto the parking lot.  He didn't get hurt badly, but he scared both of us.  He said he's a little sore today,  it could have been so much worse.

We went to Bible Study last night.  I made it through with a few winces of pain here and there.  I was going to go to the Agape Dinner tonight but after sitting on the chair for an hour I knew there was no way I could do that.

Today I am still stiff and in pain but some better.  I think in a week or so I will be fine.  It just had to happen THIS week.  *sigh*

The one thing I did was go get my hair cut.  I had made the appointment several weeks ago but wasn't sure I could do it.  I went to the same place I always use, but had a different hair dresser.  Instead of Deb, I had Kim because Deb wasn't able to fit me in.  I was so happy because Kim did an excellent job on me.  In fact I like her better than Deb and already have an appointment with her for next time.  Their chair was very comfortable so I wasn't in pain while my hair was being cut.

I meant to take a before picture, but forgot.  So here is the picture from a few days ago.

And here is the new cut.

I am really happy with it.  I don't mind having longer hair in the cold weather, but it drives me nuts in the warmth.

And speaking of warmth, it got up to 73* today!  (That's 23*C for my Canadian and European friends.)  Whoo hoo!  I was very happy.  Joe opened the windows and put in the screens for me.  I'm still not up to that with my back and I am not doing ANYTHING to maybe put me back.

Joe made meatloaf for dinner tonight.  He didn't want me leaning over to put it in the oven.  That was so sweet of him.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow.  I don't feel like going, but I guess I will.  And then there's a Good Friday service in the evening.  Somewhere in there I have to go food shopping too.  So it will be a full day.

And so I'm heading for bed.  Have a good night everyone.

Kathy

Weather for Philadelphia:
Mostly clear
High:  73*F     Low:  56*F
Sunrise:  6:49 a.m.     Sunset:  7:22 p.m.
12 hours and 33 minutes of daylight

ANOTHER DAY FLAT ON MY BACK

It's so hard for me to get my head around the fact that my favorite week of the entire year has turned into a week of pain.  I took some more Tylenol before I went to bed last night and this morning woke up feeling pretty good.  My back was tender, but I could tell it was healing.

I was sitting on the sofa writing out my to-do list for the day when Jack the cat started throwing up.  And not only did he throw up on the rug, but began scratching at a pile of filing I had on the coffee table, throwing it to the floor and tearing all the pieces of my income taxes to shreds.  I yelled at him and went to pick up everything.  When I leaned over a sharp pain ripped through my back and I screamed.  Now my back is worse than ever.  I have so much to do to get ready for Easter -- so much cleaning, baking, shopping.  And I can do nothing.  I even cancelled Bible Study this morning because there was no way I could get there.

So to comfort myself I ate my Peeps that I was saving for Easter.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I love my Peeps.  But just in case any of you get the wrong idea, I did not sit down and eat the whole two boxes in one sitting.  Nor did I eat them all in one day.  They have been slowly disappearing over the past several weeks.  I just finished them off today.

So please keep praying.  I am going to take some Tylenol and go to bed now.  Hopefully by morning I will feel much better.  Joe has a doctor's appointment tomorrow at the V.A. Hospital and I can't drive him there so he is taking the train and the bus in.  I am planning to try to get to Bible Study tomorrow night.  We'll see how that goes.  I was able to make dinner tonight and I am taking that as a good sign.

Good night all.  Have a good evening.

Kathy

JOE'S TEMPERATURE BLANKET

I have been working on Joe's temperature blanket for three months now.  My blanket has gone by the wayside while I knit away on this one.  I want to get it done by his birthday on May 20. 

I have mentioned this before, but for those who don't know I went back to the weather history for 1958 and 1959 and wrote down the high temperature for each day.  Since Joe wanted a blue blanket I bought all different shades of blue to use.  I couldn't get enough blue, so I added two shades of green also.  Then I assigned a color to each 10 degree Fahrenheit range and started knitting away.  I am using navy to create the border top and bottom and to separate each month.

This morning I took pictures of each month.  The first one is from May 20 to June 30, 1958.

July 1958

August 1958

September 1958

October 1958

And finally November 1958 which I finished this morning.  I am now half-way finished.

Here is a picture of the entire blanket so far.  You can see the temperatures getting colder as you go up the blanket.

And now here's the bad news for today.  As I was taking these pictures this morning I was leaning over to get in tight on the months.  I straightened up and felt a sharp pain in my lower back.  Yes, my spine went out and I am in severe (may I say extreme?) pain.  I have spent the entire day flat on my back watching youtube videos and sleeping.  I have so much to do this week!

On the good side I watched three documentaries on the secrets of Westminster Abbey, who were the ancient Vikings and was there really a King Arthur.  Tonight I watched lifestyle mavern Mary Berry preparing dishes for Easter.  My mind, when it wasn't asleep, was at least getting educated.

We even called out for dinner tonight, something I've been trying not to do because money is tight but I just couldn't stand to cook.

I went onto google and read that Tylenol is very effective on back pain so I just took two extra strength tablets and hopefully they will help.  I need help!  Please pray if you will.  Yesterday a burned arm that is all blistered today and now a really painful back which makes it almost impossible for me to walk.  I don't know what 
God is trying to teach me, but whatever it is I hope I learn it.

That's about all I can sit up for, so I'm going to end and lay down again.  Hope you all have a good night.

Kathy

PALM SUNDAY (AND IT'S MY 2000TH POST!)

I hope you all had a wonderful day.  I woke up very early today.  I wouldn't have except someone wanted me up to feed him.

Oh, Jack!  Why can't you let me sleep past 4:30 a.m.?

So since I was up I decided to make gluten-free apple cinnamon muffins for Fellowship Time at church.  I made them from a mix since I am not at all good making gluten-free dishes.  They were OK, but I don't think I would make them again.

Joe got up, tried to eat, sat there for awhile then went back to bed.  Poor guy still isn't feeling all that great.  I just want him to be OK for the rest of this week and for Easter.

No kids showed up for Sunday School so I got the opportunity to sit in church and hear the message.  It was so good.  We are studying Colossians and even though I taught it about a year ago, there is always something new to learn.  And my lessons and Pastor's sermons have a different emphasis.  There was so much in the message that I took to heart and am pondering and praying about.

The church looked very nice and a lot of people commented on it.  I'm glad Dorothea and I took the time to make it so pretty.

This afternoon I was looking at the palms I had gotten and wondered how hard it was to make a palm cross.  I went on youtube because you can find anything on youtube.  There were several videos.  I tried a couple, but found one that was simple and was able to make a few nice ones.  The first two I tried were pretty lame, but I was able to make two decent ones -- one for Joe and one for me.  There are a lot of palms left over, so I am going to ask for more on Tuesday and see if I can make a bunch of them to give out on Easter.

For dinner tonight I had lamb chops, baked potatoes and a cauliflower and broccoli blend.  When I went to put the lamb chops on, some olive oil that I had in the pan splashed on my right arm and my face.  My face is OK, but my arm is burned.  Fortunately not badly but it sure hurts as if it is bad.  Now that the blisters are coming out I can see just how much of my arm is burned and it's quite a lot.

I wanted to get a picture of the sunset tonight.  But as I did, I noticed the silhouette of the trees.  Look, there are buds!  Even though there were snow flurries this morning, there are buds!  Surely warm weather can't be far away.

I bought myself a new necklace.  I saw this in Rite Aid and couldn't resist.  It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but I know it will go with so many of my outfits.  It is much prettier in person than it is in the picture.  All of the stones sparkle.

This is going to be a busy week.  Something going on every day except Monday.  I think I'm going to have to rest tomorrow to save my energy for the rest of the week.  And so with that I am heading to bed.

Until later...

Kathy

DECORATING FOR PALM SUNDAY

This afternoon Dorothea and I went to church to decorate it for Palm Sunday tomorrow.  Usually we would have more people, but our pastor's wife had two deaths in the family last week.  One was buried yesterday and the other today.  It has been a sad week for the family and if you think of it, please pray for them.

Joe was supposed to go with us but he has, of all things, strep throat.  I took him to the doctor two days ago and he got some antibiotics.  If it isn't one thing it's the other.  Pray for him too, please.

It took us about an hour to get everything done.  I thought it would be much less than that.  Dorothea swept the entire sanctuary since our vacuum is broken.  I put up the banner, changed out the paramount and cloths and together we put out the palms.  I think it looks beautiful.  We had three kinds of palm branches.  I took some pictures to show Joe, but thought I would share them with you too.

These are the ones we will give out tomorrow.  They are on the back table as you come in.

Just a few hours until the start of Holy Week.  It's my favorite week of the entire year.

Kathy

Weather in Philadelphia:
Sunny
High:  47*F (8.3*C)    Low:  31*F (0.5*C)
Sunrise:  6:57 a.m.     Sunset:  7:17 p.m.
12 hours and 20 minutes of daylight!

BIRDS IN THE SNOW

It snowed yesterday.  And not just a little bit.  The snow from Tuesday continued the entire day on Wednesday.  Prayer and Bible Study was cancelled last night.  Most of the time it was very heavy and kept piling up.

I looked out of the window while I was making breakfast and saw all of the birds at the feeder.  I'm so glad to have a camera again so I could capture the moment.

This little guy liked standing on the edge of the earthbox. I guess he didn't want cold feet standing in the snow.

Here he is again.

Waiting for breakfast.  See all the leaf buds on the trees?

Look at this little bird.  At first I thought it was a female cardinal.  Then I wasn't sure.  Now seeing it up close I think it is again.  What do you think?

Still not really sure.

This was the yard late morning taken through the kitchen window.

And the holly tree in the neighbor's yard.

By afternoon there was even more snow.

And still the snow comes down.

Kathy

SNOW, A LOOK AT ST. PATRICK'S DAY, AND A NEW CAMERA

Yep.  That's about the size of it.  It began about 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday as we were leaving Ladies Bible Study and is supposed to snow all through today.  The prediction is for 10-14 inches (25-35 cm) with freezing rain.  I have a file with pictures that I get off of facebook and the internet.  When I see something cute, I save it.  I was looking for a picture for the first day of Spring but when I saw this, I knew it was perfect for today.

After study Debbie and I went to the new ShopRite.  Have I told you how in love with this store I am?  Well I'm telling you now.  It is the absolute best grocery store I have ever been in.  When we approached the entrance an attendant came up to us, greeted us, and asked if he could get us a cart.  Why yes, thank you!  We enter this beautiful clean building with the freshest fruit, veggies and meat I have ever seen.  There's a beautiful ceiling to floor waterfall facing you as you walk in.  Customer service is above and beyond.  I was getting two cases of water when an employee walked up to me and insisted on putting the water into the cart for me because they were heavy.  He was the same one who had answered all of our questions about where certain products were.  The cashier was so friendly on the way out.  And when we got to the car, an attendant unloaded the cart for us, packed the trunk, took the cart back to the store and wished us a great day.  Wow!

By this time it was snowing pretty badly and we had to make a quick stop at Target so we were on our way.  I had to return something and Debbie was just getting one item so I waited for her in Starbucks.  Here's the view out of the window.

Then I took Debbie home and headed home myself.  Yes, folks, it's snowing...again.

But let's go back to St. Patrick's Day.  A much calmer day.

It was a very low-key day.  We were scheduled to go to a Day of Prayer at one of our churches in Allentown, PA but Joe has been having a bad reaction to a new medication and so we decided it would be best to stay home.  He went last year and really enjoyed it so was very disappointed.  He ended up sleeping most of the day and I ended up cleaning.  I will get things done around here.  But we did do some Irish things.  I wore one of my Irish t-shirts.

For dinner I made a boiled meal of ham, potatoes and green beans.

And, of course, Irish tea from my favorite tea mug.

I didn't have any, but Joe enjoyed some ice cream for dessert.

I am so enjoying my new camera.  It has now been 5 weeks and no sign of my other one.  The new one has all kinds of special features.  One of them is that you aim at a subject and press the shutter button.  It will automatically take six pictures with all different effects.  Here's what happened when I took Joe in church on Sunday.  The first picture is what I actually saw and was taking.

Very cool!  I really should read the book that came with it and find out what else it can do.

And with that I am headed to bed.  I slept for most of the evening, but I think I can get a few more hours sleep before it's time to start another day.

Have a good one, everyone.

Kathy