Going, going, not going

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Shortly after writing the previous post, I decided not to join my daughter and her family on their holiday. It was the best choice, albeit not easy, yet I felt peaceful afterwards, and was glad to have made the decision without further stewing about it.

Today I am REALLY GLAD I'm not going because my knee is VERY ACHY. A visit to the orthopedist is in the works, and I'm ready to acquiesce to whatever will fix the issue, which is probably a further tear in the meniscus. The last two days haven't been bad, but I took ibuprofen three hours ago, with no relief. Such is the way of aging, just have to accept the less stellar moments as they emerge.

I snapped this a couple of days ago during a break in the rain.

To my delight, the nasturtium has bloomed (pictured above), although once again it's raining, which will be the case tomorrow. Which is great for keeping me inside reading through Brave the Skies one more time, a probable release date of next Monday on my calendar. If I'm going to be home, best to put that time to good use. I've added the Lucy Boston blocks to the prepped back and batting, will sneak in a few orphaned EPP blocks as well as some large basted triangles and hexagons, then I can start sewing that quilt of grace, pictured below. I've noticed mild pain in my right shoulder, from the shingles, when hand-stitching for English paper piecing, but fortunately hand-quilting sewing, what I do for Kawandi, employs a slightly different set of muscles. My goodness, when it rains it often pours, literately and figuratively.

In the open spaces I'll affix the orphan blocks. Going to be a very colourful quilt!

As it's the last day of March, I'm pondering what happened ten years ago at this time, the passing of my dad after a long bout with cancer as well as congestive heart failure. He was seventy at the time, odd to think of him as an eighty-year-old. I was nearing forty-nine back then, already an abuela, moving about with ease. Ten years makes a big difference once fifty hits. Both my parents have passed, two elder brothers-in-law also deceased. My cholesterol was high in my recent lipid panel, but the good cholesterol was too, cancelling out the immediate need for statins. My decent AC-1 number assisted in the doctor's decision to spare me taking daily medication, all the things that come with getting older. If I need surgery to repair the meniscus, so be it. Beats hobbling around, let me say.

Not much else to note; lately it's been rain, health concerns, edits, some sewing. I have several orphaned EPP blocks, but most are too large to use for the Grace Quilt. Instead I'll turn them into coasters, Kawandi-style. I made one from flag leftovers, I just need to wash it. This is definitely a time to embrace what is pleasing while grinning and bearing that which pains. Maybe that's why a quilt of grace is necessary. Time moves forward, no moment static. Our memories permit us to linger over this or that event, yet we are firmly right HERE; a rainy dark day, some pain, but a healing stretch awaits for the physical and emotional aches. I'm inching toward fifty-nine years, but Mom didn't even hit sixty-eight, proving life is precarious. Best to utilize my time and talents accordingly.

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