It wears out eventually....

 Every few years or so we have an all out breakdown!  It seems like everything in the house breaks, or is peeling, or falls apart or....something!  This year it has been doorknobs and mattresses!

This is one of the bedroom mattresses - three stories up.  We pushed it out onto the top porch and then out over the railing to the driveway below.  You can't tell, but it has a big "swale" on each side where Hubby and I sleep and the hump in the middle was getting too big to be an effective seeping space.

Reed held it down while the Hubby drives the wheeler over to the truck to take to the dump!  We are only throwing out the mattress not the perfectly good boy!  He thought that was the most fun thing all day - or for a week even!  We have to do more fun things!

I don't have pictures of the new mattress that replaced this one with the giant swale on each side - that was delivered by the pro's! Not these Pro's - the ones from the store!

This is the office door.  It has been getting a little sticky, but we thought we had a little more time to get our poop in a group before we had to replace this knob. Because we have and Ike and we are out of baby gates, we have to keep the office door closed anytime I am not in the house and Ike is.  Remember that one time when he ate my new laptop?  We cannot afford any more Ike eatings so our doorknobs get a lot of use now!

 This is actually our third doorknob since the earthquake and our second one this year.  The last two we actually had to break the door to get it open and into the room and replace the doors!  One of them I was stuck INSIDE the room and could not get out...hence the need to bust down the door.  

Even though it really seems like guys would like to bust down the door, the Hubby isn't thrilled when it happens.  He is sure that people (mostly the door replacement guys - whom we know well) will think I had locked myself in there and he broke it to get at me - it IS a think gin our neighborhood, sadly, just not in our house!

We are pretty sure these are the original doorknobs from when the house was built.  We have been here almost 19 years and we have only replaced the broken ones.  So... we know they are much older than 18 years.  

The handle comes off, but even when put back on it wont turn the inner workings enough to open the door!

This was our conversation - me and the hubby - Him:"where is the drill?  I can drill it out!"  Me: "Its in the office!"  Him: "Ok - Where is the screwdrivers?"  ME: "They're in the office!"  Him:  "What tools are NOT in the office?"  Me: "Sewing tools and a hammer and chisel?"  Him:  "Why are a hammer and chisel in your sewing tools?"  Me:  "Theyre not sewing tools - theyre laundry tools!"  Him:  "No they are not - go get them!"   He didn't even ask why they are laundry tools for me!  It's for breaking up powder detergent when the bag doesnt get closed right and it gets too hard to scoop!  Hammer and Chisel!

And here we are!  Open door, not destroyed, new knob that opens the door smooth as a baby's you know what...It's Butt!

We also replaced a couple of lamp shades this year, you can read about that here if you missed it, and all of the lightbulbs in the house went to LED as they burnt out.  The bulbs were old too!

I hope that you have everything in working order, or at least a plan for when it isn't, and my words of advice for this week are - Buy two doorknobs at a time!

Open doors and fine mattresses!  Happy Spring and Blessed Be!

Traditions of Comfort - Quilts and Surgery Bears

My family has long had traditions that seemed odd to other folks.  Traditions that make effort to ease the burden of heavy events and comfort the sorrowful, sick or hurt.

You may have read about the "Pot Pie" when I was sick and needed to feel the love - it's a newer tradition and if you didn't read that one - you can see it HERE.  It has been extended to some cousins and the sister and brother, and I'm sure to a neighbor or two as well.  

When the boys were little they both had to have surgery for various reasons; Rye for his missing tear ducts and a birth hernia (he was 7 weeks early and stuff just wasn't done forming), and both boys had eye surgery for strabismus - crossed eyes.  Rye they thought was from being early and the muscles didn't quite develop correctly, and Reed because when he was born his nose was broken, chin was cut and he had a "Harry Potter" lightening cut on his forehead!  It probably tore up some muscles from the trauma. 

Rye had his first two surgeries when he was very small - the first for the tear ducts at 11 months old - after we figured out that he didn't just have a "cold in his eyes"!  Things were different then and he did weigh 7 pounds 12 ounces, so until the premie issues started coming up they though they just had our dates wrong!

Nana (my mom and the pot pie maker) made the boys "surgery bears" to have with them and take to the hospital since they had to be without their people in there so they would still be able to feel the love.  

Rye's bear matched the pajamas she made for him and it was so, so cute when he wore the PJ's and had the bear with him.  I still have the bear - I will be looking for the pajamas too - hopefully I saved them, but they may have been worn out!

This was his second surgery when he was 6 years old and we didn't have time to make the pajamas but he still had his bear!  This one was to fix his crossed "lazy" eye.  He had worn glasses for a few years to try to correct it and we tried patching the "good eye" to try to make the other eye stronger and in the end we had to have a surgery to correct it.

Reed's bear from his strabismus surgery was able to go in with him, and its a funny memory because when he was little he always had the hiccups - often!  Sometimes he would get sick of them and in order for him not to be bothered by them we would always tell him "that means you are growing"!  It always appeased him and he would go along and deal with the hiccups cheerfully!  After his eye surgery they brought him out of the recovery area to us in a little red wagon hugging his bear (he was only about 4 years old), and the first thing he said with a big smile was "Mom!  I was growing in there while I had my surgery!"  The nurses were very confused until I said "Oh Great!  Did you have the hiccups?" To which he replied with a victory fst in the air "YES!!"  The nurses were fully enamored of him, of course.

With his broken elbow, they did not let him have aything from outside the room with him, and I really felt sad that he would not have the comfort of that while he was in there, and after until they brought him out.  It was a rough go for him and for me.

My boys forever after that thought that everyone should have a bear to take when they had surgery - and so we got one with a blanket for when their great grand pap had to have cancer surgery.  It made him smile and offered comfort to him when everyone had to leave.  He knew it was love from the boys and it was a good thing.

Meemaw sent the bear to us when Pap passed away and we still have it now - reminding us of him and bringing comfort to us.

I know you have read about the "People Quilt" as I have included it in the blogs often and it has had many adventures on which to comfort me.  You can read about the origin of the quilt HERE.

This is the people quilt and my mom when we went to an herbal retreat - it was a blast and the quilt was a comfort - it got cold in that tent!  We learned a lot about local herbs and herbs for resiliancy a that retreat....we also learned that we greatly appreciate flush toilets and toilet paper! That however, is a story for another time!

When my dear friends husband died of cancer, I brought a quilt to her house that we put the binding on while we were greiving and waiting all the things to be done that had to be done, and while the shock was still new and fresh and we needed something to do with our hands other than wring them and wipe tears.  She had many people trying to make her make decisions that she was not able to make right at that moment, and the quilt gave her comfort and warmth, and maybe a bit of a hiding place, while she wrapped her brain around what had happened. 

And when another friends son died I finished this one for her to comfort and keep her warm knowing that she had a banket of love to wrap up in.

This one was made for an Aunt who battled (successfully thankfully) the ugly C word and was cold all the time from the treatments.  It has heavy batting in it and a warm fleece backing, and it gave her comfort to have it while at the same time giving me comfort and something that I "could do" to help in the situation, when it always feels like there is nothing that can be done.  She lives far away and had lots of folks bringing her meals and such.  A quilt is what I can do.  It has saved my life many times over, to create something beautiful and useful, instead of letting the grief take over and kill me.

Quilting has to save my life less these days, but I continue to do it now to keep f'ing going, and to keep comfort for others happening.  For new babies, newly marrieds, and anyone else who might need it, and yes for me.

I hope you have the comfort of love whenever you need it, and that you have friends who know how to make that comfort appear in whatever form it takes - hiccups and all!

Blessed Be!