Bummer Year

I am actually not the first to say that 2016 has been about the worst year on record.  For my husband and I it has been especially trying - starting in February and has not ended yet - probably won't end until Thanksgiving at the earliest.  Between traumatic hospital stays - including him being air-lifted to a bigger teaching hospital - 4 days in ICU - 13 total days in the hospital - complete lifestyle change - and the discovery of a second life threatening condition which needs surgery.  The surgery couldn't be performed until the initial condition was completely healed.  So here we sit 5 months later and they can finally do the heart surgery he needs for a condition we didn't even suspect he had.

I would never have considered the possibility that I would be thanking God for my husband being taken in the ambulance to the hospital in the middle of the night and nearly dying from a condition I had never heard of before - but I do.  If it hadn't been for that sudden and acute attack - they would never have found the heart murmur which lead to finding the Aortic Stenosis - from which he would have died in less than 3 years if left untreated - and he NEVER goes to the Doctor's - he's as healthy as a horse!!  He can now have the surgery and the recovery time is about 3 months - which will be shortly after Thanksgiving in late November.  I don't ever want to repeat a year like this.

But on the other hand - I have gotten a lot of sewing and Quilting done.  I'm working on completing 16 UFO's in 2016 and to date I have 9 completed - one I am hand quilting - one sandwiched and ready to quilt on the machine - and 2 ready to sandwich - So I'm doing good there.  I have them posted Here - 16 in 16.

I've also was the first to turn in my 2016 Row x Row Experience quilt to Neal's Sewing Center in Muscatine, IA.  I only did the required 8 rows this year as opposed to the 18 I did for last years and didn't finish until June - right before the new one started.

2015 Row By Row

2016 Row by Row

We have also been doing quite a lot of work on the house - cleaning, repairing and painting the front door, storm door and trim - and replacing all the flooring on the deck - I learned I can break 2x4's by hand - of course when the said 2x4 is rotten to the core it isn't really that hard!

I have been doing a lot of reading this summer also - especially in July.

Death Comes Quickly by Susan Wittig Albert
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Cranberry Bluff by Deborah Garner
Murder and Moonflowers by Leslie Leigh
On the Fringe by Aaron and Charlotte Elkins
The Reluctant Queen by Joan Wolf
Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear
Pick of the Litter by Laurinda Wallace

Some of the authors are old favorites like Susan Wittig Albert and Aaron Elkins, but some are new favorites like Jacqueline Winspear and Joan Wolf.  

I love Jacqueline Winspear's Heroine, Maisie Dobbs - a 1930 London girl who is a psychiatrist and investigator.  So far her investigations have had their roots in the horrors of the Great War but are occurring in the here and now so to speak.  Very interesting historical reads.  

It has been raining most of the last 24 hours, but the sun has finally come out to hopefully it will begin to dry out a little bit.  It is horrible what is happening in Louisiana and all up through the Ohio Valley with the torrential rains and flooding.  What we have had is just a blip compared to that.