Countdown to YarnFest - Class Preparations

Time is moving along at a fairly rapid pace, and my journey to the Interweave Yarn Fest is drawing quickly nearer. One of the big items on my to-do list involves being properly prepared for the classes that I'll be taking. During the four-day event I am enrolled in six three-hour classes and one six-hour class, which means that I need to carefully plan and prepare so that I have all of the necessary supplies and equipment for each class that I'll attend.

Item number one is a spinning wheel. Five of my seven classes are spinning-related, and all require a spinning wheel in good working order. Although my beloved Kromski Sonata folds into a carrying case and travels well, it is somewhat heavy and bulky to carry, and since I'll be having to carry not only a spinning wheel, but extra tools, supplies, equipment, a water bottle, and even a knitting bag, I decided that a more compact wheel would be helpful in this regard. I chose to purchase an Ashford Joy 2, which is lighter and more compact than the Sonata; it also sets up and folds up more quickly. (Ironically the smaller travel wheel costs more than my full-sized one did - go figure!) I had test-spun on a friend's Joy about a year ago and really liked it, and it comes with a padded travel bag, so all that remained was to save up the money for the purchase. Fortunately I was able to accomplish that by leaving my PayPal earnings from the fall craft fairs untouched until I had acquired the necessary balance, and I ordered the wheel in January, along with some other necessary tools.

The second necessary item was an assortment of extra bobbins. My first class requires four extra bobbins and the second one three; since these classes are scheduled back-to-back I don't anticipate having time to wind off yarn to free up bobbins between classes. I'll have to have additional bobbins for other classes later in the week but will be able to wind my yarn off in the evening in order to reuse these bobbins for subsequent classes. My travel wheel came with three bobbins included, and I purchased five extras at the same time for a total of eight bobbins for this wheel. I trust that should be a sufficient supply; otherwise I'll be stalking the dealers in the exhibit hall to try and purchase more.

The third item which was required for several of the classes was a Lazy Kate. For my many friends named Kate or Katie, please rest assured that the name of this item is in no way meant to cast aspersions on your varied industrious natures. I'm not certain where the name came from, but in essence the Lazy Kate is meant to hold bobbins which are being used for plying (in other words, twisting two single strands of yarn together to make a thicker, stronger yarn). I got the simplest and least expensive one I could find because it was also the lightest and easiest to carry – an important consideration on this adventure.

One plying class requires that I arrive with a bobbin mostly filled with a fine-gauge single yarn, so that's my current spinning project. Before I leave home I'll have that bobbin safely secured in its own zipper bag to keep the single from unwinding during travel. I'm guessing that I need to step up my game a bit on the spinning, as I was so tired the other afternoon that I fell asleep at the wheel and didn't get any spinning done that day.

Other items on the class “required” lists include tags for marking yarn samples, knitting needles, a cable needle, and other minor tools and supplies. I'll also be carrying a notebook, pens, pencils, and folders for class handouts, notes, and other useful information. My plan is to sort the necessary materials for each class into individual zipper top bags so that each will be readily accessible without having to dig through a bag of “stuff” to locate everything.

I'll also be taking along my yarn swift, ball winder, and niddy noddy, so that I'll have options for winding off the yarn that I'm spinning as well as any yarn that I happen to bring along or purchase for knitting in the evenings.

Last but not least, most of the classes I'm taking will have a supply fee to be paid to the instructor at the beginning of class. I'll have the cash for these supply fees sorted into labeled envelopes before I leave home, so that I don't have to spend time scrambling to find the correct change at the last minute. I'm hoping that will simplify things for the instructors as well as for me.

I'm eagerly awaiting these classes, and hope to absorb all of the knowledge that is imparted. I know that what I can bring back will be extremely beneficial as I continue my fiber arts journey.

Next up: Packing and Organizing

Countdown to YarnFest: Travel Arrangements

In just four short weeks (give or take a day; this was supposed to have been published yesterday) I'll be leaving Carlinville to drive to Loveland, Colorado, where the Interweave Yarn Fest is being held. Although I'm beyond excited at the prospect of attending such a prestigious national fiber arts event, I'm also a bit nervous as I prepare for this journey.

First of all, I've never before driven this far on my own. Because I've enrolled in several spinning classes, I have to take my spinning wheel with me; because overhead storage compartments in airplanes don't accommodate spinning wheels, I have to drive. Fortunately I'll only have to drive one way, as Mike will be taking the train to Denver over that weekend, and catching a shuttle to the motel, then he will drive home with me on Monday and Tuesday.

Among the items on my preparation timeline are: oil change, check (and replenish if needed) all fluids, replace wiper blades, and pray for an uneventful drive. I'll be swiping the emergency starter box from Mike's van and taking that with me, and we've just signed up for an introductory AAA membership. I'll have to figure out what apps I can delete on my phone to make room for the AAA app, and then plan on not needing either roadside assistance or the starter box.

If Mike were driving we could easily make the trip in two days; however, because I'm not accustomed to driving long distances, I plan to leave on Monday and spread the driving over three days, making quick overnight stops on Monday and Tuesday nights. My bags will be packed so that I'll be able to only take one small bag inside with me for the motel stops (well, yes, okay -- actually one small bag PLUS a knitting bag of indeterminate size...) in order to expedite the stopping and starting process. I'm hoping to do the bulk of the driving in daylight and planning to arrive in Loveland sometime Wednesday afternoon, to allow time to get settled in and well rested before the event starts at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

It's going to be an amazing adventure and I look forward to getting started!

Next up: class preparations

Countdown to YarnFest

Exactly six weeks from today, assuming all goes as planned (and most likely even if it doesn't), I'll arrive at the Embassy Suites in Loveland, Colorado, to check in and get settled before the Interweave YarnFest begins on Thursday March 30. I will then spend the next four days immersed in classes on knitting sideways cables, writing patterns, and several aspects of spinning different kinds of yarn.

When I first learned that I had been selected as a scholarship recipient (one of five nationally) to attend YarnFest, I was simultaneously overjoyed, incredulous, and a little bit terrified. Although I had worked very diligently to complete the scholarship application to the very best of my ability, in my heart of hearts I never really quite believed that I could possibly be chosen as a recipient.

Over the past four months I have been working on preparations for my YarnFest adventure in a more or less random manner; with six weeks remaining it is now time to approach the preparation in a much more orderly and systematic manner. I have lists of items which need to be procured, items to be packed, projects which need to be knitted (including one that I have yet to finish designing), tasks to prepare the car for safely driving on such a long trip, and even a list of the lists I need to compile.

As this is likely a once in a lifetime adventure for me, I want to prepare as well and thoroughly as possible for all eventualities, so that when I arrive my mental energy might be freed up to focus on soaking every drop of learning, networking, making of new friends, and FUN that is to be had. Consequently I'm walking a fine line between the OCD of exquisite preparation and the flexibility to relax and “let it go” when things don't turn out precisely as planned.

So, with that I'm off to tweak my preparation lists for such items as Knitting Projects, Class Preparations, Purchasing Lists, Packing Lists, Vehicle Preparation, Readiness Timeline, etc, etc. I covet your prayers for wisdom and discernment in the lists and the process, for safe travel, and for peace of mind as I continue to prepare for the adventure of a lifetime.

A New Beginning

When my husband Mike was hospitalized after a serious accident some 32 years ago, he received a small umbrella plant as a get-well gift from his cousins who at that time lived in Dallas. Despite my decidedly brown thumb, that plant somehow grew and thrived and eventually became so enormous as to be unwieldy, requiring two people and an act of Congress to move the (now much larger) pot where it resided. Mike had been moving it out to the back deck every spring, and back into our bedroom in the fall every single year, but somehow this year a hard freeze hit before he got the plant moved inside. He brought it inside anyway, placing it in its usual spot by the sliding door, and left it for a week to see whether it would recover from being frozen. Alas, the freeze had been too much for it and all of the branches remained brown and lifeless. Because by this time the weather was far too nasty to move the entire pot back outside, Mike chopped off all of the dead branches, leaving nothing but a root ball with a bunch of chopped off sticks. Several weeks later, I happened to glance at the dead base of the plant, and was amazed to notice a tiny green shoot emerging from the side of one of the very dead branches. Over the past few weeks, more shoots have emerged and grown, and it appears that the umbrella plant lives once more, albeit in a much more abbreviated form - quite the metaphor of resurrection and new beginnings!

Around this time last year, I was in a very dark place. We had been struggling for about three years with the aging and declining health of our respective parents and finally the loss of two of them while the others continued to decline. Other events occurring at this time combined to create the most challenging time of my entire life. I was sad, overwhelmed, and stressed beyond belief. (I recall commenting at one point that, on a 1 to 10 scale, my stress level was hovering around 72.) Clearly some changes had to be made; I found myself declining requests for my time and energy that I had no way to fulfill, eliminated some activities which, while worthwhile, were no longer providing the joy and fulfillment that they once had, and pruning away the heavy branches of my life which had become unsustainable. I, too, had become a dead bundle of chopped-off sticks.

Now, entering the final year of my sixth decade of life, I am seeing tiny sprouts emerging from the remains of the unsustainable heavy branches that were my life. This promises to be a year of changes; some small, and some enormous and a little bit scary. To begin with, at the end of the school year I will be concluding my 30+ year adventure in providing child care. I've been so very blessed to have a part in the raising and teaching of all the children who have come to my home, and I will deeply miss them - especially the two who currently spice up my days - but it's definitely time for me to move on and focus on other things now. 

So what will I be doing with my "spare time"? For the person who asked this question, I don't believe that such a thing actually exists, at least not in the sense of having time where there is nothing to do. First of all, I plan to devote more time and energy to my fiber arts. I'll be knitting (of course!) projects running the gamut from simple dishcloths knitted on autopilot to complex and elaborate one-of-a-kind creations; from prayer shawls, chemo hats, and other items to be given away to carefully crafted garments, accessories, and home decor to sell at craft fairs. I have many ideas for original pattern designs which I plan to work on, with a goal of eventual publication. I'll continue to refine and improve my spinning skills, and hope at some point to have handspun yarn of sufficient quality to be sold as well. And I will continue to teach knitting in various venues, as I work toward setting up a classroom in my home to provide a variety of local knitting classes. 

In addition to my fiber arts, I have a number of writing projects which have languished on the back burner for far too long. There are at least three BPWs (Books Partially Written) in word files on my computer, which deserve better than to be left unattended in a heap of dusty pixels, and a multitude of ideas, small stories, and potential projects which still need to progress beyond the concept stage.

When I'm not working on knitting, spinning, or writing - or when I AM working on them, because I'm almost always doing one or the other - Mike and I plan to spend more time together, and to travel more, and to specifically NOT have any more 5:15 a.m. alarms on a routine basis. We're looking forward to being able to travel in the off-season when things are less crowded and the weather isn't so miserably hot.

I plan to be much more diligent about blogging, and especially about documenting the variety of knitting projects that I've completed, because when the question was raised recently of how many things I had completed in the past year I had no idea.

Last but not least, I plan to enjoy every second of my upcoming adventure at the Interweave Yarn Fest next month (even going to try to enjoy driving to Colorado in March!);  to savor every moment of time I'm able to spend with my two grandchildren, the rest of my family, and all of my wonderful friends; and to revel in the blessedness of having gotten this far. I welcome your comments and feedback!

Our Year of Sheer Insanity

Wow, I checked back on the blog a couple of days ago and couldn't believe that I haven't posted in over a year. Then I thought about what else has gone on in that year, and allowing the blog to go dormant in that time wasn't nearly as much of a surprise any more.

It has actually been slightly more than 15 months since my last post, which was a chronicle of three weeks of sheer insanity that we had been dealing with at that time. I commented that I hoped it was time to move out of Crazyville and back to our regularly scheduled chaos. Unfortunately, nothing remotely resembling that has happened so far. We did attend the wedding of our friends on the first of June, which was a lovely time of celebration prior to the craziness ramping up yet another notch. 

The first full week in June, my mother-in-law had a bilateral knee replacement, which entailed multiple long trips to out-of-town doctor appointments and pre-op procedures, and finally the long day of the surgery itself. After several days she was released from the big hospital to the hospital in Staunton for rehab before finally returning home late in June. At that time I thought that things should SURELY calm down since she seemed well on the mend.

But alas, it was not to be. As she slowly recovered from the knee surgery, other issues began to appear, resulting in more doctor appointments, diagnostic procedures, assorted treatments, and finally exploratory surgery in September which brought a devastating diagnosis: cancer. Sadly the chemo that was recommended for her particular cancer was ineffective and she died in October. 

After the funeral we were faced with the reality that my father-in-law, at 94, was really unable to care for himself at home alone, but he stubbornly refused to consider any out-of-home living arrangement, and didn't want anyone but family coming in to help him. After several falls, we coerced him to get a LifeLine button, and eventually convinced him that he shouldn't remove it under any circumstances (only after several instances of having fallen without the button in place and lying on the floor unable to get up until someone came to check on him). There were (mis)adventures in driving, culminating with a totaled car but thankfully no injuries to himself or anyone else. Finally, when we reached the point where it took two of us to deal with him after a fall, we had no choice but to place him in a nursing home whether he wanted it or not.

Meanwhile, my parents were having their own issues. In late July my dad had fallen in the pasture and injured his hip but insisted on still traveling to Vegas to meet my sister and go ziplining. They were unable to do that because the zipline was closed for renovation, but he ended up in the ER in Vegas with hip pain which was diagnosed as a severe contusion. He returned home using a walker with instructions to rest until the pain was relieved. Over the next several months, he saw a couple more doctors who reiterated the original diagnosis. He continued to use the walker and only got around with great difficulty. At one point we borrowed a wheelchair to get him around at the large holiday gatherings. Finally in January a new doctor sent him for another x-ray and it was discovered that his hip was indeed broken. After the hip repair surgery he recovered quickly and is now getting around better than he has in some time, despite the fact that he still struggles with Parkinson's disease.

My mom's dementia continues to progress, and we've taken her to several medical appointments as well, although there is really no effective treatment for her, and we continue to struggle with keeping her well and safe. She no longer really remembers how to knit, although she keeps talking about trying again. It's very sad and stressful to watch her slowly disappearing before our eyes.

We are so thankful that my grandson has totally recovered from his bike accident and continues to amaze us and keep us on our toes. This summer he competed in the Litchfield version of American Idol, and although he didn't win a prize we were incredibly proud of his performance. He started the fourth grade a couple of weeks ago and is a wonderful bright young man.

My childcare adventures have increased as Bitty Girl is now two years old and the proud older sister of Teeny Beanie, born in May. We also are blessed to care for Little Buddy, who will be a year old in just three short weeks. There are days when I'm kind of outnumbered, and days when I'm SERIOUSLY outnumbered, but these precious little ones also bring joy, delight, and lots of laughter to our home.

And, the obvious question (this IS a knitting blog, after all!): YES, I'm still knitting! That's really the only thing that has helped maintain my sanity these last several crazy mixed-up months. In late December we traveled to visit my youngest son and his girlfriend in Arizona and I came back with a pile of projects:

And in July we once again traveled to Steelville, MO with our church group for the annual canoe trip, and again lots of knitting took place - even on the river!

If you're still reading at the end of this novel, stay tuned for actual knitting content coming soon. I no longer have expectations that my life is going to calm down soon, so I'm just going to have to learn to deal with it and try to keep up.

Living in Crazyville

So I haven’t blogged much for the last three weeks, but I also haven’t gotten much of anything else useful accomplished, either, primarily due to a streak of crazy events that have stretched my patience and coping abilities completely to the limit (or maybe a bit beyond).

On Tuesday, May 7, we received a call from our grandson’s mommy saying that he had crashed his bike and his daddy was taking him to the ER. A mere 15 minutes later she called back and said that he was being airlifted to a Springfield hospital. Needless to say, we gathered up my knitting bag, water bottles, and a few other necessities and made a beeline for the aforementioned hospital. The drive normally takes a solid hour, but not this time! We received the phone call at 6:56 p.m. and were walking in the door of the Springfield ER at 7:45. After sitting for some time in the waiting room with Kindon’s other grandparents, his aunt, and his great-grandmother we were finally allowed to briefly go back to see him. As we walked into the cubicle, Kindon was lying on the hospital gurney with an IV in one arm, a blood transfusion running in the other, heart and respiration monitors and a pulse-ox all attached in various locations, and a neck brace as a precaution. He looked over at us, smiled politely, and said “Hi, how’s it going?” Sigh…..

He was diagnosed with a laceration of his liver, which fortunately was no longer actively bleeding, so the decision was made not to intervene surgically but to admit him to PICU for observation in case the bleeding started again. Thus began a more-than-week-long ordeal for him in the hospital. After the first 24 hours, he began asking every nurse or doctor who came into his room “Can I go home now?”

Meanwhile my sister had been ill and diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. The day after Kindon’s accident she emailed to say that she had gall bladder removal surgery scheduled for Friday morning – a mere 36 hours away. Normally I would have arranged to fly down to Florida to help care for her during this time, but the combination of Kindon in the PICU and the very short notice made such a trip virtually impossible. Thankfully the surgery was completed uneventfully and her recovery was quick as well.

On the following Tuesday I got the happy news that Kindon was discharged from the hospital, followed almost immediately by the shocking news that my Aunt Carol, age 68, had passed away in her sleep in Waukegan. The family was beyond stunned at this turn of events since she had recently been in the best health of her adult life, and indeed had gotten a clean bill of health at her most recent doctor visit a couple of weeks previously.

On Wednesday, I got a call from my son informing me that Kindon was on his way back to the hospital with vomiting and abdominal pain. I had no sooner hung up from that conversation than our scanner went off with an ambulance being paged out to my in-laws’ address for a “93 year old male having breathing problems”. So after being assured that Kindon was essentially in stable condition we spent the evening hanging out at the local ER while my father-in-law was poked, prodded, tested, and x-rayed before being pronounced healthy enough to go back home. Later follow-up tests did not reveal any serious ongoing problems and he continues to do well.

On Friday morning I left town with my cousin, brother, uncle, and aunt to head for Waukegan to the visitation and funeral. It was a long and tiring trip but the time spent with family members I hadn’t seen for some time was very precious (although I would much have preferred to be gathering for any other reason than this). One highlight of Friday afternoon was receiving the phone call that Kindon had once again been released from the hospital and was resting comfortably at home. The funeral was Saturday morning followed by a dinner at my uncle’s church – a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with distant family members. We headed back toward home after the dinner and arrived home about 8:00 that evening.

At church on Sunday, one of my (many) prayer requests was for a less eventful week. I skipped an out-of-town church meeting on Sunday afternoon, choosing instead to rest and enjoy some much needed calm and solitude. The next two days proceeded more or less uneventfully, and then on Wednesday evening I received a text that my nine month old daycare baby (aka Bitty Girl) had experienced a seizure and was being airlifted to Springfield. Thankfully she recovered quickly and was home from the hospital late Thursday and back in daycare on Friday – along with my Little Dude whose mommy was having gall bladder surgery.

The first two days of the holiday weekend were spent at the Macoupin County Historical Society’s Spring Festival, with over 130 craft booths, craft and other demonstrations, a tractor parade, and many other exciting activities. Unfortunately due to the rain on Saturday and my general level of stress and fatigue, I completely neglected to blog or update my Facebook page about the festival and didn’t manage to get any photos at all. Monday was spent preparing for a family cookout to be held that evening.

On Tuesday morning, Mike left and Bitty Girl fell asleep for her morning nap. I sat in the living room alone, stunned at the overwhelming quiet. Although it didn’t last long, it was a wonderful oasis of peace in a flood of craziness. Although I hesitate to mention it for fear of jinxing anything, it has so far been a relatively uneventful week. This weekend we have plans to attend the wedding of a young friend (wedding gift pics to follow – as soon as the knitting is finished! LOL!) and I’m greatly looking forward to the month of June with great expectations of moving out of Crazyville and back to our regularly scheduled chaos.

I am incredibly thankful for all of the wonderful friends and family who prayed for all of us and supported us as we did our best to survive the last three weeks. We are well and truly blessed!

My Version of the Prismatic Scarf

A while back a friend posted this photo of The Prismatic Scarf by Huan-Hua Chye on the Facebook page of our local knitting group.

I was intrigued by the pattern and did a Google search to locate the Ravelry page where the free pattern download is located.

Last week I went out to our local Walmart which has just recently begun selling yarn again after a hiatus of several years,

bought a few balls of Lion Brand Amazing,

and knitted up my own version of the Prismatic Scarf.

Of course, I rarely knit a pattern exactly as written, and this one was no exception. Instead of a regular long-tail cast on, I did a provisional i-cord cast on, then picked up the beginning provisional stitches to form the second selvage. I added one stitch inside each i-cord selvage which I knitted on every row to eliminate the long floats when a row ended up with sl 3, sl 3. Finally, when I had about 2 1/2 yards of yarn left, I did an i-cord bind-off and then grafted the last three stitches to the 3 stitches of the selvage so that the scarf appears to have an endless i-cord border. You have to look really closely to see the half-stitch shift where the ends are grafted. Bonus: no leftover bits of yarn that are too big to toss but not really big enough to do anything with.

 
My scarf ended up approximately 8" wide and 3 feet long, which is about right for tucking in around a coat collar. If I'd wanted a larger scarf to loop around my neck a time or two I would have needed a second ball of yarn. Overall, I loved the pattern and will probably make it again.

Finishing Touches

Although it has been a while since I have posted, the knitting continues (almost) nonstop. Typically if I'm heading out to a meeting, a class, or an all-day conference I'll choose a project accordingly, which means that sometimes I'll end up with a handful of almost-finished projects that either don't have enough knitting left in them to accommodate the time frame I'm dealing with or have grown too cumbersome to carry around. 

Today I was able to stay home with no scheduled meetings or projects, and so I worked on completing the mostly-finished projects that were multiplying alarmingly quickly around the house.

I finished up a prayer shawl that has to be presented at church tomorrow morning, as well as a handful of projects for my upcoming craft fairs: a couple of mobius shawls, a pair of dishcloths, and a tuck scarf. In the midst of all this finishing, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to assist a dear friend with her current knitting project. It was definitely more fun to do all this finishing up accompanied by good conversation and companionship.

Of course now that I have those things finished I'll have to get something else started so I'll have "knitting to go" for tomorrow morning. I don't actually knit during worship, but it's pretty helpful for me to have a project in my hands during Sunday School class. And fortunately (or unfortunately) there is no shortage of knitting projects remaining on my to-do list.

Getting My Knitting Mojo Back

A couple of weeks ago I was unexpectedly felled by a very nasty virus, presumably a strain of Norovirus. Without going into excessively gory details, I spent half of one night on my knees in the bathroom, the entire next day and night in bed, and was actually too ill to knit for four entire days. Although my energy level has taken a serious hit, and I clearly don't bounce back nearly as quickly in my old age (or perhaps it's just that I have never before been this sick in my entire life!), I'm happy to report that I'm finally making some headway on my knitting once again.

The first and most pressing issue was my "big" project that I was working on, a baby shower gift with a definite deadline to be completed. My overall lack of energy helped out to some extent, because I used time when I didn't feel up to doing anything else to catch up on my knitting, and I finished the baby gift with a little more than 24 hours to spare. Since it was presented at the shower last Saturday, I can now post photos:

 

The pattern is my original design Double Hearts Blanket, worked in sage green and white because the recipient isn't really a huge fan of pink and so there is no reason to assume that her precious soon-to-arrive daughter will be either.

I'm also busily preparing for my next upcoming craft show, the Triad Spring Craft Show in Troy, IL on March 2 & 3. I've stocked up on my selection of children's hats, including apple, grape, pumpkin, strawberry, cupcake, ruffle, and football hats. 

I've also made a few more ruffle scarves from that goofy yarn where you pick up and knit the loops along the edge, and I'm also making bow knot scarves, where one end tucks into a loop to secure the scarf in place. Last but not least, I have made a couple of Mobius shawls from the pattern in One Ball Knits Accessories: 20 Stylish Designs Made with a Single Ball, Skein, Hank, or Spool.

I still need to restock some slippers and dishcloths and finish a couple more baby blankets that I have in progress, and there are several other things I'd like to do before the show that realistically are not likely to happen. I have another children's hat pattern floating around in my head but it remains to be seen whether I'll be able to pull that off or not. 

As always, the project queue continues to outstrip the available knitting time by a factor of approximately 5 to 1. But it's so good to be back to knitting and actually accomplishing some things!

Missing…..

Over the past few years, I’ve accumulated several wristbands which stay on my wrist virtually 24/7.  The first one, a white one with the Nike swoosh and the word “dream” came from a Presbytery meeting which I attended with my then-pastor, Jeff Johnson. I wear it to remind me of the things I learned that day and of God’s guidance in my life. The second band is bright green, with the words “soy”, “rice”, “veggie”, and “chicken”, and came from a packing event for the charity group “Kids Against Hunger” where we packed balanced, easily prepared meals to be shipped to areas in our country and the world where hunger is prevalent. The four words comprise the “recipe” of the meals we packed in sealed bags which are prepared by adding water and boiling for 20 minutes. The third band is pink, with the word “hope” on the side, and represents breast cancer awareness. The fourth band is purple and reads “gotta have faith”. I received this one shortly after my grandson’s first grade classmate, whose first name is “Faith” received a diagnosis of cancer on Christmas Eve. The fifth one, also purple, promotes autism awareness and was given to me by my daughter Katie, who works for The Autism Program in Springfield, during April which is Autism Awareness Month. These bands have been on my wrist for so long that I barely notice them anymore, and as they are slightly smaller than my hand they don’t come off easily, so it was quite a shock last Wednesday evening when I realized that two were missing.

After racking my brain and mentally retracing my steps I realized that the two most likely places for them to have gone missing were at my friend’s house when I stopped by to pick up a desk, or at Walmart when I stopped by to pick up a couple of things I needed right after that. A quick message to my friend yielded no results, and I didn’t have time to make an extra trip to Walmart right away. So you can imagine my delight on Saturday evening when my dear husband came home from Walmart and handed me the missing wristbands. He had been out on an errand and stopped by the service desk to check their lost and found box. I’m still not 100% certain how they made their way off my wrist, but for now I’m very happy to have them back.