A Good Kind of Exhausted

We are all exhausted, but it’s a good kind of exhausted. This past week truly was a wonderful bright spot in the midst of the dumpster fire that has been 2020. I am going to need a day or two to recover, but then it’s on to tomato sauce and aprons.

The husband’s brother and father left yesterday afternoon to fly back to Colorado. My SIL also left after changing her flight back to LA to a flight to Baltimore, because her dad ended up in the hospital a few days ago. My other SIL also flew out there from California. The medical issue isn’t life-threatening, but he’s going to need their help getting some things arranged after he comes home from the hospital.

My mother and I made a quick trip to Missoula yesterday to return tuxes. The drive down and back (two hours each way) gave us some time to visit. We also stopped at the Amish store to resupply chocolate-covered espresso beans for the husband, who stayed home to put his shop back together after the party. Everyone else went shopping or up to Glacier Park. Our families met up for one last meal together. The kids will be back at our house for another night or two before going back to Seattle. DD#2 has to be at work Tuesday. DD#1 and DSIL are moving their stuff from Seattle to his parents’ house while they wait for his Coast Guard/PHS orders to come through to report to Ketchikan. We are hoping it is not too much longer as they would like to start their married life together on a new adventure.

Whew.

The other piece of good news—depending on one’s perspective, of course—is that it started snowing yesterday. My yardstick for snow events is the winter of 1996-1997. We had something like 216 inches of snow at our house that year (yes, that is 18 feet) beginning with snow on October 15. By the time it all melted at the end of May, there was not a U-Haul trailer to be had in Kalispell because of all the people leaving for more hospitable locations. The forecast is for similar climate conditions this winter. Indeed, we have a couple of inches of snow on the ground already with more to come today. (It’s still dark, or I would get a picture.) This does not make me sad, although I worry about family traveling back home.

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I did work on some embroidery here and there this week in stolen minutes when I could sit down in my recliner by the fire. This is nothing fancy, just a kit I picked up from Hobby Lobby last year.

The supplies I ordered for my Squash Squad blocks also arrived last week. I am just about ready to start that project. The needle case embroidery is done; all I have to do is assemble the case and that project will be finished.

The Airbnb where DSIL’s aunt and grandma stayed had these wonderful mobiles hanging up high on the walls near the ceiling:

I couldn’t get a good picture because of the location and lighting, but they were pieces of lace in embroidery hoops suspended from large branches. I thought the design was very clever.

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We all got a laugh this week when the husband accidentally locked me in the chicken coop Wednesday afternoon. I had gone in to collect eggs; he brought a bag of scratch grains over from the garage, set it down inside the coop, then went out and automatically locked the door out of habit. (He had forgotten I was in there.) By the time I realized I couldn’t get out, he had left to go check on the pigs. Everyone else was in the house. Fortunately, DD#2 pulled into the driveway a few minutes later and I yelled for her to come over. The husband was on his way back from the pig pasture and said that when he saw DD#2 running over to the coop, he figured something was going on so he followed her. They unlocked the door and let me out.

I hope to be back on a regular blogging schedule this week, barring any more unforeseen events in the chicken coop.