Once again it is MS Awareness month, shared with Breast Cancer Awareness. Breast Cancer has always received the most press during our shared months, but now maybe someone should come up with a ribbon for COVID as well. I’ve heard rumors about cures for breast cancer, I know there are vaccines for COVID, but still there are no cures r vaccines for MS, one of the truly orphan diseases. It gets two months of awareness per year but for those of us living with MS there are no months of respite at times. It just keeps on going and going but not as cute as the Energizer bunny. More reliable than Timex though, it just never stops completely even though it sometimes slows down a bit. At least it used to slow down a bit for me but for the past few years it just keeps on and on with the fatigue getting worse every day.
After saying it doesn’t slow down I have to admit I’ve had a short energy spurt these past couple of days. And true to form when I get an energy spurt I tend to overdo things a bit just to catch up on the things that have fallen by the wayside during the other months. So I’ve been moving furniture lately. One chair has been where my kids placed it 7 or 8 years ago while another one has been in the same place the 22 years I’ve lived here. My lift chair is kinda heavy so I seldom even try to move it but a couple of days ago just decided to give it a nudge from the usual place next to the window where the cold air was getting in. The first little nudge worked so well that I got behind it and gave it a shove, I can now sit there without wearing a fuzzy hat and muffler to keep the cold off my head and shoulders. Now that I have started that I’m going through papers that were stacked behind the chair on some shelves that were too close to get to and getting rid of a lot of trash that way. Looking at some of them makes me wonder why I ever saved them in the first place, and why I kept them in the second place. Recipes for dishes I have never tried because each time I came across one that looked good I wanted to try it. Just never got around to actually doing that for most of them and the ones i have tried and liked are now in recipe binders. Ya know, big stacks of paper get kinda heavy after a while and I think I’ve personally filled the big dumpster a couple of times without even trying. And always shaking my head at the waste of paper and ink involved.
I’m also going through the bins of fabric, pulling out all of the tiny scraps that I once thought I would sew into a quilt. I still make quilts but it’s been a long time since I used a postage stamp sized scrap in one. And half inch strips of fabric? I have to wonder if I ever used any of those since each seam is a quarter inch one. I think — no, I know I am a hoarder when it comes to a lot of things but happily I’m recovering from that lately. I do find myself wishing some of those tiny scraps were a lot larger though since the fabric they came from was so pretty. But of course, there are also the scraps that are so ugly I wonder what I was thinking about when I bought them. Probably not thinking at all at the time, but now out they go.
Speaking of quilts, I’m working on one now for a granddaughter who is getting married in April. It won’t be finished by her wedding day but she will know it is coming soon. Now to see if I have a photo of it:
Since their favorite colors closely resemble mine I had the red and navy they requested already on hand for some future occasion and this turned out to be just that occasion. The quilt has several names, depending on how the blocks are set together and I think this setting is called Windmill. In another setting it can be Flying Geese or Birds In Flight among several others that I have forgotten after the 65 years since I began quilting. One of my favorites though, whatever it’s called.
I’m still dressing Barbie and some other dolls even though I’ve slowed that down until the quilt is finished.
Still fun to do and lately I’ve been finding more of the needles I’ve dropped over the years — most of them under, inside or behind the chairs I’ve moved as well as the shelving units that are being scooted around each time I open a new place for them. Some of those are just being dismantled since I don’t need them all after tossing out the papers and fabric, but I’ve learned to hang on to the shelves until the end of my energy spurts puts me back in the chair. I’ve given too many things away thinking I’ll never need them only to discover that I actually do need them after all.
Ah well, while the MS allows I will be getting back to it all. One thing about an energy spurt is that I don’t need much sleep until it’s over. I have wised up enough to know that a rest break every 15 minutes is absolutely necessary though. Old dogs can learn new tricks after they break a few bones due to ignoring the obvious. Remember, wear orange at some time this month is support of the millions of us with MS who are still here.
KYAngel's Reflections On Life 