A little bit of this and that....

Peeps, I'm tellin' ya now....If I had to live my life this busy all the time, I wouldn't want to live it. Here's what I've been up to....
I've been helping my Mother-in-Law go through her stuff. She has permanently moved into Assisted Living. We meet for two to three hours, a week at a time.
We make piles.
Piles of things she doesn't want to throw out, nor does she want anymore.
Such as all of these craft books.


And these craft books......you get the idea. LOTS of craft books. I totally get this. I have TONS of craft books. Now I have TONS more. Some are vintage enough that they are coming back in style.

Then there is stuff like this. Her husband's high school diploma. I gave it to my Shug, since it was his Dad. What do you do with stuff like this?

Then there are things that she needed burnt or shredded. We even found the deed to a house that she lived in, three houses ago. The one my Shug grew up in.
Pictures....cards.....letters.....
Lots of old pairs of perscription glasses. Who can I donate them to?
And these....

Too bad they are bent and crooked and messed up. I think they could be cool, in a retro kind of way. Couldn't they?
That in and of itself has been emotional draining, and exhausting. And I'm doing it to help my Shug out. It's his Mom but he needs to be working on our house. We are getting so close to moving in.
I will admit, the first time the Assisted Living bus came and picked her up, she got in, sat down, and waved good-bye.
I stood in the yard, alone, and cried.
She broke her hip last November and hasn't been home since. She will never be home again. And she is having a hard time creating a new home.


Soooo, on to happier stuff.

I took a class a couple of weeks ago at Groovy Girl Yarn on making these handwarmers. I know, I've made them before, but I always had trouble with the thumb hole. See it there...the thumb....sticking up? I like these because they actually have a thumb.

And I've been going through all of my yarn and material setting up my craft room, and I've decided.....I'm getting rid of a lot of it.....but some of it, I'm making more handwarmers and other such stuff to either sell at Granny Bee Christmas open house, or to use as gifts. Depending on how many I finish.

What do you think?

And I've been extracting honey.

I've put in 8 hours a day for several days going through bee hives, pulling frames and extracting honey.

I don't even bother with make-up because I suit up and work in the hot sun lifting heavy frames and hives hoping I don't get stung. I sweat profusely doing this.

When you keep bees you don't have a choice when to extract honey. When the hives are crowded, the supers are full of honey, and the sun is shining, and it's hot out, you extract honey.

I'm not complaining.

I now wear boots.

No more ankle stings.

Then I do get a small break while I wait for honey to drip.

I left my Sister a message and told her I was watching honey drip, which is like watching paint dry, (check the house blog, I watched paint dry last week) or watching grass grow. B O R I N G!

But then, she calls me back with a different perspective on watching paint dry. She says that she is actually watching paint dry and enjoying it! She explained she has a magazine in one hand, a drink in the other, and she is waiting for her 4th of July toes to dry from the pedicure she just got! Maybe she'll send us a picture.

She also went on to say that apparently I am not having the kind of day she is having.

Ummm, apparently not.

The fruit of my labor....and of the bees labor.

A blogger friend, Buttons ,left a comment the other day that a neighbor of hers quit keeping bees because the bears wouldn't leave the hives alone! OMG! I am petrified of bears. I have nightmares about bears! Who knows why, I live in Indiana, we don't have bears. But if we did, I wouldn't be a beekeeper either!

What we do have in Indiana is a draught. A very serious draught.

We have had very little rain for the last two months. Like, less than an inch.

The grass breaks if you walk on it.

Almost all of the counties in Indiana have a burn ban.

Farmers are losing their crops.

One blogger friend, Angela from the Country Cellar said someone she knows is selling his cattle already because he knows his hay crop won't be large enough to feed them through the winter.

We need rain bad.

And just this morning on the news they said they might cancel the fireworks show at Conner Prairie this year because they are afraid the prairie grass will catch fire.

I love the Conner Prairie July 4th show. I bought these bags to carry my food and drink in.

I bought some fun stuff for our 'area' at the show.

I LOVE fireworks,

I love July 4th,

and I enjoy all of the celebrations.

PRAY FOR RAIN for Indiana, so we can have fireworks and farms and fields and fun!

Cindy Bee

PS - I AM taking a break tonight and taking a crochet class at Groovy Girl Yarn. Crocheted Newsboy Cap. I think it'll be fun! It's not too late to sign up if you know how to crochet.