Chicken and Dumplings and Things (Or how my weekend went.)

 

How was your weekend? I hope you all had a great one filled with family and friends and great food and adventures. Mine was a slightly busy one. I went over to my parents house to help sort the garage a bit because some friends were coming into town to buy one of mom's mowers off of us. Yes, I said mowers. My mom had several of them because when one would "stop working" she'd get another one. She took them in from time to time to get fixed by family friends who ran a small engine repair, but she had several in case one stopped working. We secretly believe she had undiagnosed ADHD. I'm like 99.99% sure she did, especially since it seems I have it. It was hard letting the mower go, especially since I believe it was one of my mom's favorites that she used to mow the lawn. It went to good people, and that brings me comfort. We have several more to sell, and that will help clean up the garage some. We have some other things we will need to sell as well, but slow and steady. My sister and I don't want to get rid of things too quickly because it almost feels like we are trying to erase her. Clearly we know that's not the deal, it just feels like that a little. However, we do need to keep a steady pace and cleaning things up because I need to get moved in for several reasons. So, as hard as it is, we have to keep trying to get things out of the house. We'll get there. It's just hard. 

I have a therapy appointment this evening. I've invited my sister to come with me. I think it would be good for her to hear what my therapist has to say. I want to try to encourage my sister to get a therapist. Maybe we can try to get therapy at the same place on the same day and time and have out mental health days "together". For now I will just see how she likes it and I hope she walks away from therapy feeling a bit better today.

On Sunday the husbae and I headed back over so he could finish mowing the front yard, and I could help my sister clean the house a bit and we had dinner. My dad loves making chicken and dumplings in the slow cooker, if you couldn't tell by how beat up the cookbook is. He's done it for years now. The last time he did it, however, he put okra in it. For those of you who don't know, when you cook okra it gets this slime to it. Now in other meals where you can't see the slime I am fine with okra, but in chicken and dumplings you can't avoid it. It just turned my stomach and I couldn't look at it while eating it. I only ate the dumplings and chicken out of it and left the rest. I told my mom I didn't like it and why I wasn't eating it. This thought came back to me yesterday before I went over to the house. That was the last meal I had with my mom. I was staying the night, I believe, and I was having dinner with them. I can't remember if that is the last time I saw her before the stroke. I want to say I saw her one more time after, but with the way my memory is, I honestly can't remember. I was worried I would break down over dinner, but I didn't. I served my husband and dad, sis got her own plate while I took dad's down to him, and then I served myself. I sat down with my husband and sister and we just chatted and ate and things were ok. I was in my mom's kitchen, surrounded by her things, and things were ok. It gave me some hope for the future and made me feel like she was there in spirit and letting us know we will be ok. Funny how a family meal can do that.

So, onto crafty news, remember this guy? Yeah, so I started working on him on Friday. You start with the plain donut part, or the bottom of him. He works up that you make the bottom part, then the top part and then you sew the two pieces together, stuff him, and then close him up, and then bam you have a donut. Well, while I was crocheting the bottom part, I was noticing that it was getting wavy. By the time I finished crocheting the piece it looked almost how a scrunchie looks, really wavy and tight. I knew I had done something wrong. I read and reread the instructions. I was pretty decent at reading crochet instructions back in the day, and I thought I was following it right, but I think I realized my mistake. I think the instructions were explaining to me to do one stitch in one stitch then another stitch in the next stitch, and continue that all the way around. I thought it was telling me to do both stitches in each stitch around, but after doing some Googling, I think I figured out that is wrong. So I am going to attempt him again tonight when I get home from therapy, I'll probably need a nice cool down activity to do, and we'll see if I am right. Also, omg this yarn is DISGUSTING!!! It's so freaking fuzzy and it has this weird "binding" yarn that wraps around the yarn as you crochet. This took me forever to frog. I had to take a needle and gently pry threads apart so the yarn would come loose. I also tried to undo from the beginning of the chain and work that way, which was going good until I got to a point where the yarn was splitting between stitches somehow and I needed to stop. Now that in itself was a mystery because once I finally got it all frogged from the other end, that split yarn was nowhere to be found. The yarn was all back together again. What?!? This little guy is becoming an interesting challenge. I found out on Youtube that the company that makes him also makes these kits for other dollar stores. I saw a content creator on Youtube do a haul for another dollar store and she found other kits. The kits look similar, but I knew for sure it was the same one once I saw the instructions and the yarn. So if you are on the lookout for cheap amigurumi kits to try, try looking at any dollar stores in your area, you may find some there. I will totally grab another one of these kits if I come across one, but I am looking forward to seeing if they are worth it in the end. I will update you all soon on the final results. Oh and for those wondering, yes I am using the hook from the kit, and honestly, so far so good. I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. I'll honestly be delighted if the whole kit works perfectly fine as is. Oh, there is one thing this kit forgot and I am super surprised by it. Stitch markers. They expect you to have one, but they didn't put one in the kit. I had to grab one from another kit I have here. I mean they could have popped two or even just one plastic stitch marker into the kit. Granted you can use a piece of yarn if you don't have a stitch marker, but I never liked doing that. I prefer to have something firmly gripping my stitch just in case, but a piece of yarn will work in a pinch if you find yourself without stitch markers. So if the creators of the kit ever find their way to my post, stitch markers, pop one or two in and your kit will be complete.

Now onto the final topic for this post, I've been on the hunt for doll blogs, and I am happy to say they are still out there. I'm slowly building a folder in my favorites of dolls blogs that I am finding that have been active as of this year. I might also save some that were active in December of last year as that still seems "active" to me. I plan to make a spreadsheet of the blogs, what dolls they talk about, and how active they are. Once I get a good amount of them, I'll be sharing it here with you. Like I said in my previous post, I'm not big on Tumblr blogs, so odds are they won't show up in the list. I prefer blogs that are completely about the blogger and their own original posts. Tumblr is a lot of reblogging from other blogs, and while that is cool, I feel I don't get a feel for the blog author as much. Who knows, maybe this will encourage more blog reading and encourage those blogging to keep going and maybe some who stopped blogging to come back. Hey, a girl can dream. However, to be fair, I will take a look around Tumblr just to make sure I'm not missing out on blogs that the author just posts about themselves and doesn't reblog. I don't want to miss out on gems that could be out there. I shall keep you updated. I'm also going to work on finding doll communities and make some lists for those as well. I miss my people, so may the hunt begin to find them again. 😊

And that's it for this post. Just a quick update about my weekend and what I got up to. I am hoping to get to some cool crafty things this week. I also have to do some adulting, which is never fun, but we must do what we must do. I just hope I get to some fun things too like dolls, crafting, gaming, etc. I of course will update you here on what I get up to. I hope all of you are starting your week off on a great foot and you have oodles of fun stuff ahead of you this week. If you don't have anything fun to look forward to yet this week, take today to plan for something fun, be it some reading time, going out with friends, shopping for a new collection item or hobby, or just going out and having your favorite meal. You'll have to come back and let me know what you decided to do at the end of the week. Sending the vibes out to all of you that we all end the week happy and healthy. For now I will let you go and get back to your life, thank you for taking a moment out of your day to stop by and visit me. I loved having you and look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, as always, I hope you all have magical, wonderful, splendiferous day. Bye guys!!!