Housewife, 54

I have always loved 'useful' crafts.  Now, I understand that the term 'useful' has different meanings for different people.  For me, it means something that I can use on a daily or weekly basis.  Cooking is certainly a craft, but more often thought of as an art or science.  I think it is all three.  Sewing is a craft, but if you have little or no money to buy nice clothes that fit properly, it becomes a daily necessity ;-)   I learned to sew at a very young age, and as a child, most of my clothes were made by my mom or myself.  I also learned other useful crafts as a child: embroidery, macrame (which for me definitely falls into the not-so-useful category, as well as latch-hooking rugs) some crochet and knitting, and tatting.  But other than sewing, all of these other craft skills were at a very basic level. While I was an avid seamstress, I did not have any interest in quilting for a long time.  I blame this on my mom.... she was not a quilter and while she did not

Well, we are now fully into our fall move.... moving others, that is! My brother decided to change our Dad's moving date up, so on the first weekend in October, my son and I went down to help.  We moved Dad from his house into my brothers new home - Dad will have a bedroom, bathroom and small sitting room on the first floor that are all his.  His rooms can be closed off and heated as he likes, he has access to the garage and has to actually pass through the family kitchen and eating area to get from his bedroom to sitting room, so he most certainly is not isolated!  I think it will work well - it will give him privacy when he wants it, and still keep him surrounded by people when he needs that.  It looks like the ideal arrangement.  Dad's house is not sold, so we just moved what he needed to start settling in.  I will have to go back and help clear out the house - it will take a while ;-) The following week was oriented to Dad again.  He had an appointment at Rush Universit

I cannot believe how long it has been since I last posted!  I will have to attribute my procrastination to the complication of having both the time and the inspiration to write - at the same time.  Guess that does not happen very often for me! So what have I been doing?   On top of running a house, working with and caring for my dogs, and ignoring my garden, I keep pretty busy.  I got into a terrible rut during that long HOT-weather spell of sitting and knitting or reading.  Once the weather cooled off in August, the damage was already done.  (Imagine that; we don't often see the words "cooled off" and "August" in the same sentence, do we?)  Anyway, the damage is that my book stack was fully stocked and my knitting projects well begun with a drive to finish several projects before Christmas. Not to mention that the garden was almost ruined by the heat and then pretty much finished off by the Japanese beetles.... Reading:  Nella Last's Peace (aka housewif

And yes, I mean real headaches.  The weather is the culprit - HOT, STEAMY and unrelenting.  Here in the Chicago area we have had temperatures and humidity levels in the 90s for what seems like weeks!  It is too hot outside to do anything.... I don't want to work in the garden, walk the dogs, or even sit out in the shade and read.  Any time you step out the door, it feels like you have walked INto a sauna and your body begins to sweat buckets.  Disgusting.  And I believe that going in and out of air-conditioning is what is aggravating my headaches.  That and thunderstorms that crop up almost every evening.  In the past 10 days we have had over 8" of rain.... and that just means more humidity and sweating and dripping..... SO, to keep myself semi-occupied I have been doing indoor things like reading and knitting.  In the wintertime I read and knit, but the 'flavor" of my books and the texture of my knitting is different to match the season.  In keeping with the summer

And yes, I mean real headaches.  The weather is the culprit - HOT, STEAMY and unrelenting.  Here in the Chicago area we have had temperatures and humidity levels in the 90s for what seems like weeks!  It is too hot outside to do anything.... I don't want to work in the garden, walk the dogs, or even sit out in the shade and read.  Any time you step out the door, it feels like you have walked INto a sauna and your body begins to sweat buckets.  Disgusting.  And I believe that going in and out of air-conditioning is what is aggravating my headaches.  That and thunderstorms that crop up almost every evening.  In the past 10 days we have had over 8" of rain.... and that just means more humidity and sweating and dripping..... SO, to keep myself semi-occupied I have been doing indoor things like reading and knitting.  In the wintertime I read and knit, but the 'flavor" of my books and the texture of my knitting is different to match the season.  In keeping with the summer

It is HOT and HUMID here today!  It all started last weekend when Son #2 and I drove up to the Twin Cities to visit Son #1 and wife.  Temperatures have been really hot and sticky since Saturday and there is no end in sight.....  Hopefully by the end of this week the temps and humidity may moderate a bit - down into the 80's maybe?  But all this week we are to continue to have temperatures in the mid to upper 90's and humidity so high that the heat index will be 105-115!  Thank GOD for Air Conditioning!!!! Like I said, we went up to visit my son and his wife.  I love driving through Wisconsin; the landscape varies so much more than what we are used to, going mostly through corn and bean lands of Illinois and Iowa in the past. Wisconsin has rolling hills, farmland that is corn, beans, wheat, oats and pastures of dairy cattle.  But mixed in are the forests with lots of different kinds of trees.  This time of year there are all kinds of wildflowers, as well.  Then there is The Ci

Of course, my day without power is not today, or I would not be publishing this!  Yesterday we had quite the little storm blow through, just as we were sitting at the table eating breakfast.  The wind kicked up, the rain came down and WHOOSH!  Slam, bam, ~ thunder, lightening, wind and rain sent us reeling! The storm lasted less than an hour, but knocked out power all over the suburbs.  Trees were down everywhere, but not in our yard, and we couldn't see any real damage on our street, just a few small branches were scattered around.  But electricity, we had not.  Aaron went to work at his usual time and was back about 20 minutes later.  He had seen trees down in several places along his route to work, and with no power at his office, they sent everyone home.  Jim finally left for work around nine, not knowing if the power was off at the library or not.  As it turned out, there were pockets of power around town, but most of the town was out. The Library and a neighborhood about 10

So, what are my interests?  LOTS.  Probably my primary interest these days is my dogs.  I have 2 Afghan Hounds; Maija is 8 years old and Elvis is 10 months.  Here they are! We also have a Miniature Pinscher, Nina. My dogs are not just couch potatoes.  We do lots of things together. I have owned dogs almost forever, and when we were first married and got our first mutt, I started messing around with training.  When we got our first Afghan Hound about a year later, I joined my first dog training class.... and was hooked.  We started with plain old traditional Obedience and I had a lot to learn about training dogs.  Primarily that they are ALL different!  I took our first mutt, Sassy, and the first Afghan, Jason, to training class and learned right away that I had to treat them differently and reward them differently and that they learned differently.  That has been reinforced for me through all 11 dogs that we have owned (and a couple of extras that I have fostered for other people).  Du

I have wanted to keep a diary for years, and when the computer age developed in our home, I wondered how I could use it as a diary.... years later, I finally got my act together and have arrived at the blog-sphere.  Where did my "name" come from?  It was inspired by a book from the UK, a diary of a woman during WWII, called simply "Housewife, 49".  From that, I had to modify the numbers until I had something that was not already taken, thus I am Housewife 5404. I have many interests and hobbies, only one of which is writing.  I have no real training as a writer - beyond that afforded by our public school system.  However, I have been told that some of the things that I have written are interesting or well-written, so I hope I maintain that compliment and don't set to type anything that is too horrid! To begin, I am a housewife.  I am a homemaker by choice.  My mother was a homemaker, and my grandmother before her as well.  It was not because we were forced t