Lagniappe - June 28, 2019

Here's an overview of what has been going on in my life in the last few months.

Migraine

Yep. I still have Chronic Migraine. In fact, I've been having more trouble with pain since before my hysterectomy in November. I was hesitant to do anything about it until I was recovered from surgery, which took longer than expected. Then, I had problems with my depression until we finally decided just to increase my amitriptyline back to where it was. After all that was done, my migraines were still bad, so I went back to my headache specialist and he did bilateral occipital nerve blocks (shots in the back of my head) and gave me a high dose steroid taper. I had a few side effects, but the gist of it all is that my Chronic Migraine disease is back to baseline. OK, baseline is a couple of migraines a week with chronic fatigue, but it's better than what it was, and I can live with it.

Family Camp

Last week, our family went to Fort Wilderness for the week! Well, Patrick, Chris, Lydia, and I went. Chris's fiancee, Jenna, wasn't able to make it, so Chris only stayed for Saturday through Tuesday. As usual, we had a great time! The speaker was good, although I missed a couple of sessions because of migraine. We took some hikes. Patrick and I went off the low-carb diet for a week and really enjoyed the food. Sadly, I was tired and achy because of that, but I think the ice cream was probably worth it.

Lydia and Patrick made fires almost every night. We played Sequence, UNO, and poker. OK, I didn't play poker, but I watched the other three play. They bet Spree and mini Snickers bars. It was a lovely week and we're sad it's over.

Reading

I've been doing so much reading!! Check out my Goodreads page for more books and reviews.

Knitting

Mitered Poncho - Vogue Knitting 2017/2018 had this wonderful poncho made with Koigu sock yarn. I just loved it, but I didn't want to buy that much sock yarn. Besides, I have tons of sock yarn. So, I decided to make the poncho with my scrap sock yarn. Here's the link to a picture of the poncho made with the Koigu yarn. And here are a couple of pictures of my progress thus far.

My soon-to-be daughter-in-law (that's a lot of hyphens!) wanted a pair of dragonscale mitts. Sadly, the pattern was crochet. I found a knitted pattern, but I didn't really like it once I bought it, so I pretty much rewrote it. I'm only halfway through one mitt. Here's my progress.

A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and has to undergo chemotherapy (ACK!). So, I'm making her a hat from some nice soft wool in a lovely blue color. I've got a picture of the yarn, but not the pattern yet because I haven't quite decided which pattern is best for her. But, it will be beautiful. And prayed over. Much prayer.

Exchange Student

Patrick and I said that we were going to enjoy our empty nest this year now that we've got Noah moved out into his own apartment. Alas, I don't think we're capable of that. Actually, I think it's because we're called to be parents. We just naturally take care of teenagers. This year, it will be a teenage girl from Vietnam. She'll arrive in August and school starts the beginning of September. She'll be with us the whole school year. I'm really looking forward to it.

What's up with you? Leave your message in the comments!

Catherine