Spring

70+ degrees and no rain! This is wonderful. The spring blossoms are beautiful. I am watching the leaves on the trees by my kitchen window change each day. I love this time of the year!

I'm back

I said my next post would be after I had my surgery. Well, this is a long, long time after! 14 months long.
The knee replacementr went well and I had some great therapy afterwards. If you are having a knee replacement, let me encourage you to be committed to the therapy! I did not just do the exercises with the therapist. I did them every day and some of them frequently during the day and night. The rewards were not having pain as long as I was told it could last and being able to climb stairs and get into and out of the car without any difficulty.
It was 3 months before I could sit long enough to paint. But since then, I have really been enjoying painting with my friends. I have 6 people who come to my house weekly and we enjoy painting together, encouraging each other and critiquing if wanted. They are a great group and I am extremely blessed to have them come here to paint.
I just finished painting another portrait. I think that is my favorite subject to paint.

A Miracle?

In the last post, I said I was going to the medical doctor and see if he had a miracle for me. He looked at my chart - symptoms and surgery schedule - and then he looked at me and said, "You need a miracle."
He talked with the anesthetist who thought that as I am having a spinal anesthesia, I would be ok for the surgery by Wednesday morning. I am to check in and the anesthetist will check me to see if I am cleared enough for the surgery.
I got an injection of the strongest antibiotic/steroid and prescriptions for the Z-Pack (antibiotic), decongestant, and cough syrup with codeine. My husband went to get those filled and I am waiting for the codeine. :-) I hope it will make me sleepy so I can rest for a while.
The antibiotic is very hard on the stomach and good bacteria so the diet will be lots of liquids plus yogurt, cottage cheese, and/or buttermilk. Fortunately, I like all of those things.
My next post may not be until after the surgery.
This a soup tureen and ladle that I gave as a gift.

Knee Surgery

I typed a long entry and then lost it before I got it posted. I know. I should have saved as a draft before I went looking for something else. Will try again but shorten it this time.
I am scheduled for a complete knee replacement on January 14. I have never had a lot of pain in it but it is just "plain ole" worn out. When it suddenly goes down a little (I fortunately have never fallen as a result) or suddenly you cannot put any weight on it for a short time because of pain, then you know it is time for the surgery.
I am preregistered and have done several things that I wanted to accomplish before the surgery. Still have a little more to do. The date may have to be changed. Saturday at noon, I started getting a sore throat followed by sinus congestion. I will go to the medical doctor tomorrow to see what he has to say and if he has a "miracle" for a quick recovery for me.
This is an abstract of trees/mountains that I painted last year in my beginning to learn watercolors.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all. Come, let us worship Him.

Merry Christmas

It is now Christmas Eve and I have been reflecting on the busy year and how I got to this time in the year. This has been a year full of very special blessings from our wonderful God. There have been opportunities for painting lessons with great teachers from around the world. My husband and I have been blessed to be able to spend a lot of quality time with our family.
The greatest blessing and gift is our Savior, Christ Jesus whose birthday we now celebrate. Remember to worship Him and to give Him thanks and praise.
Mat 2:2 ... Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
Here are 4 of the Christmas ornaments that I painted this year.

Busy Schedules

Schedules for this time of the year can become very cluttered. For the past 2 weeks, I have had one day each week to stay home. The same is true for this week. The week after Christmas, we can sigh and relax.
Monday is the day that my china painting friends come to my house to paint together. We critique, ask for help or suggestions, and offer the same. Maybe it is taken or maybe not but we just enjoy painting together. Sometimes we work on a special thing together and other times we each work on something different.
Tomorrow we will not paint. We will have our Christmas luncheon and then play Bingo. The gifts can be anything - frivilous, china painting related or otherwise. We have fun doing this.
This is a watercolor I did in my first workshop.