Easing into a new way of life.

I'm slowly adjusting to my new way of life. A large part of my week is still filled with what I have been doing for a long time - administration for our Church.  However, now I have a few extra hours available for activities each day and I'm starting to enjoy a more leisurely lifestyle, going to a concert, having lunch with Church friends after Sunday service, and pottering around in my vegie garden. 

Some mindless Granny Square crocheting in front of the TV in the evenings has produced this little bag. Crochet is so easy, requires so little thinking, and accomplishes a lot quickly, that it has become my 'Go-to' craft for the moment. 

I plan eventually to get back into making things like this coat hanger frock some time. I made this one a couple of months ago, but motivation isn't there yet for that type of activity. 

I am enjoing this beautiful 'Jubilee Celebration' rose. One of my daughters gave me this rose bush to celebrate our 60th Wedding Anniversary. It was amazing that my hubby was still with us for that event, as he passed away just two weeks later. We've had a fairly mild Winter, and the first rose has bloomed already, a whole month before Spring. Its perfume is amazing.

I've also been enjoying watching these Masked Lapwings. They have decided to nest on the roof of my neighbour's garden shed, right in the corner adjacent to my rockery. They are a picture of dedication, sharing incubation duties, night and day, cold and heat, sun and rain and fiercely protecting the eggs if I get too close watering my plants. I enjoy watching them from my loung chair and am looking forward to seeing some babies in a couple of weeks. 

I am so thankful to God that I am able to enjoy life and celebrate the beautiful people and things He sends my way.

Val

The Therapeutic Value of Sorting!

 It's now two months into my journey of being a widow. There are some good days and some not-so-good ones! A few things have surprised me. 

The first is how long it has taken to do all the paperwork of advising all the companies of my new situation. My training and jobs have been in administration and I am still doing all the admin for our Church, so I decided I would do all the legal requirements myself. The fact that there was an undisputed will and that everything was in joint names meant that there was no need for me to hire a solicitor or lawyer.  

What I didn't count on was how long it would take to find out what forms to fill in, and then the time spent in digging out all the information to fill them in. On top of that, every organisation required something different in the way of certification. It meant quite a few trips to visit the JPs at the local shopping centre. Thankfully all the important things are now done and finalised and I saved myself a lot of money by doing it myself!

The other thing that surprised me is that I don't have much motivation to do any craft. In fact for quite a few weeks the only motivation I seemed to have was to look after my vegetable garden. With much more time on my hands, I expected I would be right into doing lots of stitching, but I'm not! I am enjoying doing some fairly mindless Granny Square crochet while I watch TV and have put together a bag, but that's about the limit.

What I have enjoyed doing is SORTING! 

With more time on my hands, I decided I will start listening to music again. We have a very good 40 year-old record player which wasn't working. Google helped me find what was wrong; I bought the part, fitted it and everything now works perfectly. But the record collection was in such a mess! I had great delight in sorting it into classifications and then further putting it in alphabetical order. Now it is so easy to find which record I would like to enjoy.

Then there was the CD collection. When I brought home all the CD's that I played for hubby in the Aged Care, they were just plonked anywhere. Besides that, everything was very dusty through lack of use. So you guessed it - everything came out, was dusted, classified and alphabetically sorted. I've been listening to records, so haven't benefitted yet from being able to find which CD I want, but nevertheless it is very satisfying to have everything in order, and of course they will get used soon!

It's the day of digital everything, but I seemed to have accumulated an awful lot of physical paperwork over the last couple of months. Space left in the writing desk was minimal so it was time to see what I could get rid of. A box of cards caught my eye. I have a friend who makes the most beautiful cards by recycling used ones, so it was time to sort them out and give them away. There were some sad moments as I found cards given to me by my darling husband but there were smiles as I found hand-drawn ones from the grandchildren. These special ones won't be given away! 

Having been through the process of all the legalities of an estate, I wanted to ensure it was an easy task for my family when they have to handle my affairs. My important papers were all well organised with everything in well-marked folders. However, I realised they would have to wade through a huge amount of paperwork to actually find what was needed in all those folders. They don't really want the house plans, extensions, upgrades etc when all they need is the Title Deeds! I have therefore gone through all my folders and pulled out just the paperwork they will need. The next question was how to store it safely. For that I have purchased a fireproof, waterproof hard bag with a handle. It is just ideal and I can also store my computer backups and things in it.

So I have found all this sorting very therapeutic and calming. It is wonderful to be happily doing tasks that require the absolute minimum of thinking power with a great sense of achievement on completion!

I have even started 'sorting' out my rockery which was being overtaken by the fountain grass. That was a much more energetic activity with still quite a bit to be done. But there's no hurry!

I am so thankful to God for His support, comfort and strength when I need it most ... and for getting me sorting! I know that some time in the future I will be more motivated to do some more craft, but again, there's no hurry!

God bless you.

Val

My sad news

I just want to let you know that the love of my life, my husbnd Ray, passed into the presence of Jesus on 30th April. 

He was an amazing man who spent his life totally for Jesus, lived life to the full, and impacted hundreds of people through the Christian ministry in which he served all his life. Even the Australian Government recognised his sacrificial service and he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2011.

We had a wonderful service celebrating his life with many of our large family taking part. Tributes have flowed in from far and wide and I put many of them in the back of the Program here: https://bit.ly/RayCelebrationService.

Some of you might be interested to watch the Celebration Service: bit.ly/RayLairdCelebration.  I’m sorry it is quite long – my large family had a lot to say and do! If you want to skip to some of the features, you can find the Eulogy at 9.40, the family tributes at 27.03 and his life story in Photos at 1:19.57. 

For me, there are many big adjustments to make and many legal requirements to meet, and eventually I will get back to stitching again and hopefully back to sharing stories and photos on the blog.

God bless you.

Val

Daughter time!

Last month, I was able to spend time with my two daughters-in-law. April turned out to be the month when I could spend time with both my daughters - one of them unexpectedly!

Easter was an opportunity to catch a train for an 8 hour journey north to Rockhampton, where my daughter and some of her family live. All the family came home for the weekend, so it was a wonderful opportunity to spend time together, play lots of games (including a Murder Mystery Party) and enjoy lovely food. I am so thankful to the Lord that hubby was OK while I was away, so I was able to relax and have a little holiday.

My suitcase was packed with a little parcel of goodies, including the items you see in this post - donations to the Christian Bookstore that my daughter manages.

When I arrived home, my daughter and her husband from Japan, had flown in for a funeral. They were able to stay for the whole week, so while a sad occasion, it was a bonus that we could spend time together.

Annette has had diabetes for a long time and was reliant on insulin. Her body is producing enough insulin now and along with different medication, it has meant she has lost a lot of weight. The climate she lives in requires that she wears natural fibres as much as possible. So what do you do with beautiful and expensive, cotton, linen and silk garments that are now way too big? You bring them home to Mum to alter! It has been no mean task to reduce tops, skirts and dresses by 5 or 6 sizes!!! The sleeveless tops were relatively easy, but the lined dresses were something else! I gave up counting after I had done 27 for her, and still have a pile that requires a lot more work which hopefully will be done before she comes home again! 

I did question her as to wouldn't it be easier to just buy a whole new wardrobe! Her role as Head of an International School does require that she dress well with lots of formal occasions such as meeting with Ambassadors and it did seem such a waste to throw out such beautiful garments when they still had a lot of life in them.

I'm worried she will bring home her winter wardrobe next time!!!

God bless you.

Val

Spending time with my daughters-in-law

I have two wonderful daughters-in-law! They are both amazing in the way they do life and care for family and friends ... and show their love for me! 

One of them lives only 40 minutes away and she is always telling me that she will just drop everything if I need her for anything. How good is that! 

The other one lives 2,000 kilometres away but her work brings her to my area three or four times a year. On most of those visits she is able to stay with me for a few days. It is always so good to catch up.

I was blessed to have both of them together with me last week so you can imagine how wonderful it was and how much chatting was done!

How could I say anything but "I would be delighted" when Sue asked me to make her one of my Blossom Cottage Calendars for their home? 

She went home with all the numbers, days of the week, and months of the year in their pretty box and the calendar all ready to hang on the wall and change each day - a perpetual calendar that will never date!

If you want to make your own, the pattern is available here.

Now I look forward to the next week or two when I shall catch up with both my daughters!

Happy stitching and many blessings for the Easter Season when we celebrate the amazing death and resurrection of Jesus.

Val

"I eat better than I cook!"

You may have seen the cute kitchen sign "I eat better than I cook!". I think I probably fit into that category! I have never been interested in cooking and always said that I wasn't in the right queue when the cooking gifts were given out!

At times, when I've said that, members of my family, have told me that I really don't do too badly and my cooking is quite OK! They probably are just encouraging me and being nice! We actually have three chefs in our family (two grandchildren and a grandson's spouse) and it was certainly not my genes that were passed on!

During my illness, (see last post - https://val-laird.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-fs-and-ps-of-pericarditis.html) my daughter did all the cooking. She is a great cook and the meals were so lovely that I enjoyed them, even when I didn't feel much like food. But her holiday ended, and the frozen leftovers eventually ran out, and it was back to my very ordinary meals prepared in the quickest time possible.

I was still recovering from my illness and those tasteless meals just didn't cut it! Food is meant to be enjoyed, so something had to be done! There are a lot of prepared meals available now, or fresh kits to make them, but with my significant number of food intolerances, it just wasn't feasible to go down that path.

So, I came up with a plan - well actually four weeks of plans. I always find thinking about what on earth I am going to cook is one of the major issues, so what was needed was to have everything thought out beforehand.

 

It was on to the trusty computer, and I soon had a layout set up with the days of the week, a column for lunch meals, a column for the carbohydrate (potato, pasta, rice etc.) and a column for the evening main meal. Then I decided to stick with the same meat on a certain day for each week - Monday is chicken day, Tuesday fish, Wednesday Pork etc.

Then it was out with the recipe books, spread all over the table! There was plenty of tossing out of recipes with food that I can't eat now, or that I know I would never make, or that would require too much preparation. Eventually I had gathered together four weeks of recipes, some tried and trusted, some that looked interesting, and all with ingredients that I would normally carry in my pantry.

I soon found a binder, printed out my four menu plans and behind each week's plan I placed the recipes for that week in plastic sleeves. There are choices within the week's plan so 10-12 recipes are all there ready to go.

I am delighted to say that I have now been through the month's cycle, enjoyed my own cooking heaps more than I have for a long time, crossed off a few recipes that didn't meet expectations, and added a few I have found online. I now allow that extra five minutes that is needed to produce a meal that is tasty and enjoyable and have found that the discipline of following a planned menu has been really worthwhile. And if I ever get sick of making the same meal each month, then I will just add another few weeks of plans!

God bless you.

Val

The "Fs" and "Ps" of Pericarditis

Early December I wasn't feeling at all well, and after two trips to doctors and a CT Scan, what showed up was that I had Pericarditis. Doctor said that it was caused by an unknown infection, there was  nothing they could do, rest was the cure, and it would last six - eight weeks.

I didn't need that with Christmas approaching! 

Thankfully, on Christmas Day I was OK enough to prepare the traditional Christmas Dinner of Turkey, Roast Vegetables, and Suet Pudding for the family, and the girls quickly put together our Christmas Evening Grazing Table for the 12 of us.

Things tended to go downhill after that! I was ever so thankful that, after the bulk of the family left on New Year's Eve, my daughter stayed on for another week looking after me, doing all the cooking etc. 

Paracetamol and Prayer helped me survive! The pain was unpleasant, the fever debilitating, the flutters and palpitations frightening, and the fatigue overwhelming! I've never spent so many hours in my lounge recliner! I couldn't even do any embroidery as my eyes were so affected that I couldn't see to do fine work. I did find that I could crochet with thicker knitting cotton, so used up some left-over lengths of thread to make some pretty flowers.

With daughter at the wheel of the car, I was able to visit hubby, otherwise I didn't have the strength to drive. But those visits had a nasty barb - Covid broke out! Thirty+ Aged Care Residents contracted it ... as did I! As the doctor said, "You didn't need that on top of Pericarditis!"

Needless to say, I passed Covid on to our daughter, whose symptoms all broke out when she arrived home!

I'm happy to say that, now in the 8th week, I am feeling so much better. For a time I wondered whether I would ever feel well again! Life now has just about resumed its normal rhythm, all my usual responsibilities are being taken up, I can see to stitch again, I'm finding food more interesting (though still have to catch up with the 2 kg I lost), and I'm telling myself my holiday is over!

Since I am normally fairly well, it was a bit of a shock to the system to have something knock me flat like that! 

As you would know if you have read my blog recently, I make articles with Scripture verses to donate to the Christian Bookstore which my daughter manages. The photos are of some of the phone cases, bags, mini-organisers, pouches, coat-hangers and notebook covers that I had ready for her to take back home with her. I hope you find them much more interesting to view than my forlorn pericarditis story!

God bless.

Val