You've Never Too Old to Learn Something New

When I was at my parent's house for those few weeks, I thought there really wasn't anything I could still learn from my mom and vice versa but I was so wrong. For instance, the photo above is the original pattern that my mom uses to knit Christmas stockings for every member of our family. She told me that when Judah was born that would be her last stocking and she would be turning the pattern and the knitting needles over to me. I'm the logical one to take over since I do some knitting although never anything too complicated.

But while I was home, she wanted me to cast on the stitches needed to start a stocking. I questioned her on it since there are no new family members and there were none in the foreseeable future. Well, she isn't ready to give up that pattern and her knitting needles quite yet. She decided to knit some stockings ahead of time and leave the name blank. I could then use yarn to cross-stitch names as they entered the family. I'm still perplexed that she wanted to do this because she really seemed stressed out about making Judah's and that she didn't want to make another one again. But I can see it would be hard for her to give it up. She's has been making them since the early 1960's and why stop now.

 

My mother is too cheap to buy angora yarn which you should use for the patterns so when she needed me to get some yarn for her at a local yarn shop, I bought a bunch of angora. And yes, the price was dear but she was so happy I did it for her. I'm also not sure why she wants me to cast on for her but I did it for Judah's and I'll keep doing it as long as she is making them.

She doesn't wind the skein of yarns when she is using them so I asked her if I could because that's the way I do it. As she saw me winding the eight skeins, she asked to do one too and then got upset because she thought mine looked better because my ball was more round. Who cares! In case you are wondering, mine is on the left and mom's is on the right.

Now to the things we both learned. I hate, hate, hate when you get to the end of a roll of toilet paper. I saw my mom doing this at her house and I thought it was a great idea so I did it at my house. Great idea!

After her surgery, she spent the day sitting in an upright rocking chair but it was hard for her at first to hold up the paper, go through the mail... so I grabbed a throw pillow and placed it on her lap to raise everything up a little. She loved it!

After dinner one night I asked, "Mom, where's the Saran Wrap? It's not with the tin foil and wax paper. "Becky, it's in the refrigerator." I had to ask her twice and sure enough that's where it was. She says it works better when it's chilled. I didn't notice any difference but I'm not going to tell her that and I kept it in the refrigerator.

My mom and dad put all the silverware together in the dishwasher. All the forks, knives and spoons are together. It makes unloading a lot easier. Why didn't I think of that?

Another thing my dad wanted me to do was to warm up the dishes in the microwave before you eat. It was really great to eat on a warm plate.

One huge change, well at least to me, my dad now lets you take a shower in the bathroom! We were never allowed to up until the last few months. Since 1973 when we moved in, you had to take a shower in the basement bathroom. It was also where my bedroom was so there was no problem and I also am not a fan of baths anyway. But I couldn't do it. My dad tried and tried to get me to shower upstairs and I just couldn't. Some things you just can't change:)