Preparations for love and joy

November 19-30 are days filled with birthdays, Thanksgiving, and a wedding. The birthdays begin on the 19th with our newest granddaughter by the marriage of daughter to her new hubby in October, this one leaves her teens and turned 20. She is followed by my stepmom, me, granddaughter, daughter.

On Wednesday, eldest son (the groom), his bride, his son, her son, and her parents will arrive to stay with the us for the long weekend of celebration. Daughter will host Thanksgiving for 16, with contributions of help by son to spatchcock and season the turkey, me to provide some sides, relishes, and pies, and extra chairs.

Friday we have a traditional Ukrainian pre wedding dinner for those staying here and a few other guests and meeting up with daughter to give her a birthday card. The wedding will be in our home on Saturday with a light meal reception following. Sunday will have a traditional Ukrainian post wedding lunch.

Today, all guest beds have been made with fresh sheets, all floors swept and mopped. The cheeses and crackers for the cheese board were purchased. Other food purchases that I am providing will be made as the week goes by so they are still fresh when ready to serve.

Tomorrow, cranberries will be cooked, no canned cranberry sauce here, a couple of pumpkin pies also prepared and cooked. The brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes will wait until Thursday morning after breakfast for all the houseguests is done.

Such an exciting time. Then on to preparing for Christmas. Family tradition forbids me from decorating until after daughter’s birthday and this year, the wedding in the house. Next week, the bins of Christmas decorations will be hauled upstairs and the house will be festive for that holiday for a month.

Indulgence

Almost two decades ago, I began my trip into the fiber world rabbit hole by taking a beginner drop spindle class. I was already a knitter and crocheter, though both of those now are secondary as they aggravate the osteoarthritis in my almost 8 decade old hands. The drop spindle fascinated me and making yarn was absolutely magical. Of course I quickly wanted a spinning wheel and have owned several over the past couple of decades including the antique great wheel in the header.

Along the way, I discovered Turkish cross armed spindles and the rabbit hole deepened as they were so very portable and because of their construction, allow the spun wool cop to be removed without having to wind it off the shaft of the drop spindle. Several different makers spindles were tried until I discovered the Jenkins spindles and over the years, a number of them have entered my supply of tools. Several as gifts from my husband, my fiber indulger. He also buys me wool.

During the shut in period of Covid, I returned to spinning mostly on the spindles, including a very inexpensive plain top whorl one that I use when I am at the museum doing living history for class groups. Spinning yarn on the spindles slowed my production down to a manageable level.

Recently, while demonstrating at the Fall Festival, since I was outside on uneven ground, I spun almost entirely on the top whorl and realized when I got home with a spindle full of singles, that my yarn ball winder would wind it off the shaft quickly, making a ball I could ply from both ends or if I wanted to ply with a second strand, I could slip a toilet paper tube over the ball winder shaft and wind it on to that.

There is a maker of very quality top whorl spindles, Golding, and I stumbled on one I loved. With a November birthday, my love purchased the spindle with it’s bright brass ring and brass heart on the whorl as a gift for me. The spindle came with a generous sample of wool blended with silk and I have had a glorious cold snowy day using it to spin the sample and then ply it using the two ends of the ball of singles.

This morning, before devoting myself to the new spindle, I finished knitting a pair of fingerless mitts, and spun for a while on one of my Jenkins Turkish spindles. The basket with them in the picture is a spindle basket by Susan Preuss that was a generous gift from a friend a few years ago. It is perfect for holding a top whorl spindle and some wool, or tucking a small Turkish spindle inside with some wool.

Today has been a quiet, peaceful day of crafting, and preparing a delicious, easy dinner of mushroom and butternut raviolis in sage and garlic browned butter. Topped off with the most decadent dark chocolate truffle cakelet that was gifted to me by another friend. A good day.

Insecurity and fraud

I am extremely careful on the internet, social media, with online purchases, and very judicious with the use of a credit or debit card out in the world, yet once again, my credit card has been breached. We belong to USAA and they are great at catching the fraudulent use, catching 3 attempts to use it for about $1600 worth of ticket purchases in Houston. However, they did not notify me this time, we saw the declined attempts on our statement when another suspicious pending charge appeared. My card has yet again been shut down and a new one being processed for me. This is a tough time of year for it to happen, with the holiday’s approaching, as I don’t like to shop, don’t care for crowds, and currently due to DH’s injury, don’t leave the house for any length of time short of quick grocery or med runs.

Then to add to this frustration, today we went to pick up a regular prescription for DH to find that with the Rx insurance for which we pay dearly, the 90 days refill was more than double what it was last time it was refilled. Without insurance, the med was less than the old insurance cost. So we pay almost 3 times the med cost to use the insurance that we pay for to reduce or help pay for the medications required. I don’t understand how the insurance companies get away with that. It approaches fraud. How can the co-pay be much more than the cost of the medication.

How can other countries provide free or inexpensive medical care and free or inexpensive medications while our costs continue to rise.