Step Into My Thimble

How was your holiday? Ours was crammed into four quick days, followed by four more spent unwinding, eating leftovers, and entertaining old friends passing through town. We all did all right giftwise, and in this house that means nothing wasteful or unnecessary. We don’t have space, and we don’t like to consume more than we need. I got a porch swing, which is not just wood and chains, but a quality of life gift… Rodney got a gift certificate for new running shoes… Maeve got several nice toys and books… and we’ll be able to buy some much needed bookshelves.

Maeve liked gift wrap more than the actual presents!

I have finished another quilt block. This one is J7, Chicken Tracks. I hope to do two more today. I have also completed knitting two children’s sweaters, both gifts. Pictures of those later.

A couple things to keep an eye on in 2007:

• Our LibraryThing, which I’ve been thinking about doing forever, and with new bookshelves coming soon, it’s finally time.
• Friend Sandy’s hand-dyed yarn

Hope your year ends well, whatever you may be up to. And happy 2007!

Here are the pictures of Maeve we sent out for the holidays. I didn’t put them on Flickr or this blog so that the people on my mailing list would be surprised.

Have a great holiday everyone…we’ve got lots to do the next few days but we’ll be back next week. Maeve may have a new toy or two to show off!

Maeve is still getting used to solids…some days are better than others, some meals are more tasty than others! Lately pureed carrots are going over very well.

And, although I had issued a moratorium against such things recently, due to my own mother having some free time and also due to me loving cranberries in all forms, I made 12 half-pints of cranberry marmalade a couple weeks ago. The recipe is below.

As far as my poor little brother’s health, there still aren’t any concrete answers, but they did send him home from the hospital last Friday night after three doses of steroids. Preliminary results from the kidney biopsy show that damage was minimal-to-none, and they are tentatively saying that the kidney failure was due to a secondary infection after a case of strep or some other virus. He had had some asthma-like issues about a month ago, and that’s probably when it got started. So the really serious things like cancer are definitely ruled out, and the chronic/auto-immune things are probably ruled out, which is good. Final results could take a while, and we’ve learned that any time kidneys get sick, recovery is not at all like getting over a cold. He’s a healthy guy, but this has been pretty hard and I’m sure he will need a few more weeks to get back to his regular self.

It’s funny, in our family we really do take our health for granted. Every now and then something big and dramatic like this happens, mostly to my dad. He got viral meningitis when I was a kid, then he had appendicitis that didn’t get diagnosed because it never ruptured, which then led to an abdominal hernia… But anyway, at the end of 2006 I am definitely feeling thankful for my own health. I suspect my New Year’s Resolution (if I make one) will have something to do with taking good care of myself and my family. Salads every day! A good goal for the new year.

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Thanks to all for the kind thoughts and words. My brother is lucky to have a lot of family and friends for support.

As of tonight, he is still in the hospital with no diagnosis. The doctor has ruled out anything immediately life-threatening like cancer, and from the basic bloodwork it looks like the kidney failure has either slowed down or improved. He had a biopsy that will be sent to the Mayo Clinic, and results can take anywhere from three days to a couple of months depending. So when I talked to him tonight, he was really hoping to get sent home tomorrow. They’ve loaded him up on steroids and his head cold is gone, so he’s feeling a lot better. He’ll probably improve even more when he can get home and relax with his wife and their little boy Noah who is about to turn one. It’s really frustrating to not know exactly what is going on, that’s for sure. I hope he gets some answers soon.

In other news, this looks like fun. I haven’t played with it much, but I’m always looking for ways to expand on the things I like…

I was going to write a post about my recent trip to Chicago, Maeve’s almost-tooth, and also the cranberry-orange marmalade I made with my mom last week, but I can’t now.

I just found out that my little brother Andy, age 29, has acute renal failure from an unknown cause. He’s in the hospital waiting to find out what is going on. This is really unusual for him, a sporty healthy kind of guy, and there’s no history of kidney issues in the family. So you can imagine we’re all concerned and pacing around and putting several things on hold until the specialists review his situation and decide what is making him sick.

Good thoughts, candle-lighting, fingers crossed, prayers, and whatever else you do in these kind of moments are appreciated!