Birthday, Crocheting, and Baseball

On April 30, we went to Sparta to help Sam celebrate his FIRST birthday. His actual birthday was April 23. Abby did a great job decorating using a robot theme. She got a lot of great ideas from Pinterest. Photos? Did you say you wanted photos? Here ya go......

Papaw and Sam wearing robot antennae.

Mama and Sam looking over the robot Mama knitted for him.

I thought I had photos of the table and decorations but apparently I was having too much fun to get that. Head over to Abby's blog, AbbyCrafty, to see the absolutely adorable decorations and her ideas on that last first birthday party.

I am glad to say I am feeling much better. I decided to try adding B-Complex vitamins to my supplements. I read the bottle closely and decided to go for it. After about a week, I was feeling so much better that I thought I would do some research. I have been having severe back pain that kept me from doing simple things such as loading and unloading the dishwasher, moving clothes from the washer to the dryer or even walking to the mailbox. The pain was so bad that I would have sit down for a good while before I could get any relief. (BTW, both my primary doctor and my rheumatologist have stated that my back pain was because of my weight. I realize that losing weight would help my health overall, but to dismiss it out of hand really annoyed me.) I have avoided taking pain meds as much as I can because I don't want to lose the value of them when I really need them. I was shocked to learn that B Vitamins are a great source of relief from back pain and that they also help reduce inflammation. If you know anything about RA, you know that inflammation is the major cause of pain. Stress is a major cause of flares which is a result of the increase in inflammation. I was starting to have aches daily in my hands, elbows and toes. After 3 weeks on B-Complex, I can say that I am having much less back pain, the deep aching in my toes has lessened and my hands are wonderful.
I'm still taking breaks when I crochet and cross stitch, but that just because I really don't want to push it. Believe me, there were be discussions with my rheumatologist at my next appointment.

Crocheting......I've started on Christmas presents for the grands. I'm notorious for wanting to make things for the grands and waiting too late and then procrastinating and never finishing. Hopefully, by starting in May, I'll finish on time. We'll see.

I'm making my two granddaughters mermaid tail snuggle sacks, one in green and one in purple, their favorite colors. I've finished the green one with the exception of sewing it together and have started on the purple one. For the grandsons, I'm doing a rocket ship, a dinosaur tail, and a robot (hopefully). I have the yarn and patterns for the first two but I'm still looking at robot snuggle sacks.

Cross Stitching......I've added two more SALs to my stitching projects. I'm waiting on fabric for both of them and will show photos later when I've managed to get started.

This being retired is soooo much fun.

I splurged this spring and purchased the MLB single team package so that I can watch most of my beloved Cubbies' games. I'm really enjoying that (except when it's shown on FOX and then I just listen to it; I can't stand the announcers for FOX Sports, heehee) and getting to them in action. The only games I don't get to see are when they play in Atlanta and Cincinnati. Those games are blacked out because I live too close to them. 250 miles (approximately) is close????? Oh well, I enjoy the radio announcers so no loss.

I've finished several books and started a couple more but this is getting long so I'll save that for next time.

As always, thank you for visiting and for being such great bloggy friends.

Hugs,
Sharon