~Yard Work Once More~

Jeff and I spent most of the weekend doing yard work. We spread some mulch, trimmed some bushes, planted some flowers, washed patio furniture, gutters, siding, and windows, we painted some doors and poles, and hung some flags. It was a busy weekend, but it was so nice to be outside and not stuck in the house. After the last two weeks, it was a real blessing to get back to normal life. Here are some pictures of what we did.



I added a third flag to my door box. Now I like it even more than I did before.



We planted red and white geraniums with vinca vine.





I love the way the ferns look in the washtubs on the front and back porch!





We put pine bark mulch in the back to keep the "P Pack" from dragging in the fine mulch. So far, we have been very happy.



Don't mind Jeff's swim trunks. I cannot keep him out of the water!



The doors on the shed were white. Now they are kiln. The poles were just wood that had not been treated so I painted them white and we hung another flag.





I painted the door on the side of the house kiln too. I love that color!

So, what do you think?

I have received several emails from people saying that they could not leave comments. I know blogger has been having some trouble lately. Karen from My Colonial Home had a link on her blog to another blog that suggested how to fix this problem. I have done what was suggested, so we will see how it works.

Thank you for visiting Yesterday Once More. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you will continue to come back as often as possible. Don't forget to look for Yesterday Once More on facebook. I would love for you to stop by there too!

"One of the greatest sources of energy is pride in what you are doing."
~SPOKES~

All My Best,
~Dan~

~Summer Once More~

Since Memorial Day weekend is the start of summer, I decided to change the decorations in the wooden box on the dining room table and in my door box on the front door.

I decided to put geraniums in both boxes. I think the geranium is a wonderful summer flower and who doesn't like red? Here is how the box on the dining room table turned out.


After I filled the box, I felt like something was missing. Yesterday Jeff and I paid a visit to one of my favorite primitive stores The Olde Homestead in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. When I saw these wonderful flags, I knew what was missing from my display. They are kind of tea stained and they have thirteen stars on them. I love them!


On the mantel is a garland of green beans that I made this week. I think they look very summer like.







In the door box, I did the same thing. I placed geraniums in it and added two of the wonderful flags.







So, what do you think?

I have accomplished a lot in the last few days and I found a lot of wonderful items at The Olde Homestead yesterday. I will be sharing more of my projects and finds during the week ahead. Make sure you drop back by.

Thank you for visiting Yesterday Once More. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you will come back as often as you can. Don't forget to look for Yesterday Once More on facebook. I would love for you to stop by there too.

"Oh the summer night has a smile of light, and she sits on a sapphire throne."
~B.W. Procter~

All My Best,
~Dan~

Sunflowers, Green Beans, & Ironstone. . . Oh My!

I don't know if it is feeling so much better, having some time to myself, or a combination of both, but my creative juices have been flowing this week. Don't worry, as promised I have been taking it easy. The projects I have been doing or non strenuous. = )

Yesterday my friend, Diane came to see me and she brought me a bunch of sunflowers. I am really not a flower person, but I love sunflowers. I always have. There is just something about them that make me smile. Diane knows that I love them, so I was overjoyed when she showed up yesterday with them. I decided to put them in a blue mason jar that I had. I placed the flowers on the stove cover along with the blue granite kettle. Then I added an old picnic thermos I had. It has a mason jar inside. It will keep the item warm or cold. I set a old pie plate in front of the thermos and a rolling pin in front of the flowers to make a late spring early summer display.


I am hoping to dry the sunflowers and enjoy them all year.




My friend Kathy has been emailing me little projects to do this week. The first project she sent me was stringing green beans. This is an old Indian custom called leather britches. It is the way that the Indians dried their beans. Kathy told me to use black crochet thread and to string them like I would popcorn. Over time they will dry and look so primitive. She has also given me lots of other ideas for items to string. I am anxious to do that very soon. I made a garland out of this string and hung it on the primitive corner cupboard I have in the upstairs kitchen.









I was also thinking about four Ironstone platters that I have which I have not found a place for yet. I placed an old tool carrier on the island in the kitchen. I love the red paint that is on it. It has a crack right down the middle of its base where two pieces of wood come together. It made a perfect plate rack. So I lined the platters up from biggest to smallest and stood them vertically.







As you can see, I have been busy. I promise I am not overdoing it!

Thank you for visiting Yesterday Once More. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you will continue to come back as often as possible. Don't forget to look for Yesterday Once More on facebook. I would love to see you there too!

"If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk."
~Raymond Inman~

All My Best,
~Dan~

~Well. . . Look What the Cat Drug in!~

Hey Everyone! It is your long lost blogging friend, Dan!


I am so thankful to get to write to you again. As you know, the last few days have been pretty rough. Jeff has filled you all in with the details, so I will not bore you with them again. Let's just say that I am thankful to be on my feet again. I get stronger everyday and soon this past two weeks will be a distant memory.

The doctor has advised me to stay home from school until Friday. I know this is the best thing for me, but it is hard. Especially, when I feel pretty good. In some ways, I feel like I am playing hookie! However, I know the doctor knows best, and I do not want to compromise my recovery. I figure by the end of the week Jeff will have to tie my hands together before he goes to school to keep me from doing anything...LOL! I always have a project in the works, so when I start feeling better my mind starts racing and I want to start working again. I am going to try to refrain, or at least take it slow. = )

I wanted to try to express how grateful I am to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, and concern. I am literally overwhelmed by the outpouring of geniune concern that I felt from all of you. I read each comment and reading each one made me feel very blessed and a little bit better. So many times, we can become so mired down in our own troubles that we forget to reach out to someone in need. That is surely not the case in blogland. You have all shown me so much love and concern that all I can do is thank you from the bottom of my heart. I received so many nice emails over the course of the last few days, and I promise to answer all of them as time allows. For now, know that I have read them or Jeff has read them to me. Each one meant so much to me.

I do have to publicly thank Jeff and my entire family for the love and care they gave me during this past two weeks. Nothing I can say or do can adequately thank them for all they did. I know they would say, "That is our job!", but it sure made me feel so loved to receive their care. My mom was here at a moments notice when I needed her. She sat with me when I was in terrible pain, she made lunch and dinner for me. She and my dad visited often and they have checked in on me countless times. I am so blessed.

I cannot say enough about Jeff. There is love and then there is love. He has continued to show me unconditional love and support. He has been there to help me to the bathroom, bring me medicine, quiet my irrational fears, talk me through the pain, make sure I eat, the list goes on and on. As you all know and have said to me, I am very blessed to have Jeff in my life. I can never thank God enough for giving me such a loving and supportive person to spend my life with.

Hopefully, this will be the last post I EVER have to do about kidney stones. I am ready to get back to what I love most about my life. Spending time with Jeff and the Ps x 3, decorating, and writing for the best magazine in the world, A Primitive Place. Thank you again for all the prayers you said on my behalf. They certainly are working.

Thank you for visiting Yesterday Once More. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you will continue to come back as often as possible. Don't forget to look for Yesterday Once More on facebook. I would love for you to stop by there too.

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."
~Anthony Brandt~

All My Love,
~Dan~

Kidney Stone UPDATE

Hello Everyone. This is Jeff. Dan wanted me to give everyone an update about how his surgery went. First, thank you for all of the prayers that were said on Dan's behalf. It has meant a lot to him just knowing how many people care about his well being.

The actual surgery went smoothly; however, the recovery did not. When the doctor came out to meet with the family, he said that Dan had been in recovery for about 15 minutes and that he should be back in the same day surgery ward within half an hour. It actually was many hours later before we could see Dan. When he woke up Dan was in pain, so the nurse gave him morphine. They ended up giving him 8 rounds or morphine and two rounds of another pain medication trying to manage his pain. The pain medication caused his blood pressure and heart rate to spike to dangerously high levels, so they gave him more medication to control this new problem. The new medication caused Dan to have extreme anxiety, so once again they had to give him another medication to combat the anxiety. In the meantime his nurse would check in with the family about every 45 minutes. We were all so worried.

By the time we got to see Dan it was after 7:00 PM. He was quite shaken by the day's events, but he was happy to see his family. He still had to eat and have three consecutive good blood pressure readings before we could take him home. Dan had so many drugs in his system that he could hardly stand up, but we managed to get him checked out, into the Jeep, and finally into our home. His parents bought us Cracker Barrel take out for dinner, one of Dan's favorite places to eat. His brother, Andrew, brought it over to us.

Now this is when things got interesting. Dan was so "high" that he was saying the funniest things!! He even fell asleep mid text to one of his colleagues who was checking on him. Until about 3:00 AM Dan was rambling incoherently. By 3:30 he was finally able to get some sleep.

Today Dan has been asleep almost all day. His mom and grandmother came by to see him, so he did get up for a bit, but his back started hurting, so he is back in bed right now. Please continue to pray for a fast and full recovery for Dan. I know he is ready to put this behind him. He wants you to know that he misses you and appreciates everyone who has checked in on him, said a prayer for him, and kept him in your thoughts yesterday and today. One of us will give you an update soon.

~A Huge Favor to Ask...Prayers Needed~

Hey Everyone,

I am coming to you tonight to ask you to do a huge favor for me. Eventually, I was not out of the woods yet regarding my kidney stone. I woke up today at 6:30 a.m. in pain again. I really thought it would go away, but it did not. I was in pain until 3:00 p.m. I went to see my urologist and he discovered that I had not passed the stone. It is still in my urethra tube and it seems to be stuck. He also discovered another stone in my kidney. The pain was very bad this time. I took a pain pill and it worked for ten minutes. They gave me a shot at the doctor's office and said I would be pain free in three minutes. It took thirty minutes! I am praying that the pain does not come back. I am trying to take my pain pills every four hours to keep that from happening.

They have decided to do surgery on Thursday May 19th at 12:15 to retrieve the stone from the urethra tube and then they will attempt to blast the stone from my kidney. I had this procedure in 2004. A stint was place in my urethra tube to keep it from swelling shut and to give the stone more room to pass. The stint was very painful and when they removed it, I had even more pain. I asked the doctor if I could do without the stint and he said he would try, but it may be necessary.

As you all know, I very firmly believe in the power of prayer. My grandma always taught me that we only have to have faith the size of a mustard seed. I am having faith that this stone will pass on its own. I am asking all of you to join me in this prayer. I told Jeff that I hated to post about this because I do not want my blog to be a negative place and I didn't want to worry everybody. Then I decided that this would be a good way to bombard Heaven with prayers. Extra prayers never hurt. I know that if God does not choose to remove this stone, I will be fine. I am in His hands and I know He will take care of me. I also know that so many of you are facing your own challenges in life that are far worse than my problems. So, I truly appreciate you taking the time to do this for me.

Either Jeff or I will keep you posted and let you know how everything is going. Thank you again for all your concern and prayers and for accepting me just as I am.

"Prayer is the gift of the morning and the bolt of the evening."
~Mohandas K. Gandhi~

With Much Gratitude and Love,
~Dan~

~Finally. . . A Completed Office~

Well, it has been a slow process, but I am finally ready to show you some pictures of my newly painted office. If you remember, this is the room that I write my blog and write all of my articles for A Primitive Place magazine. I think it now reflects me and the things that I am passionate about.


The walls have been painted Sisal and the trim and doors are painted Kiln. Both of these are Martha Stewart Living Colors. You can find them at Home Depot.


Jeff saved this old magazine rack out of the trash at his school. Can you believe someone was just going to throw it away?



This is my desk area. The desk was made by my great grandpa. One day I would like to get a more comfortable chair to sit in.



The middle picture was made by my mom. It has all of the articles that I wrote for the first issue of A Primitive Place magazine. The other pictures are the covers of all the issues I have written in.



This is the picture that my friend, Jerrah, made of out home tour feature in Country Sampler magazine.



My friend Kathy Parker gave me this idea. She told me that she has done something similar for her daughter Johanna Parker and herself. She has put all of the magazines they have been published in in a primitive bucket. She said I should do the same thing, so I did. This box was used by my great grandpa when he gardened. I have placed all the magazines that I contributed to in the box. I really look forward to filling it up even more.







This sign was made by Lisa from Prims From Above. She made it several months ago and I am just getting around to hanging it. I love it!



The magazine rack holds old issues of Country Home, Country Living, and Country Sampler magazines. Of course, A Primitive Place magazine has a special place of honor! There is something about decorating magazines. I cannot throw them away. I have a trunk in the office that is full of old Country Living magazines.





So, there is a tour of my office. I really like it and I know I will enjoy working in this space even more than I did before.

Now, for a quick health update. I had another kidney stone attack last night. It started about 10:00 p.m. and it lasted until about 1:30 a.m. I stayed home from school today just to be safe. I have felt better than I have in a week. I am still really tired, but I can already feel my energy coming back. I think I may finally be on the road to recovery. Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers. I really appreciate them.

Thank you for visiting Yesterday Once More. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you will continue to come back as often as possible. Don't forget to look for Yesterday Once More on facebook. I would love for you to stop by there too!

"Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future."
~Ray Bradbury~

All My Best,
~Dan~

~A Message from the Ps x 3~

Hi Everyone!

It is me Parker . . .

. . . and me Peyton . . .

. . . and me Paycee!

We thought we would stop in and give you an update on our daddy, Dan. He still is not back to normal yet. We heard he had a kidney stone, whatever the heck that is. Whatever it is it has made him feel pretty bad. You know our daddy, he loves to work, work, work, but lately he has been spending a lot of time in bed or on the couch. We are not complaining though. Whenever he gets in bed or on the couch we jump up there and snuggle with him. We are giving him lots of kisses and we are letting him rub our bellies. We think that makes him feel better.

When he thinks he feels better, he gets up and tries to paint, decorate, or even run. Pretty soon he is back in bed snuggling with us again. We heard him talking to daddy Jeff today and they think maybe the muscle relaxer he is taking is making him tired. He says he isn't going to take it anymore. Just between you and us, we wish he would keep taking it because we love spending time with him.

Daddy wanted us to let you know that he appreciates your thoughts and prayers so much. He has read every comment that you left and each one has made him feel better and very special. He also wanted us to let you know that ten of your thoughtful comments disappeared. He has no idea what happened to them, but he wanted us to let you know that he didn't delete them. He also wanted us to let you know that you are all very special to him.

Hopefully he will be back to his old self soon and he will be able to share some pictures of his latest projects with you. Oh, by the way...what in the world is a muscle relaxer????

Thank you for visiting Yesterday Once More. We appreciate you stopping by and we hope you will continue to come back as often as possible. Don't forget to find Yesterday Once More on facebook. Our daddy would love for you to stop by there too.

"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it."
~Sydney J. Harris~

All Our Love,
Parker, Peyton, & Paycee

~When a Stone Starts Moving~

I just wanted to drop in and let everyone know what was going on around here. I had a kidney stone attack yesterday that sent me to the emergency room. I had had two previous attacks before, but none of them were like this one.

It all started Friday night. I just didn't feel well, like I was coming down with something. I slept most of Saturday and felt better when I woke up. Sunday, we prepared for our Mother's Day dinner. I got so tired preparing things that I had to take a nap. This is something I never do! On Monday, my lower back hurt and I had a little blood in my urine. I knew then what I was in store for.

Yesterday, I went to school and about 8:30 that old familiar feeling came back. I knew instantly what it was. I told my friend Diane, "I am going to pass a kidney stone today." I started thinking lots of water thinking that I could help the stone along. I drank a lot of water and it the water was not coming out. This concerned me, but I kept teaching. I taught until 10:30 and finally decided to go home and suffer through the pain in the comfort of my own home which is absent of third graders watching my every move.

Diane told me not to drive myself, but you know how guys can be...stubborn! Driving home was pretty hard the pain was getting worse and I was getting cold chills. When I got home, I called Jeff and told him what was going on. He said he would come home and take me to the ER. I said, "No, that is crazy. I will be fine." I am more stubborn than I realized...LOL! While I waited for Jeff to get home the pain just kept getting worse. Then I started vomiting. I had not vomited since I was fifteen years old. That is a whopping twenty-three years ago! Then I started sweating like crazy. I was really concerned. Jeff came in and took one look at me and said, "We are going to the emergency room." I was in no position to argue. On the way to the ER I was giving Jeff my password to my blog. I said, "If something happens to me, you have to let everyone know." The pain was that bad! I thought I may not make it. That sounds crazy now! = )

When I got to the emergency room, they did blood work, an urinalysis, and a cat scan. The pain had let up quite a bit by then, so I was feeling better. It came in waves. It would be okay, then bad again. When I saw the doctor he said the stone was small enough to pass on my own. He gave me an IV of basically water along with some morphine. The pain was gone instantly and I felt better than I had in days. They told me to go home and drink lots of water to help the stone move.

I decided to stay home from school today to rest. I believe I have passed the stone. I am not 100% sure, but I have very little pain today. I guess I will just wait and see. I have plenty of pain medication if I need it.

I know that I always strive to make my blog a positive and happy place to visit, but I wanted to share with you what was going on. I appreciate any prayers that you can send my way. God was certainly watching over me and I am so thankful that he kept me safe.

Thank you for visiting Yesterday Once More. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope that you will come back as often as you can. Don't forget to look for Yesterday Once More on facebook. I would love to see you there.

"Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you."
~Mary Tyler Moore~

All My Best,

~Dan~

~Mother's Day Once More~

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. We had a great day, the sun was shining and the temperature was warm. Jeff and I hosted the Mother's Day dinner again this year. We had thirteen people at our house and I think everyone had a great time. I thought I would share some pictures of the day with you.

The table all ready for the guests to arrive.

I used ivory, chocolate, and paprika Fiesta. The colors were fall colors, but I loved how they looked together.



We always have place tags when we host a dinner.





I thought about moving my spring centerpiece, but decided to leave it. The color of the carrots matched the paprika Fiesta perfectly.

Our niece Katie

My grandma

My mom

Jeff's mom

My aunt

The cake

Plus, we had our own version of a Jack in the Box.

We had a Jake in the Crock.

He is down...

...Now he is up!!

It was a great day and a perfect way to honor all the mothers in our lives.

Thank you for visiting Yesterday Once More. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you will continue to come back as often as possible. Don't forget to find Yesterday Once More on facebook. I would love to see you there.

"Mothers are the most instinctive of philosophers."
~Harriet Beecher Stowe~

All My Best,
~Dan~