Good afternoon!
Definitely should be spring. Grass is finally green, trees are budding, and the geese came strolling through--LOL!
But supposed to be down around freezing temp tonight. This week is supposed to warm up, though. Again--LOL!
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My new planters arrived at Dagan and Leah's!
They'll put them together and bring them over sometime soon. Here's the picture from Wayfair.
They're way bigger, too! (48 X 12 X 12) So we'll need a load of new soil. Am so excited!
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Leah sent me a picture of Ian's art project for kindergarten he did with chalk on the driveway.
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Well, Monday I did get the banking done, rent check to the office, and even did laundry. Tuesday Leah dropped off a Cashwise grocery order, got trash out, and started to work on coloring samples for card fronts.
I have really only been using markers and my watercolor brush pens. Decided to make up samples of a lot more mediums I could use.
Twinkling H2Os
Arteza colored pencils and watercolor pencils (new and inexpensive on Amazon).
The Inktense set is new (another splurge item), but the other two are about 30 years old. My favorite that I have used the most are the Lyra watercolor crayons. I've actually used those long ago coloring stamped images--with a small brush and using them like a palette.
These big sets I got on sale are about 20 years old--but I have hardly ever used them because they were just so pristine--intimidating--too nice to use...so I'd use my old ones instead--LOL! Plus I was in college and in declining health at the time so didn't have opportunity back then to create much. Was definitely past time to get these out, eh?
Do any of you have supplies you have been saving forever? I have a few journals, too, where the blank white page has set me aback.
Well, I have started. Going to keep these as samples for future reference.
Wrote on the back side which product for that line of bulbs. Connected the bulbs that go together with a pen line.
It is something I can do little by little and I plan to keep working on them this week. I've gathered up more to try out. Got really interested in the shimmery, shiney types of paints after I had drug out the Shimmer H2Os on a whim.
Love to revisit what the silks can do...
...been so long since I've used them.
And I have a new set of handmade watercolor paints from a lady on etsy (another part of my relief check splurge). I watched somebody paint with them on YouTube and they look almost holographic! Haven't even tried them yet--whoohoo!
Notice she sent along two tiny free samples, too. I didn't even know they made pans that tiny!
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Anyways, I shall keep playing here and there. You know I will be having fun. :)
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On Wednesday Leah and I connected with Elliot Overton on zoom. We had a consultation that lasted over two hours! He was very personable and thorough. Elliot thinks I probably have Lymes Disease or something similar (like a disease vets get from being around wild animals and feral cats). Did the Horowitz questionnnaire and I was probable. Looked it up online later and did the full quiz I linked above. Over 46 it is probable you have Lymes and I had a 98. Elliot might be on to something, you think?
Anyways, diseases like these can lie dormant for decades and get set off by a bad infection (mono in 1999, psittacosis in early 90s). Apparently the tests for Lymes aren't always accurate and can have false negatives. I was tested years ago in the process of being diagnosed with fibro and was negative so it never occured to me...or any of my doctors, for that matter.
Well, I am going to take this natural herbal tincture for a couple of months. If I get better it is probably true. I'm cutting way back on the handfuls of supplements I have been taking for people with fibro I got from Dr. Kessler and on our own research. I am down to my BP pill, D3, Allitiamine (it's a B-something), B12, my CBD oil, multiple vitamin (just because I've taken them for years and didn't want to stop), SAMe, and tumeric for the oxalate dumping.
The plan:
For this week I am just taking those vitamins and on a break for anything new. Then next week I will start the tincture--very slowly increase as toloerated. Then to help me with the oxalate dumping the third week I will add a citrate powder (either potassium or calcium)--start very little amount and increase as tolerated. If I am okay with that (or not and just going to switch) the fourth week I will try the other citrate powder. I am to start out with such small amounts--like 1/4 tsp and work up to a tsp--something like that. Same with the liquid tincture. When these things can give you diarrhea and you have had IBS issues for over 20 years...starting very slow is truly an excellent idea--LOL! ;)
Then we have another zoom call on June 2nd for the follow-up.
Leah and I will be researching about Lymes and I did send him a message asking him what the vet's disease was so we can research that, too. When he mentioned the vet's disease (because so many vets have it even if they don't have symptoms, he said) it just leapt out at me! I have been around wild animals all my life--cottontail rabbits I bottle fed, wild birds, mice, amphibians, lizards...but it didn't click about the "feral cats" when I was talking to him--duh!
When Dagan and I lived on the farm in Wisconsin for three years in the late 80s we tamed down all the barn cats. Dagan helped me vaccinate them all for distemper (except for one tomcat we could never get near). We even took inside one kitten the dog wouldn't leave alone. (No idea why he would grab that one particular kitten and toss it in the air like a squeak toy--over and over--even tried putting tobasco sauce down the kitten's back to no avail.)
Anyways, they were just cats to me, you know? But they were wild when we moved there and always lived outside. I just never thought of them as "feral", but except for one or two who'd let you get closer to them--they were actually wild when we moved in.
When I find out the name of that disease I will let you know...and we are going to try to research it. Elliot said it is like Lymes in that it can remain dormant until some health issue sets it off. Sadly, Leah and I don't know much about Lymes--even though we live in Lymes territory up here.
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So that was the biggest thing this last week. Going to try another plan--LOL! Elliot said I shouldn't have this severe of an issue with the oxalate dumping after two years. That's why he thinks I have some other kind of underlying issue.
But Leah and I have heard of people having dumping issues for years. And I went back over my journals and I started having oxalate dumping six months before my leg swelled up and I started having the random joint issues and before I even ever went on the Keto low-low carb diet. So I was super toxic from the oxalates before we had any idea what they were and had never heard of them.
Will be really interesting to see what Dr. Kessler thinks about all this when I finally go back to her for my second visit on May 21st.
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Anyways, I wasn't having a good day on Thursday so Leah and I did a video call instead of her coming over. Got all the stuff ordered for Elliot's plan. (Which wasn't much compared to what I have been taking--LOL!)
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Mother's Day on Sunday it was Annie and I having a quiet day. Beautiful--60 degrees and sunny (but supposed to have been down to 31 during the night last night). McFamily finally got to have an actual family gathering as all the adults have been fully vaccinated! They went to her sister's with her grandparents and brother, too. I hope they had the best time! The boys finally got to play with their red-headed cousins. Means so much to her grandparents. :)
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I wasn't up for anything yet...so I was perfectly happy spending the day with Miss Annie and doing a little coloring here and there. You can see her one bright white whisker in this picture--LOL!
Annie has random white hairs showing up all over her body, actually. Kind of makes me giggle when I find new ones.
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Well, should be interesting to see how I feel a month from now. No change, better, or worse? Anybody's guess--LOL! Oh, Elliot did say he has heard of others who have had chronic health issues flare up after the covid shots. (He's in the UK.) Didn't surprise me as he deals with a lot of clients who have autoimmune diseases. I am extra glad to have gotten vaccinated if covid would have enjoyed me immensely as a host. ;)
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Today--lovely, sunny day. 55 degrees (expect a low of 31 again, though--which is why we are still far from planting). Leah did pick me up some geranims on sale at Costco where I got some last year that did really well. She sent me a picture. I wanted red ones, of course. ;)
She is flower-sitting them for me till we can plant them. Just seeing them--even in a text--made my day! So excited for the new planters!!
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Something really big and exciting is supposed to arrive in May. Actually for health reasons--to get rid of toxins. Elliot approved--LOL! Thanks to Dagan and Leah--and they are getting one, too. Leah has a lot of the same issues I have with oxalates, etc...so will be good for her and the whole family. Those of you I told in a letter--please don't tell. I want to see if anyone can guess. I never, ever would have even thought of this in a million years--ROFL! Big clue--I haven't slept in my bed for over two years due to my back issues so we are removing my bed to make room for this in the corner of my bedroom. ;)
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On that mysterious note...
Till next time.
Hope is in the air--on so many levels.
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"Our business is to be happy."
Dalai Lama
