11-25-2019 Monday-12:15pm

Good afternoon!

This will be short.  Been kind of half to three quarters miserable this week with the plugged up head and headache.  Didn't even take many pictures.  (In fact I just quick took the bullet pages pictures right now--LOL!)  

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Yes, Leah and I worked on my bullet Tuesday night till late.  Got two pages done--the monthly calendar...

 ...and what needs to be on the back side of that calendar spread--which is the current week's page and the monthly tracker.

We have two more pages to make--with their appropriate back sides.  She's making some optional variations, too.  Like 28, 29, 30 and 31 day monthly tracker pages and there will be an option to include or not include the doodle boxes on my weekly goals list page.  (With the unpredictable manner of my life I prefer "goals" rather than "tasks" so I don't feel as badly when I am unable to get to them--LOL!)

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Anyways, Leah is planning on coming back tomorrow night (Tuesday) to work on them some more.  Last week she also changed my smoke alarm batteries and got my photos to work again from my phone to laptop.  

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And yet I took very few pictures.  I went to take a picture of the big covey of 20 here to eat, but by the time I got there with my cell phone half of them were gone. 

Can you see them above?  They were chasing the other covey of partridges away...

...while the less aggressive/hungrier half watched the ruckus! 

Yes, I was right.  There is more than one covey that visits Rita's Bird Cafe.

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While I have been cuddled under a blanket in my chair with my Puffs tissues, McFamily went with friends to Minneapolis this last weekend.  Leah texted me that they got all my IKEA stuff!!  All three cabinets for the studio, the storage containers for my bathroom shelves, and a collapsible cat carrier for Annie.  Not all the art supplies for Ian were in stock, but the most important one was--their kid's paints.  :)

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Since I seem to be more miserable the past 4-5 days I think I might need to go to the walk-in clinic to see if this is a sinus infection or if it is just a bad, clinging cold wearing me down and getting the better of me--LOL!  I could need antibiotics to get rid of this since it has been going on for a couple of weeks or more.  (I hate when they ask me about timelines--I am quite skilled at ignoring body pain or physical annoyance of any kind because I very deliberately do not pay close attention to something I have to live with every day that would most definitely not be positive to focus on.)  I'll check with Leah.  I know she offered last week.  

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Well, that's it.  Hope I am chattier next week.  Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US, but everybody have a thankful week.  ;)  Till next time.  Love and hugs from Fargo! 

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"When you plant a seed of love,

it is you that blossoms."

Ma Jaya Sati

11-18-2019 Monday-2:30pm

Good afternoon!

I seem to running on a later schedule quite a bit lately.  I wake up but am too sore or tired to move around so I get coffee and sit at the laptop for hours doing that part of my day first.  Oh well.  Annie has gotten used to it, anyways.  ;)  Her human heating pad remaining stationary is always a plus in her book.  

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Leah was over twice last week!  She fixed my phone to laptop photo issue so first of all I have a few from last time.  Not that it matters if you see our dusting of snow which has long ago melted away--LOL!

But here are the wild "mark-making" packing paper sheets Dagan, Ian and I made on that last Gramma Day. 

I had an old dried up cats eye ink pad that was a real hit. 

Some paint brushes were used, too. 

It's fun to have a do-whatever-you-want art day.  No rules apply except not to get paint on the table or your clothes...or try not to--LOL!

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I mentioned that my place had gotten out of control with things stacked, piled, or standing about on all surfaces.  I didn't get before pictures, but I was basically cleaning most all of last week...in my 15 minute increments.  :)

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I started in the kitchen--rearranging and making room.  All the stuff you see on the right hand side of the bottom cupboard shelf was on the counter below.   

All the stuff in the bottom two shelves in this cupboard were piled about on the counter in the corner spreading out so far that I barely had room to make coffee--LOL! 

Yes, I have always had appliances out, but this is cleared out for me. 

I had Dagan bring my huge breadmaker out to the garage that had taken up half this counter  and I cleared away all the clutter that went all the way to the sink.  That's my new George Foreman grill in the corner now.  Been making chaffles regularly.  :)  So nice to be able to put the pans/grates (whatever you call them) right into the dishwasher.  

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On Tuesday we had another apartment inspection.  Took them all of three minutes to check the smoke alarms worked and ask me if anything needed repairs.  I cleaned some more in the kitchen while I did laundry.  On Wednesday I started in the studio.

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  Leah came over Wednesday night and she put together the new table for the corner!!  Our new home for the Vagabond die cutting machine!!  

We are delighted!  Now we can stand while we work.  We both have bad backs and we're talking 100 of anything for Christmas cards and 50 for birthday cards, so it's a lot of die cutting.  Whoohoo!  This is going to be so nice.

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Those brown cabinets underneath the table are both coming out.  We did some double-check measuring and the two lower new IKEA cabinets should just fit under the table.  Can hardly wait!

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This is the first time my tables have been cleared off in the studio since I got sick in June.

Those are just craft and cutting mats on the tables.  

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Leah came over again on Thursday night.  She helped tweak the new-to-me laptop and we chatted a lot about diets and making cat food and other stuff.  This week we plan to get back to working on the bullet pages.  

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 On Saturday my brother (Blaine), sister-in-law (Kathy), and my mom (Jane) drove up from Minneapolis to visit.  I had such good intentions to take lots of pictures.  Right before dinner I grabbed my phone and got a picture of Mom and Ian watching the Gopher football game.

Liam was really hungry and at the table already waiting for food so I got a shot of him glubbing down some milk. 

Then Blaine made it to the table and Mom was just sitting down... 

...but everyone else was in the kitchen.  I sat my phone down right beside me to remember to take pictures of everybody...

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Nope.  

Totally forgot.  

So that is all I took.

:( :(

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Anyways, we had a really great visit.  Kathy brought a box of old family photos she, Blaine, and I looked through before dinner.  Lots of conversation and laughing...the sound of football, kids having fun, and all of us talking at once.   For dinner Leah made salmon with pesto sauce on top and fresh asparagus.  I read Ian the last chapter of The Enormous Egg book before he got his jammies on and Liam went to bed.  Ian was really good and got to stay up really late (9pm) at the table listening to the grownups gabbing away.  (I remember doing that when I was little and how fascinating it was.)  We visited until 11pm!  The Johnson family gave me a ride home on their way back to the hotel.  :)  Was just a wonderful time.

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But they are definitely coming when it is warm out next time--LOL!  Maybe a summer visit is in order.  :)

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Somewhere along the line I seem to have pulled a muscle in my back, right under my shoulder blade on the right side.  Always seems to be something lately.  I noticed it more on Sunday...and it's still sharp and annoying.  But I am doing one small load of clothes today...thinking maybe it will help to stretch it out a bit?  Whatever.

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Tomorrow Caroline comes to clean and Leah said she is going to try to come Tuesday and Thursday nights to work on the bullet pages this week.  

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Feels soooo good to have a better handle on my home.  I still have been going to work on my pantry and the bathroom shelves for quite a while, too.  Leah came up with a solution for me for the bathroom shelves, too!  We were measuring for that when she was here, too...IKEA baskets/covered boxes, not sure what they're called.  Whoohoo!!  I need to remember to take a before pictures this time--LOL!

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McFamily is going down to Minneapolis this coming weekend and going to IKEA on their way back home.  Will be picking up my cabinets, the baskets for the bathroom shelves, some art supplies for Ian, and a folding cat carrier for Annie that won't take up hardly any room over here.  Whoohoo!!  So exciting!!

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That's about it from here.  I think I am going to get down the heating pad to try that on my back after I finish laundry and settle in to write letters in my comfy chair.  Sounds like a plan.  I have eight letters to write.  Getting a backlog since I was using up my (fewer) spoons doing stuff like cleaning all week.  

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Meanwhile--am learning how to navigate this new-to-me laptop, been watching the last season of Vikings (on Prime) before the new one comes out...but right now the covey of eight is squawking while eating on the patio.  Time to get moving.  At least I didn't store the heating pad way up in the top shelf in the bathroom last time I used it--LOL!  Till next week...

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"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.  The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out."

Ray Bradbury

11-11-2019 Monday--2pm

Okay, I had a late start to begin with and then discovered (over the last hour) that I cannot get my pictures off my phone and on to my computer.  Not that I had many (only 4 more believe it or not).  So all I have are a few I took early in the week last week before laptop stuff happened--LOL!

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My final cheapie die arrived--tada!

Hanging tree ornaments.  :)

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Another order from SSS (Simon Says Stamp).  

Skeletal leaves...I love leaves, flowers, and all kinds of realistic botanicals...well, and some abstract ones, too. 

A tiny hello... 

...and three small bottles of GinaK connect glue!! 

Been hearing about how great this glue is and could never catch it in stock.  Whoohoo!!  Supposedly you need very little and it is really strong.  Great for embellishments or gluing down intricate dies with just dots here and there.  I'll let you know.  Been on my wish list for like a year--LOL!

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Yes, I know.  *sigh*  When are you going to start making something?  (Man, I wish I had more spoons!)  Hopefully soon.  

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I did make cat food on Monday.  You wouldn't want to see a picture of that, I tell you--LOL!  I learned that I will be adding bone broth after I have put the meat in the Cuisinart and not before.  I overestimated and ended up with cat soup.  Luckily Annie LOVES it!!  Was just bone broth, chicken livers, and beef livers.  She laps it up!  So, definitely something I plan to try to keep doing every month.  She likes the no grain canned cat food okay, too--but prefers her meat soup--LOL!

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Dagan and Leah moved her brother, Aaron, to an apartment near downtown Fargo but it was a long process.  He no longer liked the furniture they had been storing for him for seven years...and so Leah was taking him around to buy furniture and helping him set up his apartment.  He finally stayed there this last Friday.  She had passed on our Thursday night Craft Nite because she was helping Aaron, then passed again on Friday, and again on Saturday...but nobody told me she has been sick with a sinus infection and taking antibiotics!  Duh!  She was going to try for Sunday and I told her to stay home and rest and get well when I heard she has been sick all this time--good grief!  

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This happens with us--they both think the other one has told me--LOL!  Dagan was here on Friday to bring in more bird seed, brought Ian over on Saturday for Gramma Day, stayed to do mark making with us, and picked him up later...never said anything.  I didn't find out until Leah texted me that she wasn't feeling so hot after she took her antibiotics Saturday night and wanted to switch to Sunday or this coming Tuesday/Thursday.  Antibiotics?!  That's when I found out--LOL!

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In the meantime, Dagan was also setting up a new-to-me laptop (one of the old ones being replaced at his work).  It is here, but I am still using Rusty, Dagan's old orange Lenovo...which is acting up more and more over this past year.  Maybe that's why I can't get the pictures off my phone?  Maybe they went to the new laptop?  But they're supposed to be going into cyberspace (One Drive), so I am not sure what is going on.  I rarely know what's going on when it comes to computers--LOL!

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Recently I have been presented with a smart TV, the new YouTube TV, and now a new HP laptop with Windows 10.  I hope learning how to navigate all these newfangled devices doesn't fry my old brain circuits!  LOL!  They keep me up and running online and with plenty to watch (especially appreciated during these long times I'm plagued with spoon deficiency).  I can't even express how grateful I am.

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This coming weekend my brother, SIL, and mom are coming up from Minneapolis for a visit!  And the following weekend McFamily is going down to Minneapolis again (and I might get all three cabinets for the studio!).  

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Been snowing here and cold.  Not much on the ground but it is 12 degrees right now (-11 C).  The Bird Cafe is busy all day long.  Leah might make it over this week to work on bullet pages, but she shouldn't push herself.  Tomorrow I have another apartment inspection.  Seems like we've been  having them more often since Goldmark took over running the place.  

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Oh, they raised the rent again starting Jan 2020.  Just got a letter.  Said I was on a month to month and should sign a lease for a year.  (Sounded rather threaten-y, eh?)  I didn't know I wasn't on a yearly lease.  I know I've signed paperwork a couple of times, but they've never given me a copy since I moved in.  Now--new people in charge--and if I sign a new lease that would mean it would be up at end of December--awk!  An dreadful time if you have to move.  I originally moved in here in August 2015.  Well, I'll probably go down and sign a lease.  Otherwise they can raise the rent willy-nilly.  It's already gone up $46 since I moved in.  Thank goodness I get some federal help with my rent or I'd be in real trouble.  But it makes me think they're taking advantage of the government, you know?  Kind of like hospitals and clinics take advantage of insurance companies...and then people's costs for insurance go up...and my share of the rent goes up but my income doesn't.  The circle of life.  Or at least the vast circle of the pocketed dollars.  ;)

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Well, enough of that.  Guess I'll pick up the place a little today.  Do my 15 minutes at a time routine.  I feel like I have totally lost control since I've been sick.  So much more clutter on end tables, counter tops, my desk, table tops...even the bathroom vanity.  So, this is as good a time as any to try to organize the clutter, at the very least--and maybe put some of it away.  I have made attempts several times since June but I run out of steam and what I have sorted kind of grows back. Wish me luck.  LOL!

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The patio is filled with birds, Annie is sleeping in her chair next to the table here, there's a pretty white layer on the ground outside, and I don't have to go out in it--LOL!  We might get above freezing by Saturday.  I hope I can get the photo thing figured out this week.  I'll probably need Dagan or Leah's help as I have just about used up all the options that I know about.  :)  Until next time...love and hugs and best wishes.  :) :)

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"Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world."

Miyamoto Musashi

11-4-2019 Monday-1:15pm

Good afternoon!

It is snowing very lightly.  For a while it switched to light rain.  I took a final picture of the three trees.  The early, heavy snowstorm did change things this year.  The center and left tree both turned at the same time for once.  Even though the right one changed first it is still clinging to the most leaves.

Been a quick week, for some reason.  I've still been draggy with the allergies, but they might be letting up some.  Not sneezing as much, anyways.  :)
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Between our usual feathered guests...

...Caroline came to clean on Tuesday...

...and was back on Friday with groceries.

I got these closer shots one afternoon because I was in my chair and not in the kitchen.  ;)
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Another small package came from overseas.  
This set of dies you layer for a 3D effect.  
Only one die left to arrive.

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On Thursday Leah picked me up after she picked Ian up from School.  I handed out the treats (Play Doh, Halloween pencils, and glow sticks) while they took the boys around.

The boys just fit into their dragon costumes--without having to wear a coat over them!

Liam had snow pants under his and Ian had two pair of pants on.  They had layers and hoodies on, too, I believe.  It was only 38 degrees (3 C).  There weren't as many kids as last year, but close, despite the weather.
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Tired boys got to pick a candy after all that trudging through the neighborhood.

Daddy scaring Ian.  Liam paid no attention...busy eating--LOL!

Gramma got to read Ian a story downstairs before bed (the stairs are harder for me as my hip and knees get worse).  Dagan surprised me with The Enormous Egg!!!  I should have taken a picture of the actual book, but I found this picture of the original book online (selling for $20, no less).

I had saved many of my books I bought in fifth grade though the school weekly reader program.  Dagan read them when he was little...and now he is reading them to Ian!  That paperback book is 60 years old!!  Yes, I was delighted to read the next chapter to Ian.  (Liam isn't interested because it's not a picture book, of course.)  Ian sounded excited about when he will be able to read books like that all by himself.  Nice!  :)
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Since I had chicken livers with my grocery order, on Saturday I chopped up some raw for Annie instead of her usual canned food.  At first she seemed confused, but she went back and little by little she ate every last bite!  I also bought some no-grain canned food that she has had since then and she seems to really like it.  Annie doesn't usually get overly excited about her morning canned food but she sure has been the past couple of days--LOL!  
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Today I plan to make some pate cat food for her using the chicken livers, beef liver, and bone broth in the food processor.  I got some small baby food containers to put her food in.  I should leave a few of them just diced up meat like she got the first time, too, to see what she prefers.  They were out of chicken gizzards or I would be putting those in the processor, too.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Leah is planning to start Blink on some homemade foods, too.  Blink and Annie also still always have their Origin dry food.
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Today I'm doing a load of clothes...and making raw cat food.  It's grey with occasional tiny snowflakes.  The birds have been so hungry now that the weather has changed.  I do love seeing them several times a day.
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Was snapping some pictures...

...when I caught them go on alert.

They all stand tall together...when someone is coming down the walkway or there's a loud noise or something startles them.  They either settle back into eating or they all take off in a big flurry of feathers.
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I'll leave you this week with a few minutes at Rita's Bird Cafe.

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Until next week!
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"Food for the body is not enough.
There must be food for the soul."
Dorothy Day